An Open Letter to Rev. Jeremiah Bruce Lennox
From Rev. Viktoria Whittaker
We need to talk about Cathryn Platine. And the Maetreum of
Cybele (a Pagan church and monastic retreat located at 3312 Route 23A in
Palenville, NY). I’m here to address the elephant in the room regarding the
Maetreum that no one wants to talk about. It has been a year and I have thought
and prayed long and hard on this, and I am now ready to speak out publicly
about what happened at the Maetreum. By means of a legal disclaimer, what I am
about to describe is the truth as I understand it. I am prepared to swear to
this under oath if need be and should facts prove me wrong I will publicly
retract them. I can also provide
witnesses who are prepared to do the same as well as documentation. Moreover, none
of this is new information. I am simply bringing into the light was has been
long gossiped about but never publicly discussed.
For the benefit of others who are reading this, you have
associated yourself closely with the Maetreum for the last 3 years. You have
done so ostensibly as a “consultant” for the purpose of “rehabilitating” it as
both an organization as well as repairing and upgrading its physical plant in
the hopes of attracting more people and building a community there. This was a
goal that I supported until recently. I now feel that doing so, if successful,
can only lead to disaster for you and especially for any vulnerable people who
come there. You see, the only way to reliably predict the future, is to fully
and honestly understand the past. Allow me to explain:
I will begin with my own story. As you know I was elevated and ordained as a priestess there
in March 2008 and served as both Secretary/Treasurer and Battakes-in-Waiting
(Platine’s designated successor in the event of her death) among other roles. For
thirteen years, I was utterly devoted to the goddess known as Cybele, Magna
Mater (and still am), to the Maetreum, Platine, and the other priestesses
per my vows. I resided there full-time for 4 of those years and was present for
at least the weekends for the rest of the time. Over the years, I donated according
to my best estimates over $100K in cash and goods to the organization because I
loved it and believed in it so strongly. I also took out a $6000 personal loan
in 2009 to pay back taxes in order to prevent foreclosure.
In the year 2019, Platine’s heart failed and she nearly
died during open-heart surgery. After she came home from the hospital,
something changed in her attitude towards me. She began to hate me and abuse me
verbally in a way that she hadn’t before. She made absolutely NO attempt whatsoever
to discuss whatever her issue was with me and resolve it, regardless of what
she claims. Believe me, had she been open and direct with me, I would have bent
over backward to make things right, such was my love and devotion to her.
During this time, I tried my utmost to placate her, doing whatever she asked,
dealing with her emotional abuse, and trying desperately to smooth things over
until I was suffering from autistic burnout and Complex PTSD. This culminated
in what I have previously explained to you was the very first autistic meltdown
that I have experienced in seventeen years.
I was placed on involuntary sabbatical on July 3rd
of 2021. I don’t disagree with that decision, given that I was so mentally worn
down at that point I badly needed a break. However, it all went awry in the
administration of it. Although it clearly states in the separation paperwork that
I had 30 days by law to remove my possessions from the Maetreum, Platine
informed me via private message that I was only being allowed a week and that I
had to have EVERYTHING out by Sunday, July 11th and anything that
was left behind “we will deal with”. To begin with, this is illegal. My
estimate of the value of the property left behind (which includes art and
antiques) is around $12K. This potentially makes what happened to me Grand
Larceny. You may also want to remember how Platine very nearly grew violent
with me on that day when she literally threw me out of the house and you needed
to break it up.
I was then defrocked a week later at the July 10th
Conclave for things that I didn’t do. There was absolutely NOTHING that was kind or merciful about it! For the record, she told me NOT to attend
that Conclave with veiled threats. I was absolutely NOT willfully absent.
Therefore, the “natural consensus” which made that decision was in fact
anything but natural. There could NOT have been a fair debate because I was not
allowed to attend to defend myself. There can be no true consensus when
there is no debate. It’s rather ironic because even if I hadn’t been
defrocked, I had no intentions whatsoever of returning. The prior weekend, she had thrown a tantrum worthy of any toddler in front of our guests, accusing me of
following her around and “not giving her space” just when I was doing my best
to avoid her! I decided then that I was done. Just done. I didn’t fight it and
I didn’t protest. I’ve just been focused on healing and recovering over the
last year.
