Happy 4th of July
I’m taking the day off from blogging, enjoy the fireworks!
Oh, and thanks to the precise wordsmiths who wrote the Declaration of Independence.
(Pagan) News of Note
My semi-regular round-up of articles, essays, and opinions of note for discerning Pagans and Heathens.
Move over Long Man of Wilmington and Cerne Abbas Giant, a mining company is carving a 400-yard goddess figure into the Northumberland landscape.
“Dubbed the “Goddess of the North”, Northumberlandia will be made from two million tonnes of earth dug out from an open cast mine in Cramlington, and tower 112ft into the northern sky. The Goddess, designed by artist Charles Jencks, will recline over the Shotton open-cast mine and form the centre piece of a new public park at the site.”
One wonders if this new addition to Britain’s landscape will, in a few hundred years, be considered an “ancient” pre-Christian survival by the locals. It will also be interesting to see if the site will become a pilgrimage place for modern Pagans and Goddess-worshippers.
The Oxford University Press blog points us to a “Meet the Author” interview with Owen Davies.
Davies is the author of “Grimoires: A History of Magic Books”, a truly interesting work that you can expect to see a full review of at this blog sometime soon.
The Coalition of Visionary Resources (COVR) has given awards to three Llewellyn Worldwide titles: “Faith and Magick in the Armed Forces”, by Stefani E. Barner (Best New Wiccan/Pagan Title), “Magic, Power, Language, Symbol”, by Patrick Dunn (Best New Magic Title) and “The Enchanted Oracle”, by Jessica Galbreth and Barbara Moore (Best New Divination Title).
“COVR is an organization formed by a unique group of businesses that deal in “Visionary Resources,” and who work with and support each other as independent retailers, manufacturers, distributors, wholesalers, and publishers of visionary books, music, and merchandise. For the twelfth consecutive year, COVR’s Visionary Awards were presented at the International New Age Trade Show (INATS) banquet, this year held on June 27th, 2009 in Denver, Colorado. The Visionary Awards are judged by retailers and seasoned professionals, who evaluate each title based upon content, presentation, and their own knowledge of the industry.”
Congratulations to Llewellyn and the assorted authors/artists involved. The publisher won two awards at last year’s gathering. As for the The International New Age Trade Show, you may remember that I reported on their contraction due to the economy last year.
Our pal Don Rimer is hitting the newswires again, promoting his upcoming appearance on a forensics radio program.
“Talk Forensics, a new talk radio show hosted by Larry E. Daniel of Guardian Digital Forensics, is proud to announce that DON RIMER Ritual Crime & The Occult Expert will be the guest this Sunday, July 5th at 4pm eastern. Don Rimer is a retired, 33-year veteran of the Virginia Beach, Virginia Police Department. He currently serves as the Public Information officer and Chaplain for the Virginia Gang Investigators Association. He is an internationally recognized authority on Ritual Crime and the Occult. He serves as an investigator and consultant to agencies throughout the United States and Canada.”
Ah yes, an “internationally recognized authority” (recognized by whom, exactly) who mixes just enough CYA (cover your assets) disclaimers into his old-school “occult crime” scare tactics to continue booking those speaking gigs at churches and civic groups. No doubt he’ll be around soon to remind us that he has a Wiccan friend advisor who gives him books to read.
In a final note, it looks like the Vatican is going to be tightening the theological reigns on American Nuns. Prompted by Cardinal Franc Rodé, who publicly wondered if some Nuns were operating “outside” the bounds of Church doctrine, orders will be evaluated on how well they are living in “fidelity” to their order’s (and the Church’s) guidelines.
“Cardinal Levada sent a letter to the Leadership Conference saying an investigation was warranted because it appeared that the organization had done little since it was warned eight years ago that it had failed to “promote” the church’s teachings on three issues: the male-only priesthood, homosexuality and the primacy of the Roman Catholic Church as the means to salvation.”
U.S. Bishops have already decreed that the practice of Reiki (energy healing), which was apparently gaining quite a bit of popularity among some nuns, to be outside the bounds of Church doctrine. Will we soon see a crack-down on nuns who have shown hospitality to Goddess-groups in the past? The coming years may be some tough one for the more doctrinally liberal elements in the Catholic Church.
That’s all I have for now, have a great day!
Quick Note: Recycling Journalism
I know Pagans are usually pretty pro recycling, but this is ridiculous. The Atalanta Journal Constitution re-runs a not-very-funny article by Charles Yoo about Pagans from October, no, not October 2008, October 2006.
“Oh, Great Spirit of the Forest, hear this prayer. Among us, the mortals, walk lonesome souls whose devotion to thee must be hidden. Centuries ago, they faced gruesome deaths at the burning stake that came with an audience. Today, their cubicle mates snicker. Alas, the persecution!”
