Before we head into the holiday weekend, here are a few quick news items I’d like to share with you, starting off with a very sympathetic (with some slight inaccuracies) article from the Charleston City Paper about being Pagan in South Carolina.

“…one of the problems with being a spiritual minority in America, especially in a culturally conservative state like South Carolina, is that you and your religion are frequently misunderstood by the population at large. Pagans and Wiccans, one of the many groups in this broad religious category, have long been associated with casting spells, riding broomsticks, and otherwise committing godless mischief. From Macbeth to Bewitched to Charmed, they have been the source of terror and spoof — as well as the object of ridicule and persecution. For that reason, many local Pagans remain undercover, or — to use the Wiccan vernacular — they choose to stay in the broom closet.”

They go on to interview several local Pagans, the chair of the Lowcountry Council of Alternative Spiritual Traditions, and even touch on the saga of South Carolina resident Darla Wynne, who successfully sued the town of Great Falls over the matter of sectarian invocations (and garnered 32 votes in her bid for a seat on the Town Council in 2008). Nice to see a journalist go to several sources and local groups to get a broader journalistic picture of modern Paganism.

Meanwhile, in New York, park rangers and the head of a local watchdog group are freaking out about animal sacrifices in Queens. Filled with your usual cult-hysteria sensationalism, the topper is the inclusion of an incident that seems to have nothing at all to do with Vodou, Santeria, Satanism, or the occult.

“Geoffrey Croft, who runs the watchdog group New York City Park Advocates, said he has stumbled upon gruesome examples of animal sacrifice in at least five city parks … “It’s a public-health issue, it’s disgusting, and it freaks people out with the whole voodoo thing,” said Croft … In another grisly discovery, Croft said he once found the dead carcass of a dog that was shot and eaten by a man.”

What does that have to do with animal sacrifice? Seemingly nothing, but why should that stop “journalists” James Fanelli and Rich Calder from throwing it in there anyway. Why let things like context and responsible journalism get in the way of a good guy-eating-a-dead-dog story? It goes without saying that no-one who knows anything about African diasporic religion or the occult were quoted or consulted for the story.

In a final, and more positive, note, today is the start of the massive three-day Faerieworlds festival right in my back-yard of Eugene, Oregon. Expected to draw thousands, it is a celebrations of all things mythic and magical.

“In just seven years, Faerieworlds has become the premiere mythic music festival on the West Coast. Featuring world renowned fantasy artists, Grammy-award winning musicians, spectacular performances and entertainers, an amazing arts and crafts vending village, thousands of fans from around the globe travel each year to Eugene, Oregon to experience the magic of Faerieworlds. We believe that the revitalizing, healing and transforming spirit of faerie is alive and moving actively in our lives: faerie inspires and provokes, heals and reveals, illuminates and transcends. At Faerieworlds, we invite you to enter the Realm as your magical self and release the beautiful, magical faerie spirit that’s inside you!”

You have to wonder if Slate.com is getting somewhat hard-pressed to find subject matter and writers for their regular “Faith-Based” section. How else to explain them getting journalist Robert Wright, author of several game theory/evolutionary psychology-boosting books, including his recent “The Evolution of God”, to write about Neo-Shamanism? Wright, who seems to be a proponent of the outmoded and inaccurate idea that monotheism is a more evolved form of belief than polytheism (Publishers Weekly points out that he uses a “naive and antiquated approach to the sociology and anthropology of religion”), is so eager to debunk popular myths about shamans that he makes some rather sloppy assertions right out of the gate.

“The quotes come from Leo Rutherford, a leading advocate of neo-shamanism, which is a subset of neo-paganism, which is a subset of New Age spirituality. But the basic idea—that there was a golden age of spiritual purity which we fallen moderns need to recover—goes beyond New Age circles.”

While there is certainly some significant overlap between modern Paganism and Neo-Shamanism, the latter isn’t a “subset” of the former. Nor is modern Paganism a subset of New Age spirituality. These are all distinct religious/social movements with different starting points, ideologies, and goals. Wright is confusing the overlap of practitioners and subcultures (and the tendency of some academics to lump them together for the sake of convenience) with some sort of neat nesting-dolls order of New Religious Movements. Meanwhile, before Wright talks about all the indigenous shamans who were fakes and confidence men, he wants us to know that he isn’t trying to offend.

“But before I start, I want to stress two points: 1) I think it’s great for people to find spiritual peace and sound moral orientation wherever they can, including neo-paganism; 2) I don’t doubt that back before Western monotheism took shape there were earnest seekers of a “holistic vision” who selflessly sought to share that vision.”

So big of him, don’t you think? Despite admitting that some shamans may have indeed been honorable and wise, he still wants to point out that some were not. As if human nature hasn’t taught us that some people, no matter how exhaulted their status, can still take part in some very real moral failings and abuse their power. In fact, Wright pretty much admits that there may be some real value to various shamanic ideas and practices (he “praises” them by comparing their worldview to followers of early Abrahamic religions), he just wanted us to take off our rose-colored (shamanic) glasses.

“I’m for that! In fact, I once did a one-week Buddhist meditation retreat that gave me just that feeling. And there are traditions within Judaism, Christianity, and Islam that are big on oneness. I recommend trying one of them—or trying neo-shamanism. But if you try neo-shamanism, don’t be under the illusion that you’re helping to recover a lost age of authentic spirituality. Religion has always been a product of human beings, for better and worse.”

