Twilight Crossing
Proposed Charter
19 June 91

Twilight Crossing is a network dedicated to assisting its members
in the pursuit of their artistic and spiritual satisfaction and freedom.

0. Legends

A.  Thirty centuries ago, dark crossroads were haunted by Hekati, earth
goddess (or demon) of magic and sorcery.  Hekati was far older than the
"classical" gods of the Greeks.  She was one of that band of primeval
deities known as Titans who were deposed by the patriarchal conquerors
of the Grecian lands.  The myths were rewritten to parallel politics:
the Titans were cast down from Heaven to the pits of Tartarus by Zeus,
the God-Father, the victorious King of the invaders; yet Hekati had
always lived there beneath the ground.  Alone of the Titans she retained
her status in later myth.  Of the elder goddesses of the region, she was
one of many retained by the invaders, but the only one not reduced to a
pretty ankle and a breeder.  Every home in Athens was fronted by an altar
to Hekati: her worship was strongest in the Greek city-state with the
smallest amount of centralized control and with the least power given
over to a King.

B.  Ghost-herding Hekati, with her hair wound with snakes, dogs howling
about her heels, and a guttering torch borne in one hand, represented a
vital current of underworld power too strong for the force of arms to
suppress.  Her old Colchian sorceresses, Medea and Circe, became oddly
sympathetic villainesses: their old herbal drugs were fermented to
poisons, their sex magics were retold as child murders, their
shamanistic animal transmutations were reduced to spells that waylaid
careless adventurers; yet as a token of "respect", each became the
lover and helpmate of great heroes -- Jason over Medea, and Odysseus
over Circe.  Hekati's great sorceresses were thus degraded more than
the goddess herself.  In the West's Middle Ages, these legendary
sorceresses became the models of those most feared women, the witches,
and Hekati was degraded to their unholy Queen.  Those dead who were
refused the sacraments were buried at crossroads, where once sacrifices
to Hekati were held.  And all without any change in their basic
attributes, representing those qualities sacred to paganism which
despots abhor in any hands but their own :-- will, beauty, immortality,
knowledge, power, mystery, ecstasy, love.  In middle Christendom all
these became crimes.

C.  In middle and modern times, this current of dark power has come to
be known as "Satanic" by analogy to Satan, the chief demon of the
monotheistic triumvirate.  Like Hekati, Satan represents the underworld,
sorcery, and opposition to the ruling gods.  Satan's name is the Hebrew
word for "enemy"; he is identified with the Serpent that brought
humanity to ruin, and in legend he was cast down to Hell from Heaven.
In the Zoroastrian religion a similar devil was known as Ahriman, a
name which also means "enemy".  Zoroastrianism, endorsed and enforced
by the Persian Kings, saw all existence as a war between Ahura Mazda,
the god of light and the Sun, and Ahriman, the dark god of evil and
snakes.  The ancient Egyptians feared Set, an earlier form of Satan,
dweller in the demon-haunted land beneath the earth through which the
Sun-King fought his way each night.  Set was aided by his serpentine
ally, the monstrous Apep, and a host of magical snakes.  Set had been
one of the greatest and most ancient gods of Egypt, but his people were
conquered.  For a long while he enjoyed a Hekatian status as the
necessary ruler of the darker aspects of life, and he was degraded into
more and more a demon as time wore on.  By the time of the mythical
Exodus, Set was a generic enemy, and glorious tales of battle became
tales of victory of the Sun over Set and his minions.  Just so the
early Hebrew scriptures use "ha-satan", "the enemy", as a generic term
for their military enemies in Palestine.

D.  A pattern emerges from the "anti-gods" of history.  Time and again,
serpent deities representing both the underworld and magic have been
declared inconvenient and driven from their status by official
violence, figured in myth by a Sun-God who is also the King.  It is not
enough to forget them as most deposed deities are forgotten; they must
be demonized.

