Green Egg
Green Egg, one of the oldest periodicals serving the contemporary
Pagan community, dates to 1962 and the formation of
a water brotherhood by Tim Zell and Lance Christie, both
students at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri. They were
inspired in part by the description of a religious group in Robert
Heinleins science fiction classic, Stranger in a Strange Land.
They called the brotherhood Atl and issued an information
newsletter, The Atlan Torch. Shortly thereafter they transferred
to the University of Oklahoma and the Atl became the Atlan
Foundation. The Torch was transformed into The Atlan Annals.
In 1968, following his graduation, Zell relocated to St.
Louis, Missouri, and the foundation again transformed this
time into the Church of All Worlds (the name of the group in
the Heinlein novel), and identified with the emerging Pagan
movement. The Atlan Annals was discontinued and superseded
by the Green Egg. The first issue was but a single sheet reproduced
on a ditto machine. Over the next decade it grew into
an 80-page magazine issued eight times annually and circulated
freely as the organ for the expression of the diversity within
the community. Numerous debates were fought out on the
pages of its extensive letters-to-the-editor column. The Church
of All Worlds prospered until 1974, when Zell retired from
leadership and moved to rural northern California. He left the
Green Egg in charge of the church members and it was soon discontinued.
Through the next decade the church almost dissolved.
In the late 1980s Zell (now known as Otter) began to revive
the church and in 1988 the first issue of what would be a new
series of the Green Egg appeared on the 20th anniversary of its
initial issue. It quickly regained its position within the Pagan
community and in 1991 won the Silver Award from the Wiccan
Pagan Press Alliance as the Most Professionally Formatted
Pagan Publication. Adopting the professional look available in
the 1990s for desktop publications, it has continued to improve
in quality and became one of the first Pagan periodicals to be
generally distributed first through the network of metaphysical
bookstores and more recently into the chains of secular bookstores.
As of the end of the 1990s, Green Egg is a 72-page bimonthly
publication reflective of the beliefs and practices of the contemporary
Pagan Goddess-oriented world. Most recently, Maerian
Morris has succeeded Zell, now known as Oberon ZellRavenheart,
as editor. Each issue contains a set of feature articles,
generally grouped around a single theme. Space is also devoted
to issues being discussed within the Pagan community,
poetry, and several columns. The magazine still features the
Forum, its extensive letters-to-the-editor column.
Green Egg is published at 212 S. Main St., Ste. 22B, Willits,
CA 95490. It has a website at httpwww.greenegg.org.
Sources
Green Egg. Willits, Calif., n.d.
Green Egg. httpwww.greenegg.org. February 28, 2000.
