Gryphon

Gender:

Age:

Birthdate:

Sun Sign:

Location:

Male

40

12/13/1966

Sagitarius

Salsbury Mills, NY

PERSONAL HISTORY

  I was born the third child of three into a loving average middle class family.  Pagan author

Scott Cunningham once joked that he believed he was the only Pagan born into a happy

functional family...  I too shared that blessing.  From my mother I learned to cook and think

for myself.  From my father I learned to build and work with my hands.  My brother and sister

were two of my closest friends.  The majority of my formative years were spent in a small rural

community in southern Ohio.  While I did have a number of close friends, I most definitely

stood out among the locals.

  I married immediately after high school... too young.  While Cassandra and I shared many

good times that remain fond memories to this day, our troubles began early and ended our

marriage a mere five years after it began.  That ending was a life changing transformation for

me.  It was a hardship that served to make me stronger and laid the foundation for the man I

have become.  The great accomplishment of my first marriage was my son, Justin, born

November 20th, 1986.  Today he is a fine strapping young man that I have become rather

proud of.

  The eight years that followed my divorce was a time of personal discovery.  Having gone

from living at home to marriage and fatherhood, I never had a time to myself.  I worked for

various employers, embraced diverse lifestyles, and shared several relationships.  During

that time of my life I lived in three different semi-communal group situations.  I learned much

about community dynamics, family interaction, and human behavior... I would not trade those

experiences for the world.

  In late 1998, I met a vibrant woman who captured my heart and imagination.  As 1998

passed into 1999 and we toasted the new year with champaign and strawberries, Damiana

asked me to marry her...  I said yes.  She and I were handfasted in February of 1999 and

later legally married in October of 2001.  As the 7 years of our marriage passed, we both

learned a great many things about life.  During the middle months of 2005, Damiana and I

mutually decided to part ways for our life goals and outlook had grown vastly different.

We remain good friends.

  With my life passing into a fiery crucible of change once more, a caring and beautiful

woman from NY, known to my heart as, MaiChan, befriended me.  In short order a deep

connection was recognized and what I had thought was closed to me forever opened again...

I fell in love.  Without going into details which are too personal, I honestly and proudly proclaim

that she saved my life.  The next several months were an incredible mixture of memory,

passion, tears, heartache, commitment and family.  In May of 2006, I moved to NY to live

amongst my "Legal Nonconforming" polyamorous family of 7 adults and 4 children.  I have

never felt happier nor more at home.

SPIRITUAL BACKGROUND

  My birth family is, without question, Catholic.  My late Grandmother on my Mother's side was

one of those Catholics that believed no matter how virtuous and devout a Catholic you were,

you were probably going to burn in Hell anyway.  However, before I was born, my Mother

became disillusioned with the Church and began to seek spiritual answers of her own.  She

has since returned to the Catholic faith, but her journey has left her with an open mind.

Fortunately, I was raised in a house where I was encouraged to seek my own spiritual truth.

My family still attended Easter and Christmas Mass and from these I have developed a

strong love of ritual.

  From an early age I was attracted to all things fantasy and myth.  I was fascinated by

stories of magick and mystery.  In my middle teens I read the family Bible.  I was not drawn to

the life of Jesus, but to the deep mysticism that is woven into the Bible.  I knew then that

there were mysteries beyond our material world and I would not be satisfied unless I pursued

them.  I read everything I could find regarding magick, ghosts, witches, the Occult, etc.

Unfortunately, Lancaster, Ohio of the early 1980's was not a particularly open minded community.

  At the age of 16, a new girl came to my high school that claimed she and her family were

Witches.  I befriended her and listened to all she had to say.  Sadly, our friendship only lasted

a few months.  It seemed the community would not tolerate openly Pagan peoples and they

were forced to move away.  A sad state of affairs given the modern age we are supposed to

live in.  My heart sank when she had to move, however, I now had a name for the way I felt

inside... Witchcraft.

  Over the next few years and during my first marriage, I was fortunate to meet and / or

correspond with a number of personal teachers that shared with me their spirituality.  I am

eternally grateful to these folks for without them I would have surely been lost.  Also during

this time, I, Cassandra, and some close friends slowly built an eclectic Pagan circle we

affectionately named, "The Horde".  The Horde would live on after my divorce and eventually

spawn two other official covens.

  After my divorce, I plunged into the Pagan community and served on the Outreach

Council of the P.C.C.O. (Pagan Community Council of Ohio).  With the P.C.C.O., I became

involved with the planning of various Pagan gatherings in and around central Ohio.  While I

do not remain associated with the P.C.C.O., I credit them with providing me the opportunity to

work with and learn from some very delightful and spiritual Pagan peoples.  Among the

peoples that I met during that time were two mentors with whom I apprenticed and learned

much about ritual magick and spiritual tradition.

