For those of you who like to keep track of Pagan and occult themes in pop-culture and the arts, I’ve got a few goodies to share. First, online magazines Right Where You Are Sitting Now and Dangerous Minds profile a new short (7 & 1/2 minute) film by Brian Butler entitled “Night of Pan”.

“‘Night of Pan’ is a seven and a half minute film featuring film auteur Kenneth Anger and actor Vincent Gallo. The film has been screened in various versions internationally – Beijing, Lisbon, Cannes, Athens, Rome, Berlin and elsewhere, but never in Butler’s base, Los Angeles. In the film, Anger, Gallo, and Butler depict an occult ritual that symbolizes the stage of ego death in the process of spiritual attainment.”

If you’re going to do a short ritualistic art-film, there’s no finer stamp of approval than getting Kenneth Anger (the undisputed master of the genre, and long-time Thelemite) to co-star in it. After it’s finished making the festival rounds, maybe they’ll post the whole thing to Youtube?

Turning from short art-films with Pagan and occult themes to long big-budget historical films with pagan themes, I have some “Agora” (the film about Hypatia of Alexandria) news to share. While Americans are still awaiting an official release date for the film, in Spain it has garnered 13 Goya Award nominations from the Spanish Film Academy.

“[Alejandro] Amenabar said at the ceremony in the Academy building that it had been “a great year for Spanish cinema” and was quick to push the worth of his fellow nominees, Agora co-scriptwriter Mateo Gil and lead actress Rachel Weisz.”

Now if we can only get a release date! Perhaps the new flurry of international acclaim and press will speed things along?

In a final “and water’s wet” sort of note, Vatican media isn’t pleased with the pantheistic elements of the global mega-blockbuster “Avatar”, criticizing it for turning “creation” into a “divinity to worship”.

“L’Osservatore said the film “gets bogged down by a spiritualism linked to the worship of nature.” Similarly, Vatican Radio said it “cleverly winks at all those pseudo-doctrines that turn ecology into the religion of the millennium.” “Nature is no longer a creation to defend, but a divinity to worship,” the radio said.”

And while we should never conflate Vatican media with the official opinion of the Pope, Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi did state that these views “reflect” Benedict XVI’s opinions on the matter. Indeed, how could they not?  The pontiff has a long history of warning against the dangers of “neo-paganism”, especially within the context of environmental concerns. I’m sure Ross Douthat is excited to be so “on the same page” as his spiritual authority.

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

Readers have requested it, so here we go, occult pop-stars! Specifically, blogs, magazines, tabloids, and gossip-columns have been making much hay from conspiracy-theory sites (mainly one called The Vigilant Citizen), concerning the secret “Illuminati” messages emanating from mega-pop-stars like Jay-Z, Kanye West, and Lady Gaga.

“In the “Bad Romance” video Gaga “makes her trademark ‘Eye in the triangle’ hand gesture after her initiation to make it clear who owns her now…the Illuminati. The final scene shows Gaga lying in bed with the burned skeleton of the Russian mafiosi. Notice how everything is burnt except the two gazelle heads. The real “intercourse” happened between Gaga and Baphomet. The guy was a tool, a middle-man who was sacrificed in the process of Gaga’s initiation.”

So, as someone who actually does look for occult themes in music, what do I think? I think some creative people latched on to some pretty universal symbols in order to look cool, sell CDs, and get people talking. And even if Jay-Z is a Freemason, and decided to litter his videos with references to his (alleged) allegiance, so what?

The problem here is that people are getting all Dan Brown on us. The big conspiracy is probably that there is no conspiracy, except perhaps in the minds of certain graphic designers looking for a new way to sell t-shirts. We shouldn’t confuse the pretty standard pop-occultisms of modern music (a topic authors have been exploring for decades) with actual allegiance to any sort of occult philosophy or order. Now, if Jay-Z or Gaga want to out themselves as ritual magicians, then by all means, have at it. But I haven’t seen any clear-minded sign of such a confession. If you really want a band who understands and (sorta) takes seriously the occult imagery  in their videos, I suggest the KLF.

They were gaga before Gaga was gaga. Over and out.

As we reach the close of 2009, it is time to stop for a moment and take stock of the previous year. When you look at (and for) news stories regarding modern Paganism (and related topics) every day of the year, you can sometimes lose focus on the larger picture. So it can be a helpful thing to look at the broad strokes, the bigger themes, the events and developments that will have lasting impact on the modern Pagan movement. What follows are my picks for the top ten stories from this past year involving or affecting modern Pagans.

