[En attente de traduction] Zell-Ravenheart, Morning Glory (1948– )

Zell-Ravenheart, Morning Glory (1948– )



American
Pagan and Goddess historian and a principal in the
Church of All Worlds along with her husband, Oberon
Zell-Rav enheart. Morning Glory Zell-Ravenheart has
followed a mystical path in the Craft and Paganism. She
describes her life as the story of a shaman: one who, by
virtue of physical weakness or other characteristics, does
not fit into society, undergoes a struggle for identity that
goes into the realm of spirit and emerges stronger and
with a new identity. She is a practitioner of Celtic Pagan
shamanism and has dedicated herself to working for a
pantheistic, ecology-conscious, “Living Goddess” world.
Morning Glory was born Diana Moore in Long Beach,
California, on May 27, 1948, to a lower middle-class family
with Irish and Choctaw Indian blood. Her parents were
from Mississippi and moved to California during World
War II so that her father could work in an aircraft factory.
Three of her great-grandmothers were Choctaws who
married white men in order to avoid the Trail of Tears
when the Choctaw reservation was abolished in 1908.
One of her grandmothers was an Irish milkmaid who immigrated
to America during the Irish potato famine and
married a well-to-do southern planter.
Morning Glory believes she was, or at least a portion
of her was, an Indian child who died young in a previous
life. She had early memories of walking the Trail of Tears,
being hungry and seeing nothing but red dust. When she
learned to talk, she told her mother she was not her real
mother, that her real mother was somewhere in Oklahoma.
Also at an early age, Morning Glory began to experience
clairvoyant dreams, which earned her the sobriquet
of “witch” as she grew older.
Her mother, a devout Pentecostal who married young,
came from a family of 13 children and wanted a large family
herself; she was able only to have one child. She was a
devoted mother and raised her daughter in what Morning
Glory jokingly describes as “totalitarian Christianity.”
On Morning Glory’s father’s side, one grandfather was
a Methodist minister and a supporter of the Ku Klux Klan.
At a young age, Morning Glory would debate the Bible
with him. A lover of dinosaurs, she was a Darwinist at an
early age and defended evolution. As a child, she attended
Methodist services by herself, though her mother did not
approve. Between the ages of 10 and 12 she became disenchanted
with the Methodists and became deeply involved
in the Pentecostal church.
Unhappy at home, Morning Glory visited her Pentecostal
pastor to seek help and advice. She was told that
she and her mother were subordinate to men; that this
was the destiny of women; that they must be obedient to
the will of God; and that if they bore their suffering with
fortitude, they would “get a gold crown in heaven some
day.”
This sent Morning Glory, a budding feminist, off on a
comparative religion quest between the ages of 13 and 16.
She found the various denominations of Christianity to
be the same in one respect: women were not in positions
of power and were not accorded the right of controlling
Z
their own destiny. She studied Buddhism and Zen Buddhism
and joined the Vedanta Society, but she found that
they also had a predominantly male perspective on the
order of the cosmos. The Vedanta Society did introduce
her to the Goddess, and she still maintains an altar to
various Hindu goddesses, most importantly the Mother
Goddess, Lakshmi.
She made her formal break with Christianity at about
age 14, following a dialogue with her Methodist minister
grandfather, who insisted that animals have no souls and
did not go to heaven. As an animal lover, who had spent
much of her free time with both domestic animals and
wild creatures of the woods, Morning Glory could not accept
this. Her comparative religion search had included
Greek mythology, which connected her to Paganism and
her namesake, Diana. At night, Morning Glory would go
outside and sing to the moon and try to call it down. She
felt the Goddess, as huntress and protectress of all wild
things, was speaking to her. The Goddess entered her life
as a vital force, and Morning Glory became a Pagan.
Around age 17 and after graduating from high school,
Morning Glory initiated herself into Witchcraft following
a three-week vigil at Big Sur, California. As part of the
ritual, she dove off a cliff into a pool of water and recognized
herself as a Witch as she swam out.
