The Vows

Blogging will be light (or even non-existant) this weekend due to my impending nuptials to the wonderfully talented Mrs. Henry.

ma’am, would it make you feel any better if you knew
that what we’re doing was a holy thing?
you see, we’re on a mission from god.

In a ceremony that will surely vex at least one religious tradition, Mrs Henry (who is Catholic) will be exchanging sacred vows with an avowed Pagan. We will be married by Mrs Henry’s good friend ‘Mittens’ a GLBT/social activist (and daughter of a former AIDS czar) currently preparing to enter seminary and become a Lutheran minister.

We are deeply happy and content and can’t wait to be married out in nature as the sun rises tomorrow. May your gods bless you and keep you, and may your day be as blessed as I hope mine will.

Around the Pagan Web

Over at The Juggler Cather ‘Catalyst’ Steincamp talks about the issues brought up by the Terri Schiavo case and why Pagans should talk about it with eachother.

“I would encourage Pagans to talk about this with their peers, and for groups– be they small, religious groups or large, social groups– to take up this issue. Death is a very spiritual subject, and while we as Pagans do not generally push spiritual views, even within our community, I think we should foster discussion of the subject. I would hate to see the Pagan Community torn apart by something that could be resolved by discussion, and I’d particularly hate to see us pressuring a family to make a decision that may conflict with the wishes of the person who is most affected.”

Over at her blog Thorn Coyle discusses Anarchism, Paganism, Utopianism and the issues of self-governance.

“There is no self-government without self-governance. Yesterday, I sat on the religion and anarchism panel at a conference in Berkeley. I was struck by many things – first of all, by how hard it is for people to articulate their beliefs, no matter what they are and how much they say they believe them. Second, I was struck by a typical human behavior of not really hearing another person because we hold preconceived notions. Here was a group of people dedicated to what I believe is an attempt at something new because it is seldom tried, yet most were behaving in the same old ways. Probably myself included.”

Laura Jean Karr writes a column talking about Pagan Reconstructionists.

“So, what is a Pagan Recon? Well, Pagan Recons are those who strive to practice their faith as closely as possible to the original way in which their chosen pre-Christian faith Pagan culture practiced. They study all there is to know about their chosen path from historical documents to archeological evidence. Recons go beyond what is touched upon by Pagan Eclectics and search for the actual facts of what is known about their chosen faith. Some Recons only establish the historical evidence for their religious practices while other Recons chose to live their daily lives as closely as they can to the way in which their chosen pre-Christian people lived. Recons do not believe or follow any practice unless there is historical or archeological evidence to support it.”

Finally, Chas Clifton points us to a site that discovers modern Pagan holy sites.

“The ‘Neokoroi’ page lists primarily civic sites with strong Graeco-Roman religious elements that might effectively function as holy places.”

I Thought She Was Into Kabbalah?

Leave it to the Catholic League to make the mistake of taking Madonna seriously. The controversy? She dressed as a nun and her husband dressed as a pope for a fete celebrating the Jewish holiday of Purim at the Kabbalah Center in London.

“I suggest that next time, Madonna dress up in something more suited to her, such as from the Wiccan religion. And the Catholic League would donate a broom to her husband ? with instructions on what to do with it.” – Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League.

Dress like a Wiccan eh?

Skyclad or Robed? Which to choose!

Do you think Mr Donohue prefers robed or skyclad? Also in case the Catholic League needs some help here is a primer on the traditional uses of a Witches broom (or Besom). Here we have some chants you could use with your broom, and here are instructions for making their own in case the Catholic League is too cheap to actually buy one.

A Blogging Milestone

This blog just hit its first anniversary! Huzzah! I has certainly been a labor of love, I never thought that posting something almost every day for a year would be as much work as it has been. I think the experience so far has deepened my faith and has allowed me to meet and interact with some amazingly smart, witty and insightful people.

Thank you all for coming here and reading. I hope you’ll stick around for the next years-worth of one Pagan’s look at the world.

A Military Pagan Rejects The Iraq War

“I don’t regret my action.” – Spec. Blake Lemoine

“Spec. Blake Lemoine, 23, of Moraville, La., serving with the 5-96th Maintenance Company of the 16th Combat Support Group, was sentenced to seven months in prison and ordered him discharged with bad conduct. Lemoine said he had asked to leave the Army after returning from a yearlong tour in Iraq. He gave several reasons for his decision at a news conference last week that was sponsored by several anti-war groups. In particular, he argued that his duties as an ordained pagan minister were in conflict with his job in the Army. Lemoine said he had launched a hunger strike, which he vowed to continue while in prison.” – Melissa Eddy, AP

“LeMoine has been on a hunger strike for 41 days in protest against the Army’s refusal to discharge him” – American Views Abroad

…more as I find it

Something Deeper

Gawker reviews the show Topic A With Tina Brown (and not in a positive light I might mention) and gives us this interesting tidbit from an interview with Atoosa Rubenstein, the editor of Seventeen magazine.

Tina: Why are kids religious?

?Toosa: ?This generation of kids? saw 9/11 and ?they saw the president lie.?

