Deaf Pagan Crossroads

Does Hypnosis Work In the Deaf Community?
Deaf Pagan Crossroads A good friend of mine, who is a licensed Mental Health Specialist and has a background in hypnotherapy, sent me an email recently asking an interesting question: Can hypnosis be used effectively with someone who is Deaf or Hard of Hearing? Apparently he got into an interesting discussion with another hypnotist who questioned whether or not [...]
Culture Sun, Jun 29 2008 hide this blog

Winning Jockey Has Deaf Son
Deaf Pagan Crossroads This Saturday, many eyes will be focused on the Belmont Stakes in New York, as Big Brown, a strapping bay three-year-old colt, attempts to become the first to win the Triple Crown in thirty years and thus go down in horse racing history. Big Brown will be piloted by jockey Kent Desormeaux, who rode the horse [...]
Media Art and Storytelling Culture Fri, Jun 06 2008 hide this blog

So How Does One “Screw the Pooch?”
Deaf Pagan Crossroads In this post, Ocean discusses the struggles of translating expressions from one language to the other, and offers up a challenge to her readership (scroll down to the bottom to read the challenge!) Note: This post does use some language that might be considered crude and vulgar, but is necessary as part of the writing [...]
Language Thu, Jun 05 2008 hide this blog

But Hello Anyway…
Deaf Pagan Crossroads Not too long ago, I published a post here at the Crossroads entitled “Too Deaf? Too Pagan? Too Firewalking?” This post was written as a response to a comment which was left on yet another one of my posts here on this blog... a comment which I found to be rather interesting. This reader was expressing [...]
Culture Sat, May 17 2008 hide this blog

Too Deaf? Too Pagan? Too Firewalking?
Deaf Pagan Crossroads I woke up this morning and checked my email, only to discover that I had a new comment to an old post - one that I wrote over a year ago, shortly after I first started Deaf Pagan Crossroads. It's a response to my post titled “On Being Deaf...and Pagan” - a post I wrote about [...]
Culture Sun, May 11 2008 hide this blog

Jeff Daniels - His Views on His Role in “Sweet Nothing In...
Deaf Pagan Crossroads I was curious to learn more about what Jeff Daniels thought about his role in “Sweet Nothing In My Ear,” in which he played the part of Dan, the hearing husband of a Deaf woman and the father of a Deaf son. It must have been quite a challenge for him to take on a [...]
Media Language Culture Mon, Apr 21 2008 hide this blog

Pieces of April
Deaf Pagan Crossroads One of the things about moving back to my hometown is that evokes a lot of childhood memories. Driving home to and from work, I often pass the schools I attended when I was a kid. As the only deaf child in an all-hearing family, I was kept at home and attended the local all-hearing schools. [...]
Education Culture Sat, Apr 12 2008 hide this blog

Studying Deaf Paganism
Deaf Pagan Crossroads I've been getting a number of emails from ASL and Interpreting students, asking permission to quote from my blog for a paper or project they are doing for one of their classes. I am honored to receive such requests, and happy to grant such permission. I still prefer that you contact me if you do wish [...]
Language Culture Thu, Mar 27 2008 hide this blog

“A Simple Sign, But It Means So Much More…”
Deaf Pagan Crossroads A number of people have been asking me about the above picture, and the sculpture found in this photograph. I did a little research, and was able to come up with the following information... This photograph was taken by photographer “Istolethetv” (yup, that's his flickr identity!) while the sculpture was on temporary display at Carl Schurz [...]
Thu, Mar 06 2008 hide this blog

Pagan-Friendly Sign Language Interpreters
Deaf Pagan Crossroads Greetings! As we begin a new year, many Pagan organizations are beginning to plan their events for the year. Most of these events take place during the summer, usually around the Summer Solstice, although some take place during the spring (around the time of Beltaine on May 1st) or during the fall, (around the time of [...]
Thu, Feb 28 2008 hide this blog

A Deaf Child in the Family - Part Four
Deaf Pagan Crossroads This is the final part in the series, taken from an article in my files. I still don't know who the author is, but I hope you have enjoyed this mother's story about raising her deaf daughter. While this is one person's experience and viewpoints, I think many of us can identify with much [...]
Language Culture Fri, Feb 22 2008 hide this blog