Think I’m being Sour Grapes because I was kicked out? Well,
I would be if my story was unique. If it was, I would happily sit with what I
had done and work on doing penance and making amends to Cathryn and the others.
By now you know me well enough to know that I am a deeply introspective person
who is not afraid to hold herself to account. But my story is NOT unique. Far
from it.
After much personal reflection and discussing the matter with many other people, I have concluded that what happened to me is merely the latest and most blatantly
egregious example of a pattern of behavior that Cathryn Platine follows like
clockwork. It goes like this:
1. 1. She meets someone new. She turns on her megawatt
charm and gets them interested in the Maetreum and what is going on there. They
become her friend and are completely dazzled by her. Love-bombing then
commences.
2. 2. She then gets the person to commit to
volunteering, donating money or other goods, or even moving in and/or studying
to become a priestess. She builds up a sense of solidarity with the new target
by sharing horrific stories about how she was mistreated by prior associates/volunteers/Maetreum
clergy. She may encourage the person to think of the Maetreum as “Your Home” as
she did with me. If the person is particularly desirable to her, she will
intensify the commitment by suggesting that she will make them her heir, which
is what happened to me and several others and what I suspect is happening to
you. There’s a term I would like you to look up: Future Faking.
3. 3. She then works to extract whatever she can from
them. When they have nothing to give in terms of money or goods, she extracts
as much labor from them as possible. She frequently manipulates and maneuvers
the person into doing things that they are not comfortable with and even to the
point of indirectly inflicting physical pain and injury. The smart and/or lucky
ones get out on their own at this point
4. 4. She becomes weary of the person, or feels
threatened by them, or jealous of them, or they figure out her scam or she
becomes too dependent upon them and bitterly resents that dependence. I suspect
the latter is the REAL reason why she discarded me and that it had absolutely nothing
at all to do with anything I actually did. She then begins the process of devaluing,
dehumanizing, and finally discarding them. This typically manifests in
presentations of hostility. They begin as subtle - coldness, insults, subtle disrespect, and other humiliation in front of others. She
refuses to talk to the person about just what her concern actually is and if
she does, it will consist of exaggerations and even outright lies. If they do
not leave on their own, she will escalate, becoming verbally abusive and even physically
abusive.
5. 5. The endgame is that she throws them out: she
yells, screams, threatens, or actually becomes violent. She will even brandish
weapons. YES, I HAVE SEEN HER DO THIS. She makes it clear that she will not respect
their rights and that she will physically harm them if they stay any longer. The
victim then rushes the move-out, leaving behind valuable and/or sentimental goods
that they would not have otherwise been inclined to abandon and frequently
regret having lost. Platine then pockets whatever is left behind and even
discards items out of spite. Chelsea Goodwin
has stated to me that she considers this to be a form of armed robbery. I can’t
disagree with that.
6. 6. The aftermath is that Platine will then continue
to abuse the victim remotely by conducting a smear campaign against them as a
way of justifying what she did to them as well as completing the cycle to win
over new victims. She does this by telling lies about them to whoever will
listen typically consisting of them abusing her. Or stealing from her. But most
of all, the victim is the one who is dangerously crazy. Not her. Never her. Another
priestess who happens to be a forensic psychiatrist then provides justification
by backing up Platine’s claims about the person’s mental health, even though
she never had any personal interaction with the victim, let alone examined them
in a clinical setting. And if Platine feels particularly belligerent, she may
even attempt to destroy their lives by making bogus complaints to their
employers, licensing boards, or whatever groups they affiliate with. She may
even make false complaints to the police about crimes that they did not commit (FYI,
knowingly making a false criminal complaint is classified as a criminal misdemeanor.
It wastes police time and resources and is considered a crime against Justice
itself. It is punishable by up to a year in jail. Just sayin'.).
I have come to identify and recognize this pattern not only
through 13 years of close association with and observation of her, but also
from speaking to numerous people about this issue. Here are a few of their
stories:
Let me begin with the story of Sage, which I am relating
with their permission: They stayed at the Maetreum part-time during the spring
of 2021. After a few weeks, Platine decided she didn’t like them and decided to
throw them out as she invariably does. I tried to talk her into just simply
making things uncomfortable enough so that Sage would want to leave voluntarily
and peacefully. Instead, she overwhelmed Sage with complaints about things that
made no sense as well as verbal abuse and threats in my presence during a house
meeting. This included assertions that she’s had to use firearms to get prior
tenants out. This terrified and traumatized Sage and they were completely moved
out in 24 hours. Believe me, this was all fresh in my mind when she threw me
out and this is why I left most of my things behind. I was completely
terrorized by Platine just as Sage was!
