Activist Archive

Tree-sitters, July 2008. Photo from Aperture Focus gallery, "Saving the Magnolia Tree."

The selection of photos, articles, commentaries, etc. on this page chronicles the Protest Rite we performed on Friday, Aug. 3, 2007 -- the Pagan holiday of Lammas, although the protest included concerned citizens of all faiths -- and the drama that unfolded over the following year.  

We didn't stop with casting just one spell. We backed up our ongoing magical work by pushing -- together with a growing crowd of other citizens -- against the flagrantly inappropriate Parkside development at every step of the way in Asheville's torturous but largely pre-ordained development-"approval" process. We made sure that our articulate and well-researched objections were shared with the media and the public, as well as with our increasingly sympathetic (and increasingly nervous) local government officials. 

The Internet was a critical tool. The Web, e-mail, and blogs made it possible for us and fellow activists to find key regulations and point them out at the proper times to the proper authorities; to spread important information to the public rapidly; and to communicate efficiently with the many other activists involved. Yet it also enabled a bizarre afterclap from the anti-Pagan far right ...

Coven Oldenwilde
vs.
Carolina Stompers

The Carolina Stompers are a kind of kamikaze effort by local extreme-right Republicans to regain lost ground in the culture wars. Their stock in trade is vicious redneck-targeted ridicule of liberals. In 2007, they were on a roll after exposing some incidents of corruption and hypocrisy in our state Democratic party, and they seemed on their way to becoming a force for turning back the political clock in local, state and perhaps even national elections.

Then, they made the critical mistake of attacking us. They took a video of the Magnolia protest rite and turned it into a mock American Express commercial ridiculing a City Council candidate, who had participated in the protest, for dancing with "Wickens" and tree-huggers. She lost the election, and they loudly took credit (though, in reality, what defeated her was a record-large infusion of campaign cash to her opponents from developers afraid of her stance on controlling environmentally destructive development). 

We don't so much mind hatemonger types attacking us -- we're used to it. But don't you dare attack someone for being a guest at one of our events!

Here's how we turned the Stompers' own shtick against them:, and whupped 'em soundly enough that no one -- not even the Republican Party -- paid them any heed in 2008:

Let’s have a good ol’ stomp-and-chant

by Lady Passion, Diuvei & Coven Oldenwilde in Mountain Xpress, Vol. 14 / Iss. 22 on 12/26/2007

Chad Nesbitt and the Carolina Stompers ["Fighting Mad: Carolina Stompers Grab Headlines, Make Enemies,” Dec. 5] are a pansy bunch of pachyderms. They’ve repeatedly tried to ride our Witches’ cape-tails to fame—most recently by skulking around and surreptitiously filming the protest ritual we led to save a magnolia tree from a greedy developer. We know their type well. Secretly attracted to Witchcraft but having too big a stick up their chakras to admit it, they bash us in the media while ogling us every chance they get.

So far, these Stompers have talked big smack about us behind our backs, but haven’t had the guts to face us directly. Well, we’ve had it with their WWF-style posturing on the one hand and their wimpy ways on the other.

It’s time for a Spiritual Smackdown. We triple-dog-dare Chad and Nancy Nesbitt to debate us in public, couple on couple, fair and square.

We’re talking timed rounds, a neutral referee, mandatory cameras and a monster venue—we bet many good-hearted folk fed up with the loud-mouthed hatemongering the Nesbitts and their ilk peddle will pack the house to see us mop the floor with their hypocritical “Christian values.”

If the Nesbitts really believe in their own hype, they will rise to this opportunity to debate questions like these:
• Was the United States founded on Christian or Pagan principles?
• Is it better to worship one God, no God, or many Gods?
• Should children and teens be allowed to study Witchcraft?
• Should Man have dominion over Nature (as the Bible exhorts), or should humans treat animals, rocks and trees as equals (as Pagans believe)?

If the Nesbitts refuse our challenge, the world will forever know that their rhetoric is empty and their claims are false: They do not aggressively pursue Republican and Christian ideals.

We—and thousands of others, no doubt—will watch this “Letters” section, awaiting the Nesbitts’ agreement that they’re ready to dance.

– Lady Passion (Dixie Deerman)
*Diuvei (Steve Rasmussen)
Coven Oldenwilde
Asheville

Responses to our challenge:

• Good ol’ stomp-and-chant
  by Jason Korol in Mountain Xpress, Vol. 14 / Iss. 23 on 01/02/2008
  (a fairly reasonable Christian reply to the questions we posed)
• Take this, you posturing Stompers!
  by Tim Peck in Vol. 14 / Iss. 25 on 01/16/2008 
  (a libertarian backs our call for an organized debate between Christians and Pagans, and criticizes Parkside)
• The liberal smackdown expands
  by Chad Nesbitt in Mountain Xpress, Vol. 14 / Iss. 25 on 01/16/2008 
  (the founder of the Carolina Stompers ducks our challenge, then calls us "Mr. and Mrs. Voldamort")

Who’s afraid of the big, bad Witch?

