• Reminder: We are in the midst of our first annual Winter Pledge Drive! If you value this blog, its mission, and its content, please consider making a donation to keep The Wild Hunt open, ad-free, and updated daily. Spread the word, and thanks to all who have donated so far!

Even though the American Family Association stumbled from the gate in the kick-off to this year’s skirmishes over religious language and iconography during the Winter holidays (aka “The War on Christmas”), that doesn’t mean other groups haven’t been cowed. Instead it looks like were going to be seeing a rather holy protest at the steps of the United States Supreme Court as Faith and Action and the Christian Defense Coalition stage a live Nativity scene.

“Rev. Rob Schenck, President of Faith and Action, states, “The traditional creche, portraying Mary, Joseph and the Christ Child, along with the angels, shepherds and Wise Men, remind us all of what Christmas is all about. “We like to refer to this effort as keeping Christ Mass in the nation’s Capitol.” Rev. Patrick J. Mahoney, Director of the Christian Defense Coalition, adds, “Sadly, we are seeing an erosion and hostility toward public expressions of faith in the public square.   This is especially true during the Christmas Season. “The Nativity Project and Operation Nativity are reminders that our Constitution provides freedom ‘of’ religion not freedom ‘from’ religion…”

Ah, the old “freedom of” not “freedom from” argument, too bad that commitment to freedom is a mile wide and only an inch deep. As the Green Bay Wisconsin Nativity battle proved, once people actually start demanding real “freedom of”, which means the inclusion of all religions and philosophical points of view on public lands, things start to go a bit haywire for those crusaders for “religious freedom”.

So while the  “you aren’t saying Christmas” boycotts have lost their sizzle, the battle over Christmas religious displays in the public square is still heating up. There are already a couple cases that look like they’re headed for the courts, and it seems like only a matter of time before a Wiccan or atheist decides they want a Winter display next to a Nativity on public land somewhere. Then we’ll get to really test the “religious freedom” resolve of the groups currently dressing up like Joseph and Mary on the Supreme Court’s steps.

• Reminder: We are in the midst of our first annual Winter Pledge Drive! If you value this blog, its mission, and its content, please consider making a donation to keep The Wild Hunt open, ad-free, and updated daily. Spread the word, and thanks to all who have donated so far!

I have some other stories of note to share with you today, starting with the sad news that actor Edward Woodward, 79, passed away yesterday due to complications from pneumonia. Woodward is well-known to many Pagan film lovers as “Christian copper” Sgt. Howie from the original cult-classic 1973 film “The Wicker Man” (and better-known to most Americans as the lead in the 1980s vigilante series “The Equalizer”).

Edward Woodward in “The Wicker Man”

At news of his passing, “Wicker Man” director Robin Hardy said that Woodward was “one of the greatest actors of his generation”, while co-star Sir Christopher Lee called him “a good friend and a splendid actor”. Matt Holmes at “Obsessed With Film” says that Woodward (as Sgt. Howie) committed the most memorable “gut-wrenching” on-screen death ever, while Pagan film reviewer Peg Aloi offers a touching farewell.

“Woodward is remembered by many of his colleagues as a kind, warm man who told wonderful stories, as well as being a consummate actor. His distinguished career will long be remembered. In particular, his role as Sergeant Howie in The Wicker Man will be remembered for its complexity, subtlety and power. Howie is a repressive, seemingly cold-mannered police officer who eventually reveals stunning emotional depth and passion. Woodward’s portrayal unfolds with delicious tension and suspense, as the film builds to its shocking ending.”

Here’s to you Mr. Woodward, thank you for your work, may you find peace across the veil.

Turning from the sad news of this passing, to the optimistic idea of deeper understanding and communication between faiths, we have an interesting editorial from the national Catholic weekly America. There, Catholic priest and Harvard professor Francis X. Clooney, S.J., who has argued in the past against “bland secularism” at Catholic colleges, favoring instead a “religiously diverse” campus, talks about his experiences teaching the class “Hindu Goddesses and the Blessed Virgin Mary”.

