/
august IB. 2000
CULTURE
The witches of
/ East Burnside
witch at a party while in col
lege, then began reading books
on the subject.
Waterfall says she also loves
drumming—she is the rhythm
section at several temple rituals.
No bats or broomsticks
in this temple, just
vibes and good food
by
K aty D avidson
get my first true taste of Full
Circle when I attend the
Lammas ritual, a celebration
of the first fruits of the year’s
harvest, the midway point
between summer and fall.
I arrive in the evening,
while it’s still light outside. The
temple interior is dark, illumi
nated only by a few candles. A
few women gather in the Fire
Room, the largest room on the
main level, where templegoers
have built altars to goddesses
along the walls.
I meet Kali Rose, a bright
woman whose claim to temple
fame is her monthly Tarot
salon; she charms me with her
accessibility, positive nature
and cheery attitude.
I’m surprised at the age
range of the women— 22 to
50-something- -and there doesn’t seem to be
any discrimination based on experience.
Among the group of about 12 women are two
other newcomers besides myself.
While about half of the participants
are queer-identified, Treat says the
temple has not suffered any
internal strife about trans
inclusiveness. “We don’t
have any policies on
trans people,” she says.
“If you call yourself a
woman, you’re
accepted here.”
After I meet a
few more women,
we all make our
way to the back
yard, a soothing,
grassy space where
a cherry tree pre
sides and drops
swollen fruit onto
the lawn below. We
all take off our shoes
and form a circle.
A woman beckons
each one of us with her
witchy smile and out
stretched finger. As we
approach her, she says a blessing
O
f the many
signs near the
old wooden
door of the Full
Circle Temple, one is
clear and definitive:
Womon Only Space.
It doesn’t say any
thing about skeptics,
of course.
Being the cheeky
individual I am, I’ve
always giggled at the
idea of womyn’s
groups and the New g
Age ideals that are |
attached: crystals,
&
energies, witchcraft, o
spells, pagan fashion, j
I’ve never felt the
need to be surrounded by only women, never
wanted to get naked in the woods and share
my feelings. I’ve never been to Michigan.
But I have been ignorant. This is what I
learned the week I visited the Full Circle Tem
ple for the first time.
Outsiders might be thrown off by the term
“temple” because of its connotations in main
stream religion. Although the old house that is
home to Full Circle sits on busy East Burnside
Street in Portland, it is about as far away from
the spiritual mainstream as you can get.
Displayed prominently in the newsletter,
the mission of Full Circle is to practice, explore
and create women-centered and women-
empowered spirituality. The temple exists be
cause of the need for safe places that encom
pass the diverse spirituality of all women.
“It’s about being in service to each other,”
says Terri Treat, one of the temple’s founding
mothers and owner of the building. She used
to live on the second floor and run her busi
ness, Cotton Cloud Futons, out of the main
level.
Nearly five years ago, Treat moved her store
to Northeast Broadway and officially turned
the 1902 building into the communal space it
is today. She says, in spirit, it had been a tem
ple all along.
T he building’s interior is quirky and
serious all at once. T he second floor is a
smorgasbord of unique rooms, each one
serving a different purpose.
The Healing Room is painted entirely green
and is used for acupuncture and massage. A
sparse guest room is available on a sliding-scale
rate for witchy women visiting Portland.
The Blood Room is a deep-red womb of a
space used for grieving and releasing, Treat
says. In stark contrast, the Elemental Room is
completely devoid of furniture, painted light
blue and used for dancing and other activities.
I ask Treat how the women stay spiritually
focused with the din of Burnside traffic outside.
“We just pretend it’s the ocean,” she says.
Full Circle’s calendar of events demon
strates the diversity mentioned in the mission
statement. During one month, women may
attend one of the regularly scheduled commu
nity dinners, a class called Goddess 101, a
financial workshop called Temple Bones, ritu
als to celebrate the new and full moons, and a
self-help group called Yoni First, in which
women come together for vaginal self-exams,
breast exams and conversation.
However, the reason most women visit the
temple is the ever-present principle of earth
loving.
“It’s the most fundamental part of my love
for the craft,” says Persephone Waterfall, an
Oregon transplant originally from Ohio. She
was turned on to paganism when she met a
and anoints our foreheads with a blackberry,
leaving her fingers stained purple and our fore
heads sticky.
Treat explains the process of the ritual to us,
then we all face the east and begin to pray by
singing about the wonders of that direction.
We acknowledge every direction in a similar
way, then pray to the sky, then to the earth,
then to each other.
Ginny Salkowski, owner of the magic shop
Mystic Moon, which is run out of the temple’s
garage, suggests we each take a turn in the mid
dle of the circle to receive the good energy of
the group. This impromptu activity proves to
be the most uplifting of the ritual— some
women call it orgasmic.
Later, we pass around cider, melons, berries
and a pie, and as each woman feeds the one
next to her, she says the traditional blessing:
“May you never hunger.” While we feast to cel
ebrate the harvest, some women dance, then
we close the circle to officially end the ritual.
Like the other women, I’m most enthusias
tic about the emphasis on the earth and the
desire they feel to preserve and worship it. I
stop giggling inside and actually listen.
Although I don’t go bra-less and underwear
less and hang crystals in my windows, I feel like
I understand now. Spirituality doesn’t need to
come from a book or a preacher; I can find it
inside me. I can think of it any time, any day—
not just Sundays.
As Treat says, “A ritual can be something
like washing the kitchen floor with intent.”
F ull C ircle T emple celebrates the
new moon in Virgo ritual Aug. 29.
For more information, call
(503) 238-0675. The temple
address is 3125 E. Burnside
in Portland.
K aty D avidson is a
Just Out staff writer
who can be reached at
katy@justout.com.
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