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Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in
The Wild Hunt's InsaneJournal:
- Reminder: We are in the midst of our first annual Winter Pledge Drive! If you value this blog, its mission, and its content, please consider making a donation to keep The Wild Hunt open, ad-free, and updated daily. Spread the word, and thanks to all who have donated so far!
- Reminder: We are in the midst of our first annual Winter Pledge Drive! If you value this blog, its mission, and its content, please consider making a donation to keep The Wild Hunt open, ad-free, and updated daily. Spread the word, and thanks to all who have donated so far!
- Reminder: We are in the midst of our first annual Winter Pledge Drive! If you value this blog, its mission, and its content, please consider making a donation to keep The Wild Hunt open, ad-free, and updated daily. Spread the word, and thanks to all who have donated so far!
- Reminder: We are in the midst of our first annual Winter Pledge Drive! If you value this blog, its mission, and its content, please consider making a donation to keep The Wild Hunt open, ad-free, and updated daily. Spread the word, and thanks to all who have donated so far!
- Basic – $5
- Reader – $20
- Supporter – $50
- Benefactor – $150
- Affiliate – Consider becoming a Wild Hunt underwriter, with a listing and link on The Wild Hunt’s new “Affiliates” page. Contact me for further details.
- Reminder: We are in the midst of our first annual Winter Pledge Drive! If you value this blog, its mission, and its content, please consider making a donation to keep The Wild Hunt open, ad-free, and updated daily. Spread the word, and thanks to all who have donated so far!
- Reminder: We are in the midst of our first annual Winter Pledge Drive! If you value this blog, its mission, and its content, please consider making a donation to keep The Wild Hunt open, ad-free, and updated daily. Spread the word, and thanks to all who have donated so far!
- To keep The Wild Hunt full-access (no subscription fees or “pay-walls”).
- To keep The Wild Hunt non-commercial (no ads or spam).
- To keep The Wild Hunt daily.
- Basic – $5
- Reader – $20
- Supporter – $50
- Benefactor – $150
- Affiliate – Consider becoming a Wild Hunt underwriter, with a listing and link on The Wild Hunt’s new “Affiliates” page. Contact me for further details.
| Friday, November 20th, 2009 | |
| 10:15 am | Quick Note: University of Nebraska Settles with Witch About a year ago, I reported on a University of Nebraska employee who was allegedly fired for being a Witch. “Jane Doe”, who is a member of Reclaiming, claimed that once her superior found out about her religious beliefs she was fired and replaced by a non-Pagan. Now, the Journal Star reports that the University has settled the case, though they still won’t admit that her claims of discrimination have any validity.
The University very likely settled because the Nebraska Equal Opportunity Commission had already ruled that Ms Doe’s rights were violated in the run-up to the lawsuit. So rather than potentially lose a lawsuit, and gain lots of unwanted attention in the press, they settle. Better a lump sum than humble pie. A trend we may well see repeated in the Bath & Body Works and Google firings. Thanks to Religion Clause for the tip-off on this story. |
| 2:30 am | (Pagan) News of Note My semi-regular round-up of articles, essays, and opinions of note for discerning Pagans and Heathens. It seems like a given nowadays that if some dead animals turn up, practitioners of Santeria or Vodou will get blamed by a police officer, animal shelter spokesman, or speculative/lazy/bored journalist, even though most of these cases bear little resemblance to the actual religious practices of African diasporic faiths (and it usually ends up being teenagers). Journalistic coverage of these animal killings, and the assumed religious angle, has gotten so bad that press watch-dog blog Get Religion has started asking for some needed clarification.
The quote referenced above, from an AP story, and left unexamined, is from another representative of an animal cruelty center, making me wonder what kind of workshops on ritual killings (or horror movies) these people are attending. I’m very glad to see the issue of the horrible reporting concerning mysterious animal deaths and their alleged connection to Santeria or Vodou is being picked up on by more religion-news watchers. Maybe now we can finally inch away from pure sensationalism whenever a dead animal turns up. Over at the Times, Cambridge classics professor Mary Beard visits a famous Clootie well near he village of Munlochy and wonders if the practice of tying rags to branches for healing really is an ancient pagan custom.
I’ll leave it to my Celtic reconstructionist readers to look into the matter and let me (and Mary) know. While we’re on the subject of Ms. Beard’s skeptical nature, she also takes aim at the theory that ancient Greek temples were deliberately built to face the rising Sun. I’ll leave it to my Hellenic Pagan readers to weigh in on that one (I’m quite the delegator today). Author and techgnostic Erik Davis has posted an essay adapted from the introduction to the new photography collection “Tribal Revival” that deals with the West coast neotribal festival culture.
Something of a neotribal himself, Davis waxes Utopian about the the “festival [as] foundation of world renewal”, and the “earthy communion” these interweaving groups partake in. Whether this subcultural phenomenon will truly equip us for an uncertain future remains to be seen, but I’m certainly open to there being more festival, “feral joy”, and liminality in our lives. Turning briefly to pop-culture, the io9 blog has a clip from the upcoming Percy Jackson movie “The Lightning Thief” featuring Uma Thurman as Medusa. I’ve written about the pagan-ness of Percy Jackson previously, which follows the adventures of young Greek demigods. “The Lightning Thief” is due out in February. Meanwhile, the highly literate/geeky indie rock band The Decemberists is putting out a full-length animated film of their recent myth-drenched pagan-y concept album “The Hazards of Love”.
That trailer looks pretty cool/trippy. If you want to acquaint yourself with the music before considering the movie, you can download it at Amazon.com (they also have it in vinyl for those that want to kick-it old-school). In a final note, no matter how much I deplore the idea of sparkly vampires, if Vatican spokesmen and evangelical anti-occult book-peddlers don’t knock it off soon, I’ll have to see the darn things just to spite them.
Man, if sparkly celibate-till-marriage Mormon vampires are a “moral vacuum” I’d hate to hear what he thinks of “True Blood”. That’s all I have for now, have a great day! |
| Thursday, November 19th, 2009 | |
| 10:32 am | Thursday Winter Pledge Drive Update
Things are really moving along in my first-ever pledge drive! To everyone who has given, I want to thank you for your generosity and for sharing my vision of a Pagan new-media model that can eventually grow to support not just The Wild Hunt, but a variety of media and journalism projects originating from within the modern Pagan movement. To all my wonderful readers who haven’t had the opportunity or time to donate to this effort yet, please consider taking a few minutes before this week is done to become a part of the growing community of support that has emerged these past four days. Ask yourself, if The Wild Hunt was a magazine or newspaper, what would I pay to have access to it year-round?
