A New Chapter for Woodpecker Hollow and The Temple of the Cybelline Trinities

This post is somewhat belated, but this is an important one.

From March 24^th through 27^th, I performed the series of spring rituals that are called Season of the Tree by certain Cybelline reconstructionists. These are Canna Intrat, Arbor Intrat, Mesonyctium, Hilaria and Lavatio. I also conducted the Mysteries on March 26^th. I put Cynthya Brynkattae and Deborah “Rennie” Graney through them.

I subsequently elevated Cynthya to the Galla priestesshood. For those who are unfamiliar with the term, the Gallae were the transgendered priestesses who served Cybele and other deities as well. In terms of my own credentials, I was elevated into Rachel Pollack’s line by Chelsea Goodwin in 2023. Therefore, anyone that I should initiate is also in Pollack’s line as well.

I have made some alterations to these series of rituals. In the process of adapting them to my own uses, I found a way to conduct them in a way that is accessible to many disabled people. I am very proud of this. I have several disabled students. Many disabled people tend to be left behind in many Pagan groups who fail to take disabled celebrants and their needs into account.

Since Cynthya is now a fully elevated Galla priestess and we share a home, our home is now a Phrygianum, which in the days of ancient Rome was the convent home of the priestesses of Magna Mater. We dedicated our home as such immediately after conducting the cycle of rituals.

We have been in the process of building our own temple group since 2022. We hold a meetup and classes for witches. We will now be opening up our rituals to the public.

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.

An Open Letter to Jeremiah Bruce Lennox

 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 3^rd 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 11^th 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 10^th 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 5^th 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. 

November 4th, 2012

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: The Maetreum of Cybele has a few rooms left for women the New Jersey/New York City area who require temporary housing due to being displaced, or for whatever reason are unable to stay in their homes, as a direct result of Superstorm Sandy. For those of you who are not familiar with us, we are a small pagan church that owns a historic inn in the Catskills hamlet of Palenville which we use as a temple, convent as well as providing charitable housing for women in need. We will be able to take single women and lesbian couples. We are LBGT friendly and welcome women of trans history. Unfortunately, we are not set up to take women with children at this time. Please contact firstchurch@gallae.com for further information.

Bright Blessings Everyone! Palenville Pagan Pride Day is fast coming up, but we still have openings for vendors and workshop presenters! If you are interested, email vendor@palenvilleppd.org or workshop@palenvilleppd.org! For more info, check out palenvilleppd.org. We will be holding our event on Saturday, August 25th from 9am to 5pm at the Maetreum of Cybele, Magna Mater in Palenville. We are located at 3312 Rte 23A in Palenville. Check out our website for directions! Admission is free with one nonperishable food item to be donated to our chosen charity, Greene County Community Action. This year, we will hold a pagan film festival as part of our event! Come check us out!

Discrimination Against Maetreum of Cybele Puts American Civil Rights In Peril

Guest Post by Rev. Cathryn Platine


Palenville, NY, USA.

The town of Catskill, New York has waged an illegal five year battle against the Maetreum of Cybele for claiming its legal property tax exemption under the laws of the State of New York and United States.

It is a struggle for nothing less than the right of all religions in America to be treated equally under the law. You do not have to be a politically aware Pagan to understand the danger to us all when government becomes the arbiter of personal belief.

The Maetreum of Cybele is a revival of the ancient Goddess traditions that long pre-dated the Abrahamic religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam that dominate the religious landscape today. Originally founded as an organized religious group in 1999 by myself — a lifelong Pagan — and Susan Davis in Ohio, today the worldwide home of the Maetreum is nestled in the Catskill mountains, in the tiny Hamlet of Palenville, New York.

The home sits on about three acres of rural land in a Catskill landmark, the historic former Central House Resort Inn. In 2002, three Cybeline priestesses and a Catholic purchased the property for use as a woman's housing collective. The property also provided a place for newly transitioned women with a transsexed history to reposition their lives. Far too many women in their situation find it difficult to support themselves and often wind up homeless.

Establishing an outdoor Temple became a priority; within three months of buying the property and Cybeline adherents began religious services. The participants formed a non-profit corporation in the summer of 2002 to manage the property, updated in 2005 under New York Religious Incorporation Law as a religion. All four owners signed over all their legal interest to the property to the newly incorporated Maetreum of Cybele, Magna Mater, Inc.

