Betty Sue Flowers, poet, mythology expert, Jungian, and consultant for “Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth”, is making headlines in Texas as she steps down from her position as director of the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum to start a new life with her current partner, former Senator Bill Bradley.

“Sometime in July, Flowers — award-winning teacher of English and religion, expert in mythology, past director of Plan II, confidante of PBS journalist Bill Moyers, consultant to NASA and corporations around the world, author of three poetry volumes — will move away from her home in West Lake Hills to commence a personal and romantic adventure with Bill Bradley in New York City.”

In honour of her leaving, the Austin American-Statesman has reprinted a profile of Flowers from 2002, shortly after she was named as the new director of the LBJ Library. In it, Flowers recalls how the goddesses of ancient myth, specifically Demeter and Aphrodite, helped spur her forward into becoming a powerful woman, and sparked a lifelong love of myth.

“Sometime before the sixth grade, the Bookworm of Abilene happened upon the beauty of mythology. To her delight, Flowers discovered that the women in Greek myth were star players in moral drama. While not always virtuous, the Greek goddesses were spunky and brazen. They wielded power. They were the focus of stories. “The Greek myths were the only stories I could find, in fact, that involved powerful women,” says Flowers. “These goddesses: They throw their weight around! Demeter blasts the world! Zeus has to beg her to stop!” Flowers was so enthralled by the Greek myths that she carried a personal copy of Edith Hamilton’s “Mythology” back and forth to school with her throughout the sixth grade. But since this was West Texas, circa 1958, shy Betty Sue Marable covered her book of myths with aluminum foil — concealing the cover illustration of the naked Perseus, sword in hand, hoisting up the head of the slain Medusa.”

I encourage reading the entire profile, for while Flowers is no Pagan in the formal sense of the term, she lives a life that sings with the virtues of the ancient world. A powerful personal example that refutes the idea of Christianity or moral chaos. An individual who embodies some of the best qualities of the emerging post-Christian cultural reality.

Since the Yuletide season is fast approaching, I thought I would take some time this weekend to share some new book reviews in hopes that it might make your gift-giving preparations for Yule, Solstice, Saturnalia, or other Winter Festival, a bit easier.

Have you ever wondered why “The Exorcist” is scary? Why “The Wicker Man” managed to amass such a loyal following? Why even very bad horror films can sometimes affect us deeply? Then you need to read Douglas E. Cowan’s new book “Sacred Terror: Religion and Horror on the Silver Screen”.

“Sacred Terror examines the religious elements lurking in horror films. It answers a simple but profound question: When there are so many other scary things around, why is religion so often used to tell a scary story? In this lucid, provocative book, Douglas Cowan argues that horror films are opportune vehicles for externalizing the fears that lie inside our religious selves: of evil; of the flesh; of sacred places; of a change in the sacred order; of the supernatural gone out of control; of death, dying badly, or not remaining dead; of fanaticism; and of the power–and the powerlessness–of religion.”

Cowan has written an engrossing and deeply knowledgeable book analyzing the religious elements in horror films. Of particular interest to modern Pagan readers will be his exploration of the religious “other” in many of these films, particularly the way pre-Christian religion, Pagan revivals, and witchcraft (Satanic or otherwise) are treated in cinema, from “Rosemary’s Baby” to “The Craft”. An essential tome for anyone interested in the intersections between popular cinema and the sacred. A academic sequel of sorts to Stephen King’s more populist examination of horror: “Danse Macabre”. For more on this book, I highly recommend checking out the Theofantastique interviews with the author.

When I first approached Brendan Myers’ new book “A Pagan Testament: The Literary Heritage of the World’s Oldest New Religion” I thought it would be in the vein of “The Paganism Reader”, a collection of literary texts influential to the modern Pagan movement, and while that is indeed an element of the work, it takes far greater pains to contextualize and explain the philosophy behind the included sources. It also takes more time to explore the ever-evolving literary and oral traditions that have emerged from our modern festival circuit.

Originally entitled “A Wiccan Testament”, the book pays a great deal of attention to the literary history and influential texts of that religion. Which isn’t to say that non-Wiccan Pagans won’t find anything of value here, on the contrary, the book takes a sort of “Pan-Pagan” journey through history, from pre-history to the ancient Greeks, to an examination of Aleister Crowley’s influence on modern Paganism. A sequel of sorts to his thought-proving work “The Other Side of Virtue”, it envelops the more modern Pagan texts into a larger continuum of pagan thought. A map, an idea, of what modern Paganism can offer to the world.

