To Trans People Fleeing Oppression in Red States

I would like to begin by saying that ever since the election of 47, I have been thinking about you and worrying about you. There are so many things to fear regarding this administration, but the lives and futures and trans and nonbinary people have always been a big one for me. Hell, concern for you all is one of the things that drew me to Maetreum and to Platine in the first place! I was there and doing the best I could as a priestess for 13 years. My advice stems from all that experience with the Maetreum and Platine. If you are now questioning whether to flee to the Maetreum, hoping to find a haven there, the short answer is: don’t. The longer answer: if you have no other options or, if it’s too late and you’re already there, I have some advice on how to survive the experience (no, not kidding) and land on your feet. 

1. Please understand that your stay there is going to be temporary, no matter what Cathryn Platine says to you. I don’t care if she calls you the Chosen One Sent by the Goddess to be Her Most Holy Successor. Yeah, I fell for that line, myself. As soon as you get there, you need to start making plans to leave. If you can leave on your own terms and your own timeline, you are less likely to be thrown out and be made homeless. 

2. NEVER LET PLATINE KNOW HOW MUCH MONEY YOU HAVE!!!! Believe me, you’re going to need it to get settled. I let her know how much money I have, and I lost in excess of $100K to her. 

3. The main house is in poor repair. Among the issues that you will have to face: The front porch roof is sagging under the weight of the solar panels. The soffits have big holes in them that have been chewed by squirrels and later expanded by raccoons. The gutters have been in dire need of replacement since before my time. Apparently, the water system is failing (and as I recall, it was fixed in 2019 or so and she claimed it would last another 20 years!). There were roof leaks and mold in the ground floor bedroom known as The Witchery, and I have no idea if that was ever properly remediated. And speaking of roof leaks and mold, this has been an issue with the back house for years! I doubt if that was ever remediated, either. We built a greenhouse and a chicken coop. They are both caving in and rotting. There is a wind power generator, but Platine made the stupid-ass mistake of putting it near a line of trees that act as a wind break, and thus rendering it more or less ineffective. Before I left, the kitchen ceiling was sagging and threatening to cave in. She insisted that it had been like that for 20 years, even though I begged her to put in a ceiling jack. Eventually, she relented when someone whom she clearly respected more than me (a man) pointed this out to her as well. Yes, we kept the place limping along for years. Unfortunately, Platine has a propensity for driving away the people who could help and refusing to apply for grants that the Maetreum would likely qualify for. I won’t comment on why. 

4. Understand that while you are there, you are her servant. You are going to need to learn to anticipate what her needs are and meet them because she may not come right out and tell you what she wants. It’s called Dry Begging. If you don’t know what that is, it’s essentially a manipulative power play in which she gets you to do something without admitting she has a need. Because having a need implies powerlessness. Also, keep in mind that if you fail to do this, she is going to write you off as stupid and incompetent. This is one of the things she threw at me in the end. And yes, it is particularly cruel and abusive if you happen to be neurodivergent. 

 5. You may well have noticed that she is offering to allow trans refugees camp out on the Maetreum grounds, rather than stay inside either the main house or back house. That tells me either one of two things: either one, things have gotten so bad inside that she can’t have anyone staying indoors or two, she has become paranoid about Covid again. Neither one of them are a good sign. Believe me. 

 6. If you are there long enough for winter to set in and she is gracious enough to let you inside, keep in mind that the house has no central heating whatsoever. There are space heaters in each room, gas heaters at certain key points in the house and a wood stove in the central parlor. Platine’s room has a gas heater and AC unit in it. It is perfectly comfortable, but your room will not be. Saving money is a lot more important than your personal comfort. And Platine’s comfort is so much more important than yours because she is sick and disabled. Or something. Point being, that you will need to deal with uncomfortable cold during the winter. The internal temperature in the main house will be in the 50’s. 

7. If you do live indoors in the main house, keep this in mind: she likes to hide her guns behind doors that are permanently propped open and in her nightstand. This list is not exhaustive, she may have other hiding places. It is in your best interest to figure out where these are. 

