A group of Pagans were kicked out of public park in Bakersfield, California, after complaints were made to local park officials. While at first it seemed like it was going to be a simple misunderstanding that would be cleared up, it soon escalated to them being ejected by park rangers and told they could never come back.

“Collin Bentley, an Odinist, said, “Our arms are raised (in the air). So it’s easy to see how a bunch of white guys, in a park, with tattoos, could be mistaken.” With all of the complaints from the nearby community, a park ranger and two Kern County sheriff’s deputies were called out to investigate these rituals.Don Parkins, an Odinist said, “We paused, answered their questions, pointed out our artifacts, the altar, the flag, what we were doing, laid it out for them in basic. And they said, ‘OK, you’re not breaking any laws, you’re not being disruptive, so you folks have a good day now.’” But the group said the ranger came back with five more deputies, and wanted them to leave.Parkins said, “(The ranger) said, “I won’t have that (expletive) in my park ever again.’ And I said, ‘Well let’s go back to north of the river’, and he said, ‘You won’t have it in any of my parks.’”" He stepped over the line at that point. He’s gone beyond what his call of duty is,” Parkins said.”

After this story hit the news-wires Wren’s Nest picked it up, and soon it spread through various social networking sites and message boards. It is certainly obvious that the group shouldn’t have been kicked off the park, they didn’t seem to be harming or threatening anyone, and they’ll no doubt have recourse for a lawsuit should they choose to pursue it. But why the strange about-face from the park ranger? Why did he go from “have a good day” to “you won’t have it in any of my parks”? Now it is true that Bakersfield, California is no wonderland for occult and Pagan religions, they were the infamous home of a major Satanic (panic) ritual abuse case in the 1990s, and an occult shop there was harassed back in 2007, but this seems a bit different. Why the turn-around? If the ranger was a Pagan-hater I doubt he would have given them a pass the first time around.

For the answer, we need to do some digging into the group holding the ritual as to why things got so heated. But before we begin, I need to stress that this shouldn’t change the outcome of any potential legal case whatsoever. This group has as much a right to use public property as any other group, I’m simply trying go deeper than the rather sparse ABC affiliate news report. What the report doesn’t tell you is that this group is a conservative “folkish” Odinist group. Considering the fact that many Odinists re-appropriate symbols tainted by the Nazis, (like the Black Sun, which the group posts on its web page) perhaps the first ranger was mis-informed by the other rangers after his initial encounter that this was actually a Nazi group. Certainly it couldn’t have helped when a neighbor told rangers that “(they were) saluting Hitler with their war bird flag.” That still doesn’t justify their expulsion, but it may explain the strange change of heart that led to their eviction.

In any case, according to Raven’s Folk Kindred, a complaint is now pending, and we’ll see if this leads to litigation.

“There was a Formal Complaint made to Zach Miller of the NOR. The complaint was faxed to him the day after the call was made to the director of NOR. If NOR decides not to keep us up to date on the actions they are taking to correct the situation we are prepared to move forward with a civil suit.”

We’ll keep you posted regarding any updates.

I’m sure many of you have already read about this on Boing Boing yesterday, but in case you haven’t, West Marin Witch the Rev. Joey Talley (who can apparently help you with your alien and shark problems) made the news after being booted from a local farmers market.

“After spending the past six summers giving free tarot readings beneath the redwood trees of Bolinas Park, the Rev. Joey Talley, the “Good Witch of West Marin,” has come to think of herself as a part of the Fairfax Farmers Market. Managers at the Marin Farmers Market see things differently. The organization, which operates eight farmers markets throughout the Bay Area, says Talley has never applied to work as a vendor or entertainer at the Wednesday night market, and they’ve asked her to leave.”

Kicked out! Boo! Hiss! But before we switch our outrage meters into overdrive, we might want to read a bit further.

