Frequently Asked Questions

Having devoted several entries to Seldom-Asked Questions, I decided it might be a good idea to also have a page of Frequently-Asked Questions (and oft-mentioned subjects).  Each of the following have been asked or brought up at least three or four times since I started this blog.

When is your next book coming out?

I have no idea.  To be honest I'm not currently writing one, although I'm hoping to find myself inspired again and perhaps begin a new project this Spring.  What will it be?  Dunno.  I'll keep everyone posted.

Do you offer EarthDance classes in X,Y,Z location, or online?

At present I am not offering online classes.  Eventually I intend to, but I have not had the time to work on the materials.  Likewise, I only teach in Austin, because that's where I live, and my travel budget and time are both limited.  At the moment the EarthDance website is down so I can do some overhauling, and I don't know when it'll be back up.  I also don't know when my next series of classes will begin.  I will announce that here at DDtM when I have a date or even a timeframe. 

Truthfully it may be a while.  I don't feel it's entirely ethical to start a new course when I'm in the middle of personal upheaval and can't commit my full energy to my students.  I am considering taking some time off from full-length courses and sticking with workshops and intensives for a while.

Will you read my manuscript?

No.

Can I quote an entry, link to an entry, or otherwise use your writing in my community/website/message board/newsletter/email signature/et cetera?

You do not have to ask my permission to link to anything on this site; just give credit.  As for quoting, please adhere to the usual Fair Use doctrine:  250 words or less, credited copyright Dianne Sylvan.  If I post a ritual, prayer, or meditation that you'd like to use in your own practice or at a coven event or similar, you don't have to ask about it, just give credit in some form somewhere.  (Not that I expect you to stop midritual and proclaim, "So sayeth Dianne Sylvan; please refer to her website for further details."  It's not like I'm going to hunt you down or anything, anyway.) 

Why didn't you answer my email/blog comment?

Because, frankly, I suck.  I'm terrible at returning emails.  Trust me, it's not a personal thing; I am grateful to every single person who takes the time to write to me, and I do try to reply, but my inbox gets deeper and deeper and my life gets nuttier and nuttier. Plus:  I don't give advice.  I am not a counselor.  I can't tell you how to raise your children, what to do with a troublesome spouse, or how to do a spell or ritual to bring you whatever.  I don't know you, and I don't want to take responsibility for the life of someone I don't know, which in my opinion is exactly what one does when one gives advice.

Hey, you dumb vegan!  Plants feel pain too, you know!  Don't you believe plants have feelings if you're a Pagan?  And it's part of the cycle of life!  Everything kills to survive!  Eat meat, dammit!

You have no idea how tiresome questions like this are.  Most of the time when people question someone's logic for not eating animals, it's not because they really want to know the answer; it's because they want to attack the vegetarian and make them feel foolish.  I'm not interested in converting anyone to veganism.  Do I think a vegan world would be a better place?  Yes.  Do I think it's my right to decide that for other people?  No. 

As to the plant question, I do not believe plants feel pain.  Plants do not have nerves.  This is not to say they don't sense or respond to their environment, but if you shock a rose bush with a cattle prod, it won't scream, or shiver, or try to get away.  Plant consciousness, if it can be classified as such, is fundamentally different from that of animals--not greater, not lesser, just different.  But even if plants did feel pain the same way animals do, the fact is, by eating meat you not only kill animals, you kill the plants they eat.   To produce a pound of beef takes hundreds of pounds of plant material, water, land, and energy.  You destroy far more plants secondhand than if you just ate a pound of broccoli. 

Yes, everything kills to survive.  Humans, however, do more than kill.  We torment, we mutilate, we violate the sanctity of mother/child bonds between animals and destroy their social order.  None of this is necessary.  In fact, eating animals and their secretions is not necessary for humans to survive--we do it for taste and convenience, and I don't want to be part of that.  Not to mention, the animal agriculture industries cause untold environmental damage, and exploit workers.  I don't want to participate in such a system.  End of story.  If you don't like reading about such things, skip those posts. 

I think you were a little harsh in your last entry.  Can't you be nicer?

You might as well ask if I can be Chinese.  I am a snarky person.  I talk shit.  I curse.  I am occasionally really mean.  I have opinions, and I'm a writer, so I'm going to write about those opinions.  Some days I wake up all Mother Goddess Cosmic Lovey, and some days I'm just a bitch.  I'm not interested in sugar-coating my life in order to make people think being Wiccan is all white light and bunny farts.  Sometimes it's not fun.  Being experienced or advanced in your religion doesn't mean that life is always happy and easy; that holds true for all religions and all people. 

How do you feel about X,Y,Z author/publisher/Pagan celebrity?

I really try not to talk smack about individual authors or their work, even if I feel very strongly about them, because I know how it feels to be gossiped about and to have your work dissected in a public forum.  I've seen so many people vilified online in particular, their personal lives reamed because they dared write a bad book, and I don't want to take part in that.  My writing is part of who I am, and while a lot of authors are Pagan first and writers second, I'm the opposite and I take it very personally, so I am ultra sensitive to criticism.  The basic rule of thumb is:  authors I like are on the recommended reading list.  Absence doesn't indicate disapproval usually so much as unfamiliarity or neutrality.  There are few authors whose work I genuinely abhor, and I'm not going to tell you who they are.

Can I join your coven?

Grove of Starlight dissolved in late 2007.  Before you ask:  we had drifted apart both spiritually and personally and the group was no longer serving everyone's needs.  I am honored to have been a part of the coven and to have worked with such talented, inspiring women.  I have no plans to begin or join another group in the immediate future; my co-priestess S1ren and I still work together and that's more than satisfactory for me.