8. You will need to get on your hands and knees and scrub the floors. She deliberately put WHITE tiles on the second-floor hallway for that reason. I know this because I was there, helped her install them and she was very upfront about that. For some reason, she is into making people get on their hands and knees and scrubbing the floors. Or painting floors if circumstances call for it. Nope, it does not matter if you have physical infirmities. And if you really get hurt in the process, all the better. She likes that. I have come to believe that this is what she gets off on. 

9. If she starts making you the butt of jokes or humiliating you in front of others, you need to expedite your departure plans. Even if it seems to be “all in good fun,” and even if you do not feel particularly hurt or offended it’s a very, very bad sign for you. It means that she has begun the process of devaluing you which is going to inevitably lead to the discard. And eviction. And potential homelessness. Get out. 

10. If Francesca “Chessie” Tronetti comes to visit, she’s very grabby. She liked to grab at my breasts and other body parts without asking. Yes, Platine and Caillean McMahon know about this and laugh about it. They call her “The Chessbian”. Sexual assault is a funny joke to them when a woman does it. Naturally, you will get no protection or respect from any of them. You will just have to put up with the grabbiness while you are there. 

11. Also, beware of Barry Lucas of Phat Coffee Joint fame. He’s hypersexual, doesn’t use protection and is incredibly manipulative. He’s also got an STD that’s incurable (but is known to cause cancer of the penis in men, so there’s that). Just tell him to fuck off. 

12. If you do find yourself being evicted, remember one thing: YOU HAVE THE RIGHT OF 30 DAYS NOTICE, along with any and all tenant’s rights. Never mind what she says. Take her to court, and she will lose. It won’t be for the first time, either. She was successfully sued for this in Catskill Town Court back in 2007. Additionally, I have consulted with FOUR different attorneys as well as Albany United Tenants on this issue. You are a tenant. Period. The end. You have rights. Never be afraid to assert them in court. 

13. Remember most of all, she HATES trans people. She also hates cis women. Yes, this is directly the result of self-hatred, not that any of her motives for her shitty behavior matter. Read her blog entries and listen carefully to what she says. You will hear a steady stream of slut-shaming and mental health shaming against nearly all the women from her past, trans and cis alike. And remember that you are a deranged slut who is robbing her blind. What? You’re no such thing? Well, you will be in the end. Any and all females are. 

14. In an absolute worst-case scenario: you moved to the Maetreum and got kicked out, lost everything you had left and are on the streets, contact me. No, really. Maybe I don’t have my own Phrygianum (yet), but I know people who can help. 

 Please be safe and take care of yourself! You don’t deserve this kind of treatment. I didn’t either. Nor did any of the dozens of women who passed through there. I truly hope that you find a beautiful home and have a beautiful life here in upstate New York, if that is what you want.

My Take and Tales of Cathryn Platine by Cynthya Brynkattae

Editor's note: This is our first guest post from my dedicant, Cynthya Brynkattae. Her association with Cathryn Platine dates back to an earlier time than mine does. She has told me these stories and I found her perspective to be very valuable, since this is confirmation of many of Platine's actions and toxic behavior patterns. - Viktoria

 I am Cynthya Brynkattae and I am a galla, as in transgender Priestess, of the Magna Mater, the Goddess Cybele. I am writing here to talk about the times I met and encountered Cathryn Platine. I am telling the truth about what I experienced. I am doing so to show that what Viktoria Whittaker says about her is the truth. I am also writing here to warn my fellow transgender people that going to Platine is not a good or safe alternative to staying in a red state, now that Platine is trying to convince trans people to move to the Maetreum. 

 I met Cathryn Platine in the mid-2000s at a transgender spiritual gathering at Raven Kaldera's home. I can say that Platine acted as if she had to always be the center of everyone’s attention. She demanded that her constant smoking be acknowledged as a disability accommodation whenever she could get away with it. She tried to take credit for gender activism as if she had singlehandedly done what is recorded in the media as efforts by multiple people. And she treated Raven Kaldera and his wife with condescension while they worked to make Cauldron Farm accessible to disabled Pagans. 