“Talley agrees that she’s never sought an application, and admits that she “snuck around behind her back” after Spilger asked her to leave the market last year. But Talley believes she’s providing a free public service and has been gathering signatures on a petition asking that she be allowed to stick around. “I’ve been here year after year,” Talley said. “There are teens who tell me things they could never take to their parents, and they could never afford to schedule a $100 session with me.” While Bolinas Park belongs to the town, the Marin Farmers Market has the right to use the park every Wednesday from 4 to 8 p.m., and to decide which vendors can participate…While they appreciate Talley’s unique talents, Marin Farmers Market representatives insist she take part in the same application process as every other vendor at the Fairfax market. It’s that process, Spilger said, that lets customers know what they see at the market is what they’ll get.”

In other words, they kicked her out for flouting the application process and sneaking around after being asked to leave. Rev. Joey seems to think that her free services to local teens are so important that the rules should not apply to her.

“I’ve been here year after year,” Talley said. “There are teens who tell me things they could never take to their parents, and they could never afford to schedule a $100 session with me.”

Of course Talley could simply offer free services to teens at her office, or those tarot-desperate teens could attend one of her many sessions at local coffee houses, but that might not drum up new paying customers the way glomming onto the farmers market does. Sorry Joey, if you break the rules and get caught you pay the price. If you behave dishonorably in your business dealings (like lying and sneaking around), you can’t then imply that you were wronged and circulate a petition as though you were a cause worth fighting for. This isn’t religious discrimination, and it isn’t something to get outraged about.

The House of Danu in California, an alliance of OBOD (the Order of Bards, Ovates, and Druids) groves and seed groups is hosting a historic Gorsedd for the Festival of Lughnasadh featuring some noted figures in modern Pagan Druidry.

“This is an unprecedented gathering of numerous Druid organizations in the West, and anyone interested in exploring the California Druid experience is invited to attend. This is a rare opportunity to acquire knowledge from the most celebrated scholars of Druidry.  The Chosen Chief of the Order of Bards Ovates and Druids (OBOD), Philip Carr-Gomm is traveling from Sussex to help ground participants in Druid culture.  The Grand Archdruid of the Ancient Order of Druids in America (AODA), John Michael Greer, is coming down from Oregon to share his extraordinary knowledge of Druid history and magic. Archdruid Emeritus and founder of Ar nDraiocht Fein (ADF), Isaac Bonewits, is coming from New York to do assist in our discussion of Druid rites and ritual.  The Gorsedd will be a festival of learning, drumming, storytelling, games, initiations; Bardic evenings around the campfire, a magnificent Eisteddfod of our best performing artists, and a grand procession for the sacred ritual of Lughnasadh that you can help create.”

One has to wonder, with such a esteemed assmblege present (and no doubt several other prominent Druids will be attending in addition to the three “headliners”) if we will hear any pronouncements or plans for the future of Druidry in America. Movement on getting the Awen approved for military headstones and markers? Perhaps some statement on American environmental policy under the Obama administration? Maybe plans for greater cooperation and resource sharing between the different Druid groups in America? The speculation, and possibilities, are endless. Whatever happens, this is a rare confluence of influential individuals, and the results should be noteworthy to say the least. The Gorsedd will run July 31 to August 3, in the coastal redwoods above Watsonville, between Santa Cruz and Monterey, at the Buddhist retreat center Pema Osel Ling, in California. You can register now online.

Four recent news reports tie into two larger stories, the first is the issue of Pagan burial space, a matter that will become more prominent as the Baby Boomers travel further into their retirement years. There are already dedicated spaces in Wisconsin and Washington in America, and an Asatru-dedicated space in Denmark. Now we can add at least two more, an Asatru space in Norway, and a Pagan-inclusive interfaith woodland burial park in the UK.

After spotlighting three news items yesterday, I find that I have another three to share with you today. First up, we have a profile of the Denver Catholic Archbishop Charles J. Chaput. Chaput is receipient of this year’s Canterbury Medal, The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty’s highest honor. But while Chaput thinks that the United States is “a nation that only really makes sense in a religion-friendly context”, it is clear from his acceptance speech that he doesn’t mean friendly towards all religions.

