“What potent blood hath modest May.”
- Ralph W. Emerson

Tonight and tomorrow (in the northern hemisphere) are the traditional dates for many of the major spring/summer festivals in modern Paganism. Beltane, Bealtaine, May Day, Floralia, Protomayia, and Walpurgis Night, to name just a few. This fire festival heralds the coming of summer and is a high holiday, a liminal time when the barriers between our world and the otherworld were thin. In many traditions and cultures it is a time of divine union and fertility.


Walpurgis Night bonfire, near lake Ringsjo, Sweden
Photo by David Castor

“We celebrate the new crops coming in, celebrating initiation and fertility. It is a sharing of Appalachian traditions. West Virginia is among the most Appalachian of the states. A lot of the traditions that were here tonight were celebrated here not even a hundred years ago.” – George Fain, president of Marshall University Pagan Association

“On the night itself, hundreds of performers lead a fire-lit procession around [Calton Hill]. They move through a fire gate and round points representing earth, air, water and fire. The festivities reach a climax when the Green Man, a symbol of the first growth of summer, arrives and is crowned by the May Queen.” – Martin Couper, The Edinburgh Evening News

“Beltane, meaning bright fire, is one of the four Celtic cross-quarter festivals celebrating the changing of seasons. ‘People have, as far as we can tell, [always] celebrated the changing of the seasons,’ Dr. Robin Larsen, co-founder and director of the Center for Symbolic Studies says. Beltane, an ancient festival typically celebrated on the last two days of April and the first two days of May is a time to awaken the earth’s spirit to get ready for spring. ‘March doesn’t feel so spring like,’ Larsen says. ‘When you get to the end of April you’re really there and you know summer is coming.’” – Tara Quealy, Chronogram Magazine

“Each year, in the evening of April the 30th, Swedes and Finns celebrate Saint Walpurgis, one of the most popular festivities during the year alongside of Christmas and Midsummer. Walpurgis Night receives the name of “Valborg” in Sweden and “Vappu” in Finland, and is a very lively celebration where people spend the night together and sing traditional songs to welcome spring.” – Scandinavica.com

“Thursday is May Day, which, depending on your leanings, is a pagan pole-dancing holiday, a day of labor solidarity against The Man, a day off for immigrants and their supporters, or some combination of all three, a grab-bag of un-American activity. (To the latter group, Happy Law Day!)” – Swati Pandey, Los Angeles Times

“The festival of May Day (May 1st) has been widely celebrated for centuries, even millennia. Essentially a seasonal and floral festival concerned with the spring rebirth of vegetation after its death in winter, it is a festival of all things green in nature … our modern May Day holiday has a rich past, redolent with symbolism and meaning. Whether we take a deep historical view, or whether we just have fun in the sun, May Day (Beltaine) is one of the key turning points of the ritual year.” – Rob Tillett, Astrology on the Web

“The Earth softens under the caress of the sun and all the world is new. We emerge from the darkness of a long, difficult winter; our eyes drink in rolling green hills budding branches and tender shoots. We breathe deeply the fresh fragrance of radiant blossoms. We have survived!” – Selena Fox, Circle Sanctuary

May you all be especially blessed this evening and tomorrow.

The Edmonton Sun reports on the growing population of Pagans in Canadian prisons. Internal estimates show adherence numbers have tripled in the last five years, and those numbers may be “woefully understated” according to Richard James of the Wiccan Church of Canada.

“According to figures obtained by Sun Media under Access to Information, the number of practising Wiccans and Pagans behind bars has tripled in the last five years. In 2002 there were just 25, compared to 77 in 2007, data from the Correctional Service of Canada show … Richard James, the Toronto-based founder and high priest of the Wiccan Church of Canada, has been involved in prison outreach programs and believes the official count is “woefully understated.” More and more inmates are turning to Wicca because they’ve been let down by other faiths, he said.”

Unlike the prisons of their American neighbors, which are rife with “endemic discrimination” against religious minorities, the Canadian prison system seems quite accommodating.