Second is the story of the woman from Texas (I do not have
her permission to use her real name) who resided there from September to November
2019. Remember? The one that you insisted that I Ghost? She was forced to leave when a schizophrenic charity case that we made
the mistake of taking in started a kitchen fire and then shut the kitchen door,
closing her in. This triggered an asthmatic attack that led her to the
emergency room. Ms. Texas feels certain that Ms. Schizophrenic had every
intention of killing her. I asked Platine to please remove Ms. Schizophrenic since
I felt that she had proven herself to be an active, physical danger to the
household. She opted to evict Ms. Texas instead because Ms.
Schizophrenic proved to be very adept at manipulating her (by doing things like
cooking her meals and preparing foot baths for her). Her sole income is Social
Security Disability and she spent what little savings she had transporting
herself and her pets to Palenville. She needed help returning home to Texas
where she had an offer of housing because she would have become homeless just
at the beginning of winter. She was forced by the situation Platine
created to leave her beloved cats behind. Although her fortunes have since turned,
she was living literally hand-to-mouth for the last two years and would have to
go without eating for the last week or so of each month. Platine literally ruined her life and she
still experiences PTSD flashbacks concerning her time spent at the Maetreum.
But that’s not all! During the winter and spring of 2019, a
trans and non-binary couple moved up from New York City. I’m not going to name
them, but the trans woman is the one that Platine refers to as “Rat Tranny” because
she wrongly blames her for the rat infestation that we had to deal with that
year (Do I need to elaborate on just how sickeningly transphobic and
disrespectful that is????) Platine threw them out just before she went into the
hospital. They had to live on the couch of a new friend because she refused to
allow them the full 30 days to find other accommodations. I begged, literally
begged her to at least let them stay in the 5th wheel trailer until
they could find a new home, but she refused. Admittedly, they did cause damage
to the property and were not well suited to life at the Maetreum, but no one
deserves that kind of cruel treatment and disrespect. No one.
I could go on and on with examples that I personally
witnessed. I hope that I have made the point that what she did to me when she
discarded me is hardly unique and is not even recent. It goes back even further than my involvement with the Maetreum.
During my time spent as a Maetreum Priestess, Platine made
it abundantly clear that there were certain people that I was NOT to associate
with (Which is, naturally, a big red flag right there, but I digress). Since I
am now out and on my own, there is nothing keeping me from doing so. I’ve since
spoken with more than two dozen people including former Maetreum clergy,
members, and residents. Their perspective has been refreshing. And sobering. Not
only was I informed that this pattern of throwing people out while terrorizing
them with threats of violence and stealing whatever property that they
abandoned in haste is longstanding, but I was also faced with another bombshell:
Cathryn Platine is not a priestess anymore. She was
defrocked as a priestess by the Cybeline Conclave.
Seriously.
I’ve since become good friends with her archenemy, Chelsea
Goodwin. Among the documents that she was gracious enough to give me were the
minutes of two conclaves held during 2007 as well as a signed, notarized
affidavit. It turns out that what happened during that period that Platine
refers to as “The Insurrection” was NOT an insurrection at all! What happened
was that after five years of her treating tenants and guests in the same
abusive and even violent ways, the Conclave voted her out and defrocked her.
Yes, you read that right. She was rightfully removed for abusing the vulnerable
transwomen who were staying under their roof and then stealing their
belongings.
Not only that, she was misappropriating organization funds.
This typically consisted of her asking several priestesses for cash to pay the
bills. Numerous duplicate payments were then made, she would pay the bills and
then pocket the excess. This was a pattern that I witnessed myself. At the
time, I was in denial, but now I recognize it as the pattern of malfeasance
that it is.
I can’t count how many times she would ask me to “not tell Sister
S. that Sister C. made the contribution to pay the bills” and “not talk on the
private priestess group about how much money is in the bank account”. She would
also occasionally pocket cash donations and NEVER allowed me to inspect the
Amazon and eBay purchase records, so I just dutifully recorded them as “miscellaneous
household expenses” on the Treasurer’s report each year.
