In Tannin's words:
From the age of 14 till the present, Tannin has dedicated a significant part of her life in pursuit ofvarious spiritual arts both privately and professionally. Tannin has studied diverse practices and paths such as Gi Gong, Shamanistic energy techniques, Gnostisism, Afro-Caribbean religions, and even a pinch of Ceremonial Magick. At present, the proprietor of Worcester's only occult specialty store, Bones and Flowers, Tannin is also a crafter in diverse media (acrylics, small sculpture, ceramic, bone , wood, etc), and is also available to perform various rites of passage — including legally binding handfastings.

undie girl: You describe your environment in New Jersey as "notably non-New Age." How do you see this influencing your Pagan path -- and feel free to be extra honest about the New Agers.

Tannin: Well, I grew up on the New Jersey Shore. Have you ever watched Kevin Smith's films such as Clerks or Dogma? He's a fellow "shore rat" who pretty much captured the feel of the area I grew up in. West Long Branch was right along seaside towns that had once been booming tourist attractions. Taking a stroll down any boardwalk ranging from Long Branch all the way down to Point Pleasant Beach during the mid-to-late seventies offered strong contrasts of splendor and ruin. I vividly remember being a little kid, maybe about eight or nine, peeking in the broken windows of a carousel house in Asbury Park glimpsing beautifully hand carved horses partially dismantled from their stations among scattered rusty gears on a grease smeared concrete floor. Then there was the beach, or I should say, The Beach. The tides were powerful, yet their sound was soothing. On it rode everything from boats, to seagulls to garbage. The sand hid treasures, such as purpled clamshells (sometimes referred to as "wampum") and hid scarbringing teeth in the form of beer bottle shards and the occasional rusty nail or needle. Local government and businesses were desperately trying to revitalize the area. Tons of money was poured in to different projects ranging from community clean-ups to large festivals. There really wasn't much room for the
marketing of New Age ideas, unless you count the hawking of the occasional pet rock or "Indian Made" jewelry. It was an area racially and economically divided.

In truth though, while I can (and do) bust on the idiocies of newage (pronounced to rhyme with "sewage") marketing from time to time, I can't in good consciousness go on blind tears against all "New Age" folk. After all, 'twas upon the tide of the Dawning of the Age of Aquarius (in correspondence with the traits assigned to that particular zodiac sign, the beginning of an era for great social change and the upheaval of formidable institutions and cherished old-fogey ideas) that Neo-Paganism rode in on. One of the key ideas of the New Age Movement was that in order to have a future, we, the people of the present had to open ourselves to the wisdom of the past and all that rigamarole. So here I am, along with Raven, talking about making
offerings to Aphrodite at the strip bars, and summoning salamanders from lightsockets. In all seriousness, some of those 30 thru 50 something Newagers I met while in my late teens reading cards at fleamarkets and little festivals really did influence my slowly evolving brainwave patterns, especially in the area of seeking the holy in the vulgar, the spirit in the mundane.

undie girl: As the owner of an occult shop that explicitly caters to all esoteric paths, have you had any interesting experiences with interfaith inter-metaphysical-trad run-in's -- I imagine you can encounter a lot of diversity in traditions and opinions!

Tannin: Oh geez. You've seen that cutsey sounding bumper sticker that reads "My karma ran over my dogma", right? In essence, I think of it as talking about one's spiritual path (past present and future) just kicking the crap out of one's pet beliefs. I've observed things while running Bones and Flowers that have really blown my mind. Sometimes it's those little moments that really make you do a double take. What kind of story would you like? How about an anecdote involving a Wiccan woman who was in the midst of explaining to her shopping companion how she practiced an ancient fertility religion while browsing through my shop came upon the stores bookshelf and switched to a rant on how there was too much nudity on the covers of books about Pagan religion? What about the fact that over the years I have been open in a neighborhood chock full of Christian and Born-again Ministries, I have always been able to respond with a confident "no" to the question " So, have the local churches ever given you a hard time about the shop"? Then there's the morning I went online to check out the web site for an out of state Pagan Pride event and I saw, to my disbelief , that the silly organizer had devised an itemized "undesirables" list of traditions and philosophies that were not welcome at their event (which included the Norse-based Asatru and Afro-Caribbean based faiths such as Santeria) because they were too negative ?

undie girl: I've been hearing quite the buzz around your book, The Urban Primitive: Paganism in the Concrete Jungle. Maybe it's because I know a great deal of Pagans who feel as if the sacred connections to the cities haven't been as explored as other areas of Pagan culture. Where is the magic in the city for you? Where did the book originate for you?

Tannin: As cheesy is it may sound, my answer is "The magic can be anywhere". Sometimes it's a rare find, like a clean bird skull found beneath a railroad bridge. Once it came in the form of a sweet little old lady near the bus depot downtown in a powder blue cardigan who rolled up her sleeve to show me the unicursal hexagram tattoo on her inner wrist. There are a number of places in Worcester that have shared special energy with me. As to my part in the book, it's as we wrote in the intro: I was kind of sick and tired of folks who described the energy of cities as "dead". It may not always be particularly tasty, but it certainly isn't dead! It is different to work with than the energy of wild, wooded, rural areas, so I thought it was time to put it into words. As luck would have it, Raven did too.

undie girl: One of the things I was most drawn to in the book's press is how class issues are raised -- how does one speak to the yuppies, to the punk witches, those who can afford expensive ritual items and those who trashpick and craft from found objects. How do you see class issues at hand in the Pagan community -- any strong insights that you uncovered in writing on the book?