So to sum up, Neo-Shamanic adherents (who are a subset of Pagans, who are a subset of New Agers) need to remember that some indigenous shamans were fakers and frauds, but really, there is some  (early Abrahamic-esque) wisdom and good stuff to be found there. Heck, “ordinary consciousness could use some transcending”! So I guess now that the Neo-Shamans (not to mention the traditional indigenous shamans) have been taken down a peg by Wright, those crazy diamonds can all shine on. I have to wonder, was there really a point to this article? Did Slate.com actually pay him to just ramble on about animal bladders full of blood and how often shamans got lucky? Of all the topics he could cover, why was Robert Wright writing about Neo-Shamanism?

The past couple years have given much food for thought to those who are interested in the state of religion in the United States of America. In 2008 you had the release of the Pew Forum’s U.S. Religious Landscape Survey, and then at the beginning of 2009 you had Trinity College’s American Religious Identification Survey data from 2008. Both not only showed an ongoing increase in the population of modern Pagans, but that the “religiously unaffiliated” or “nones” now claim around 15% of our total population. But are the “nones” really not religious? While the Pacific Northwest is only second to New England in the percentage of “unchurched” adults (hovering around 25%), some assert that the Cascadian “nones” are actually deeply spiritual and look to nature and the New Age as inspirations in crafting their own belief systems.

“According to the just-published “Cascadia: the Elusive Utopia.” … a lot of these “nones” in the Pacific Northwest are actually very spiritual, walking a path of their own making, but not into organized religions and churches. Sociology professor Mark Shibley of Southern Oregon University wrote the lead essay called “The Promise and Limits of Secular Spirituality in Cascadia.” “This region is different. The people here are not as connected to religious institutions,” he says. The alternative spirituality here shows itself in two main ways, Shibley notes: “nature spirituality,” such as you see in the secular environmental movement, and the more well-known New Age spirituality, where the gaze is shifted inward.”

If thousands of Cascadian residents are drawing on “nature spirituality” and “New Age spirituality”, you potentially end up with a whole lot of (what we would probably recognize as) Pagans who just aren’t bothering to label themselves that way in surveys. As if to confirm that thesis, the Ashland Daily Tidings rounds up a Pagan priestess and three other residents of the Pacific Northwest to talk about their beliefs. At times, it becomes very hard to differentiate the Pagan answers from the (ostensibly) non-Pagan answers.

“Absolutely. There are lots of different sources [for the spiritual and sacred]. Nature is the core. It’s earth-centered, an awareness of things greater than me, that science can’t explain.”

That’s not the Pagan priestess, that’s Dominick Della Sala, Ph.D. – chief scientist, National Center for Conservation Science and Policy, in Ashland. Sala was raised Catholic in Brooklyn, NY. Perhaps merely living in the Pacific Northwest makes one predisposed to see the sacred within nature, which would explain why Oregon (and the Pacific Northwest in general) is such a Pagan mecca (I moved here after all). So when we parse those surveys to get an idea of how we’re growing, “we” might be far larger than we expected in places where the “nones” thrive. For more on the spirituality of the Northwest, you might want to pick up “Cascadia: The Elusive Utopia: Exploring the Spirit of the Pacific Northwest”, as mentioned earlier in this post, for more insight. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to continue watching the sun rise in Eugene.

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

The BBC Radio 4 program “Beyond Belief” devoted yesterday’s program to Witchcraft, ancient and modern, complete with unnecessary links by the host to the latest Harry Potter film.

“Ernie Rea and guests discuss the beliefs underpinning witchcraft. Do modern witches have anything in common with their forebears? And, have the Harry Potter books and films inspired greater interest in the craft?”

Among those interviewed are Christina Oakley Harrington of Treadwell’s bookshop in London, who handled the rather salacious questions of Ernie Rea quite well. You can listen to the program online, here.

Over at the Washington Post’s “On Faith” blog, Pagan panelist Starhawk weighs in on Jimmy Carter’s recent stand against the religious justifications for discrimination against women, pointing out a basic assumption prevalent through much of modern Pagan thought.

“Why does it matter if women can hold positions of responsibility and leadership in spiritual and religious life and communities? Many years ago, Mary Daly wrote: “If God is male, then the male is god.” That which is sacred to us is what we most deeply value and care about. It sets the pattern for what we value, all down the line. So if our only images of the sacred are male, and all positions of spiritual authority are held by men only, inevitably women will be devalued.”

One of the great disconnects between women (and men) attracted to various forms of Paganisms and the patriarchal monotheisms is the role of women. Despite our many flaws, feminine conceptions of the divine aren’t placed into a subordinate (or non-existant) role, and women are given full access to positions of spiritual leadership. This assures us that while we may take an occasional misstep, the institutional discrimination and devaluing of women won’t be among them.

In an update to a story I mentioned on Saturday, the Vodou priest at the center of a mysterious death during a cleansing ritual breaks his silence and speaks to the press.

“Authorities are awaiting results of a toxicology test to determine the cause and manner of Hamilton’s death, which has not been deemed suspicious. No charges have been filed, and Salva, who goes by “Houngan Hector,” said he is “100 percent confident” there was no wrongdoing on his part. Salva, soft-spoken and polite with a constant smile, said that no drugs were involved in the spiritual cleansing called the Lave Tet, but that small amounts of rum sometimes are consumed. “Maybe a sip,” he said, but he added that Hamilton had “passed on the rum.” …  “She was happy, very positive,” he said. “She seemed very fine as far as everyone knew.” What happened about 11 p.m., Salva said, is the same scenario he told dispatchers during a frantic 9-1-1 call. “She was taking a nap and we woke her up to see if she was hungry, and she was nonresponsive,” he reiterated yesterday. “We kept calling her name and she wouldn’t respond.” The other participants in the ritual could not be reached for comment. Salva declined to provide their names.”

