Unleash the Hounds! (Link Roundup)

Jason Pitzl-Waters —  May 10, 2011 — 23 Comments

There are lots of articles and essays of interest to modern Pagans out there, sometimes more than I can write about in-depth in any given week. So The Wild Hunt must unleash the hounds in order to round them all up.

That’s it for now! Feel free to discuss any of these links in the comments, some of these I may expand into longer posts as needed.

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Jason Pitzl-Waters

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  • Zanna Russell

    Steven Tyler practiced sex magick? Why does this not surprise me?

    • embreis

      Regarding the Ray trial: I don't know how much hope the defense has for a favorable jury verdict, but they think they've got a strong argument on appeal from some of the judge's evidentiary rulings. Probably, the main point of the repeated motions for mistrial is make sure that their evidentiary objections are properly on the record and preserved for appeal

  • http://www.dianahurlburt.wordpress.com Diana B. Hurlburt

    Re: Heavenly Mother in Mormonism. I was raised Mormon and practiced actively into my early college years. One of the big problems which eventually contributed to my leaving was the lack of female divine presence in the doctrine and culture. Lots of bloggers in the "bloggernacle" have tackled this issue, plenty of women bloggers among them. A post by Leah at Whore of All the Earth is one of the most recent: http://whoreofalltheearth.blogspot.com/2011/05/ho…

  • Jaelle

    Neat video by DM and I am loving the Daughters of Eve blog!

  • Bookhousegal

    What was the issue about how the circle was named? Or the name itself? I don't recall hearing about that bit.

  • Ian Corrigan

    To me it seems strange that a blog for Pagan women of color would be named Daughters of Eve… just who are they referring to?

    • Bookhousegal

      Yeah, that one seemed a touch confusing to me, too, but the name was also given to a common ancestress of all people they found through mitochondrial gene markers or some such, I suspect that may be the reference. :)

    • http://www.facebook.com/jacquiemg Jacquie Minerva Georges

      The administer of the Pagan section of the site chose that blog title and I am absolutely honored by it. It can be looked at both ways: scientific name (for non-religious believers) of the common ancestry for all humans by 1 woman (the very first woman and mother of all human species). Or it can be looked as an Abraham faith view of the “1st woman” (which I believe Lilith was the first woman in the Abraham faith but that is another story-lol). Either way—all theist and scientist can agree there we are all come from 1 woman (and/or man)… she has many names or no name in many theist “ideals” Let’s not take away from the significance of Pagan women of “immediate” African ancestry finally voicing their voice into “mainstream” Blessings!

      • Bookhousegal

        Well, that 'Eve' wasn't the *first* woman, (There would have been plenty before her) …just that everyone *since* shares some of her ancestry.

        • http://www.facebook.com/jacquiemg Jacquie Minerva Georges

          True and thanks for the clarification and edification! Beside the point—why the debate on what the title is called? The importance is what it symbolizes and stands for… the purposeful beauty of it… my humble opinion.

          • Bookhousegal

            I suppose on that point, people ask cause it's just a name more associated with *non-Pagan* religions.

            (Though the name may be older than *that,* anyway: I'm fuzzy on that at this hour, at least. She may have had a different name, there. If I know, I'm too tired to remember, one way or another. The story itself was kind of rearranged from Pagan sources, though, on that I'm certain enough. :) )

            Good column, by the way.

    • Christopher Bogs

      It looks from their sidebar like they're referring to "Mitochondrial Eve", the matrilineal Most Recent Common Ancestor of modern humans, who is postulated to have lived in East Africa somewhen around 200,000 BCE. So while the name is Biblical, the concept is definitely not!

      • Crystal7431

        "We call upon responsible citizens and officers of government everywhere to promote those measures designed to maintain and strengthen the family as the fundamental unit of society." I found this section interesting. Melding religion and government? Check.

        • Kullervo

          And given the Mormon Church's involvement with California's Prop. 8, they clearly put this principle into practice.

