A Few Quick Items
Thought I’d share a few quick items with you that I missed in yesterday’s “News of Note”. First off, Reclaiming co-founder Starhawk opines about the recent ARIS data suggesting that modern Paganism is growing while other faiths contract.
“Why are we growing? In a time when the very life support systems of the planet are threatened by environmental destruction and global warming, many people seek a faith rooted in love and respect for nature. Women have especially been drawn to the Goddess traditions because we offer positive images of women’s power, our tealogy and religious imagery reflect women’s lives, cycles, and name our bodies as sacred, and we offer women respect and leadership roles. But many men also are drawn to a community that does not make gender a condition of power. Gay, lesbian and transgender folks find a welcome in our circles. And many people are drawn to traditions that encourage imagination, honor intuition and respect each individual’s spiritual authority.”
Starhawk also praises the Internet as a boon to modern Paganism’s growth. For more ARIS reactions from the rest of the On Faith panelists, click here.
Will Witch School give up on building a “Salem of the Midwest” in Hoopeston, IL and instead just pick up and move to the already existing Witch-mecca of Salem, Massachusetts? That is apparantly one of the agenda items for its annual international conference in Salem from April 17th – 19th.
“The group also plans to vote on whether to relocate its headquarters to downtown Salem. The move would include the relocation of Magick TV, an Internet television station broadcast on YouTube. Hubbard said he envisions a downtown TV studio that could broadcast such programs as the Pagan Nightly News. He has already been in talks with Salem landlords, he said. “My goal is to be on Essex Street,” Hubbard said.”
Considering the reception they rcceived in Hoopeston, I can hardly blame them for wanting to move, and I suppose that since Salem is a land of big personalities and ambitious impressarios they’ll fit right in.
MN Artists (and MinnPost) run a profile of “freelance druid” Bill Watkins on the publication of his third memoir “The Once and Future Celt”.
“The Once and Future Celt documents the last leg of Bill Watkins’ winding path; this final volume of his memoir trilogy, preceded by A Celtic Childhood and Scotland Is Not for the Squeamish, traces Bill’s self-definition as a Celt and, more specifically, as a modern druid and a bearer of the old traditions. Bill was raised in England by an Irish mother and a Welsh father who were both fluent in their native Gaelic languages and passionate about their ancestral traditions. Each bestowed Bill with divergent but strongly felt religious beliefs — Irish Catholicism from his mother and, from his father, an abiding faith in the old druidic beliefs held by the Celts before their conquest by the Romans.”
“Wild” Bill Watkins resides, naturally enough, in Paganistan (Minneapolis/St Paul) and performs regularly at Merlins Rest Pub.
That’s it for now!
One response so far
[...] said there’s talk of expanding to St. Louis and “a number of different regions.” [like Salem?] On a recent Friday night, Witch School CEO Ed Hubbard visited the Occult Bookstore to talk on the [...]