The report also says that Hector Salva did contact Lucie Marie Hamilton’s mother (something friends of Lucie criticized him for not doing), and sent flowers to her funeral. Due to the firestorm of press, and negative speculation from neighbors, Salva is moving out of his current home to a new location.

In a less serious update to a previous post, the folks at Wookey Hole caves in Somerset, England have found their new professional full-time witch, Carole “Carla Calamity” Bohanan.

In the end, the judges opted for 40-year-old estate agent Carole Bohanan, of Shepton Mallet, Somerset. She will resign from her job and go by the name of Carla Calamity. Carole – or Carla – said: “I am going to be a great witch. All it takes is a little bit of magic and a little pizzazz. It’s a natural progression from my old job as an estate agent. I have been using my witching skills to sell houses for a long time.”

Bohanan apparently won over judges with a song about Wookey Hole and throwing candy snakes to the audience. While many “real” Witches seemingly applied for the job (you can see some pictures, here), there is no official word on if “Carla Calamity” is “one of us” as it were.

In a final note, Louis A. Ruprecht at Religion Dispatches ponders the Christian roots of the New Age movement, specifically “The Aquarian Gospel of Jesus the Christ” by Levi H. Dowling. This 1908 publication set the stage for numerous trance-induced gospels to come and helped spark interest in the new idea of an “Age of Aquarius” to come.

“Among the papers Levi Dowling left at his death was one explaining his conviction that the Earth and our Sun were entering the Dispensation of Aquarius, a literal New Age. Aquarius is an air sign, he noted, and the triumphs of the twentieth century were destined to be aerial rather than watery. Think of the Wright Brothers; think of humanity’s first tentative steps into outer space.”

While the “New Age” is often thought to be something that smacks of Paganism (or Eastern mysticism), it’s good to remember that Christianity had a key role in the formation of the “New Thought”.

That’s all I have for now, have a great day!

The latest issue (#3) of Thorn Magazine is now out, featuring wonderful writing from Thorn Coyle, Sannion, Erynn Rowan Laurie, Phillip A. Bernhardt-House, Lupa, and yours truly (among many others). Of special note is an article on the future of Pagan journalism and magazine publishing by Jack Lux and Michael Night Sky. In it, the authors interview Ann Newkirk Niven about her recent decision to merge PanGaia and newWitch (into the new Witches and Pagans), Oberon Zell about the up-and-down history of Green Egg, and Keter Elan, former editor of the now-defunct Mezlim magazine. In their conclusion, Lux and Night Sky wonder if Pagan publications are stuck in a transitional time due to the influence of the Internet.

“…the purpose of a magazine changes to suit its audience, and Pagan journalism may be fixating on a role for which it is no longer useful … perhaps the most useful goal of Pagan publications is no longer to disseminate information about outer limits, but to delve deeper into the ideas of the past forty years and fill the gaps between them. With the Internet and the growing festival network, magazines are best suited not for community building, but for culture building.”

In these recessionary times, where niche magazines are folding left and right, it may be hard for the surviving Pagan publications to successfully re-position themselves and weather the economic storm. Which brings us to the sad news that Thorn Magazine is ceasing print publication after its fourth issue.

“…perhaps inevitably, certain market forces have caught up with us at last: the declining economy and the ailing state of print journalism in general. Despite strong enthusiasm for and interest in the work we’re doing, businesses have been unable to afford extra expenses for advertising and potential readers have had their pockets stripped by the Great Recession. Coupled with the usual enormous cost of printing and the spiraling postage rates, these circumstances have finally cornered us into an inescapable conclusion: we no longer have the cashflow available to continue printing this quarterly magazine. The October 2009 issue, Vol 1 Issue 4, will be our last in print.”

They do note that Thorn will survive in an online-only format, with quarterly “issues” and monthly updates, but it remains to be seen how successful that new incarnation will be. As a columnist for Thorn I certainly wish them all the best but the question has to be raised, if a Pagan magazine of such high quality can’t survive for more than a year, what does that say about the appetite for new magazines among the larger Pagan community, and the ability of Pagan businesses to support such endeavors with ad revenue? How many full-size quarterly magazines can our community feasibly support? Will the revamped Witches and Pagans push to the forefront of Pagan publications? Or will it too run into problems?

While I’m certainly a proponent of the Internet for disseminating information and generating discussion, I would find it sad if the world of Pagan publications were to continue to contract. Not everyone reads the Internet, and without a high-quality and well-edited inter-generational touchstone publication we could see the level of discourse within our communities suffer. This doesn’t mean I excuse publishers who remain hostile or obtuse to the new economies and realities of a post-Internet publishing world, only that print vehicles do serve, and should continue to serve, a purpose to modern Pagans. So good luck to the new online-only Thorn Magazine, and the soon-to-be-launched Witches and Pagans, it looks like they’ll need it.

Sangeeta Krishnan (aka Ashtoreth), an Indian Wiccan, has written in to let me know that she (and the religion of Wicca) has been been profiled twice in the last week. First for the Mumbai Age (link to full article, here), and then for the Times of India (link to full article, here).

