Gaia Rising is an organization focused on:
Restoring and protecting sacred land, vegetation, etc., especially when used in worship, meditation, shamanism with nature spirits, and honoring the Goddess in Nature
Minimizing and overcoming legal barriers to those whose practice is to maintain, restore and/or create complex nature-friendly, organic ecosystems
Assuring that all funds donated or granted are properly accounted for and used efficiently for their intended purposes, with a reasonable minimum of administrative and overhead costs
Associated activities, including fund raising, administration, disbursement, publishing, electronic communications, PR, meetings, events, etc.
It was founded by Bill Obbagy, the Editor of the Cleveland Citizen (the Oldest Labor newspaper in the United States) and Larry Cornett the President of NEO-ERAA (an Earth Religion Rights organization that also endorses these purposes). Its first project is fund raising and providing appropriate financial administrative services for donations intended to assist with the situation on Frank Giglio's ravaged land and protect it through litigation, etc. -- along with coordinating its work with other organizations and individuals.
Mr. Obbagy joined Larry Cornett, Nancy (of the W. 25th St Bookstore) and Henry (a Tremont Earth Religionist and professional Grant writer). An attorney is helping with incorporation, and additional positions for volunteers sharing the work will be created. Its detailed structure is expected to be worked out by people actively working to help the Frank Giglio situation and others.
Meetings to help organize events will be scheduled soon. Additional fundraising events are being planned, including concerts in Greater Cleveland Area Clubs (and perhaps an outdoor weekend music festival at Nelsons Ledges), with such bands as Sultans of Bing, Einstein's Secret Orchestra, Flux Up 10%, Universal Joint, Revelry, Figure of Speech, etc. The dates of these events will be determined considering the availability of clubs and bands.
Currently, Gaia Rising is active in Northeast Ohio, but it intends to expand to an international level in cooperation with other organizations sharing our objectives. For further details, contact Larry Cornett, 890 Alhambra Rd., Cleveland, Ohio 44110 (216) 692-2124 lcorncalen@aol.com or see its website at: http://members.aol.com/lcorncalen/GaiaRising.htm.
BENEFIT TO RESTORE AND PROTECT THE GARDEN
Drumming, Ceremonial Bonfire, Dance, Bardic circle, poetry, music, performance,
pot luck snacks, BYOB, camping, etc.
Directions:
* From I 90 at the lake shore, head south/west on I90/71
* Exit at West 14th and Abbey.
* Take the left fork to W 14th St.
* After passing under I90/71, head down W 14th St.
* It is the first house on the right on W 14th, after a huge
vacant lot extending to the exit.
(If heading towards entrance to I 90/71 on W 14th St. It is the last house on left side of W 14th St, followed by a huge vacant lot before the I90/71 entrance).
For further information, call Frank: (216) 687-9733
On September 1, 1998, Cleveland city workers and machinery ravaged a favorite site for religious ceremonies in Cleveland, Ohio. The property, which was destroyed without due process, is owned by Frank Giglio, who had spent the past ten year's developing his land. It was a chapel of the Goddess in nature composed of a spiritually powerful, living ecosystem that included herbs, plants, trees, abstract Goddess statuary, trees, lined walkways, a bonfire area, benches, etc. Cleveland city officials pepper sprayed Frank's dog, destroyed Frank's car, and arrested him during the bulldozing, in addition to removing an estimated three inches of topsoil from the land and crushing and spreading glass bottles throughout his property, destroying the ecosystem and interfering with its restoration.
Previously, Frank had been cited for "weeds" and "debris" on his property, and he was in the process of preparing to respond to this citation at a forthcoming hearing. The action pre-empted the trial, scheduled two weeks later, at which Frank's religion, the sincerity of his beliefs, and the need for a variance from the weed laws were the main issue debated in associated legal briefs. Several area ministers have offered Frank ordination as a Priest of the Goddess and the Sprits of Nature to counter this. Local Pagans have pulled together to help replant the land, and Frank obtained a permit for ceremonial bonfires on his land for use in the practice of Earth Centered Religion. Recently, Frank's situation has received front-page coverage in a city newspaper, Cleveland Scene. A negotiated settlement would be desirable, that would protect the restored chapel, built in accordance with EPA guidelines for Natural Landscaping, etc. However, high City officials have not been responsive to correspondence sent to them to obtain pertinent documentation, indicating that such a settlement is unlikely.
