Pagan bloggers Chas Clifton and Nikolaos Markoulakis have pointed out that the New Statesman has posted a weeks worth of articles on modern Paganism. Contributors include Markoulakis, his colleague James Head, and Damh (aka Damh the Bard). In addition to their recent contributions, animist and author Graham Harvey has also contributed several articles recently.

In the ongoing struggle by Pagans in the American military to gain the same level of respect and treatment as other faiths, it seems the Canadian military is showing the way forward.

“Canadian Forces chaplains are in Afghanistan for everyone. Maj. Malcolm Berry smiles as he recalls being approached on the NATO base in Kandahar a few weeks ago by a group of soldiers of the Wiccan faith – a neo-pagan religion strongly tied to nature. “They wanted to welcome the spring in a ceremony where they are very thankful to Mother Earth and the new moon with pagan prayers,” said Berry, the senior chaplain for Task Force Afghanistan. “We had no difficulty with that. We just didn’t want them to do it ’sky-clad’ (naked) in this environment because it would be too dangerous.” The six Wiccans – a Canadian and five Americans – were invited to hold their service outside the Christian fellowship centre. They were given water, candles and food that they were welcomed to eat inside the centre after the ceremony. The Wiccans were treated with the same respect as any Roman Catholic, Protestant, Jew, Muslim, Hindu or Buddhist.”

How refreshing! Pagan soldiers given the same treatment and options that any other faith group would receive. Now if our own government would follow suit and quit stonewalling the pentacle for veteran grave markers, blackballing would-be Pagan chaplains, and trying to pass legislation that would privilege Christians in the military we might be able to see that being supportive of each soldiers own faith expression isn’t damaging to discipline or morale. In fact its just the opposite.

“Maj. Lisa Elliot, a Wiccan, said being allowed to openly celebrate her beliefs makes her a better soldier and makes it easier to serve her tour in Afghanistan. ‘You are challenged when you come over here just to deal with the situation, and by somebody supporting your faith it makes it less challenging,’ said Elliot. ‘It gave me the extra energy to go on with my job. I felt re-grounded. I felt at home.’”

Lets hope our own military starts to see that accommodating our Pagan soldiers isn’t just the right thing to do, but the best thing to do.

Just wanted to quickly note that yesterday marked the third year of this blog’s existence. This project has succeeded beyond anything I could have hoped for when I started three years ago, and it couldn’t have happened without the readers, commenters, and fellow bloggers who have made this journey with me. Thank you for your support.

I’m hoping the next year will be even better than the last!

As modern Paganism continues to grow, references to this grouping of faiths keep popping up in unexpected places. Today, two different stories featuring indie rock bands reference Wicca and Paganism in one fashion or another. The first involves The Decemberists, the Coachella festival, and an unorthodox wedding ceremony.

“Kyle Cox and Lacy Lambert will be getting married on stage during a set by their favorite band, The Decemberists… For the couple, the band has been the soundtrack for their relationship. The two began their courtship over e-mail while Cox was in Iraq with the Army. A mutual friend introduced them. Their messages often revolved around music. Cox’s taste leaned more toward the punk and ska side, and Lambert urged him to listen to indie bands like The Decemberists. After that, Cox listened to the band every day during his year-long tour in the Middle East. He said it made him forget he was in Iraq… The drummer for The Decemberists reportedly will be performing the ceremony, which will be based on a pagan handfasting ritual.”

After being handfasted on-stage, the couple plans on seeing the reunited Rage Against the Machine for their honeymoon. Of course The Decemberists are no strangers to pagan themes, back in 2004 they did a musical re-telling of the Irish epic the Tain Bo Cuailnge.

The second story concerns Conor Oberst of the band Bright Eyes, who is currently promoting his new album “Cassadaga”. Oberst, in an interview with James McNair, discusses how he named the new album after a small town famous for its spiritualist community. Oberst also discusses an encounter with a Wiccan he had while he was there.

“This Wicca lady I saw reads auras, and if any spirits that are around approach you, she lets you know. She told me not to be afraid of death, and that I was headed in the right direction even though it might not feel like it sometimes. Anybody can tell you these things, but I felt a great peace.”

Are these signs of the ongoing mainstreaming of modern Paganism? Where it might once have been somewhat risque’ to admit to seeing a Wiccan psychic, it is now seen as no big deal, and a military man getting a pagan wedding at a rock show is a mere detail in the larger focus of how his mom is going to attend the sold-out concert. Next thing you know tabloids will start taking pictures of Hollywood stars wearing pentacles (stranger things have happened).

My semi-regular round-up of articles, essays, and opinions of note for discerning Pagans and Heathens.

We all know that modern Druids in Britain have a special connection to Stonehenge, but it seems that Druids in New Zealand are getting in on the action with a Stonehenge all their own.

