Here are the talks/discussions I’ll be giving:

Emerging Trends and the Pagan Movement: Reflections and predictions from reading and reporting the Pagan news.

As the Pagan movement grows and enters the mainstream, what can we expect in the coming years? Jason Pitzl-Waters, author of The Wild Hunt blog, will share some thoughts on emerging trends and possible outcomes gleaned from reading, investigating, and reporting the Pagan news on a daily basis for the last five years. Topics explored during the talk will include the ongoing growth in Pagan numbers, how the coverage and treatment of Santeria and other minority faiths will affect our rights, and moving into a post-Christian society.

Pagans and The New Media: How blogging, podcasting, twitter, and other technologies are changing the way we do things.

Modern Paganism once relied on handwritten personal correspondence and small newsletters to connect like-minded souls. Now, in an age of instant information and social networking, blogs, podcasts, and services like Facebook and Twitter have come to dominate how many of us communicate. What are the advantages and disadvantages of these new technologies? How will new media affect book and magazine publishing in the Pagan world? How can we utilize these advances in a way that benefits us? Join us as we explore these and other issues. (Depending on who else is at event, this might make this a panel discussion.)

A Darker Shade of Pagan: A brief (alternate) history of Pagan and occult music.

Many of you know the common circle chants, or have heard of well-regarded Pagan musicians like Gwydion Pennderwen, Isaac Bonewits, and Selena Fox, but did you know there was a parallel development of Pagan and occult music gestating deep in the musical underground? Join us on a trip through the “darker shade of Pagan” as we explore a variety of artists from the Industrial music pioneers of the late seventies to the psych-folk resurgence of today. Plus, we’ll also spend some time on some common ancestors linking these two worlds together.

If you’re in the area, or wanting an excuse to go to Florida for a Pagan festival, I hope I’ll see you there. This will be my very first proper festival experience, as well as my first time out doing talks of this sort, so wish me luck! Needless to say, I’m honored that the organizers of FPG wanted me to speak to them, and hope the resulting experience is rich and rewarding for all involved.

As for the blog, I may not have any access to the Internet while I’m in Ocala National Forest, so I’ve prepared some “greatest hits” for the blog to tide you over. If I do happen to get on-line, I’ll post festival updates and other news as I’m able. Normal daily blogging activity will resume on Monday, November 9th.

“Nick Macchione wanted the skull. On his knees, he reached inside the broken crypt and felt around the bones and rotting clothes until he grasped it. When he couldn’t get it out, court documents say, his friend Seth McCarty grabbed a chunk of broken concrete and pounded until the heavy lid protecting the old wooden casket gave way.”

According to accounts, the two teenagers were inspired by ghost-hunting web sites that portrayed Spring Hill Cemetery as full of supernatural phenomena and spooky ephemera. Not satisfied with taking pictures or recording audio, they instead went for a “souvenir”. Because of this desecration, and other disturbances at the graveyard, the caretakers want to install new lights, and for the perpetrators to post messages to ghost-hunting web sites reminding people that Spring Hill is private property.

“Alyce Walker, the 82-year-old caretaker of the graveyard, which is tucked back in the woods off Fort Dade Avenue west of Brooksville … is more interested in heading off any more incidents. She is trying hard to get security lights and a gate erected at the site. She wants the heavy weeds and underbrush along the rear fence cleared away. As for Macchione and McCarty, she wants them to go online, to the same sites that drew them to the cemetery, and post messages telling other people that the cemetery is private property and to stay away. She wants to see a printout of their warnings. And she wants it done soon. Halloween is approaching, she said, and that attracts vandals and ghost chasers to the graveyard like moths to a flame. All she really wants, Ms. Walker said, is for people to respect the cemetery.”

No doubt that respectable hunters of the supernatural are horrified by the actions of these teenagers, and will no doubt spread the word that this cemetery is now off-limits to further investigations. After all, it’s only good policy to not insult the ancestors of the very ghosts your trying to hunt is it? As to the incident itself, it is just another sign that when some random desecration or vandalism happens, when animals are killed and discarded in non-ritualistic circumstances, chances are its not a practitioner of the occult at work, but a misguided or disturbed teenager instead.