“The mix of the course is thus quite extraordinary: some wonderful Hindu and Christian texts read by a great group of students, as we discuss a wide range of issues about scripture, our images of God and humanity, and what to make of the varied religious experiences of the human race. Harvard is not the place wherein to reach single, definite conclusions about truth, but I think that this learning across religious boundaries does open us to truth, to Truth. By studying the traditions of the goddesses and Mary together, we understand both more clearly; those of us who are Catholic at Harvard find ourselves brought closer to devotion to Mary, who holds her own in every discussion. The goddesses too fare well, though each of us has to make up her or his own mind on how to appropriate these goddess traditions.”

Perhaps there’s room in this world for Mary and the goddesses? That seems to be at least partially the gist, he even recounts how a group of students sing hymns to both Mary and the goddesses before each class, and how both the Catholics and the goddess-worshipers have deepened their understanding and practice. To read more about Clooney’s work, you should read his essay “Interreligious Dialogue: Goddess in the Classroom”, and check out his book, “Divine Mother, Blessed Mother: Hindu Goddesses and the Virgin Mary”.

In a final “War on Christmas” note, it seems the American Family Assn. is issuing its yearly call to boycott The Gap for not saying “Christmas” even though the clothing chain’s silly wince-inducing holiday ad name-checks several yule-tide holidays, including “Christmas”, “Hanukka”, and “Solstice”.

“It’s unlikely the new Gap ads will placate the psalm-singers in Tupelo. After all, in the spirit of inclusiveness, Christmas is mentioned in the same breath as Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and solstice. The winter solstice, as everyone knows, is a pagan celebration, so — viewed through a peculiarly warped lens — the Gap ad puts Christians on the same level as a bunch of blue-paintedheathens dancing around a Yule log drinking mead out of a stag horn.”

The LA Times is dead-on the money, as the AFA has issued a boycott update saying the Christmas-invoking ad is “completely dismissive and disrespectful to those who celebrate the meaning and spirit of Christmas.” Yes, whatever happened to all those tasteful clothing-chain holiday ads that didn’t cheapen the holy Winter months by trying to sell you loads of stuff.

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

You know you’re in for a good time when a Christian editorial about Christmas starts off with a H.L. Mencken quote. Writer and budding parenting guru Tony Woodlief wants to give Pagans the greatest gift of all this holiday season, he wants to give us our winter holiday back.

“We succeeded in supplanting the pagan holiday, but we didn’t rid ourselves of the pagans. Instead, a good many of us joined in, gradually helping to associate Christmas with over-consumption, drunken revelry, and self-centered celebration. One can’t help but wonder if Christ would just as soon have us call what America now celebrates something else, something that doesn’t invoke his name. In this I find myself increasingly on the side of the grievance-minded and the anti-Christians—let’s publicly call this big event the “Happy Holidays,” or “Winter Festival,” or even “Saturnalia,” and stop—for the love of God—calling it Christmas.”

We here at The Wild Hunt fully support Woodlief’s proposition for Christians to fully surrender to a post-Christian inevitability. Here’s hoping his suggestion for all Christians to “quietly celebrate the birth of Christ in our churches and homes” reaches far and wide! Now that Pagans have retaken Halloween, and the tide is turning for the Winter holidays, could it be time for “the grievance-minded and the anti-Christians” to set their sights on Eas… I mean Eostre?

December brings many things: snow, cold weather, people acting horribly at shopping centers, and journalists seeking a new angle on holiday reporting. A favorite in recent years is to talk of the “pagan” origins of the Christmas holiday. These often come in the form of editorials rebutting the inane “War on Christmas” prattlings by Bill O’Reilly and his ilk. For example, Pete Langr of the Budgeteer News has this to say.