A Deaf Child in the Family - Part Three
Deaf Pagan Crossroads This is Part Three in a continuing series of posts taken from an article written years ago by the hearing mother of a deaf daughter sharing some of her thoughts and experiences; the challenges and the joys. In this part we also get a glimpse of what it means to raise a deaf teenager! [...]
Language Art and Storytelling Culture Thu, Feb 21 2008 hide this blog

A Deaf Child in the Family - Part Two
Deaf Pagan Crossroads This is Part Two in my continuing series of posts taken from an article in my files. I don't know who is the original author of this article, but I think she does an excellent job of sharing what it means to raise a deaf child. There was an amazing custody case in North [...]
Language Art and Storytelling Education Legal Culture Wed, Feb 20 2008 hide this blog

A Deaf Child in the Family - Part One
Deaf Pagan Crossroads First of all, I want to clarify... I did NOT write this article. It was sent to me by an interpreter friend several years ago, and I have had it in my computer files ever since. At that time, I was the leader of an on-line spirituality group which had both deaf and hearing members, [...]
Language Art and Storytelling Culture Tue, Feb 19 2008 hide this blog

A Message for the Deaf B/Vlogosphere… Even Now
Deaf Pagan Crossroads As I read the various posts around the Deaf B/Vlogosphere, it seems there has been a greater than normal amount of friction lately. Fighting, arguing, name calling, backstabbing, accusations, etc. Leaving negative comments on posts. Pointing fingers at one another. Blaming each other for some wrongdoing. I sit back and wonder where all of this negativity [...]
Media Language Tech Thu, Feb 14 2008 hide this blog

Why Can’t I Get My Milkshake?
Deaf Pagan Crossroads If you're Deaf, you probably already know about the Steak ‘n Shake fiasco. It's kinda old news by now. But for my readership that isn't Deaf, and comes here to learn more about deafness, as well as reading my various Pagan posts, I'd like to share a little bit about this incident, which has been creating [...]
Culture Thu, Feb 07 2008 hide this blog

The Deaf Community Loves Their Tats Too!
Deaf Pagan Crossroads Almost a year ago, I posted an article in which I talked about tattoos, their popularity in the Pagan Community, and getting my own tattoo - “The Goddess Must Love Tattoos.” This post quickly became quite popular with my readership, as fellow inked Pagans shared with me their own experiences of getting a tattoo, as [...]
Art and Storytelling Culture Sun, Jan 20 2008 hide this blog

Did the Celts Know Sign Language?
Deaf Pagan Crossroads Did the Celts know sign language? In this post, Ocean discusses a theory that suggests that this ancient culture of the British Isles used a manual alphabet based on the Ogham, an Early Medieval alphabet. Being that I am Celtic myself, I have always had a strong interest in the ancient Celts - their [...]
Language Thu, Jan 17 2008 hide this blog

Equal Communication Access Contest Winners
Deaf Pagan Crossroads My apologies for the delay in announcing the winners for the Equal Communication Access Blogging/Vlogging Contest. Things were a little delayed due to circumstances beyond our control, but the judges have made their final decisions, and it's now time to share the results! We did not have as many entries as we had hoped, but nevertheless we all enjoyed reading t...
Media Higher Education Language Audism Education Tech Legal Culture Thu, Oct 11 2007 hide this blog

Dancing and Deafhood
Deaf Pagan Crossroads The below was originally written as a comment in response to my post about whether Deaf people know "how to dance"... not dancing literally; but rather, the concept of standing up for themselves, expressing themselves, and celebrating themselves in the midst of the cultural revolution we seem to be undergoing. I enjoyed reading this comment so much, I...
Language Culture Mon, Oct 08 2007 hide this blog

Eyes of Desire 2 - The Video!
Deaf Pagan Crossroads Due to some technical problems, I was unable to embed the video into my first post... I've resolved this problem, so I now present to you... EYES OF DESIRE 2 - THE VIDEO CLIP (this video is produced in ASL with English subtitles)  You might recall how, back in March, I wrote a post here at the Crossroads introducing Raymond Luczak, a Deaf man w...
Culture Sun, Oct 07 2007 hide this blog