 From the first moment I met her, Platine carried herself like she was the most important person in the room. You could just sense it in everything she said, the way she said it, her tone, the attitudes she talked. She acted like she was superior to you. As several of us walked down part of the farm, Platine smoked whenever she could, and yes, she claimed this was a disability accommodation. She told everyone this was to mitigate a chronic back problem. Her exact words were "tobacco might rot your lungs out, but it's also good for pain relief." When not around the bonfire pit or near Raven or his family, Platine was always smoking, and if you wanted to be near her, you just had to accept it and hope you stayed upwind of the smoke. 

 Raven and his family have always made Cauldron Farm accessible to Pagans with disabilities. I use a body which is legally blind, and have attended many events at the farm and have enjoyed wonderful help on anything I have needed to be able to participate equally in the gatherings that I have attended there. Raven and his family work to make their grounds open to people of all abilities. At this gathering, Raven's wife Bella used an electric golf cart to transport disabled Pagans around the farm. Platine and I got in the cart, and I will contrast how she and I treated the experience. As a proud science fiction geek, I took being on a powered vehicle in a forest as an opportunity to pretend I was Princess Leia on Endor, and having the time of my life. Platine, on the other hand, spoke with haughty condescension to Bella, acting like the Kalderas were not equals, but more like she would expect a valet to take her to her hotel. That attitude was there whenever I saw her near Raven and Bella, and Platine seemed to be skating the razor's edge of observing hospitality. That was apparent even in the tiny bit of getting taken via the cart to our respective campsites, and it was like that the whole weekend. 

 Considering what I have heard from many reliable people about how Platine has acted as a leader of the Maetreum, I find one moment very telling. During a workshop discussion around the fire, we were all asked what we considered the biggest problems facing the transgender community. Platine instantly chimed in with, and I quote verbatim, "self-appointed leaders." I feel this bears on my experience with her after this gathering, and what I've heard of how she herself has behaved in the role of community leader. 

In addition to trying to always be center of attention, Platine was all about the name-dropping. She held forth about the activism she claimed to have done on behalf of the Lipscomb family. That family had been in the public eye because their transgender daughter had been taken from them. I know of the case from the media attention the story had received as many transgender activists and organizations had weighed in on the story. Platine made it sound like she pretty much was the advocacy and activism, even though I knew, even without knowing any of the people involved personally, that this could not be the truth. 

 When she heard that I was a friend of Stonewall Rebellion fighter Sylvia Rivera, Platine latched on to me. She claimed to have been close friends with Sylvia, and made sure to exchange contact information with me, and asked me to contact her at a later time. Several months later I contacted Platine on AIM (AOL Instant Messenger), reintroduced myself and asked her to tell me what she could say about Sylvia. I was shocked to hear a Gish gallop slam-talk attempt to tear my friend's character apart. I knew Sylvia during the last two years of her life. Sylvia saved my life when I was suicidal because of how I was being mistreated for being a transgender woman. Sylvia was badass and didn't take any crap, and never minced words, and was also good and kind and caring. She took me on as an adopted niece and made me feel I had an older Auntie who nurtured me when I needed to be nurtured in coming into my sense of myself and my gender and my power. The picture Platine tried painting was to try making Sylvia out to be the opposite of the friend I knew. Platine claimed Sylvia was deceitful and shady, claimed that she made up stories to impress people, and changed who she was to fit the moment and so she could one over on other transgender people. She practically made Sylvia out to be a con artist. I know all this to be patently untrue. Sylvia was the opposite of deceptive. She got into trouble for being too honest, for being unwilling to tolerate lies and deceptions. She was the most blunt and plain-speaking person I have ever been lucky to know. She would tell you if your stuff stank, and she would tell you if you were doing the right thing. To hear blatant untruths told about my late friend and mentor disgusted me. I coldly thanked Platine for her time as I ended the conversation, and made up my mind to forget I ever even met this person who trashed Sylvia. 