E.  How does this demonization serve the needs of those in power?
Authority feeds on enmity.  The exercise of power is easiest to justify
against an absolutely evil enemy who plainly demands the strictest
opposition.  Once this license for power against evil is obtained by
consent of the people, it is easily applied against the people
themselves.  Most will never object to the ferreting out of "agents of
evil" in their midst, will indeed gleefully support such a campaign of
persecution.  By supporting the authorities they vicariously exercise
the same unfettered power.  It is very comforting to be one of the
agents of shining good standing firm against unimaginable depravity.
But reality is not obliging in providing absolute evils for the use of
Kings; all enemies are more understandable and sympathetic when more is
known about their motives and history.  Imaginary enemies do not evoke
this difficulty, and once the belief in imaginary enemies -- Satan, the
International Communist Conspiracy, what have you -- is established, it
is easy to represent real people as agents of these ultimate enemies.
Hekati would hardly have found a friendly home in Sparta.  The common
beliefs about Hekati, Ahriman, Marx, and the rest serve a vital
political purpose.

F.  But why are underworld and sorcerous deities especially demonized?
Officialdom is chiefly opposed to the individual will: the power that
authority delights in exercising is the power of imposing its will on
others.  The opposition to this authoritarian will is the individual
fount of creativity and unpredictability.  In psychology, this fount is
called the unconscious mind, the obscure and unseen intelligence which
motivates us all to seek our own paths.  The unconscious mind, the dark
side of the psyche, is the symbolic meaning of the mythical underworld
or "Hell".  Tyrants are right to fear this deep well of power and to
frighten their subjects away from it.  Sorcery is a symbol of
independent action, unauthorized and unregulable, obeying only the laws
of the dark side and scorning the workings of temporal power.  Tyrants
who believe in its "magical" power fear it for pragmatic reasons, but
these mundane concerns reflect the nature of the sorcerous myth.  The
individual sorceress could, like Medea, shatter the structures of
authority if they became intolerably alienating.  Sorcery is the
mythological face of art.  All good artists are sorcerors;
spell-weavers; subversives; Satanists.

G.  The veneration of demons is not, as is commonly believed, the
"worship of evil", but an escape from the authoritarian mentality of
"us vs. them", of allies and enemies, of repressive and arbitrary
regulations expressed for power itself rather than for the general
interest, of good and evil as absolute forces in the world rather than
as subjective judgments applied to human behavior.  All these naive or
corrupt political influences are banished from the crossroads at
twilight by the irresistible, but subtle, influence of Hekati,
snake-woman, Medea's muse, friend and mistress of the hounds of Hell;
they are cracked and ruined by this sorceress behind and beyond all
sorcery.

H.  Among the major exponents of this "Satanism" or "Diabolism" have
been poets and playwrights, musicians and magicians: such as Rabelais,
Blake, Shelley, Baudelaire, Swinburne, Shaw, Crowley, Grant, Daly and
Galas.  The assembly known as Twilight Crossing has an interest in
continuing and expanding on this tradition, known as the "Satanic
school" in the Oxford English Dictionary, without dogmatically adhering
to any one creator's conception of it.

I.  The symbol of the crossing is significant beyond its Hekatian
correspondence (but in ways that reflect on that symbolism).
Conventional magical orders, covens, and the like, teach a path, a
sequence of initiations or similar steps, more or less fixed in
structure and adapted little if at all to the individual.  Twilight
Crossing is instead a meeting of paths, an intersection of ways: yet a
particular meeting point, a crossroad sacred to Hekati, rather than a
union of all paths.  There may be those people whose roads do not touch
this crossroad, but we welcome meetings with them at other intersections;
and we remind them (and ourselves) that Hekati may live even where she
is not at once apparent.

1. Membership

A.  The only requirement for membership in Twilight Crossing is a
shared interest in the Hekatian or Satanic current as it is expressed
in poetry, theatre, music, magic, and other arts.

B.  The Crossing makes no promises of magical powers, exalted spiritual
degrees, contact and contract with discorporate beings, nor simple
answers to difficult questions.  Nor does it forbid its members or
assemblies from asserting such powers, degrees, contacts, or answers.

