Merrily met.

Is it a writer's vanity, a compulsively egocentric muse, some inability to learn from some mistake, or a genuinely nurturing desire to share the thoughts (and scars) from my Path that has me initiating this blog?

I suppose I'll figure that out as I go along.

And if you're reading this, I'll tell you now that you'll find the tea in the blue glass jars near the kitchen sink. Help yourself to some black or green or chai or Earl Grey. Lapsang souchong, Russian samovar, peppermint, chamomile, Bengal Spice... it's all there. Or have a beer. Take a seat, relax, and let's see where this takes us.

But first, let me satisfy my childish, egocentric self-aggrandizement. That is to say, let me share where I'm coming from.

Hi. My name is Devyn Christopher Gillette. I'm the son of artist Eugene Gillette, himself the son of Charles, and genealogist Nancy Sarah Wallace Gillette, herself the daughter of Alice Georgina, both from New York. I'm 43. I'm a Virgo with a Sagittarius moon and Libra ascendant. Rum raisin is my favourite ice cream. I have three cats and a snake, my grrlfriend for the past year is a hysterically funny Buddhist named Kerry, and I'm hammering this out on her borrowed Acer laptop while listening to cicadas outside my excellent rented High Park pad.

I've been active in the Pagan community since I was in high school, although my mother's penchant for occult thrillers and all things Egyptian arguably set my course there from the womb (despite my once having been a Columbian squire and an altar boy). As a boy, I had my first truly visceral, life-affecting ritual experiences when I was in the Boy Scouts and inducted into the Order of the Arrow. It may not sound like much to some, but when you're a little kid facing an adult man in complete Native American regalia during a torchlit ceremony in the woods, and he's haranguing you about the importance of respecting the Earth and your fellow man, baby, that's some seriously good Pagan juju that you won't soon forget.

In my youth, and like many young, early Gen-X, proto-occultists who drank beer in the park and were generally dissatisfied with the state of society during the Reagan regime, I was briefly attracted to the writings of Anton LaVey. That didn't last long, but what adolescent spiritual revolution it gave me helped me break away from my (only marginally strict) Roman Catholic upbringing and introduce me to the world of existentialism and ritual consciousness.

But when young Gary Lauwers, also a young, early Gen-X proto-occultist kid who drank beer in the park was murdered by still more young, early Gen-X, proto-occultist kids out on the Island, it kinda hit me that even though thinkers like LaVey didn't necessarily promote violence with their occultism, some of his admirers were stupid enough to. And I was too smart for that noise.

Fortunately for me, my mentor at the time (whose name I have since forgotten) had already warned me to not get close with the staff at New York's (in)famous Magickal Childe occult shop, where I was buying my supplies, because they were "white lighters." Ooo. So, in the spirit of good LaVey-like cynicism, I got to know the staff. It didn't take long before I realized how deeply the earth-spiritual, anti-sexist, life-celebrating, sensual-positive elements of the growing New York City NeoPagan movement of the early 1980s would resonate for me.

I got to know Herman Slater, and soon became a new Dedicant in a Welsh tradition circle called the EarthStar Temple Pagan Way that he sponsored through the shop. I'd later be initiated into a Pagan fraternity of sorts called The Tuath, a (slight dramatic drumroll please) warrior society among the Welsh tradition groups in the area which pledged itself toward the defense of Paganfolk suffering from assault or harassment. The Pagan Way would eventually break from the shop and change its name, the Tuath would be short-lived, and I'd move to Boston, but the principles I learned in those places (stand up for yourself, live your life with honour, defend your brothers and sisters) stayed with me and became part of what I'd later try to teach my students.

They also became a big part of my personal raison d'être, and while in New England, I became active with several Pagan political, anti-defamation, and civil liberties associations such as the Thomas Morton Alliance, Leo Louis Martello's Witches Anti-Defamation League, and Witches Against Religious Discrimination.

Yeah. There were a lot of different anti-defamation groups in Massachusetts during the late 80s. You'd think someone would remember how a wheel was shaped.

I became friends with Blue Star tradition founder and peace activist Franque Dufner, and with his initial mentorship, established one of the first and longest-running Pagan radio broadcasts in the United States, Between The Worlds - Earth Religion Radio on WMFO-FM at Tufts University. It's coverage of Pagan community affairs earned it a Shield of Valor Award through Laurie Cabot's Witches League For Public Awareness. The program remains on air as Celtic Dawn/Between The Worlds on Monday mornings and via podcast.

At university in New Jersey, I later co-founded the Rutgers University Pagan Student Association. While there, I was invited to present a paper to a graduate student anthropology conference, "Contemplating Food," entitled "Wine And Cakes: Food, Power, and Ritual Relationships Among NeoPagans." The paper was later published in the university's graduate research in anthropology journal and has since become required reading for at least one anthropology course offered by Southern Illinois University.

Franque and I shared common ground with the New York Welsh tradition circles, and soon he was introducing me to his developed work with Blue Star Wicca. Later, I would work with his former partner, Blue Star High Priestess and folk musician Tzipora Katz, and earned my initiation into that tradition in 1991. In 1999, I would introduce this Craft tradition to Canada.

In 2001, I would be inducted as a Priesthood member of the Wiccan Church of Canada by WCC High Priestess Tamarra James and worked to establish an Oshawa Temple of the WCC in service to the Durham Region Pagan community. I had already been inducted as a Neophyte within Odyssean Wicca and had been teaching WCC "Tuesday night" classes through my Blue Star background and had briefly served as a representative on the Ontario Multifaith Council. While in Durham, I would become involved in filing suit with the Ontario Human Rights Commission against then Durham District School Board member Susan Shetler for having uttered defamatory remarks while representing her office. The short-lived WCC Oshawa Temple extended its community service outside of the Pagan sphere, including hosting a summer barbecue that raised almost $500 for the Bethesda House women's shelter in Bowmanville, Ontario.

I've enjoyed speaking at various Pagan events and symposia, facilitating open rituals and workshops covering a myriad of topics, and generally making a heathen nuisance of myself.

Wow. Ok. Are your eyes as tired as my fingers? Did I really just drop my CV into your lap? If so, and if this post turned out to seem as egocentric as I'm afraid as it could appear, at least I feel as though I got it out of my system. Damned Virgo sensibilities. Jeez.

I've reached the stage where most of my students have moved on into new and interesting directions, where I would prefer a quiet dinner at home to debating with Christian fundamentalists or even other Pagans incensed (get it?) with some minutae about pedigree or ritual posture or reconstructionism. While I have my "credentials" in Craft, my spirituality often fluidly moves between the pantheistic and the polytheistic, between contemporary Wicca and Germanic heathenry with a little Rumi, a little Buddhism, a little ceremonialism, and a bit of artistic interpretation thrown in for good measure. Am I traditionalist or eclectic? I've been both, and come to accept that in the end, it's the people (and not the Gods) who usually give a damn about the difference. Maybe I'm a heretic's heretic. Maybe I'm seen the World and have come full circle to being the Fool again. Maybe I'll have that last slice of pie.

So here's the blog. Hopefully, I won't come across as some pompous pain in the ass. Geo, before he died, often thought I did. But in the end, you know, I'm just a guy with a passion for finding the divine through the movement of the seasons, who finds spirit in an otherwise hectic life, who makes every act a ritual and every day a rite of passage, and who passes the horn of mead among friends around the fire. All else is construct.