The Church of All Worlds grew out of Atl in 1967. It was conceived, according to
Christie, as a “living laboratory” to work out problems in communal living,
philosophy, and communication... The Church was “Tim Zell’s baby,” Christie wrote
at one point, and much of what came to pass was the evolution of Zell’s own vision,
with which not all Atlans sympathized.
—Margot Adler, Drawing Down the Moon, Beacon Press; 1979, p. 274-5

It took a catalyst to create a sense of collectivity around the word Pagan, and in the
United States the Church of All Worlds and its Green Egg filled this role. It was Tim
Zell who picked up the term from Young Omar’s article.   For this reason alone the
Church of All Worlds deserves a large place in this story... CAW helped a large
number of distinct groups to realize they shared a common purpose, and this gave the
phenomenon new significance. Until then, each group had existed on its own, coming
into contact with others only at rare events like the Renaissance fairs in California or
science fiction conventions. CAW and Tim Zell, by using terms like Pagan and
Neo-Pagan in referring to the emerging collectivity of new earth religions, linked
these groups, and Green Egg created a communications network among them.

—Margot Adler, Drawing Down the Moon, Beacon Press; 1979, p. 277

Zell’s articles had a strong influence on the development of the Church of All
Worlds...the effect of “Theagenesis; The Gaea Hypothesis” on CAW’s history and
on the thoughts and goals of church priests, priestesses, and members has been
extraordinary. All the CAW members I interviewed felt that the goals of Neo-
Paganism were enormous, involving a total transformation of Western society. In
contrast, only half the other Neo-Pagans I interviewed thought in such sweeping
terms.

      —Margot Adler, Drawing Down the Moon, Beacon Press; 1979, p. 285-6

By 1978 much had changed in the Church of All Worlds... But CAW’s role as catalyst
for the Neo-Pagan movement had ended, at least temporarily, with the death of
Green Egg. How important Green Egg was to the Neo-Pagan community is a matter
of controversy. There are many who welcomed its death with a sigh of relief. But
others, including myself, believed that it was a key to the movement’s vitality and that
its death in 1976 was a blow from which the movement is only now recovering...It is
popular today to talk about ‘synergy’— a combination that has a greater effect than
the simple addition of its components—and that perhaps best describes the effect of
Green Egg. It connected all the evolving and emerging Goddess and nature religions
into one phenomenon: the Neo-Pagan movement. 

—Margot Adler, Drawing Down the Moon, Beacon Press, 1979; p. 294-5

In March of 1968, the GREEN EGG appeared...it grew over 80 issues into a 60-page
journal, becoming the most significant periodical in the Pagan movement during
the 1970s.

—J. Gordon Melton, Encyclopedia of American Religions, 1979

One of the most important religious organizations of Neo-Paganism in America is
the Church of All Worlds. Under the leadership of Tim Zell (who later changed his
name to Otter Zell), CAW played a key role in the 1970s in the networking of diverse
Pagan and Wiccan groups and interests, and in the defining of a Pagan as a nature
lover.

—Rosemary Guiley, Encyclopedia of Witches and Witchcraft, Facts on File, 1989; p. 63

The Gaea hypothesis was developed by Otter Zell (formerly Tim Zell), founder and
high priest of the Church of All Worlds. Zell describes Gaea as the archetypal image
of the Great Mother Goddess, a living, sentient being with a soul-essence that can be
perceived by humans... Zell also developed a mandate for the neo-Pagan community
to become involved in the ecology movement.”

—Rosemary Guiley, Encyclopedia of Witches and Witchcraft, Facts on File, 1989; p. 132

Also important to Starhawk’s cosmology was a separate, and equally dramatic,
development of pantheistic thought made during the same period, and which first
surfaced within the American Pagan community itself. It was articulated by the
Church of All Worlds, an organization of radical mystics who had originally been
inspired by science fiction and utopian writings, and was formed in Missouri in 1967.
The moving spirit was Tim (later Otter) Zell, who propagated his ideas through the
late 1960s and early 1970s in the Church’s newsletter, which grew into the periodical,
Green Egg. It established the identity of modern Paganism as a response to a planet in
crisis, and its spiritual core lay in the concept of the earth as a single, divine, living
organism. The mission of Pagans, according to this concept, was to save ‘her’ by a
transformation of the values of Western society. Zell’s definition of magic was ‘the
science you don’t understand, the science you take for granted.’

—Ronald Hutton, Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft,
Oxford University Press, 2000; pp. 351-52

Green Egg gives me a new perspective... I read the Green Egg because it has in it things
I do not find elsewhere.

                                                                                 —Robert A. Heinlein, author of Stranger in a Strange Land

I have always liked Green Egg, though it does make me a bit nervous at times. It is
full of juice. I see in Green Egg a very accepting spirit, which does not like to exclude
fellow Pagans with different angles. Good luck for the next hundred issues!