I’d also like to take this opportunity to thank some more Pagan bloggers for spreading the word, and encouraging their own readers to support my mission here. Starting with author Erynn Rowan Laurie, who not only posted about my Winter Pledge Drive, but also encouraged me to offer a monthly subscription service.
So if donating a small amount every month sounds more your speed, click here for a $10.00 per month subscription commitment, and here, for a $5 per month subscription. If you would like to donate a custom amount, simply contact me and I’ll set it up. Thanks to Erynn for her generosity and commitment to Pagan journalism. I would also like to thank Patti Wigington, the About.com Paganism/Wicca guide, for supporting the Winter Pledge Drive, and for pointing out the differences between an ad-supported model and a donation-supported model.
I think Patti does excellent work at About.com, but as she points out, the price for her platform can include ads by groups who may be directly hostile to modern Pagan and minority faiths. For that reason, and for others, I want The Wild Hunt to stay non-commercial, whether those commercials come from the Mormons, or from within the Pagan community. That isn’t to criticize those who may want to pursue an ad-based model, I think it can lead to some significant successes, but that I think it is important that we have commercial and non-commercial news sources within our community. Again, thanks to all who have spread the word and given during this week, we still have days to go, so let’s keep the momentum up! Please support a non-commercial, open, accessible, and daily Wild Hunt. |
| 8:25 am | Quick Note: The Never-Ending Christmas Wars Even though the American Family Association stumbled from the gate in the kick-off to this year’s skirmishes over religious language and iconography during the Winter holidays (aka “The War on Christmas”), that doesn’t mean other groups haven’t been cowed. Instead it looks like were going to be seeing a rather holy protest at the steps of the United States Supreme Court as Faith and Action and the Christian Defense Coalition stage a live Nativity scene.
Ah, the old “freedom of” not “freedom from” argument, too bad that commitment to freedom is a mile wide and only an inch deep. As the Green Bay Wisconsin Nativity battle proved, once people actually start demanding real “freedom of”, which means the inclusion of all religions and philosophical points of view on public lands, things start to go a bit haywire for those crusaders for “religious freedom”. So while the “you aren’t saying Christmas” boycotts have lost their sizzle, the battle over Christmas religious displays in the public square is still heating up. There are already a couple cases that look like they’re headed for the courts, and it seems like only a matter of time before a Wiccan or atheist decides they want a Winter display next to a Nativity on public land somewhere. Then we’ll get to really test the “religious freedom” resolve of the groups currently dressing up like Joseph and Mary on the Supreme Court’s steps. |
| Wednesday, November 18th, 2009 | |
| 2:30 am | Haunted by the “Third Wave” Much to Andrew Sullivan’s chagrin, former Vice Presidential candidate and Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin is once again dominating the media. Touting her new book, duking it out with Levi, and chatting with Oprah. But while political junkies are taking bets as to whether she’ll run for President, the media blitz also draws us back into the folks who incubated her political career, and support her to this day. The spiritual-war loving neo-Charismatic, neo-Pentecostal movement known by some as the “Third Wave of the Holy Spirit”. Vehemently anti-Pagan and anti-Catholic, Palin publicly distanced herself from them during the campaign after an embarrassing video emerged showing her being blessed by a self-proclaimed African witch-hunter. Now, Talk to Action’s Bruce Wilson cites sources that Palin not only kept in contact with prominent Third Wavers (specifically Mary Glazier) throughout the campaign, but that they believed a terror attack would kill McCain and place her in the Oval Office.
Who is Mary Glazier? She’s the Palin spiritual mentor who, as I’ve reported before, took credit for giving a Wiccan cancer and driving her out of the state of Alaska.
So far from being a misguided youthful foray into a radical Christian sect, Palin’s friendship with these extremists is seemingly ongoing, and they believe she’s bound for greatness. So while some think Palin has simply become tabloid-fodder, a joke to be ignored, some will know that she’s haunted by these extremist supporters, and that “terror attack” is simply another word for “opportunity” in their eyes. Especially if you’re going to be stepping into an office you were “mantled” by God for. If in 2012 she does run against Obama, as some think she might, we better keep a close eye on Sarah’s friends. |
| Tuesday, November 17th, 2009 | |
| 10:06 pm | Winter Pledge Drive Update Things have been going great during The Wild Hunt’s first-ever Winter Pledge Drive, we aren’t even half-way through yet but the show of support by those of you willing to donate and spread the word has been exciting. This move towards a means of regular funding is important not only for The Wild Hunt, but for eventually building one possible model for a self-sustaining new-media Pagan journalism. While I’m encouraged by the progress of the drive, the ultimate success of this sort of reader-funded model relies on everyone who finds some value in what I’m doing here chipping in. So if you haven’t yet, please consider contributing to the site during this year’s Winter Pledge Drive, in one of these categories: I’d also like to take a minute and thank the Pagan bloggers who have taken the time to add their support to this drive by writing about it on their own blogs. First, Pagan chaplain Joseph Nichter wrote about how The Wild Hunt kept him “ahead of the crowd” when it came to the latest in Pagan news.
Next, Rowan Pendragon reminds everyone to “donate what you can, whether that’s $5 or $100. It all helps to keep things going”, while Kim Sequoia says that The Wild Hunt is “a vital organ within the Pagan Community”. Finally, thanks to Sara Ferguson and my other loyal Twitter followers for spreading (tweeting) the word there. Thanks again to everyone who has participated so far in keeping The Wild Hunt open, ad-free, and operating daily, I hope you’ll consider joining them as pledge week continues! |
| 10:46 am | A Few Quick Notes I have some other stories of note to share with you today, starting with the sad news that actor Edward Woodward, 79, passed away yesterday due to complications from pneumonia. Woodward is well-known to many Pagan film lovers as “Christian copper” Sgt. Howie from the original cult-classic 1973 film “The Wicker Man” (and better-known to most Americans as the lead in the 1980s vigilante series “The Equalizer”).
At news of his passing, “Wicker Man” director Robin Hardy said that Woodward was “one of the greatest actors of his generation”, while co-star Sir Christopher Lee called him “a good friend and a splendid actor”. Matt Holmes at “Obsessed With Film” says that Woodward (as Sgt. Howie) committed the most memorable “gut-wrenching” on-screen death ever, while Pagan film reviewer Peg Aloi offers a touching farewell.