Coven Oldenwilde responds to the Carolina Stompers

by Lady Passion and *Diuvei in Mountain Xpress, Vol. 14 / Iss. 28 on 02/06/2008

Ever since we led a protest rite against Buncombe County officials’ sale of public parkland graced by a pair of magestic old magnolia trees to developer Stewart Coleman, the über-Republican Carolina Stompers have aimed religiously bigoted attacks at our Coven Oldenwilde—first through a video ridiculing City Council candidate Elaine Lite for participating in the protest, and more recently in Mountain Xpress ("Fighting Mad,” Dec. 5, 2007).

We responded by challenging Stompers co-founders Chad and Nancy Nesbitt to a public debate. The Nesbitts refused and called us more bigoted names, and attempted to divert attention by stealing our idea for a debate and applying it to the Democratic Party. (As a religious nonprofit, Coven Oldenwilde complies with federal law in not affiliating with any political party.)

Since then, a Stompers supporter has made online comments claiming that our offer was some sort of “setup.” This supporter also tried to counter our proposal for a simple debate with timed rounds and a neutral moderator by floating a vague, complex demand for one featuring a “panel of judges” dispensing “points for form”—as if this were some high-school gymnastics competition rather than a golden opportunity for public dialogue between opposite sides in the culture war.

But no amount of bluff and bluster will erase locals’ memories that these chest-pounding crusaders crumpled when intelligent Pagans pushed back against their bullying.

Many people who would welcome the opportunity to see folks with wildly differing views debate perennially fascinating, controversial issues have expressed support for our proposed “Spiritual Smackdown.” So here’s how we would have answered the four questions raised in our proposal:

• Was the United States founded on Christian or Pagan principles?
It was the Pagan Greeks who invented democracy. The Pagan Roman Republic was a pioneering experiment in representative rule. And to underscore the specifically nonbiblical origins of America’s form of government, her founders intentionally modeled the architecture of our government buildings and shrines—from the Capitol Rotunda to the U.S. Supreme Court building and the Lincoln Memorial—on Pagan temples, not Christian churches.

Even our nation’s original motto is a quote drawn from the Pagan poet Virgil: “E Pluribus Unum” ("out of many, one") and not the modern, McCarthy-era “In God We Trust.”

• Is it better to worship one God, no God, or many Gods?
Monotheism, the belief in only one God, leads to enforcement of conformity and the insistence that there’s only one way to the truth. When monomaniacs monopolize spirituality, the world suffers from inquisitions and jihads.

Atheism, the denial of deity, leads to denial of all spirituality and to the insistence that only matter exists. When nothing is sacred, everything’s up for utilitarian grabs.

Polytheism, the worship of many Gods and Goddesses, reflects Nature’s diversity and leads to pluralism, creativity and tolerance. When divinity manifests in infinite forms, all beings’ spirituality is recognized and respected.

Most folks of whatever “ism” can agree that the unethical sale of public parkland by county officials to a money-driven developer was a violation of a sacred public trust.

Unfortunately, far too many people—regardless of the creeds they claim to follow—actually worship only the ultimate human-made idol: money. And the greed this cult inflames in its devotees leads them to pervert everything.

We’re forced to wonder which God the “Christian” Stompers truly worship, when they’ve refused to express any moral outrage about the sale of park property while attacking and ridiculing the sincere citizens of every faith who joined our protest.

• Should children and teens be allowed to study Witchcraft?
The magic Witches practice is a sophisticated art based on the ancient understanding that everything in the universe is interconnected in patterns called correspondences.

As we wrote in The Goodly Spellbook: Olde Spells For Modern Problems, “If you’re a student in school, studying many different subjects, you are especially fortunate to be learning the Art of Correspondences now—it will help you find the connections between such seemingly diverse disciplines as math and music, history and poetry, and geology and dance.”

Kids who study Witchcraft discover the magic hidden in mundane subjects. For example, herbalism can enliven home ec; smithcraft can animate shop class; numerology gives meaning to math.

Sadly, the Craft of the Wise has for so long been persecuted by monotheists and derided by atheists that students are often bullied and punished by teachers, peers and parents when they openly express interest in it. (We receive hundreds of complaints from teens whose books are burned by their parents, and whose teachers refuse to let them write reports about Wicca while allowing other students to write about Christianity.)

Despite their constitutional mandate to treat all religions as equal, public schools routinely block Pagan and Wiccan Web sites on classroom and library computers. Yet with many young people feeling the call to spirituality at an early age, and Wicca growing so fast that it’s projected to be America’s third-largest religion by 2012, parents and school officials are doomed to fail if they continue trying to repress kids’ natural desire to explore magic.

• Should humans have dominion over nature (as the Bible exhorts), or should we treat animals, rocks and trees as equals (as Pagans believe)?
The monotheistic doctrine that humans are superior to all other forms of existence—which is shared by materialist science—encourages debasement of the earth and its inhabitants as mere things to be exploited as resources.

Pagans, however, believe—along with many quantum physicists—that consciousness and sentience pervade the cosmos down to the subatomic level. This means that other species, plants and even minerals are animated with a spirit akin to humans’ own. Recognizing this leads us to treat animals, rocks—even magnolia trees—as we would fellow persons worthy of the same respect that we deserve.