Can Deaf People Dance?
Deaf Pagan Crossroads With this post, Ocean shares an interesting email from a hearing reader of her blog, who asks some good questions about Deafhood and the Deaf Community, and how we deal with issues that affect our community... Hello Ocean ~ I want to tell you that I really enjoyed your "Dancing at Our Revolution" post. My minor in college was Women's Studies, an...
Culture Fri, Oct 05 2007 hide this blog

Dancing at Our Revolution
Deaf Pagan Crossroads In this post, Ocean shares some of her thoughts in response to Deaf Pundit's recent post at "The Deaf Edge"... While reading A Deaf Pundit's recent post "Revolution" at her blog site The Deaf Edge, I was reminded of a saying I have seen time and again over the years: "If I can't dance, I don't want to be part ...
Culture Thu, Oct 04 2007 hide this blog

Letter to My Hearing Readership
Deaf Pagan Crossroads This post - based on an actual email exchange with a hearing friend - is Ocean's attempt to share some of her innermost thoughts about Deafhood and what being a Deaf person means to her... Hi Ocean ~ I've just finished reading some of your posts and the associated comments to each of them. They are very thought provoking and do give me a lot of in...
Media Language Audism Tech Culture Mon, Oct 01 2007 hide this blog

Announcing the ECA Posts!
Deaf Pagan Crossroads Although we did not have the number of entries we had hoped for in the Equal Communication Access Blogging/Vlogging Contest, we still received a number of entries, which are listed below: Lois's My World at a Glance "Equal Communication Access" [link] Deaf Culture On-Line "Intimate Moments" [link] Signs of the...
Media Language Audism Art and Storytelling Education Tech Legal Culture Thu, Sep 27 2007 hide this blog

ECA Entry - "A Day In the Life of a Deaf/HoH Person"
Deaf Pagan Crossroads Here is one of the entries for the Equal Communication Access Blogging & Vlogging Contest, submitted by "WAD." Because this individual does not have a blog site, this entry is being posted here for everyone's reading pleasure. In this entry, WAD has chosen to show a schedule of a day in a deaf/hard of hearing person's life, and demonstrate...
Language Tech Legal Culture Wed, Sep 26 2007 hide this blog

Final Week for the Equal Communication Access Contest!
Deaf Pagan Crossroads Reminder, folks! You have ONE WEEK LEFT to submit your entries for the ECA Blogging and Vlogging Contest! Perhaps you are wondering why you should even bother to submit an entry? What's the purpose of this contest? What good would it do? Let me explain a little about the history of the Equal Communication Access Project and how this contest came to be, and [...]
Culture Sat, Sep 15 2007 hide this blog

Revised Rules for the ECA Contest!
Deaf Pagan Crossroads Greetings to All ~ As the Contest Coordinator of the Equal Communication Access Vlogging/Blogging Contest, I now stand humbly before all of you to say that perhaps I didn't think this whole thing through carefully before I set it up. Maybe I was being a tad naive - thinking it would be a nice and simple fun contest, where people would be able to submit their [...]
Media Language Culture Tue, Aug 21 2007 hide this blog

ECA Blogging/Vlogging Contest Changes!!!
Deaf Pagan Crossroads As a result of feedback received from the Deaf Community, the ECA Campaign Committee members met to discuss and approve the following changes: Equal Communication Access Blogging/Vlogging Contest Entry Deadline Has Been Extended New Deadline for Submitting Entries Is Now Saturday, September 22nd Entries must be submitted by [...]
Mon, Aug 20 2007 hide this blog

Deafhood, Power, and Will
Deaf Pagan Crossroads (This is Part I of a series of blogs Ocean plans to do which explore the merger of her identity as a Deaf individual with her practice as a Pagan, and how that merger can be applied to both Deaf issues and Pagan topics.) Reading the various blogs and watching the various vlogs related to the recent Deaf Bilingual Coalition protest at the A.G.Bell conference in [...]
Fri, Aug 17 2007 hide this blog