Under both Federal and New York state law no individual can profit in any manner from the property of a religious corporation so this meant this signing over of interest in the property forever barred any of us who investing in the property from ever having a return on that investment. No one has ever been employed by the Maetreum of Cybele and all our funds are separate from any individual. The flow of funds from our priestesses is totally one direction … to the Maetreum.

From that time forward the property was the official world wide home of the Cybeline revival and from day one the charitable housing continued as part of our religious mission. In the spring of 2006 the Maetreum applied for and was granted property tax exemption as a recognized church property. Later that year the Maetreum also applied for and eventually was granted official IRS 501 (c)(3) status specifically as a church and religious charitable organization. Women living at the property did so under the Rule of the Women of Cybele, a specific set of guidelines for living together as a religious community, that actually pre-dated formal incorporation by two years.

So the situation was this: the Maetreum of Cybele was legally incorporated, something the majority of Pagan faiths are not, and had legal and formal standing with the IRS as a legitimate church. This was based on a formal doctrine of faith and theology, an ongoing congregation of worshippers, and fully legal ownership of its own property. Women living at the property did so under a set of guidelines for living as a religious community of women, or were there as part of charitable housing of women who would have otherwise been homeless.

But this annoyed someone on the Board of Trustees of the Town of Catskill who then ordered the Town Assessor to deny our exemption for 2007. At that time, an attempted schism of our religion was opened by a group of transgender identified people who did not like the requirement of the religion that only fully female bodied and woman identified women could be elevate to the priestesshood. They had taken over the house and driven me out for a period of time. This was a religious schism: they continued to represent themselves as the Maetreum and continued religious services, but it failed and the original priestesses regained control of the property later that year.

Despite this, from that time forward the Town of Catskill refused to acknowledge the property tax exemption. In 2007 and 2008 I exhausted the appeals process short of filing a lawsuit. I could not find anyone who understood New York property law well enough to advise me on how to do so within the four days after the filing window closed for 2008. The filing period was very short: only thirty days. In 2009 the Maetreum again filed for exemption as it had the prior two years and once again was denied.

This time we filed legal action against the Town but were still unable to find a lawyer willing to help us do so. The court informed us that under New York law we could not represent ourselves because we were a corporation and granted us an extension to hire an attorney. That was when we discovered exactly how badly the opponents had stacked the deck.

Very few lawyers in New York will take on a tax case as it is considered a very difficult and esoteric part of New York law. We searched for months for an attorney.

The only one we could locate who actually knew that law — and willing to take our case — was barred by her law firm from doing so because they also represented the Town of Catskill in other tax matters. Eventually we found a young inexperienced social justice minded lawyer willing to take on the case.

The Maetreum of Cybele is funded only by contributions mainly made by its priestesses. We never have received outside grants to do our charitable works but funded our activities on our own. Even at a very reasonable rate, hiring a lawyer put a major crimp in our funding so we appealed to the greater Pagan community for help raising our legal fees.

We received a decent contribution from a Pagan woman in California that paid our initial legal retainer, but neither the American Civil Liberties Union (and its New York version, NYCLU) nor several Pagan legal groups could help beyond that point. So we had to get by with a trickle of funding from grass root Pagan efforts and our own internal funding to wage what had become a major legal battle.

Why is this important to anyone but the Maetreum? The Town of Catskill, from the start, refused to give a reason for denying our exemption other than a vague reference to property use. During the appeal hearing in 2009 they briefly switched tactics to claiming we were in violation of fire and safety codes and failed to apply for a "change of use" permit that actually was not added to the Town code until after we had first been granted exemption. Basically, the Town of Catskill was taking the position that they trumped both Federal and State law regarding our legitimacy as a religion because they did not approve of a bunch of Pagan women having equal standing under the law with Christian churches.

This is a pure First Amendment issue. Their attorney kept lying to the press saying this was not about our legitimacy as a religion but our land use stating we were nothing more than a housing cooperative but when it came time to actually file in court, the Town's pretrial filing was that we were a "sham" religion organized only to avoid taxes!