Here’s to you Mr. Woodward, thank you for your work, may you find peace across the veil. Turning from the sad news of this passing, to the optimistic idea of deeper understanding and communication between faiths, we have an interesting editorial from the national Catholic weekly America. There, Catholic priest and Harvard professor Francis X. Clooney, S.J., who has argued in the past against “bland secularism” at Catholic colleges, favoring instead a “religiously diverse” campus, talks about his experiences teaching the class “Hindu Goddesses and the Blessed Virgin Mary”.
Perhaps there’s room in this world for Mary and the goddesses? That seems to be at least partially the gist, he even recounts how a group of students sing hymns to both Mary and the goddesses before each class, and how both the Catholics and the goddess-worshipers have deepened their understanding and practice. To read more about Clooney’s work, you should read his essay “Interreligious Dialogue: Goddess in the Classroom”, and check out his book, “Divine Mother, Blessed Mother: Hindu Goddesses and the Virgin Mary”. In a final “War on Christmas” note, it seems the American Family Assn. is issuing its yearly call to boycott The Gap for not saying “Christmas” even though the clothing chain’s silly wince-inducing holiday ad name-checks several yule-tide holidays, including “Christmas”, “Hanukka”, and “Solstice”.
The LA Times is dead-on the money, as the AFA has issued a boycott update saying the Christmas-invoking ad is “completely dismissive and disrespectful to those who celebrate the meaning and spirit of Christmas.” Yes, whatever happened to all those tasteful clothing-chain holiday ads that didn’t cheapen the holy Winter months by trying to sell you loads of stuff. That’s all I have for now, have a great day! |
| Monday, November 16th, 2009 | |
| 11:01 pm | Indianapolis Public Schools Block the Pagans The Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation, you may remember them from the Green Bay Nativity case, is demanding that the Indianapolis Public School system change its current web access policy which bans access to “occult”, “Wiccan”, “Voodoo” and “mysticism”-boosting sites.
You can read the school’s web filtering policy, here. You can read the FFRF’s letter to school Superintendent Eugene White, here. FFRF is asking people to write to the Superintendent, Dr. Eugene G. White, and the local school board members, urging them to drop this discriminatory web site blocking. While I certainly support the individuals and groups working to remove these arbitrary web filters, one has to wonder if the policy was put in place because the school officials were anti-atheist and anti-Pagan, or if they were simply lazy. The open secret about content filters, besides the fact that they can be easily hacked, is that many of the site lists used in these filters had their genesis with conservative Christian organizations. These lists are copied around and often added to by the churches many filtering companies also service, so when a seemingly secular company “implementing technology in the classroom” (in this case Education Networks of America) comes along they may be instituting a site filter-list written by people with a inherent bias against minority religions. Something that the clients may not even know.
So who knows what “content filtering product” ENA is using, but at least some of it most likely had its genesis with groups that were decidedly not unbiased or secular. In fact, almost all of the most popular Internet filters block Pagan sites, something that doesn’t seem to bother the secular groups servicing government and government-funded groups and services, until they get in trouble of course. Because if a public school is blocking student access to some religions but not to others, that could be seen as bias, and that is a no-no according to the Supreme Court. So lets hope that Indianapolis Public Schools change their filtering policy ASAP instead of stonewalling and preparing for litigation, and lets also hope that ENA stops offering to block access to minority religions in public schools. |
| 2:00 am | 2009 Wild Hunt Winter Pledge Drive, Nov 16-22 What: Since it started in 2004, the Wild Hunt has become a vital news source for modern Pagans, and a crucial resource for those outside the Pagan movement who want to explore the issues that are important to us. The Wild Hunt doesn’t simply alert you to the interesting (or infuriating) stories of the day, but adds analysis, context, and unique features. The Wild Hunt has interviewed movers-and-shakers within modern Paganism like Margot Adler, Starhawk, Janet Farrar and Gavin Bone, as well as relevant religion writers and journalists like Jeff Sharlet and J.C. Hallman, while providing special “Pagan’s-eye” coverage of events like the Democratic National Convention and the American Academy of Religion’s yearly meeting. Upcoming coverage will include the Parliament of the World’s Religions and an interview with Owen Davies, author of Grimoires. The future is bright for The Wild Hunt, and for Pagan journalism as a whole! We’d like to invite you along, as we initiate the first annual Wild Hunt Winter Pledge Drive. Our goals are three: In a single month, this past October alone, The Wild Hunt counted over 44,000 unique visitors, giving this daily news source a very respectable “circulation” in the world of niche journalism. Around 5,000 readers receive The Wild Hunt directly every day, via their Facebook, Twitter, Google Reader, LiveJournal, or email. How: If you are one of these avid followers of Pagan and religious-minority news, please consider contributing to the site during this year’s Winter Pledge Drive, in one of these categories: Click this button to contribute now: If you are unfamiliar with PayPal or have other questions, please contact me. When: This year’s Pledge Drive will continue from November 16th through the 22nd. Feel free to share this post on Facebook, Twitter, and your other favorite social sites! Thanks for being a part of The Wild Hunt. |
| Sunday, November 15th, 2009 | |
| 8:39 am | The Sunday (Pagan) Movies Round-Up Some big-screen news for those with Pagan views! We start off with an update on “The Wicker Tree”, the currently-shooting spiritual companion/sequel to the 1973 cult-classic “The Wicker Man”. On Halloween in New York, a special screening of “The Wicker Man” was held (along with a cool concert featuring Silver Summit), and director Robin Hardy was on hand to talk about the cult-classic and screen ten minutes of footage from the new film. Lucky for us all, Dread Central was there and files a report.
Sounds like fun! Lets hope it holds a candle to the original movie, and doesn’t fall in the horribleness of the ill-advised 2006 remake. They also seem to all-but-confirm that Sir Christopher Lee will be making a cameo as Lord Summerisle, linking the two films together into the same shared universe. Needless to say I await more news of the film, including its release date. Turning from fictional Pagans looking for a sacrifice to a famous pagan trying to escape Christian mobs, we look at the status of the film “Agora”, which centers on the life (and death) of Neoplatonist pagan philosopher Hypatia. The film, while winning critical accolades, has experienced trouble in finding an American distributor, and was encountering protests in places like Spain due to its “anti-Christian” tone. Well, it seems that the film has been a smash-hit in Europe, and it’s looking like Sony may put in a bid for American distribution.