“As the sun set last night at the Kiwi-style Stonehenge, built on a hill east of Carterton, druids from across New Zealand – along with Britain’s Chief Druid, Phillip Carr-Gomm – gathered to be part of the ancient ceremony of Alban Elfed, the autumn equinox…Stonehenge Aotearoa is an adaptation of the 4000-year-old ring of stones on Salisbury Plain in England. The 24 pillars that make up the circle are not stone, but the cement-and-plaster structures look the part. Stonehenge Aotearoa took its final form in 2005.”

Will Druids in America soon want their own Stonehenge? If funds are a problem, they could always use Carhenge as a substitute.

Wiccans are the victims in a new novel “White Night” by Jim Butcher. The book, part of a series called “The Dresden Files” (now a television series on the SciFi channel), stars a hard-boiled magician who solves occult-related crimes.

“Further investigation reveals the presence of a serial killer preying upon Wicca practitioners and worse, folks on the street keep seeing a tall man in a gray jacket, a description that fits Dresden. Harry soon uncovers evidence that implicates his brother Thomas as the killer but before he can clear him, he’ll have to battle ghouls in a showdown…”

If your a fan of the “Wiccans getting off-ed” motif in occult-tinged stories you might also want to check out M.R. Sellars’ Rowan Gant Investigations series, and possibly Rosemary Edghill’s “Bast” mysteries.

Ireland has launched its first (and only) Mumming center near the Fermanagh border.

“Ireland’s only mumming centre was officially launched this morning in a former national school close to the Fermanagh border. The 266,000 Euro cultural centre, built in the restored listed building of Aughakillymaude National School on the shores of Lough Erne, is set to become a major attraction for tourists plying the Fermanagh waterways. The key attraction will be an exhibition dedicated to the vanishing tradition of mumming, in which eerie straw-masked figures perform a midwinter folk drama whose origins are lost in pagan times.”

For more on mumming, check out the Wikipedia article, and of course the final third of the original Wicker Man features some lovely mumming (and a bit of human sacrifice, but its all for the good of the land).

Washingtonian profiles Sally Quinn in her new role as religious master of ceremonies for the Washington Post blog “On Faith”.

“I’ve been an atheist all my life, Jon convinced me not to use that word. He said I was defining myself negatively. So I don’t call myself anything, a seeker, perhaps. I had been interested for a couple of years in religion and how it affects policy. I was thinking of writing a book about religion in Washington.”

The article also makes special note of the inclusion of Starhawk in the proceedings, and makes much ado over Quinn’s affection for labyrinth-walking as a possible sign she has “found” religion.

Bloomberg reports that the Louvre is presenting a special show of the 4th century BC Attic sculptor Praxiteles, famous for his images of Aphrodite.

“Several versions of the lady can be admired at the Louvre, which has organized a rare Praxiteles exhibition. Most of his works survived only in the form of Roman copies. The originals were destroyed by the ravages of time, natural disasters or Christian zealots who, like the Taliban, wouldn’t tolerate images of pagan sensuality.”

They also point out that the pure-white statues we see now aren’t quite what the ancients looked at due to the fact that statutes back then were often painted in vibrant colors.

Finally, for fans of Pagan-created music, the amazing Hungarian Pagan band The Moon and The Nighspirit are releasing a new album entitled “Rego Rejtem” (which in English means “I conjure with magic”) on April 2nd. Unlike their first album “Of Dreams Forgotten and Fables Untold”, this album is recorded entirely in their native tongue instead of English.

“This time they have traveled further into times bygone, rekindling the flames of the Taltos (Hungarian shaman) and reawakening the spirits of the Elders. The music has acquired a more varied and colorful tone through the use of varied ethnic instrumentation (such as kaval, tapan, jew’s harp or zither), and has also become significantly more energetic and vibrant, without sacrificing the unique ambiance that the band had found on their debut album.”

You can download an Mp3 of the title track, here. Expect to hear more from this album on my weekly “Darker Shade of Pagan” podcast in the very near future.

That is all I have for now. Have a good day!

The East Bay Express has a long article up dealing with the children of modern Pagans, and the struggles faced raising them.

“At first glance, you’d never know that little Elizabeth Nettleton is Pagan. The vivacious four-year-old cuddles in her mother’s lap, floppy blond bangs dangling in her eyes as she clutches her green stuffed alligator and a red teddy-bear blanket. Then the girl reaches underneath her pink sweater and pulls out a long silver chain bearing a dime-size pentacle.”

Journalist Kathleen Richards explores many different aspects and challenges facing Pagan parents, including mixed-faith marriages (she highlights a Wiccan/Catholic marriage), alternative youth programs like The Spiral Scouts for non-Christian children, and the issues of acceptance with other children.