10. Counting (and not counting) the Pagans: Just as the Pew Forum’s 2008 U.S. Religious Landscape Survey gave us new insights into just how many Pagans there are in America, so too does the release of Trinity College’s American Religious Identification Survey data in March of this year. The ARIS survey, like the Pew Forum, showed that modern Pagan religions remain vital and growing.

“As you can see, ‘New Religious Movements and Other Religions’ packed on over a million adherents since 2001, and over 1.5 million in the last twenty years. That brings the total of “others” to nearly 3 million … Both Pew and ARIS give “other” faiths 1.2% of the (American) pie. That in turn seems to back up my earlier assertion that there are at least one million modern Pagans in America (probably more like 1.5 million), add in the over half-million UUs (around 20% of whom are “earth-based” or Pagan) close to a million practitioners of Santeria (in North America), and a few hundred thousand indigenous practitioners, and it seems clear that notions of our continued (slow and steady) growth aren’t unfounded.” in some respect),

Paganism’s healthy growth among the “others”, wasn’t the only survey or poll that was of interest. We also saw proof that America is far more religiously eclectic than some might have imagined, that quite a few Pagans are politically active, and that around half of Americans have heard of Wicca (and aren’t too impressed).

However, not all polling organizations thought Pagans (and other “others”) were worth counting.

“Why were “other” non-Christians not included? No Muslims, no Buddhists, no Pagans. Nothing. They must have that data, so why not release it with the rest? It can’t be simple numerical preferences since the recent ARIS data puts “NRMs and Other Religions” on par with religiously observant Jews and just behind the Mormons, two groups that were included in the released data. Is it down to political influence? I’ve sent a request to Gallup to release the “others” data, but haven’t received a response yet.”

Of course, if you want something done right, why not do it yourself? Pagan scholar Helen Berger, co-author of “Voices from the Pagan Census: A National Survey of Witches and Neo-Pagans in the United States”, along with fellow researchers James R. Lewis and Henrik Bogdan, revisited the Pagan Census project this year. I very much look forward to seeing what the updated data will say about our movement.

09. Modern Paganism Goes Global: Even though the emergence of modern Paganism is a well known story in places like Britain, America, and Australia, we saw this year that the modern Pagan impulse has become a truly global phenomenon. Receiving press attention in places like India, Israel, Russia, and South Africa, where an out Pagan serves as an MP.

“Meet Adrian Williams, the only pentacle-wearing witch in parliament. But the card-carrying ANC and South African Communist Party member, 43, from Mpumalanga has renounced the terms “witch” and “witchcraft” because he maintains the issue needs to be treated with sensitivity in South Africa. Williams practises “magick”, but calls himself a pagan or eclectic wiccan.”

As we move forward, we’ll need to start considering what it means that modern forms of Paganism are now truly “world” religions, and adjust our expectations and views of global events in light of that fact. Problems “over there” do affect us, because “we” are now “over there” too. In tomorrow’s top-five, we’ll explore some of the issues that a global Paganism faces, and what that may mean for us in interfaith settings.

08. Our Media Landscape and the Shifting Sands of Religious Journalism: The whole idea of a “top ten stories” list hinges on there being enough stories about modern Pagans to read and evaluate, and 2009 certainly made some wonder if that prospect might become harder in the near future. With the combination punch of an ascendant new-media and a lousy economy, lots of newspapers eliminated their religion beats (or shuttered completely), and some religion journalists anticipated the future being rather bleak.

“Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Michael Paulson called religion-beat reporters a “dwindling band” who have suffered a “serious reversal of fortune” compared to a decade ago. Meanwhile, veteran religion-reporter Gary Stern blogged about his paper eliminating the religion beat, and Mollie at Get Religion wondered how these shake-ups will change the way that blog analyzes religion reporting.”

What does that mean for us? It could mean a lot less attention being paid to Pagans on the ever-dwindling religion-beat. That could be a big problem for those of us who want to stay informed, because our Pagan-created sources of news have had a rough time of things this year as well.

“After the recent merger of PanGaia and newWitch into Witches & Pagans, and the announcement of Thorn magazine ceasing their print edition, I decided to take the temperature of various Pagan periodicals and the resulting picture is rather grim. Of the 32 periodicals listed at the Witches’ Voice, only a handful seem to still be active, operating on a regular publishing schedule, and dealing primarily with Pagan subject matter. Modern Witch Magazine is “out of publication” after one year and three issues, Witch Eye: A Journal of Feri Uprising promises to return in 2009, but the clock is quickly running out for that deadline, and the two best-known Pagan newspapers PagaNet and Widdershins have been out of commission for years.”

We all need to get our content from somewhere, and while the best blogs and podcasts have been doing more and more primary-source journalism, we face a major deficit of news and information if our community doesn’t pull together to pick up some of that slack.  Projects to address this issue are still in their infancy, and it will take a serious amount of collaboration and cooperation to see a robust and thriving Pagan journalism emerge from these troubled times.