A clipping from the Times of India article.

“Sangeeta Krishnan, whose collective is called Astral Hub, screens films like “The Secret”, plans day trips to Madh Island with psychic games and Maypole dances, and initiates debates like the forthcoming one called Harry Potter versus Real Witches. “Wicca is a calling and I’d say there are about 50 dedicated Wiccans in Bombay,” she says. And the headcount may keep growing as Wiccans bravely come out on social networking sites.”

The article also gives credit to Ipsita Roy Chakraverti (whom I’ve covered at this blog previously) with bringing Wicca in India out of the “Indian broom closet” in the 1980s, and interviews an Indian Wiccan who received her initial training from the US-based Witch School. While the number of Indian Wiccans is still very small, the tone of these articles very much reminds me of the early profiles of Wicca in Britain and America, and we all know how our population exploded in the years after the faith was introduced in those countries.

Will later generations of Wiccans in India look towards Chakraverti and Krishnan the way we now look at figures like Alex Sanders or Starhawk? Whatever the outcome, it looks certain that modern Paganism has indeed found fertile soil among this predominately Hindu country (which brings up all sorts of interesting questions about Indian Pagans and Western Indo-Pagans), and that Wicca has truly become a world religion, with thriving communities of practitioners located across the globe (in Brazil, South Africa, India, Russia, Australia, and Mexico for instance). When the modern Pagans go to the Parliament of World Religions in Melbourne this December, they can truly claim that they have a personal stake in what happens outside the Western countries we are normally associated with.

Now that I’ve safely arrived in the Pacific Northwest (the journey was only a little like this), unloaded my relocubes, and started the long and arduous process of unpacking my books, it’s time to resume my duties here at The Wild Hunt. I would first like to deeply thank all the wonderful folks who filled in at my blog while I was gone, they made my life much easier, and raised the bar for the writing on this blog in the process. I hope you’ll continue to follow their work at their own blogs and web sites. As for me, I’ve got a lot of catching up to do, it’s amazing how much Pagan news you can miss in eleven days. So here’s a quick catch-up of some news of note that emerged during my sojourn.

Professor Ronald Hutton (author of “Triumph of the Moon”), scholar of modern Witchcraft, Druidry, and the English ritual year, has been named a Commissioner of English Heritage.

“The Minister for Culture has appointed Professor Ronald Hutton as the historian to sit on the commission that governs English Heritage. The commission has overall charge of the affairs of the official national body concerned with heritage, and its members act as statutory advisors to the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport (and so effectively to the government) in all matters that involve the understanding and conservation of England’s past. As such, the appointment carries with it a broader responsibility of acting as an advocate for the importance of history in national life. It will commence in October and last for four years with the possibility of renewal.”

Pagans for Archeology called the news “fantastic” and a “well-deserved honour”. To have such a sympathetic voice for the modern Pagan movement advising the government on England’s heritage could change the existing dynamic over issues of access and preservation for sites like  Avebury and Stonehenge.

Speaking of Ronald Hutton, he makes a brief appearance in a preview for a new documentary about Druids (ancient and modern) produced by the Holistic Channel (no doubt to be re-edited soon for a History Channel program).

This, among other recent developments we’ll get to in a moment, have really peeved off a British academic blogger who calls for more discrimination of modern Pagans (they must, in his mind, prove themselves worthy of “respect”), and resorts to quite a bit of name-calling. He also describes Ronald Hutton as Paganism’s “brain in a jar”, excusing the rest of us from developing critical thinking skills. I personally think my “intellectual depth and rigour” is doing just fine.

Before we leave the isle of Britain, I would be amiss in not noting the fact that there are now enough Pagan police to necessitate the formation of a Pagan Police Association, complete with time off for the various high-holidays (oh, and two official Pagan chaplains serving officers on the force).

“Most recently, the Pagan Police Association has been created, allowing police officers to explore their beliefs with other officers. Alongside this, in some forces, officers are being allowed the opportunity to move away from traditional Christian holidays. In practice this means that Pagan officers, rather like those from more mainstream faiths, can take their holidays on the dates which support their beliefs.”

Not everyone is happy about this, but the growing prevalence of Paganism in Britain seems unavoidable lately. Even the Scottish government has more Pagan civil servants than it does Jews, Sikhs, or Hindus. Maybe the British soul really is Pagan.

Turning our eyes back to the USA, specifically Philadelphia, sensationalism seems almost unavoidable in the case of a trans-gendered woman who died while at a three-day Vodou cleansing ceremony in New Jersey. While no charges have been filed, and no apparent wrong-doing has yet been discovered (nor did any harm come to the six other clients undergoing the same process), that hasn’t stopped the press from airing requests from friends of the deceased for “accountability” from “Houngan Hector” over the matter.

“Her friends there say they want answers and an apology from Salva, who goes by the name “Houngan Hector” on his Gade Nou Leve Society Web site. “I’m certain no one meant to hurt anyone, but she was in their care and there has to be some accountability,” said Randi M. Romo, executive director of the Center for Artistic Revolution, a Little Rock-based nonprofit agency for which Hamilton worked as a youth counselor. “They haven’t even contacted her mother.” No one answered at the door of the Loch Lomond Drive townhouse yesterday, and Salva, who claims he was initiated as a senior priest in Haiti, did not respond to e-mails for comment.”

