Voodoo Problems

Tough times for the practitioners of African Diasporic religions lately.

In the United States, Hurricane Katrina is quickly becoming one of the worst natural disasters in American history. Boing Boing has been keeping a running tally of reports from rescue workers.

“Water everywhere and more keeps coming. Until they can do something about the three levees that are broken, more water will come and more water will kill. The water poses major health threats. Anyone with even a small open cut is prone to infection. Anyone who touches this water and touches his eyes, nose or mouth without find a way to “clean” himself first will be sick with stomach problems before long. It’s bad and it’s getting worse. It’s not going to be anything better than devastating for days or weeks at best.”

How this has affected the local Voodoo/Hoodoo community in New Orleans is as yet unknown. Due to the complete communications break-down reports on listservs and on the Internet are sporadic at best. For those wanting to help out you can donate to the Red Cross or if you are Unitarian-Universalist you can donate to a fund set up by the UUA.

Going from the frying pan and into the fire, we learn from writer Kathie Klarreich that the situation in Haiti is degrading badly since the rebellion that helped remove (or kidnap) President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Things are so bad that it looks like the International community has given up hope of the country ever recovering and a new mass exodus is underway.

“Many journalists have already left, as have aid workers. The Peace Corps has been sent home and the US, as well as Canada and France, has asked all non-essential personnel to leave.”

Again, there is no telling the fate of prominent Haitian Vodou practitioners in the ongoing lawless, violent, environment. The UN and coalition of American States are hoping that the upcoming elections will bring a new stability, but things are looking tense and unsteady on that front as well.

I think the modern Pagan world community needs to pay more attention to these issues and the consequences of having two major centers of Vodou/Voodoo in such jeopardy. We share on some level a kinship with these practitioners, especially now that rituals and traditions from the African Diaspora have become so popular within modern Pagan circles. We stand to lose much if these places are irrevocably destroyed or rendered uninhabitable, and at the very least we need to bear witness and give aid where we can.

ODIN!

In the ongoing debate over “ID” and evolution I give you a link to this comic by cartoonist Tim Kreider.

Science vs. Norse Mythology

Focus On Focus On Wicca
(a parody based on actual news)

Is Focus On The Family targeting Wiccan teens? Shocking! It seems that once again the large evangelical conspiracy is trying to lead people into the lurid and dangerous world of evangelical Christianity! A recent news story on the Focus web site lays out their cunning plot to target teens by duping their parents into thinking it is a wholesome and healthy conference where they can “understand and defend their faith”.

“I came mostly because my parents told me about this. So we came down here just to hear some of these speakers because my mom listens to a lot of their radio programs.” – 17 year-old Gabe Isabel

Already we can see that by using “radio” they lure teens into their grasp. Once there they get to hear “talks” on topics like atheism, postmodernism, and the occult. They use glossy brochures to paint wholesome religions like Wicca as dangerous and evil, and offer their own “salvation” to replace it.

“God has made clear that Wicca is dangerous…Wicca may seem attractive, magical and different, but it does not give eternal life and a relationship with the God of the universe.” – “Breaking The Spell”

Also among their dubious claims is that Jesus is the source of “real girl power”, and that demons from hell will attack you if you practice Wicca.

“One hot summer night I was lying awake in my bedroom, when all of a sudden the room became very cold. I started to shiver and broke out into a cold sweat, although it was the height of summer. A cold wind blew in through my windows, startling me. Now I was terrified. I hugged my knees to my chest and gasped as a legion of what can only be described as black demons” – “Kathy” a former “Wiccan”

With at least three more of these talks planned in 2006 it is clear that this is an ongoing campaign against the teen Wiccan community! What chance does a young Wiccan teen have when highly skilled fitness instructer/occult experts are giving them talks on the dangers of their own faith!

Oh what kind of fallen world do we live in! What happened to good old-fashioned Pagan morals! Why these “Christians” continue to mock the true gods is beyond me! Our only chance is to educate the young about the dangers of evangelical Christianity before it is too late! I urge all concerned parents to order these special tracts to help our children, won’t anyone think of the children?!

Holy Bull Blood!

The initial reviews of HBO’s “Rome” are in, and everybody seems to be talking about a certain Pagan ritual performed by Atia of the Julii.

