Pagan Community Notes: Huntsville Alabama, PAEAN Conference, Oberon Zell-Ravenhart, Witches in London and so much more!

Pagan Community Notes is a series focused on news originating from within the Pagan community. Reinforcing the idea that what happens to and within our organizations, groups, and events is news, and news-worthy. If you enjoy this series and our other recurring entries, please consider donating to our 2014 Fall Fund Campaign. Your support and donations make it possible for us to keep sharing the news and these important stories with you. Now let’s get started! 

Blake Kirk

Blake Kirk

The Interfaith Mission Council (IMS) of Huntsville, Alabama has announced that Wiccan Priest Blake Kirk is scheduled to offer an invocation before the Nov. 6 city council meeting. In June, Kirk was removed from the schedule due to complaints from local residents. After much discussion, the Huntsville city council opted to maintain its inclusive prayer policy prayer rather than removing invocations entirely. The executive director of IMS, the local organization charged with coordinating invocation speakers, Jeannie Robison told AL.comWe [IMS and the city council] want to honor Huntsville’s commitment to being an Inclusive City and to meet Constitutional standards regarding freedom of religion.”

This past Thursday, the council demonstrated its commitment to diversity by inviting an Atheist to speak. Following that meeting, IMS announced that Kirk had been invited back. In response to the city’s actions, Kirk said, “I think it’s an extremely positive development for Huntsville, and it suggests that people have learned something from the unfortunate situation in June, and are really trying to do better.” You can watch Kirk’s invocation live on Nov. 6 through Huntsville’s live streaming site

Oberon (Tim) Zell, an important figure in the early Pagan councils.

Oberon Zell-Ravenheart

On Sept. 28, Oberon Zell-Ravenhart posted a call on Witchvox for information about “Pagan Lands for Pagan Burials.” He wrote, “Since Morning Glory’s death, I have been inspired (nay, “assigned!”) to co-author a handbook for Pagan Final Passages—including green burials.” In the spring, the Church of All Worlds’ sacred land of Annwfn was legally-secured as an “officially-recognized cemetery for full body burials.” Morning-Glory was the first to be buried on that land, and Oberon is thankful to those who helped make that possible. Now he wants to turn his experience into, what he describes as, a “how-to manual.”

To accomplish this work, Oberon is looking for input from anyone who maintains Pagan land, a green cemetery, or anyone who is planning to build a cemetery space. He adds, “Previously, virtually all members of the modern Pagan community who have died (at least in the United States) have been cremated, as this seemed to be the only option other than the impossibly expensive and distasteful mortuary practice of embalming and burial in a fancy coffin in a concrete vault. But for many of us, cremation is a repellent choice, as we remember the Burning Times, and have no wish to consign our flesh to the flames yet again!”

10171120_828816003799940_5240040217082249423_nPagan/Academic European Associates Network (PAEAN) will be holding its 2nd online conference on October 9, 2014. The event is held in coordination with the Pagan Federation International (PFI) and is focused on “a variety of topics around the subjects of Paganism and Witchcraft.” This October’s theme is “The changing of Magic: Modern and Ancient Witchcraft.” There will be two panels on the following subjects: “Ancient Witchcraft and its adaptation” and “Western Esotericism practices and the academy.”  

The online PAEAN conference is held twice a year, in the spring and fall. Coordinators hope that the unique online platform, which allows a diversity of people to engage in dialogue and interaction, will “increase learning, understanding and developing from the combined discussions.”

Spelcastor [Courtesy: EMLC]

Spelcastor [Courtesy: EMLC]

On Sept. 20, the CUUPS chapter of Fort Lauderdale, Florida presented local Pagan Spelcastor an award for “his long time service of 19 years as the gatekeeper and facilitator” of Pagan Pride Day held at the Unitarian Universalist Church. Spelcastor is now officially retired but, as CUUPS organizers said, “he will long be remembered for keeping the flame alive.” In response, Spelcastor remarked, “I am deeply honored by this outpouring of gratitude and reminded how persistent service to the Craft year after year pays off.”

In Other Pagan Community News:

That is all for now.  Have a great day!

 


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12 thoughts on “Pagan Community Notes: Huntsville Alabama, PAEAN Conference, Oberon Zell-Ravenhart, Witches in London and so much more!

  1. Yay for Blake and the invocation to come! And while I think pagan cemeteries are a nice idea; I still plan to be cremated myself. I don’t literally remember the “burning times”….tho’ I get the sense of that. But I also recall the historical practice of cremation being an OLD pagan form of disposal of the body and thus “consigning my body to the flames” is not repellent at all to me.

    • I don’t remember the “Burning Times” either. And I think there is a difference between being accused of a crime then burned alive at the stake and that of being cremated after death.

      Fire is one of the elements and, in my mind, is an appropriate form of returning to the Earth. Personally, I would like to be buried in Circle Sanctuary’s green cemetery, but I live out of state, and it is difficult to get the permits to carry a body across state lines. So, at this point, unless the laws change, I will have to be cremated in order for ashes to be taken to Wisconsin. And I’m OK with that.

      • Likewise, I feel that the huge difference between cremation and burning alive, seems an important thing to note. My ashes are to be spread upon my own Walk of the Fallen Memorial Labyrinth on my own property in keeping with a vow I made.

  2. Oberon wrote, ““Previously, virtually all members of the modern Pagan community who have died (at least in the United States) have been cremated, as this seemed to be the only option other than the impossibly expensive and distasteful mortuary practice of embalming and burial in a fancy coffin in a concrete vault.”

    “Seemed” may be the operative word. Orthodox Judaism forbids embalming and requires swift burial of the corpse either wrapped in a shroud and placed directly into the ground, or in a coffin made of flimsy material that will disintegrate quickly. Orthodox Jews have been burying their dead in Jewish cemeteries in America since before the Revolution.

    OTOH, concrete vaults are a requirement for public health in places where the water table is higher than the depth at which people are buried.

    • Indeed. Tennessee, for example, does not have any legal requirement for embalming prior to burial, and several sites in that state now offer “natural burials” as an option. Persons interested in something other than cremation or embalming should research local or regional options for natural burials. One other option might be to donate one’s remains for use in a medical school, or for research purposes, such as the donated human remains used in researching natural decomposition for forensic purposes by the University of Tennessee’s Anthropology department.

      • Thank you very much for stating the law in TN. We have been asking about green burials and have been told several times, even by state employees, that burials without a vault are illegal in TN. Even those who don’t lie about the law are brushing us off or acting as if we were nuts to ask for such a thing.

        Now that we know this, we can search more effectively for a way to fulfill our last wishes.

      • I know my paternal grandmother’s body was given to Vanderbilt U (in TN?); whether her elder son chose that path for himself, or his wife chose for herself, I do not know.

        Given the number of inherited disease and oddities I have, yeah, research can have me for a while. I want my remains, when they are returned, cremated and mixed into material which will make a nice bench to put in a scenic spot, such as a redwood forest.

  3. Given Oberon’s bollocks about “the Burning Times”, it’s worth mentioning that cremation only became legal in the UK after a fight by a neopagan Druid named William Price.