This fall, a new music project was officially launched called “The Green Album.” The project will result in a single album featuring many popular Pagan music talents sharing songs “themed toward celebrating and drawing awareness to the World that nurtures us.” It is “a collaborative concept album featuring Tuatha Dea, Wendy Elizabeth Rule, Sj Tucker, Sharon Knight, Winter JP Sichelschmidt, Celia Farran, Bekah Kelso, Ginger Doss, Damh The Bard, Kellianna Girouard, Spiral Dance, Spiral Rhythm, Murphey’s Midnight Rounders, Brian Henke and Mama Gina LaMonte.”
On the project’s Facebook page, Mama Gina wrote, “I am so excited to be part of this amazing collaboration! I have a brand new song that I’ll be recording […] – but it’s still a secret.” Each of the contributors will be sharing one song, either new or old, for that is inspired by the theme.
The “Green Album” is due to be released in May at the 2016 Caldera Music festival, which is a a new 4-day event. The festival will be held at Cherokee Farms in LaFayette, Georgia beginning May 26, 2016. Tickets are currently available. The album will first be sold there and, as creators note, “partial proceeds from every Album sold by the collaborators will be donated to a Global Green Charity yet to be announced.” In the meantime, progress on the album’s creation will be posted on its Facebook page.
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Over the past weekend, Witches and Pagans in Paris, joined by many others from around the world performed a magical rite to protect the city and COP21. Beginning today, the United Nations is hosting its Conference on Climate Change at Le Bourget Exhibition Centre, 40 minutes northeast of downtown Paris. The conference will run from Nov. 30 to Dec. 11, and is an “annual meeting of all countries which want to take action for the climate.”
Before the start of the conference, Witches in Paris, supported by others, joined together to cast two concentric circles around the conference. One was formed directly around the center and the second around the entire city. Organizers wrote, “Although our community is diverse, as global citizens we were all touched by the devastating terrorist attacks in Paris. Now is an opportunity to lend your skills, energy, mojo, and Will to help PROTECT PARIS and TIP THE SCALES of the climate talks so we may have real, measurable, actionable results.”
They called on magical people from around the world to join in at a designated time, which was scheduled for 7:00 am GMT (Paris). The call-to-action, mainly sent through email and social media, included all the necessary ritual instructions in order to participate. The message also specified that the local organizing Witches would be regularly checking the magical circles. The added that “Sunday, December 13 at 7:00 AM GMT (Paris) or Saturday, December 13 at 10:00 PM PST, we will thank the deities, dismiss the Wards, and open the circles.”
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It was announced last week that Scott Walters, a member of Pennsylvania’s Pagan community and a longtime volunteer at Maryland’s Free Spirit Gathering, had passed away. Born January 21, 1970 in Harrisburg, PA, Scott graduated from York College and worked as a forensic anthropologist. He was also a volunteer fire fighter, teacher and EMT.
For many years, Scott used his talents and skills to assist the organizers of Maryland’s annual midsummer festival: Free Spirit Gathering. He helped to run its security and safety teams and was affectionately known as Sheriff Scott.
Scott’s family said that he passed way suddenly on Nov. 14 at York Hospital. He is survived by his wife, son, three daughters and grandchildren. There is now a GoFundMe campaign to help with final expenses. The Free Spirit Alliance said, “We’ve lost yet another light in our community.”
For those who knew Scott and live in the area, a memorial will be held “at 2 p.m. Saturday, December 12, 2015, at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of York.” What is remembered, lives.
In Other News:
- The American Academy of Religion hosted its annual meeting last week, and it was attended by a number of Pagans, as is typical. Blogger Thorn Mooney was there and shared her experience in a recent blog post titled, “Me, Pagan Studies and AAR.” Mooney wrote,”The whole reason I wanted to do any of this—years ago—was because I felt like there weren’t enough people in the academy taking contemporary witches (of whatever kind) seriously. The AAR always reminds me that that’s changing ..”
- The Nottingham Pagan Network joined forces with the local Muslim community to raise food for the Himmah food bank. After receiving the donation, food bank organizers publicly thanked the Pagan group for their “generous collection and contribution,” adding “We are proud to call friends at The Nottingham Pagan Network as a partner in our work to support those in need in Nottingham. we can all work together. thank you Nottingham, keep showing the way.”
- Lora Craig-Gaddis, creator of the popular Pooka Pages for Children, recently experienced some personal hardship. Her partner suffered a major stroke, leaving him bedridden and unable to work. Her daughter, sister and a friend helped her to setup a GoFundMe campaign to help raise the money needed to cover basic expenses, while she looks for a suitable way to make-up for the lost income. After 6 days, the campaign raised $2,125. Craig-Gaddis wrote, “Your combined donations have already achieved a month’s mortgage! That’s one whole month that I can devote to my husband’s recovery, exploring any other financial options and getting out the Yule issue of Pooka Pages. I can’t thank you, each of you, enough!”
- For the 11th year in a row, Beth Owl’s Daughter will be hosting her “Solstice Advent Sun Wheel” ritual. She wrote, “This [ritual] was originally inspired by Beltane Papers founder, the late Helen Farias, and adapted by Waverly FitzGerald … It welcomes ALL paths, traditions, religions, and the non-religious as well.” Participation is totally free and explained in detail on her website. Beth said that, in years past, hundreds of people from around the world have performed this rite together.
- And, lastly, as we noted in the 2015 Winter Solstice Buying guide, Omnia has released a new album. “Naked Harp” contains 15 original songs and is described as a “beautiful and timeless musickal journey into the realms of Dreams and Faery” and is good for meditation, dreaming and inspiration. Here is Omnia’s official Naked Harp trailer:
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It’s worth noting that the French government has put environmental activists under house arrest, raided anarchist squats and seized computer equipment, and has already used teargas on people defying the marching ban to ‘protect’ Paris from terrorism during the climate summit….