Tina: Is this just in red states?

?Toosa: No, it?s ?across the board.? And ?it?s not just about Christianity? it?s about spirituality,? including paganism and witchcraft. ?Kids need something deeper.?

Tina: So ?this is an untapped market??

?Toosa: ?Oh, absolutely.?

How to even parse this. Youth religion is an untapped market? Passion gifts for red-state kids and pentacles for the blue-state kids? Kids are embracing Wicca because of 9/11? Whatever it means this much is certain, religion (to them) is seen as just another product to sell to kids. Parents (and kids) in states red, blue or purple need to keep this in mind and always question those who are making a buck off of faith. The real thing doesn’t cost a dime no matter what path you follow.

A Very Pagan Easter

“Twenty-seven-year-old Brandi Pettit of Stevens Point has no problem at all with the presence of pagan symbols in Easter. As a pagan, Pettit says, she views eggs and rabbits as symbols of life and renewal. Although she has been a pagan for the past 3 1/2 years, Pettit sends her children to Methodist services with her mother every Sunday. The two religions share more in common than just a few symbols, she said. ‘If you take all the world’s bigger religions, they all have a lot of similarities,’ Pettit said. ‘Whatever you call the holiday, the heart of it is still the same.’“ – Alex Shaine, Stevens Point Journal

“Though the Christians tried to take over Easter and make it their own, what they really did was to legitimize and assure the survival of a whopping big collection of pagan tradition and ritual, which works fine for me since the pagan elements which we’ve preserved are a lot more fun than the crucifictional alternative. So after the easter egg hunt on Sunday we’re off to a local Renaissance Festival – where better to frolic with the pagans – because apparently the church pretty much says it’s okay to be a pagan at least this one day of the year.” – Dave Nalle, Blogcritics.org

“I decided to forgo the bunnies and chocolate this Easter, and, instead, explore my Ukrainian roots by learning about pysanky – the ancient art of egg decoration. The intricate patterns in my mother’s collection captivated me as a girl. Historically, these decorative eggs were first used in pagan spring rituals as a fertility symbol and were later incorporated by the Christian church.“ – Jennifer Parks, Edmonton Sun

“Many people ask, what does Passover mean to Judaism? Other people ask, what does Easter mean to Christianity? A growing number of people are now asking, what does Ostara mean to Paganism? Paganism, or Earth-Spirit worship, is a path that finds everything in nature sacred, and everything sacred, divine.” – Olive Berrwick, Santa Cruz Sentinel

“To Christians the Easter egg represents re-birth or resurrection, but it was also a cherished symbol for the ancient Greeks, Romans, Gauls, Egyptians, Persians and the Chinese. The holiday itself falls on the northern hemisphere’s Spring Equinox, and the name Easter derives from the old Anglo-Saxon name for the fertility goddess of Spring, who happened to be symbolised by a rabbit, hence, the Easter Bunny. And as Peter Lee observes, it may be that Easter could be leaning back towards old-fashioned pagan-style hedonism.” – Nick Grimm, AM (Australia)

“The Christian Easter tradition has actually been piggy-backed on to pre-existing heathen rituals. These pagan placeholders on the annual circle of life illustrate our deep need to mark the passage of time, and the seasons, with events organised around a relevant theme. This need remains today but we don?t really connect with it any more. In the old days, these instincts connected with the cycle of nature. We were just as much a part of seasonal change as the woods, the fields and the beasts. We held our rituals to clarify with actions and symbols the changes that we felt were happening within us.” – Benjamin Fry, The Times Online

No matter what form you celebrate your Spring rejuvination/ressurection in, have a happy and fulfilling one.

Pre-Easter Propaganda

I love the smell of triumphalism in the morning!

“Spring was the perfect time for the resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. When Jesus made his advent, the world lay in a state of spiritual darkness and was held in the cold and deadly grip of sin. Hope was as dead as winter in its most dormant state, and mankind as a whole was steeped in superstition, idolatry and paganism. For more than 400 years, the prophets of God were silent. The world lay in utter darkness.“ – Alyce Faye Bragg, Saturday Gazette-Mail

“how a Christianity which has grown weary of faith has abandoned the Lord: the great ideologies, and the banal existence of those who no longer believing in anything, who simply drift through life, have built a new and worse paganism, which in its attempt to do away with God once and for all, have ended up doing away with man” – Card. Joseph Ratzinger, from this years meditation on the Way of the Cross

Not bad, not bad. But I was wondering if a commentator could bring up Paganism, Jesus, Easter and the Terri Shiavo case.

“Believe me when I remind you that the same Easter God on behalf of Jesus is very much involved on the deepest levels in Terri?s surrendered Christian commitment. Let it be so. Believe it to be so. Thank God that she [Terri Shiavo] is not pagan but Christian. Give praise to Jesus that she is His daughter of grace and mercy and not sold out to the unbelieving clot of this planet. Let your heart then rise heavenward in gratitude that the woman we pray for has already been embraced by the Lord who owns her battle ? from start to finish.” – J. Grant Swank, Magic City Morning Star

We have a winner! So for those of you who don’t feel like the time before Christ’s death and ressurection was as “dead as winter”, or that a “new and worse paganism” is threatening to destroy us all, or that the Terri Shiavo case is somehow really a battle between Pagan and Christian forces I wish you a happy holiday tomorrow.

