Brief Timeline
1961 — OZ begins freshman year at Westminster College, in Fulton, Missouri, where he meets Lance Christie and Martha McCance.
1962 — Lance and OZ read Stranger in a Strange Land and share water (April 7), vowing to begin living according to concepts set forth therein. They form a Nest, and OZ begins publishing The Atlan Torch.
1963 — OZ marries Martha (April), and they have a son, Bryan (September).
1965 — OZ graduates from Westminster, begins graduate school at Washington University in St. Louis; begins new Nest of CAW there.
1966 — OZ quits graduate school, begins working for Human Development Corporation as a Head Start counselor.
1967 — On Labor Day, OZ first goes public with Church of All Worlds, applies for incorporation. He immediately begins using the term Pagan as self-identification for this new religion. He completes Life Science College for a Doctor of Divinity degree, becomes ordained as first Priest of CAW (December 21).
1968 — CAW receives corporate status on March 4; opens a coffeehouse/temple on Gaslight Square in St. Louis. OZ begins publishing Green Egg (all in March). The temple closes in September.
1969 — With Fred Adams of Feraferia and others, OZ co-founds the Council of Themis—the first Pagan ecumenical council. OZ attends his first World Science Fiction conventions (St. Louiscon) and meets many people (including John C. Sulak).
1970 — April: CAW opens a new storefront temple. OZ does his first acid trip (at the solar eclipse, March 7); he meets Jodie Parker (April 1); CAW major participant at first Earth Day (April 22). CAW gets its IRS 501(c)(3) (June 18). OZ begins Witchcraft training under Deborah Letter at her occult shop, The Cauldron. On September 6, OZ has major Vision of the Living Earth, which he writes up as “TheaGenesis.” This is the first publication of what later becomes known as “The Gaea Thesis.”
1971 — Martha and OZ separate, later to divorce. Jodie, Bryan, and OZ travel to the East Coast for sci-fi Noreascon (Labor Day). They meet Susan Roberts, Ray Buckland, Leo Martello, Robert Rimmer, and many famous Witches.
1972 — Council of Themis dissolves due to internal dissension; Jodie and OZ attend WorldCon in Los Angeles; they meet many California Pagans, see Greenfield Ranch for the first time.
1973 — Jodie and OZ break up in the spring. OZ attends the Gnostica Aquarian Festival (Gnosticon) in Minneapolis at Mabon, as a keynote speaker on TheaGenesis. There he meets and falls in love with Morning Glory. She moves in with him.
1974 — MG and OZ are married in a huge public Pagan handfasting in Minneapolis (April 14). Isaac Bonewits and Carolyn Clark officiate; Margot Adler sings Gwydion’s songs.
1975 — On his thirty-third birthday, OZ quits his job. OZ and MG buy and fix up an old school bus, “The Scarlet Succubus.”
1976 — MG and OZ leave St. Louis for the West Coast. They end up in Eugene, Oregon. Their research uncovers the lost secret of the unicorn. Back in St. Louis, Green Egg folds. Soon, so does CAW.
1977 — MG and OZ move onto Greenfield Ranch as caretakers on a 220-acre parcel named Coeden Brith, owned by Alison Harlow. Their next-door neighbor is Gwydion Pendderwen. They form Holy Order of Mother Earth (HOME) with Alison. They begin real land-based Pagan life, transfer CAW HQ to California.
1979 — Total eclipse of the sun (February 26) over full-scale Stonehenge replica in Washington state. OZ and MG officiate at rites, along with many other Pagan luminaries. Three thousand to four thousand people attend. OZ receives new name of “Otter.”
1980 — March—first baby Unicorns born. OZ and MG’s lives change radically as they find themselves traveling to make appearances, doing Ren Faires and other appearances over next few years.
1981 — July—OZ, MG, and Bryan go on Chautauqua with performers from the Oregon Country Fair.
1982 — Doing Ren Faires all summer, MG and OZ don’t see each other for four months. At Samhain, Gwydion is killed in a car wreck—it’s the first death in the Tribe.
1983 — In the fall, taking pottery classes at the local college, OZ meets and falls in love with Diane Darling.
1984 — OZ and MG sign a four-year exhibition lease for several of their Unicorns with Ringling Brothers/Barnum & Bailey Circus. Diane and her son, Zack, move in with them.
1985 — OZ, MG, and Diane mount a diving expedition to New Guinea to solve the mystery of the “Mermaids” sighted there. On the way, they visit Australia, connect with local Pagans. In the fall, they leave Greenfield Ranch and move to “the Old Same Place.”
1986 — MG and OZ create their dream store, Between the Worlds, bringing in Diane and several others.
1987 — In March, OZ goes on a month-long pilgrimage with Belladonna to Spain, France, Italy, Greece, and Crete.