“According to an internal CSC manual on religious practices, inmate witches are required [I think they mean "allowed"] to have an altar with candles and incense for worship. They should also be permitted a wooden wand, robe, tarot cards, figurines, oils and natural objects such as shells, feathers, stones and crystals, the manual reads … Rick Burk, CSC’s associate to the director general of chaplaincy, restorative justice and victims‚ services, said inmates have a Charter right to practise their faith. In turn, institutions work to foster understanding and tolerance for all faiths inside the wire. ‘There are cultural and spiritual differences in all kinds of traditions and we are constantly engaged in dialogue about respect and diversity and managing the community within a context of diversity,’ he said. ‘Whether there is the word ‘witch’ involved or not, we try to manage diversity.’”

Perhaps the open dialog-focused Canadian model would be preferred to the currently repressive American model where constant litigation for rights is a normal occurrence?

Speaking of American prisons and constant litigation, an interesting prisoner rights case was recently decided. In a ruling by the U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals on Koger v. Bryan, it was found that prisons can’t demand proof of requirement, or verification from clergy, regarding a reasonable religious request.

“…the court held that a former prisoner’s claim based on the denial of his request for a vegetarian diet substantially burdened the prisoner’s religious exercise. In particular the court found inappropriate the prison’s requirement that the religious practice be required by the inmate’s religion and that this be verified by a member of the clergy.”

This is one more legal step towards true religious self-determination for prisoners. A development that may make some people very uncomfortable, but one that will ultimately benefit modern Pagans and other religious minorities serving jail time. To make this case even more relevant, the former prisoner, Gregory Koger, is an adherent of Aleister Crowley’s Thelema. A fact that has sparked snarky comments from the law-blogs and one of the presiding judges.

“Clearly, without RLUIPA, this case would have been dead in the water when it was filed because declining Koger’s request for a nonmeat diet would not have violated the United States Constitution … A waste of time? Some may disagree, but I lean towards saying ‘yes.’”

Of course that “waste of time” has helped create a precedent that favors personal gnosis and followers of non-hierarchal faiths. A lawsuit that may not have happened if prisons in America worked more towards dialog and granting reasonable risk-free requests instead of dragging its heels in court every time a non-Christian wants something outside the norm.

Modern Reformation magazine profiles the growing movement of Quaker Pagans, and interviews Cat Chapin-Bishop of the Quaker Pagan Reflections blog.

“In the last decade, this dual faith has sprung up around the country, including Quaker-pagan gatherings, seminars, an extensive presence on the Internet, and even explicitly Quaker-pagan congregations. There may be only several hundred Quaker pagans, but among American Quakers, their presence can be distinctly felt.”

The article also speaks to Pagan-turned-Christian Carl McColman, and Stasa Morgan-Appel of the Musings of a Quaker Witch blog. The tone of religion journalist Matthew Streib seems to be intrigued but cautious, noting that the dwindling number of Quakers could receive an infusion of new blood from curious Pagans, but that the tradition (specifically the Friends General Conference) risks losing its focus on Christ (and thus its Christian identity).

“[Cat Chapin-Bishop] says many pagans find Quakerism attractive because it allows them to appear more mainstream. Still, she worries that if their commitment doesn’t deepen, that could weaken Quaker beliefs. “I see the pagan world waking up and saying, `Wow, there’s Quakers, and maybe we could be Quakers and pagans — cool!’” she said. ‘If it stays on that superficial level, that’s not good news, and threatens Quakerism with real dilution. But if there are some leadings and people … take in the wisdom that people have to teach us, then it’s a wonderful thing for both pagans and the Society of Friends.’”

Could the more liberal strains of Quakerism slowly evolve into a post-Christian faith? It isn’t an unheard-of event. Unitarian-Universalism, once two distinct liberal Christian traditions, has embraced a post-Christian identity and now happily includes a number of theological points of view (including Paganism) within its ranks. Whether these theological shifts are ultimately healthy is a topic that is still being debated, though even conservative Quakers are hesitant to take an action that would make Pagans feel unwelcome.