Considering they may not know why she died, going around and taking responsibility for her death seems a little premature. Plus, with the press running headlines like “Voodoo became a fatal obsession”, and the health department and child services being called on them, I doubt the residents of that house are feeling like opening up. I wonder, if tests reveal that this poor woman died of a brain aneurysm, heart defect, or some other natural cause that had nothing to do with Vodou, will the Philadelphia Daily News vindicate Houngan Hector, or simply move on?

In a final note, for years many Pagans have been trying to separate themselves from the “New Age” label, but in an increasingly shifting economy and world, it looks as if  some New Agers, like The Edge editor Tim Miejan, want that seperation to happen too (much to the chagrin of some).

“Miejan favors articles on stress reduction and spiritual quests … But even Miejan’s open mind sometimes snaps shut. Channelers — people possessed by spirits of the dead — are out. So is the belief that reptile-like aliens have taken over the bodies of celebrities, including Queen Elizabeth and — according to one Web site — former Minnesota U.S. Rep. Bill Luther. Paganism? Out. “I am not saying that because paganism offends anyone,” Miejan said. “But it is a complete niche by itself.” Other New Age leaders are appalled. “He is excluding channeling? Yikes. Or pagans? He should not be doing that,” said Kathy McGee, editor of the Washington-state-based magazine New Age Retailer.”

Call it a result of the Oprah-fication of the New Age section, it’s all about personal growth (and “The Secret”) now, not Atlantean masters or Pagan gods. Those who want to keep Pagans (and Chiropractors, and organic farmers) under the “New Age” rubric are probably more concerned about a shrinking pool of markets to target, rather than if we truly belong with the newly-mainstreamed gurus of self-actualization.

That’s all I have for now, have a great day!

(Guest post by Peg Aloi)

Brushwood Folklore Center

Sherman, NY

July 2009 (Sirius Rising and Starwood)

The origin of the witch’s cackle: people sitting in the woods at night around campfires, telling stories, and lobbing good-natured barbs at each other, laughing with loud, lusty abandon, their voices raspy with smoke and gravelly from drink, barley bread and wine, stones and water, bleating into the night among the mist-shrouded in dew-soaked copses. This laughter is in fact indistinguishable from the screams of witches burning on byres or twisting under thumbscrews, their knowing humor indistinguishable from their cunning spells or wily seductions, the disruption of forest silence indistinguishable from the shattering of families and homes, atunement with nature indistinguishable from communion with the devil. Comedy is tragedy plus time; neo-paganism is the witchcraft of antiquity plus mod cons. Persecution? It may still exist; but witch wars are worse. Our laughter is wiser now, but also meaner.

***

We retreat to the woods for rustic pleasures; but now the forest has wi-fi and cellular service. We compensate with archaic food and drink: home-brewed ale and mead, spit-roasted meats, potatoes baked in the embers. Likewise, we dress in anachronistic clothing. Someone oughta start an organization celebrating this spirit of inventive nostalgia, a society for creative anachron–oh, wait.

***

Jogging offsite today, I saw two birds I’ve never seen in this area, where I’ve been camping for a decade and a half: a scarlet tanager (which I at first mistook for a red-winged blackbird) and a bluebird (which I mistook for a bluejay). Buebirds, the state bird of New York, are in fact becoming quite rare. In this week’s event, Sirius Rising, daily elemental rituals are held. Today, Tuesday, is Fire day, so the red bird sighting is a thrill, followed by tomorrow’s color, blue for Water. I won’t see yellow birds, signifying Air, until Thursday, whn I spy two goldfinches. So far, a week later, no green Earth-appropriate birds have been sighted.

***

Decadent tastes, textures, scents and sounds abound at any pagan festival. Today (Wednesday) I tried Dickel Tennessee Bourbon: it has a sweet, sugary, syrupy burn to it, an aftertaste of an Appalachian Hades. Other firsts this week: legally-obtained absinthe, and bacon-infused chocolate.

***

I am always amazed at the sheer lack of preparation for the weather that is on display here. We’re camping, after all. People who have lived in the Northeast all their lives come here for a festival and don’t appear to know what wool is or what shoes are; thy wander around in a sarong when it’s a damp 50 degrees outside. I have thus formulated the following hypothesis, hereafter referred to as the  Wet Rayon Corrollary: The amount of clothing worn on a chilly night by certain pagan gathering attendees  is directly proportional to the temperature but inversely proportional to (fill in the blank with whatever you think is appropriate).

***

A chipmunk, upon discovering the nectarine pit covered in juicy pulp I threw onto the forest floor to compost and perhaps eventually sprout into a glorious fruit tree: OH NOM NOM NOM.

***

The mist is a carnival, enhancing and amplifying our meanderings through the night landscape. Lights are softened, facial features made fey, words and footsteps jumbled and rearranged with new meanings, new recognition. The memory of this night is now living in the mist, inaccessible in the parched heat of afternoon or the clearheaded consciousness of morning, or even at the sultry zenith of midday. The mist is dismembered by such heat and clarity. At dawn, at twilight, as the sun scatters it, as the encroacing night summons it, the mist remembers its place, and us, and we re-member ourselves.