Because she was voted out and defrocked, Platine had moved
out into her own apartment just up the road during 2006-2007. There was a lack
of consensus among the other priestesses about providing her housing,
but nonetheless, she managed to force her way back onto the property in the Fall of 2007. She essentially squatted in the back house and occupied it by force,
daring the remaining priestesses to call the police on her. Remember, she owns
firearms and is not shy about letting you know it.
This was around the time that I first met her and back then
I naively assumed that her actions were heroic because Platine completely misrepresented
what had happened to her on the internet as a hostile takeover by an evil bunch
of “criminal heretics” whose sole motivation was to steal the Maetreum
property. You may recall at the time there was not much in the way of social
media: there was email, blogs, Yahoo groups, YouTube, and not much else. She had
control of the Maetreum’s website and I was not acquainted with anyone who
could explain what the real story was. Apparently, the Conclave did not have
any other way to correct her misinformation and get the truth out. The truth is
that Platine is the one who staged the hostile takeover, not them. The Rule of
the Women of Cybele, when working as designed, resulted in her rightful
expulsion.
I had been under the impression that a Maetreum associate, Reverend
Jamie Hunter, gave her a copy of the key to the back house and she moved in
against the Conclave’s wishes. Jamie denies this because she NEVER had a key
and believes that Platine stole it and then lied about it. By that time, many
of the other priestesses were just so disgusted with the situation that they
quit, leaving only Platine and the few women that were loyal to her (who just happened
to live out of state and seldom visit). She later kicked Jamie out as well. I
recently reconnected with Jamie and she states that her expulsion had the same
features as mine: She was verbally attacked, threatened with violence,
terrorized, and forced to leave her belongings behind, including treasured
family heirlooms. She gave Jamie NO opportunity to remove her belongings. It was just simply, "GET OUT AND DON'T COME BACK!" Moreover, she has NO idea of just what it was that she did to
earn Platine’s ire. As bad as my expulsion was, hers was worse. Much worse. She
had nowhere to go and she was left homeless! Moreover, she and Platine were
close for a number of years and Platine was one of the people that she loved
more than anything in the world! Apart from being made homeless, she was
utterly devastated and traumatized by that rejection. It propelled her onto a
downward spiral of poverty and hard drug use that eventually landed her in prison. Although she has been
gradually building her life back up since her release, Jamie states that to
this day she STILL has PTSD-related nightmares regarding that event!
Reverend Lennox, I BEG you, out of basic decency PLEASE
REMOVE YOURSELF AND YOUR PEOPLE FROM THE MAETREUM! It is NOT safe there and
they are in potential danger! Platine is getting worse, not better, mentally.
Given that you have worked professionally with elderly people for some time
now, I’m sure you have noticed how she’s going downhill. Yes, I know that you
have a deep understanding of the physical and mental needs of seniors, but
Cathryn Platine is NOT your average senior citizen! I don’t care how adept you
think you are at managing her. You can’t control her. No one can. Moreover, she owns firearms and has made it
clear that she has no qualms about using them. Yes, I know that I belabor
that point, but I want you and any other reader to understand the potential
for violence here.
Yes, I am well aware that Platine has some very deep and unhealed
trauma issues, and I have no doubt that former associates, including myself,
may have inadvertently triggered those traumas. I have compassion for all
trauma survivors, including her, but she has completely lost my sympathy. She
has lost it because for YEARS I would try SO HARD to get her to take
accountability for her words and actions as well as agree to go to therapy. I tried to get her to understand that
she was hurting vulnerable people who did not deserve what she was doing to
them. And invariably, her response would be, “Oh YEAH? Well *I* (insert whatever
incident in her past made her feel vindicated in abusing others)”. She has come
full circle from being a victim to becoming an abuser herself because she used
her own trauma to justify inflicting it on others. At the final meeting on July 3rd when I was placed on sabbatical, you
attempted to remind her to show compassion for me when she began acting up. Let
me put this bluntly: if compassion does not come naturally to someone who is
already 73 years of age, it’s never going to come. True empathy and compassion
are just not part of her psychological makeup. Yes, she started a charitable nonprofit. I
have my own theories as to what her actual reasons for doing so are, but I am
not going to speculate on them here.