A Sydney native who calls Melbourne home, Rule says, “It’s not such an unusual thing for music to have a magical and spiritual purpose. All the ritual music of traditional cultures — Aboriginal Australian and Native American shamans, folk music from across the globe, Gregorian chants and gospel music — share this same goal: to alter our consciousness and bring us in contact with the divine.” But, she adds, “I’m no more a Wiccan songwriter than I am a Scorpio songwriter, or an Australian one, or a female one. I’m just living and writing and singing and exploring my heart and soul — and I happen to be an Australian Scorpio Witch.”

While it’s nice that the paper decided to give some ink to Wendy Rule’s upcoming shows in America, you’d think they would bother to do more than simply cut-and-paste from her web site while implying they interviewed her. Maybe a long-distance phone call was too expensive for their operating budget? After all, these are hard times for newspapers.

If you want to brag once and for all that you’re as smart as (or possibly smarter than) Oberon “Grey School of Wizardry” Zell and Don “Witch School” Lewis you’ll get your chance at the upcoming St. Louis Pagan Picnic. According to a press release, they will be holding a trivia contest about “all things magical” open to all comers.

“Oberon Zell of Grey School and Don Lewis of Witch School have agreed to a trivia contest about all things magical to test their students and all comers. They plan to meet on June 13th & 14th at the St. Louis Pagan Picnic, held at Tower Grove Park. The St. Louis Pagan Picnic is the largest Pagan gathering in the Midwest, and brings together thousands for a weekend of friendship, fellowship, entertainment, teaching and merchants. The Wizards and Witches Trivia contest will be just one of the many parts to this wonderful event, but for the students of Grey School and Witch School, it is a highly anticipated one.”

The winners will receive unspecified “prizes”, one hopes that it isn’t a gift certificate to their respective schools. After all, would the winner of such a contest really need such a thing?

In a final note, workmen in Florence, Italy, while digging a hole for a new water cistern in the courthouse, stumbled across a temple to Isis.

“Workmen inside Florence’s courthouse have stumbled across a spiral column and hundreds of multicoloured fragments that experts believe may have belonged to a Roman temple dedicated to the Egyptian goddess Isis.  According to Roman news agency ANSA, the remains, dating back to the second century AD, were discovered as the men dug a five by three meter hole, barely four meters deep, for a new water cistern for the courthouse’s anti-incendiary system … the remains were “comparable” to others found over the last three centuries in the immediate area that have also been attributed to the temple of Isis, the Egyptian goddess of motherhood and fertility who was later adopted by the Greeks and Romans.  The location of the temple is unknown, but it is believed to have been built just outside the Roman part of the city, near the current courthouse building…”

Florence’s archeology superintendency is currently overseeing the discovery, no announcements have been made as to what will ultimately be done with the find. Interesting that a courthouse was unwittingly built over the temple of a goddess that the Book of the Dead calls “She who seeks justice for the poor people”.

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

Here are the talks/discussions I’ll be giving:

Emerging Trends and the Pagan Movement: Reflections and predictions from reading and reporting the Pagan news.

As the Pagan movement grows and enters the mainstream, what can we expect in the coming years? Jason Pitzl-Waters, author of The Wild Hunt blog, will share some thoughts on emerging trends and possible outcomes gleaned from reading, investigating, and reporting the Pagan news on a daily basis for the last five years. Topics explored during the talk will include the ongoing growth in Pagan numbers, how the coverage and treatment of Santeria and other minority faiths will affect our rights, and moving into a post-Christian society.

Pagans and The New Media: How blogging, podcasting, twitter, and other technologies are changing the way we do things.