[Lady Passion and *Diuvei are the high priestess and high priest of Coven Oldenwilde in Asheville (http://www.oldenwilde.org).]

The Magnolia Watch:
Tree-Sitting, Asheville-style

Witches to do anniversary ritual at Asheville magnolia tree today

Asheville, North Carolina 

At sunset today, August 2nd, in front of City Hall, Coven Oldenwilde will mark the anniversary of their first ritual to strengthen the town's 100-plus-year-old magnolia tree against developer Stewart Coleman's ax. Last year's protest rite on the Pagan holiday of Lammas followed the first news reports that Mr. Coleman, owner of Black Dog Realty, had purchased from the Buncombe County Commissioners the former public parkland the tree calls home -- which was donated to the "people forever" in 1901 by George Willis Pack, Jr.

The sale sparked city-wide grassroots opposition to Coleman's plan to erect the nine-story Parkside Condomiums, which would house 35 people with a base entry price of $900,000 per unit. To date at least 7,000 citizens have signed an ongoing petition against the complex, asking city and/or county officials to use eminent domain to protect public property rights and return the parkland to the people and spare the tree. Meanwhile, Pack's descendants are suing both Coleman and the county; a preliminary hearing is scheduled for August 25th.

For the past 26 days Lady Passion, High Priestess  of the Coven, has maintained a 24-hour vigil to protect the rare twin tree from destruction by the developer. Hundreds help support Lady Passion with food, supplies, and eyes on the tree. Fellow tree watchers who come to "sit a spell" in the tree's cool, fragrant shade have dubbed the disputed property the "Temporary Autonomous Republic of Magnolia," and strive to promote democracy and free speech through open discussions of government and development -- as well as smiles and waves to passers-by, in true Southern genteel style.

Coven members plan once again to chant Barbarous Words of Power -- this time, an ancient Roman spell called the Enos Juvate, to prevent the felling of the beloved, famous magnolia tree.

#  #  #

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Thursday, August 7, 2008

Mountain Xpress articles:
• Magnolia on notice; Parkside protesters plan response
• Parkside protesters demand eminent domain, plan demonstration training

Tree Watchers Reject Parkside Developer’s Threat

On Tuesday, August 5, Parkside developer Stewart Coleman hand-delivered a letter addressed to Steve Rasmussen, Coven Oldenwilde’s High Priest, stating his plans to demolish the historic Hayes-Hopson Building and cut down the Pack Square magnolia tree “sometime after” 35 days from that date.

Following is the response of the Magnolia Tree Watchers (one of whom, Lady Passion, High Priestess of Coven Oldenwilde, has kept a 24/7 vigil to protect the tree for 33 days and nights thus far):

As citizens who have chosen to take a stand against the devastation of Asheville’s precious natural and historical heritage by rapacious developers and irresponsible politicians, we reject Stewart Coleman’s ultimatum, and vow to peacefully prevent the destruction of Pack Square’s beloved magnolia tree and the historic Hayes-Hopson Building.

Together with the nearly 7,000 people who have signed the petition to stop the Parkside condominium project, we demand that our County Commissioners and City Council members use their legal powers to invoke eminent domain to protect public property rights from private greed, and restore the parkland wrongly sold to Stewart Coleman. We also urge officials to take immediate steps to secure the preservation of downtown Asheville’s oldest surviving building, the adjacent Hayes-Hopson.

After more than a month of sitting and sleeping beneath the shade of the Magnolia Tree, and talking to citizens of every political, religious, and economic stripe – including many who are wealthy developers or condo residents themselves – we have repeatedly heard that the sale of public parkland for a private condo tower in front of our world-famous City Hall was wrong. The voters are far wiser than elected officials give them credit for. They can and do easily distinguish between “good” eminent domain and “bad” eminent domain — and all seem of one mind that in this case it is appropriate for either or both the city and the county to use eminent domain to reverse the county’s “screw-up” and restore the parkland George W. Pack deeded to the people.

Over and over and over they stand beneath what’s become Buncombe County’s Liberty Tree, and express their frustration with what they perceive as the County’s incompetence, corruption, and dismissal of their desires in this matter, and the City’s timidity and buck-passing. Use your powers for good, they continually rail at the officials, or you’ll soon be out of office for good. 

• We encourage those who wish to help guard the endangered magnolia tree and peacefully prevent its destruction to attend one Tree Watch Orientation Session, conveniently held every evening at 7:00 pm at the magnolia tree in front of City Hall. The brief session will educate citizens about the issues at stake in the Parkside controversy, explain local political options, and reveal secrets of the old underground jail beneath the magnolia and more during a walking tour of City/County Plaza.

• Further, we will hold a Direct Action Workshop on peaceful, effective means to protect the Magnolia Tree and Hayes-Hopson building Saturday August 15, time to be announced on www.stopparkside.org.

We thank everyone for their continued support of our efforts, and encourage all to keep pressuring developer Coleman and elected officials to do the right thing and return this public parkland to the people in perpetuity.