Ow! Ow! My sides hurt from all the laughing! Man, I don’t know about you, but lame jokes from three years ago always age very well, don’t you think? Couldn’t they have sprung for a newer article about Pagans? Were the fans of Charles Yoo so longing for his particular form of “wit” that they ran an October piece about Pagans at the beginning of July? If this is the fruits of print journalism, no wonder its in trouble.
Quick Note: A Bit of Pagan Ballet
Mythical and Arcadian motifs in opera, classical music, and ballet are nothing new, but it’s always nice to remember that choreographers and composers have been mining these rich themes for generations. For instance, The New York Times reviews the American Ballet Theater’s revival production of “Sylvia” (aka “Sylvia ou La Nymphe de Diane”) and revels in the pure pagan pageantry of it all.
“The crescent, the moon, the horn and the hunt all tie brilliantly into Act I of “Sylvia,” which Ashton choreographed in 1952 and which American Ballet Theater has revived this week at the Metropolitan Opera House. The score is by Léo Delibes. Blow that horn! Or rather, those horns! None of the many hunts in music-drama prepare us for the full blaze that comes with the entrance of this ballet’s huntresses and, finally, Sylvia herself … No character in all ballet — and few in music drama — enters to more splendid music than Sylvia. She and her friends leap and do whipped (fouetté) turns, and the ballet moves into a new kind of scale and energy. Nobody has time to think what this says about gender stereotypes. The huntresses and pastoral hero of “Sylvia” were conceived not by Ashton in 1952 but by Delibes and his Paris colleagues in 1876, when Degas was painting ballet dancers and when, most of us tend to think, ballet stereotypes were thick on the ground.”
This ballet of pagan huntresses in love went on to inspire other works, including the more well-known “Swan Lake”. It’s lovely to see this unique gem get some attention (especially with themes that would delight the Pagan soul), if you’re in New York and want to see experience “Sylvia”, it’s running through Saturday at The Met.
Hidden, In Plain Sight, Hated, and Desired
One of the unique things about the modern Pagan movement in North America is that because it is spread across the country adherents can encounter a variety of reactions to their chosen faith. For instance, in Odessa, Texas, local Pagans feel the need for secrecy, giving anonymous interviews and working to dispel old stereotypes.
Aratkis and Foxfire said pagans tend to keep their beliefs under the rug where society cannot see them, lest they be treated like pariahs. “A lot of times they’re afraid of us – you know, we ‘worship the devil’ – but we don’t worship the devil,” Foxfire said. “We don’t sacrifice animals to small children. A lot of that is TV.” … “You go up north, and they are having huge pagan festivals with thousands of people,” Foxfire said. “Down in the Bible Belt here, a lot of people practice, but they do it privately.”
Meanwhile, way up north in Canada, Pagans are less anonymous, but immature reporters are disappointed when they aren’t bombarded by Pagans engaging in some sort of imaginary Harry Potter-esque version of Wicca.
“When I first visited Chinatown’s Fan Tan Alley, I half expected the tiny, foreboding laneway to require a certain stone-tapping entrance ritual, akin to that of Harry Potter’s Diagon Alley. OK, OK, fine, I admit it. I didn’t “half expect” it to ask for a magical pass code — I totally hoped it would.”
It is perhaps one of the truly disconcerting things about being a Pagan here, in some places they would try to drive you out, and in others they are trying to recruit you for reality television shows.
“I am a casting producer for ABC’s “Wife Swap” and we are looking to feature a Wiccan or Pagan family on the show. If you are interested or know someone that might be interested in the following opportunity, I’d love to hear from you.”
Then again, considering how reality television treats modern Pagans, maybe those differences aren’t so vast. But to return to my point, which is that the “mainstreaming” or “normalization” (for lack of a better term) of modern Paganism varies wildly depending on your geography. As impatient as I sometimes feel reading yet another rote “meet the Pagans” article in some local paper, I understand that these pieces do serve a purpose and are important in places like Odessa, Texas (less so in Victoria). Those of us who live in a Pagan-rich and tolerant community can often forget that our experiences aren’t repeated everywhere. That said, no matter how desperate you are to push us into the mainstream stay away from reality television, they’ll just make you look like an idiot. Seriously.
Amendment That Would Eliminate 6 Sources Defeated
This past weekend in Salt Lake City, Utah was the Unitarian-Universalist Association’s yearly General Assembly. This year, in addition to electing a new president, members of the UUA voted on a proposed amendment to its bylaws. The amendment, composed by the Commission on Appraisal, would have eliminated the now-familiar “6 sources”, which included the long-campaigned for sixth source, acknowledging the contributions of “earth-centered” (Pagan) traditions.
