How Some Traditions Might Respond
Alexandrian/Gardnerian
To reveal this would be to break my oath of secrecy. I can say, though,
that it *really* is an ancient rite, dating far back in time, back even before
1951, and I have learned it from an unbroken lineage. As Gerald said, it
takes a chickn to make an egg.
Asatru
First, we don't believe in a "One Chicken" or a "Hen and
Rooster." We believe in many chickens. Second, "crossing the road" is
part of the three levels, or worlds, and the chicken simply crossed from
one level to another. Hail to the Chickens!
British Traditional
The word "chicken" comes from a very specific Old English word
("gechekken"), and it only properly applies to certain fowl of
East Anglia or those descended therefrom. As for the rest, I suppose they
are doing something remotely similar to crossing the road, but you must remember
that traditional roads are not to be confused with the modern roads.
Celtic
In County Feedbeygohn on Midsummer's day, there is still practiced St.
Henny's Dance, which is a survival of the old pagan Chicken Crossing fertility
rite. Today, modern pagans are reviving the practice, dedicated to the Hen
and the Green Rooster.
Ceremonial
"Crossing the road" is a phrase that summarizes many magical
structures erected and timed by the chicken to produce the energy necessary
for the intention of the travel across the road. For example, the astrological
correspondences had to be correct, the moon had to be waxing (if the chicken
intended to come to the other side of the road) or waning (if the chicken
intended to flee to the other side of the road), and the chicken had to prepare
herself through fasting and proper incantations. Note: certain forms of invocation
(summoning an egg *inside* your chicken self) can produce abnormal or even
dangerous eggs and should only be conducted inside a properly erected barnyard.
Chaos
Thinking in terms of "roads" and "crossings" is simply
looking at the formal, typically perceived structure of chicken crossing
space-time. We, instead, focus on the possibility of chicken crossing itself;
what appears to be a random act is thus actually the norm - it is the **road**
which is the freak of chance. Indeed, quantum mechanics now demonstrates
what we knew all along: two roads can simultaneously exist in the same place
at the same time. Thus, by attuning ourselves to the dynamic energy (called "crossing"),
we can manifest the road. Of course, to the unknowledgeable, this appears
as a chicken crossing the road.
Dianic
The chykyn ("chicken" is term of patriarchal oppression) sought
to reclaim for herself the right to be on the other side of the road, after
it had been denied to her for centuries. By doing so, she reawakened the
power of the Hen within herself.
Discordian
cock-a-doodle-doo !
Druid
To get to the sacred grove, of course! Keep in mind that 99% of everything
written about chickens-crossing-the-road is pure hogwash, based on biased
sources. Yes, there were a few unfortunate chicken sacrifices in the past,
but that is over now.
Eclectic
Because it seemed right to her at the time. She used some Egyptian style
corn and a Celtic sounding word for the road and incorporated some Native
American elements into her Corn-name, Chicken-Who-Dances-and-Runs-with-the-Wolves.
Faery
In twilight times and under sparkling stars, those properly trained can
still see the chickens crossing the roads. Reconnecting with these "fey-fowl" as
they cross is crucial to restoring the balance between the energies of modern
development and living with the earth.
Family Traditional
Growing up, we didn't think much about "crossing the road." A
chicken was a chicken. It crossed the road because that was what worked to
get her to the other side. We focused on what worked, and we worked more
with the elders of the barnyard and less with all this "guardians of
the chickencoop" business. We didn't get our concepts of "chickens" or "the
other side" from Gardner, either. You can choose not to believe us since
we did not "scratch down" on paper what was clucked to us orally
(which, at certain times in history, was the only way to avoid becoming Easter
chicken soup!), but that doesn't change the facts: there *were* real chickens,
and they *really did* cross the road!
Kitchen Witch
The chicken crossed the road to get food, to get a rooster or to get away
from me after I decided to have chicken for supper !
Left Hand Path
White, fluffy chickens prancing across the road ! Do you think that is
*all* there is to crossing the road? Do you *dare* to know the Dark Side
of crossing the road and the *other* path to self-development?
New Age
The chicken crossed the road because she chose this as one of her lessons
to learn in this life. Besides, there was so much incense and bright, white
corn to explore on the Other Side.