“Vibra Willow remembers having to warn her two kids – the eldest is now 27 – against disclosing their identity as part of the East Bay’s Reclaiming community. Reclaiming is a form of feminist, modern Witchcraft that includes kids in its rituals. “I know that was traumatic and unhealthy for them, having feelings about growing up different and weird,” she says.”

During the article Richards also interviews Patrick McCollum, a teacher at Cherry Hill Seminary and the first government-recognized Wiccan chaplain in the United States. In addition to discussing the challenges faced by Pagan families, he also talks about the explosive growth of modern Paganism.

“It’s grown from being obscure to becoming one of the top four faith groups in the United States,”

While I agree we are no longer obscure, I don’t think we are in the top four yet, unless our growth has been far more explosive than anyone could have predicted. Even if we are close to 1.2 million (collectively) as McCollum claims in the article, that still puts us behind Islam, Buddhism, and self-identified Agnostics. But McCollum’s larger points about the burgeoning growth of “Pagan babies” are still relevant.

“The increasing presence of children is transforming a community that has historically practiced behind closed doors. “Twenty-five years ago when the first Pagan children were coming out, there was no place for them in the Pagan community,” says McCollum, who has raised three children. “Now every major event you have for Pagans, they have playgrounds and directors that oversee children’s programs.” That’s a dramatic departure from Pagan parenting of the past. “It was dangerous to participate in Pagan events, and if you take your children, you might have someone come up and firebomb you,” McCollum says of the 1960s and ’70s. Parents who did involve their children faced the possibility of having them taken away…”

Custody battles where a parent’s Pagan religion are used against them are still very much with us, and are still destroying lives. McCollum claims that this trend is far more pervasive than we realize.

“In custody proceedings, even in the Bay Area, according to McCollum, it’s not unheard of for an ill-informed judge to revoke custody of a child based on a parent’s practices. “There isn’t a month that goes by that I don’t get a call from some Pagan parents who are potentially losing their children because they are Pagan,” he says.”

The issues regarding Pagan children is only going to grow and become more complex as our growing population has more and more children. Eventually our collective size is going to mean that custody struggles and issues of accommodation within our overwhelmingly Christian nation are going to become more heated. But I don’t think we will be in this struggle alone. As the court case of Wiccan Cynthia Simpson showed, where several minority faith organizations rallied to file amicus briefs. But in the long-run, a re-strengthening of the separation of Church and State seems the only real solution to guaranteeing our continued rights, and those of our children.

The trailer for the film adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s fantasy novel “Stardust” has been released, and can now be found on YouTube.

With the magical themes and adventures within the land of Faerie, not to mention Gaiman’s already enormous popularity among modern Pagans, I’m sure many of my readers will be looking forward to this one. No doubt you’ll hear more about the film on this blog as news and interviews start to surface.

Its common journalistic knowledge that while two related incidents might be a coincidence, three related incidents makes a trend. Its seems that “Pagans fired by schools” is forming into an actual trend for 2007. First you had the case of Lauren Berrios, a teacher from Ohio who claims she was fired because the school in question thought she was a Witch (she wasn’t, she was actually Jewish). Berrios recently lost a lawsuit against the school, who described her as mentally ill. But despite those claims, colleagues and students at her current job have not reported any alleged mental instability.

The second case involves Sommer De La Rosa, a teaching assistant in the UK who claims her Wiccan faith got her fired. Her former employers claim she was fired for excessive absences and not for her faith. De La Rosa insists that she was singled out due to her faith, and that her supervisor compared her faith unfavorably to communism. A judgment is still pending at her tribunal.

Now a man who worked as a bus driver for the Davie County Schools has lost his job after the school system discovered his MySpace page in which he lists himself as a Wiccan.

“William Russell Shaver never thought that the MySpace page he shares with his wife would get him into trouble. But it did … According to a letter provided by Shaver, the school system dismissed him because of his Web page of MySpace.com, saying that he had damaged his “position to be a role model for Davie High School and in the school community” … He has sued in federal court, alleging that the school system and the fire department used his page as an excuse. He alleges that the real reason he was asked to leave both places is because he practices Wicca, a pagan religion that emphasizes nature.”

Shaver also lost his postion as a volunteer fireman and EMT shortly thereafter. They also cited his MySpace as a motivating factor. When questioned, Steve Lane, the superintendent for Davie County Schools, pointed to a school board policy on being a “positive role model”. The fire department in turn accused his wife of soliciting sex online.

“According to the complaint against the fire department, Shaver was dismissed during a special meeting on July 17, 2006, for conduct unbecoming a member of the department. The fire department told Shaver that his wife had a blog on the page that solicited sex, Shaver said. Shaver said that his wife is bisexual but was not soliciting sex. In an April 30, 2006, blog entry on the page, Shaver’s wife says she is “looking for a bifemale to join me for some girls only fun (shopping, dancing or just hanging out with girls).” It also warns readers to stop reading if they get offended.”