“But HBO’s lavish series promises to be the grittiest of the lot. It’s got epic battle scenes, but it’s got bloody barroom brawls, too. It’s got genteel debate on the floor of the Senate, but it’s also got slap flights between senators. It’s got primitive brain surgery – ouch! – and weird pagan rituals, including one in which a woman is showered with blood that’s pouring out of a freshly sacrificed bull.” – Mike Kelley, Toledo Blade

“Atia is, naturally, ruthless. She’s not above murdering daughter Octavia’s (Kerry Condon) husband if it’ll get her a little cozier with Pompey, and she administers tough love to her young, weak-yet-wise son Octavian (Max Pirkis) to ensure her bloodline endures. She bathes in the blood of a slaughtered bull as it rains down over her head if she thinks that might help, and Marc Antony (James Purefoy) is but one of her lovers, dispensable if things don’t go as planned.” – David Kronke, LA Daily News

“We also see the first of what will apparently be a regular inculcation into the weirder religious practices of the day. We see Atia sitting underneath a platform where a large animal is slaughtered, its blood cascading down on her. Your first thought is of ‘Carrie,’ but this rite is one of purification rather than humiliation. Well, at least I assumed it is. As you may know, HBO has a thing about explaining too much to the audience.” – Aaron Barnhart, Kansas City Star

“I’m going to say it now, Attia is going to steal this show. She’s Caesar’s niece played masterfully by Polly Walker, and is the behind the scenes leader of the Caesar family. She has no reservations about using her own children as pawns in the game of power (in the first episode alone she sends her son (Octavian) into Britain just to deliver a horse to Unca Julius and forces her daughter (Octavia) to divorce her husband and marry Pompeii). But there is also something motherly in the way she does it, she’s rough on her kids but only because she wants the best for them. She wants her son to look good in Caesar’s eyes and wants her daughter to be the “1st lady” in Rome. There is a scene where she bathes in the blood of a sacrificial cow as it is being slaughtered above her that i’m sure will be the talk of the town.” – Ryan j Budke, TV Squad

“Rome also offers up acres of writhing naked flesh and oceans of gore (often both at the same time, as in the first episode, when a topless woman bathes in bull’s blood during a ritual sacrifice). At least in terms of sheer volume of nude scenes per hour, Rome is the dirtiest series I’ve seen yet on HBO.” – Dana Stevens, Slate

“The woman is simply too busy to get dressed. Though Atia does wear a flowing white gown in one of the show’s most shocking scenes, in which she stands under a gored bull and gets showered in blood as part of a purification ritual. It’s like “Carrie” with large livestock.“ – Marc Peyser, Newsweek

That ritual was/is called the “Taurobolium” and was practiced regularly in ancient Rome.

“While Mithras was worshipped almost exclusively by men, most of the wives and daughters of the Mithraists took part in the worship of Magna Mater, Ma-Bellona, Anahita, Cybele, and Artemis. These goddess religions practiced a regeneration ritual known as the Taurobolium, or bull sacrifice, in which the blood of the slaughtered animal was allowed to fall down upon the initiate, who would be lying, completely drenched in a pit below. As a result of their association with practitioners of this rite, Mithraists soon adopted the Taurobolium ritual as their own.” – David Fingrut

“In the late 3rd and the 4th centuries its usual motive was the purification or regeneration of an individual, who was spoken of as renatus in aeternum, reborn for eternity, in consequence of the ceremony (Corp. Insc. Lat. Vi. 510512). When its efficacy was not eternal, its effect was considered to endure for twenty years. It was also performed as the fulfilment of a vow, or by command of the goddess herself, and the privilege was limited to no sex nor class. The place of its performance at Rome was near the site of St Peters, in the excavations of which several altars and inscriptions commemorative of taurobolia were discovered.” -Wikipedia

Oh, and according to the Rogue Classicist it seems the rite was done in honor of Cybele. So it looks like it may be a Pagan Rome after all. Calming my fears that they would portray Rome as secular. No doubt I’ll expect to hear how “Rome” is leading teens to Wicca (or at least Religio Romana) any day now.