Our attorney suffered major health problems requiring us to hire another which, luckily, our original attorney had found for us. The Town of Catskill, knowing it did not have a legitimate case, pursued the tactic of ruining us financially by filing bogus motion after motion to keep the case from going to trial and forcing us to answer them at increasing cost to us. The Town of Catskill, by our educated estimates, has spent in excess of one quarter of a million dollars to keep us from having our exemption. In the meantime, they granted millions in tax breaks to big box stores, some demanded after the initial deals.

The Town raised their level of legal filings several times to keep the pressure on us. By the sworn testimony of one of the members of the Catskill Board of Review, we were singled out; from 2005 onward not a single non-profit had been denied exemption other than the Maetreum. Moreover, a review of the tax records showed church property after property was used as Parsonages (housing clergy only) and even a church owned picnic ground was declared fully exempt. They did this while denying our claim on the basis that several of our priestesses lived on the property!

We finally had our day(s) in court in the Fall of 2011. Up to that time we had paid in excess of US$20,000 dollars in legal fees; our current bill is an additional 12,000 that we owe right now. Trials are expensive in terms of legal fees and especially so when the opposition deliberately drags them out.

We almost certainly will win. We were told informally that we met our burden of proof in this case and had a preliminary decision the spring of 2011 that basically acknowledged we were being discriminated against. But this has left us completely broke, with almost all of our projects on hold (other than charitable housing). Right now three women are staying with us on a charitable housing basis — we have never stopped that mission.

If the willful and blatant discrimination we have suffered bothers you, know that we have always been mindful that this battle was bigger than just us. We are fighting for the rights of all minority religions to be treated equally under the law.

(This post was previously published today, January 26th 2012 at TS-Si.org)

January 3, 2012

Here’s wishing you all a happy and prosperous New Year! Once again, I have let far too much time go between blog posts. So much has happened in the past months.

We have finally had our trial. It was supposed to only be on November 16th, but wound up carrying over for another half of a day on December 7th. The first day consisted of nothing but Cathy testifying. I’m told that she did very well (since I was on the witness list, I had to wait outside the whole day). The town counsel’s entire argument and rationale for denying our exemption is that they believe we are a sham out to defraud the town. Never mind our 501(c)3 status, never mind that we have the status of a nonprofit religious corporation, never mind that we have an established theology that has been enumerated on our website for years. No, we’re just a sham. The defense strategy consisted solely of cross-examination. The town introduced no witnesses, no evidence, nothing. It was just Vincelette and on Day 2 his associate trying to knock us down on the stand, and failing. Their arguments were, shall we say, utterly absurd.

It was my turn on the stand on Day 2. We were not sure at first if I was going to be called, but given that I am the Housemother here and the only person who has lived consistently on the property other than Cathy during the years in question that it seemed impossible for me not to be called. We were worried that I would have to endure some serious, irrelevant nitpicking, but fortunately that was not the case. Although I was nervous as hell, I was told later on that I did very well. On the whole, we feel very confident that we will succeed in this, but now we have to wait another 3 months or so to get the verdict.

As for other news, I’d like to welcome some new residents to Central House. First, the warmest welcome to Kassandra and Melanie from Saugerties who moved in earlier this month. Kassie has become a novice here, finally. It’s something we had hoped for for a number of years now. They’ve been a great addition to the household.

We are also home now to three young chickens! This has been another one of our dreams was to have a flock of layer hens for our own eggs. We opted to start out with three pullets, since this seemed like the most cost-effective way to get started (i.e. no expensive incubation equipment for eggs or chicks). We got them in late October, and now they are all grown up and laying! They are a hybrid variety called Black Stars known for outstanding egg production and they have already lived up to their reputations, each giving us one egg per day. We have named them Boudicca, Sheeba and Nancy. Why Nancy, I don’t know. Cath insisted on it. I was all set to call her Jezebel. Oh well, maybe the next batch of hens will have a Jezebel. ~:>

Not long after I posted the last blog entry, I woke up one morning at 4am to water dripping on my cheek – and my room is on the second floor, mind you. This was during the week that Tropical Storm Lee hit us, and it was a several-days long, soaking rain. I cussed up a storm of my own, vowing to get the roof done if I had to haul my fat @$$ up there to do it myself! Then that day at work, I had an idea. I created an event on Facebook: Maetreum of Cybele Roofing Party for that Saturday, and it was a success! We got several volunteers and as it turns out, I didn’t have to get on the roof myself. My job was to haul heavy buckets of latex roofing goop up several ladders to make sure that the roofers were well stocked. I don’t want to get into what kind of pain I was in afterwards, but it worked! The roof is now done. YAAAAAY!!!!!!!