“Spiritual teachings of earth-centered traditions which celebrate the sacred circle of life and instruct us to live in harmony with the rhythms of nature.”
The revised amendment consisted of the following text.
“Unitarian Universalism is not contained in any single book or creed. Its religious authority lies in the individual, nurtured and tested in the congregation and the wider world. As an evolving religion, it draws from the teachings, practices, and wisdom of the world’s religions. Humanism, earth-centered spiritual traditions, and Eastern religions have served as vital sources. Unitarian Universalism has been influenced by mysticism, theism, skepticism, naturalism, and process thought as well as feminist and liberation theologies. It is informed by direct experiences of mystery and wonder, beauty and joy. It is enriched by the creative power of the arts, the guidance of reason, and the lessons of the sciences.”
This, naturally, made some UU Pagans very unhappy.
“Several pagan UUs lamented the loss of the language in the Sixth Source—”spiritual teachings of earth-centered traditions which celebrate the sacred circle of life and instruct us to live in harmony with the rhythms of nature.” Michael Hart, of First Unitarian Universalist Church of Houston, said, “I just want to talk about how this makes me feel as a UU pagan: It’s a blow in the solar plexus, a punch in the gut.” “We’ve gone from a bullet point about earth-centered spirituality that explains what we mean, as UUs, what it means to us, to a footnote buried in lots of very nice verbiage,” Hart said.”
The proposed language truncating the sources was also formally rejected by UU Pagan organization, CUUPs. In a very close vote, the revised language was rejected, preserving the current language for another two years.
“By a very close vote, the motion to amend Article II of the UUA Bylaws has failed. The final vote was 573 for and 586 against.”
As a Pagan, and Pagan with a history of involvement with the UUA, I’m happy to see our contributions not turned into a footnote written in the past tense. I have no real problem with the UUA’s bylaws being revised, but I do think future proposed revisions, and other decisions by the UUA BOD, shouldn’t continue the trend of making Pagans feel unwelcome. Pagans (and other “earth-centered” practitioners) make up a significant portion of the modern UUA, and I think it’s only fair that our contributions to this liberal denomination be acknowledged and respected.
Quick Note: New BBC Documentary Featuring Pagans?
The Iceland Review notes that the BBC was recently in the country to film a number of Asatru ceremonies.
“A documentary film crew from the BBC attended two weddings, two naming ceremonies and one coming-of-age ceremony undertaken by Asatruarfelagid, the pagan society in Iceland, which honors the Norse gods, at Thingvellir national park on Thursday.”
Sadly, we don’t know much else. Is it a documentary about Iceland? About religion? Paganism? This would have been a great time for a follow-up question or two. I suppose we’ll just have to scour BBC press releases until we find out. In the meantime, here’s a NextTV special on Asatru in Iceland.
A Few Quick Notes
A few news items I wanted to share with you this Saturday morning. We start off with a glowing profile of the Starwood Festival from Mark Mansfield of Stereo Subversion.
“The best festival I’ve ever participated in, I heard about through word of mouth fifteen years ago. Festival has many different meanings depending on the person. The Hippie might be thinking about Rothbury this year, with it’s heavy Deadhead lineup. The Artist might think of Burning Man where contributory art is everywhere and fires abound. Somewhere in that intersection is Starwood. Billed as the largest Pagan festival in North America, it is that and so much more … Starwood is a festival unlike any other. It is quite literally what you make it. Some people live for the drumming, while others are intent on attending as many workshops as they can. For some it is a hedonistic party while for others it is a deeply spiritual and transformative experience (and in fact is often both at the same time.) Though not exclusively a music festival, between the concerts, the radio station, and the night’s drumming, the music never stops.”
Dare I wonder if Starwood is becoming, well, hip? Will people start talking about Starwood they way they talk about Burning Man? Maybe, but the musical lineup is still heavily weighted towards the folky-pagan and old hippie, with touches of world music, so I think they have awhile before they’re completely inundated with outsiders.
The wonderful Goddess spirituality blog Medusa Coils points to a recent essay by Starhawk at Alive Mind & Spirit that explores the ever-shrinking mainstream market for “women’s spirituality” book titles, and what that has done to their movement.
“…although you may or may not have noticed, major publishers are no longer terribly interested in books on women’s spirituality. Why? Back in the ‘eighties, HarperSanFrancisco published not just me but a whole lot of great books—Carol Christ, Marija Gimbutas, Z. Budapest, Luisah Teish, Vicki Noble if I’m remembering it all right. They were the books we read, discussed, got excited about and inspired by. Then sometime in the nineties they dropped just about everyone except me—not because the books weren’t selling, but because they weren’t selling enough. They lost interest in publishing for a strong, steady niche, and only really wanted to publish blockbusters for the mass market … it had a debilitating effect on the movement. Without the books to inspire women, without new books to continue the discussions and debate, we lost ground, especially with younger women.”