—John Rowan, author of The Horned God

It is always with a feeling of excitement that I await my next issue of the Green Egg.
It provides a breath of fresh air in the too-often sanctimonious and occasionally stuffy
atmosphere of the New Age. It offers an unusual framework for the open debate
of lofty ideas, controversial proposals and little-known facts. It is designed to feed
intellectual curiosity, but it is never pompous, even when it dares to report on those
issues the official media would like the public to forget, or to ignore.

—Jacques Vallée, author of Forbidden Science

Green Egg is one of the leading voices of the Neo-Pagan movement in North America,
a movement that is attracting increasing numbers of followers who are alarmed at
the wholesale destruction of our planet and disappointed with the lack of nature
reverence in the mainstream religions. Pagans and Neo-Pagans celebrate the Earth
and all its mysteries and beauties. Like Native Americans and like their own
pre-Christian European ancestors, they honor the spiritual forces inherent in the
natural world and seek to live in harmony with them. Green Egg is a forum and a
support system for all those trying to develop a life-style that is both spiritual and
natural, reverential and joyous.
                  
—Ralph Metzner, Ph.D., president of the Green Earth Foundation

The Church of All Worlds’ Green Egg remains the great Pagan publication: besides
unearthing old gods and birthing new ones (call on Squat the next time you need a
parking place), the Green Egg Reader’s Forum is the best print intro to the fractious,
funny, sexy texture of Pagan community.

—Erik Davis, Village Voice Literary Supplement, November 1993

I've been reading Green Egg since 1975. Like the Pagan community itself, it just gets
bigger, and better, and more beautiful all the time. 

—Cerridwen Fallingstar, author of The Heart of the Fire

Green Egg is a gutsy grabbag of news and views. Brazen, brash, beautiful and blessed.
And never boring.

—Dr. Leo Louis Martello, author of Witchcraft, the Old Religion

I must say that I am very impressed with Green Egg, which gets better and better every
time I get hold of one. Your articles are original and well thought out.        

—Cat Summers, editor of Pagan Voice, Bristol, England

I congratulate you on 100 issues of controversy, taking chances, being courageously
concerned with presenting all sides, and for pushing the envelope in excellence,
Pagan-style...You can be very proud of yourselves.
                                                                                   
—Lunaea Weatherstone, Ed. Sagewoman, Santa Cruz CA

Many thanks for the Summer issue of Green Egg which was at its usual high
standard, full of thought-provoking and interesting material which confirms your
status as one—if not the—best Pagan magazine in the universe. May GE live long
and prosper!”
                                                                                  
—Mike Howard, editor of The Cauldron, Cardigan, Wales

I am proud of the Green Egg; may she lay many more others in the years to come!

—Z Budapest, author of Grandmother of Time

The Green Egg has become one of the staples of Pagan life in the United States, and
rightly so in my opinion. For many years it has been a melting pot for Pagan
opinion and experience; a means for elders to share and beginners to learn. Paganism
without the Green Egg would be unthinkable”

—Ray Buckland, author of Buckland's Complete Book of Witchcraft

Though Lovelock’s pseudo-scientific Gaia hypothesis has gotten most of the attention,
the truth is that another controversial figure was developing a similar concept about
the same time. Tim Zell, leader of the pagan Church of All Worlds, formulated a
theology of “deep ecology” that was called Theagenesis. It had to do with “the
interconnection of all living things to each other and to Mother Earth, a sentient
being in her own right.” Zell, who now goes by the name Oberon Zell, describes
the “Mother Goddess” as “a living, sentient being with a soul-essence that can be
perceived by humans.” This idea reportedly came to him when he had a “profound
vision” in which “he saw Earth as a single biological organism that has evolved from
a single original cell, making all life forms on the planet a ‘single vast creature.’” He
views natural disasters and plagues as the means by which the planet heals itself.
      It is Zell who is credited by at least one expert as the original developer of the
Gaia hypothesis. He first called Gaia by the name Terrebia. “Zell’s Gaea has been
largely ignored by the media in favor of Lovelock’s Gaia,” states writer Rosemary
Ellen Guiley. Why? One possible explanation is that the Gaia concept could never
have been sold to the public if it were known that its originator had obvious non-
Christian or anti-Christian roots. Cloaking it in scientific terminology gives the
notion a certain amount of credibility and makes it acceptable to some.  Interestingly,
however, Guiley reports that, after hearing about Lovelock’s hypothesis, Zell
“corresponded briefly with the scientist and shared some of his ‘Theagenesis’
material with him. Zell also changed Terrebia to Gaea.”  The official “mission” of the
Church of All Worlds, the largest of the pagan movements in the U.S., involves
mobilizing the force of Gaia or Gaea. The mission is “to evolve a network of
information, mythology and experience that provides a context and stimulus for
reawakening Gaea, and reuniting her children through tribal community dedicated
to responsible stewardship and evolving consciousness.” The church has what are
called “nests” or “proto-nests” of members in the U.S. and other countries.

—Al Gore and the Cult of GAIA, by Cliff Kincaid, Director, American Sovereignty
Action Project Wisdom And Freedom produced by WORLD NEWSSTAND; Copyright
© 1999. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.