The archbishop said “the bedrock” of our common moral heritage was the First Commandment, “I am the Lord your God; you will not have foreign gods before me.” “All of our Western beliefs about the sanctity of life, human dignity and human rights ultimately depend on a Creator who guarantees them. In other words, we have infinite value because God made us. No human being or political authority can revoke that infinite value. Only God is God.” Any other pretention to answering human suffering and hope is “finally an impostor and a road away from God’s light.” Archbishop Chaput said this view of the value of human life was in direct contrast to a contemporary American spirit in which science can “comfortably” coexist alongside “superstition or barbarism.” As the Western moral consensus weakened alongside the progress of science, people did not become more ethically mature. “The 20th century was the bloodiest in history, and today the occult is flourishing right alongside our computers and Blackberries,” he said.

It seems somewhat strange that a group fighting for the rights of Santeros to perform animal sacrifice would give their “highest honor” to a man who most likely thinks “occult” religions don’t merit the same freedoms and considerations as the dominant “world religions”. Indeed, in his comments he seems to hint that “occult” beliefs are the enemy of religious freedom and liberty. An odd attitude for someone who once served on the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom. I guess it just goes to show you how elastic terms like “religious freedom” and “religious liberty” are.

We turn from religious freedom honours, to the potential honour of becoming one of the most powerful judges in the United States. With the pending retirement of Supreme Court Justice David Souter, speculation has been rampant as to who President Obama will name to replace him.  One name being bandied about is U.S. Appeals Court Judge Sonia Sotomayor. While not officially named as a possible appointee, conservatives are already scouring through her decisions (and the decisions of other possible candidates) looking for enough controversy to mount an effective grass-roots challenge. One of the possible talking points should she be appointed is that she is against distinctions being made between faiths in court decisions concerning religion.

In 1994, Judge Sotomayor ruled in favor of two prisoners who claimed to practice Santeria, a Caribbean religion that involves animal sacrifice and voodoo, saying that “distinctions between ‘traditional’ and ‘non-traditional’ religions” are “intolerable.”

Frankly, this just makes her seem more appealing to advocates of true religious equality. It is also a stance taken by the Supreme Court (including Antonin Scalia), who saw no distinction between the religious rights of Santeria practitioners and adherents of more “mainstream” faiths. In fact, the (in)famous case of Church of Lukumi Babalu Aye v. City of Hialeah was decided by the Supreme Court in 1993, one year before her 1994 decision. Sotomayor most likely looked to this decision as a guidance on her ruling. I can’t imagine this decision would gain any real traction in the controversy department, but then certain groups are big fans of what I like to call the “Witch Gambit”. Using someone’s non-traditional religion as a basis to deny them custody, convict them of crimes, or discredit them as a witness.

In a final note, the San Francisco Chronicle puts the spotlight on journalist and fellow Pagan blogger Victoria Slind-Flor who is being honored as the “Keeper of Light” at this year’s 8th Annual Pagan Festival & Pride Parade in Berkeley.

“Slind-Flor is a practical witch, grounded in the real world. She worked as an editor and reporter for newspapers in Seattle, New Orleans and Los Angeles before becoming an online business reporter in San Francisco, specializing in copyright law, a field they don’t teach at Hogwarts. When wearing her other hat – the pointed one – she teaches workshops, gives tarot readings, and hangs with the coven. Being Keeper of the Light is the best thing that could happen to a witch, Slind-Flor said, and she will try to be worthy of the honor when the parade rolls through Civic Center Park. She is practicing what she calls her Queen Victoria wave, and she is very glad to be riding in a float, as her legs don’t work as well as they used to and the broom thing cannot be counted on. “I’m probably a symbol of the graying of our community,” she said.”

