Last October, I was interviewed by a fellow Pagan named Raven Moonshadow, who lives in Maryland with her family. Raven is the hearing mother of a young Deaf child, whom she is raising (along with her other children) in the Pagan ways. She and her family are learning American Sign Language (ASL) in order to better communicate with this little girl, who attends a deaf pre-school program at the Maryland School for the Deaf.
Raven and I met through the internet when she discovered Deaf Pagan Crossroads, and we have since talked on our videophones (devices similar to webcams which allow two individuals to see and communicate with each other, which is vital when one uses a manual-visual form of communication, such as ASL.)
Raven Moonshadow is an editor for a newsletter called Pagan Moonbeams - which was developed as an educational resource geared primarily to parents who are raising their children on the Pagan Path. It’s a great resource for anyone and everyone, and I encourage my readers to check it out.
When Raven asked me if I would be willing to be interviewed for this newsletter, I didn’t hesitate to say “yes.” A big part of my spiritual path is education – teaching others about Paganism and/or Deafhood… and I felt this interview would be a great opportunity to reach out to more people and make those “connections” that I am often talking about.
Raven emailed me a list of questions for the interview… many of which were quite thought-provoking and required some time to develop an appropriate response. One by one, I typed up my answers and sent them back to her. Finally we were done, and all of responses were gathered up together and published in the November edition of the newsletter, which you can find here.
In the introduction to the interview, Raven writes:
As a parent of a Deaf child, it has always been important to me that my daughter fully understands what is happening around her and that our lines of communication always remain open. As a Pagan parent who is raising her children on the path, complete understanding and communication remains incredibly important. I recently had the opportunity to interview Ocean, a Deaf High Priestess that I met on my quest to find the signs or concepts in American Sign Language, to be able to share with my daughter to increase her understanding and awareness. It was quite a pleasure to interview Ocean, and I sincerely appreciate her taking the time out to graciously speak with me and answer my questions. I hope, through this interview, that each of you will learn something new.
Thank you, Raven. I enjoyed meeting you, and it was a pleasure to conduct this interview. I do hope we stay in touch, and I wish you all the best as you continue to raise your Deaf child on the Pagan Path.
Because this interview was rather lengthy, I have broken it down into three parts:
Interview With the Deaf Witch – Part I (Who Am I?) talks a bit about myself and how I became a Pagan
Interview With the Deaf Witch – Part II (Being Deaf & Pagan) examines the merger of my identity as a Deaf individual with my spirituality as a Pagan
Interview With the Deaf Witch – Part III (Pagan Sign Language) discusses my thoughts about the use of sign language in expressing Pagan terminology, etc.
I hope that you will take the time to read all of these interview parts and learn more about me and about being a Deaf Pagan.
This sculpture shows the sign for "connect"...and that is what Deaf Pagan Crossroads is all about - making connections. Connections between Deafhood and Paganism, connections between the Deaf Community and the Hearing Community, connections between myself as the writer and you as the reader. I hope you will take the time to read my various posts, some of which are listed below. Welcome to the Crossroads, and I hope you make some connections here!
Ocean,
Thank you again for taking the time out of your schedule to allow me to interview you. I truly enjoyed all of your answers and the time that we had to chat. My router broke and we replaced it, but now my VP won’t communicate with the new router. LOL! I’ll let you know when it is up and running again. Have a blessed holiday!
I sincerely hope that everyone will take the time to read these segments. While they are somewhat lengthy (our dear Osh has never been known to be short and sweet with her responses), they are interesting and thought-provoking. While Ocean can be long-winded at times, she also is very smart and very articulate, and this clearly comes across in the interview. Her answers to Raven’s intelligent questions certainly give the reader a great insight into both Paganism and Deafhood.
Kudos, Osh. You’ve done us all proud.
Merry Meet !
I finally to read it. I am so glad that you are doing wonderfully as you try. It is an interesting to read. I am so glad to have that pagan crossroads.. Hope you did a good time on thanksgiving in witches way ! Had to go that someone is calling me. Then, Blessed Be !
Witchpi