Director Alejandro Amenabar is apparently also willing to cut 20 minutes from the film in order to make it run a tidy two hours, further tempting the bean-counters at Sony (and Fox, who are also expressing interest). Could we be lucky enough to see a winter release here in America? Or possibly early Spring? We’ll keep our eyes open. Finally, the long-awaited (well, by some of us) remake of “Clash of the Titans” has released a trailer!
I know it, like the original, completely mangles Greek myth, but I have to admit that I had a little geek-tingle from the younger Jason who watched the original like a million times on cable when I was a kid. I also kind of hope they keep the symphonic metal soundtrack they utilize in the trailer, I mean, it’s not historical anyway, so let’s go all out! “Clash of the Titans” is due out in March. |
| 3:30 am | TWH Greatest Hits: The Guest Bloggers [I'm away at the Florida Pagan Gathering, and won't return to normal blogging activity until November 10th. In the meantime, I'm presenting some of my favorite posts to tide you over, consider it a "greatest hits" of The Wild Hunt. Today I want to honor and thank the many wonderful guest-bloggers who have stepped in for me in the past. During two periods of time in which I was unable to blog for an extended period of time, several talented writers stepped up to fill in, and enrich this site and my readership with their wisdom, humor, and experience.] May 26th 2008, Cat Chapin-Bishop, “Rooted in Experience”.
May 27th 2008, Anne Hill, “Sex and Revolution”.
May 28th 2008, T. Thorn Coyle, “Community Vision”.
May 29th 2008, M. Macha NightMare, “Ruminations on Death, Dying, and Afterlife”.
May 30th 2008, Chas Clifton, “The Best of Green Egg”.
May 31st 2008, Deborah Oak, “What I Did On My Summer Vacation and Why This Is Important”.
July 14th 2009, Brendan Myers, “Who Are the Elders?”.
July 15th 2009, Elysia Gallo, “Another Brick in the Wall”.
July 16th 2009, Cat Chapin-Bishop, “Only Connect: Toward Being Present in Community”.
July 17th 2009, Lupa, “Creating Community in a Hyperindividualized Society”.
July 19 2009, Caroline Kenner, “Not Just at Samhain: Time for Our Ancestors”.
July 20 2009, Chas Clifton, “The “Third Man” and the Gods”.
July 21 2009, James French, “‘Prosperity’ in the Context of Unsustainability”.
July 22 2009, T. Thorn Coyle, “The Parliament”.
July 23 2009, Sannion, “Kala Noumenia!”.
July 24 2009, Peg Aloi, “Brushwood Ramblings”.
Thanks again to all my wonderful guest-bloggers, I’ll be back to normal posting tomorrow! |
| Saturday, November 14th, 2009 | |
| 8:40 am | Who’s Responsible in SRA Hysteria? While the heyday of SRA (Satanic Ritual Abuse aka “Satanic Panic”) in North America and the UK is now past us, we continue to be haunted by it. A core of true-believers await vindication, many law enforcement officials and politicians involved remain unrepentant, occult “experts” still give talks to police and community leaders, and there are still people in jail, despite evidence that they are innocent. As for those who were sent to prison and then later released (some years later), many are just happy to be free again, content to sink into seclusion lest they draw attention. However, one man caught up in a famous Canadian SRA case decided that being free and having charges dropped wasn’t enough, and he sued the government prosecutor, the police, and the therapist who coached the children for malicious intent. Now, nearly twenty years after the whole ordeal began, the last trial has finished, with the Canadian Supreme Court deciding that the Crown prosecutor in the case did not act maliciously, overturning a previous ruling against him.
The overturning of the previous judgment against Crown prosecutor Matthew Miazga is seen by some as a protective act by the Supreme Court, freeing many prosecutors of the worry that they could be liable if their “professional judgment” ends up convicting an innocent man or woman.
Despite the government and courts circling their wagons to protect prosecutors with obviously poor “professional judgment”, this has ultimately been a victory for Richard Klassen and the other plaintiffs who sought to clear their names. They not only received high-profile vindication of their innocence on multiple occasions, but they did win their initial malice trial, and the Canadian government has paid out over two million dollars in settlement to Klassen and the others.
In contrast, many of the American victims of Satanic panic are lucky to simply have their freedom, and some still don’t have that. Despite the court clearing the prosecutor of malice, the story reaffirms just how badly justice and law enforcement faltered during the moral panic that imprisoned so many. It is a reminder to those that would see this time come again, or create some new scape-goat, that not all of their potential victims will be content to hide away broken while allowing such madness to thrive. This court case involved cops, lawyers, and therapists, but we are all responsible in seeing that this sort of hysteria never rises again. For those interested in finding out more about the Klassen SRA case Religious Tolerance has a nice time-line and overview. |
| Friday, November 13th, 2009 | |
| 7:41 pm | Some Friday Night (Pagan News) Notes A have a few items that just can’t wait till Saturday! Starting with a rather awful editorial from The Chicago Tribune’s “The Seeker” blog that seemingly equates tolerance towards Pagan soldiers within the military with a look-the-other-way atmosphere that led to the horrendous Fort Hood murders.
It is hard to tell what, exactly, author Tom Levinson is suggesting. That the military should be less accommodating to religious minorities? That only certain faiths should be allowed or tolerated? That their fair treatment towards Pagan soldiers inevitably led to these shootings by a disturbed Major Nidal Malik Hasan? Frankly, using the story of the Fort Hood Pagans in conveying his “tragic irony” is insulting to the Pagan men and women who serve, and have served, in the military. Already several Pagans and Pagan vets have spoken out against Levinson’s badly-thought-out piece with more, no doubt, to come. The James Arthur Ray sweat-lodge death saga continues to have repercussions. While the police investigation is still ongoing, the Lakota Nation has filed a lawsuit against Ray and the Angel Valley Retreat Center for fraud and the “desecration of our Sacred Oinikiga by causing the death of Liz Neuman, Kirby Brown and James Shore”.