 Since writing the first draft of this blog entry, Platine has been interviewed on Blogspot on The Heroines, and there she is suddenly saying glowing things about Sylvia and Sylvia's activism. I consider this sheer hypocrisy on Platine's part, as her behavior with me on AIM belies any praise she said to The Heroines. The interviewer calls Platine a colleague of Sylvia's, and Platine talks about her as if about a friend. No friend or colleague would talk about someone the way Platine spoke to me on AIM about Sylvia that night. I have heard Platine's claims that Sylvia was going to move to the Catskills with Platine's help had Sylvia survived her battle with cancer. I knew Sylvia during the final years of her life and spoke to her at least once a week. Never, not once, did Sylvia ever speak of Platine. She never said a word to me about leaving the NYC area where her life and activism had been centered, nor of going to the Catskills. And the dates do not jibe properly. Platine did not have access to help anyone move to Palenville until the literal last days of Sylvia's life. Platine and the people she was working with did not buy the Central House of Palenville until January 2002. Sylvia Rivera died on February 19 of 2002. When it comes to this story of Platine's, the dates and math just simply do not work. 

 In that interview in The Heroines, Platine also says much about having been a founding and crucial member of NTAC, the National Transgender Advocacy Coalition. I was involved with NTAC for over three years between late 1999 until summertime 2003. I helped proofread, correct and sometimes even wrote press releases for NTAC. While I came into NTAC after they had clearly been active for some years, I can honestly say that never, not once in those three-plus years, did I ever hear the name Cathryn Platine said by anyone. I worked directly with Vanessa Edwards Foster and Ethan St. Pierre, and neither one ever mentioned Platine. 

 I had not thought of Cathryn Platine in several years. Imagine my surprise when I opened my Facebook messages to find a two-line poison-pen couplet in my back messages. I quote the message, which I still have, verbatim. She wrote, "I saw some fairly nasty comments about me by you several years ago. I haven't forgotten that." I listened to my screen reader repeat these words, and all I could think was, what the bleep? That AIM chat was in something like 2007, and this message's time-stamp puts it at August 10th, 2010. Not only had Platine made up a lie that I had said anything at all about her anywhere, let alone written any public comments attacking her, but she had waited three years to throw this into my private messages. 

 I have gotten to know Viktoria for several years, and she is good, kind, caring, and an amazing Priestess. I have had to see and hear and feel her anguish as Cathryn Platine has tried to destroy her reputation both as a person and as a Priestess. I have had to see Viktoria hurting because Platine has used her blog to tell blatant, absurd lies about my friend. 

 Now, Platine has used her blog, her BlueSky, and other places on the internet to try convincing transgender people to come to the Maetreum so they can flee right-wing attacks on trans rights in red states. I had to have a friend who speaks Doomsday-Prepper-speak to translate some of the blogspot postings to understand the framing of herself as the sole savior of trans people from Trump's second term. Consider what I have said here. Considering how she acted toward Raven Kaldera and his wife. Consider how she slam-talked a transgender icon I was fortunate enough to get to know. Consider how she attacks a woman who broke her butt to support the Maetreum. Other people have all told similar stories about Platine's behavior. As a transgender woman and as a Galla Priestess, I cannot in good conscience stay silent knowing that my fellow trans people might go to Platine. I cannot let my people go from a frying pan into a fire.

On Resurrecting A Dead Blog

After some long and careful thought, I have decided to resurrect this blog. I would have preferred to leave the Maetreum of Cybele in the rear-view mirror of my life, as everyone who has passed through there has done. Unfortunately, I do not have that luxury. There are several reasons why. First, because as long as Cathryn Platine is still attempting to recruit vulnerable trans people who may well be fleeing for their lives from persecution in red states, I cannot remain silent. I do not believe that the Maetreum of Cybele, Catskills Phrygianum is a safe environment for trans people, or anyone else for that matter. I covered the reasons for my concern in a prior entry: An Open Letter to Jeremiah Bruce Lennox. 