We also reached another milestone this fall: we’ve been painting the house. As of now, the west wall is completely done and the south-facing front of the house is now almost done. The base color is a very, very pale pink and the trim is maroon. They both look very good together and the house is now looking better than it has in years. Unfortunately, since it is now winter, we will have to wait until spring to finish it, but at least the most difficult parts of it are now done and the house is really looking good!

September 3rd, 2011

I wanted to let everyone know that we survived Hurricane Irene. There has been no damage to our any of our buildings. Even though we’ve had problems with roof leaks ever since last December’s blizzard, we had no new water damage this time. This was probably because the wind blew the water off the roof before it could seep in. We’re still in need of volunteers to help us re-seal the roof.

The rest of Greene county and even parts of Palenville were hit hard by this storm. We got six inches of rain but the mountaintop communities got twice as much! Part of Woodstock Avenue which is right near us got washed out into the Kaaterskill Creek. Part of Route 32 at Story Farms was washed away, forcing a road closure but probably the worst thing for our community to happen was the destruction of the famous Palenville Swinging Footbridge. However, some friends of ours are already working on forming a nonprofit corporation to rebuild the footbridge. That’s something that excites us greatly. The bridge was built by the people of Palenville and it should be rebuilt by the people of Palenville.

As for us, we took in three women who had lost power and water for an extended period of time. We still have room for any area women who have been displaced by the storm. Contact us at firstchurch@gallae.com with any questions and for more information

August 3rd, 2011

We finally have a trial date set for November 16th at 9:30am. For those unfamiliar with our case, we have been battling over our property tax exemption with our municipality, the Town of Catskill, since they removed our exemption in 2007 with no explanation. We have been fighting to get it back ever since. They have provided no answer to the question of why and as best as we can figure out, they want to make an example of us to any other alternative religious group that wishes to set up shop within the town borders. We are a 501(c)3 religious organization and we use the property as worship space, convent housing for priestesses as well as providing emergency/charitable housing to women in need. All of these are considered exempt uses under New York State Real Property Law. We will need to do some serious fundraising to make sure all of our legal bills are paid. If you would like to make a contribution, there is a PayPal link on our homepage, www.gallae.com.



And speaking of charitable housing, Julia, our last emergency case, has now moved on to a new home after nine months with us. We miss her and wish her well. Now we have a new girl staying with us, and she is something of a first for us in many ways. She is from Nepal, possibly the very first one in her country. She had endured threats and violence in her homeland and is seeking asylum here. With the help of the Sylvia Rivera Law Project, we are getting a good start on this process. If anyone out there has any experience with these kinds of immigration issues, please drop us a line. We would still welcome the help and advice.



Palenville Pagan Pride Day for 2011 will be held on August 27th. We still have openings for vendors and presenters. Email Viktoria@gallae.com if you’re interested. Pagan Pride Day is an educational event as well as a food drive. It gives an opportunity for representatives of various pagan paths to educate the public about their beliefs and practices. The event is from 9:00am to 5:00pm.



Here is some more mundane news about what is going on at the Maetreum. The Second floor walls and floor are finally done! I’m hoping to add some decorative molding and stencils to finish it off.



The kitchen has finally been properly organized into a workable space! This one has been plaguing us for years. The room itself is L-shaped and has always been very hard to work with. Last month, I took a few days off and Cathy and I spent them taking down and moving around cabinetry, reorganizing storage, moving the refrigerator and freezer and cleaning everything and the results are so worth it! We have also begun milling our own flour with a grain mill that Julia had given us. We’ve been milling spelt and hope to start growing it next year as a grain crop. This year we planted tomatoes, asparagus, some blueberries as well as squashes. We already have mature Chinese chestnut, walnut and apple trees as well as a blackberry patch. One day we hope to become as self-sufficient as possible.



Another very worthwhile project that is nearly finished is our library. We had long intended to turn the old tool room into a library and we are now almost done. We’ve since moved the tools into the room at the end of the ground floor hallway and removed trash. The room has been cleaned and the book cases and furniture are now in place. I have yet to organize the books as well as finish the decorations (East Indian style!). I have also ordered some special, library book pattern upholstery fabric for re-covering the chairs.

