Im Rahmen des 20. FOI Annual Goddess Festival fand das Dulce Domum für Deena Butta (1. Juni 1950 – 27. Januar 2012) im Life Force Arts Center in Chicago statt.
Das Iseum mit dem Ziegenfisch ist Deena in tiefem Dank verbunden, ihr Wirken hat dieses Iseum wesentlich geprägt und sie war Bürgin bei der Gründung des Iseums.
Unser Nachruf war Teil des Dulce Domum-Ritual in Chicago.
„From Gisela, Iseum with the Goatfish, Berlin, Oct. 1.2013:
Throughout the last years when announcing the annual Goddess Festival and its main ritual Deena had always stated how important it was for everyone to prepare for the great changes coming up with the end of 2012. – Now we know what these changes meant for Deena´s personal path. And at the same time Deena´s passing through the Veil has become one aspect of the transforming changes happening with many of us.
Since 2006 Deena was part of my life. I had applied for a correspondence course at her lyceum, picking it at random from the FOI-directory. I had expected to receive in the course of studying more or less standardized replies for each lesson which would fit for each student and any manifesto-course. But Deena dealt with my answers in a very individual way, sensing my spiritual needs and meeting them best she could. Suddenly I had a teacher on the other side of the Ocean willing to answer ALL questions on spirituality I had ever hoped to ask… And I threw myself to that opportunity. I think, only then I realized how long I had been craving for such an opportunity. Deena devoted her time to my spiritual growth, never asking whether that would help her own lyceum in any way. Deena was an empathic teacher: patient, encouraging, understanding, friendly, good-humored, full of tolerance and at the same time clear about her essentials. She was a profound source of open-minded knowledge, wisdom and spiritual experience.
Throughout the years we got to know more about each other; we were about the same age, she had three sons, I have three daughters. Our correspondence obtained a personal touch, the topics grew wider… And all this was highlighted when we met in person for one whole week around the Goddess Festival 2010: the Priestess in her personal surroundings, the Priestess with her spiritual family. The picture I had got from our correspondence became more colourful now and I loved what I saw. Deena and I parted with a very conscious, attentive good bye to each other. Now I find some consolation with that parting well made, though we believed of course we would meet again in some years` time.
Deena was my mentor and my friend; in a way she was my solid rock, when things got difficult among German pagans or in relation to the world outside. My iseum is her “daughter-iseum”, Deena is my cherished paragon of a priestess, her lyceum was my Hy Brazil and I feel homesick for it. And I shall always be proud to say, I studied with Deena and got my initiations from her.“
Deenas Leben in Kürze:
Deena war ihr Leben lang eine engagierte Vorkämpferin für die Göttin-Spiritualität. Sie war Archpriestess der Fellowship of Isis, seit 1994 organisierte sie das weithin bekannte jährliche Goddess Festival in Chicago, zu dem Gäste aus dem In- und Ausland kamen. Sie war eine hoch geschätzte Lehrerin in der FOI, ihre Korrespondenzkurse verbanden sie mit Student/innen und Absolvent/innen in der ganzen Welt. Deena war in vielen neuheidnischen sowie interreligiösen Initiativen in Chicago engagiert, so auch beim bedeutenden Parlament der Weltreligionen 1993. Sie war Herausgeberin des Isis-Seshat-Journals, das in der ganzen Welt von FOI-Mitgliedern gelesen wurde. In ihrem beruflichen Leben war Deena Bibliothekarin mit dem Spezialgebiet Genealogie. Deena war Ehefrau, Mutter und Großmutter.