C.  Members of Twilight Crossing are free to believe what they will,
but they are expected to scrutinize their beliefs to avoid dogmatism
and folly.

D.  Members of Twilight Crossing are free to behave as they will, but
they are expected to monitor their actions to avoid disrespect for
their own interests and the rights of others.

E.  Twilight Crossing officially supports the rights of all human
beings as put forth in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.  All
forms of discrimination on grounds of race, gender, national origin,
social class, sexual preference, religion, creed, and so forth are
expressly forbidden at the Crossing.  The only exception is that
assemblies formed exclusively of members of oppressed groups, such as
women or African-Americans, are permitted as are assemblies composed
of those who share a common belief on some issue.

F.  The Hekatian symbolism used to define the Crossing must not be
taken as a mandate of literal belief in such a being, or in any
spiritual being.  Nor must the use of the symbolism of sorcery be taken
as mandating a belief in the "paranormal" or extrapsychological powers
of the black arts.  Such matters are left to the individual judgment of
members.

G.  Rituals of initiation, meditation, invocation, celebration, and so
forth are sponsored by spiritual and service assemblies and by
general assent of the whole of Twilight Crossing for the artistic
and spiritual benefit of the members.  In all such rituals, the widest
possible latitude of beliefs is to be embraced, so that no one should
feel excluded because of the integrity of their intellectual conscience.
Rituals and other works sponsored by the Crossing as a whole are to avoid
all definite statements of belief or disbelief in such matters as the
primacy of a certain artistic movement or the reality of spiritual
beings and psychic powers.  These restrictions on expressions of
opinion apply only to rituals sponsored by the entire Crossing, not
to rituals sponsored by assemblies.

2. Hierarchy

A.  All hierarchy is suspect.  The Satanic school stands firmly against
all abuses of power, all attempts to reduce living beings to positions
in an organizational chain, all stamping of people with formal
estimates of merit, all dehumanization and forced conformity.

B.  The Crossing has no doctrines other than those intended to
guarantee the freedom of its membership and of all people.  To the
extent that the Crossing has any fixed rules at all, they are meant
only as pragmatic guidelines, and should never be considered to
overrule the freedom of thought of any member.  Any member or assembly
finding itself in conflict with the "rules" of the Crossing should
consider carefully before leaving the group, and should instead strive
to preserve the meeting of the paths.  If the free resolution of this
conflict requires a change in the rules of the Crossing, then let the
other members and assemblies not balk, but gratefully accept.

C.  There are no degrees, grades, or titles at the Crossing proper. All
members are considered equal.

D.  Should it become necessary to create an internal service assembly
due to the size of Crossing membership, all its offices shall be
selected by the full membership, and those who hold such positions
shall not be considered superior to other members in any essential
way.  They have chosen to serve the group; no one may choose or be
chosen to lead it.  The full membership shall also have the opportunity
to determine the structure of any internal service assembly and to remove
unfit members from office via the democratic process.  All these votes
will be decided by simple plurality, but no vote is valid without the votes
of more than one-half of all members.

E.  The founder and early members of Twilight Crossing enjoy no special
office, exemption, or position within the group, though they are free to
pursue whatever offices etc. are open to other members.

F.  Individuals are generally accepted without difficulty.  If a member
challenges an admission, and another seconds the objections, then a
general vote may be taken, or the person may withdraw.  The admission is
rejected on a two-thirds vote of those participating.  (There is no
voting quorum.)  A member may also be ejected by a vote of two-thirds
in similar fashion.  Excessive dogmatism or exclusivism, or radical
disregard for the rights of others, are the only grounds for refusal or
removal of an individual.  An individual who is removed or refused may
apply for membership after one year.