Modern Paganism once relied on handwritten personal correspondence and small newsletters to connect like-minded souls. Now, in an age of instant information and social networking, blogs, podcasts, and services like Facebook and Twitter have come to dominate how many of us communicate. What are the advantages and disadvantages of these new technologies? How will new media affect book and magazine publishing in the Pagan world? How can we utilize these advances in a way that benefits us? Join us as we explore these and other issues. (Depending on who else is at event, this might make this a panel discussion.)

A Darker Shade of Pagan: A brief (alternate) history of Pagan and occult music.

Many of you know the common circle chants, or have heard of well-regarded Pagan musicians like Gwydion Pennderwen, Isaac Bonewits, and Selena Fox, but did you know there was a parallel development of Pagan and occult music gestating deep in the musical underground? Join us on a trip through the “darker shade of Pagan” as we explore a variety of artists from the Industrial music pioneers of the late seventies to the psych-folk resurgence of today. Plus, we’ll also spend some time on some common ancestors linking these two worlds together.

If you’re in the area, or wanting an excuse to go to Florida for a Pagan festival, I hope I’ll see you there. This will be my very first proper festival experience, as well as my first time out doing talks of this sort, so wish me luck! I’ll be adding a little side-bar on the blog to remind everyone of this appearance (and if all goes well, future appearances as well).

“Movies about the occult are, well, movies after all and are made for profit not education. The occult is by its nature sensational and sensationalism sells. Filmmakers have target audiences, but they want to reach a broad spectrum of customers. And you have to remember that a lot of films that adapt occult paths are part of the horror genre, and that audience demands sensationalism. So even those Wiccan films that give a favorable spin to the Old Religion might well offend not only Wiccans but conservative Christians, the former because they don’t accurately reflect their beliefs and practices and the latter because they are made at all. I think the one Neo-Pagan film that most Pagans I’ve met would, and do, enjoy is The Wicker Man. This is ironic because director­­­ Robin Hardy and script writer Anthony Shaffer intended it to be a warning against occult practices as leading to cults. As I say in my book, those Wiccan films that reflect negatively on the Old Religion, B movies such as Silent Night Deadly Night IV: the Initiation or Suspiria are unrelentingly sexist and even misogynist and reflect on the challenge to male authority that feminist Wicca presents for some people.”

I recommend reading the whole thing, though I disagree with her analysis of “The Wicker Man”. From the interviews I’ve read, it always seemed to be more a cautionary tale concerning religious extremism from all angles than simply a warning against occultism in particular. While you’re there, you might also want to read Morehead’s post on geeks inherting the earth.

Slate.com explains the six types of white supremacist groups outlined by the Department of Homeland Security report, titled “Domestic Extremism Lexicon“. One of those six types is “Nordic mysticism” and they manage to give a summary while generally avoiding tarring all modern Norse and Germanic-based Pagan groups with a racist brush.

“Neo-Nordic paganism appeared in the United States in the 1970s and ’80s as part of a larger trend of pagan religions, like Wicca and Druidism. The racist offshoot of this religious movement is referred to as either Odinism or Wotanism—Odin and Wotan being different names for the chief Norse god. (David Lane, a leading white nationalist, preferred Wotanism because it contained the acronym WOTAN, or “Will of the Aryan Nation.”) White supremacists were drawn to the faith both because it represents an “authentically” white religion—as opposed to Christianity, which has its roots in the Middle East—and because of its emphasis on warrior culture.”

While the terminology is a bit off at times, Nina Shen Rastogi seems to have avoided the blanket statements (particularly concerning Pagan iconography and symbols) that have spurred Pagan criticism of some anti-defamation groups in the past. You can read more about this report at The Daily Beast.

In a final note, the St. Petersburg Times’ Andrew Meacham provides a moving obiturary for Lady Urania (aka Lois Ann Paris), a local Pagan community leader and part-owner of the Stone Circle Products in Florida.