This issue seems to have truly galvanized some tribal nations and activists, leading to actions that could have long-standing repercussions in the often tense relations between Native peoples and New Age communities. Meanwhile the daughter of one of the victims wants Ray behind bars and is filing a wrongful death lawsuit. So it looks like only a matter of time before Ray is brought before a judge. Hopefully before his next “spiritual warrior” retreat, scheduled for September 18-23rd. In a final note, blogger Rob Taylor has alerted me to a group of anti-pedophile activists who have allegedly uncovered the identity of a Wiccan man who brags of his sexual involvement with children and until recently was advertising for a coven on Witchvox.
It seems Witchvox (or the person in question) may have removed the listings since word went out at the beginning of November, as they are now gone. Sadly, there isn’t a picture, or further outside confirmation, so we have no way of telling who exactly this man is at public gatherings (as he could no doubt use a variety of aliases if he wanted). I was planning use this information within the context of a longer investigation of predators within the Pagan community, but I felt it was important to pass this information along now if it could potentially help parents and children be safer at gatherings. As always, be careful, do your own research, and leave law enforcement to law enforcement officials. That’s all I have for now, have a good night, see you tomorrow. |
| 9:17 am | More on the Pagan Angle to those “I Believe” Plates Remember how I said a couple days ago that the entire process that led to South Carolina’s “I Believe” license plates being ruled unconstitutional was haunted by Pagans? It turns out that I’m not the only one who thinks so. South Carolina Attorney General Henry McMaster, who is currently running to become the state’s next governor, released a video two days after the license plate ruling to decry the imagined assaults on “freedom of religion” in his state stemming from the Great Falls Darla Wynne case.
McMaster then offers to defend anyone in the state who is “on the receiving end on an ACLU lawsuit”. That this invoking of uppity Wiccans to win votes is tied to the recent “I Believe” ruling is pretty apparent. McMaster was reportedly “utterly disappointed” at the ruling, and was well-known to be an ardent supporter of the license plates, attending pro-plate rallies that featured a greatest-hits reel from Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ”. But for all his bleating on the subject, there is little, legally, he can do at the moment. His current role as Attorney General prevents him from appealing the case, so no doubt his message that he’ll “support” and “defend” anyone in a lawsuit most likely means that he’s looking for someone to get litigious regarding the plates, or public sectarian prayer, so he can get in their corner (and win votes). What’s troubling is that we don’t know what this will do to Darla Wynne, or other Pagans living in South Carolina. If “Wiccan witches” are being lumped in with the ACLU (one of the great Satans of conservative Christianity), how long will it be before people start blaming us for the perceived slights against their “religious freedom”? Is McMaster invoking something he can’t ultimately control, something that may end up harming the lives of innocent Pagans, just to win an election? I’d hate to think that such a man may soon be governing the entire state, a state that includes many modern Pagans (and several other religious minorities) who are just as concerned about their own religious freedom and safety as any Christian. |
| Thursday, November 12th, 2009 | |
| 9:17 am | Spectral Evidence at Purvis High Once grown up and operating in the “adult” world, we often forget how much loss of control and personal freedom children and teens are forced to endure while traveling through the public school system (and often more-so in the private schools). If anything, many of us look back at those times as some sort of necessary “hazing”, bitter-sweetly remembered through the prism of some John Hughes movie. However, the truth is that children and younger people is these school systems are often denied the same legal considerations and due process of adults, all in the name of order and control, and it only takes a “bad apple” here or someone “gaming the system” there to make the lives of children who don’t toe some (often imaginary) cultural/political line often unbearable. That seems to be the case at Purvis High School in Mississippi, where accusations of threatened “demon possession” got a Pagan student suspended.
Denise DeSadier was not allowed to read the accusations made against her son that got him suspended, and their veracity was seemingly never questioned by the principle (who assured a reporter from the local college paper that the matter was investigated fully) . Further, Shaun was forced to undergo an evaluation of his mental stability before being allowed to return to class, and this incident was placed in his permanent record, marking him as some sort of potential safety risk. Short of pursuing a lawsuit against the school, or dropping out altogether, there is no recourse for these accusations that have marred Shaun’s record. Wishing only to finish high-school and move on to college, Shaun has jumped through the necessary hoops, and wants to move on with his life.
Looking from the outside it seems obvious that hostilities against the openly Pagan family in a small predominantly Christian town ended up trickling down from the adults to their children, who staged their own personal witch-trial in miniature, complete with unquestioned spectral evidence (threatened demon-attack) the accused was not allowed to rebut. Let’s just hope that the mob has been satisfied that the Witches were sufficiently chastened, after all, it wouldn’t be hard at all for students to abuse the school’s completely anonymous online reporting tool in order to cause more troubled for the young man. Normally I would call on my readers to flood principal Ace Bryant with letters of protest, but respecting the wishes of the family who just want to get on with their lives, I’ll say instead that anyone living in Mississippi who isn’t a Christian should stay far, far, away from Purvis High, lest they fall afoul of a system that privileges the majority. |
| Wednesday, November 11th, 2009 | |
| 10:22 am | This Veterans Day Remember Operation Circle Care Today is Veterans Day in America, a day when military veterans are honored for their service to our country. In addition to acknowledging the sacrifices and service given by our own co-religionists in years past, and the battles to see them properly honored, it is also an excellent time to look to the Pagan soldiers currently serving at home and overseas. On this Veterans Day Circle Sanctuary is kicking off its annual Operation Circle Care project to send Pagan-themed care packages to Pagan soldiers serving in war zones. This year, due to the horrible tragedy at Fort Hood, they are including the over 150 Pagan and Wiccan soldiers and their families living and serving there as well.
You can find a list of needed items, contact information, and how to submit the name of a Pagan soldier serving oversees at the Operation Circle Care web site. They welcome “gently used” Pagan books, so this is a great way to do a good deed and clean out your bookshelves for those new acquisitions. So as you honor those who served this year, take the time to also think ahead to those currently serving, and how we can let them know that our communities care about them. |
| 9:10 am | “I Believe” Cross License Plates Ruled Unconstitutional News broke yesterday that U.S. District Judge Cameron McGowan Currie ruled that South Carolina’s controversial “I Believe” license plate violated the constitutional separation of church and state.
