Starhawk, a pioneer in feminist spirituality, believes...

Starhawk, a pioneer in feminist spirituality, believes Western, and particularly American, society is in crisis over sacred values.

“What we consider sacred determines all of our other values. It is what we take risks for . . . what we will not compromise,” she said in an interview this week.

The 41-year-old former Angeleno will visit the Southland May 28 and 29 to speak on “Reclaiming the Sacred” for the Earth Trust Foundation, an environmental and social action organization. She is a practitioner of wicca, which is based on pre-Christian religion of Western Europe and the Middle East.

As a wicca practitioner, or “witch,” she views the world as a sensitive, living organism, which she calls “the Goddess.”

“Our problem,” Starhawk said, “is that we stopped seeing the world that way and now view it and ourselves as a haphazard collection of individual pieces, none of which has inherent worth beyond its capacity to be used in some way.

“This culture has a way of turning almost everything that exists--such as water and air and everything that is created, even music, art and the religious objects of other cultures--into a commodity,” she said. “When what is sacred is defined as being ‘outside’ our realm--like a God who created our world but exists somewhere else--and our goal is to go to heaven or get off the wheel of life, then we have license to exploit the Earth and all of her creatures.

“But when we say that the Earth and we and the elements that sustain our lives are sacred, then we must work to preserve and protect the interconnectedness of life.”

She first learned about wicca in an anthropology course at UCLA when she was 17. She says she took the name Starhawk in 1975 after it came to her in a dream. She went on to earn a master’s degree in psychology and later began teaching at the Institute for Culture and Creation Spirituality at Holy Names College in Oakland and at other colleges.

But her main work is lecturing and conducting workshops through Reclaiming, a San Francisco collective that teaches the principles and practices of wicca. She is a licensed minister of the Covenant of the Goddess and performs marriages and other ceremonies.

Her first book, “The Spiral Dance: A Rebirth of the Ancient Religion of the Great Goddess,” was one of the earliest to set forth the tenets of a feminist spirituality. It includes rituals she says she developed to recreate Earth-based spirituality in contemporary America. Since its publication in 1979, she has written two other nonfiction works and a novel, “The Fifth Sacred Thing,” published this week.

Starhawk believes it is important to translate spirituality into activism, such as by working for peace, to preserve the environment and challenge inequalities in society. In this regard, she differentiates herself from some “New Age” spiritualists.

“Many Christians, especially women and others who are trying to reclaim creation-centered theology, find her work to be compatible with, or at least adaptable to, Christian teaching,” said Mary Elizabeth Moore of the Claremont School of Theology and Claremont Graduate School. Starhawk “has also sparked many fresh alternatives for spiritual practice--such as gathering in small circles of prayer at nuclear sites,” Moore said.

Some Christians, including theologians, find Starhawk’s religious world view to be “totally foreign,” Moore noted. Indeed, the veteran author and lecturer received considerable attention when the Vatican this year ousted Matthew Fox from his Dominican order in part because of his association with Starhawk and the ideology of wicca.

Starhawk will speaks at 7:30 p.m. Friday at the First Christian Church, 609 Arizona Ave., Santa Monica, and at a seminar 10 a.m.-5:30 p.m. May 29, at Earth Trust House, 20178 Rockport Way, Malibu. Admission is $12 Friday, $95 Saturday. Proceeds benefit the Earth Trust Foundation. Scholarships are available. (310) 456-3534.

DATES

* “Immaculate Projections,” billed as an irreverent, multimedia festival of spiritual films, art and music produced by students, will be presented from 6 p.m. to midnight Wednesday at UCLA’s Melnitz Hall and Sound Stage I. “In the wake of the L.A. uprising and in the shadow of the Rodney King and Reginald Denny trials, it’s appropriate to discuss religion,” said producer Lisa Kelly, who hopes the festival “will provoke people into questioning, discussing and understanding the God in all of us.” Sponsored by the Department of Theater, Film and Television, School of the Arts, Graduate Students Assn., Fine Arts Council and Spirituality in Film, all events are free. For a complete schedule and reservations, phone (310) 205-2613.

* The ambassador of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Muhamed Sacirbey, will address the Jewish Community Relations Committee’s annual meeting at 7 p.m. Sunday at Valley Beth Shalom, 15739 Ventura Blvd., Encino. Dessert reception is $15. (213) 852-7730.

* “Dating, Sexuality and Catholicism--Practical Advice for Single Catholics” is a seminar offered by the Catholic Singles Network from 1 to 5 p.m. Sunday at the Quality Hotel near Los Angeles International Airport. Lillian Glass, author of “He Says, She Says: Closing the Communication Gap Between the Sexes,” will speak. Tickets, available at the door, are $25, $20 for members. (310) 376-1971.

* A Hungarian picnic, featuring live music, dance, folk arts and food, will be held noon to 6 p.m. Sunday at Grace Hungarian Reformed Church in Reseda, celebrating the congregation’s 35th anniversary and the beginning of the rebuilding of the church, which was severely damaged by three fires in 1992. Admission is $3. Youths under 14 admitted free. 18858 Erwin St. (818) 344-1885.

* Former U.S. Secretary of State Lawrence S. Eagleburger will address the luncheon session of the 20th annual Academic Conference sponsored by the American Friends of Hebrew University on Sunday at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. Other speakers are former Israeli ambassadors Avi Primor and Moshe Arad, international relations professor Amnon Sella and former U.S. Rep. Mel Levine. The conference is 9:15 a.m. to 3 p.m. and is free, except for the $50 luncheon, for which reservations are requested. (310) 657-6511.

BRIEFLY

* The Los Angeles Baptist City Mission Society--a multiethnic, multicultural gathering and celebration--winds up its 87th annual meeting today at the Carson Community Center. The Rev. Emory C. Campbell will speak at a banquet luncheon.

* Bethlehem Temple Church recently honored Bishop and Mrs. William L. Smith for 52 years of service . . . The St. Katherine Greek Orthodox Church of Redondo Beach honors Father Fred G. Fotion for 25 years of service to the community at a retirement dinner at the Redondo Beach Crowne Plaza Hotel tonight.