February 14th, 2011

I would like to apologize to all for not writing any blog entries for some time. This was not by accident. In recent months, Cathy’s blog entries have been used against us in this ongoing case. Although it is something we and our lawyer can deal with, I did not want to risk adding fuel to their fire and having my words used against us. I decided to continue not only because there have been a few exciting developments recently. A few days ago, the New York Times ran an article in the Our Towns column by Peter Applebome. Many thanks to Peter for a great interview and a great article! Also, many thanks to Colin DeVries of the Daily Mail and Julia Reischel of the Watershed Post and Jason Pitzl-Waters of the Wild Hunt for keeping our story out there.

It has been a very long, difficult journey for all of us, but especially for Cathryn and myself. Some well-meaning individuals have suggested that perhaps this is an indication that we are not supposed to be here. This is certainly not so. We have already long settled this with Mother that this is Her home as well as ours. She has also made it abundantly clear that there are certain issues that need to be worked out through this case, not the least of which is to temper us and make us stronger. We will never give up. Moreover, the more we discover about our situation taken in the context of the community, the clearer it becomes that this is just pure, blatant discrimination. We simply cannot walk away and let them win. No matter what the cost.

If you wish to help the Maetreum and lack the funds, here's something you can do. Start a letter writing campaign to Catskill Town Supervisor, 439 Main Street, Catskill, NY 12414 or email to supervisor@townofcatskillny.gov. Tell them what you think and spread the word far and wide please...


Here is the more mundane news of what has been happening around here: At the end of May, we went to the town Grievance hearing over our denial as we have for many years now. This time, we came with supporters AND our lawyer who read the law to them and cited case law on issues like ours. We even offered to give them a tour of the property (which they refused), but once again, we were still denied.

In June, we completed the columns that form the three gateways to the temple as well as several more benches. We acquired a cement mixer and can now build as many concrete structures as we want. This is very important to us as well, not simply because of the durability of concrete, but also because it was one of the great, technological achievements of the Roman Empire. Still, it’s not exactly easy to work with concrete, especially if you are a woman. The column sections weigh a good 150 pounds each. I regard building with concrete as a testament of faith. Ultimately, we hope to fill the temple with concrete benches as well as cast altars for the Pagan circle. We also hope to create colonnades and fountains for the grounds. (Note: what we are doing with the concrete work is legally nothing more than garden statuary and DOES NOT REQUIRE A BUILDING PERMIT)

During the past Eight months, we have provided charitable housing for a total of four individuals. The shortest stay was 48 hours and the longest has been with us for four months and is still here. She is a remarkable woman who has contributed much during her stay. She has been teaching us weaving and has introduced us to the production of kefir. Thanks to this, we will be able to make our own cheese, beer and bread in the ancient way and without commercial yeast, yet another step toward self-sufficiency which is what we have wanted for a long time.

Palenville Pagan Pride Day was held on August 28th and was a great success. We collected 30 pounds of food for our local food pantries and we had over a hundred participants. We held several rituals and workshops.

Inside the house, we are almost finished with fixing and painting the old plaster walls. We are also almost finished with putting new floor tiles in the upstairs hallway, since we have already removed the old carpet and linoleum that was underneath. We have installed some reproduction as well as reconditioned antique lights adding to the period feel. Ultimately, it’s little touches like this that we hope will truly bring the building back to it’s 1890’s look.

The telegraph office is now complete and is set up in such a way that there are two desks representing two companies, Western Union and Postal Telegraph. They can send messages to each other in demonstrations. We are still hoping to have a remote location set up elsewhere for sending and receiving messages. Our telegraph office may also appear in a documentary about telegraphy currently in production. I’ll keep all the details posted as they occur.

May 9 2010 – Our Case Update

We got our application back from the town for the 2010 property tax exemption. Once again, despite everything, they STILL denied our exemption and STILL gave us a nonresponsive form letter for the denial with the reason that changes every year and that appears to be just pulled out of some bodily orifice.

We will be still protesting our denial at the annual grievance hearing in Catskill on May 25th at 4:00pm. We are looking for a bunch of pagans to join us in a peaceful demonstration there. If you are interested in participating, please email us.