Congratulation to Victoria on this honor. The festival is tomorrow (Saturday) if you happen to be near Berkeley. Also, if you’re curious, last year’s “Keeper of the Light” honoree was Max Dashu of the Suppressed Histories Archives.

Religion Clause (the best source for religious litigation news) just posted some new developments in the numerous legal challenges that Wiccan chaplain Patrick McCollum had brought against the state of California’s prison system, and it looks like more bad news.

“In McCollum v. California, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 13580 (ND CA, Feb. 23, 2009), a volunteer Wiccan prison chaplain claimed that the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has not given him the same access to prisoners and facilities as it gives to chaplains of other faiths, and that it retaliated against him because of his complaints about the treatment of Wiccans in California prisons. The court held that plaintiff had not shown sufficient evidence of disparate treatment to support his equal protection claim. Nor had he proven that the temporary suspension of his volunteer privileges or the failure to hire him for a position for which he applied were because of his exercise of 1st Amendment rights. (See prior related posting.)”

This, along with McCollum’s loss concerning challenges to California’s “five faiths” policy, doesn’t exactly paint a rosy picture concerning the future of Wiccan/Pagan prison chaplaincy. No word yet on if McCollum plans to challenge these rulings to a higher court. One brief ray of hope here is that law professor Howard M. Friedman (author of Religion Clause) points to a recently-released ruling from last year that could help McCollum lauch a more successful challenge to the “five faiths” policy.

“While the Northern District of California denied standing to a chaplain to challenge the 5 Faiths Policy, a decision from last year has just become available through LEXIS in which the Eastern District of California finds that an inmate does have standing to challenge the policy. In Rouser v. White, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 107199 (ED CA, Sept. 16, 2008), the court also found that plaintiff’s complaint alleges “plausible grounds” for relief in his Establishment Clause challenge.”

So if McCollum partners up with a Wiccan or Pagan inmate willing to challenge the “five faiths” he might get a bit further next time. This may also be true in issues concerning equal access of Pagan prisoners to chaplains. In the meantime, the ongoing mistreatment of minority religions in prison continues.

Religion Clause reports that a California district court judge has ruled against Wiccan chaplain Patrick McCollum’s Establishment Clause challenges to the California prison system’s “five faiths policy”.

In McCollum v. State of California, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 11154 (ND CA, Feb. 13, 2009), a California federal district court held that a volunteer Wiccan prison chaplain lacks both traditional standing and taxpayer standing to bring an Establishment Clause challenge to the California prison system’s policy of providing paid chaplains for only five faiths– Protestant, Catholic, Jewish, Muslim, and Native American. As to traditional standing, plaintiff is attempting to assert rights of third parties, i.e. Wiccan inmates. As to taxpayer standing, plaintiff is not seeking to stop the expenditure of state funds, but rather to increase or transfer expenditures to have Wiccan chaplains hired as well. Establishment Clause taxpayer standing extends only to cases where a taxpayer is attempting to lessen expenditures.

As you can tell from Howard M. Friedman’s synopsis, this case wasn’t decided by the merits of McCollum’s argument, but on technicalities concerning proper standing. I first reported on this case back in 2007, and McCollum, along with the Lady Liberty League, certainly thought they had proper standing to fight California’s policy of exclusion.

Patrick has challenged this policy stating that it is a violation of the United States Constitution for any government agency to discriminate in employment on the basis of religion, and that it is a violation of the separation of church and state for the state of California to favor or sponsor any religion over another. This case is the result of the state of California’s refusal to accept applications for employment from Wiccans, for open and publicly advertised clergy positions

There has been no word yet on if there will be an appeal to this ruling, or if McCollum will attempt to change his arguments in order to avoid these issues of standing. The idea that Wiccan prison chaplains have no standing to challenge the “five faiths” policy because they aren’t inmates strikes me as a bit of  judicial sophistry. The exclusion of minority faiths (except for Native American religions) from paid chaplaincy positions very much affects the lives Pagan chaplains who currently work for free, not to mention the lives of prisoners who are denied steady and regular access to spiritual guidance. For my readers out there who are lawyers or law students, what do think of this ruling? Was the judge correct? Or was he dodging a thorny issue?