Newbie
well, 'cause I read in this really kewl book that said, like, chickens
are supposed to cross the road, right?
Posting on an Online Discussion Group
What do you mean <> ???!!!??? Haven't you read **any** of the previous
posts? We've been [expletive deleted] debating every word of that question,
painstakingly trying to come to some kind of answer. I know you wrote <was
why chickens cross the road, I'm not looking for any chicken spells> but
I'm fed up with newbies who can't even bother to REEEEEEEEAAADDD the posts
on that very topic! No, this is *not* a flame. But, I and several others
here have the *maturity* to properly explore and respond to this question,
and we were properly trained; we *didn't* just read a book and think we were
full-fledged chickens. much better after ranting>
Solitary
The chicken didn't want to be part of a coven or an oven.
Shaman
Crossing the road is a way to reconnect with the healing, visionary lifeways
of the past. Chickens have long known this, but increasingly the Rooster's
Movement is adding more roosters to the crossings too.
Snert
Hey, are you guys really chickens? Can you give me a spell that will make
a chicken cross the road?
Wiccan
The chicken crossed the road because she felt like she was finally "coming
home." She could do it alone or with others, but she had to call to
the Guardians of the Watchtowers of the Barnyard first ... uhm, after casting
the circle.
How Some Pagan Authors Might Respond
Margot Adler
The recent chicken resurgence, it can be argued, is directly based on a
response to the suburban middle class experience. While I found that chickens-who-cross-roads
who responded to my survey are of a wide range of ages and backgrounds, I
discovered some trends in the "why" of crossing the road. For some
it is was freedom. For some it is chickensim. Many chickens told me they
crossed the road for intellectual satisfaction. One thing is clear: the growth
of road crossing by chickens is expanding in the numbers of chickens and
in the ways they cross the road, including at chicken festivals and for political
blocking of roads.
Isaac Bonewits
Real crossing-the-road, we have seen, is a very interwoven and complicated
subject. Our conclusion could be that real crossing-the-road is the build
up of chicken emotion in conjunction with chicken concepts to vary the modulation
of chicken energy so as to effect the modulation of the road's energy. That's
all! Perhaps it is unfortunate, though, to use the word "chicken" in
relation to it, since the "C" word is being used now in a way it
was never used before in the English language and is an utterly meaningless
term without a qualifying adjective. And this, of course, is the fault of
the medieval Christian Church, through the Gothic Chickens it invented and
used as the basis of persecuting men, women and chickens. The word "chicken" itself
comes from an Indo-European root, "cheeka/e" meaning "one
who lays eggs," and it has no relation to the later Anglo-Saxon word
for "wise spirit of flight," as so often stated by certain contemporary "Chics." An'Chk'Rrhod
("Our Own Chickens on Our Own Roads "), an authentic Neo-Chicken
Rooster tradition, offers the best of paleo-, meso- and neo- Chickenism.
Carlos Castenada
4/10/1964 I spent 14 hours, without food or water, sitting on the dirt
and under the sun in front of Don Juan's house, grinding chicken feed. I
asked Don Juan if I could have a drink of water, and he told me that it was
always this way, that a man who wanted to cross the road with the chicken
cannot have any food or water till the chicken feed is ground. I asked Don
Juan if the chicken is an ally, like the little smoke. Don Juan seemed to
get angry and stayed silent. After I completed grinding the corn, I hallucinated
from heat exhaustion, and Don Juan said I was ready. As I collapsed to my
side, I spilled the chicken feed around me. A chicken appeared to be eating
the feed around me, and I became strangely absorbed in the vision. I heard
Don Juan's voice tell me, "You must let the chicken cross the road into
you. It is very painful, but for a man of knowledge it is easy."
Scott Cunningham
A chicken passes between the grasses, clucking. The wind blows, and the
chicken knows, *knows*, that this is the time. She puts her energy into taking
the steps, in harmony with the gravel and the stones of the road. She is
across; it is over, and the chicken stands in the field on the other side
of the road. Natural chicken crossing is unique among most other branches
of the art of chicken road crossing. It doesn't require years of collecting
or fashioning coops, feeders or hen houses. Indeed, the most important tools
of natural chicken crossing are free: the road, the chicken and you, your
personal chicken power. You're already familiar with it. You've felt it.
