We want to preface this by saying that yes, there is a personal undercurrent to the current changes that are propelling us to move forward. However, I don't feel it's my place to share them as they involve the personal life of the tradition's founder. So respectfully, I ask that no one approach looking for gossip or other such things. None of that will happen here. This post is for our members (and supporters of the House) to have clarity and information about what's happening and what our plan is. The only statements we're sharing here are those details essential to our explanation.
In short, our friend Iris Firemoon no longer exists and is distancing herself from the Pagan community for good. We wish her luck as she has a new family that will undoubtedly require a lot of attention. Sometimes people change faiths or give it up altogether, and it's no one's place to hold judgment over that. That being said, this crisis of faith spurred some reactions that we're working to heal. The main point of information is to know that since Iris is no longer Pagan, she would like to dismantle the entire establishment of Firefly as a tradition, disbanding everything associated with it. Some may have noticed that our Facebook page and Meetup went down, and then were deleted. This is why.
Obviously, it is disturbing to think that one person would want to abolish an entire tradition because they no longer wished to participate. The Firefly House has covens, solitary practitioners, and ministers all over the country (and even in other countries). Taking the House down would no-doubt put a serious hurdle before the ministers and their ability to serve their community. So much has been built from so many of us over the years.
In an emergency reaction to this news, Coven of the Spiral Moon met to discuss a plan. For those who don't know, CSM is the main organizing body of Firefly in our local area. Myself and Phoenix Darkmoon lead the coven and have been in the prime leadership role of all things locally Firefly since Iris stepped down last year and passed the torch. CSM and its 5 initiates are considered the "inner circle" that steers the direction of our Meetup locally. All members of CSM are full initiates and have been working together in this process. There is an old ex-member using these changes to say that this is all of my own doing. I won't give more attention to that individual as you can clearly read here that's not the case.
When CSM met to discuss the troubling situation, we determined that Firefly as a tradition and spiritual practice must live on. There are simply too many people who are growing positively from our work who we cannot abandon. People are learning about how magick can heal their lives, create peace in the world, and improve their commitment to joy and inner strength. We want to continue to service in that spirit. Thus, the below bullets highlight the basic extent of our plan to ensure the survival of the tradition:
1.The inconvenient situation is that the person formerly known as Iris Firemoon has sole legal control of the church as an entity as well as the old meetup group which was already deleted. This was clearly a hole in the tradition that will be rectified moving forward as no one person should have complete control of an organization's assets. The only thing CSM can do to save that is to start a "new" organization, under a similar banner, maintaining the current egregore, or current of energy that we have built up. The next points will clarify how we're going to do that.
2.Although we have to technically create a new organization to continue our work, we are calling it "The Firefly House." There's no reason to use a different name when all of the same people are coming along and the parameters of our tradition and its structure are not changing. After all, how many "First Baptist Church's" are there in any given town?
3.We have to give up the use of a few things that Iris personally owns to ensure we're in a healthy legal state. Thus, we will be creating a new logo, new bylaws, and revising the content explaining our degree system. Again, nothing about our structure is changing, except for the Virginia-based entity itself that Iris owns.
4.The "old" Firefly house was a legal tax-exempt church, of which myself and many others are ministers of. Obviously, dismantling that church puts a stop to some of the things our ministers can do, such as sign marriage licenses. To fix that, we'll eventually be filing with the state of Maryland as a church again. We will recognize the credentials of all ministers previously ordained through the old Firefly House, along with all degrees and former positions. Approving the church as an entity will take some time, but we're beginning the process soon. Until then, let it be known that all initiates in good standing (clergy or not) can hold their degree. We recognize you.
5.The main change to the new, restructured Firefly House is in the power of the leadership. It was clearly a mistake for one person to have complete control of our web collateral and contacts. To prevent that from happening again, we will now operate on a system of checks and balances, where the 5 organizing coven members of CSM will practice consensus-based procedure in the management of the outer circle. In the past, our founder was able to ban participants and command the entire direction of the organization as she liked. Moving forward, we will instead work with the spirit of cooperation and mutual agreement whenever possible.
Finally, I want to make it clear that our coven and outer circle's wish to continue the tradition is based only in the spirit of love and the desire to continue the work of evolving our souls. Throughout these changes, the organizing council of CMS will not engage in attacks on character or participate in any public mud-slinging, should such as thing arise. As always, our only desire is to continue this noble tradition that we have all built together. We will continue to teach, hold rituals, and participate in community service for the planet and our fellow community.
Please let myself or one of the other CSM members know if you have questions.
Blessed be
David
Source: http://my-spiritual-path.blogspot.com
