Garan du
Garan du is a chemical engineer by education, and an emergency management, security, and risk consultant by trade. A native of Ohio, he is a founding member of The Green Faerie Grove, a 3° High Priest in the Minoan Brotherhood, a co-facilitator of the Between the Worlds Men’s Gathering, and a coordinator of Rainbow Center at Circle Sanctuary’s annual Pagan Spirit Gathering. In the late 1980s, he co-produced Alternating Currents (WAIF-FM, Cincinnati), one of the longest-running GLBT public affairs radio programs in the country. Garan du has formerly served on the organic certification committee for the state of Ohio (Ohio Ecological Food & Farm Association), as a board member for the Kaleidoscope Youth Coalition (a queer youth services group), and as an Area Commissioner for the City of Columbus. A writer on topics associated with gay rights, Paganism, and queer spirituality, Garan du’s work has been featured in Circle Magazine, Outlook Magazine, OutFront Gay-Lesbian TV, Alternating Currents, The Witches Voice, and Lady Rhea’s book “Enchanted Formulary” (Citadel, 2006). He was interviewed for Margot Adler’s revision of “Drawing Down the Moon” (Penguin Books, 2006), and has been a speaker at Between the Worlds, Pagan Spirit Gathering, Winterstar, and Circle Sanctuary. He is currently writing the biography of the founder of the Minoan Tradition – “Bull of Heaven: The Mythic Life of Eddie Buczynski.” He lives in a gay Pagan intentional household in downtown Columbus, Ohio.
In my own words: Gay men have historically had a rough time of it in our society. Despite the advances of the last 30+ years, we still co-exist in all but the most bohemian of enclaves with a straight society that is at best ambivalent towards us. We continue to be treated as a campaign and fundraising bogeyman by politicians who pander to hateful Christian lobbying groups more concerned with worldly power and wealth than they are about the message of love and tolerance that their savior allegedly taught. Many years ago I realized that the only way I could walk this planet with some measure of self-respect was to embrace a spiritual path that valued who I was as a person. That path is a Pagan one.
So many of us despair at being able to make a difference in life, often to the point that we opt to do nothing or, worse, engage in self-destructive behaviors. We retreat into unhealthy patterns of addiction, whether it be substance abuse or the empty pursuit of material goods or unsafe sex. But these pursuits sap our resources, ruin our bodies and minds, and squander the precious time we have on this earth. Perhaps we cede our liberties to others, thinking it easier to follow cult leaders to salvation rather than making hard choices for ourselves. Controlling, judgmental and divorced from the reality of what it means to be human, that path leads to slavery and ruin. We aren’t commodities or cost centers. We aren’t target demographic audiences or problems to be solved. We’re human beings, vested with both the strengths and the foibles of our nature. We have it within us the ability to seize our own destinies, both as individuals and as a community of caring people. To do otherwise is to allow others to dictate the terms of our existence. That will never suffice!
As a farm kid growing up in rural Ohio in the 60s and 70s, I never expected to end up traveling down this road. But I have definitely been blessed by parents who saw the wisdom in allowing their children to explore and choose their own spiritual paths. Who else can say that they work on anti-terrorism projects by day and function as a gay Pagan Priest of Dionysos on their off-hours? Over the years I have gotten to know musicians and authors, artists and classical scholars, organic farmers and archaeologists, hippies and jewelers, scientists, psychologists and wait-staff, and Witch Queens and Witch Grandfathers. What puts things into perspective for me is standing in the center of a circle of 80 men and hearing them pour their souls into a God-chant that I wrote. As I listen to their voices and look into their smiling, wide-eyed faces, I cannot help but be moved. As individuals, each voice is a beautiful and precious shard of Creation. And in harmony united, the chorus represents the magick and mystery that IS our world.