Female

53

Director and Ritual Facilitator of Toad House & the Peace Garden.

Founder/Director of World Tree Prayer Nework

Founder/Director of Rainbow Charities, The Red Witch Tradition, Church of the World Tree, Sabbats of Sophia and the Line of Sarah.

Interview with Silverstar Red Crow,

Toad House, SRC © 2005

Artist, Writer, Indigenous Shamanic Practitioner & Reiki Master


Interviewer’s Question: Your name is heard in a variety of unusual places. So, we know the name, but little about the person. Is Silverstar Red Crow your real name?


Silverstar Red Crow: Yes, Silverstar Red Crow is my official/legal name. I earned the right for a Naming Ceremony after completing my training as a Traditional Woman Dancer with Paul Whitehead and Pauline Ricks at the Siletz Indian Reservation (ctsi.nsn.us/) in 1992. I waited one year after my “Coming-Out” Ceremony, then, a friend and Spiritual Elder, Bill White Eagle Wilson, gave me my name Silverstar. I wore Silverstar as my complete name, and yes was teased for having a single name like Cher, for 6 years, until I completed a specific term of service to the community. In 1999, I earned the right to wear my last name of Red Crow, the name of the community I facilitated in Carlton Oregon.


IQ: What is your nationality?


SRC: My mother was from the American Indian nations of the Muscogee Creek and Blackfeet, my father Norwegian. I am what many refer to as a “Beige Indian”, a mixed-blood person of high blood-quantum who is unusually light-skinned. This term is not usually complimentary in the 21st Century. I cannot recount the hundreds of times, especially as a Traditional Dancer, when strangers have approached me while I was dressed-down in full regalia and said; “you’re not a real Indian”.


IQ: What do you mean by regalia?


SRC: Regalia is the word that Indians use for ceremonial or sacred clothing. Indians use the word costume only on Halloween/Samhain.


IQ: You use the word Samhain—are you a Pagan too?


SRC: I prefer Earth-Based, inferring a tribal sensibility. I do, however, embrace the word Witch, meaning Wise Woman.


IQ: Now let me get this sorted out: you are a mixed-blood Indian, a Traditional Dancer and a European Witch?


SRC: I honor all my people, red and white. And please, do not forget that I am a Shamanic Practitioner and not of the academic variety. My Shamanic Lineage is bound in “Blood and Honor”. I practice what my parents taught me. Both my parents were devout metaphysicians, as well as professional artists and educators. Spiritual worldview and practice were paramount for each of them, this was their driving force. Discipline was paramount. My siblings and I could meditate before we could walk. Picture a line of small children, all in diapers, attempting to sit in the Lotus Position. We were read Blavatsky (www.blavatsky.net/) and Bailey (www.lucistrust.org/lucispub/aab.shtml ) as bed-time stories, coached in chanting and breath-work before grammar school and graduated to trance-work and the occult sciences after puberty. I cannot separate myself from either side of my genetic code. I have tried to live entirely in the native community on the Red Road, as I have lived in the Caucasian dominated metaphysical community. The exclusionary tactics of both amazed and isolated me, for I am a blend of both. My background has been a great blessing and a powerful source of pain. For me to feel whole and be able to teach what I have learned from my parents, my Ancestors and personal teachers, I had to develop a system of honoring one ingredient and color that all of the human family shares: blood. Don’t look like that, not in a vampiral way. To honor the specific life force that runs through all of our veins--the essence of what we all possess on a visceral level--rises above class system, ethnicity, gender and age. I carry on the ways of my people, my family, through a tradition named to honor all my ancestors: The Red Witch Tradition.


IQ: Where are you from?


SRC: I was born in Southern California, lived my puberty and teen years in Michigan and Tennessee, much of my twenties and 30’s in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Since 1990, Oregon has been home. I now live in McMinnville Oregon where I live and work at Toad House, a co-operative living and gathering space and teaching center. It’s also the home of the Peace Pole and Garden. On February 7, 2002, Toad House planted a copper-topped 20 foot lavender Peace Pole, in response to the international sounding of war drums. Toad House is actively involved in holding Sacred Space to preserve the planet, spiritually, despite the ignorance of humanity. LET US ALL PRAY FOR PEACE EVERY DAY AND EVERY NIGHT OF OUR COLLECTIVE LIFE!


