There isn't a lot to be said about this list, so we won't spend a lot of time saying it. Certain Pagan traditions mandate ritual nudity, either because of Divine preference (eg. Lupercus worship in the Roman tradition), or because of social leveling (eg. some Gardnerian covens), or for some other reason. Rationally, this should not be a problem, especially in a community such as the Pagan one which prides itself on what it claims to be its open mindedness and tolerance. Sad to say, that community often doesn't live up to its own self-image, which is why a list like this one is needed.

"Skyclad in Chicago" was founded as a place where those interested in meeting skyclad could do so, without having to put up with a lot of narrow-minded, judgmental attitudes. That doesn't mean "anything goes", or that one can't object to dishonest or abusive behavior. We've seen where that leads in the Chicago Pagan community - to endless Witch Wars, in which the most unpleasant people around drive off everybody else. What this does mean is that it is understood that people will be gathering here for the purpose of meeting skyclad, that this is a given, and so those who come here for that purpose aren't going to be called on to defend their choice to do so. Those who ask them to, or give them grief about that choice, are subject to immediate banning. This is not a free speech list. If you're looking for one of those, the Il-Pagans Center list would seem to foot the bill. This, on the other hand, is a place where people go to not be hassled.

Some might think that this is too limited a topic to keep a list going. In response to this, I've set up a list of suggested topics to get people started, over on the homepage for the Skyclad Pagan Ring, which is located on this site. (The Skyclad Pagan ring is associated with this list). Once the discussion gets going, we're sure that people will think of other topics as well, and we encourge them to pursue those. There are also some rules you have to follow to stay on this list, and I'd strongly recommend that you read them.

Sometimes, people will feel the need to yell at each other, and if this in consensual, fine. The old "Skyclad in Chicago" list had a companion gripe list for such things, and we'll revive that too : "Angry Nekkid People". All personal disputes should be taken there. It was established specifically so that people could work out their personal disputes without everybody on the list having to wade through the mind-numbing twaddle be distracted by the details of a conflict which might not be of interest to them. Failure to respect that policy has gotten people banned from Skyclad in the past, and would again. We don't want to see this list become a flamepit.

As for the truthfulness or untruthfulness of what anybody posts on the gripe list : for the most part, darned if we know. We're tired of the subject of community politics. We will say, however, that somebody who automatically believes an accusation made on a list just because the person accused hasn't responded, has to be kind of stupid. Accusations and attacks online are often ignored because the person being attacked has better things to do with his time than get into a time-consuming online battle, and the troll attacking him, having little in the way of a life and few constructive ways to get attention, does not. This seems to be especially true in the Pagan community which, owing to its "none of the above" theological nature, seems to catch a lot of the people which other religious communities would not welcome into their presence for very long.

So, please don't think that you always have to respond to what you see on "Angry Nekkid People". The support you lose by having a life, is support which you wouldn't want to spend a lot of time talking to in a coffeehouse. As for those winning people who believe everything they read, we'd like to point out that this is a local list, and we all have the chance to talk to people face to face. If you're forming firm opinions about the parties involved in a conflict without doing that first, and then taking a while to figure out who to believe, then shame on you. That's the kind of enabling behavior that makes Witch Wars escalate, and it's done more to destroy the Pagan community than almost anything else that we can think of. If somebody wishes to be like that, he's certainly free to make that bad choice, but he shouldn't expect to see too many real life invitations if he does. The 90s are over, and most of us are tired of this "trial by combat" nonsense.

Enough said on that topic? Let's move on.

"Nude doesn't mean lewd". Some on this list will have what might be called "progressive sexual attitudes"; many will not. This list occupies a sort of middle ground in permissiveness between a list like Adult Illinois Pagans, where sexually oriented Pagan material IS welcome, and the usual run of local lists. This, itself, is not an adult list, so please do not post adult material to it, or post notices for sexually oriented events to it. That's not what most are looking for here, and there is a better place for such things. This is a specifically Pagan list, so general, non-Pagan related naturist events are off-topic on it. If you're looking for lists on which such events would be on-topic, the Chicago Sun Club might be able to help you with that. Those who'd like to sign up for the mailing list without having a Yahoo membership are welcome to use the subscription button below. And that's about it, so you might as well go to the list, now. All griping and warnings aside, we do hope that you'll have as good time on it as possible.

Acknowledgements : Our thanks to Photo Bucket for hosting some of the images you see on our lists, and Feebleminds, for a number of graphics you see used on this site, and on the Skyclad Pagan Webring.