“Christ is not the sort of person who would drive people away — I don’t know that it’s our job to stop it … Our job is to seek to know the will of the living Christ and to obey it the best we can. When we humans try to fix one another, we just make things much, much worse.”

Whether its fate is to remains essentially Christian, or evolve into something else, the Religious Society of Friends will most likely avoid hostile cries of heresy and fights over blasphemy that would be greeted if this trend manifested in a more mainstream Christian church. Instead, the Quakers will most likely do what they have always done, listen in silence, and wait for the “leading of the spirit”.

The Baltimore Sun profiles Robert Murch, a man obsessed with the history of the Ouija board, and the two brothers who helped manufacture and popularize the parlor game/spiritual tool around the turn of the 20th century.

The Ouija Board

“On the phone, through e-mail and in repeated visits to Baltimore, he pestered newspaper librarians for access to yellowing clip files and century-old articles on microfilm, pushed caretakers for access to their cemeteries and directions to gravesites, and prodded curators of historical societies and museums for any pieces they might have to the puzzle. Much of Murch’s time, though, has been spent researching family trees, seeking descendants of the men who first manufactured the Ouija Board – chief among them, William and Isaac Fuld, the two brothers whose falling out would lead to a 100-year silence between the two sides of the family.”

In addition to Murch’s in-depth research into William Fuld and his estranged brother Isaac (who, for a time, manufactured competing “Oriole Boards”), he has also raised money for a Ouija-themed gravestone for Elijah Bond, the Baltimore attorney who first patented the board, and is planning a “coffee-table-type book” compiling his research. In short, his own life and history have become intertwined with the history of this “oracle”.

“…he’s still immersed in his quest to document the history of “The Mystifying Oracle” – that diviner of the future, that gateway to the spirit world, that simple lettered board, born in Baltimore, that went on to become an icon of both pop culture and occult subculture.”

Today, while not as popular as it once was, the Ouija board retains its place in pop-culture. The original Ouija board rights were bought by Parker Bros./Hasbro and they (quietly) manufacture a glow-in-the-dark version. Meanwhile, smaller “spirit board” manufacturers have emerged to cater to those with more “occult” tastes. Even Murch got into the business for a short time with “Cryptique”, a Salem-themed board that promised to be an update on the Ouija concept (Cryptique stopped being manufactured in 2005).

As for the future? Spirit boards and similar tools have been around since ancient times, and will likely be around for some time to come. Whether Ouija itself persists is a different matter, and no doubt only the spirits have the answer.

While we wait for the Supreme Court to decide if public parks and lands are an “open forum” for donated monuments (specifically religious monuments), another case has arisen dealing with many of the same issues. It seems that the Red River Freethinkers in North Dakota are suing the city of Fargo after refusing to allow them to erect a “sister monument” next to a 10 Commandments monument on the City Hall mall.

“Opponents of Fargo’s Ten Commandments monument have filed a civil lawsuit against the city, asking that the granite marker be removed. The attorney for the Red River Freethinkers, Bruce Schoenwald, filed the complaint in federal court Friday. It accuses the city of “unconstitutional conduct.” The lawsuit contends the Freethinkers’ rights were violated last year when Fargo refused to allow the group to put up its own monument near the Ten Commandments monument on city property. The Freethinkers also are seeking unspecified damages and attorney fees.”

What would be engraved on this monument? A line from the Treaty of Tripoli, a historical document unanimously approved by the US senate and signed by our second president John Adams*. A line that warms the hearts of religious minorities and secularists everywhere.

“…the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion…”

You can understand then why the City Commission, who were pressured by local Christians to not remove the 10 Commandments monument, would be hesitant to allow a “sister monument” that questions the status of America as a “Christian nation”. Which brings us back to the case currently pending before the Supreme Court, Pleasant Grove City, Utah v. Summum. This case should definitively decide if those overseeing public lands can favor one religious or philosophical monument over another.

“A SCOTUS decision here could all but force local government bodies to enact a fully-open policy concerning religious displays on government-controlled property. In other words, the local city council or mayor couldn’t pick and choose which religious displays are worthy to be placed with a Nativity Scene or Ten Commandments monument. It would be all or nothing.”