IQ: That’s quite a mouthful! So, now you are adding peace activist to your long list of titles and talents?


SRC: I wear many hats and have certainly made my share of them, over the years...


IQ: Who were and are your greatest inspirations as teachers, other than your parents?


SRC: I have been blessed by three major figures who helped define who I am at core-levels. My first spiritual teacher outside my family was a man named Master Hamid Bey (www.coptic-sun.org/history.html ). He was a product of the complicated Temple System of the Old Coptics of Egypt. He was a dynamic personality who I freely surrendered my education to, between the ages of 14 and 18. He honed my skills of trance, second site, directed me in the pursuit of Oracle knowledge and taught me the importance of Karma and the ramifications of magick, good and bane. He added to my knowledge and use of spiritual protection and defense and led me in the direction of exorcism and Spirit Work.


In 1989, I met the great Mata Amritanandamayi (Amma) (www.ammachi.org/ ), while on world tour, in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She made me realize the greatest gift I could ever give myself was self-acceptance. This simple, but powerful realization led me in the direction of service and gave me the courage to continue my walk on the Red Road, regardless of the color of my skin.


Eventually, chronic physical struggle became intolerable for me. I was born with a rare diabetic birth defect that was slowly crippling my body. I had been doing energy-work for others, including the World Tree Prayer Network (in the early years known as the Pagan Prayer Network) for years, but found it impossible to ask for prayers for myself. I thought it arrogant to question The Divine in matters of Karma, reincarnation, destiny and felt my suffering must ultimately have purpose. Padre Pio, an Italian stigmatic who died in 1968, an obscure religious figure totally out of my realm of understanding or contact, literally walked through my front door on March 8, 1996 and gifted me with a healing that was so profound, I was able to reinvent my life, but again. I am here today as a direct result of the healing I received from my Spiritual Father, Saint Pio (www.padrepio.org/default.asp ). My story is documented and is on file in the Vatican, though the church calls it a healing rather than a miracle because I am not nor do I desire to become a Catholic.


These three true Masters have shaped who I am today. An Egyptian, a Hindi and an Italian stigmatic gave me the will, courage and fortitude to continue my search for Me. And many question why I am so eclectic?


IQ: You must have a wealth of stories. I must admit that some of your experiences have been unusual and I am sure to some, unbelievable.


SRC: It’s hard for me to imagine the drama of my life at times too. But, it’s not my job to convince people or change their minds or to show them the “right way”. I teach by living my life by example, being the best human I can be, and that I admit is not too grand, much of the time. I have no desire to personally shape anyone. Molding consciousness is not my job either. The individual searcher must decide what genuinely works for her, and then she develops skills to travel through life solely on her own accord. It’s a struggle to keep perspective, believe me! I am the poster child for fallibility. After all, I am the womyn who traded in her hand-beaded moccasins for strap-runners…


IQ: To switch gears a bit, do you have a significant other?


SRC: I have been blessed with significant people in my life. My dearest friend and supporter of decades, Mark Dragonfly Freeman, is a joint-owner of Toad House and is tireless in his devotion to my survival and work.

I live as a hermit-monk, grouchy and aloof to many and am shaped by my Karmic/physical circumstances. I struggle enough for 10 humans all by myself. I hope this answers your question...


I have been fortunate to have been a teacher since the age of 16, when I traveled rural school systems in Michigan, teaching comparative religion and metaphysics with my mother Sarah. A true Leo, she continues to visit my work and prod me to keep it fresh, all the way from the Spirit Realms. Thanks MOM!


I love this life, all the drama, angst, pain and the ultimate states of joy! This work is my passion and feeds my core-spirit. With help on all levels from many sources, I continue to persevere. Though my ambition and drive has dimmed over the years, my love for The Creatrix Mother is constant!

BOTTOM LINE: I am a REMEMBERER, one who remembers one's pastlives. My past is as powerful as my present and future. I live in all 3 time zones each and every day and night of my life. It's not an easy place to live...