Starhawk also seems to partially blame the Internet and blogging on this shift, though she hasn’t been shy in utilizing the web to fuel her own activist concerns and capitalist endeavours (one wonders how many new readers she gets from her lofty perch at the Newsweek/Washington Post-backed On Faith blog). It is true that book publishers are increasingly focused on “blockbusters”, but it’s also true that there has been a slow shift in the “New Age” book market away from Pagan/occult material and towards the Oprah-style self-empowerment/improvement genre(s). The industry is in flux, and the Pagan and Goddess-focused authors and small publishers will have to think of new ways to reach their audiences (just as the book Starhawk mentions, “Women of Wisdom”, seems to be doing).
In a final note, the First Amendment Center reminds Christians who complain about minority-faith accommodation that they are the one’s who wrote the rules that exclusively benefited them, and who now must deal with the changes that come from a truly religiously pluralistic (and free) society.
“When people complain about the growing list of requests for accommodation in public schools from students and parents from minority faiths, I like to remind them that the majority faith wrote the rules. Founded as Protestant-dominated institutions in the 19th century, public schools never open on Sunday, close for Christmas, and in other ways institutionalize accommodations for the majority faith … Students in the majority faith rarely need religious accommodation in public schools because the majority wrote the rules in the first place – and in many places still writes the rules. For students like Adriel whose faith is unfamiliar to many school officials, it’s often difficult to get a fair hearing. For some school officials, rules are rules – no exceptions. But religious liberty, or freedom of conscience, is our nation’s first freedom. Rather than complaining about all those requests for accommodation, we should be celebrating the genius of the First Amendment, which recognizes religious liberty as an inalienable right for people of all faiths and none. It takes work – and accommodation isn’t always possible. But taking claims of conscience seriously should be at the heart of what it means to be an American.”
Religious freedom means freedom for all religions. The Protestants who wrote the rules may never have envisioned a day when Pagan, or Buddhist, or even Muslim students would one day be a part of their societal fabric, but thanks to our (Enlightenment and Deist-influenced) Constitution we have the ability to thrive in that changed world.
That’s all I have for now, have a great day!
A Druid’s Guide To Glastonbury
British music site The Quietus (which is quite good btw) has decided to forego its usual tips for attending the massive Glastonbury Festival, and has instead sought the advice of Druid leader Emma Restall Orr. The author of “Living With Honour: A Pagan Ethics” gives sensible advice about not minding the rain, avoiding greasy junk-food, and finding time for a little serenity.
“Factor in some good chill out time, sometime during the day or night. Find quiet to relax alone, even just for ten minutes: find some peace … Visit the stone circle. Walk it a few times, feel its calm and how it sits deeply rooted in the landscape … Don’t make a mess or abandon your rubbish, and thank the spirit of the land when you leave.”
That’s all well and good, but surely they’d want some Pagan suggestions on which acts to check out, right? Since anyone who’s going is probably already there, this is pure armchair quarterbacking, but I’d definitely check out Bat For Lashes, Fleet Foxes, Fairport Convention, The Horrors, Bon Iver, and Tunng. Artists who have all been played on my A Darker Shade of Pagan podcast at some time or another. Also, from a purely personal standpoint (outside a Pagan purview), I wouldn’t want to miss Echo and The Bunnymen or Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds either.
Bungling Poachers, Not Satanists
It seems to happen with almost every strange animal death, law enforcement and journalists start wondering if the event had “occult” or “Satanic” connotations. Since a “Satanic” (or Santeria/Voodoo) headline sells more papers than “disturbed teenagers”, we rarely get an injection of common sense in these proceedings. Often, the more mundane truth is briefly reported long after the sensationalist damages have already been done. For instance, a recent deer beheading in Knustsford, England had all sorts of wild Satanic speculation behind it (including linking it to a blatantly obvious attention-seeking e-mail from a “Satanist”).
“The incident came just days after the Guardian received an anonymous email claiming Satanists were worshiping in Knutsford … Deer are said to be used in satanic rituals as sacrificial animals. It is also believed their skins are used as cloaks and headdresses during devil worship rituals.”
Naturally, actual Satanists objected to being portrayed as maniac deer-beheaders. In that same article, tucked away at the very end, the most likely scenario is reported.
“However, last week it emerged the killing could have been a failed attempt at poaching. A man who attended the scene, but would not be named, said the criminals appeared to have gutted the young stag to prepare it for sale.”
But you see, “bungling poachers” doesn’t have the same zing to it as some mythical occult underground in Knutsford. Some moron trying to make some money by poaching just doesn’t excite the audience. It’s a farce disguised as journalism, a scary puppet-show that can lead to “Satanic Panics” and ruin people’s lives.