Second, given that I was Platine’s second-in-command/heir apparent, I was deeply involved in the organization and heavily promoted it for thirteen years, I feel a moral obligation to continue to speak out. Indeed, I was informed by a credible source that Marina Brown, one of the original four owners of the Maetreum property, credits me personally for the Maetreum’s continued existence. It was her opinion that the Maetreum likely would have folded years ago, had it not been for my involvement, financial investment and downright obsessive promotion of the place. So then why, if I loved it so much, am I now saying negative and critical things about it? And why, if I now claim it is so horrible, did I stick with it for all that time? These are excellent questions, and I absolutely will address them in future blog entries. 

Third, some things are just so awful and so egregious that they cannot and should not be ignored and forgotten about. My own life was turned upside down, and I could have very easily lost my career and livelihood due to the sheer maliciousness and malevolence of these people. Moreover, I was far from the only one. And for that reason, more than anything, is why I am still here blogging about the Maetreum when I have so many better things to do with my life. 

Fourth, I want to help give cult survivors a voice. My experience with other people since leaving the Maetreum has been positive overall, and I have been touched and overwhelmed by the support that I’ve gotten. Nevertheless, I’ve also run right into a lot of ugly and inaccurate stereotypes and misunderstandings about cult survivors. I want to rectify these. I have also decided to take the blog in a slightly different direction: I am going to open it up as a community space for honest discussion and debate about the Maetreum. I want to emphasize that this is NOT an attack on the Maetreum! Unfortunately, Cathryn Platine is invariably going to regard anything shy of fawning praise as an attack. It’s the nature of the beast, and I’m just going to have to live with it. Accountability and honest discussion are only to be feared by those with something to hide. 

I will accept submissions for guest posts. There are going to be some ground rules, though: 

    1. Email them to me, viktoriawhittaker@gmail.com, with the subject line: Gallae Central House Blog Submission. 

    2. I will accept all perspectives on the issue, positive, negative, and anything else. This is with the caveat that if I disagree with what is said, I will make clear what my objections are. And of course, community discussion in the comments from all perspectives is encouraged. 

    3. I will put a disclaimer on any such submission indicating that the views expressed in said piece that they reflect solely the opinions of the author and do not necessarily express mine. 

    4. I will censor the names of any third parties mentioned unless I have written permission for them to be used. 

    5. I will accept submissions from anyone. This includes the other Maetreum priestesses: Caillean McMahon, Francesca Tronetti, and Susan Davis. The only person whom I will NOT accept a submission from is Cathryn Platine herself. There are a few reasons for this. First, she has her own blog and her own platforms. Hell, she’s got her own goddamn radio station! Yes, I am aware that she has been using said platform to spew vitriol at me for the last two years. Second, whenever she steps into a debate, she attempts to completely control the narrative, and if she cannot, she angrily storms off like a petulant child. You just can’t have a conversation with someone like that. And that is the reason why I have been ignoring her blog for the last few years. I will not allow myself to get reeled into an unproductive discussion with a dishonest interlocutor who never intended to fight fair. 

    6. I will make submissions anonymous if the author wishes. 

    7. As a final note: NO ONE IS OFF LIMITS. I plan to hold EVERYONE who was involved with the Maetreum who behaved in abusive and unethical ways to account. As terrible as Platine was, she does not and never has operated in a vacuum. She has had supporters and enablers who kept her going. To my great regret, I was one of them for far too long, and that accountability and honesty apply to me as well. I hope to get an honest conversation about the Maetreum going on here. 

Based on what I have seen on online forums regarding Palenville, it seems like there is very little factual information out there, and too many of the Palenville community groups shut down discussion of the Maetreum and its place in the community, if there even is one! One day, I hope to share happy memories. Unfortunately, for me, for now, all my memories of the Maetreum are tainted with bitterness. Just how do you get past betrayal trauma, where people whom you loved and trusted not only stole from you but tried to actively destroy your life? I wish I had an answer.

Update On Me

Time flies. 