***

Dream: I’m in a college photography/film class. Our assignment is to make a short film on the theme of “nature.” We only have a day to do this. I come up with some simple ideas: a rose in the sunlight, a tree with birds. I don’t finish my film on time but go to class anyway, where completed assignments are shown. One female student’s film stands out: a female scarecrow/goddess figure standing in a field, skirts made of cornhusks, waist wreathed in flowers, her face a giant sunflower. She appears to dance in the field, and then there is a circle of people standing in a pool of water, flowers floating all around them. I’m shaken by the beauty of this short visual feast, the power of its themes, its pagan simplicity and intricate colors. I feel jealous and awed, my own ideas so paltry compared to hers. I awaken from this dream, the images still fresh, and realize, in that odd hybrid state between dreaming and wakefulness, that the creative vision that inspired the film within my dream is actually my own. This reminds me of an ongoing discussion that’s been happening this week, about originality and creativity in the pagan community, and the irritating and demoralizing practice of stealing the ideas and words of others: plagiarizing workshop titles, book ideas, ritual texts, website code and images…is there really such a lack of ideas and ethics in our community? For such a creative and vibrant spiritual movement, this dishonesty and mediocrity is disheartening. I want more scarecrow goddesses, an endless array of them, lined up like acres of corn, but I want them all to have a separate persona and all the flora and colors of the known universe. I don’t think it’s too much to ask.

***

There’s been a great deal of rain. The last time it rained this much during festival the event became known as “Squishwood.” Three truckloads of gravel bought and delivered today to deal with the muddy roads. Many tents on the field are surrounded by water. The porto-potties are becoming, if not dangerous, horrifying to access. Still…pagans stay positive. Chanting the names of the sun gods at the cafe. Applauding when the sun finally poked out from behind the clouds. Last week at the labyrinth ritual during Sirius Rising, some kids started chanting that old classic, “Rain, Rain, go away, come again some other day.” Alas, it didn’t work. I am always amused at the degree to which pagans, witches and other magical types think they can control or influence the weather. Maybe they’re capable of picking up on weather vibes and display an uncanny knack for timing. But I think that may be the extent of it. Still, I’ll take the intermittent sunshine to dry out our duds and watch people cheer up as their living situations improve dramatically. I’ll even chalk it up to the chants for Chango, Ra, Apollo and Helios. Hail to the sun gods! Suns for us and rains for us and dry beds for us. A dry place to sleep; funny how little we really need to feel satisfied…and magically accomplished.

Hello, good readers of the Wild Hunt. I am Sannion, a Greco-Egyptian polytheist affiliated with the group Neos Alexandria, and a resident of the fine city of Eugene, Oregon where Jason will presently be making his home. In his absence he asked me to fill in as a guest blogger here, and as luck would have it the day that was allotted to me happens to be the Noumenia of the Makedonian month Gorpiaios (or Metageitnion if you’re going by the Athenian name.) Noumenia means the festival of the new moon, which the ancient Greeks considered to be the appearance of the first sliver, something that can take some getting used to if you’re more familiar with the astrological reckoning of new moons.

Hesiod (Works and Days 770) designated the Noumenia as the holiest of days, and it appears to have been among the oldest and most widespread of the Hellenic religious observances. Its antiquity is attested by the fact that Homer mentions it in the Odyssey (21.258) – a significant fact when we consider that he names only one other religious festival in his epics. Furthermore, the Noumenia continued to be observed well into the Christian period, since we find bishops in Byzantine Egypt during the 5^th century railing against those who continue to light lamps and burn incense in their homes for the ancestral gods and spirits on the new moon.

The sacred nature of the day can be seen in the fact that no other festival was allowed to fall on the date in Athens and no legislative assemblies of the ekklesia, boule, or tribal associations occurred at this time. In fact, all important business was suspended as we learn in Plutarch’s 25^th Roman Question – though it seems that the markets may have remained opened.

Generally, it was seen as a day to stay at home and celebrate with the family. Sacrifices were made to Apollon, Selene, Hera, Hekate, Hermes, Hestia and the household gods. The domestic shrines were cleaned and then wreathed with flower-garlands, and then incense, wine, and cakes were offered anew to the gods. (Porphyry, On Abstinence from Animal Food, 2.16)

The Noumenia is perhaps just as popular and universal for contemporary Hellenic and Greco-Egyptian polytheists as it was for our cultural ancestors. Ours is a diverse community, and though we may have different festival calendars, honor different gods, and even employ different methods of worship – most of us still do at least something to mark the Noumenia. Here are some examples of how different people in the community celebrate this day:

Here is a Noumenia ritual from the group Neokoroi. Here’s another ritual, by Timothy Anderson. Here’s Miguel Oliveira’s thoughts on the Noumenia, and a lovely hymn he wrote for the occasion. Here’s another hymn written by Lykeia. Here is Allyson Szabo (author of Longing for Wisdom) talking about her Noumenia experiences. Here’s some more commentary from Gede Parma, and finally some from Kenn.

In keeping with that, I would like to share some of my own thoughts about this day and how I celebrate it.

To me the Noumenia is a time of new beginnings, of renewal. Each month we are given a chance to start over, to get it right. Living in this fast-paced, hectic world with endless distractions, frustrations, and demands on our time and attention, it is easy to lose our way, to forget the things that are important to us and sometimes we may even become estranged from our gods. We may have set out to maintain a regular religious routine, or to make important life changes like eating better, exercising more, watching less television and the like – only to have life get in the way. It is easy to feel discouraged, to see all the missed opportunities and our life slipping away from us. But the Noumenia provides us with an opportunity to stop, get our bearings, connect with the divine, recharge our spiritual batteries, and renew our commitment to living the sort of life that, deep down, we have always wanted to. It is a time to clear away the old and outmoded, all the things that are cluttering our lives and holding us back, so that we can make room for new and wonderful blessings to enter them.

