Transgender Remembrance Rituals

Thanks to everyone for this discussion- Galina Krasskova has written a post clarifying the Cuban origins of the ancestor elevation ritual, (though she is not the one organizing it) I don’t feel there is any cultural disrespect going on here, in fact I think people are being very intentionally respectful in honoring people who otherwise might be forgotten. I’m making a list of links of Trans* Memorial Rituals- both for the Ancestor Elevation one as well as others. Blessings to everyone participating.

Paganarch/Rhyd Wildermuth- For the Trans Dead

Both of the following are Tumblogs & links to them are not specific to the rituals. Since TDoR is coming up in a couple months, this would be a good time for me to update this list.

Alice Coltrane Memorial blog by Sylvan- “Alice Coltrane Memorial Colosseum & Wazoo is a live-in performance, ritual, and art space in Portland (Or), housed in an ex-Hare Krishna Temple once attended by a college-aged Steve Jobs.  We maintain, under the blessings and protections of our spiritual headmistress SwamiTuriyasangitananda Alice Coltrane, a public altar space dedicated to our artistic ancestors and inspirations.  In a tradition of experimental, improvisational, and conceptual transgressors particularly in sonic experimentation, many of our Honored Dead are also cisgendered males (as are all the current monks of the Colosseum). I have been trying to subvert this equation, and our alliance to the Transgendered Rite of Ancestor Elevation is an act in that direction.”

Alder Knight/Once Bitten, Twice Born

 

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Wandervogels

Your favorite Pagan social science nerd here enjoys finding political, social, artistic as well as spiritual movements and currents to trace and connect (though sometimes rather tangentially) to modern Paganism. One such that I’ve come across is the Wandervogels (meaning wandering bird) a movement of German youth starting in 1896 that branched off into several organizations that emphasized a return to nature, freedom, independence and adventure and activities such as hiking and camping. Youth of varying political attitudes were involved- some emphasized freedom and individualism, others German national identity, and there were also Jewish youth groups that later developed into Zionist movements. In the wake of the 1929 crash, many youth were jobless and homeless, and some formed gangs for survival. They sported bowler hats with ostentatious ostrich feathers, and had sexual initiation rituals for entering into the gang. (Apparently sometimes homoerotic in nature) After the Third Reich arose, all youth groups outside of Hitler Youth or church-affiliated groups were banned. After World War II ended, some of the organized youth groups were revived, and there is a Wandervogel student group in Japan as well that engages in outdoor activities.

While It is speculated that this may have been an influence on the hippie movement in the United States. My mother-in-law grew up in New Ulm, Minnesota and there they even called hippies wandervogels!

References:

Wikipedia entry (linked above)

Remembering the Wandervogels