“It’s ironic that the effort to put Christ back in Christmas is both so profitable and so willing to focus on the Christmas tree and on the word “merry.” The Christmas tree itself “has nothing to do with other religious holidays celebrated in December” says my letter writer. Except that the Christmas tree was apparently co-opted by Christians from a pagan celebration in which evergreen boughs were hung in the home. In effect, the pagans lost an earlier culture war. Perhaps they bartered buttons saying ‘take back our winter solstice celebration.’”

And so on, and so forth. Some reporters have even tried to debunk the “Christmas traditions aren’t really Christian” debunkers.

“Despite popular belief, the idea of Christmas trees did not come from Pagan rituals. In fact, the first Christmas trees are believed to have originated in 17th century Germany. It took two centuries for the idea to catch on in the U.S.”

To bad the Bible somewhat refutes that notion.

“Jeremiah 10:2-4: “Thus saith the LORD, Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them. For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe. They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not.” (KJV).”

The New York Times has its own formula for many beloved Christmas traditions: pagans invented them, Christians appropriated them, Dickens (and 19th century England) synthesized, secularized, and popularized them, and the public embraced the entire culturally tangled mess whole-cloth.

“Standiford, the author of four other non­fiction books, tidily explains the appeal of “A Christmas Carol,” its readership “said at the turn of the 20th century to be second only to the Bible’s.” Replacing the slippery Holy Ghost with anthropomorphized spirits, the infant Christ with a crippled child whose salvation waits on man’s — not God’s — generosity, Dickens laid claim to a religious festival, handing it over to the gathering forces of secular humanism. If a single night’s crash course in man’s power to redress his mistakes and redeem his future without appealing to an invisible and silent deity could rehabilitate even so apparently lost a cause as Ebenezer Scrooge, imagine what it might do for the rest of us!”

So the answer to the “pagan origins” debate is that everyone’s right. A lot of “Christmas-y” stuff is pre-Christian in some form or another, but it is equally true to say that they have been fully absorbed into a Christian context. In turn, both the pagan and Christian contexts for hanging the holly and trimming the tree have morphed into a fully secular affair, complete with a popular mythology that is a mish-mash of pagan, Christian, and pop-culture elements. What the Christmas warriors don’t understand is that their war was lost long ago, and the majority of people who just wanted a reason to find hope, merriment, and camaraderie during the bleak midwinter won out.

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

It seems our troubled economy is sparing no-one. The International New Age Trade Show has canceled their East coast show for 2009 (the West coast show is proceeding normally), citing concerns over the “current worldwide economic situation”.

“In light of the current worldwide economic situation, we’ve decided to postpone the INATS East show until 2010. By waiting out these hard times, we feel we’ll be better able to provide the buyer attendance that is crucial to exhibitor success. It’s always our goal to provide the optimum situation for both buyers and exhibitors. With the holidays upon us and the predictions being made about retailer slow-downs, we feel it is in our exhibitors’ best interest to postpone at this time.”

So much for that “one decimal point”. Will Pagan festivals and conventions also see postponements, cancellations, and moves to smaller venues as the world tightens its collective belt? After all, it’s hard to buy trinkets and take time off work when you’re barely making ends meet. Thanks to Juliaki for tipping me off to this developing story.

We aren’t the only ones noticing that Republicans have lost the non-Christian vote.

“For Republicans, the news only gets worse. Not only is the country becoming less White Anglo, it’s becoming less rural, and perhaps even less religious. Meaning, in political terms, less Christian, specifically less Protestant. Most Catholics voted Democratic Tuesday. Jews and Muslims mostly voted for Obama. So did that still small but growing minority—mostly Asian-American—raised in the Buddhist or Hindu traditions. So, in all likelihood (the exit polls don’t get into these areas) did those who were raised as Christians but now consider themselves New Age, neo-pagan or simply indifferent. Every year, there are more of these folks, fewer of the stereotypical traditional American—the rural, white Protestant whose ancestors have been here for generations. Every year, the country gets more diverse, more metropolitan, more cosmopolitan, even a bit more secular. In the process, it gets less Republican.”

The strategy of doubling-down on conservative Christianity may have seemed like a great idea thirty years ago, but in an increasingly religiously pluralistic society it can cost you elections.

