Profile

(callto://rowanfair)

Hi! I'm Rowan, I'm a mystic and a scholar and a priestess, a lover and a parent and a librarian. I am a Wiccan. By that I mean that I am a Priestess in a European Earth Religion which honors a pantheon headed by a Goddess and her Consort. In addition to the Goddess of the Wicca (Her name is not spoken among non-initiates), I am a Daughter of the Flame and an FOI-ordained Priestess of Brighid. I am a Priestess of Dionysos. I am also involved in the Celtic Reconstructionist movement which is trying to understand and revive the ancient religions of the Celtic peoples. I am a member of the American Magic Umbanda House and headwashed to Pombagira.

I have been involved in Covenant of the Goddess since its inception in 1975. I have been very involved since I moved to California in 1981. I have twice served as National co-First Officer and have held a variety of national and local offices. I maintain the Northern California Local Council COG web page at http://www.conjure.com/COG/ (http://www.conjure.com/COG/). I try to make it a resource for all of the Pagan Community on the net. I created one of the first interfaith link pages on the web, which can still be found at http://www.conjure.com/religion.html (http://www.conjure.com/religion.html).

In 1999 I have painted an 8'x9' mural of Holy Brighid holding the World in her hands with the legend "May Peace Prevail on Earth". This is both my 72 Hours for Peace project and my Goddess 2000 project. For my inspiration see, http://www.conjure.com/inspired.html (http://www.conjure.com/inspired.html).

I am involved in interfaith work and since 2002 have been one of the National Interfaith Representatives for Covenant of the Goddess. I was privileged to attend the Parliament of the World's Religions in 1993 in Chicago and the 1999 Parliament in South Africa and the 2004 Parliament Barcelona, Spain. I was greatly inspired by the Declaration Toward a Global Ethic promulgated by the CPWR in 1993. I helped organize Celebrating the Spirit: Towards a Global Ethic in 1994 and during 2003 I worked with the Bridge CC effort in the San Francisco Bay Area called "Bringing the Global Ethic Home". The Bridge CC then moved on to produce a series of pre-Parliament events called "A Taste of the Parliament" in anticipation of Barcelona in July 2004. I attended the Barcelona Parliament in 2004 and the Melbourne Parliament in 2009. I have attended several United Religions Initiative Summits, including the Charter signing in Pittsburgh and the URI Global Summit in Rio de Janeiro in August 2002. I belong to several URI Cooperation Circles.

I have been interested in microfinance and have supported the work of the Grameen Bank with donations. Currently I am directing my microfinance dollars to Kiva.org. See my lender page (http://www.kiva.org/lender/rowan4140). I also have sponsored several children via Childreach/Plan (http://www.planusa.org/). My current sponsored children are in Sri Lanka and Uganda.

I always thought I was primarily a descendant of Scots who came to America looking for opportunity, some of whom married English Quakers and some were Scots-Irish (Prots) who came over from Belfast because of the troubles (but still had expectations from linen mills back home). My family was very into being Scots-American and keeping Hogmanay and Clan Society membership and such. Recently, I have also found that I have folks from Alsace-Lorraine, Sweden, Jersey and France in my family tree - which I shake regularly to see what falls out. *grin* Family is very important to me and I have both a loving and wonderful birth family and intentional family. I know how lucky I am!

I'm a vocalist with a repertoire of English/Irish folk, pagan songs and show tunes. I read about 5-6 books a week in SF or mystery genres and lots of Celtic archaeology, popular epidemiology and miscellaneous nonfiction.

My hobbies include reading science fiction and attending SF conventions, participating in Where's George and searching for geocaches.

In 2006 I got a Second Life. I am involved in Second Life in the Library 2.0 initiative on the Info Island archipelago. My avatar is named Rosmairta Kilara or Rosmairta Ninetails. I have a shop on Renaissance Island called By Any Other Name which sells my stained glass and wreathes as fairings for those visiting our Renaissance educational re-enactment. We are set in late Tudor/early Elizabethan England. I also run a tavern called The Rose & Crown. My partner, Scarlotti Pimpernel, and I own a fair amount of land that we call Falkenrath (a meeting place of falcons) where we build and entertain and garden.

I play World of Warcraft with both Alliance and Horde toons on a variety of servers, PVE & RP.

My goals in this life are to practice compassion and work with the energy of this world and the Otherworld toward ecological balance, peace, harmony and justice. I seek to vitalize my own life and the lives of those around me by living in harmony with Mother Earth and by remaining open to the numinous touch of the Otherworld.