The good news is, that our attorney is moving forward with the service. Hopefully, this will be finished in our favor, soon. Another bit of good news is that we’re now all over the local as well as the pagan news! Jason of the Wild Hunt blog posted an update to our case once again. Thank you Jason, and once again Mother’s blessings to you! This week, we will also be on Pagans Tonight again. Keep your eye out for us!

Cathy has been attending several local meetings. A town meeting was held at the Palenville Fire Department with our Congressman, Scott Murphy on April 19th. Not only did she bring our legal battle to his attention, she also weighed in on how little the residents of Palenville get for our tax dollars in terms of municipal services as well as letting our feelings known on the possibility of natural gas drilling happening in our part of the Catskills. Naturally, we oppose it. One of our priestesses in Western Pennsylvania had lost two wells on her property that were contaminated by the side products of hydro fracturing. This one got on a local radio program.

She also dropped in on a town Assessment Board meeting and let her feelings about our situation be known. She also attended a Town Council Meeting and had it out with Peter Markou, the Town Supervisor over the tax exemption issue. This one made it to one of the local papers.

We have also been detailed in two articles in a new online magazine called the Watershed Post. One was just profiling us and another was about our battle with the Town of Catskill(We defy you not to harbor this kitten!). Despite a gaffe made about Salem witches being burned at the stake, it was an excellent article. Since the reporter also interviewed Nancy McCoy the Town Assessor and Daniel Vincelette the town attorney (the one who wrote that objectionable legal opinion about us), it is worth checking out to see just how arrogant and small-minded these people really are. It’s also worth noting, that this is the first time we’ve been given any notion as to just what their objections actually are. Also interesting that now it comes out when the eyes of public scrutiny are finally upon them. Fancy that.

April 17th, 2010

We finally have some good news regarding our legal case! Last week, Judge Pulver made a ruling in our favor. The case itself is not over, but we did achieve what we feel is an important victory. The town’s attorneys have focused their legal strategy on trying to get our case dismissed due to some errors we made in service. Our original attorney had told us to only serve the Assessor’s office, which we did. They countered that we needed to serve the county and the school board as well, and asked that our case be dismissed on that basis, as well as the fact that we basically started this case pro se, or basically we had to go it alone because our prior attorney took herself off the case. Although we were upset at the time, she probably did us a favor in retrospect since she claimed she was not competent in this area of New York law.



The decision was thus: not only is Pulver refusing to drop the case, he is also allowing us to amend our filing to include the county and school district, as our attorney requested. This is just in the nick of time, because we have already started to get threatening letters from the county about seizing our property by the end of the year if we are not paid up by then! Although it’s not over until it’s over, we are pretty optimistic about how things will turn out. Thus far, they have shown that they really have nothing against us other than the legal equivalent of clerical errors (which is how the judge put it). If they try to defend themselves with the real reasons for this, they will open themselves up to pretty hefty damages from a civil rights or Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act case which we are completely prepared to file and pursue if they don’t just concede and give us our property tax exemption back. Given that both the Town of Catskill and Greene County are going through a fiscal crisis of their own, it would be an incredibly foolish gamble for them to make.



As for other news around the Maetreum, we held Season of the Tree on the last weekend in March. We had hoped that by holding it the weekend following Ostara/Spring Solstice that we would have had more pagans coming. I think it did help more pagans show up, but we had a low turnout – only 7 people came. Ironically enough, the next weekend, 11 people came, including 5 people strangers who just turned up at random. Go figure. Nonetheless, it was a great Season of the Tree. Some of our new friends participated and undertook the Mysteries.



We have finished the painting work on the bulk of the 2nd floor hallway. Now the only common areas that are left still paneled are the bathrooms and the immediate hallway surrounding them, the stairs and main entranceway. We have found some nice, commercial tiles for the hallway as well, having also gotten rid of the carpet – finally! We have also found just the perfect things to re-do the ceiling. Armstrong makes these wonderful acoustic tiles just like the old ones we have – only they have been pressed into patterns matching old, tin-tile ceilings! Since we already have the tracks laid, they’ll be a snap to install; it’s just a matter of getting the money for the things.