Speaking of the Obama victory, I’ve rounded up reactions from some notable Pagans, including Thorn Coyle, Starhawk, Deborah Oak, Hrafnkell, Cat Chapin-Bishop, Erynn Rowan Laurie, and Judith Laura. Meanwhile Pagan authors Oberon Zell-Ravenheart and Edain McCoy have sent out a call for spiritual protection for our 44th president.

“We have been made aware that a clear and present danger hangs over the head of Sen. Barrack Obama. Unfortunately, we still live a country where many are taught to hate and fear others based on nothing more than the hue of their skin. Our community mobilizes all the time to send healing and protection to others, and we hope you will join us in a multi-faith magickal effort to keep Barrack Obama–and his family–safe from harm as he transitions into the role of our President.”

They are asking for focused workings at Yule/Midwinter and on inauguration day. Also, while technically not a Pagan, I think Nobel-winner Wangari Maathai eloquently puts forth a prime concern among many Pagans looking towards the next four years.

“If there is one thing I would personally wish of Obama, it would be to fight for the environment. I would urge his administration to help Africa protect its forests and to adapt to the changing climate. We know that Africa will be very adversely affected. The post-Kyoto protocol negotiations are ongoing, and forests must be included as part of the solution. I hope America will support that.”

Here’s hoping that global warming and the environment is at the top of his priority list, for all our sakes.

Though the Halloween interview season is over, that hasn’t stopped New Jersey monthly from interviewing local Pagan shop owners and the editor of the forthcoming “Thorn” magazine.

“For those who want to explore paganism in relation to modern culture, Thorn Magazine, will make its debut this month. Editor Chip O’Brien said it’s the only one of its kind in the northeast. He hopes this Matawan-based publication and website will ‘illuminate the joys and complications of living ancient paths in the wired era.’”

Nice to see a reporter actually scour the state looking for Pagans to interview, though overall points have been deducted for not fact-checking claims that Wicca stems from “ancient Egyptians and Celtic lore”. Still, a generally decent overview of the Pagan business community in the state.

In a final note, it looks like all sorts of litigation of interest to modern Pagans will be in our future. South Carolina is going ahead with their controversial “I Believe” license plate design, Bill O’Reilly is gearing up to fight the Christmas Wars once again, and the city of Green Bay, Wisconsin, has decided to include religious displays after all.

“Yesterday’s Appleton (WI) Post-Crescent reports that the proposed policy that would have allowed only secular displays on government property has now been changed. By a vote of 8-4, Council added language stating that the U.S. Supreme Court has approved combined religious and nonreligious displays, and that city officials, at their discretion, may permit these as well as purely secular ones. Before final passage, Green Bay’s city attorney will study the new language.”

You can click here for a quick overview of the whole sordid religious mess caused by Green Bay’s mayor and city council because they want to place a plastic baby Jesus on their building (litigation is already pending). Also, keep an eye out for news of the the Supreme Court case Pleasant Grove City v. Summum, which will hear arguments on November 12th.

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

The Religion Clause blog reports that a case involving a controversial Nativity Scene erected on city property in Green Bay, Wisconsin this past December has been dismissed by the judge.

A brief moment of religious inclusiveness in Green Bay.

This ruling isn’t exactly a rousing victory for Mayor Jim Schmitt. While Green Bay won’t have to pay damages, this “Christmas Wars” showdown hasn’t endeared him to the local press, and even local clergy have told him to keep city hall secular.

“Mayor Jim Schmitt has met with clergy to get their ideas on a city policy. They agreed that the city should stick with secular decorations and leave the religious displays to area churches and synagogues.”

This case has displayed the worst impulses of politicians. Enacting policy in order to “take the fight to” organizations they disagree with, inviting religious diversity to cover their tracks, and then insulting a local Wiccan organization (Circle Sanctuary) by refusing to replace a holiday display that had been vandalized. It makes one wish that Green Bay’s mayor had the same good sense as Muskego’s.