      • Crystal7431

        Both the photos by Ernesto Young and the posters based on them by Shepard Fairey are absolutely striking. May they help foster the change so desperately needed for all First Nation peoples.

  • Kullervo

    Yep. Talk about some kind of grassroots Heavenly Mother movement gaining any kind of widespread foothold within Mormonism is wishful thinking at best.

    While the Church does have some (extremely) cautious dissenting voices, it can be hard for an outsider to wrap their heads around just how intense the culture of authoritarianism and conformity within Mormonism is.

    Are there some feminist Mormons with spiritual yearnings for their Heavenly Mother? Sure. Is it a movement likely to gain any kind of traction among Mormonism at large? Not on your life. not anytime soon.

    • Kullervo

      Also, to be clear to everyone, the doctrine that a Heavenly Mother (or Mothers) exist is not at all controversial within Mormonism. While it is not generally considered an appropriate topic to talk or teach very much about, it is a widely accepted doctrine with substantial Church authority backing it up (there's even a hymn in the Mormon hymnal that mentions Heavenly Mother).

      But that's it. You don't worship her, you don't pray to her, you don't even talk about her much. Openly adocating any of that will get you smacked down pretty hard. Even privately practicing any of that–if people know about it–will get you a whole lot of attention from the Church's authority structure.

      • Crystal7431

        I'm very ignorant of Mormon history, or Mormonism in general. How did they get from there to here? Why the change in politics?

        • Robert Mathiesen

          It began, I think, as a response to the federal smack-down of Mormon polygamy from the so-called "Mormon War" of 1857 onward. The Edmunds act of 1882, if I have understood it correctly, essentially deprived anyone who practiced polygamy, or even believed in its legitimacy, of the right to due process in courts of law, permitting such a person to be punished without trial as any judge saw fit. A few years later, a second law allowed Federal seizure of all property and assets of the Mormon Church.

          Faced with this, the Mormon Church capitulated, and renounced polygamy in 1890. After that, the leadership began to seek greater and greater legitimacy within the context of American mainstream religion, which at that time was predominately Protestant. The process continues to this day. Thus, Quinn was excommunicated, and whatever the official charges, it is widely acknowledged that the grounds was his pioneering research into magical practice and also into gay sexual activity in the early Mormon Church.

          • Crystal7431

            Oh, extremely interesting. Thank you so much. I'll have to look for Quinn's book.

          • Kullervo

            First, the transition to Brigham Young's leadership after Joseph Smith, Jr.'s death was a 180 for Mormonism. Smith was a charismatic mystic but Young was absolutely a practical authoritarian, and Young led the Mormons out West to essentially build an isolated Mormon nation in Utah which looked very little at all like Smith, Jr.'s Mormonism.

            Mormonism started to get some good publicity in the 1940s and 1950s–the public perception shifted a little bit from "crazy bearded desert cultists" to "respectable clean-cut examples of what 1950's America is all about," and the Church lapped it up. The quest for good PR has driven a ton of the Church leadership's decisions since then.

  • http://avaloniangirl.blogspot.com Morwyn

    I love, love,love Bollywood.

    I once asked about the goddess to a Morman woman. She said that it is know that God has a wife. She didn't elaborate on it. i thoght that was cool. Made me wonder if she secretly worshipped the Heavenly Mother.

  • http://twitter.com/Mjausson @Mjausson

    The work of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation is very important for religious freedom in the armed forces. And the Washington Times (Times, not Post) editorial was beyond the pale. But, Goddess afoot, Mikey Weinstein could use some coaching on how to be an effective advocate in writing.

    The bombastic tone in the Truthout piece is one I'd expect from a Koran-burning Florida preacher. Not from somebody who by all accounts is a very smart and knows that he has the law on his side. The message is absolutely the right one but it needs to be conveyed in a way that people will read it. That doesn't mean it can't be angry, it just needs to be angry from a point of "power within" and without sounding like he just discovered the thesaurus.

    There are many effective writers and advocates in feminist, LGBT and other movements that are making their voices heard in today's media. We would do well to adapt their writing and speaking tools to successfully make our manifold voices heard.