That is why the first thing that I do on the Noumenia (if I have not already done it on the previous evening, which is the deipnon or dinner of Hekate) is a thorough cleaning of my apartment, from top to bottom. Admittedly, this may not strike some as a particularly spiritual act – but it has taken on great significance for me. There is something deeply rewarding about all of that physical labor, especially when I use the time to think about all of the mental and spiritual “junk” that I need to remove from life as well. It is also a devotional act since by filling my home with numerous shrines to my gods, I have invited them into my life and agreed to share my space with them. The gods should not be subjected to dirty laundry, stacks of dishes, clutter and dust – and in truth, neither should I. By making my home neat and orderly, a fitting place to receive my gods – I am making over my life in a similar fashion, for one’s home is, after all, a reflection of one’s own being. I have noticed, in fact, a strong correlation between my mood and my surroundings. When the place is messy and disgusting I tend to feel stressed, anxious, and sullen – but when it is sparklingly clean and well-ordered (or as close as it gets to that, because come on, I am a guy and a bachelor after all) my heart is light and my mind soars more freely. After I have cleaned my apartment, paying special attention to my shrines and the clearing away of any offerings I may have left on the altars – I begin a series of devotions that can last anywhere from an hour to the remainder of the day.

I begin by lighting candles and incense and pouring libations for each of my household gods. I spend a little time at each of their shrines, reciting poetry and hymns, praying aloud from the heart, or just talking to them in a casual manner. Then I just bask in their presence for a bit, enjoying the beautiful sight of an active shrine full of offerings, thinking about my gods and spirits and what they mean to me, going over past encounters I’ve had with them, and what I hope to do for them in the future. If I have an ongoing oath to them, I will renew my commitment to it and think of ways that I can live up to it over the month to come.

After I have done this for each of my household divinities I next turn to the remaining gods of my rather large multicultural Greco-Egyptian pantheon. This is actually one of the most important things about the Noumenia for me, the opportunity to touch base with all of the other deities. Over the years I’ve managed to collect a smallish pantheon of gods and spirits who receive the bulk of my attention and devotional practice. These are very important gods to me, and I deeply enjoy the intense and personal nature of our relationships. But the other gods are important too, and worthy of my honor even if they haven’t made their presence as strongly felt in my life as the core group that forms my personal pantheon. So on the Noumenia I take some time to honor them as well, making collective offerings to the bunch of them, reciting brief prayers to individual gods, and generally I pause to think about them for a while and all the amazing things they have done and continue to do in our world.

After this I go into a quiet, meditative state, just sort of letting myself be in the presence of the divine. I often come away from this feeling peaceful, calm, collected – ready to face the challenges of life, grounded in an awareness of the all-pervading presence of the my gods and spirits. It doesn’t matter what else is going on in my life – all the anxieties, fears, frustrations and doubts just melt away in the face of the gods.

After that I will sit with my calendar and make plans for the upcoming month. I look at the festivals that are approaching and think about what I would like to do for them and the supplies I’ll have to gather to celebrate them properly. I go over my writing and creative projects, and any other plans I may have either percolating in my brain or carried over from the previous month. I think about my life and what I need to do to make it better. In short, I plot out the rest of the month, making concrete plans of action, because honestly, I’d never get anything done otherwise.

At that point, it’s usually pretty late and so I make myself a lavish dinner, feasting in the company of my gods and sharing a portion of the meal with them. Then I make a final offering and go out for a walk, usually going on a long, circuitous route that ends up at one of the nearby parks where I do a lot of my outdoors worship. As I stroll through the dark city streets I let my gaze drift up to the heavens and note the lovely sliver of moon, just barely visible through the darkness – yet full of such promise and potential.

This is one of my favorite parts of the Noumenia – and in many ways, one of the most important. By anchoring my religious calendar to the phases of the moon it helps me connect with the cyclic powers she contains as well as the rhythms of nature which are all around me. It’s so easy to lose sight of this, to get caught up in the manic intensity of our modern lives. So much is going on all the time, a thousand tiny things constantly clamoring for our attention, that we’re often not aware of anything outside of our own heads. Weeks can pass by in a blur, and half the time we wouldn’t even know what day it was without the anchors of what show’s on television or what trivial thing is happening at work. The earth and the moon, however, run at a slower pace, possess a deeper and more sacred wisdom, and I have found that pausing to take note of that, slowing myself down enough that I am then able to attune myself to that more divine motion is an incredibly rewarding thing. Many people find it hard to follow the lunar Hellenic calendar, especially at first. But I find it well worth the effort. These energies are real and powerful, and life runs much more smoothly when we slow down enough to be aware of them, open ourselves enough to be conscious of their influence in the world around us – and the world within us as well.

And that, dear friends, is how I celebrate the Noumenia. Often we talk about the more theoretical aspects of our faith – our conceptions of the divine, the importance of ethics and building up community, the interpretation of ancient texts, and the assorted controversies that plague our diverse communities – but I think that it is also important to discuss what we actually do for the gods, how this feels and what all this means to us today as modern practitioners of ancient faiths. Hopefully I have provided some small glimpse into the religious life of a Greco-Egyptian polytheist here in the hinterlands of Oregon. At the very least I suspect y’all won’t be complaining that my entry was too short.