She changed her name to Morning Glory at age 19. In
her studies of Diana, she learned that as the Greek Artemis,
the Goddess had demanded great personal sacrifices
from her human daughters, including celibacy. Morning
Glory wanted someday to marry and have children
and felt that keeping her given name might be a negative
influence.
She enrolled in a community college but dropped out
after one semester, following Timothy Leary’s advice to
“turn on, tune in and drop out.” With her pet boa constrictor,
she traveled to Eugene, Oregon, to join a commune
and fell in love with a hitchhiker, Gary, whom she
met enroute. Gary went to the commune with her, and
they were married when she was 21. A year later, a daughter,
Rainbow (now Gail), was born. The marriage, which
was open, lasted about four years, until Morning Glory
met her present husband, Oberon (at that time known as
Tim “Otter” Zell).
Around 1971 Morning Glory had a vivid, precognitive
dream that she was going to meet a man who would
change her life; she saw the man clearly in her dream. She
told Gary about it. In 1973 she attended the Gnosticon
Aquarian festival in St. Paul and listened to Oberon give
the keynote address. When she saw him, she recognized
him as the man in the dream. “The universe parted, bells
rang and lights lit up” when she and Oberon looked at
each other, she recalls. After the talk, she approached
him, and both knew they had found their soul mate. In
Morning Glory’s words, “It was like electric lightning. We
had this silent communion. We held hands and looked
into each other’s eyes and telepathically conveyed our entire
lives. It was powerful and indescribable. We knew we
would never be separated.”
Morning Glory called Gary from the festival and told
him she had finally met the man in her dream. She took
her daughter and went to live with Zell in St. Louis and
obtained a divorce. (Rainbow eventually returned to Eugene
to live with her father.) In 1974, Morning Glory and
Oberon were married.
Morning Glory trained for the traditional year and a
day to become a priestess of the Church of All Worlds
(CAW). In 1974 she became coeditor with Oberon of the
church’s flagship publication, the Green Egg, until it went
out of print in 1976. When the publication was revived in
1988, she resumed coeditorship with Oberon for several
years.
Morning Glory and Oberon left St. Louis and the
central nest of the CAW in 1976 and spent a number of
years traveling, living in monastic retreat, and undertaking
exotic adventures. In 1985 they settled in Ukiah,
California.
Morning Glory oversees one of the church’s subsidiaries,
the Ecosophical Research Association, which she
and Oberon founded in 1977. Both volunteer for Critter
Care, a wildlife animal rescue organization. She serves
the aspect of the Goddess known as Potnia Theron, Our
Lady of the Beasts.
She has pursued studies in mythology, history, comparative
third world religions, zoology, natural history,
Morning Glory and Otter Zell-Ravenheart (Courtesy Morning
Glory and Otter Zell-ravenhea rt)
Zell-Ravenheart, Morning Glory 401
ethnobotany and the magical and psychic arts. One of her
major interests, the history and mythology of the Goddess,
led to the creation of Mythic Images in 1990, a business
that offers Goddess and mythology products, and for
which Oberon sculpts originals. She writes and lectures
on the Goddess.
Morning Glory has written nonfiction, fiction and poetry.
Some of her fantasy stories were published in Marion
Zimmer Bradley’s “Swords and Sorceresses” anthologies
and in comic book form.
Morning Glory and Oberon have always had an open
marriage. From 1984 to 1994, they had a triad and, when
that ended, took three new members into their intentional
family. Morning Glory coined the term “polyamory” in
her 1990 article, “A Bouquet of Lovers,” to describe the
intentional family lifestyles of multiple lovers.
In 2005 Morning Glory experienced a setback in health
when broken bones from a fall sent her to the hospital.
She was discovered to have cancer of the bone marrow
and blood, a treatable but incurable illness. She underwent
surgery, chemotherapy and radiation. Oberon and
others organized magical healing rituals and an Internet
healing circle forum for her. In 2007 her health improved
dramatically, so that she could continue her work.
Further reading:
Church of All Worlds official Web site. Available online.
URL: http://www.caw.org. Accessed March 13, 2008.
Mythic Images Collection. Available online. URL: http://www.
MythicImages.com. Downloaded March 13, 2008.