March 7th, 2010

Cathy, Caillean and I have been doing research into the origins and history of Central House. Our research is still ongoing and we may well fill in more blanks in the future. Eventually, I would like to create a whole webpage dedicated to the history of the house but I still wanted to report on what we have thus far.

We had been told by the prior owners that Central House was built in the 1850’s and originally was a tavern. We have not found anything thus far that either proves or disproves this. It’s still a very real possibility that this was so.

In order to research a house, you not only have to look at the history of the house but also of the people associated with it as well as the history of the community it is a part of. Doing a deed search as only brought limited success, so we had to go about it through indirect means.

The hamlet of Palenville had been previously known as Three Corners and Irvingsville. It did not appear to have been called Palenville until 1859.  Even then, it had a decidedly poor reputation. It was described in an 1860’s publication as a “primitive wayside”. As of 1859, it had 18 dwellings, 2 taverns, a tannery and not much else. Even though the renowned Catskill Mountain House had already been there for a number of years and Palenville had a gorgeous view of it, its glory days were yet to come.

On an 1856 map of Greene County that showed the current landmarks and property owners, nothing was noted on the spot where Central House lies. On an 1867 map, the property owner listed in this spot was a farmer named John Harford. This does not rule out that Central House once was (or grew out of) an 1850’s wayside tavern. It was not uncommon then for farmers to make their own beer and sell it, thus letting their homes evolve into taverns.

By 1879, the property owner listed was Calvin Goodwin (1839-1917). Goodwin was a Civil War veteran (5th Heavy Artillery) and a teamster by trade. At the time there were many Goodwins living in Palenville, and to this day there is a local cemetery is known by their name. In the 1880 census, his occupation was still listed as “teamster” rather than boarding housekeeper, although he was living at this location. From this, we have inferred that Central House had not yet become Central House. The earliest mention yet found of Central House in Palenville is 1888. Therefore, we are making the assumption that the little farmhouse/tavern had mushroomed into Central House during this time. The last part of Central House to be added on was the rear wing, in which I am sitting and writing these words. It’s not much younger than the main part of the house. It probably all came together within a 10 year period.

By the turn of the last century, Central House was a very busy and popular place in Palenville. This is likely because the Goodwins made every effort to keep the place up-to-date, comfortable and yet reasonably-priced. At that time, the rooms cost $7-$10 per week as opposed to the Pine Grove, in which they cost $10-$12 per week. The Palenville Zephyr – a local paper published at the time – would list weekly arrivals to all the local inns as well as deliver some tasty gossip.

Goodwin died in 1917. Central house continued on as a successful boarding house during this time. Curiously enough, during the mid 20th century, the house passed through the hands of a number of women owners. One of these owners was the mother of our old neighbor, the late, great Kitty Garrison. Sadly, she passed away a year after Cathy and company moved in at the age of 89.

Cesare Genetelli, the patriarch of the family from Cathy and her partners purchased the property in 2002, purchased the property in 1955 and owned it until his death in 1988. The Genetelli family had run it as a boarding house and restaurant until the late 1960’s and afterward kept it for private use. After Cesare died, the property had fallen into disrepair. Cesare’s son Olindo eventually put the property on the market. He was extremely particular about it, looking for just the right buyer. After it was on the market for 10 years, he finally sold it to Cathy and the original partnership on the condition that we agree to restore the building. Apparently, he had turned down other offers – no doubt for considerably more money – from others who had wanted to tear down Central House or turn it into slum housing.

We have since made good on our promise. We have been truly *restoring* Central House rather than renovating it as all to many “restoration” jobs actually are. The original turn-of the last century linoleum floorcloths still adorn the floors of all but 3 of the bedrooms. Most of them still have the original light fixtures, although they have been rewired. The entire original footprint of the rooms remains. The original bathrooms with original beadboard stalls (complete with 1930’s graffiti!) remain. The original wooden, Victorian “fancy chairs” still adorn the porch and coffee bar areas and the original beds are still slept in. Much of the work that we had to do – barring certain updates needed for safety – was strictly cosmetic and/or finish work. After all those years the house was still structurally sound. For all the bizarre and nonsensical features on the inside which confuse even Cathy herself, the builders clearly knew what they were doing. The floors do not bounce and the stairs don’t even creak! The house was built quickly with the intent of cashing in on the Catskills tourist trade, but yet somehow the house endured.