07. Paganism in Pop-Culture, The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly: While serious news may be hurting, the past 12 months have been one of the biggest in recent memory for Pagan themes in popular media. There was the Wiccan-centric episode of “The Simpsons”, the (awful) Wiccan-centric episode of “The Mentalist”, Santeria on “CSI”, a maenad on “True Blood”, and we remained popular on a variety of reality television programs. Still, it wasn’t all awful on the little screen, Ken Burns’ “The National Parks: America’s Best Idea” was a beautiful endorsement of American-grown pantheistic nature religion.

“While the bulk of the twelve hours is spent recounting various grass-roots efforts and political struggles over park creation, almost the entire first episode is devoted to the spiritual dimension of nature (called, appropriately enough, “The Scripture of Nature”). Briefly referencing the influence of works by Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau, Burns makes ground-breaking naturalist and preservationist John Muir the centerpiece. “National Parks” clearly illustrates how his unique brand of Christian-colored pantheism (along with a keen scientific mind) would go on to inspire many, including President Theodore Roosevelt, to preserve vast swathes of American wilderness. The early episodes also take care to mention Native American spiritual and political perspectives, and extensively interviews National Parks superintendent, and Mandan-Hidatsa Indian, Gerard Baker (who says that John Muir would have made a good Medicine Man).”

Meanwhile, on the big screen, most of the big news were about films that we won’t see until 2010. There was news of the long-awaited companion/sequel to “The Wicker Man”, entitled “The Wicker Tree”, that is now filming. The film “Agora”, about the famous Neoplatonist philosopher Hypatia of Alexandria, was adrift looking for an American distributor for months despite positive box office and reviews in Europe. Many thought it was because distributors were worried it might offend Christians. In addition, two upcoming Greek-myth-drenched films “Clash of the Titans” and “Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief” may make 2010 the year of pop-polytheism.

2009, however, seems to be the year of rampant Hollywood pantheism according to the various conservative critics who saw the blockbuster “Avatar”.

“So I guess the conservative intelligentsia has spoken (David Brooks must not have gotten the memo). Pantheism is bad, Hollywood is bad, Americans are foolish eclectic-syncretic Eckhart Tolle-reading dupes who love pantheism, and we (and our souls) are all in big (I assume) trouble. Of course this reading of Hollywood’s output is a tad skewed, and relies on a rather scatter-shot selection of films (“Dances With Wolves”, Disney’s “Pocahontas” and “The Lion King”, “Star Wars”, and, well, “Fern Gully”, I guess) to convince us that pantheism is the with-it thing in Hollywood and beyond. But it just doesn’t seem to line up as well as they seem to think it does.”

I can only imagine that my 2010 round-up will be even more full of surprises, disappointments, and opportunities than 2009. Oh, and speaking of pagan-ish pop-culture in 2009, some guy named Dan Brown released a book about Masons, it also made some conservatives unhappy.

06. Equal Treatment at Work and School, and the Litigation that Follows: This year has seen a lot of high-profile cases of discrimination (and alleged discrimination) of Pagans in the news. You had the Witch who was fired from the University of Nebraska receive a settlement, the Bath & Body Works manager who was fired for making a pilgrimage to Salem, and a Pagan employee of Google who claims he was mocked and fired for his faith. In addition to those cases, you had the school child who was accused of threatening demon possession, though the parent was not allowed to examine the evidence.

“Denise DeSadier was not allowed to read the accusations made against her son that got him suspended, and their veracity was seemingly never questioned by the principle (who assured a reporter from the local college paper that the matter was investigated fully) . Further, Shaun was forced to undergo an evaluation of his mental stability before being allowed to return to class, and this incident was placed in his permanent record, marking him as some sort of potential safety risk. Short of pursuing a lawsuit against the school, or dropping out altogether, there is no recourse for these accusations that have marred Shaun’s record.  Wishing only to finish high-school and move on to college, Shaun has jumped through the necessary hoops, and wants to move on with his life.”

In our search for equal treatment, in our slow integration into the mainstream, there will be those who want to destroy lives simply for being different. Who will use our litigation victories as a pretext to fan the populist flames to further their own careers. But I think these cases, disturbing as some of them are, are a sign of progress. That they highlight just how far we’ve come, a place where the ACLU readily fights for us, where our standing as “real religions” are usually taken as a given. We’ll no doubt see more cases like this in 2010, but I also think we’ll see fewer than 2009, and we’ll see even more victories establishing our equal protection and equal treatment under the law. These cases are big news, but I think we’ll see a day where they are truly rare.