“Before she became Lady Urania, Ms. Paris was a Catholic Sunday school teacher who worked for a Baltimore phone company. But she found the religion too authoritarian and began to study Wicca, or witchcraft. Ms. Paris was a short woman with a full voice, especially when delivering her opinion, which she did freely. A redhead with an attitude, her daughter-in-law said. After moving to Port Richey in 1991 with her husband, George, she blended in quickly with local Wiccans, the women and men who practice what they call an earth religion. The Wiccans say they keep a low profile because they fear discrimination and harassment. Lady Urania became part owner of the Stone Circle, a retail store where she sold books, crystals and candles and gave tarot readings.”

Lady Urania was 74. You can also read an announcement of her passing at Witchvox. May she rest in the Summerlands and return to us once again.

No Church-State problems here!

“If you want Jesus on your license plate, the Florida Senate is looking out for you. Because why worry about a budget impasse or property insurance when you can spend more than an hour talking about Jesus, the devil and license plates? Religious specialty plates offered by Sen. Ronda Storms, R-Valrico, and Sen. Gary Siplin, D-Orlando, made it onto a bill Friday even though many members had not seen images of those plates and none was produced for the debate.”

The Jesus plate pictured above is joined by the infamous “I Believe” cross plate that failed to get traction last year (and is currently being litigated in South Carolina). Also, lest you think this plate would open the doors for any number of religious-themed plates, Sen. Larcenia Bullard made clear that gods (and devils) with horns would be right out!

But those options would come too late for Friday’s debate in the Senate, where Sen. Larcenia Bullard, D-Miami, invoked the devil to make her point: “What if someone comes next year and decides to vote on something that has the devil on it, and horns, horns on each side. I know that people are called the devil, but if the symbol of a devil is on it, I would not vote for that.”

Luckily for people who like their spiritual guides to have “horns on each side”, the ACLU and ADL mobilized after the news broke and managed to get a similar-worded proposal removed from House legislation (preventing, I assume, the plates from seeing the light of day). Meanwhile, some Florida senators are trying to solve the issue by pushing for the removal of all specialty plates in exchange for specialty stickers that would serve the same charitable purpose. Such compromise measures most likely won’t please co-sponsor Sen. Gary Siplin (Democrat) who compared putting Jesus on the plate with other states putting animals on theirs.

For his part, Siplin said FAMU has a snake on its plate and the University of Miami has “a duck or something on their license plate so I think we should have an opportunity for every citizen around the state to be able to purchase a license plate of their choice.”

Christianity, it’s a lot like a duck, or something. Good to know that lawmakers in Florida are so untroubled by our nation’s current ills that they can spend time trying to blur the line between church and state. Oh, and thanks to Pax for originally tipping me off to this story.

“Nelson Hernandez, who owns El Viejo Lazaro botanica in Miami, agrees. No one should expect orishas, or Santeria deities, to overturn something as vast as the economic crisis, he said. Hernandez, who is also a master of Santeria ceremonies, reads cowrie shells to see how the orishas can help his customers … “The orisha can help when a path exists, but not if there isn’t one,” he said.”

They also talk to a Santero who’s been giving away free readings due to the poverty of his clients. Words and deeds like this point to important distinctions concerning those who offer ritual and divinatory services for money. Sometimes the answer to a prayer, spell, offering, or ritual is “no”. Anyone who tells you differently, or who guarantees miraculous results, is most likely a lying scam-artist more concerned about their own income during this recession than yours. Even the most blessed, heroic, and well-connected people are sometimes bereft of divine or magical help.

If you’re in a difficult position, and seeking some sort of spiritual assistance through an intermediary, make sure the person you’re going to is involved with and accountable to their local community. A Santero, botanica owner, or local Pagan merchant who takes advantage of their community too often will find themselves saddled with a bad repuation and a shrinking client base, but the independent (and often stereotypical) psychics and card-readers you see with the lit windows and colorful signs are usually operating without such social pressures. Remember, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is, and always trust your intution. If something feels “wrong” it probably is.