1988 — OZ, MG, and Diane resurrect Green Egg twenty years after the first issue.
1989 — March 19—MG, Diane, and OZ handfast as a triad.
1990 — CAW participates in an interfaith ritual for the twentieth anniversary of Earth Day. In the Beltane issue of Green Egg, MG coins the term polyamory. CAW begins conducting elaborate annual re-creations of Eleusinian Mysteries.
1991 — Labor Day—CAW does a major presentation, opening and closing rituals, at big Poly-Con in Berkeley.
1992 — CAW becomes first legally incorporated Pagan church in Australia. In September MG and OZ meet Talyn, Maggie, and the kids of the Songdog Family, who become a major part of their lives for many years.
1993 — OZ and MG meet Wolf at Samhain Gathering in Tennessee.
1994 — Diane quits Green Egg, and Maerian comes on board as the new editor. At Beltane, MG and OZ formally terminate their handfasting with Diane. In September, after serving as Hades in Eleusinia, OZ receives the new name of “Oberon.”
1995 — In April, OZ meets Liza Gabriel at the Craftwise Festival in New England; they begin a serious relationship. In November Wolf moves from Houston to San Francisco.
1996 — Wynter Rose moves in with OZ and MG in February, meets Wolf at Beltane. CAW board of directors (BoD) remove OZ from any control over the magazine he’d founded. In December, Liza moves to California, and Liza, Wynter, MG, and OZ all pull up stakes and move to V-M Ranch, committing to a two-year lease with an option to buy.
1997 — Wolf moves in with the others, and they all take the Family name of “Ravenheart.” MG leads Goddess tour to Greece and Crete. MG, OZ, and Wolf are handfasted as a triad, with Liza and Wynter as ladies-in-waiting.
1998 — OZ finishes creation of “Millennial Gaia” statue. In early August, OZ is “impeached” as Primate by the CAW BoD, and takes a one-year sabbatical from Primacy. MG and Wynter handfast.
1999 — Ravenhearts decide not to buy V-M Ranch. They find a new home for all Ravenhearts in Penngrove, name it Shady Grove, and support themselves with their statuary business, Mythic Images: www.MythicImages.com. In August, OZ travels with Ariel Monserrat to England and France for the final eclipse of twentieth century. The entire Ravenheart Family conducts spectacular Eleusinian Mysteries in September, with Wolf and Wynter as Hades and Persephone.
2000 — OZ convenes committee of Pagan leaders and initiates the “Papal Apology Project” to ask the Pope to include Pagans in his apology for the horrors of the Inquisition, etc. Over six thousand signatures are gathered. The Pope does apologize for “crimes against indigenous peoples.” Wolf and Wynter are handfasted in August; MG and OZ officiate.
2001 — OZ’s final year of involvement with CAW, whose BoD is increasingly hostile to OZ personally.
2002 — Board of directors tries to consolidate power, and OZ formally disaffiliates from CAW. He is commissioned by New Page Books to write book of Wizardry for the “Harry Potter generation.” OZ assembles “Grey Council” as advisory council for this project.
2003 — OZ spends entire year writing Grimoire for the Apprentice Wizard.
2004 — Grimoire published. OZ creates online Grey School of Wizardry (incorporated March 14). CAW BoD in Ohio dissolves CAW Inc. The entire CAW BoD in Ohio resigns en masse, and CAW’s corporate status reverts to California: www.CAW.org.
2005 — Liza evicts Ravenhearts from Shady Grove, and they all go separate ways. MG and OZ find a wonderful place in the Sonoma County countryside, outside of Cotati.
2006 — Companion for the Apprentice Wizard and Creating Circles and Ceremonies are both published. MG’s mother, Polly, dies on February 11. In March, MG is diagnosed with cancer. With CAW now back in California, OZ is now President of BoD, and begins total overhaul of entire structure. Granddaughter, Alessandra, born July 28.
2007 — Ariel Monserrat and Tom Donohue revive Green Egg as an e-zine at www.GreenEggzine.com.
2008 — Julie Epona becomes OZ’s personal assistant. OZ is diagnosed with colon cancer and has surgery on August 29. In October, he begins six months of chemotherapy.
2009 — Green Egg Omelette comes out in January. OZ Travels to St. Louis for Grey School Conclave and St. Louis Pagan Picnic—attended by five thousand people. MG starts offering Goddess Retreats.
2010 — OZ travels extensively as a presenter.
2012 — OZ writes an e-book in conjunction with Harvey Wasserman: Prophecy & the End of the World (as We Know It). OZ also creates definitive poster map of Barsoom (the Mars of Edgar Rice Burroughs’s “John Carter” novels).
2013 — OZ and John Sulak complete work on this autobiography and submit it to the publisher for publication in 2014.