You said to me the last time we spoke in the Maetreum Temple
that if you thought that Platine was abusive, you would leave immediately.
You then invalidated my complaints of abuse in the very same breath! Several
months later, you expressed great contempt for BOTH Platine and me by saying
that we are both “horrible” and that “Only I can save the Maetreum”.
No, Reverend Lennox. You can’t save the Maetreum, because it’s
already gone.
The Maetreum died when Platine returned against the wishes
of the Conclave in 2007. Yes, she did create a system that is beautiful on
paper, but she has spent the last 20 years violating every single precept of
it. It’s no accident that she never behaves, speaks like, or even makes
an effort to present herself as a priestess. That’s because she isn’t one. She
isn’t a leader, either. Since then, she has been running the Maetreum in ways
that are, to put it kindly, selfish and unsustainable. Her actions have been
unethical and immoral at the very least, if not actual grounds for arrest. I
don’t know how I could have made it any clearer that the Maetreum’s bad name is
not simply caused by poor PR and her unfortunate online outbursts. I have
stated the facts of the situation, and I will leave it up to the reader to draw
their own conclusions about Cathryn Platine.
As I have previously stated, the only real way to predict
the future is to look at the past. I predict that if you do not leave and take
your people with you, she is going to do great harm to them, and then throw
them out. It will start with one chosen scapegoat, then another, then another, until the remaining people no longer feel safe and leave on
their own. I don’t think that you personally will be the first one to get the
ax, but I think that you will witness a great many horrible things being done
to undeserving and vulnerable people and if you have any shred of humanity in
you, your own mental health will suffer for it as mine did. Believe me, even
though I was not the direct target of her abuse for many years, watching abuse
being perpetrated against others inflicts its own trauma!
Now I’m sure your reaction to all this is, “But we are not
like you and the others! We’re better people and she would NEVER do that to
us!” No, you are no better than me or anyone else and believe me, I used to
think that I was better than those people she threw out, too. The truth is,
NONE of us knew the exact reason why she threw us out. The horrifying conclusion that I have reached is
that she just invents reasons when she has no further use for people. Whatever
harm perpetrated against the victim, or even to the Maetreum itself isn’t any
of her concern. Human beings for her are just a means to an end and are as
disposable to her as Kleenex.
“But all I have to do is outlive her and when she dies it’s
all mine! Then I’ll make it better! You’ll see!” I figure that you’re thinking
that, too. Yes, I know how rare, wonderful, and special the Maetreum of Cybele
potentially is and how you want it to be the best that it can be, but believe
me, it’s all an impossible dream. Yes, it has done some good, but under
Platine’s leadership, it has done much harm as well. And no, the good does NOT
balance out the bad – the bad has negated the good. And that is the central
tragedy and failure of the Maetreum of Cybele under Platine’s leadership.
Moreover, she has a way of managing to survive whatever life throws at her! I
stuck out 13 years and she lived to throw me out!
Think it was “hard” and “sad” when I was removed last
summer? It only gets worse from here on out. Much worse. Believe me, I know. Of
the many things that have been said to me by the many people that I have spoken
with about this, the statement that stuck with me the most was, “Viktoria, if
YOU were not safe, then NO ONE is safe!”
The only way to minimize the harm to yourself and your
people is to get out now! However, I am not suggesting that you should completely
abandon her, either. I strongly encourage you to use your influence and
contacts to get her in touch with Adult Protective Services or whatever other
organization in Greene County that serves the interests of the vulnerable elderly.
If she refuses the help, it isn’t your concern. You can lead a horse to water,
but you can’t make her drink.
Let her go. And let the Maetreum go. Leave the property to
the absentee priestesses to deal with when she is gone.
You cannot begin to know just how much it breaks my heart to
say this: it’s time to let Cathryn Platine and the Maetreum of Cybele die and
rot in peace.
Regards,
Rev. Viktoria Whittaker
An independent priestess of Cybele, Magna Mater.
P.S. If you wish to discuss this letter with me, I will insist upon
a public forum. You may do so in the comments section of this blog entry or
YouTube video. Or also in a moderated discussion on In Goth We Trust on WIOX radio.
If you turn up on my doorstep, I will turn on my phone and Livestream the
conversation. Any comment on the Maetreum Facebook page will be responded to in
my blog.