Our Spiritualist Past

The New York Metropolitan Museum of Art has just opened a exhibition of rare photos documenting the interest in spiritualism during the late 19th century. Called “The Perfect Medium: Photography and the Occult”, the show (which is broken into three sections) highlights photos of “ghosts” by photographers like William H. Mumler, Frederick Hudson, and ?douard Isidore Buguet, the second section deals with “vital forces” aka ectoplasm, fluids, and other physical manifestations of the spirit world, the third section deals with documentation of mediums such as Eusapia Paladino.

photo by Frederick Hudson

Spiritualism was an important element in the birth (or rebirth if you prefer) of modern Pagan Witchcraft. As Ronald Hutton lays out in “Triumph of The Moon” the spiritualist movement, and famous spiritualists like Madam Blavatsky (founder of the Theosophical Society) revived a sense of pre-Christian mysticism, gave women an empowering role (as mediums), and paved the way for later movements (like Wicca). Many of the “fam-trad” Witches around today most likely engage in habits and practices passed down by spiritualist relatives.

A (Former) Teen Witch Perspective

The Wicca-Pagan Times interviews Wiccan author Gwinevere Rain who published her first book when she was sixteen. The interview gives an interesting insight into how teens find Wicca, and challenges the assertion that children’s literature is the culprit.

“I first found out about Wicca when I was fourteen. The more I learned about the religion, the more it felt right for me. I am not sure if my experience is typical or not but I do know that the majority of practitioners I speak with are in their teens and twenties. What really surprised me was when my first book Spellcraft for Teens came out, I had received a few correspondences from young people around ages nine and ten. It goes to show that people find Wicca during different life stages and that??s okay! I am happy young adults are investigating spirituality and questioning religion – it illustrates a positive level of individuality and maturity…I learned about Wicca because I went searching on the Internet. I had wanted to know if Witchcraft and spells were real. At fourteen I was curious about spirituality. I think at that time movies, TV shows and books about young Witches were flourishing, but I truly think that I would have been drawn to the path even if that type of media wasn’t out there. Eventually, after sometime on the Internet I began to decipher what was fact and what was fiction. It was amazing to me that people were Wiccan and the more I learned about it, the more I felt it was the religion meant for me.”

I think the ongoing debate/controversy over what draws young people to modern Paganism often neglects to talk to the teens about why they are making the choice to pursue Wicca and other non-traditional faiths. Instead of portraying teens interested in Wicca as ignorant dupes of a sinister Satanic plot (or a sinister money-making plot), maybe the media outlets covering these skirmishes in the culture war should address them as thoughtful and complex people looking to discover their own faith.

The Advice Columnist and The Witch

Early this week I blogged about Salon.com columnist Cary Tennis’ advice to a Wiccan mom (in a mixed religious marriage) about to send her son to Catholic school. I wondered if my readers had better advice for her than he did. It now looks like several people including some Pagan bloggers and a psychiatry professor were quite unhappy with the “grin and bear it” message of Mr. Tennis.

“Cary, I feel you gave terrible advice to the pagan with a child headed for Catholic school. There is more to life then fitting in at grade school. I cannot understand why any parent with even a limitedly open mind would subject their child to the propagandistic bullying by a kindergarten teacher as you described. As not only a pagan, but as one who never fit in, I can assure you that the damage that comes from dealing with difference isn’t nearly as harmful as allowing your child to be brainwashed. After all, it’s frequently the people who are different who make great contributions to humanity — and even if a person doesn’t, conforming mindlessly to the crowd certainly isn’t what I’d want for my child!” – Grey Cat, author of “Deepening Witchcraft”

“Mr. Tennis counsels that tolerant people can’t pick and choose who they tolerate, so the mother has no right to quibble over what her son is being taught. To this, I can only say: What? Being tolerant doesn’t equate to being incapable of making value judgments!” – Gregg Helmberger, Department of Psychiatry, University of Minnesota Medical School

“As a neo-pagan writer (”The Pagan Man,” “Rites of Worship,” “Real Magic”) and a polytheologian, I found the letter from a pagan mother worried about sending her child to a Catholic school, and Cary Tennis’ response, both disturbing and heartbreaking. Creedism is no more acceptable than racism or sexism, and a mother’s fear that her child will be brainwashed into a creedist worldview is well founded. A famous Catholic saying is (in its modern phrasing), “Give us a child until he’s 6 and he’ll be a Catholic forever.” That’s not true, thank the Gods, but it is still the prime motivation (other than financial) behind “allowing” non-Catholic kids to attend Catholic schools.” – Isaac Bonewits

I’m surprised that there was no response from Tennis defending his position, or at least addressing the criticism. Maybe he just doesn’t want to seem intolerant.