Don’t call it a comeback! Morris dancing has been here for years! The Guardian’s music blog talks about how a younger generation interested and influenced by Pagan traditions, folk music, and a viral campaign for the faux-documentary “Morris: A Life With Bells On” are bringing new blood to a venerable tradition.

The music plays a major part, and it is through English folk – or the English folk revival scene – that a new generation of more urbane-minded people of both sexes are finding their way to morris dancing. “1960s and 70s British folk was a cool time for music, and bands such as Steeleye Span, Fairport Convention, Jethro Tull and even Led Zeppelin took a lot of cues, sonically and visually, from British folk arts,” says music journalist and proud morris dancer Jo Kendall. As the indigenous music of England, folk has never quite been given the same respect that the traditional music of, say, the US or Jamaica is afforded. Yet morris dancing seems to be changing perceptions about the music that soundtracks it. Those songs that sing of farming, courting couples, regional folklore or other archaic topics are capable of evoking a strong sense of place. Not in a nationalistic way – blind patriotism being the last refuge of myopic idiots – but more in a “Wow, I can’t believe they still do this” kind of way.

For more on the popularity of “Morris: A Life With Bells On”, click here and here. For more on the recent resurgence of interest in folk music, check out this article on “Goth-folk”, and a great article from Zeek magazine about how the new folk and psychedelic bands encourage a pagan, immanent, spiritual outlook. You may also want to read my previous posts on the Morris, Wassailing, and folk-dancing resurgence.

The Los Angeles Daily News profiles santero Charles Guelperin and looks at the rise of Santeria in Los Angeles, which some are now calling the “capital” of the faith in the USA.

“We do not have churches, temples or synagogues,” said Guelperin, a chain cigar smoker after his morning rituals. “My home here is my temple.”Today Santeria, a blend of Afro-Caribbean voodoo and the devotion to saints among many Latino Roman Catholics, has become so big in Los Angeles that many consider the city the Santeria capital of the country. It is a phenomenon that has occurred thanks to the influx of immigrants from Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean and court rulings making it easier to sacrifice animals for religious purposes.

The article goes on to touch on the growth of botanicas (which seem to be doing quite well so-far despite the recession), the tensions created by animal sacrifices, and how the faith is becoming more affluent and cosmopolitan as it integrates with American culture.

“One of the reasons why I’m writing the book about Charlie is because his clientele is so cosmopolitan,” said [Donald J. Cosentino, a folklore professor at the University of California, Los Angeles] “He is just down the street from Paramount Studios, and he’s got a lot of people from the film industry who come to his botanica. Sports people. He’s got businessmen. Men from West L.A. Men from Beverly Hills. He’s got foreign clients. “He is a very cosmopolitan man, a very cosmopolitan priest, and that’s what makes him so interesting.”

With the rise of Santeria on the West Coast and a popular resurgence of Vodou in Florida, we may be looking at a larger trend of younger generations turning to pre and post-Christian religions and traditions to face a challenging world and find an identity. I imagine that we’ll see some interesting cross-pollinations between these syncretic faiths and the growing modern Pagan religions in the very near future.

Is a random prayer taken out of context by a killer “consistent with Wicca”? That’s the assertion made by NBC’s Dateline and Virginia police in a special aired last night on Randall Lee Smith, a delusional loner who killed two people on the Appalachian Trail back in 1981, and attempted to kill two more in 2008.