If you’re a fortune teller in Hialeah [in Florida], you need a permit. No proof required. But, like in many cities around South Florida, there’s a fee to operate your fortune telling business. The cost for Hialeah seers: $1,000 … The matter dates back to 1983 when out of fear that a strip of palm-reader shops would develop, the Hialeah council decided to control the business by restricting palm readers, astrologers and fortune tellers to industrially-zoned areas. But [local fortune teller Nancy] Williams would not stand for it and filed a lawsuit challenging the city’s right to keep palm readers out of town. Her attorney Richard Gross argued the city had a right to regulate the craft, but not to stop it. He asked the council to allow seers in commercial areas. Then-Mayor Raul Martinez urged them to consider the amount of taxpayer money that would go to fighting the case, if they did not reverse the council’s 1983 decision. The council agreed. In 1989, the council passed an ordinance that required the businesses to be situated at least 1,000 feet from each other and 500 feet away from residential, school or church properties. It also set the cost of the occupational licenses at $1,000.

This ordinance, its high licensing fees, and combative attitudes towards practitioners of divination caused a drop since 1989 from 39 registered fortune tellers to just two. Now, twenty years later, the Hialeah Council is about to lower the fee to something more in line with neighboring cities.

The cost for Hialeah seers: $1,000. That amount soon might be reduced to $250, if the Hialeah Council agrees to the fee reduction at its next meeting Feb. 24. The ordinance unanimously passed first reading Feb. 9. Hialeah officials felt the fee was an abuse — one that might have been encouraging some to operate illegally — on all of the two registered city spiritualists. ”We’re just doing it essentially out of fairness,” said City Attorney Bill Grodnick.

One wonders what brought about this change of heart. It seems odd that the Hialeah Council suddenly realized the fee was “abusive”, could the loss of business to other cities and the economic downturn have anything to do with this? After all, according to some reports psychics, botanicas, and other services do pretty well in hard fiscal times (plus, I’m sure they hope that the practitioners operating under the table will decide to go legit). But is it too little and too late? Can Hialeah change its image as a city unfriendly to psychics? If not, it may be some unintended blowback in the quiet war against local seers.

[Dianne Parker] stands accused of murdering former Hingham police Lt. Paul Cadigan, 62, whose body was discovered by horseback riders Feb. 8 in a wooded area of St. Cloud, Fla. He had been shot multiple times and his body dismembered, the Brevard County Sheriff’s Department said.

Cadigan had hired Parker for her services as a massage therapist, and police believed they might have argued about payment shortly before the murder took place. The True Crime Report blog paints a picture of a woman who talked about peace and harmony, but also seemed to have some deep anger issues and a need for revenge.

“I committed nuclear fission on my perps! I envisioned them in the middle of a great nuclear explosion and I got to see every grizzly moment! Ahhh! That moment of satisfaction! … You too can demonstrate the way you’d like to get that perp. There are millions of ways of making them suffer and pay for their crimes!!! Have at it! Perhaps the Indians were right in just eliminating those who were harmful to the well being of the tribe!!”

Parker was obviously having some serious life problems just before the murder, which may have pushed her over the edge.

Facing foreclosure on her home, Dianne Parker had acquired a Honda SUV, moved in a mattress, some bedding and clothes, and was preparing to live in the vehicle, a neighbor said.

The media are eating this up, partially because Parker was so prevelant on the Internet, presaging a day when getting biographical background on criminals (and victims) will be a simple Google-search away. But I also think the transparency of the alleged killer in this case is also something of a boon for minority faiths and philosophies. Taken as a whole you can see the workings of a disordered and distrurbed mind. Instead of her being a “Wiccan” killer, we know that she was habitually dissatisfied and hopping from church-to-church in a search for meaning and solace. Her openness, while certainlly adding fodder for the sensationalist aspects of modern journalism, also shows how isolated and unaware of their own sickness these sort of killers are.