It has been nearly four years since I last set foot on the Maetreum grounds, and things could not be more different. 

 A year ago, my husband, Gary, and I divorced. (As an aside, he is most assuredly NOT a millionaire. I should know. I divorced him!) I bought my own home with the proceeds of the divorce. It’s a small cottage: 2 bedrooms, 750 square feet, and half an acre of land. I don’t need much more than that. My home is the only house that was built on a street that barely exists off the drawing board. Most of my street is still just paper street and is surrounded by paper streets. I like it that way. 

Although where I live is technically in the ‘burbs, my home is a little oasis of woodland. I live in a hollow that I call Woodpecker Hollow. Just simply because it’s a hollow that’s full of woodpeckers: pileated, red-bellied, Downy, and Hairy as well as Nuthatches and Northern Flickers. They say goodbye to me when I leave and are the first creatures to welcome me back home. I don’t just have woodpeckers here, though. I’m also home to a mated pair of hawks and am visited by owls, especially during the winter months. I have heard the calls of Great Horned Owls, Screech Owls, and I have seen a Barred Owl. It isn’t just birds, although even the little songbirds who visit my feeder are curiously unafraid of me. 

There is a creek on my property which acts as something of a wildlife superhighway. I am regularly visited by deer. There is a family of beavers who have made their home on my creek. There is also the usual wildlife of groundhogs, skunks, and possums. Last autumn, I was also visited by a mother fox and her kits. Bats also roost in the concrete fill that litters the hollow: a failed attempt to build over it prior to 1935, which, ironically enough, created the perfect habitat for them. My woods are also home to wild honey bees and fireflies. Oh, the fireflies! Last summer, I saw more of them in my woods than I ever saw in the Maetreum woods! I get to watch it all from my deck. I decorated it with all kinds of fairy lights, colorful furniture, and woven outdoor mats. Unfortunately, it’s only seasonal. I can’t wait until the weather gets warm and I can chill and entertain people on my deck! 

My indoor space is chock-full of books, colorful baskets, plants, wall masks, psychedelic art, bottles, and throw pillows. Lots of throw pillows. Because throw pillows are cozy and make me happy. I live with my two cats: Squishy, my grey tabby lockdown kitten, and Violet, my tortoiseshell girl who was a stray on the Maetreum grounds and was formerly known as Rooftop Kitty or Two-Face. I also have a housemate named Cynthya Brynkattae. She is a legally blind transwoman. She likes to say that I rescued her from Long Island. I suppose I must have. Because of her disability, she was essentially stuck living with family. Since she has moved in with me, she has been able to proceed with her physical transition as well as learn life skills like cooking and cleaning. With the help of organizations such as NABA and the Commission for the Blind, she is finally gaining some life functionality. We have hope that soon she can get an actual job and build her own life. I am extremely proud of her. 

I am continuing to produce my radio show, Viktoria’s World of Metal. Currently, I am with WCAA-LP in Albany. For a time, I also produced it live at WIOX in Roxbury. It is now available once more through the Pacifica Network’s Audioport database. 

But what I am most excited about by far is my own continuing ministry. Thanks to Chelsea Goodwin, I have now been initiated into Rachel Pollack’s line. Pollack herself was practicing the Rites of Cybele as far back as the mid-1990s, well before Cathryn Platine ever did. That, however, will be the subject of a future blog entry. For the last two years, I have been conducting the rites every new and full moon with a small group of celebrants, many of whom are former Maetreum people. We also hold a monthly brunch at our home as well as a monthly meetup at a venue in Durham. I have also conducted classes, particularly teaching magic to blind and other disabled pagans. Both Cynthya and I have been ordained through the Universal Life Church. This, in and of itself,f may not be something to write home about, but it is how Cathryn Platine and Jeremiah Bruce Lennox got their start. When I was at the Maetreum, I was the only priestess in residence who was a practicing Sibyl. So, to is Cynthya. She is far better at it than I am. She is my dedicant as well as a proud Maenad Galla. I’m very excited about the future.