This case had been a joint effort of local clergy and Americans United who felt the plate amounted to a state-sponsored endorsement of Christianity. This entire process has also been haunted by the Pagans in South Carolina and their own quest for equal treatment under the law. From the local politicians pushing the plates under the assumption that “any” religion could have their own tags, just so long as those tags weren’t from a Pagan faith, to the fact that the judge on this case also ruled in favor of Wiccan Darla Kaye Wynne during the Great Falls invocation saga. Our presence played a small part in reminding politicians, judges, lawyers, and journalists that minority religions exist everywhere, even in the “Christian” South. That a Christian cross emblazoned on these plates sent a message of exclusion, not inclusion. Of course the saga of Christian license plates is hardly over, the state of South Carolina could try to appeal the decision, and other states, most notably Florida, are engaging in the same shenanigans. But at least a message was sent today that America is not merely a “Christian” nation, but a nation of many religions, or of no religion at all, and you can’t raise one up in the government without pushing the others down in some fashion. |
| Tuesday, November 10th, 2009 | |
| 9:44 am | Even More (Pagan) News of Note My semi-regular round-up of articles, essays, and opinions of note for discerning Pagans and Heathens. What? You didn’t think I was going to get caught up in one day did you? I have so much more to cover before we can settle down to a more sedate pace! We start off today with word from Thorn Coyle that Diana’s Grove, a 102-acre Pagan-owned sanctuary in Missouri, is going to sell off the land due to hardships brought on by our current economic climate.
The sanctuary’s founders and care-takers, Cynthea Jones and Patricia Storm, plan to continue currently scheduled programming at the site through 2010, and then continue the Diana’s Grove Mystery School at different locations in the future. They have reassured supporters that the land will not be sold to loggers or developers, and investors will be refunded after the sale. I wish them all the best for the future, and wonder if Diana’s Grove isn’t the only Pagan-owned land that is experiencing increased hardships in our current economic climate. Will the downturn end up rolling back some of the Pagan-owned land advances made in the 1980s and 1990s? Since I first reported on it, the story of the fired Bath & Body Works employee who claims she was let go after her newly appointed superior found out she was Wiccan has spread like wildfire through the Pagan community with many calling for a boycott of the chain until they resolve the matter favorably. Meanwhile, some have wondered if there is more to this story, or if Gina Uberti was fired (after 8 years) for some sort of negligence or performance issue. I’m not omniscient (yet), so I can’t know for sure, but the complaint does seems rather convincing, and Bath & Body Works have either refused to comment, or have released a canned statement implying that Uberti was fired justly.
If that isn’t prose written by a lawyer I don’t know what is. So we’ll all have to wait for the trial to learn more about the firing, and make our own personal judgments in the meantime. I doubt it’ll be popping up in the news much until the trial since all parties involved are clamming up. However, an employment lawyer speaking to the Connecticut Law Tribune did say that the Bath & Body Works will either have to prove that Uberti was fired for performance/disciplinary issues (Uberti’s complaint claims she had a stellar performance record until her firing), or that her beliefs that prompted the time off weren’t sincerely held. Since the latter is a hard thing to prove, you can bet Bath & Body Works is scouring their files for any hint of performance problems. Speaking of Pagans fired from their jobs, Bath & Body Works isn’t the only employer with an unhappy ex-Wiccan. TechCrunch reports on the case of James Bara, a Google employee who claims he was singled out, had his faith mocked, and was ultimately fired after he came to the defense of a female transgender employee.
You can read Bara’s lawsuit, here. Like Bath & Body Works, Google claims the firing was just and did not involve discrimination or any kind.
If Google is liable (and if should be noted that this discrimination didn’t happen at their headquarters, but at an Atlanta-based data center) they’ll be a bit hard to boycott considering their ubiquity on the Internet, nor would such an action really harm the Internet search giant (they aren’t a retail chain dependent on holiday sales). Instead, concerned parties should read the lawsuit, decide if it seems a valid complaint, contact the company with your views, and then publicize the matter on your own site, blog, journal, or newsletter. I imagine Google would respond to an influx of traffic calling them out for this incident. Turning to politics, last week President Obama attended the The White House Tribal Nations Conference, there he addressed issues of poverty, sovereignty, law enforcement, and education to representatives and leaders from all federally recognized tribes. During a speech he not only referenced his adoption into the Crow Nation, but told leaders that he was on their side.
Those are some pretty strong words of support, it should be interesting to see how that support develops over his term, and how Native Americans will view the president’s performance on issues important to them. White House spokesmen also stressed that this was part of his ongoing outreach to “all Americans”, does that mean we might see a meeting with religious minorities sooner rather than later? In a final note, it seems that monotheistic faiths don’t like their forms of animal sacrifice being equated with, well, you know, animal sacrifice. Ever since press have reported that Theodism, and now-famous adherent of Theodism, New York City Councilman Dan Halloran, occasionally partake in a ritual animal sacrifice (in which the animal is then eaten) the Republican councilman has been trying to put the practice in a context people might understand. Before the election he equated it with kosher butchering, which made a Democratic Jewish supporter of his opponent all but call him a Neo-Nazi. Then, after the election, he equated it with the Greek Orthodox tradition of roasting a whole spring lamb on Easter. That got him in trouble with New York’s first Greek-American elected official, Assemblyman Michael Gianaris (a Democrat).
So, for the record, when an Abrahamic tradition ritually slaughters and eats an animal it is not animal sacrifice. It is only animal sacrifice when Heathens (or possibly Santeros) do it. As for Halloran, he seems done trying to explain his faith to outsiders.
Something tells me that despite Halloran’s wishes this isn’t the last I’ve heard of this issue, or the last his opponents will attempt to use his faith against him. That’s all I have for now, have a great day! |
| Monday, November 9th, 2009 | |
| 11:11 am | (Pagan) News of Note I’m back from the wilds of Florida! Before I begin my lengthy Pagan-news catch-up, I’d like to thank the folks at the Florida Pagan Gathering who were excellent hosts, and all the folks who attended my talks, they made my first time at such a gathering a truly memorable one. As time allows, I hope to write further about my experiences there, but for now it’s down to brass tacks! We start off with the horrible tragedy that occurred when U.S. Army major Nidal Malik Hasan opened fire on a military processing center at Fort Hood in Texas, killing 13 people and wounding several more. For an in-depth analysis of the various religious angles in this story, I urge all of you to check out the recent posts at Get Religion dealing with the matter, meanwhile I’d like to briefly explore a Pagan angle that has emerged since the incident. As many of you may know, Fort Hood is famous within our communities for its large and active Pagan population (more than 150 live in and around Fort Hood). It is the Fort Hood Pagans who weathered a storm of controversy that prompted George W. Bush to famously opine back in 1999 that “witchcraft isn’t a religion”. So when I heard of the shooting in Florida my first instinct was to ask after the safety of our Pagan troops, luckily a reliable source assured me that none were harmed during the incident. But while no Pagan soldiers or their families were hurt or killed in the rampage, the loss and shock following such an event can often be crippling, so Circle Sanctuary has stepped up to offer counseling to local Pagans stressed by the tragedy.