If the SCOTUS case ends up leaning towards public lands being “open spaces” the city of Fargo will have to either remove all religious monuments, or allow the Freethinkers their Tripoli monument. It will also further challenge the notion that displays of the 10 Commandments are somehow “not religious speech” because some Christians think our own laws were founded upon them. Recent SCOTUS rulings make it clear that 10 Commandments monuments are only admissible as part of “a broader moral and historical message.”

Fargo’s reluctance to compromise puts them on uneasy legal footing. They are clearly favoring one viewpoint over another, and it could end up costing the city quite a bit of money. Regarding the larger issue, the days of anti-Communist patriotic Christian fervor are over. The national mood that once allowed the government to insert “Under God” into the pledge of allegiance, and litter the landscape with 10 Commandments monuments (many of which were placed to help promote a film) is long past. The era of a religious “don’t ask, don’t tell” norm (if you weren’t a Protestant Christian) has given way to a multi-religious society in an increasingly post-Christian world. Christians can retain their place in the public forum, in the interchange of ideas, but only so long as they are inclusive of other viewpoints and religions sharing that same space.

* John Adams, a Unitarian, also called the Christian cross an “engine of grief” and insisted that America was founded by “the natural authority of the people alone, without a pretence of miracle or mystery”.

A hot-button issue in conflicts concerning the separation of church and state is sectarian prayer before a governmental body. Since Darla Wynne’s final legal victory in 2005 forcing the South Carolina town of Great Falls to abandon sectarian prayers to Jesus, conservative Christian opponents in the state have been looking for a way around the ruling. Last year, with the help of the Alliance Defense Fund, state legislators introduced a “Public Prayer and Invocation Act”. A law designed to circumvent sectarian restrictions, and make it harder for litigation against sectarian prayer to win.

“It becomes clear from reading the bill that its authors are trying to navigate the legal waters created by two cases involving Wiccans and public prayers: Darla Wynne (a resident of South Carolina who won her case against Great Falls) and Cynthia Simpson (a Virginia resident who ultimately lost hers). In other words, they are trying to bring back prayers to Jesus at government meetings without the lawsuits … if this bill becomes law, the Darla Wynnes of this world can’t sue the local city council for exclusively praying to Jesus without bringing litigation against the entire state. Its clear that the authors are hoping that their emphasis on context will win over content (ie Jesus), and in turn create a legal fog of what can or can’t be allowed.”

Now that bill has made it through the South Carolina senate, and is heading to the house.

“The South Carolina Senate has approved a bill that would allow prayers before public meetings. In 2001, a Wiccan priestess sued the town of Great Falls, claiming it violated the separation between church and state when “Jesus Christ” was used in prayer. The town lost the lawsuit. This legislation says public bodies can adopt policies to let members take turns giving an invocation, elect a chaplain, or create a pool of speakers from faith groups to offer the prayer. The bill also calls for the state attorney general to defend public bodies if they face constitutional challenges. The public prayer bill now heads to the House.”

Since the Republican party in the South Carolina House of Representatives has a commanding 22-member majority, it seems very likely this bill will soon head to governor Mark Sanford’s desk. Sanford, while occasionally displaying a libertarian streak, tends to make conservative Christians happy and is likely to sign the bill into law. If this happens, the resulting legal mess could take decades to untangle, all to the benefit of Christians wanting to re-introduce sectarian prayers to Jesus.

“It intentionally gives no direction on whether a prayer can mention a deity, instead suggesting boards seek local legal advice on that. “I think this might actually add to the constitutional confusion,” said professor Josie Brown of the University of South Carolina Law School.”

In short, South Carolina is trying to undo Darla Wynne’s victory, reinstate Christian prayer through a legal fog, and make it extremely difficult for litigation to be brought against a local legislative body (since any such case would instantly be taken up by the state). This is all part of a larger plan instituted by Christian conservative groups to chip away at the legal victories won by religious minorities and secular groups in the last thirty years.