It would be interesting to know how the school district (and in turn the fire department) got a hold of this information. I’m pretty savvy with searching and I couldn’t turn up any hint of this MySpace page. So it seems like someone who knew about the page turned him in. I hope Shaver wins his case, last I heard being Wiccan and having a bisexual wife aren’t legal firing offenses.

These firings (except perhaps for De La Rosa’s) point to a possibly more disturbing trend, where schools are being purged of people with “alternative” lifestyles by broadly enforcing “decency” and “role-model” provisions. Only so many of these are going to end up in court, so its a win-win situation for school boards where conservative culture-warriors have gained a majority. I predict we’ll see more firings of this nature soon enough, all claiming the teachers were “mentally ill” or that they weren’t upholding an arbitrary level of “decency”.

About a month back, I reported on a small New Age store in Clarksville, Tennessee that became to a Christian book store after the owner converted to Christianity. The news article the profiled the change hinted that all sorts of maladies and misfortunes that were visited upon the owner were due to her tolerance of non-Christian materials and views.

“Clark got sadder and sicker…Since opening the store, Clark went completely deaf, with little explanation…Jeff Stark, associate pastor of Clarksville First Church of the Nazarene, says the God he worships is a loving, protective God. While he doesn’t believe God caused Clark’s illness, he does believe God communicates through people’s lives. “There’s a way God speaks through our circumstances and makes us think, ‘Where was I going?’” he says…Clark hoped her shop would be a place of hope and healing for herself and others who were grieving. “It didn’t turn out that way,” Clark says. “I had some people on staff that were completely Wiccan. Then there was what the customers wanted. My whole vision of what I wanted to do went out the window.” Despite being profitable, the store was dragging Clark deeper and deeper into a pit of blackness.”

At the end of my original post I wondered what local customers of the store thought of the change, and if they were upset that Clark isn’t honoring the memory of the original owner who sold the store due to a terminal illness. Some former patrons did post their thoughts, including a former employee who assisted in the changeover. Now Andie Cunningham, the daughter of the original owner, has sent me a letter about the change that she has asked to be publicly posted.

“My Mother would tell me to send love and light in Susie’s direction, and to be happy for her that she’s happy. Think: forgiveness, to each his own, “everything happens for a reason”, etc. But I can’t help feeling kind of upset that something that my Mother put her heart, soul, and ultimately – her life, into….has now been erased. The truth and trust of that community has been disgraced and broken. And I feel a little sorry for Susie, because she experienced such a profound loss and feels lost (because I understand that part). But she completely missed the whole point of what that store was – a place for everyone to be welcome; where you could find a painting of Jesus on the wall across from a giant angel statue, next to a pile of political bumper stickers, down the aisle from the jewelry boxes and incense, and around the corner from a Native American book on animal totems…..all leading back to the room where anyone could hold a meeting if they wanted to, and stay later for belly dancing and reiki…all being watched over by a much, much higher power that took one of its angels home before anyone was ready.”

You can read the entire letter, here.

I think it is easy for those of us who live in the more tolerant and Pagan-friendly areas of our country to underestimate how important these tiny New Age book-shops are to Pagans and occultists living in Christian-dominated cities and towns. They often become a “safe” place to meet, find community, and discover new resources. I certainly benefited from New Age stores in my early Pagan days. If it wasn’t for that small “Goddess Religion” shelf tucked away amongst the angels and channeled ancient masters, I may never have encountered Margot Adler, Starhawk, and other authors who helped cement my conviction that I was on the right path. So my blessings to women like the late Annette Cunningham who bravely provided resources to those looking for something outside the accepted mainstream of religious life.

Conservative radio and television show host Glenn Beck is getting some heat for calling Rosie O’Donnell a “fat witch” on his show. But he wants to be clear that he didn’t mean Pagan Witches.

“I have to tell you, I’m a little ashamed of myself for saying that. I am. I mean it’s technically true, she’s a witch. Well, no, technically, she’s not a witch. There’s no Wiccan tendencies there, and I probably agree with Wiccans more than I agree with Rosie O’Donnell. So I apologize to all Wiccans on that.”

So it seems that in the world of conservative punditry calling someone you don’t agree with “fat” is OK (since its “scientific consensus” according to his producer), but calling them a “witch” is crossing the line (Does that include actual “fat” Witches, or do those two conditions cancel eachother out?). Who knew that Wiccans have risen so high in the esteem of prominent conservative commentators. I’m sure Limbaugh, Coulter, and the rest will be sure to take note.