Clarification of the ECA Contest
Deaf Pagan Crossroads Because I have gotten a few emails from people wanting to know how to enter the ECA Contest, I thought I would repost the information here. Some people have asked why we require that the vlog or video must be captioned or include a transcript. The reason for such is this - the theme of this contest is Equal Communication Access. This means Equal Communication Access [...]
Sun, Aug 12 2007 hide this blog

Kids Share Their Thoughts on Equal Communication Access
Deaf Pagan Crossroads Here is a wonderful example of a video on Equal Communication Access: Unfortunately, this video isn't eligible for our ECA contest, because it was created by the children of one of our judges - these are Barb DiGi's kids. As you probably know, Barb's children were involved in the recent DBC demonstration, and they certainly know something about [...]
Language Audism Education Tech Sat, Aug 11 2007 hide this blog

Lonely Posts
Deaf Pagan Crossroads Now that I've finished listing the favorites of the Crossroads, I'm going in the opposite direction. What posts have not received a lot of hits lately? This isn't saying that these posts were not good ones or were not enjoyed by the readership, but it appears they are not the more popular ones on this site. They may have received a number of hits for [...]
Higher Education Language Education Culture Sun, Aug 05 2007 hide this blog

Deaf Babies + ECA = Winning Combination
Deaf Pagan Crossroads As I read the various posts at DeafRead in which many Deaf individuals express their thoughts and opinions about the recent Deaf Bilingual Coalition demonstration at the A.G. Bell Conference in Virginia, I am struck by an important thought... The main goal of DBC isn't just about sign language for deaf children, nor is DBC about being against speech therapy [...]
Tue, Jul 31 2007 hide this blog

Equal Communication Access Blogging/Vlogging Contest
Deaf Pagan Crossroads Announcing THE EQUAL COMMUNICATION ACCESS BLOGGING/VLOGGING CONTEST "Why i support Equal Communication Access" Write a Blog Sign a Vlog Create a Video Clip Tell Us or Show Us This contest is being sponsored by the Equal Communication Access Campaign a group of hard-working volunteers dedicated [...]
Language Audism Education Tech Legal Mon, Jul 23 2007 hide this blog

How to Enter the ECA Contest
Deaf Pagan Crossroads There are five categories that an individual can choose from. You can only enter ONCE, in one of the following categories: Best Blog Entry - A written blog from a deaf or hard of hearing person sharing thoughts, etc. on ECA. Blogs must be written in English, and can include pictures, etc. Best Vlog Entry - A video blog from a deaf or hard [...]
Audism Education Tech Legal Mon, Jul 23 2007 hide this blog

ECA Contest - Judges and Judging Criteria
Deaf Pagan Crossroads THE JUDGES PANEL and JUDGING CRITERIA EQUAL COMMUNICATION ACCESS Blogging/Vlogging Contest Allison Kaftan, deaf since birth, is a native cuer and an alumna of Gallaudet University. When not losing that last grain of sanity in the doctoral program in English over at the George Washington University, she enjoys spending spare time (ha!) with her husband and [...]
Language Education Tech Legal Mon, Jul 23 2007 hide this blog

I'm Cooler Online...
Deaf Pagan Crossroads My hearing friend Crystal Dolphin passed on these lyrics to me from the new Brad Paisley CD that just recently came out. A friend of hers played the song for her the other day, and she got a real kick out of it. I have to agree it's a real hoot! When I checked out Brad's website, I found the video for this song, and then discovered a YouTube version of it, [...]
Fri, Jul 20 2007 hide this blog

What Does Equal Communication Access Mean to YOU?
Deaf Pagan Crossroads With this post, Ocean challenges other bloggers and vloggers - deaf, hard of hearing, hearing - to publish a post on their own sites discussing the concept of Equal Communication Access. Such blogs and vlogs will be eligible (upon submission) for entry into the "Equal Communication Access" blogger/vlogger contest that we are currently setting [...]
Language Tue, Jul 17 2007 hide this blog