“In the midst of controversy over picking Rick Warren to offer an invocation, it’s been overlooked that reality is shifting in America. We are a largely secular society where the vast majority of people do not attend church. When religion enters the picture, we are a pluralistic society, not a Christian one. The right wing may posture as if Christianity deserves special privilege and pride of place. Their posturing has convinced a lot of people for the past twenty years, but it’s high time we threw the whole charade out the window. Barack Obama got in trouble with Jeremiah Wright and now he’s in more trouble with Rick Warren. He should take this as a lager lesson. Anyone he chooses to invoke God at his inauguration will be divisive, either overtly or covertly.”

I think that Obama the pragmatic centrist may have outsmarted himself this time around. For some specifically Pagan responses to the Warren pick, check out Medusa Coils, Thudfactor, Radical Goddess Thealogy, On Holladay, and The Pagan Sphinx.

What happens when your religion doesn’t have a goddess? Does it try to create one? The Boston Globe interviews Miri Rubin, author of “Mother of God: A History of the Virgin Mary”, who reveals some interesting tidbits about the development of Mary in the Christian Church.

“There developed a representation of Mary, a little statue, that when the statue was opened up, almost like a Russian doll, you found inside a representation of the Trinity, and this is to say that within Mary was everything, and it’s all englobed and so on. And theologians say this is absolutely abhorrent, this is not historical, this is totally ridiculous.”

Sounds awfully like a Mother Goddess to me. But then, to me, some corners of present-day global Mariolotry seem little more than a sanctified Christian manifestation of a goddess religion.

A paper in northwest Florida looks back at a year of suspicious goat decapitations, and interviews Dee Thompson, director of animal services for PAWS (Okaloosa County’s Panhandle Animal Welfare Society), about the killings. Thompson, who previously conjectured the killings might be connected to Palo Mayombe (which they described as a “dark” branch of Santeria) doesn’t seem so sure of the religious angle now.

“It was a long, strange year of cases for PAWS, Fort Walton Beach police and Okaloosa sheriff’s deputies. Between Aug. 26, 2007, and Aug. 6, 2008, nine goats turned up headless. None of them were traceable. After the ninth incident, Thompson had begun to wonder if it was personal. In 2007, Thompson was tasked with collecting a rape kit from a mutilated dead goat in Mossy Head in Walton County. Bacteria destroyed her DNA sample, but not before investigators determined it was human. As gruesome as the incident was, that goat became a running joke in town. And because Thompson was the one who tested it, she suspected someone might be toying with her.”

So it might have been a sick twisted joke at her expense and not some sort of dark religious spectacle? Too bad the press was so reluctant to give more time and space to theories that didn’t involve “the occult” or Santeria.

The Wisconsin State Journal sits down for a drink with Circle Sanctuary’s Selena Fox and talks about the Winter Solstice, legal issues affecting Pagans, and how Circle is faring during the economic downturn.

“I think there’s general stress, so it’s really important as we go into the solstice time to not only cherish what we have, but to really strengthen our connection with family and friends — our support network. Just as I encourage people to kindle light to brighten their solstice, I think it’s also a good idea to remember that life as a journey has rough spots and smooth spots. It’s important to look at challenges as opportunities to move in new and better directions.”

Fox says that 2009 will see them focus on developing a green cemetery for Pagans, and a possible trip to Australia for the Parliament of the World’s Religions.

In a final note, Dispatches From the Culture Wars notes the passing of the notoriously anti-Pagan bigot (and co-founder of the Heritage Foundation) Paul Weyrich.

“One wonders what principle he was refusing to bend upon and what “moral courage” Weyrich was showing when, in 1999, he launched a campaign to get Christians to boycott joining the military until Wiccans were banned from joining the armed services. The only “principles” at work there were bigotry and discrimination … this is a man … who hated the very notion that anyone he doesn’t approve of had religious freedom.”

The blog post reprints one of Weyrich’s anti-Pagan rants, in which he calls Wicca “evil” and claims that allowing Pagans into the military will cause God to withdraw his protection from American troops (this is a guy who thought Pat Robertson was too liberal). For more on Weyrich’s nuttery, click here. He is no doubt in heaven with Jerry Falwell, where they can commiserate about the wickedness of Pagans until the end of time.

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