Volunteer assistance and funding for legal proceedings and restoration of the Chapel are now needed. Contact Frank directly if you are interested in donating plants, equipment, or other things to help in rebuilding at (216) 687-9733 to discuss what is needed, and then send to him at 2288 W. 14th Street, Cleveland, OH 44113. To send financial donations, or for more information on how you can help, contact Larry Cornett, 890 Alhambra Rd., Cleveland, OH 44110; (216) 692-2124; lcorncalen@aol.com. Please make donation checks/money orders payable to Gaia Rising.
Excerpted and updated with permission from the Lady Liberty League Report in the Summer 1999 issue of CIRCLE Magazine -- in-print: CIRCLE, PO Box 219, Mt. Horeb, WI 53572 USA; circle@mhtc.net; on-line: http://www.circlesanctuary.org/liberty/report
For details about the Frank Giglio situation see:
The end of the Calendar. website at: http://members.aol.com/lcorncalen/CALENDAR.htm
The Cleveland Scene Website at http://www.clevescene.com/990506/news1.html (not always accurate)
Another website: http://www.apocalypse.org/pub/u/hilda/giglio.html:
For details about Natural Landscaping, see:
John Marshall Law Review presents an overview of "weed laws" and real-life cases of natural gardners who won their rights to natural landscaping
http://www.epa.gov/glnpo/greenacres/weedlaws/JMLR.html
Weeding Out Bad Vegetation Control Ordinances
by Bret Rappaport and Bevin Horn
http://www.for-wild.org/weedlaws/weeding.htm
Natural Landscaping Toolkit
A Source Book on Natural Landscaping for Public Officials
http://www.epa.gov/glnpo/greenacres/toolkit/
USEPA, GREEN ACRES: Green Landscaping with Native Plants
http://www.epa.gov/greenacres/
Wild Ones Homepage
http://www.for-wild.org/
Paradise Lost - The Tyranny of Conformity Revisited_, by Carol Wallace at http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/virtually_gardening/11040
Backyard Habitat,National Wildlife, October/November 1998
http://www.nwf.org/nwf/natlwild/1998/yardon8.html
Books and Videos About Natural Landscaping Available at Defenders' Library
http://www.mcdef.org/natbook.htm
If you run into legal problems associated with your religion, check the following webpages for help:
.Finding Help and Helping Yourself Links:
http://members.aol.com/lcorncalen/helplink.htm
DIRECTORY OF Public Contacts for Earth Religion Rights organizations, by State
http://ddi.digital.net/~billk/rights.htm
EARTH RELIGIONS LEGAL ASSISTANCE NETWORK (ERLAN) HOMEPAGE
http://www.conjure.com/ERAL/eral.html
Many (but not all) people who have been helping, share with Frank Giglio an animistic view of the world, agreeing that:
1. Gods, Goddesses, the Tao, etc. (Deity) manifest in nature immanently (Deity and etc. includes a lot of possibilities, including that which can not be categorized, various concepts of God, and even the Unified Field theorized by some Physicists)
2. Working with the spirits of nature provides opportunities to work with, worship, and experience deity in manifest forms
3. Concerning other levels of Deity, experiencing singular vs the plural are a matter of how our minds resonate with the unmanifest.
Animistic Pagans and others can work together with deity as manifested in the spirits of nature to heal the Earth, etc., however we may think about and work with other levels of Deity.
In the mid 1980s, a heretical Franciscan Monk, a Sufi, a Sikh, a Cherokee Medicine Man, and several Pagans who actively worked with Nature Spirits met (when Starhawk came to Connecticut) and formed an ad hoc group called the "Earth Liberation Front" (ELF). Together, they celebrated the seasons and got together at other times to share technique, to do Earth healing and protection magic, etc. -- often at an ashram with a forest at which members worked with the spirits of the land and were establishing permaculture. Different concepts of Deity at other levels than the manifest really did not matter, and techniques drawn from their different traditions enriched their work together.
The possibility of forming such a network in Northeast Ohio is being explored, along with, perhaps, evolving it into a Church that would, among other things, legally register Frank's restored garden Chapel of the Goddess in Nature as one of its officially recognized churches, along with other such sites, some of which are in the process of being created.
If you are interested in helping these efforts, or share the aforementioned animistic beliefs, or have documentation of the importance of natural surroundings and
work with Nature Spirits as part of religious or spiritual practice, contact:
Larry Cornett, 890 Alhambra Rd., Cleveland, Ohio 44110 (216) 692-2124 lcorncalen@aol.com