What Equal Communication Access means to me
Deaf Pagan Crossroads Another blog which I feel deserves the Thinking Blogger's Award is The Deaf Edge, a blog created by my friend and frequent Crossroads visitor, Deaf Pundit. It's an excellent blog for thinking about and discussing some of the issues which we as a Deaf Community often face. Congratulations, Deaf Pundit...you've earned it! The Deaf Edge Recently [...]
Language Audism Legal Culture Sat, Jul 14 2007 hide this blog

Ocean by Helio - mobile device
Deaf Pagan Crossroads I'm curious if anyone has checked out a mobile device called "Ocean" being offered by Helio? It seems to be a pretty cool little product...somewhat similar to the SideKick, it's the world's first dual slider with both a numeric keyboard and a QWERTY keyboard. It also has a built-in two megapixel camera with 4X digital zoom, built-in [...]
Tech Tue, Jul 10 2007 hide this blog

Tag...You're It!
Deaf Pagan Crossroads My friend Robin over at Bountiful Healing recently tagged me, choosing to award me with the following... It's the Thinking Blogger Award. It's an award given to those blogs that... well, make you think. I'm honored that someone out there believes that my blog stimulates those little gray cells. That was my hope when I created this [...]
Tue, Jul 10 2007 hide this blog

Hearing Aids Go to the Birds???
Deaf Pagan Crossroads You gotta wonder what this bird was thinking.... photo by rpiker101
Tech Sun, Jul 01 2007 hide this blog

And Your Favorites Are...
Deaf Pagan Crossroads I've been going over my blog statistics, and I find it interesting to take a look at which posts seem to attract the greatest number of readers. Over the past nearly eight months, I have put up a total of 110 posts. That averages out to nearly 4 a week, or one every other day. Yup, been keeping myself busy! So which posts have turned out to be your favorites? I [...]
Language Culture Sat, Jun 30 2007 hide this blog

Defining Ethics
Deaf Pagan Crossroads Recently, I wrote a post for DeafDC.com in which I discussed the concept of ethics as it might apply to the deaf v/blogosphere. You can read this post here. This post generated considerable discussion and some interesting comments. I want to take a moment to thank all of the individuals who read this post, and especially those who did leave comments. Trying to [...]
Culture Mon, Jun 25 2007 hide this blog

Gift From a Friend
Deaf Pagan Crossroads Today I'm doing a little housecleaning in the Spirit Room, readying it for Litha - the Summer Solstice, which will soon be occurring on June 21st. As I vacuumed and dusted and rearranged and altered my altars yet again, my eyes fell upon the following framed poem, which was written especially for me a year ago by a Deaf friend. It gave me much comfort then, and [...]
Sun, Jun 17 2007 hide this blog

The Sign for Access?
Deaf Pagan Crossroads If you have visited Deaf Pundit´s "The Deaf Edge" blogsite recently, you might be aware of the "Equal Communication Access" PR campaign she is currently coordinating. I applaud her for taking the initiative to create such a campaign and get the word out! However, this campaign has gotten me thinking a little... What sign do you use for "access?" I tend to use the [...]
Language Wed, Jun 06 2007 hide this blog

Can Deaf People Whistle?
Deaf Pagan Crossroads Recently, my blogger friend WhitishRabbit over at "Down the the Rabbit Hole" put up a post about... you guessed it - whistling. (Check out "Make A Joyful Noise" over at her blog). And not just any ole whistle either: ...that two-fingered war-whoop whistle that so many boys seem to master around the second grade... She goes on to [...]
Sun, Jun 03 2007 hide this blog

Follow-Up on Firewalking
Deaf Pagan Crossroads As could be expected, there has been a considerable "buzz" generated by the Firewalking Video which was posted here at the Crossroads earlier. A number of comments were left and some emails sent which asked a couple of questions and expressed a lot of curiosity to understand firewalking better, and learn how I became involved in this. As a result, I have [...]
Education Wed, May 23 2007 hide this blog

Signing with the Celts
Deaf Pagan Crossroads One of the Crossroads frequent visitors is a man from the Albany, New York area who goes by the name of "Gobae." He is both an ASL enthusiast who has been studying the language for several years (and is now contemplating becoming an interpreter), and also a Celtic re-enactor with a strong interest in the culture and history of the ancient Celts. Recently [...]
Education Culture Mon, May 21 2007 hide this blog