“You have to be respectful of all religions and if you start putting one display up, you have to put up displays for everybody,” Muskego Mayor John Johnson said. “If you put up a Nativity scene and then a group asks you to put up a Hanukkah display or a display for the Muslim holiday, do you tell them no? You can’t.”

While the Freedom From Religion Foundation’s suit was dismissed, they, and the Green Bay residents who filed with them, really won the larger battle. It seems very likely that Mayor Jim Schmitt and the city council will take the advice of local clergy and keep things secular this year. Avoiding future games of litigious “chicken” for the sake of proving that Green Bay is more Christian than Madison. Let’s hope this case fizzling out will be a harbinger of the larger “War on Christmas” finally losing momentum among the punditocracy.

Opening oral arguments are supposed to begin tomorrow in a lawsuit over a nativity scene installed at the Green Bay city hall building, but the Freedom From Religion Foundation has filed a motion to delay after learning that Mayor Jim Schmitt is planning to present a new holiday display plan to the city council in October.

“Based on comments to the media by the Green Bay mayor indicating the city may adopt a policy to place only secular decorations at City Hall, the Freedom From Religion Foundation has asked the judge to delay oral arguments scheduled for Monday, Sept. 15, in its Green Bay nativity scene lawsuit.”

It seems that Schmitt has been meeting with local clergy, and they have been telling him to keep city hall secular.

“Mayor Jim Schmitt has met with clergy to get their ideas on a city policy. They agreed that the city should stick with secular decorations and leave the religious displays to area churches and synagogues.”

A peaceful (and secular) solution to this issue would most likely be in Schmitt’s best interests at this point. Local commentators seem to have lost patience for this “unseemly circus”.

“Remember this all started after the city of Peshtigo received a letter from the foundation protesting a nativity display in a public park, and then-council president Chad Fradette and other aldermen decided, in Fradette’s words, “So now the Freedom From Religion Foundation can pick on somebody a little larger than Peshtigo.” This reckless action — which had everything to do with picking a fight and precious little with the meaning of Christmas — reaches its logical conclusion Monday as oral arguments begin in the foundation’s lawsuit against the city.”

This “picked fight” between Green Bay and the Freedom From Religion Foundation sucked several minority religious groups, including Wiccans, into the fray, and resulted in some anti-Pagan vandalism.

“Someone who vandalized a Wiccan wreath atop City Hall early today fled the scene, but left a ladder behind. At 12:43 a.m., a Green Bay police officer was flagged down by a citizen who was driving by and reported seeing someone on a ladder at Green Bay City Hall, 100 N. Jefferson St., taking down a holiday decoration …”

Here’s hoping that a drawn-out court battle can be avoided, and the city sees the value in not favoring one form of religious expression over another.

Last winter’s saga concerning a Nativity display, the Green Bay City Council, and a vandalized Wiccan wreath is finally heading to court on September 15th.

“The Madison-based Freedom From Religion Foundation and the Liberty Counsel will face off next month in federal court over the nativity display installed at Green Bay City Hall last Christmas season. Oral arguments are to begin at 1:30 p.m. Sept. 15 before federal Judge William Griesbach at the federal court building, 125 S. Jefferson St., Green Bay. The Freedom From Religion Foundation and 14 area residents are suing the city of Green Bay, Mayor Jim Schmitt and former City Council President Chad Fradette over the display. With the suit, filed at the end of last year, the foundation seeks a court order forbidding the city from installing a religious display on public property, whatever further relief the court deems fair, and costs and attorney fees for the action.”

To briefly sum up the story, the Green Bay City Council decided to put up a Nativity display on top of the city hall building after the Madison-based Freedom From Religion Foundation threatened a smaller Wisconsin town to take their Nativity scene down (they did). In an attempt to protect themselves from litigation, Mayor Jim Schmitt announced that any religious group that wanted to place their own display next to the Nativity could do so. That’s where the Wiccans come in.

