Why Did the Chicken Cross the Road ?
(Pagan-style)
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 chicken 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 > 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.
Other 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).