Sometimes I’m Hesitant of the “Religious Left” label

button from turn-left.com

But I wouldn’t know why that thought crosses my mind.

Spiritual Not Religious

Looking at the Newsweek spirituality article The Revealer dissects the phrase “spiritual but not religious” and what meaning it really has in such a broad and overarching survey.

“But the numbers are misleading, not least because the survey, as published, never bothers to define ’spiritual’ as opposed to ‘religious’. Even by the surveys results, the majority of folks choose ‘religious’ as their first identifier. But the 24% who openly say ’spiritual but not religious’ may not all be as touchy-feely as one might suspect. That’s a phrase we’ve heard from the mouths of a great many fundamentalists — secular and sectarian. ‘Religious,’ as a word, is most definitely in the decline; but rigorous, sharply defined beliefs are not. We’ve prayed with self-described fundamentalist Baptists who called themselves ’spiritual but not religious,” and debated with ardent secularists who called themselves “spiritual but not religious,’ and danced around bonfires with witches — dogmatic to the extreme — who called themselves ’spiritual but not religious.’”

A fair critique, but I do have to point out that I have read Sharlet’s (and Manseau’s) excellent book “Killing The Buddha” where he tells the tale(s) of his interactions with Witches at a Pagan festival and I hope he isn’t basing the “dogmatic to the extreme” tag on just that one trip into the Pagan territories. I mean he should at least visit Starwood like Paul Krassner did.

God Still Dead?

I do hope all of you read the Newsweek article on spirituality in America because it seems to have sparked a re-evaluation of faith and belief in a land supposedly dominated by intolerant, fundamentalist religion.

The Dance of the Mind blog points out that according to the new polling numbers regular church attendance is only up by %1 from the famous 1966 Time Magazine “Is God Dead” issue. She also references an appearance on MSNBC by Martin Marty who says that the coming clash of cultures won’t play out as some grand battle of competing ideologies since it won’t be one communal culture against another, but instead communal versus individualistic cultures.

Meanwhile Mark Morford of the San Francisco Gate is more than ready to join a new individualistic, spiritual, revolution.

“There is this upwelling. There is this delicious rebellion. It is not yet loud and it is not yet conventional and it is certainly not yet dominating the national political dialogue and it is not yet making the headlines and maybe it never will and this is probably a good thing. But it’s happening. I have seen it. Maybe you have, too. I am, in fact, a part of it. Maybe you are, too. And lo, it is righteous and delicious and good. It is this: Whole happy unfettered slews of people, young and old and in between, both genders and all genders and those who have yet to figure out just which gender they are, they are dancing to their own cosmic tune and blaspheming against the quo of status and taking divine matters into their own tingling and luminous hands because, goddammit, it’s the right thing to do.”

Not surprisingly, several Christians are not happy with the findings of the article and some like Rebecca Barnes of Church Central are starting to think American believers are “shallow” and “ignorantly” tolerant.

“I do think it is accurate to assess the current religious climate in America as increasingly tolerant, however. But I think that tolerance is owing to the increasing ignorance of Americans toward both their own religious faith and that of others.”

While some, like Rabbi Yakov Travis of the Siegal College of Judaic Studies affirm the findings in the Newsweek article and acknowledge a growing mysticism within the Jewish tradition.

The most important thing about this article (in my mind at least) is that it echoes a growing awareness about the nature of spirituality in America. Religion and spirituality in America is growing to encompass more instead of just focusing on the trends within popular monotheisms. It points out that while a whopping 85% of Americans identify as “Christian” that identification may have little to do with an adherence to Christian dogma and instead be a slowly eroding cultural “default” setting. Since many of these Christians are in inter-religious marriages, dabble in other religious traditions and often have kids who reject monotheism completely I have to wonder if that 85% is a mile wide and an inch deep.

I see modern Paganism quickly approaching its tipping point. While not directly related to modern Paganism the DaVinci Code controversy/sales explosion and the huge Harry Potter debates should be considered as warnings that our moment in the media sun is quickly approaching. We need to be ready so that our family of faiths can define itself when that moment comes instead of being defined by those who don’t understand us.

God may not be dead, but it looks like he’ll be having some company soon.