G.  This foundation document and any other rules may be amended by a
vote of three quarters of the membership.

H: All general votes in the Crossing are tricameral, with three faces:
general debate, popular election, and assembly election.  Each assembly
has one vote in the assembly election, ordinarily a popular vote among
its members (but this is only a guideline).  Only Twilight Crossing
members and assemblies may vote in these general elections.  General debate
is informal but should be facilitated by the Crossing through personal
contacts, computer networks, newsletters, ballots, position papers,
formal debate meetings, and other technologies and strategies of
communication.  Matters may be submitted to a vote by proposal of any
assembly and the seconding of another, or a petition of the popular
membership which accounts for at least five percent of all members.
Twilight Crossing will facilitate the distribution of any petition
proposed by one member and seconded by another.

3. Assemblies

A.  Twilight Crossing harbors various assemblies, or "special interest
groups", dedicated to shared interests concerning the Satanic school,
or shared conditions of oppression.  These are chiefly intended to be
oriented towards the execution of various artistic and spiritual projects,
but may also form research groups, social groups, informal discussion
groups not explicitly devoted to any particular project, and so on.

B.  Rules concerning freedom of belief and dissociation are somewhat
relaxed within the assemblies, so that people who share opinions or
states of oppression may work together on projects dependent on those
conditions.  For instance, a group dedicated to atheism and to the
freeing of members' minds from all belief in literal gods would certainly
fall under the aegis of the Satanic school and Twilight Crossing in
particular, but would be incapable of meaningfully including members
who did believe in literal gods.  Similarly, a group especially dedicated
to occult spellcasting intended to work effects at a distance could hardly
benefit from the presence of skeptics.  A group dedicated to establishing
sexual rights for S/M practitioners and freeing them from internalized
oppressive attitudes might not benefit from allowing the attendance of
those who lack sympathy for the value of such practices.

C.  Assemblies are permitted to draw their doctrinal basis more
narrowly than the Crossing as a whole, but they are expected to deal
with their differences from other opinions as disagreements among
reasonable people, rather than a special handle on the absolute truth
which renders them the denizens of Olympus and others the denizens of
Hell.  Assemblies with apparently contradictory beliefs should appoint
liasons to each other and encourage dialog, but they should not shy
away from argument as if intellectual competition were some unthinkable
poison or rudeness.

D.  These relaxed rules on doctrine should not be taken as a license
for dogmatism.  Limits on opinion are to be as unrestrictive as
possible given the mission of the assembly and the nature of its shared
interest.  Any limits are to be drawn out explicitly when the assembly
is proposed, and cannot be narrowed without recertification by the
whole Crossing (as below) and by two-thirds of the entire assembly.
Furthermore, an assembly should be so arranged that persons not sharing
the assembly's common opinions would not be especially interested in
joining its projects.

E.  Assemblies are created by assent of the whole membership.  A simple
plurality of votes, with a voting quorum of fifty per cent, admits an
assembly to the Crossing.  A vote of two thirds, with the same quorum,
dissolves an assembly.  Excessive dogmatism or exclusivism, or radical
disregard for the rights of others, are the only grounds for refusal or
dissolution of an assembly.

F.  There should be no confusion about which expressions of opinion in
assembly publications and statements pertain to the minimalist Twilight
Crossing policy and which pertain to the particular assembly or writer.

G.  Members may disagree with the efficacy or ethics of allowing,
for instance, all-Hispanic or all-Thelemic assemblies, but they are
expected to respect the right of each assembly to disagree concerning
complex points of interpretation of Twilight Crossing's pro-freedom
principles.

4. Initiations

A.  In no case is attendance at any initiation ritual mandatory for
continued membership in Twilight Crossing as a whole, though it may be
required for membership in a particular assembly.

B.  No initiation or other ritual sponsored by the Crossing or any
assembly is to be taken as conferring any intrinsic spiritual
superiority over those who have not taken the degree.  Such rituals
represent a personal progress along a particular path of artistic or
spiritual refinement.  Initiations should be structured in an open, not
linear, fashion to help assure this, though this is only a
recommendation.

