Lifetime Memberships in Church of All Worlds Now Available! This is a very special holiday gift for someone you love or for yourself. Help support what you believe in!
Church of All Worlds Membership
Terry Lee Brussel-Rogers, co-author with Glen Olson of Fifty Years of Polyamory in America, A Guided Tour of a Growing Movement (with a forward by Oberon Zell), received Lifetime memberships in both the Heinlein Society and Church of All Worlds at Los Con 49 on November 25th 2023. Los Con is put on by the LA Science Fiction and Fantasy Association every year at following Thanksgiving Friday through Sunday. Terry read her first Heinlein book at age 11 and has been an educator for his later writings on Polyamory since the 70s through Family Synergy as an event leader and board member, then by founding Live the Dream in 1987. Live the Dream is the oldest continuing Nest of Church of All Worlds.
Live the Dream, a Nest of Church of All Worlds
Terry Lee Brussel-Rogers
In 1969, at age 15, I read Stranger in a Strange Land, probably the most life changing book I have ever experienced. I shared water with my first Water Brother shortly after that. He is still my best friend today. I was part of a Nest formed by about ten science fiction fans who went to high school together. Many of the original group scattered to the four winds, but my first water brother is still my best friend and we’ve drawn many others to us over the years – twenty-five at last count. Some of these are our lovers as well.
Stranger in a Strange Land has been my interpersonal relationships Bible all this time and has served me well. I have used it, with some help from such other Heinlein books as The Moon is a Harsh Mistress and Time Enough for Love, as a touch stone for educating people about alternative lifestyles such as multiply committed relationships, group marriage, and families -by-choice.
In 1987, I formed Live the Dream with two of my water brothers then in a triad with me. Live the Dream is an education and support group for those who believe it is possible to deeply love and be committed to more than one significant other. Some of us express this by having a primary partner that we may be legally married to and lovers with whom we may share anything from a romantic evening each month to family activities and nights over several times a week. Others are actually in group marriages, some of which have been together for over a decade.
Shortly after founding LTD, I heard about Church of All Worlds and discovered to my delight and amazement that Heinlein’s fantasy concept existed in the real world and that its organizers and I had been walking similar paths separately for 20+ years.
Soon after that I got a chance to meet Otter (now Oberon) and Morning Glory in person. I was invited to their home near the Russian River in northern California. As we drove up there a filk song played: “We were traveling north to see some friends we’d never met…there were unicorns…” It seemed unbelievably appropriate, though I didn’t know at the time I’d soon meet a real unicorn. I found out on that trip that Oberon and Morning Glory were breeding real live unicorns. I developed a friendship with both of them and we Shared Water in its full meaning from Stranger in a Strange Land.
As many of us know, Oberon and Morning Glory spent many years in a line marriage, a multi-generational group marriage, based on Heinlein’s The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. At one time their relationship contained up to eight people.
Naturally, I became a member of Church of All Worlds (CAW) and Live the Dream became a Nest of Church of All Worlds. Though LTD has more emphasis on alternative lifestyles than paganism, appropriate ritual is woven into many of our holiday events. Such events became more frequent when I became a Scion (4th Circle initiate). Recently, I became a Minister of Church of All Worlds which allowed me to perform a legal wedding—which I did shortly afterward with a Water Sharing ritual for the couple’s Nest included in their wedding ceremony. I was honored to be included in their Nest as the couple were already my Waterkin.
When I read “All acts of love and pleasure are my rituals!” in CAW’s Green Egg magazine, I felt a joining of spirituality with my choice of lifestyle which has been a blessing in my life. Morning Glory Zell is the shining Light which has best represented this concept to me in my years of being privileged to know this very special lady. Her love, her compassion and her joyous, proud sexuality have been an inspiration to me and so many others whose lives she touched.
Live the Dream meets on the 3rd Saturday of the month. The meetings are for anyone seeking to learn more about multiply committed loving relationships or simply to connect with kindred spirits already living this lifestyle. We do a pot luck lunch, clothing optional hot tubbing, socializing and other activities in the afternoons following those discussions. We have a Winter Holiday Party (including Winter Solstice Ritual, lighting of Hanukkah candles, Christmas carols, etc), All Hallows Eve celebration, Passover Seder, trips to Rennaissance Faire and are open to other events of interest to our members.
Terry Lee Brussel-Rogers is a Scion and Minister of CAW. She is also a certified clinical hypnotherapist and life/business coach, director of Success Center Inc. Terry has a BA in psychology and eight additional years of training in hypnotherapy She does poly relationship coaching including sensitivity training and jealousy workshops. Terry founded Live the Dream for those who, originally inspired by the writings of science fiction such as Robert Heinlein’s Stranger in a Strange Land, are ready to live such alternative lifestyles as multiply committed relationships, group marriage, and group living. Live the Dream is based in Los Angeles, California . Phone number 818-886-0069. Web address: livethedream.org where you can find out more about our 3rd Friday and special holiday events. We are now on Zoom as well as in person!