Student speech “protection” laws, ordinances banning psychics, attempts to dominate chaplaincy positions (in prisons and the military), arbitrary laws concerning animal sacrifice, a rigorous defense of evangelists who cross the line, battles over public religious displays, and the enshrinement of Christianity as the official faith of America all point to a larger trend of fighting and rolling back advances religious minorities have made in the name of their “religious freedom”. Killing real religious freedom and full access of all faiths to the public square with a thousand tiny cuts instead of single mighty stroke.

“Perhaps it’s just as well that you won’t be here tomorrow, to be offended by the sight of our May Day celebrations here.” – Lord Summerisle, “The Wicker Man”

Next week, thanks to a quirk of the calendar, one of the biggest religious festivals within modern Paganism will coincide with the yearly National Day of Prayer. The National Day of Prayer, in theory a time for all Americans of faith to unite and pray (in their own manner) for the well-being of the country, has long been co-opted by conservative Christian evangelicals who operate a “task force”. This group (essentially run by Focus on The Family) runs the bulk of NDP events, and excludes non-Christians from active participation.

“The National Day of Prayer Task Force was a creation of the National Prayer Committee for the expressed purpose of organizing and promoting prayer observances conforming to a Judeo-Christian system of values. People with other theological and philosophical views are, of course, free to organize and participate in activities that are consistent with their own beliefs. This diversity is what Congress intended when it designated the Day of Prayer, not that every faith and creed would be homogenized, but that all who sought to pray for this nation would be encouraged to do so in any way deemed appropriate. It is that broad invitation to the American people that led, in our case, to the creation of the Task Force and the Judeo-Christian principles on which it is based.”

Sounds reasonable, right? Can’t the non-Christians throw their own party? The problem is that the NDPTF bills itself as the “official” site for the National Day of Prayer, and attacks any governor who won’t support their efforts with an official proclamation. In addition, Christian coordinators who attempt to throw an inclusive event under the NDPTF auspices are barred from running future events. So JewsOnFirst is calling for citizens to lobby their governors to shun the NDPTF, and either not issue a proclamation, or issue an inclusive statement that doesn’t empower such a narrow view of acceptable public prayer (or crib talking points from Focus on the Family).

“The National Day of Prayer has been hijacked! What began in 1952 as President Truman’s declaration of a National Prayer Day for all Americans is now excluding and dividing us on religious lines. The “Task Force” excludes Jews, Muslims, Catholics and even mainline Christians from participation in the events it coordinates around the country. Many of those events are staged in government venues with elected officials, in a deliberate affront to the separation of church and state.”

You can find contact information for your governor, here. You can find a sample telephone script and sample letter on the inclusive prayer day site. You can also find a listing of proclamations already issued.

Let’s hear it for inclusive prayer!

While I encourage my readers to participate in this call for inclusiveness, I think the fact that the National Day of Prayer falls on May Day/Beltane is far too good an opportunity to pass up! If there is a NDP event being held at your state capitol, why not take a gaggle of Pagans and Heathens in their best May-finery? Or why not hold an event as near as possible to the “official” NDPTF-organized shin-dig? Imagine May-poles and hobby-horses prancing while the evangelicals studiously pray against gay marriage. If the NDPTF is given a government building to hold their meeting, demand one for a really inclusive gathering! Invite anyone who’ll show up! Pray to your assorted gods and goddesses!


We’re a deeply religious people.

If all else fails, hold a procession past the capitol reminding the lawmakers that a “National Day of Prayer” includes all faiths, not just the ones with the political clout to co-opt it for their own ends. When a prayer event hijacked by conservative Christians falls on May Day, who knows what could happen!

The Miami Herald does a profile on the Afro-Brazilian religion of Umbanda, which celebrates its 100th anniversary this year. Founded in 1908 after a teenager was possessed by an indigenous spirit named Caboclo das Sete Encruzilhadas (”Indian of Seven Crossroads”), the faith now boasts around 8 million devotees in Brazil, with a variety of off-shoots and unique traditions.

A practitioner possessed by the spirit of the Caboclo Sete Flechas.