C.  Assemblies may structure their initiations in a hierarchical way,
where initiations require prerequisites.  These prerequisites may be
within the assembly or within other Twilight Crossing assemblies or
alliances, and they should be waived when prior experience demands it.
But in many cases it will be better for a spiritual assembly to have
a spectrum of initiations accessible to any member.  Who is to say
that the limbs of the Tree of Knowledge may not be explored in any
order?  Should not polytheists in particular have mysteries of
particular deities, which require no prerequisite or pedigree?
As always, unneeded restriction should be avoided.

D.  It is acceptable that those undergoing initiation rituals should be
sworn to secrecy concerning the contents of those rituals, but only so
that the rituals do not lose their efficacy through predictability.

E.  Individuals are not to be subjected to unanticipated physical
jeapordy, or any deliberate harm of any kind, by any initiation or
other ritual at Twilight Crossing.  The dramatic use of tension and
fear is permissible, as it is in any art.  Hazings for the sake of
strengthening the group bond are forbidden, though voluntary pain is
not forbidden as a ritual tool.  Any member must be able to resign
an initiation at any time; use of a safe word system for withdrawal
is recommended.

5. Relations to Other Groups

A.  Members are free to sponsor their own rituals, groups, and so forth
which involve practices frowned on at the Crossing, and to belong to
such groups sponsored by others.  Twilight Crossing encourages its
members to join any and all religious or artistic groups which seem fit
to them while members of the Crossing, as was often the case among the
pagan mystery traditions of ancient Rome.

B.  Twilight Crossing is especially interested in maintaining good
relations with other groups which define themselves as occult, Satanic,
or Neo-Pagan in orientation, all of which are words which describe the
Crossing as well.  However, to the extent that the practices of these
groups conflict with the values of Twilight Crossing, those groups
should expect a certain amount of reasonable criticism from its
members.  This criticism is a vital and important function of the
values of the Crossing; it is not intended to damage relations with
other groups, but neither should members of the Crossing fail to
respect their own interests in free intellectual exercise by
artificially restricting the scope of their comments.

C.  Despite its orientation towards the Titans and Satan, the Crossing
has no fixed teaching relative to Classical Greek mythology nor towards
Christianity and the other two major monotheistic religions.  A person
holding any of these traditions in high regard should not feel
constrained by that opinion against membership in Twilight Crossing.
Just as it is by no means obvious that a modern Christian must oppose
Buddhism simply because it teaches that God is deluded, neither is it
clear that a freethinking Christian must oppose the redeemed symbolism
of Hekati or Satan merely because their tradition has been one of the
demonizers.  The way is especially open to contacts with those modern
Christian individuals and groups which share the Crossing's distaste
for dogma and repression.

D.  The Crossing is critical of many temporal authorities.  All
governments drawn to date are flawed by authoritarianism and
narrow-mindedness.  Its right to criticize officialdom is guaranteed by
the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.  Nonetheless, it is not
seeking the violent overthrow of these governments as a matter of
policy.  Individual members of the Crossing may support one or
more revolutionary movements throughout the world, but they do so as
individuals and not as members of the Crossing.  No project of Twilight
Crossing or any of its assemblies seeks the violent overthrow of any
government.  This rule should be taken as a pragmatic realization of
the limits of a group like Twilight Crossing in a world polity where
such projects are everywhere high crimes when they are without the
sponsorship of government.  This rule is not an official requirement
or condemnation of any belief about the ethics of revolution.

E.  The Crossing does, however, refuse to recognize laws which stand in
contravention to the rights of artistic and religious freedom, and
freedom of thought and privacy, such as restrictions against sexual
practices between consenting and sexually mature persons and against
the voluntary consumption of consciousness-altering drugs.  From the
prehistoric past through the present, many cultures have incorporated
both sex and drugs into religious and artistic practices, and it has
credibly been argued by some scholars that all religion derives from
them.  Religious prostitution and sacramental drugs have been common
mysteries of pagan religion from before the start of recorded history,
and strong traces of both remain in the myths of monotheism as well.
Twilight Crossing firmly insists that all people have the right to
engage in sacred practices of these venerable types, and that no
government or other agency has the right to interfere in them any more
than in any exercise of freedom of religion or freedom of thought.  Our
patron sorceresses Medea and Circe had mastered every form of magic
drug and herb, and of the arts of love; we would be untrue to their
legend were we to turn away from their wisdom for mere political
convenience.

