Green Egg, one of the oldest periodicals serving the contemporary Pagan community, dates to 1962 and the formation of a "water brotherhood" by Tim Zell and Lance Christie, both students at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri. They were inspired in part by the description of a religious group in Robert Heinlein's science fiction classic, Stranger in a Strange Land. They called the brotherhood "Atl" and issued an information newsletter, The Atlan Torch. Shortly thereafter they transferred to the University of Oklahoma and the Atl became the Atlan Foundation. The Torch was transformed into The Atlan Annals.
In 1968, following his graduation, Zell relocated to St. Louis, Missouri, and the foundation again transformed this time into the Church of All Worlds (the name of the group in the Heinlein novel), and identified with the emerging Pagan movement. The Atlan Annals was discontinued and superseded by the Green Egg. The first issue was but a single sheet reproduced on a ditto machine. Over the next decade it grew into an 80-page magazine issued eight times annually and circulated freely as the organ for the expression of the diversity within the community. Numerous debates were fought out on the pages of its extensive letters-to-the-editor column. The Church of All Worlds prospered until 1974, when Zell retired from leadership and moved to rural northern California. He left the Green Egg in charge of the church members and it was soon discontinued. Through the next decade the church almost dissolved.
In the late 1980s Zell (now known as Otter) began to revive the church and in 1988 the first issue of what would be a new series of the Green Egg appeared on the 20th anniversary of its initial issue. It quickly regained its position within the Pagan community and in 1991 won the Silver Award from the Wiccan/ Pagan Press Alliance as the "Most Professionally Formatted Pagan Publication." Adopting the professional look available in the 1990s for desktop publications, it has continued to improve in quality and became one of the first Pagan periodicals to be generally distributed first through the network of metaphysical bookstores and more recently into the chains of secular bookstores.
As of the end of the 1990s, Green Egg is a 72-page bimonthly publication reflective of the beliefs and practices of the contemporary Pagan Goddess-oriented world. Most recently, Maerian Morris has succeeded Zell, now known as Oberon Zell-Ravenheart, as editor. Each issue contains a set of feature articles, generally grouped around a single theme. Space is also devoted to issues being discussed within the Pagan community, poetry, and several columns. The magazine still features the "Forum," its extensive letters-to-the-editor column.
Green Egg is published at 212 S. Main St., Ste. 22B, Willits, CA 95490. It has a website at http://www.greenegg.org/.
Sources:
Green Egg. Willits, Calif., n.d.
Green Egg. http://www.greenegg.org/. February 28, 2000.