And Now A Word From Our Sponsor

Hail to the god with horns! Hail to he who is nature! Hail to he who walks between this word and the next! Hail to he who keeps those boundaries! Hail to the lord of life and death! Hail to the god of all change! Hail lord of animals, and master of the wild places! In you I place my life and trust.

Three things from which never to be moved:
one’s Oaths, one’s Gods, and the Truth.

Let me always walk your path and never be lost.

“He is the god who crosses boundaries, and the god of change. He is the interface between Tribe and Land and between our world and the Otherworld. Through him goods can be passed from one realm to another, and valuable things can be gotten from raw Nature. He also manifests change as adaptability, as expressed by his antlers that drop off and grow back according to the season.” – Alexei Kondratiev

“I asked him what power he held over those animals. ‘I will show thee, little man,’ said he. And he took his club in his hand, and with it he struck a stag a great blow so that he brayed vehemently, and at his braying the animals came together, as numerous as the stars in the sky, so that it was difficult for me to find room in the glade to stand among them. There were serpents, and dragons, and divers sorts of animals. And he looked at them, and bade them go and feed; and they bowed their heads, and did him homage as vassals to their lord.” – Owain (The Lady of the Fountain), translated by Lady Charlotte Guest

“Beneath the sediment of aeons In ancient repose My trust lay eroded by age The old glory faded And past times forgotten My reign given way to my rage

Harmonious the centuries The land and I were one My Soil My water, My air Bringer of light And Master of night In balance The earth in my care

But with the passing of days A new wind came blowing With whispers of change On its wing This tide of corruption Laid siege to my world Usurping the throne of a King

Your new gods Your new ways All seek to dispel me With doctrines of fear built on lies The hidden one no longer I claim my dominion To the sun of your age I arise… “
- ‘Cernunnos’ by Faith and The Muse

UU iPod Strategy

Now that I have “signed the book” at my UU Church I decided to participate in a discussion on what should the UUism of the near future look like? I took the tack of someone at a pitch meeting and this is what I wrote.

Some thoughts…

UU needs to become media savvy to grow. It at least needs a UCC-styled “God is still speaking” campaign to get UU back in the news and update the UU image.

Start small in underground and “hip” magazines (and blogs). Go for progressive Christian zines, Pagan zines, Buddhist zines, LBGT zines, etc etc. Send a message of vitality and inclusive faith. Make it known that we have a challenge ahead of us and that we need people who hear the call. Don’t be wishy-washy, make it sound like this is for people with a fire to be a part of something bigger than themselves, none of this “you may already be a UU” stuff.

I see ads for Christians that shows a modern-day Mary looking for a place to give birth and finding that the UU Church is the only “inn” that has room for her. I want us invoking the REAL JESUS. In fact that would make a great series of ads.

I see ads for Pagans that stress a commitment to social justice from a earth-based spiritual perspective. Show footage of the Pagan Bloc singing and chanting, fade to a group of Pagans at a UU Church.

I see an ad that points out how the UU Church was taking the lead in supporting the LBGT community. I want a “never again” ad that talks about our role in the Matthew Shepard case. I want BIG photos of us marrying gays. Run them in Bridal magazines.

Similar messages would be made for Buddhists, Humanists, one for those who adhere to more than one faith tradition. I want to see ads that portray us as BRIMMING with faith and God(s).

We need to remind the world that we are a “faith” again. I want to see ministers in stoles and ceremonial garb. I want smells and bells! Capture imagination! No more appearing in cheap suits!

Multiple services per week! With different focuses! Radical Christian service! Buddhist chanting! Spiral dancing! Invite the press!

Sponsor rock concerts (that benefit worthy causes), provide free space to activist groups.

Viral marketing! Viral marketing! If we are going to “I-Pod” ourselves then we need to “cool” the “brand”.

Once you have peoples attention we must constantly hound the press! Start submitting essays about our long history of social justice to secular magazines (time to ask all prominent/established UU writers to come to the plate). Hit all the intellectuals over and over again. Take stands on issues often and in sight of a media outlet.

Most importantly, have programs designed for these newcomers that help them avoid the dull meetings at first. Have an “outer court” for those who are just getting their feet wet. DO NOT WRANGLE NEWCOMERS INTO DOING GRUNT WORK! Make the first couple months effortless, attending UU-sponsored demonstrations, attending film discussions, attending fun and meaningful worship.

Q. How do you drive a UU out of town?
A. Burn a question mark on their lawn.

…the following joke must become irrelevant.

People should think UU and think of what we actually believe in and stand for, we need to stop being a punch-line.

I not only want us sponsoring inter-faith events I want to make sure we are visible at them. Spokes-people, we need some talking heads who are able to take on right-wing pundits and smile!

We need to show the world that we are alive and have fire in the belly. We can do it. It would at least be a start.