“The contemporary pagan community, holding the Earth in such high regard as it does, is in a position to show the world what a spiritually aware, environmentally conscious, socially just, and artistically flourishing society looks like. The pagan community can create a social and cultural space where ancient noble ideas like ‘inspiration and honour’ are still preserved and
practiced.”

This is a bold and smart work. While Myers’ ideas may not resonate with everyone, he should be commended for being at the forefront of an effort to write better Pagan books. He, along with some other authors of note, are writing those “advanced” books we all keep saying we want (also, you might find my recent interview with Brendan Cathbad Myers to be of interest here).

The final work I’d like to discuss isn’t an academic tome, or a philosophic exploration of our Pagan beliefs, but a work of poetry and art. “The Phillupic Hymns” by P. Sufenas Virius Lupus is a collection of devotional poems and translations dedicated to the gods of Egypt, Greece, Rome, Gaul and Britain, with a special emphasis on Antinous, the deified lover of the Roman Emperor Hadrian. These poems explore the syncretism of the ancient world, the homo-erotic natures of many ancient gods and heroes, and the cultural tensions inherent when an imperial power interacts with those it has subjugated. These works seem accomplished, sincere, and passionate, but I’m no great judge of poetry, so instead of appearing foolish, let me instead share one of the shorter poems contained in this collection so you can judge for yourself.

Roma Aeterna
She was known across the continent,
in the east and in Greece
long before the pomerium was drawn
by Romulus and Remus.

The seven hills of Rome—
the Quirinal, Viminal, and Aventine,
Capitoline, Caelian, Palatine,
and Esquiline—mere Tiberian mud

when the lady first granted
her protection to mortals,
or guided Aeneas’ barque to
the shores of Latium.

She makes her home even now
in every stone of the Eternal City,
invited by Hadrian, given a dwelling
as neighbor to Venus Felix—

the mirror of amor—
reflecting the sunrise of the east
so that Roma Aeterna
may shine across the west.

In my estimation this is a worthy addition to the growing collection of titles to be found at the Bibliotheca Alexandria. A vital entry into a growing field of devotional literature within the modern Pagan movement. We can only hope that works like “The Phillupic Hymns” are only the beginning of a greater trend towards a modern Pagan artistic tradition.

The Jakarta Post interviews Dutch poet, and convert to Haitian Voodoo, Maria van Daalen. In Indonesia for the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival, van Daalen discusses her conversion experience, living as a poet, and her definition of a spiritual life.

Maria van Daalen

Maria van Daalen is currently planning to publish a “grand essay” on Haitian Voodoo (she claims to have been initiated into the rank of Mambo Asogwe), to be published sometime in 2009. She also maintains a blog at her web site (a rough translation). Maria van Daalen’s life provides an interesting look into how the African diasporic religions are gaining interest and converts in “secular” Europe.

Poet and author Robert Graves is perhaps one of Britain’s most famous creative voices. His 1948 work “The White Goddess”, a meditation on poetic myth, has been seen by scholars and historians as a direct influence on the modern Paganism movement that emerged in Britain in the 1950s. Now, a researcher at Nottingham Trent University is claiming that Graves may have stolen the idea for “The White Goddess” from his former mistress Laura Riding Jackson.

Laura Riding Jackson

The researcher, Dr Mark Jacobs, is currently writing a book about the relationship between Graves and Jackson, and the charges of intellectual theft. Naturally, The Robert Graves Society isn’t taking these accusations lying down.

“Professor Dunstan Ward, president of the Robert Graves Society, said there was a host of textual evidence proving that Graves was developing his theory for the White Goddess even before he met Jackson and that a poem called A History, written before the two met, contains ‘clear references’…”

Did Graves “steal” ideas from Laura Riding Jackson for “The White Goddess”? Possibly. But one could make the argument that the notion of Goddess religion reborn (or rediscovered) was an idea that had been percolating in British and European culture for some time. Certainly works by Leland, Frazer, Murray, Sharp, Yeats, and several others helped pave the way that “The White Goddess” would eventually tread. I anxiously await the publication of Jacobs’ book for further insight into claims that Graves appropriated ideas for one of his most famous works.

There is controversy brewing in Portugal over the heirs of famous poet Fernando Pessoa auctioning off his “Crowley Papers”, a collection of correspondence between Pessoa and British occultist (and fellow poet) Aleister Crowley.

Aleister Crowley and Fernando Pessoa playing chess.

Scholars are worried about how this will affect academic study of the poet, while collectors are salivating over the prospect of getting their hands of the papers, which includes a never-completed novel about Crowley’s faked suicide attempt.