You can find contact information for the support team, here. I’m glad to see a national Pagan organization willing to jump into action in times of hardship and need, blessings on Circle Sanctuary for this quick response. You can be sure that if any further Pagan angles emerge to this story I’ll do my best to bring them to your attention. Let’s turn to the ongoing reverberations caused by Republican Heathen Dan Halloran getting elected to the New York City Council. Double X blog the XX Factor claims that Paganism was the real winner that night, while the New York Times analyzes the demographics of Halloran’s win. Meanwhile, a blog called “Queens Crap” unearths a document that pretty convincingly proves that Democratic opponent Kevin Kim was indeed trying to use Halloran’s religion against him in the race.
You can read the document, here. While accusations of mud-slinging came from both camps, it appeared that Kim participated to a larger scale, and that the (overwhelming Democratic) voters of that district, sick of the mud-slinging, decided to send a message. Again, more proof that we may be seeing religion-fatigue on the part of voters? Making Paganism not so much the political liability some may think it to be? As for Halloran, we continue to look forward to paying close attention to his career. Did you realize it’s been ten years since Ronald Hutton’s “Triumph of the Moon” was first published and changed the way we look at Pagan scholarship and the history of Wicca? To celebrate that anniversary Hidden Publishing has released a collection of essays entitled “Ten Years of Triumph of the Moon”.
The collection includes essays from Sabina “Witching Culture” Magliocco, Caroline Tully, Henrik “Western Esotericism and Rituals of Initiation” Bogdan, Phillip Bernhardt-House, and Ronald Hutton himself. Sounds like a must-have to me! Turning to film, Fangoria interviews Robin Hardy about the upcoming sequel/companion to “The Wicker Man”, now entitled “The Wicker Tree”, and currently filming.
Hardy goes into some depth about how modern gore-fest “horror” movies aren’t really all that scary, and how the build-up of suspense along with the use of music and humor can often lead to a more successful film. I’m sure the folks raking in the dough from the ultra-low-budget film “Paranormal Activity” agree. Showing how complex the issues can be when an increasingly global modern Paganism meets the current global epidemic of witch-killings, the South African Pagan Rights Alliance has put out a press release criticizing the International Humanist and Ethical Union’s recommendation to the UN that law suppressing the practice of witchcraft be enacted.
SAPRA points out that the most witchcraft-murders in South Africa are against alleged practitioners, not perpetrated by them. That “muti” murders, when carried out, aren’t done by “witches”, but instead by traditional herbalists, and that blanket statements of the “twin evils” only encourages laws that will outlaw Wicca alongside African conceptions of witchcraft. One can certainly understand why a humanist organization might equally damn these two separate phenomena as one madness, but I wonder if other NGOs and officials are striving to “equalize” muti murders with the mainly Christian-led network of anti-witchcraft forces in order to not offend the politically and fiscally powerful churches. It may be a mater that needs closer investigation. In a final note, I received word that on October 28th scholar Owen S. Rachleff passed away due to complications from Parkinsons. Rachleff wrote a scathingly critical work in the early 1970s on the occult and modern Pagan movement entitled “The Occult Conceit”, which won him the ire of many Pagans and occultists at the time. Quotes like the following in this 1972 article of Time Magazine didn’t help much either.
Despite his dim view of occult practitioners, he was willing to engage with them and went on a nationally syndicated radio program in December 1973 with practicing Witch Leo Martello. This was, according to author Michael Lloyd, very likely the first nationally broadcast debate on the subject of Witchcraft and the occult between a skeptic and a practicing Witch. It no doubt helped spread word of modern Paganism, and exposed many to its ideas and concepts. So while Rachleff was a skeptic and a critic, he also played a vital part in our history in America. That’s all I have for now, have a great day! |
| Sunday, November 8th, 2009 | |
| 3:30 am | TWH Greatest Hits: Interview with Margot Adler [I'm away at the Florida Pagan Gathering, and won't return to normal blogging activity until November 10th. In the meantime, I'm presenting some of my favorite posts to tide you over, consider it a "greatest hits" of The Wild Hunt. Today, I'm re-printing an interview I did with ground-breaking Pagan author and journalist Margot Adler. Done way back in 2006, it was this blog's first foray into doing regular long-form interviews with figures of note within the Pagan community, and I couldn't have been more honored than to have the subject be the author of "Drawing Down the Moon".] The beginning of this month saw the publication of the third revised and updated edition of one the classic books on modern Paganism “Drawing Down the Moon: Witches, Druids, Goddess-Worshippers, and Other Pagans in America” by journalist Margot Adler. Originally published in 1979, “Drawing Down the Moon” was the first extensive look at the growing modern Pagan community, and has since become a touchstone for modern Pagans, academics hoping to understand our communities, and those outside our faiths curious about our motivations and worldviews. I was lucky enough to conduct a short interview with Adler via e-mail about the new edition of the book and her current views on modern Paganism.