You *are* a chicken. Crossing the road is you, with your chicken need. And,
you can do it on your own. After all, who initiated the first chicken?
Janet and Stewart Farrar
Since so many editions of Gardner's Chicken Book of Crossings have appeared
in print (some accurate, some not), we think it won't "lay an egg" too
much if we clearly present "The Chicken Crossing Rite," especially
if we do so after two and half pages of well researched introduction set
in six-point type. In version A of the Chicken Crossing Rite, we find many
pseudo-archaisms (e.g., "Yea, Ye Anciente Rite of Ye Chiks and Ye Rodes
is a moste powerful Crafting, taking thy athame ..."); however, Doreen
Valiente notes (in version C, which is what we present), and we agree, that
underlying it all is a basic ritual for summoning the astral road through
the spirit of the Chicken (drawn down in the person of the High Priestess,
holding the black handled feed bin; of course, a second degree may assist
or perform the rite when....
Llewellyn's Practical Chicken Magick Series
To some people, the idea that "chickens crossing the road" is
practical comes as a surprise. It shouldn't. The whole idea of Crossing the
Road is practical for chickens. While Crossing the Road is also, and properly
so, concerned with spiritual growth and psychological transformation --the "why" of
crossing the road-- every chicken's life must rest firmly on material roads.
Crossing the Road is the flowering of chicken potential. And the profits
from publishing all those books on how to do so? Well, that ain't chicken
feed.
Starhawk
The chicken crossed the road to reclaim the crossing experience, the experience
of being fully alive, with streams and earth and rocks and road, in the fullness
of her chickenhood after thousands of years of roosterarchy. The chicken
crossing the road ---not a chicken laying eggs, not a chicken being roasted
and eaten--- a chicken strong and free, crossing the road, this is something
I can believe in. We chickens, as chickens, can reclaim this in harmony with
the Earth who gives life to all chickens and Who has been terribly scratched
by roosters. Exercises: Dance the Spiral Chicken.
Doreen Valiente
Old Chicken really did exist, and she really did cross the road. Gerald
talked about her often, but she didn't cross the road til before I began
studying with Gerald. Still, there are records of Old Chicken which confirm
her reality. As for all the comments that Gerald had a "thing" for
chickens, that is simply not true. The reason we worked with chickens is
really quite simple: it worked !
Silver Raven Wolf
Although many times people have asked me why exactly the chicken crossed
the road, I often wonder myself. My point is that every chicken comes to
the road in a different way, and there is no one correct way for the chicken
to get to the road to be crossed. The study of crossing the road is hard
work if the chicken is going to develop any degree of proficiency. It is
not something where you can just cluck yourself across the road. The first
time my chicken crossed the road was for my chicken's friend, whose rooster
was being abusive. The chicken worked the steps for crossing the road after
carefully considering all the reasons for crossing the road and all the steps
she would have to take. Finally, my chicken just started clucking and flapping
her wings and started across the road. When she reached the other side, her
friend's rooster was respectful! Afterwards, the chicken ate some corn to
ground herself.
Bonus Chicken Humor
As a chaotic Buddhist gourmet kitchen witch of family traditionalist leanings,
I choose to participate in the parallel consciousness where said plump chicken
(having realized its ability to bi-locate to what the uninitiated perceive
as the "other" side of the road since it observed in a moment of
center that an alternative possibility for exquisite consumption lay just
beyond understanding in that alternative other side of the road - why else
would any creature of taste and proper upbringing exert the apparent energy
necessary to be perceived as movement) is now located in my boiling pot of
soup (deemed sacred for today since it is producing soup for High Holiday
- which we are celebrating eight days late since it coincides with a family
reunion). Oh, it's alright about boiling the chicken, I contacted its higher
Self and identified my intent to use its physical form in a most respectful
manner and my gratitude for the sacrifice of the creature now known as Chicken
(keeps the meet tender while cooking).
Still More Chicken Humor
See Chicken
Paganism by Amber Wolfe.
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