In addition to the gun, police found a treasure trove of evidence Randall Lee Smith had hidden deep in the woods: Scott Johnston’s sunglasses, more than 20 knives, meat cleavers and other items. And they found some bizarre drawings and notes, including this “prayer:” “Hail to the guardians of the watchtower of the north. By the powers of mother and earth hear me…show me thy glory…I invoke thee oh, ancient one.” Police say the notes and symbols are consistent with a religion called Wicca — a pagan group that worships nature, and considers its leading members witches.

Dateline is hardly a bastion of level-headed reporting, but this seems a bit much. If he had scraps of Biblical verse scattered around would they be “consistent with Christianity”? Ceremonial elements and notes do not the religion make, and it was irresponsible for Dateline to report the information this way. Did they think that adding a “Witch angle” would make things more exciting for their viewers? Also,” considers its leading members witches”? So only the “leading” members then? Are we all working our way to witch-hood? As for Randall Lee Smith, we can’t ask him what his actual beliefs were since he died in custody shortly after being apprehended from injuries sustained during a crash. Yet another victory for sensationalism.

One of the more peculiar legal arguments I’ve heard is that the history of cultural Christian dominance in America makes public displays of the cross effectively “secular” and therefore exempt from Church-State concerns.That was the opinion of a judge in Utah last year concerning memorial road markers (currently being appealed), and it has emerged again over the issue of the Mt. Soledad cross in San Diego.

Litigation over the 43-foot-tall Mt. Soledad cross has been under way for nearly 20 years. Several federal courts have ruled against its display on city property. In an effort to save the cross, the federal government acquired the land underneath the cross in 2006. Legal action proceeded against the federal government’s ownership of the towering religious symbol. In July of 2008, U.S. District Judge Larry Alan Burns ruled that the cross “communicates the primarily non-religious messages of military service, death and sacrifice” and can remain on public property.

Unsurprisingly, Americans United (along with other groups) have asked the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn this decision. They claim, sensibly enough, that a multi-religious military and nation cannot be symbolized by a Christian cross.

“American service personnel come from many different faiths and some follow no spiritual path at all,” said the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United. “It is disrespectful to our deceased veterans to use the symbol of only one faith to memorialize them all” … “That the cross is used in a veterans’ memorial here does not make it secular,” asserts the brief. “In fact, as a burial marker, the cross has been used almost exclusively for Christian burials in order to convey a sectarian message that the deceased lived and died as a member of a particular Christian community. And as a monument in a veterans’ memorial, the cross conveys a similar sectarian message: that only fallen Christian soldiers are being remembered. Given the ‘commanding presence’ of the Mt. Soledad cross in relation to the rest of the memorial, the primary message that this cross communicates is religious, not secular.”

Even if every body buried in that site were Christian (leaving aside the various doctrinal and denominational issues), do Christians really want their cross to become a secular communicator of “non-religious messages”? Further, this “secularization” is a rather recent invention. Until 1989 (when litigation started) it was known as the “Easter Cross” and it was dedicated to “Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ”, which seems to undermine the notion that this is everyone’s non-religious cross-shaped memorial. The “secular” cross is just the latest gambit to circumvent state and federal law. It no more represents and honors Jews, Hindus, Muslims and atheists than the Wiccan pentacle does. To say otherwise undermines the hard work minority religions have undertaken to have their own symbols and traditions properly honored and recognized.

Note to my fellow Pagans and Witches: threatening to hex the police officer won’t get you out of a ticket.

But, sometime the most memorable stories are just the reactions from drivers, such a witch stopped by California Highway Patrol Officer Tom Maguire . “I was hexed by a witch,” said Maguire, who works in the CHP’s Contra Costa office. “I stopped a lady for a speeding ticket, and she said, ‘I’m a Wiccan,’ and that I would have a lifetime of bad luck.”

You have to figure the CHP are used to pulling over people adept in the occult sciences by now, they’d know that a Wiccan isn’t supposed to bring down a lifetime of bad luck down on someone just because they got caught speeding. Looking at past occasions of Pagans having trouble with the law, I’d say that the gods/powers/universe have no problem seeing you get caught if you do something foolish.