“Umbanda has been a natural fit for a country where many believe in the everyday presence of spirits and omens. What’s drawn the interest of international scholars is the religion’s unmistakably Brazilian bent, which has won it fame as the country’s only home-grown faith. Umbanda’s Brazilian focus is most obvious in its pantheon of spirits, which includes popular folk figures such as the rogue, who’s a fixture of street culture here; the freed slave known as the preto velho; and an indigenous warrior known as the caboclo, who can appear adorned with feathered headdresses and bows and arrows. Worshipers also can be possessed by someone from the northeastern Brazilian state of Bahia, a cowboy from southern Brazil or a poor ranch hand. In its use of Brazilian folk mythology, it’d be as if worshipers in the United States were possessed by cowboys, astronauts and blues singers.”

While Umbanda thrives and spreads around the world, in Brazil the faith is coming into conflict with the growing Pentecostal churches, who see their religion as devil-worship (anti-Umbanda “exorcisms” are often performed). Despite these problems, Umbanda provides a sort of spiritual therapy for adherents, and is a uniquely Brazilian manifestation of the myriad African syncretic faiths.

“At Friday’s ceremony, dozens of people paid $4 each to ask worshipers embodying the spirits about everything from how to get a pay raise to what to do about an unfaithful spouse. The questions commonly sparked long discussions reminiscent of therapy sessions … Cardoso said she joined the religion at age 17 after a possessed worshipper held her hands and cured her of a mysterious illness. She said she hasn’t been sick in the nearly seven decades since then, a miracle she credits to the spirit world. ‘Everyone has their faith, and Umbanda has been the faith of many Brazilians for many years,’ she said. ‘And it’s worked for many of us.’”

Looking at Umbanda, you have to wonder what many of the modern Pagan faiths now flourishing in places like Britain, America, and Australia, will look like in fifty years. Will we mushroom to nearly ten million (or more, by some estimates), and become a major cultural force like Umbanda? If that comes to pass, what will we (and our faiths) look like? Whatever our eventual fate generations from now, we can learn a lot from looking at our “cousins” in faiths like Umbanda, Vodou, and Santeria. So happy anniversary to Umbanda, may they continue to thrive.

“There is a love of wild nature in everybody an ancient mother-love ever showing itself whether recognized or no, and however covered by cares and duties.” – John Muir, 1924

Today is Earth Day. Originally spearheaded in 1970 by Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson as a national “teach-in” on urgent environmental issues, it has since become an internationally recognized holiday in 174 countries. Earth Day is partially credited with jump-starting the modern environmentalist movement, and helping to pass legislation like the Clean Air and Clean Water acts.

The Earth flag.

Today, with immense environmental challenges facing us, from climate change and the destruction of natural ecosystems to the impending fresh water shortages, the ideals and message of Earth Day are more vital than they have ever been.

Modern Pagan and Heathen faiths, whether they identify as “nature religions” or not, have a special sacral relationship with the natural world. Our gods and goddesses can be found in oceans, rivers, forests, and mountains (indeed, in many cultures, Earth is the primal mother of most acknowledged gods and powers), some pre-Christian cultures envision a World Tree that binds reality together. Our rites often mark the changing seasons, and once tracked the progress of crops essential to our survival. Deity is not merely a transcendent force separate from creation, deity is everywhere and within every thing. Each of us holds the potential to be like the gods, and we acknowledge that the gods and powers walk and exist among us still. So it isn’t surprising that many Pagans feel a special urging to advocate for the environment and the protection of the natural world.

The Pagan notion of a sacred and interconnected Earth still persists today, and continues to make some people, both Christian and secular, uncomfortable. But as the true magnitude of potential ecological crisis becomes ever more plain, bridges are being built between Pagans and monotheists, to work for mutual benefit and survival.

On this Earth Day, here are a few Pagan thoughts about the Earth, immanence, environmentalism, and our involvement in the environmentalist movement.