F. In some cases Assembly status may be a form of recognition by Twilight
Crossing more than a form of membership in Twilight Crossing.  Assemblies
may be just as much allied to other formal or informal groups as they
are to TC, and may include non-members of Twilight Crossing in their
assembly membership.  However, only Twilight Crossing's members may
participate in its elections and votes.

G. If an assembly has members who are not members of Twilight Crossing,
then it is best to present it as an independent group which (if the
subject arises) may be explained to have recognition as a member
assembly by Twilight Crossing, a networking group.  However, the
assembly is always free to make its recognition known.

6. Contact

Twilight Crossing is in the process of formation.  Those interested in
assisting in its creation or in forming assemblies may call or write
the author of this document, Tim Maroney.  Many changes have already
been made in response to the comments of others.  This charter is in
a proposal stage at present (June 1991).

Electronic addresses:
USENET: uunet!efi!tim or sun!hoptoad!tim
ARPANET: tim@toad.com
FIDONET: Tim Maroney at Thelema-Net, 1:161/93
Phone number:(415) 495-2934
Phone contacts only when computer networks are unavailable, please.
-- 
Tim Maroney, Mac Software Consultant, sun!hoptoad!tim, tim@toad.com

"I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community, and as long
 as I live it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can." -- Shaw

                                                        19 June 91

 Dear Diane,

 Original Assembly Charter for Twilight Crossing (proposal)
 ==========================================================

 There are initially four kinds of assemblies in Twilight Crossing:
 Spiritual, Project, Alliance, and Internal Service.  New groups are
 not limited to these types, and no amendments are required to create
 a new kind of group -- a regular assembly-admission vote for the new
 type's first assembly suffices.  The only formal tie between groups of
 like type is that they may pledge to abide by certain rules common
 to the type.  Informally, however, all the groups of a kind share
 some goals, motivations, interests, and methods.  It is also possible
 for a group to be of two or more kinds (see SFS, below), or no kind
 but itself.

 SPIRITUAL ASSEMBLIES
 ====================

 Spiritual assemblies are concerned with psychology, meditation, magick,
 or studies that may satisfy some religious need or interest of their
 members.  They may focus narrowly (though, one hopes, not too narrowly)
 on particular mythologies, or on particular themes throughout myth, or
 they may create new myths, eschew mythology altogether, or employ
 any mystical technique for which they accept responsibility.  But buying
 or selling a preformatted ideology is discouraged; they may teach, but
 they must be open to learning and growth in turn.

 The Medean Cauldron
 -------------------

 Ecstasy is the disappearance of pleasure and pain into something greater.
 Zero equals two.  Deep in the microscopic underworld, matter fuses
 with anti-matter to produce pure energy.  Dragons asleep in their caves
 hear the thunder, and Hekati sends them forth to let her sorceress
 take wing.
 
 We wait at the crossroads for the howling of wolves and the clashing of
 gates.  We are the ancients in animal skins who sang nonsense at the
 stars and heard them answer back with lies.

 It's time to see things as they are, as enchantment, glamour, bewitchment,
 sorcery, illusion, smoke and mirrors.  It's time to dive and drown in
 that darkly splendid pool, and I say to Hell with the light.

 The assembly is happy to correspond with the curious.

 Ganesha Grove School for Rational Mysticism
 -------------------------------------------

 A non-accredited mini-college for those who did not leave their intellects
 with the Lurker on the Threshold.

 If the content of mysticism is real, it may be measured, modeled and molded,
 and it must be reconciled with the findings of empirical methods.

 Classes and guest lectures are given.  Awards are handed out for special
 contributions to the psychology and history of mysticism.  Research
 projects are carried out under the supervision of faculty.  Journals
 of research and learned commentary are published for small audiences.

 We award three degrees, Graduate, Adept, and Doctor, each of which
 reflects an amount of work on rational mysticism eqivalent to the work
 within the major in an accredited degree program.
 
