Lady Pope Giggles the Trillionth

We are taking a break from our regularly scheduled program to bring you breaking news: the new Lady Pope had her debut in San Francisco on March 16, 2013, to coincide with the San Francisco celebration, Beware the Brides of March.

Lady Pope Giggles the Trillionth

Pope Lady Giggles was on hand to bless the brides, have Interfaith dialogue with her fellow spiritual leaders, and gift blessings of revolutionary creativity and magic on anyone who would listen. Great fun was had by all.

Back in my early 20's, I developed a character called the Rev. Miss Myrtle Motivation. She would show up at rock shows and local events around San Francisco and would preach the world of love and creativity. Embracing her as a part of myself, lead me to embrace my true path as an Interfaith Minister and it lead me to going to seminary and being ordained at the Chaplaincy Institute for Art & Interfaith Ministry. After that, I became a "real minister" and I started to lose track of the wild, creative, passionate street preacher I once was.

Interfaith Brides of Marchin'

When I decided to become Lady Pope for a day and walk the streets of San Francisco with my fellow revelers, I had my own revelation - I need to return to my creative, wild street preaching roots. I loved being out on the streets and giving blessings to those who asked for it and taking photos with Japanese tourists. It was so fun to connect with so many strangers and remind them that their spirituality can look however they want it to look.

I think it is RIDICULOUS that we have not yet had a female Pope (except for Pope Joan!). I have been a spiritual leader for over a decade and have worked with amazing women from so many different faith traditions - for anyone to say that a woman cannot lead because of the sex she was born with is completely ridiculous.

My 6'9" husband in his hand-made wedding dress.

With my own Lady Pope costume, I wanted to bring in the Goddess and all her ancient influences on the Catholic church (of which there are many!). It would have been great to have some snakes around me, since it was also St. Patrick's Day and the "banishing of snakes" is absolutely about the "banishing" of the female spiritual power. The oldest Goddess religions of Europe figured snakes prominently and so many important spiritually-empowered stories about women and their power were lost forever:

The myth surrounding St. Patrick's fame runs along the lines of his banishing of snakes from the island nation. However, snakes have never called the emerald isle home. It is an often-misunderstood metaphor for the Irish patron saint driving out the pagans. Serpent symbols were often worshiped by pagans, such as the Druids at Tara, who St. Patrick is said to have baptized.

So what does this all mean for me? Only time will tell. I'm going to keep listening and honoring my deep, playful, spiritual, creative spirit. It is a journey!