Oz-who

[Editor's Note: Otter was honored by a mention in Who's

Who and this text was taken from the response

questionnaire.]

Why do you think you were nominated for this honor?

Presumably because I have been a fairly influential figure

in the Neo-Pagan community for the past 20 years,

especially in my capacities as founder of the Church of All

Worlds, editor of the Green Egg, originator of the Gaea

Hypothesis, and creator of the Living Unicorn.

Please, ask these questions of a friend, loved one, etc.,

and give us their answer as completely as possible: What

do they consider most outstanding or noteworthy about

you? What do they think is most interesting about you?

What do they think should be included?

Otter is a brilliant and highly motivated man who operates

with heart and mind. His loyalty is steadfast to a fault. His

genius lies in his massive memory and his ability to make

associations where they are not apparent to others, and

occasionally where none exist. He sees his universe as

benign and plastic and cheerfully uses unconventional

means to achieve his goals. In fact, he prefers to use the

unexpected, though sometimes it's because he is unaware

of the usual way of doing things. His deep love for all

animals except dogs, sense of responsibility for the

outcome of this cosmic transition, and willingness to

travel, talk and listen make him a copper wire for

conduction of thought of a life-positive nature. His

fathomless devotion to the Goddess in his heart and his

life give him an open intuitiveness rare in a man.

Please, share with us in this section anything you would

like to of a personal nature. Your favorite color...Your

hobbies...Your interests (whether it be Tarot Cards or hang

gliding)...Where and when your interest in the Magickal,

Mystical or Metaphysical area began...Tell us about your

pets...Personal reflections.

My favorite color is green, for the green Earth. I love all

things wild: the forest, the sea, the desert and mountains;

wild animals, wild weather and wild women. I love being

naked in the summer sun, and making love on a grassy

meadow. I am most at home in the water, and under it. I am

an open-water SCUBA diver, and hope to take up hang-

gliding. I have also been a spelunker, mountain-climber

and fire walker, having thus achieved a deep affinity with

three out of four Elements. My deepest passion is for the

Goddess, in all Her manifestations; in Nature and in

women. The great love and inspiration of my life is

Morning Glory, my wife and soulmate for 15 years. We

have a mutually open marriage together with Diane, our

freemate of the past 5 years. I also have a 24-year-old son,

Bryan, of whom I am very proud, and I am stepfather to

Morning Glory's 18-yr.-old daughter, Rainbow, and Diane's

12-yr.-old son, Zachariah. I am a graphics artist, potter,

woodworker and sculptor, and my favorite pieces are of

Goddesses, dinosaurs, and mythological/legendary

animals. Dinosaurs in particular continue to hold a

fascination for me since childhood, and this interest has

led me into many obscure areas of natural and para-natural

history. I have a great love of arcania, and collect and

collate odd bits of lore the way others do stamps. Our

current menagerie includes a Unicorn (Bedivere), a great

horned owl (Archimedes), four Siamese cats (Yoko,

Octobriana, Alpha and Kuan), and a mated pair of boa

constrictors (Rosie and Triskelia). I have also raised as

pets deer, possums, pythons, bats, rats, bunnies,

tarantulas, goats, ferrets, box turtles, iguanas, geckos,

tegus, and assorted small birds and fresh- as well as salt-

water aquaria.

Within the Magickal, Mystical or Metaphysical area, do you

have any specific goals or visions?

Of course! My minor personal goals are to republish the

new Green Egg; to raise a Phoenix; to investigate and

solve the mysteries of Bigfoot, Loch Ness Monster and

Mokele-Mbembe. To travel to more ancient sacred sites,

especially in South America and the British Isles. To go

into outer space to the Moon and Mars. To market my

entire sculpture series mythological, prehistoric and

legendary creatures, and ancient Goddesses.

My major goals are planetary and evolutionary: to be a

catalyst for the coalescence of planetary consciousness. I

work to aid and abet the Awakening of Gaea.

And as for visions, I hereby present a mythical metaphor

for your edification and amusement:

All living creatures are like cups of various sizes and

shapes, with which the waters of life are scooped from the

well of souls. And all the cups are emptied back into the

pool when they are periodically broken. New cups are

continually being fashioned of living clay, and are dipped

in their turn into the same well to be filled. But it is rare that

a new cup will scoop up exactly the same batch of

molecules as had been contained in a former cup. Usually,

there will be a considerable mix. And so it is that a human

may have bits of "past life" memories of several other

people, as well as assorted animals, or that a human-sized

cup may contain a number of entire birds and other small

animals, but at most, only a fraction of a single whale. And

in the proper balance of Nature, each new generation

replaces the previous, so that the number of each kind of

cup remains approximately constant. Now what do you

suppose happens when one species proliferates greatly at

the expense of others? When there are no more cups of

Moa, Stellar's Sea Cow, Carolina Parakeet, Thylacine,

Sperm Whale, Condor, Mammoth, Giant Lemur, Great Auk,

Cave Bear, Megatherium, Dodo, or countless others, but

the cups labelled "Human" are being produced by the

geometrically increasing billions? In that case, I believe,

the human soul-stuff would become increasingly diluted

with other decimated species, and all the vanished

animals would return in human form.

Many years ago, the Hopi Indians prophesied that the

spirits of all the dead Indians would return in a single

generation in the bodies of the white conquerors. This

generation, they said, would be recognizable by their

native affinity for the ways of the Red Men. They would

wear beads and leather and feathers, let their hair grow

long and hold it back with braids and headbands. They

would take up the Indian ways, and return to the reverence

of Nature and the Great Mother. They would learn the

Indian chants, and purify themselves in sweats, fasts and

vision quests. And they would come to be known by a

name similar to "Hopi," which means "the Peaceful Ones,"

for they would also be the Children of Peace. Around 1970,

the Hopi elders declared that this prophecy had come to

pass, and they summoned shamans from all the tribes to

come to the Four Corners of the ancestral Hopi Land, to

learn the full extent of the prophecies and to go forth and

instruct those who would be receptive. This has been done.

I prophesy that the generation now being born in the

1980's will incarnate the spirits of the murdered whales. I

imagine that the reason why whales always beach

themselves to die is that they have a myth that they once

came from the land, and that they shall return to the land in

the afterlife. I believe this is true. And I believe that this

new generation, who will come of age around the turn of the

millennium, will be a generation of noble heroes in an age

of future legends, for it will be their task to undertake that

Heroic Quest, through all manner of perils, to the Fortress

of Ultimate Darkness, to restore the Light, save the world,

and usher in the next Golden Age. For this is one of those

great Ages of Magic, when the fate of all living turns on a

tiny pivot, and all things are possible. More than at any

such time in all history, the choices have escalated to the

ultimate: Apocalypse or Apotheosis; planetary annihilation

or planetary illumination. As the comic character

"Ozymandias" said in The Watchmen #11: "It's a neck-and-

neck race between the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

and the Seventh Cavalry." And with such a wide range of

possibilities comes the return of true Magic in the form of

coincidence control through manipulation of probabilities.

A friend of mine, Orion, noted awhile back that there are

now as many people alive at one time as have ever lived

before in the entire span of human history. We're all on

stage for the Grand Finale! It's been a great show, and I, for

one, think we should take it on the road. I find it no

coincidence that the very technology which presently

threatens all life on this planet could alternately be used to

build starships which could carry our children throughout

the galaxy. We create our world by the myths we live and

believe in, and for the first time in our history, we are

creating myths not of a golden age long past, but of one yet

to come. What shall it be; Star Wars or Star Trek? We're all

choosing up sides...