This is the third revised and updated edition of your seminal book “Drawing Down the Moon”. Do you think there will come a point where you will no longer desire to update and revise the work? Is this a life-work or do you think you’ll come to a point where the book is “finished” and you won’t feel the need to do more revisions or updates. When I first wrote Drawing Down the Moon, I had no idea that it would become the main history of Paganism in the United States, and continue to be regarded as such a resource. The first serious revision which was done in 1985 and was published in 1986 was necessary because the movement had changed so much due to the festival phenomenon, the emergence of new groups like the radical faeries Now, it seemed necessary to revise again because the movement has probably tripled or even quadrupled in size; some festivals are huge; the movement has mainstreamed and opened itself to families and children. Also, the internet has brought huge changes to the movement. There are probably more than 5000 Pagan websites and there are people who come to Paganism completely through the internet, for good and bad. I could go on and on. So, I have no idea if this will be the last update or not. What might happen is that in a few years I will put out a new resource guide as I did in 97, with no other changes. Despite the explosion of Pagan publishing since 1979, your work is still pretty unique. Did you expect the book to remain so important to our communities (and to outsiders looking in), and do you think with the growth of modern Paganism that such a work like “Drawing Down” would even be possible in today’s communities? As I said, I never expected the book to have, as it were, a movement behind it to fuel its success. I do think it would be possible to do a completely new book today, but it would take even more time than my original work took, and that was three years. And remember that was the 70’s. You could actually live on a $7500 advance with a part time job. That would be impossible today. So the book could be written today, but it would be much harder to survive and do it. One area that receives a sizeable update is reconstructionism. How have your feelings changed about religions like Asatru? Do you have much contact with other reconstructionist faiths like the Celtic, Hellenic, and Kemetic reconstructionist communities? What role do you think such movements play in the larger modern Pagan context? My feelings have changed about Northern European Paganism, or Heathenism, including Asatru. I started with a pretty negative view about it, stressing the groups that were racist and so forth. But I have really come to see the movement as incredibly diverse, and growing! I have met Heathens from all kinds of ethnic origins, and gay Heathens. Heathenism is incredibly complex, with different strains philosophies, and shamanic practices. As for Hellenic Paganism, remember that was my first love, and is still really the deep Paganism of my heart. If Wicca hadn’t been the only thing in my back yard in 1971 and 1972, I would have ended up in a Greco-Pagan group, if such had been available. I have had very limited encounters with Kemetic groups, only a few contacts, so far. You have listed yourself as not only a Pagan, but as a Unitarian-Universalist. Your book “Drawing Down the Moon” is listed in the Unitarian Universalist Association Ministerial Fellowship Committee Reading List (and is in fact the only book on modern Paganism in that list), and Pagan and “Earth-Centered” spiritualities make up around 20% of the UUA. What role do you see congregational religion playing in modern Paganism? Is our involvement with bodies like the UUA a positive thing? Where do you see that relationship developing? I became a Unitarian-Universalist through the back door as it were. I was put on the board of CUUPS, the Pagan UU organization, and then from there sort of joined a church, and even was a delegate a couple of times to their General Assembly. But I am not a church goer, I may go to my local UU church a couple times a year at most. I mainly associated myself with the organization to fight for the sixth source, to have earth-based spirituality included as an important part of Unitarian-Universalism, and that fight was won. But I am not an organization type. I think having a congregational part of Paganism is mostly very good, particularly for people in small communities where Paganism is still in the closet; it provides a respectable cover for feminist spirituality, men’s spirituality, rituals, etc. Are there trends and movements within modern Paganism that you wish you could have added to the updated edition of “Drawing Down” but couldn’t due to time or space constraints? I think I did pretty well on some of trends, particularly on the changes in festivals which I think are huge… Some festivals are now so large, and there is so much new music and ritual, that we are fragmenting a bit which is complex. Once everyone knew the same chants, that’s impossible now. If I had had more time I would have expanded some of the sections, included more traditions and visited more festivals and groups to get a sense of what is new. And the 300 groups, festivals and newsletters in my resource guide would have been more than 600. What are your current frustrations with the modern Paganism movement? What one piece of constructive criticism would you give our communities today? Have your frustrations changed over the last 30 years or are many of them the same? Actually, many of my frustrations with Paganism are the same as always. Isaac Bonewits once said that the basic principles of a polytheistic outlook make certain abuses less common, but it doesn’t mean they don’t happen. I still find egos, guruism, arbitrary rules, “by the book” attitudes in a religion that is supposed to be in contrast to the religions of the book, and so forth. On the other hand, Paganism now has real leaders, people who are doing real work to heal the planet, real nature sanctuaries, seminaries, charitable organizations, and that was much less true when I started out. Also, the large Pagan organizations – places like Circle, EarthSpirit, that is something no one anticipated when all of us thought entirely of circles, covens and groves. There are now people who come into Paganism through these organizations, that is a new difference. Which voices within modern Paganism today do you feel are shining a light towards our future? Who are we not listening to that we should? I really don’t know how to answer this. I think we are beginning to have real elders, people who have been in this movement for 40 years, and some of them have real wisdom to impart. Then there are young people, often the third generation and second generation Pagans are a really interesting phenomenon, and some of them are dynamite!!!! I also love that there are actually books that are deeper than mine at this point…I started out when there were few books around, except for Murray, Gardner, Graves, Lethbridge, Justine Glass, and a few others. “Triumph of the Moon” is utterly brilliant! I think we have to keep true to the anti-authoritarian, pluralistic spirit at the heart of contemporary Pagansim. It is truly an antidote to the authoritarian religions of our time. Do you think you’ll ever write another book on Paganism, or do you feel that “Drawing Down” is your definitive statement and contribution? I might well write a totally different kind of book on Paganism. But first I have to stop being a wage slave and get my 10th grader into and through college. Since the first edition of “Drawing Down” academic works about(and by)Pagans have expanded considerably. Do you keep up much with current scholarship within Paganism? If so, what works have impressed you? Triumph of the Moon by Hutton, some of Chas Clifton’s works, there are many works I like that are recent, including “Witching Culture” by Magliocco and “Coming to the Edge of the Circle,” by Bado-Fralick, in fact my bibliography is about double the size it was last time. But Triumph is my favorite book. Where do you see yourself within the world of modern Paganism? How has that conception changed since 1979? As one of the most “famous” modern Pagans, what role do you envision for yourself in the years to come? Heavens! I don’t have a clue! I hope to keep a bit of humor and humility, and tell people that this is a hugely important movement for changing the world and ourselves but that doesn’t mean we should take ourselves overly seriously. I think some of the things I emphasize in speeches, that the sacred is in the hear and now, that you don’t have to die to “get the good stuff,” that everyone’s ancestors way, way back were Pagan, and that every person in the U.S. had their ancient traditions torn from them, whether through slavery, colonialism or by assimilation, and that it is possible to combine ecstasy and rationality, body and mind, and that reality is like a jewel, more paths mean a richer deeper reality, those are the kinds of things I have always emphasized and continue to. Other than that, I am still a minstrel, singing, chanting, doing ritual and believing in the polytheistic vision, and being involved in less magic and more earth reverence. Previous Wild Hunt interviews: Starhawk, Gus diZerega, Jeff Sharlet, Brendan Cathbad Myers, Rita Moran, Janet Farrar and Gavin Bone, Phyllis Curott, Tim Ward, Lupa, J.C. Hallman, Margot Adler. |