Tomorrow I will post the top five Pagan stories for 2009. In the meantime, I invite you to check out the top religion stories from some different perspectives. Here are the Religion Newswriters Association’s picks, the top 10 from Time, the top 10 from The Telegraph, US News and World Report, and the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Freedom.

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

Donna “Darkwolf” Vos will be meeting the South African Air Force in court over claims that they unfairly dismissed her from chaplaincy work due to her religion.

“I applied (for the SAAF job), got it and worked for two weeks. My focus was to be on HIV and Aids, the problem of Satanism among the youth, and drugs and sex among the youth,” Vos said. She was due to undergo training in military routines in Pretoria, but was first called to a meeting with the official, a colonel. “I was told the meeting with this guy was a formality.” He was initially impressed by her qualifications, Vos said. But the conversation soured when she told him she was a pagan. “He was quite taken aback…I gave him a copy of my book (a guide to paganism in a South African context) and he said, ‘We can’t unleash you on 8 000 men’.” The colonel stopped their interview, Vos said, and promised to contact her within two weeks. But instead of phoning her, she said he sent her an e-mail in which he described paganism as ‘a cult’.”

Vos is hoping her complaint will force the South African military to change their “unconstitutional religious policies”, making it safe for Pagans in the military to be open about their faith. However, one strange twist in the case is that it happened in 2003, she didn’t file her complaint until 2006, and then “left the matter dormant” until 2008 according to the Bellville Equality Court. In fact, the current trial is to see if the Equality Court even has jurisdiction to hear this case, so it remains to be seen if things progress in Vos’s favor.

Art critic Jonathan Jones wonders if today’s spandex-wearing superheroes are equivalent to the gods and heroes of ancient myth.

“Is there any difference between the modern pantheon of superheroes and the myths of the Greeks or the Vikings? The sheer richness and resonance we find in these fabulous beings – the darkness of Batman, the sensitivity of Spiderman, the purity of Superman – resembles the richness of interpretation and portrayal that has made the Greek myths survive into modern times … The point is, these modern myths do resemble true myths – they have taken on the endurance of the great legends, they rival Robin Hood and King Arthur. What does this say about modern culture? Probably that it is far more in touch with its ancient, primal roots that either fans or detractors of modernity tend to admit.”

The “superheroes = gods of ancient myth” meme isn’t a new one. Artists and writers have been mining this territory for some time now. It is an idea that first gestated in the mind of Kirby and subsequently explored by modern comic-writers like Morrison and Moore. The question now is what does that mean? Should we approach these pop-culture figures as distinct entities of power, or see them as the result of a natural polytheism denied? Perhaps both?

To reiterate something I have said before: Witchcraft isn’t a warning sign! Sadly, a glowing piece on Florida’s early-intervention youth centers uncritically peddles the “alternative religion as mental health warning sign” meme.

“The Cookseys’ relationship with Amanda had deteriorated in the two years since they had adopted her at 15. (Her birth mother, already struggling, sustained a brain injury and could not provide adequate care.) The girl was defiant, lying and even dabbling in witchcraft, Ms. Cooksey said. After their fight in February, Amanda ran back to her biological mother’s house. The policeman who picked her up said he could take her home to the Cookseys or to the Capital City shelter.”

This is dangerous. Involvement in Wicca, Paganism, or some other non-Christian faith, shouldn’t be a check-box on some list of bad behavior. For someone who is truly troubled, clinging to Witchcraft or Paganism might be the only empowering thing in an otherwise unmoored life. For older foster kids, their religious individuality could be quashed or seen as illness/bad behavior if they are placed with a Christian household (and the chances of that are quite high). Will we end up with social services that promise stability for troubled youth only so long as they toe a certain religious line?

It looks like the Rev. Rapid Cabot Freeman’s fifteen minutes haven’t quite run out yet. The local Norwich Bulletin seems quite intent on following Freeman after his discrimination claims were marred by his being arrested for harassment.

“Rusty Freeman, also known as the Rev. Rapid Cabot Freeman and the “Witch of Baltic,” entered a not guilty plea Wednesday to a second-degree harassment charge in Norwich Superior Court. Freemen, a Wiccan who hosts a public access show, gained attention recently when he accused the town of Sprague of religious discrimination when he was denied use of a public building to hold a witchcraft demonstration on Halloween. Town officials said they rejected the request based on procedural problems. His arrest by Norwich police was based on allegations that he made repeated unwanted calls to a Norwich woman this summer, according to an arrest warrant affidavit in the case. Freeman told police he was trying to contact the woman to attend his divorce proceedings.”

The drama continues in court on December 31st, bring popcorn.