“The dossier includes voluminous correspondence with Crowley, and hundreds of pages of an unfinished novel about Crowley’s faked suicide. The work is called Boca do Inferno, (Hell’s Mouth) after a rocky inlet near the Portuguese resort of Cascais. Pessoa, intrigued by Crowley’s mysticism, struck up a correspondence with the Englishman. The flamboyant Crowley visited Lisbon in 1930, and the friends played chess together. Crowley then disappeared, leaving his cigarette case and a handwritten suicide note on the clifftop above the crashing waves at Hell’s Mouth. It was a trick, apparently to elude a discarded lover … Pessoa mounted a polemical play about the “suicide” and doubts swirled over his role in the affair, and the nature of his relationship with Crowley.”

Poets? Jilted lovers? Faked suicide? Sounds like a far better premise for a movie about Aleister Crowley than the recent “Chemical Wedding” train-wreck. As for the papers, the Portugal National Library is considering invoking laws that prohibit the international sale of documents thought to be of “national heritage” value if a private arrangement can’t be reached with Pessoa’s heirs.

Some last minute essays, opinions, and stories (some of it dealing with the upcoming holiday), for discerning Pagans and Heathens.

The Times reviews Emily Wilson’s new book about the death of Socrates. Entitled, appropriately enough, “The Death of Socrates: Hero, villain, chatterbox, saint”, the book looks at the different perspectives through history of this famous free-thought martyr.

“For some Romans, Socrates talked too much while dying a rather comfortable death. According to Plutarch, Cato the Elder called him “a big chatterbox”; the painless demise was contrasted with the hideous suicide of Cato the Younger. As an explicit act of political protest, inspired by Socrates, Cato stabbed himself till his innards extruded; after his wound had been sewn up, he tore it open again and ripped out his bowels. This scene is illustrated, along with numerous versions of Socrates’ end.”

The book goes on to illustrate how Socrates ended up a hero to Christians (thinking that Christ was the culmination of the philosopher’s teachings), and being used as a popular character in a string of recent novels.

New DNA evidence was filed Monday in hopes of overturning the convictions of the West Memphis 3. The three teens were convicted for the murders of three children back in 1993, the case has long been criticized for using “Satanic Panic” to frame the teens, bringing up Damien Echols’ interest in Wicca and Heavy Metal music, and using an “occult expert” to gain a conviction.

“Defense lawyers say two hairs — evidence that looms large in a case long devoid of physical evidence — link the stepfather to the crime scene where the bodies of three 8-year-old boys were found nude and hogtied in a watery ditch … The prosecution’s theory of a satanic motive was key to the convictions … However, forensic reports offered by the defense attribute nearly all those injuries to predators — possibly dogs or raccoons — that fed on the bodies in the hours after the murders.”

In fact, according to a report filed in July, none of the genetic material found at the scene could be trace back to the three teens. It remains to be seen if this new evidence will in fact clear the teens (now in their 30s) or save Echols from execution.

The Idaho Statesman explores the famous witch-trials in Salem through three women descended from victims and accusers at that time.

“‘I lived this for about two weeks – what would he have said, what would she have done – and I literally entered her skin,’ Judith Alexander said. Judith Alexander, Rebecca Bowen-Odom and Lila Hill. The three women recently portrayed their ancestors in a dramatization of the Salem witch-hunt era for Pioneer, the local chapter of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution.”

The article thinks ergot poisoning was the most likely culprit for the witch hysteria, though there are several theories out there.

Mexico’s Roman Catholic Church has gone on record as saying it doesn’t like Halloween.

“Those who celebrate Halloween are worshipping a culture of death that is the product of a mix of pagan customs,” the Archdiocese of Mexico said in an article on its Web site yesterday. “The worst thing is that this celebration has been identified with neo-pagans, Satanism and occult worship.”

No word on if this includes Dia de los Muertos celebrations as well, or if the death-haunted holiday is significantly free of “occult” influence to remain safe.

Finally, a somewhat strange attempt to enter the Guinness Book of World Records was attempted by a group in Somerville, MA.

“The witches were urged on by Lesley Pratt Bannatyne, the Somerville author of the new children’s book Witches’ Night Before Halloween and an authority on the holiday. Witches’ Night (Pelican Publishing) is her fourth Halloween book, but her first for kids. Pratt Bannatyne wanted to celebrate Halloween in a new way, and Somerville — with its eclectic festivals and “the willingness of people to come out and do something different” — seemed like the place for the first known Guinness attempt for the ‘Largest Gathering of Halloween Witches (Reciting Poetry).’”

No word on how many of the “witches” were also Witches (of the religious sort), but they did succeed in winning the record. Maybe a Pagan group can work towards ‘Largest Gathering of Pagan Witches (Reciting Poetry)’ sometime in the near future.

That is all I have for now, have a good holiday in the coming days!