  After Damiana and I were handfasted, we began to long for a Pagan family of our own.  I

also began to feel called to teach... to give something back to the community that so readily

fostered me.  Over the next three years, Damiana and I founded and organized a coven

named "Order of the Cauldron".  Eventually, Cauldron started to grow in directions that did

not fit the lifestyle that Damiana and I are comfortable with and so we left the coven.  I am

proud to say that some very loving and lasting friendships were formed from Cauldron 2 and

that some of those folks still gather to celebrate the Sabbats.

  The next stage of my spiritual development was an introspective hiatus.  Something

deep inside me had begun to coalesce... awaken.  In a series of what I can only call

synchronicity and epiphany, both Damiana and I were led to House Kheperu.  There we

found a spiritual gathering of ancient familial ties.  Flooded with memory and discovery, I

had found the core of my innermost self... I was a Kheprian Warrior/Priest.

  Embracing this part of myself was not limiting as other religio-magikal paths had been

for me.  My return to the Kheprians liberated me and opened me up to possibilities I

would not have dared even imagine prior.  Since (re)joining my Kheprian family I have explored

the Left Hand tendencies that have always followed me in the shadowy recesses of my mind.

On this Left Hand path I have both explored my Warrior roots and sought/developed my own

ritual tradition of apotheosis.

LIFESTYLE

  Throughout my adult life I have experienced various lifestyles.  Living in communal

situations during most of my twenties gave me ample opportunity to be exposed to much of

what society would call "Alternative Culture".  As many people trying to find themselves do, I

went through a number of phases in an attempt to define my own being.  Many people look

back at their experimental stage of life with contempt and try to put it behind them and forget.

I look back with wonder and hold dear every bit of it, for it has helped make me the person I

am today.  I believe that one cannot learn by forgetting.

  Over the last twenty years I have experienced loving, emotional and physical relationships

with both men and women.  I have embraced the extremes of natural living and industrial

culture.  I have been Grunge, Cultured, and Goth.  Please do not think that just because I do

not continue to be something I have been that I think it any less valid a lifestyle.  Life is an

ever changing process of growth... any less than that would be stagnation.

  Today, I am a conglomerate of all of the above.  While I am involved with a beautiful

woman, I consider myself to be bi-sexual.  For me, gender is not a barrier to love.  While I am

philosophically polyamorous, I am solely and happily committed to my partner.  MaiChan is

married to a remarkable man and involved with other members of our strange but wonderful

family.

   Professionally I am a guardian/warrior.  Fitting this aspect into the modern world of bills

and paychecks is often difficult.  However, I have found my outlet in the field of Private

Security.  The battleground my soul longs for has become the landscape of my innermost

self.  Self discipline, honor, professionalism, duty, etc. are my weapons and armor.  The

unique challenges each day on the job present are the enemy I vanquish.

PERSONALITY

  I am a man of honor first and last.  I do not believe so much in good and evil... but in a

code of ethics which embrace the eastern philosophy of "Right Action".  I am a thinker first

and a do-er second... I am not one given to impulse.  While I attempt to be diplomatic, I often

do not hesitate to speak my mind.  I can have a quick temper toward ignorance and

inefficiency.

  Despite my dark and sober exterior, I really am an emotional person with a great

depth of feeling to offer.  I value my close friends and would protect them with my life.

Politically, I am a liberal on the small scale and a conservative on the large scale... I believe

that only through a balance of both can a society be healthy.  I am a warrior, poet, priest,

and philosopher... truly, a modern Samurai.

  While I prefer the close company of friends by candlelight to the bustling atmosphere of

parties, I am not want to turn down such invitations.  I enjoy many types of music including

classical, some hip-hop and rap, some (but very little) country, grunge rock, heavy metal,

industrial, and techno... however, I believe that music reached it apex of perfection in the 80's.

  I consider myself a member of the Gothic sub-culture... vampires, leather, fetish, BDSM,

tattoos and the like.  I have a great love of science fiction... old, new, cheesy, and well done.

I also enjoy westerns, classic movies, role playing games, and a good beer from time to time.

  Well, there you have it... the readers digest condensed version of me.  If you have made it

this far, I thank you for taking the time to get to know me a little.  If you still have questions or

would just like to make contact with me for any reason, please feel free to go to the contact

section and send me a message.  I promise to respond to everyone.