In a final note, Asatru in Iceland celebrated their country’s sovereignty on Monday by honoring the land’s protective spirits.

“Members of AsatrUarfelagid, a religious association which honors the old Norse gods, celebrated Iceland’s Sovereignty Day on Monday by honoring the country’s protective spirits, the landvaettir as described in Snorri Sturluson’s Heimskringla. According to Heimskringla, the landvaettir thwart a sorcerer disguised as a whale from swimming ashore and thus prevent him from spying on the Icelandic people for the Danish king. During the ceremony, high chieftain of AsatrUarfelagid Hilmar Orn Hilmarsson said these guardian spirits are still protecting the Icelandic country and nation…”

The ceremony took place in five ritually significant points in the country, one of which burned a picture Prime Minister Geir H. Haarde. The story doesn’t say if this was a measure of protection, or one of antagonism against the politician. Considering the recent fiscal woes there, I can’t think it’s a good sign.

That is all I have for now, have a great day!

A brief look at happenings in the world of film, television, comics, and novels.

Well, the first episode of the BBC’s new series “Merlin” premiered yesterday, what did the critics think? I think it’s safe to say that Mark Pickavance at Den of Geek hated it.

“…it’s all over the place. One minute it’s legend, then slapstick, then panto, then drama, horror and then mystery – they missed out the science fiction and western genres, but we’ve another 12 episodes of this for that to be rectified.”

Meanwhile, TV Scoop was far more kind.

“…for those of us who were holding our breath and hoping against hope that Auntie’s latest Saturday night blockbuster series wouldn’t be another turkey like Robin Hood, or, worse, another Bonekickers, that bated breath was released in a rousing cheer of appreciation. This time, they’ve really pulled it off.”

It seems the more you’re expecting historical realism or accuracy, the more you’re going to be disappointed. Something to keep in mind when it debuts this Winter in America.

Speaking of Brits who practice magic, the Los Angeles Times interviews Alan Moore, author of “League of Extraordinary Gentlemen”, “Promethea”, “V For Vendetta”, and “From Hell” about his upcoming projects and his opinion about the currently-in-litigation film adaptation of his critically acclaimed work “Watchmen”.

“Moore has no intention of seeing the film and, in fact, he hints that he has put a magical curse on the entire endeavor. “Will the film even be coming out? There are these legal problems now, which I find wonderfully ironic. Perhaps it’s been cursed from afar, from England. And I can tell you that I will also be spitting venom all over it for months to come.” Moore said all that with more mischievous glee than true malice…”

In addition to cursing Hollywood (a regular pastime for Moore) he also plugs a recent documentary made about him entitled “The Mindscape of Alan Moore”, and his upcoming book of magical instruction and history entitled “The Moon & Serpent Bumper Book Of Magic”.

While I’m on the subject of Hollywood ruining good stories, Neil Labute thinks his atrocious and wrong-headed remake of the cult-classic “The Wicker Man” is misunderstood.

“The director thought he was taking his personal battle-of-the-sexes theme to its logical extreme by presenting “the uber male nightmare of ‘Here’s an island of women, and this is what happens when they rule the world.’” But many folks couldn’t get past Nicolas Cage in a bear suit. “I’d been very used to polarizing people, and there would be as many benefactors as detractors, but people sort of got together on that one and said, ‘You know what? I think we’re all in agreement. We just don’t care for this,’” LaBute reflected matter-of-factly.”

He thinks the film, like the original, was simply marketed wrong. With that I can only agree, Labute’s remake should have been marketed as a comedy. In a separate interview, Labute actually disses the original Wicker Man, proving he just didn’t “get it”.

“I love this movie, love the ending, but it’s not that well made. The songs are goofy. I can do something else with this.”

Well, he certainly did “something else” with it.

In a final, not-really-pop-culture note, go check out the saga of an angry Wiccan taking down a scam money-for-spells online site. This one has it all, multiple identities, drama, intrigue, and pro-anorexia ties!

“FastSpells.com is a scam website that claims they will cast Magick on your behalf for various sums of money. They claim to be able to find you love, give you an abortion, cure your cancer, grant you immortality, and change you sex organs. No, I’m not kidding about any of those.”

Make sure you read the comments, here. It looks like his expose has resulted in the offending sites being taken down by the scam-artists.

That is all I have for now, have a great day!

As we reach the close of 2007, it is time to stop for a moment and take stock of the previous year. When you look at (and for) news stories regarding modern Paganism (and related topics) every day of the year, you can sometimes lose focus on the larger picture. So it can be a helpful thing to look at the broad strokes, the bigger themes, the events and developments that will have lasting impact on the modern Pagan movement. What follows are my picks for the top ten stories from this past year involving or affecting modern Pagans.