 There are five classes of member, Student, Graduate Student, Faculty,
 Staff, and Alumnus.  Graduate Student status is open only to those who
 have received Graduate, Adept, or Doctor degrees.  Faculty status is
 open only to Adepts and Doctors.  Student status is open to all Twilight
 Crossing members and school staff.  Staff members do not have to be
 Twilight Crossing members.

 The Hell-Goat Tribe
 -------------------
 
 Satan, Set, Pan, Ahriman, Loki, Maya, Typhon, Ba'al, Eblis, Hadit --
 all these demonic tricksters are faces of the enemy: abhorred, carcicatured,
 misunderstood; but in themselves sharply and sexily illumined in the red
 light of blood and lava, the ever-flowing sustenance of beasts and earth.
 
 Caves grow warmer and more familiar with depth.  Don't fear to explore
 wisdom that suits no tyrant's convenience.  Learn that friend and enemy
 are the same.  Experience why St. John feared the Beast in humanity,
 why the Serpent is the guardian of knowledge, and what fruit he guards.
 Discover the universe described in chalk and paint, barbaric chants,
 and ceremonies and sacrifices.  Tear down the veil upon the sanctuary.
 
 Work by yourself or in the company of others.  Trade the fruits of
 vision quests and scholarly study through the tribal newsletter,
 "ha-Satan".  Reclaim the Satanic myth of witchcraft from sweetness
 and lighters and self-impressed fascists alike.
 
 PROJECT ASSEMBLIES
 ==================
 
 Project assemblies are pragmatic activist and reporting groups.  They
 are focused on projects to concretely improve the human condition
 by opposing or escaping some form of oppression.  Each has a simple,
 broad statement of the human rights or other principles with which
 they are particularly concerned.
 
 Projects of such groups could be reports, letter-writing campaigns,
 protest rallies, computer network debate, pamphlets, boycotts, and
 other rational, ethical, and effective activist tactics.
 
 The founding project assemblies admit non-members of Twilight Crossing.
 
 Occult Civil Rights Assembly
 ----------------------------
 
 OCRA will provide a general internal human rights watchdog for occultism.
 This group opposes discrimination and other violations of civil liberties
 within the broad spectrum of occult groups, using the Universal Declaration
 of Human Rights as a yardstick.  It is expected to monitor such problems
 dispassionately even when they occur in Twilight Crossing itself.
 
 Peaceful protests may be aimed at drawing attention to problems.
 Outreach meetings with discriminatory groups will be sponsored.
 
 Publications will provide information about the causes and scope of
 problems, and show common ground between different paths.  OCRA will
 publish the periodic watchdog report called "Cerebus".
 
 Huntwatch
 ---------
 
 This group monitors and reports on modern witch-hunts aimed at alternative
 religions.  It provides a file of reports on various witch-hunts and
 witch-hunters, available in both electronic and printed form, to
 members and non-members alike.  Information contained in this file will be
 confined to witch-hunters' public statements and writings and documented
 involvement in various witchhunts.  It may also provide Huntwatch members
 as spokespersons in media inquiries concerning witch-hunting.
 
 Sysops for Free Speech
 ----------------------
 
 This group is effectively an alliance with the existing informal group
 of computer network system operators.  Its goal is to promote freedom of
 expression and thought on both publically and privately held computer
 networks, to keep records of cases where that freedom was denied, to
 organize letter-writing campaigns against abuses, to provide free network
 outlets (especially where they are most needed), to boycott damaging
 opponents of freedom, and to help create voluntary social codes of
 behavior, politeness, honesty, and freedom which will allow computer
 networks to fulfill their potential.
 
 ALLIANCE ASSEMBLIES
 ===================
 
 Alliance assemblies have multiple citizenship.  They are both assemblies
 of Twilight Crossing, and bodies of some other group with interests
 related to those of the Crossing.  Each may decide whether to admit
 members who are already members of only one, more than one, or all
 of the parent groups.
 