“The spirit of Earth Day 1970 did not just happen; its roots could include the gradual stirring of environmental consciousness that accelerated in the 1960s, but that stirring itself had deeper roots in an American consciousness of a special relationship with the land, even if that relationship was often abusive. Still, if there was a year when Wicca (in the broad sense) became “nature religion,” as opposed to the “mystery religion” or “metaphorical fertility religion” labels that it had brought from England, that year was 1970.” – Chas Clifton, Her Hidden Children: The Rise of Wicca and Paganism in America

“When it comes to climate change and other environmental crises, it is increasingly clear that we can’t afford to wait; we can’t let it get too late. That may seem obvious, but too often the slightest glimmer that we might fail is a significant de-motivation to action. We quiver with indecision, only to resolve that it won’t be worth the struggle. For many, the salient information provokes a deep dread, and fear is never a sound motivation for the kind of profoundly creative, imaginative and co-operative action that is now required. To the Pagan then, it isn’t about urgency, about last ditch attempts to save the world: what is needed is that we continue to take each step, ethically awake, with as much honour as we can draw into consciousness.” – Emma Restall Orr, Living With Honour: A Pagan Ethics

“A truly vicious act is one which does not allow the dialogue with the Immensity to take place. Against the Earth, the vicious person thinks nothing of urban sprawl, pollution, and destructive forms of waste disposal or resource development. He may even deny the reality of global warming and climate change, as some major corporate interests have done.” – Brendan Myers, The Other Side of Virtue

“For most of our history, we slept on the dirt, perhaps cushioned by a thin layer of leaves or animal skins. We rested on Earth as on the bosom of our mother. Until we polluted the lakes and streams, we sipped the water, our lives utterly dependent on it, as we sucked the milk from our mothers’ breasts. The food we require for life either grows directly from the soil or the waters or else consists of herbivores and omnivores who eat plant life and whom we eat in turn. Earth nurses us and feeds us as do our mothers, who themselves in turn are dependent on Earth.” – Jordan Paper, The Deities Are Many: A Polytheistic Theology

“…environmental care and action play an important part in the Wiccan ethic. That is why Witches get angry – and active – when oxygen-creating trees are cut down faster that they are planted, when whales and seals are massacred for commercial profit, when chemical fertilizers and pesticides are used regardless of their ecological impact, when indifferent industries pollute the atmosphere and the rivers and the seas with their waste products and when the concrete jungle (often with more concern for commerce that for housing) spreads like a rash over the Earth’s complexion.” – Janet and Stewart Farrar, A Witches Bible: The Complete Witches’ Handbook

Want to get active? Find out where you at, reduce your carbon footprint (and your water footprint), support small farms and eat ethically, teach on global climate change as a moral issue, invest green, vote green, and go green. Make every day Earth Day.

PS – Check out Grist’s third annual Earth Day list of the year’s goodies, oddities, and inanities.

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

To start off, happy birthday to Rome, which was founded by the mythical twins Romulus and Remus on April 21, 753 BC. On that day a pagan festival ensues that some call the “Christmas of Rome”, and hundreds dress in traditional Roman military garb.

The ‘Natale di Roma’ includes parades, fireworks, banquets, and gladiator shows. For more information check out this Italian web site devoted to the holiday.

The Wall Street Journal shows that gods and goddesses can indeed change over time. Representatives and mediums of anticommunist ancestor deities residing in Taiwan are softening their stance towards China as political relations thaw between the two nations.

“…after being anti-China for decades, some of the gods around here are having a change of heart. At least that’s what their representatives say. The keeper of the temple of Lee Kuang-chi’en, a colonel in the Nationalist army who died fighting the Chinese in the 1940s, says Mr. Lee now wants to return to his homeland in peace. Su Ai-chih, a 67-year-old retiree and spiritual medium, says a woman who was drowned by Chinese soldiers and turned into a goddess has even asked believers for help in reconnecting with her family on the mainland. ‘The goddess possessed me and told me that she wanted to go home,’ she adds.”

This is a perfect illustration of polytheistic theology in action. Gods can change, practice can change, and those who do not change risk losing worship. There is no singular text or law holding these faiths in a static position.