(T. Thorn Coyle, filling in for Jason Pitzl-Waters)

Many Pagans and magic workers will attend the Parliament of World Religions in Melbourne this December. As an official Ambassador to the Parliament, I and other representatives of Solar Cross shall be among those attending.

The Parliament first convened in 1893 in Chicago, as an ancillary meeting to the World Columbian Exposition, and leaders from many spiritual and religious traditions met and talked for the first time. Swami Vivekananda addressed the gathering:

Sectarianism, bigotry, and its horrible descendant, fanaticism, have long possessed this beautiful earth. They have filled the earth with violence, drenched it often and often with human blood, destroyed civilization and sent whole nations to despair. Had it not been for these horrible demons, human society would be far more advanced than it is now. But their time is come; and I fervently hope that the bell that tolled this morning in honor of this convention may be the death-knell of all fanaticism, of all persecutions with the sword or with the pen, and of all uncharitable feelings between persons wending their way to the same goal.

If you wish to hear this speech, click on the link above.

The Parliament did not reconvene for 100 years, when a reprise was organized for the anniversary of this first, historic meeting. It has met every five or six years since, including many of the religions not in attendance at that first gathering, expanding Swami Vivikenanda’s dream. Baha’is, Sikhs, Earth religions, and Indiginous religions are all now active participants.

At a recent pre-Parliamentary event in San Francisco, I attended a meeting with Buddhists, Christians, Metaphysicians, Hindus, and Jews and spoke about what I hope to bring to the Parliament. Pagans, I feel, have something very important to add to the discussion, particularly addressing this year’s theme which is “Make a World of Difference: Hearing Each Other, Healing the Earth”. We experience the sacred within and around us. We believe that matter is not fallen and strive – at least in theory – to live in harmony with this great body Gaia we are all part of. We also have a chance to be good listeners, because, even if we are Monists or non-dualists, most of us are also Pantheists and Polytheists: there is no end to diversity and we dance with that, the sacred is ever with us, in myriad forms. In my direct experience and perception – which are so important to Pagans and magic workers – God Herself forms the fabric of all, and we weave our lives into this fabric, changing texture and color, adding to the glorious blend. Our Gods and Goddesses, too, weave in their sparks of light, their watery or earthy natures, as do animals, stars, trees, molecules and atoms. When we are at our best, our very lives and ways of worship open us to tolerance and deep listening.

We have the ability to carry this sense of connection, immanence, and wonder with us everywhere we go. I recently carried that sense to the chapel podium of the Interfaith Center at the Presidio and spoke of our deep need to connect with all of our parts – animal, human, and divine – to align our own soul in order to come into alignment with the soul of the world. I spoke of the sacred being among us, and how acts of social justice become as acts of prayer and meditation. I spoke of dancing the primal elements of air, fire, water, earth, and spirit. Each of us knows this dance, for it is as familiar to us as breathing.

All of these, I firmly believe, give Pagans and magic workers a distinct voice in inter-religious dialogue. We do not have to reach at all to come to a sense of the Divine within and among us. We do not have to reach at all to acknowledge that multiplicity is as sacred as unity. We do not have to reach at all to sense that every action, every thought and breath we take, affects and remakes the world. We do not always recall each tenet in every moment  but we don’t have far to go to reconnect. Despite our states of disconnection, the reality of reconnection is right here, right now, and something in our blood and bones knows this and responds. We carry these possibilities of connection with us everywhere we go. My friends and compatriots will carry this with us to the Parliament in Melbourne. We will talk, make ritual, shake hands, bow, and pass along our relationship with the sacred. Our Gods will walk the halls with us, as will the sense of our own divinities, and a sense of divine Nature. We shall seek the divinity in the eyes and in the words of every other participant. This is our practice. Thou art Goddess. Thou art God.

For all of you not attending the Parliament in Melbourne, I encourage you to think about going. I encourage local groups to raise funds to send representatives, who will then come back and share the experience at home. I ask that you seek out local pre-Parliamentary events to attend and talk about your practices there. And I encourage each of us, every day, to bring our sense of Divine connection with us as we work, play, dance, toil, and make love. If you do decide to attend, please let me know, for we are organizing so as to form a cohesive, though diverse presence. Walk the halls with us. Listen to the Dalai Lama, Sr. Joan Chittister, Cheif Oren Lyons and Margot Adler. Make ritual with us, and walk in the Australian summer sun.

I end with more words from Swami Vivekananda, spoken at the closing ceremony of the first Parliament:

Much has been said of the common ground of religious unity. I am not going just now to venture my own theory. But if any one here hopes that this unity will come by the triumph of any one of the religions and the destruction of the others, to him I say, “Brother, yours is an impossible hope.” Do I wish that the Christian would become Hindu? God forbid. Do I wish that the Hindu or Buddhist would become Christian? God forbid.

The seed is put in the ground, and earth and air and water are placed around it. Does the seed become the earth; or the air, or the water? No. It becomes a plant, it develops after the law of its own growth, assimilates the air, the earth, and the water, converts them into plant substance, and grows into a plant.

Similar is the case with religion. The Christian is not to become a Hindu or a Buddhist, nor a Hindu or a Buddhist to become a Christian. But each must assimilate the spirit of the others and yet preserve his individuality and grow according to his own law of growth.

Blessed be.

——–
T. Thorn Coyle is a Pagan, mystic, magic worker, spiritual director, activist, and founder of Solar Cross and the Morningstar Mystery School. Author of “Kissing the Limitless” and “Evolutionary Witchcraft” she makes her home near the San Francisco Bay.