 Alliances with many other groups would be welcomed.  Such groups should
 however have sympathy with the principles of Twilight Crossing.
 
 Because of the myth that Hekati appears at the joining of three roads,
 groups with triple citizenship are given the honorific "three-ways".
 
 INTERNAL SERVICE ASSEMBLIES
 ===========================

 These assemblies are composed of people committed to providing certain
 services important to the functioning of Twilight Crossing.  Each internal
 service assembly, due to its closeness to the basic dynamics and powers
 inherent in the organization, promises not to vote as an assembly, and
 to withdraw itself from participation in all matters directly touching on
 its status or offering other conflicts of interest, such as votes to create
 rivals or dissolve the assembly.
 
 ISA's have more clients than members; the members are the administrators,
 while the clients are the members and the assemblies who register for the
 service, such as membership, voting, subscribing, or attending.  ISA's
 do not have any members who are not members of Twilight Crossing.
 
 Any Internal Service Assembly may request dues or fees from its voluntary
 client base to cover its costs; such dues etc. requests are voted on by the
 Crossing as a whole.  Any ISA may waive dues or fees on the grounds of
 poverty and all are expected to do so when applicable.  (For most
 assemblies, dues and fees are internal matters.)
 
 ISA's may be replaced, supplemented, or dissolved by the membership of
 Twilight Crossing.  Members of service assemblies may also be replaced,
 supplemented or dismissed as assembly members by the membership of
 Twilight Crossing.  (This would not be considered the prerogative of
 people outside most assemblies; it is a check on the power of ISA's.)
 
 Internal Service Assemblies have boring names to discourage egotism.
 Their internal titles should also be boring.

 Membership Assembly
 -------------------
 
 Keeps membership roll and mailroom, and provides membership verification
 services for assemblies.

 This assembly asserts unique authority to perform these services on
 behalf of Twilight Crossing, whose members have duly constituted it as
 an assembly for that purpose.
 
 This assembly should not be considered dissolved unless the Crossing as
 a whole is  dissolved, or a replacement is in place.  All Twilight Crossing
 members are clients of this assembly.

 Treasury Assembly
 ------------------
 
 Solicits and broadcasts annual monetary reports from all assemblies.
 Helps coordinate fund-raising and the collection of dues and fees.
 Proposes, submits to popular vote, and executes projects which are
 generally beneficial to Twilight Crossing, such as securing lasting
 meeting space and publishing equipment.  (Assemblies may have their
 own such holdings supported by their membership.  The Treasury
 Assembly only deals with inter-assembly shareable resources.  All
 Twilight Crossing members are clients of this assembly.

 First Election Assembly
 -----------------------

 Notifies its clients of issues being balloted, collects and authenticates
 their responses, and broadcasts the results.  Accepts no clients who are
 clients of any other election assembly.

 Second Election Assembly
 ------------------------

 Notifies its clients of issues being balloted, collects and authenticates
 their responses, and broadcasts the results.  Accepts no clients who are
 clients of any other election assembly.

 Newsletter Assembly
 -------------------
 
 Edits and publishes a newsletter intended to reach all Twilight Crossing
 members.  All assemblies and all members are encouraged to submit material
 to the newsletter.
 
 The NA promises that no material from members will be rejected on the
 grounds of its ideology, only on grounds of artistic (de-)merit or
 illegality.
 
 Banquet Assembly
 ----------------
 
 Organizes an annual gathering of Twilight Crossing members and assemblies.
 It recommends (but can't require) at least one delegate from every assembly.
 All members and assemblies are welcome, as are friendly non-members.
 
 The purpose of the annual crossing of the roads is to maintain human contact
 between the diverse elements of Twilight Crossing -- in part based on the
 theory that it is harder to demonize a personal acquaintance; in part just
 to have fun, swap thoughts, learn things, and meet people.
 
 ======================
 
 Please let me know what you think.  Hopefully the founders would only
 be pulled in a dozen directions for a year or two.  Some of these would
 take a while to come up to speed, while others may very well surprise us.