“Fortunately, Chinese folk religion — a widely practiced mix of indigenous beliefs and elements of other religions — is remarkably forgiving. Not only does it often co-exist alongside other beliefs, its worshippers can create, discard or modify gods. That’s particularly true of gods who aren’t considered to be ling — effective or powerful. As ties between China and Taiwan improved, Kinmen’s anticommunist gods started to lose their ling. ‘Chinese folk religion doesn’t have a scripture, so everyone has his way of interpreting a god,’ says Chi Chang-hui, an anthropologist on Kinmen who has studied anticommunist cults. ‘And nowadays, that is less hostile to the mainland.’”

The gods and worshipers remain, but to survive in different eras, they adapt and adjust (or they fade away). A common event throughout the history of polytheism, one that can seem alien to those growing up in a culture dominated by a “religion of the book”.

If you think the myth of “The Burning Times” is overblown and harmful, wait till you start to explore the Christian persecution complex. A “discursive entity”, according to Professor Elizabeth A. Castelli, “impervious to critique, self-generating and self-sustaining.”

“This trend mobilizes the language of religious persecution to shut down political debate and critique by characterizing any position not in alignment with this politicized version of Christianity as an example of antireligious bigotry and persecution. Moreover, it routinely deploys the archetypal figure of the martyr as a source of unquestioned religious and political authority.”

The article is wide-ranging and covers a growing spiritual militarism within Christianity that is fueled by a deep-seated (though often illusory) sense of persecution. The Reveler web site offers only an excerpt, for the entire article head over to the Differences journal page, where you can download the entire piece, along with several related works.

Speaking of “The Burning Times”, Christian blogger John Morehead interviews Christopher S. Mackay about his brand new translation of the infamous “Malleus Maleficarum” (”The Hammer of Witches”). A tome that is blamed for enabling the execution of thousands of innocent men and women for the crime of “witchcraft”.

“I’d say that the Malleus was responsible for the acceptance of a new “paradigm” (in the sense advocated by Thomas Kuhn) about witchcraft. That is, the dissemination and widespread acceptance of the point of view (or world view) that underlay and instigated the so-called “craze” of witch hunting in the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries can be attributed (ultimately) to the Malleus.”

The new version, which is apparently far more coherent and readable than previous translations, gives us a means of understanding how this establishment of “diabolism” (Satanic witchcraft) still lingers in our world today, and helped inform such tragedies as the “Satanic panics” of the 80s and early 90s. An important text to have, though I think I’ll wait for the soft-cover edition, since the two-volume hardcover runs for several hundred dollars.

Over at “Blog o’ Gnosis”, Anne Hill criticizes efforts by Reclaiming to reach out to racial minorities in order to make the group more “diverse”. Hill questions why the organization should be on a diversity recruitment drive when they don’t even have their own “house” in order.

“…the obsession with proselytizing, I mean bringing in new blood – no, I mean reaching out to others who could be helped by people like us. As several people at my table mentioned, other religions are not diverse, and they seem to have no problem with it. Wasn’t the point of a spiritual community to give aid to its members? Why were we even discussing strategies for bringing different kinds of people in, when we were gathered for a rare opportunity to meet each other face to face? It was at this point that I had to point out the essential backwardness of our discussion topic. Reclaiming is insular. Painfully so, embarrassingly so. We really needed to be asking the opposite question: why don’t we get out more? Why aren’t more of us involved in interfaith activities? There’s plenty of diversity there, but that would involve going to meet others rather than reeling them in to us. Why don’t more folks even make the trek to San Jose for Pantheacon each year? Isn’t there anything we can learn from other Pagans?”

The issue of expanding racial diversity (and similar issues) is, according to Hill, a “red herring” that prevents Reclaiming from working through deep divisions that already exist within the community. A state of affairs that has distanced several Reclaiming veterans from the tradition they helped create.

In a quick final note, a Llewellyn Journal article tells you what you really need to do.

“The only thing that we as new magickians really need to do is rely on a made-by-reputation company like Llewellyn Publications, because nothing is as easy as it seems.”

Indeed, nothing is as easy as it seems.

That is all I have for now, have a great day!