10. Important passages within the Pagan and occult communities: 2007 saw the passing of some highly influential and respected members of our extended community, the most notable being the visionary philosopher, author, and mystic, Robert Anton Wilson.

Robert Anton Wilson

Wilson is perhaps best-known for his work on “The Illuminatus! Trilogy” with co-author Robert Shea. The books incorporated elements of Discordianism, conspiracy theory, magick, and various 60s counterculture references to create a “fairytale for paranoids”. Since then Wilson published several books exploring philosophy, science, and religion. Most notably his “Cosmic Trigger” series. But RAW was hardly the only notable passing in 2007, we also saw key Goddess spirituality movement figure Shekhinah Mountainwater (author of “Ariadne’s Thread: A Workbook of Goddess Magic”) cross the veil after a long struggle with cancer, and Tim Sebastion, chief of the Secular Order of Druids, who died after a long illness.

Other notable passages include artist Lady Jaye Breyer P-Orridge (partner to Genesis Breyer P-Orridge, and member of Psychic TV), influential Salem Witch and event organizer Shawn Poirier, and Starwood organizer, musician, and SubGenius, Chas Smith.

09. Witch School in the News: This past year saw quite a lot of coverage for the (in)famous Internet-based Witch School. The year began with news that the SCI FI Channel was planning a reality television series set in the school’s campus (then located in Hoopeston, IL), but this development seemed to fall apart when Ed Hubbard announced he was selling the school through E-Bay.

“Imagine, if you could buy Harry Potter’s Hogwarts? Well, the world’s first and largest public school of Wiccan and Witches has become available for sale. Starting Tuesday, April 10th, WitchSchool.com will be auctioned off to the highest bidder during an eBay Auction. If you ever wanted to have your very own cyber school of magick and witchcraft, this is the auction for you. So you can own and run your very own Academy for Magick and Witchcraft. If you would love to become the next Dumbledore, this is your chance to do so.”

After a flurry of controversy, mixed-signals, and announcements concerning them leaving their physical campus in Hoopeston (due to the alleged unfriendliness of the town) Witch School was sold to a coalition of buyers from the Correllian Nativist Tradition with Don Lewis at the head. I thought that would be the last we head from the school in 2007, but Witch School ended up gaining national press attention after the tiny troubled town of Rossville, IL went on the offensive following the school’s relocation there. While tensions have since eased up, it was certainly a PR coup for the Internet business. It remains to be seen if Witch School will manage to gain the publics attention in 2008, or if they will return to relative obscurity sans tales of persecution. But they certainly made a mark on Pagan-related news in 2007.

08. “Bunky” the Multi-Millionaire: The media became positively entranced when Wiccan Ellwood “Bunky” Bartlett won over 30 million dollars in the Maryland State Lottery “Mega Millions” drawing. This encouraged witty bon mots like “Dude, talk about blessed be” and “Christians who pray for lucky lottery tickets but never win might consider switching over to Wicca.” Of course the press soon wanted to know how he was going to spend his newly-won loot, and Bunky announced that he plans to build a Pagan-run seminary. While there have certainly been rich or well-off Pagans before (though they are most-often “in the broom closet”), Bartlett is the first to gain a high-profile, and will certainly continue to gain press attention if (or when) he starts spending that money to benefit his religion.

07. Pagans in Prison (and the books they can read): Incarcerated Pagans and Heathens made the news in increasingly large numbers this past year. I personally blogged eight such stories, and I know for a fact that more occurred that I never got a chance to report on. Virtually all the claims regarded the issue of religious free exercise and what materials a Pagan prisoner should/would be allowed. But while those legal struggles mainly happened on the journalistic sidelines, Pagans, prisons, and their religious rights hit center stage when the Federal Bureau of Prisons enacted a controversial new policy that purged every religious book in Federal Prison libraries that wasn’t on a then-secret list (in order to inhibit “extremism”).

“Government does have a legitimate interest to screen out things that tend to incite violence in prisons,” Mr. [Douglas] Laycock [professor of law at the University of Michigan Law School] said. “But once they say, ‘We’re going to pick 150 good books for your religion, and that’s all you get,’ the criteria has become more than just inciting violence. They’re picking out what is accessible religious teaching for prisoners, and the government can’t do that without a compelling justification. Here the justification is, the government is too busy to look at all the books, so they’re going to make their own preferred list to save a little time, a little money.”

Massive controversy ensued amongst religious groups both liberal and conservative, which only intensified when the amazingly flawed lists leaked to the public. The BOP soon reversed their actions and restored the pulled books, but the policy has only been postponed, and come early 2008 we could be faced yet again with the majority of books for (Federal) Pagan prisoners being pulled, and an approved list made by unnamed “experts” put in its place. So expect the rights of Pagan prisoners to continue to make the news in 2008.