Tannin: Yikes! Is this mike on??? Yeah. Social and economic class issues are one of the 600 pound gorillas in the Pagan Community. Few people are willing to poke it in the eye with a pillow, nonetheless a pointy stick. Want to see some lines in the sand? Go check out the cost of going to different festivals and retreats. To some of our people, 10 bucks at the door is a hardship never mind a couple of hundred in addition the cost of taking a few days off of work. There seems to be a delusion that "most of us" are online. In order to "be online" one has to have access to a computer on a regular basis, and that usually means you either own one or have access to one at work. Libraries give limited access to the Net (some allow surfing, others don't anymore). On the other hand, there is an assumption among others that our people essentially poor freaks (young, alternatypes) with similar politics. I've met Pagan state troopers, social workers , EMTs, school teachers, lawyers, stock traders, you name it. There are exceptions to every rule, and rules to every exception, or so it seems. What we all have in common is the draw to The Magick in and of The Earth. It's like the spokes in the wheel of the eightfold path- we are connected to the same core, but not all paths walk the same, and some of the languages spoken on those roads are alien to those who walk on some of the others. The biggest chunk of reality check I have had to bite from writing this book is that sometimes we gotta talk, sometimes we gotta listen, and sometimes we gotta agree to disagree. (That's not so much from writing it, but from reading the reviews, really.)

And now for the Proust-style undie questionaire --
undie girl: What’s you favorite thing to do in your undies?

Tannin: (GRIN) My favorite thing to do in my undies is to Smile, smile, smile. Eating tasty things like sushi or melted cheese sandwiches with tomato soup while in my underwear is good too.

undie girl: Has anyone made assumptions about you because of your undies? What were they? How did that make you feel? How right were they?

Tannin: Umm. I don't always wear underwear . I think a few people in my life have come to some bizarre conclusions because I was not wearing panties, for instance. One person commented that he was "honored" because I wasn't wearing undies under my pantyhose for a motorcycle ride. Like my personal comfort was for his benefit, or something. If I had been alerted that I was being to be transported to our destination by bike, I would have worn pants instead! I felt rather amused about the whole thing, with a good dash of "you wish!" on the side.

undie girl: How do ever have time to put on undies? What does a day in your life look like?

Tannin: Putting aside time for undies requires scheduling. I get up, put on the ol' work clothes (during the course of a day, I am not just clerkin' here at the store, I'm also crafting) and do my thing for up to 12 hours. Then there are errands to be run, projects to plow through and way too much e-mail to write. (Proverb from my youth: The more you complain, the longer God lets you live.) I try to schedule undie time at least once every two months. With whom, and under what circumstances is far more titillating when left unsaid.

undie girl: If you could have a soap box to stand on, what would it be? Okay, if you need two, that's fine!

Tannin: If I had a day with a captive audience to preach to, I'd probably rant to certain Neo-Pagans about the subject of what qualifies as persecution. Receiving a pamphlet on Christ, Big Daddy and the Spook at the bus stop (or at work for that matter) while annoying is just not the same as being dragged bodily out of your shop by the beard in front of your family and having your windows and kicked in with a jackboot are just not the same. I'm not saying that Neo-pagans don't have problems on account of prejudice, but damn! I'm really tired of folks bringing up Nazis and referencing the "No one was left to speak for me" poem inappropriately. (My last name is Schwartzstein, and I was raised as a Conservative Jew. I take this sort of nonsense somewhat personally).

undie girl: Finally -- sex, spirit, power, and freedom -- how do all of these play into your life? Do they fuse? Do they fight? Tell us a story.

Tannin: Freedom: Freedom is an abstract concept, until it is lost or gained. DEVO sang: "Freedom of choice is what you've got/Freedom from choice is what you want".

Sex: Ah ha. Sex. I like sex, sex is generally a good thing. I have an (er) active root chakra. Sex can be a form of play, a path to spiritual openings, an addiction, a source of hope, a place of deep despair. Where's my calendar? I need to schedule some of that.

Spirit: That's a good bit. The trick is to feed one's spirit stuff to keep its eyes bright and searching , rather than thinks that make it bloated and lazy. I find that producing artwork, trashpicking, learning something new and having my ideas challenged keeps it bright eyed and bushy tailed. Watching too much television, being holed up in the same place for too long, and too much instant gratification turns it into something resembling Jabba the Hutt.

Power: In order to keep it, you have to accept it and work it carefully like a newly developing muscle. Sometimes it's easy to mistake "control" for power.

Play: I'm a typical Capricorn, in that sometimes my play resembles work to other people. Other times I forget how to play really hard.

You can visit Tannin's store online at Bones and Flowers.