06. Paganism (Ancient and Modern) Continues to Influence Pop-Culture: Pagan and occult themes continued to make headway into popular culture in 2008. The television series “Rome” (which had one of the most accurate portrayals of Roman polytheism to date) aired its second (and final) season, the masterful adult fairytale “Pan’s Labyrinth” took home three Academy Awards, while films like “300″, and “Beowulf” looked to a pre-Christian era to find its heroes (while a certain Pirate franchise invoked a goddess to help wrap up their story). 2007 also saw the release of documentaries concerning notorious occultist Aleister Crowley, and cultural appropriation within New Age communities, and a new-found emphasis on occult and supernatural themes in television.

“The prevalence of supernatural plots ‘is reflective of increasing anxiety – personal, economic and national’ that pervades the American mood, said Mr. Rash, who was in New York last week to attend the networks’ presentations … Most of the coming new shows ‘are playing to viewers’ desire to be in fantasyland,’ said Shari Anne Brill, senior vice president and director of programming at Carat USA in New York, part of the Carat division of the Aegis Group, adding, ‘The real world has become such a horrendous place that people are looking for magic to avoid the tragic.’”

Pagans continued to make appearances on reality television, and exploitive daytime talk-shows, while a film full of Scottish myths and folktales (shot entirely in Gaelic) gained rave critical reviews. In addition, production news surfaced about a feature film concerning Aleister Crowley, a re-envisioning of the classic cult-film “The Wicker Man”, and a possible television show starring Greek gods. Meanwhile, Walden Media learned that if you cut the pagan elements out of a classic story, the movie will flop.

This has been a great year for Pagan-themed music, from Wyrd-folk compilations to Bjork and Tori Amos. Loads of great Pagan and occult books came out this year as well. Oh, and the last Harry Potter book came out, but didn’t you hear it was all a Christian allegory? But in any case, popular culture continues to become increasingly Pagan-friendly, and I don’t see the trend slowing down any time soon.

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Tomorrow I will post the top five Pagan stories for 2007. In the meantime, I invite you to check out the top religion stories from some different perspectives. Time magazine’s top ten religion stories, the 2007 Top Religion Stories as selected by Religion Newswriters, the Barna group’s four “mega-themes” from their 2007 research, Christianity Today’s top stories of 2007, and Terry Mattingly gives us his vote for 2007’s top religious story.

Religious blogger and academic John Morehead has recently posted two interviews of interest to the larger Pagan community. The first is at his Theofantastique blog where he interviews Pagan author, academic, and movie critic Peg Aloi concerning Pagan and occult themes in film, and her forthcoming book (co-authored with Hannah Johnston) “The Celluloid Bough: Cinema in the Wake of the Occult Revival”.

“…the first example of occult cinema that had widespread and culture-changing impact was Roman Polanski’s 1968 film Rosemary’s Baby. In addition to its being a very artful and entertaining film, based on an equally artful novel by Ira Levin, there were some real-life occurrences that added to its aura of evil, and fueled a widespread spirit of protest against all things occult, even as the film ushered in a palpable fascination with the occult.”

Then back at his primary blog, Morehead’s Musings, he interviews Aloi’s collaborator and writing partner Hannah Johnston, Adjunct Professor in Visual and Media Arts at Emerson College, concerning teen Witches and a recently released collection of essays on the subject (co-edited with Peg Aloi) entitled “The New Generation Witches: Teenage Witchcraft in Contemporary Culture”.

“…having become aware of the distinctions between teenage Witchcraft and the adult Pagan/Wiccan/Witchcraft communities at the end of the 1990s, I was struck by the emergence of teen Witchcraft as a distinctive articulation of popular culture post-feminism, and I went on to pursue my doctorate in the field, investigating teen Witchcraft as an amalgamation of new religious structures, pop media poaching from alternative beliefs and new age practices and new feminist concepts of ‘girl power’.”

Both interviews (and books) are worth the effort to read. It is often the case that pop-culture and youth-oriented permutations of a religious movement are devalued by “insiders” and older demographics who see these representations and recent adherents as lacking in seriousness or real worth. But how we are displayed in popular media, and how the next generation of modern Pagans adapt and changes with the times are truly important topics that I’m glad writers like Aloi and Johnston are covering.

Is modern Paganism becoming more mainstream, yet shrinking in size? That seems to be the gist of two recent articles that talked to practitioners and academics about the state of modern Paganism today. Reuters reporter Sarah Marsh interviews famed Alexandrian priestess Maxine Sanders, who explains that Witches and Pagans are more in demand than ever before.

“‘Witches are getting more and more in demand. People want a pagan wedding,’ said Maxine Sanders, high priestess of the sacred mysteries and a promoter of the modern nature-based witchcraft movement of Wicca … People are more tolerant on the whole nowadays, she added, and more interested in witchcraft.”

Elsewhere in the article, pop-culture boosts to Wicca and other modern Pagan religions through shows like “Buffy” and “Charmed” are mentioned, but a metaphysical store owner says these newcomers aren’t necessarily in it for the religion.

“More and more people are practicing magic but they are not necessarily interested in the spiritual side of witchcraft, said John Cole, high priest of a Manchester coven and owner of an occult shop selling everything from cauldrons to Viking rune charms.”

Some of these themes are taken up in a Samhain-themed article for The Record in Canada. Mirko Petricevic interviews academic Douglas Cowan, author of “Cyberhenge: Modern Pagans on the Internet”, who also credits pop-culture for a sudden burst of growth, yet now thinks modern Paganism is entering a “shrinking” phase as that initial surge of interest wears off.

“Cowan says he hasn’t had to go far to track the popularity of Paganism. But he has also observed that participation seems to be declining. Not long ago, he says, books about Wicca and witchcraft occupied huge amounts of shelf space at book stores. “Over the years I watched that shrink” … Cowan suspects the next census or two will show a dramatic drop in the number of Pagans. He says he believes Paganism will grow, but that it will build slowly from the same core group of believers who were practising before interest in Paganism was driven by pop-culture.”

While I agree that we may be tapering off of the explosive growth modern Paganism saw in the 1990s, there seems to be no clear picture on if we are shrinking (call it the hypothetical “pop-culture corrective”). Book-buying as proof of growth rates is a pretty shaky indicator, especially if the market was over-saturated for many years (as I believe it was). There will always be transient dabblers and seekers who don’t stay long, but the demographics of possible new Pagans keep improving, perhaps mitigating any dramatic “shrink” in population. No doubt harder data will emerge when both Britain and Australia hold their next censuses in 2011. Until then, while I agree we are becoming ever more “mainstream”, I’m not sure we are experiencing any dramatic downturn.

The National Post in Canada has an interesting article posted concerning the rise of interest in academic study of pop-culture and the role of religion within it.

“Prof. James, who has taught at the prestigious Ontario university for the past three decades, is one of dozens of scholars who will be bridging the vast academic divides between high-brow, low-brow and near-satirical esoterica at this year’s conference, which is being held as part of the annual Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences in Saskatoon. At this summit where Almighty notions will be poked, prodded and deconstructed, religion scholars will deliver presentations on topics as varied as ‘Women’s Hair Donation in Japanese Pure Land Buddhism,’ ‘Durkheim Goes Mainstream: Durkheimian Shadows within Popular Feminism and Media Representation of Sisterhood,’ and ‘Monotheistic Monsters and the Power of Polytheism in Battlestar Galactica.’”

Why this rise of interest in the deeper meanings within pop-culture? The piece asserts that the post-9/11 rise of two cultural flash-points (from two different religious/political positions) has fueled this interest.

“…the events that followed 9/11, the controversy surrounding the bestselling novel The Da Vinci Code and the flap over Mel Gibson movie Passion of the Christ – and the growth of the pursuit of spirituality – all have contributed to a boomlet of student curiosity in their field of expertise.”

Also feeding this trend has been the rise of the Harry Potter witch-hunts, and the popularity of celebrity atheist authors like Richard Dawkins. While all coming from different places they have all helped insert religious and philosophical meaning into our popular culture. Scholars are particularly interested in how themes and trends within popular culture affect how we act.

“The image of scholars searching for allegorical meaning in mainstream movies or popular paperbacks might seem farfetched, but as God scholars point out, holier-than-thou attitudes in religious departments have taken a democratic twist over the past couple of decades. They now focus less on what the masses are thinking – the philosophy or theoretical approach – and concentrate more on what they are actually doing: the sociology of their religion.”

Personally, I have always taken the position that pop-culture is important, especially for adherents to minority faiths like ours. Movies like “The Da Vinci Code”, television shows like “Battlestar Galactica”, comic books like “Phonogram”, and even Summer blockbusters starring certain pirates, all help clear a path towards mainstream acceptance and understanding. It isn’t so much evangelism (despite the hysterics of some Christian groups), as it is a subtle form of apologetics for outsider views.

This is why I liberally mix “hard” news in with posts about movies, books, and television shows. Because they can be a bellwether for our future, and can prepare us in a way other media cannot. In today’s society, what we watch when we are having fun can be almost as important as what we publicly claim to believe.