Green Bay employee installing a Wiccan wreath.

The Pentacle wreath was donated by Wisconsin-based Circle Sanctuary, but no sooner had the Pagan display gone up, when it was vandalized in the night. The wreath only sustained minor damage, but instead of replacing it, Mayor Jim Schmidt decided that only the Nativity could stay up (he also claimed he had no idea the wreath was donated by Pagan Witches), and no other religious displays would be allowed until they could “develop a set of guidelines”. Discussion of new guidelines wasn’t given a date, and the Nativity stayed up alone until December 26th. City Council President Chad Fradette was obviously spoiling for a legal showdown.

“After the vote, Fradette declared, “I’m trying to take this fight to the people who need to be fought. I’ll keep going on this until this group imposing Madison values crawls back into its hole and never crawls out.” Fradette also warned that he would reach out to the Alliance Defense Fund and the Liberty Counsel for legal assistance in helping him defend the display.”

Well the “Green Bay values” versus “Madison values” battle royal is finally here, with the Religious Right organization the Liberty Council representing the city of Green Bay. Will the case be dismissed? Will Green Bay be forced to keep it secular this Winter? Stay tuned for further developments. I may even decide to drive down from Milwaukee and see this clash of the titans for myself!

WIVB in New York reports that an anonymous caller to the Olean police department claims to be the man who ran over a holiday Pentacle display in early December.

“Police believe they’ve received a phone-call confession from the person who ran-over a holiday pentacle display in olean. This all started earlier this month in Olean. The city allowed people to put up religious symbols in front of city hall..but not long after someone erected a Wiccan pentacle sign.. Someone ran it over.”

The vandalized Pentacle display.

“Hello there, this is a tough call for me to make… We were in Olean shopping.. We had dinner.. We were on our way home.. my girlfriend said, hey, there’s the symbol that was on the news I wish someone would run it over I had a few beers in me.. and was showing off, so I backed into it. I am truly sorry it wasn’t a hate crime..just an off color prank.”

See? It isn’t a hate crime if you had a few beers in you and did it to impress your girlfriend. This “beer + girlfriend” defense seems to be winning over the local police, who say that they only plan to charge the man with misdemeanor charges of criminal mischief (if they catch him). No word on if further charges will be entertained (like drunk driving for instance). What do you think? Is this a hate crime or an “off color prank”, what punishment do you think the driver (and possibly the girlfriend) should receive?

[You can read part one of this entry, here.]

05. Discrimination, Harassment, Hate Crimes, and Firings: Last year one of my picks for a top story was “Growing animosity and tensions between Christians and Pagans”, and while this year didn’t appear to be quite as bad, there seemed to be plenty of animosity to go around. Christians extremists fought for the right to intimidate us, Witches were beaten and stabbed in Canada, a Pagan store-owner had a noose left on her doorstep, and the FBI reported that hate crimes towards religious minorities is on the rise.

“A couple things become immediately clear, one, that Christians (both Protestant and Catholic) experienced the fewest religiously-motivated hate crimes of any faith grouping (despite claims of widespread anti-Christian activity by some conservative Christians), and two, that a large number of religious hate crimes (coming in third behind Muslims and Jews) are towards faiths that check the “other” box in surveys. In fact, the number of incidents against “other religions” have risen since 2005, with 41 more victims of a religious-motivated hate crime in 2006.”

But it wasn’t just threats and physical attacks, this year saw quite a few firings that seemed to be motivated by an anti-Pagan bias. In some cases rumor-mongering seems to have replaced due process, and people who were a bit too odd being labeled as “Witches”.

“The same early December day a fellow substitute teacher asked if she was Wiccan, Harmon found herself in Principal Jamie (Rene) Tolbert’s office answering questions about her appearance and whether she had discussed religion with students.”

I wish I could say this particular story will diminish in 2008, but I think that as we continue to enter the mainstream, a certain minority of religious believers will do all in their power to shove us back into our “broom closets”.

04. Pagans in Politics: This year, more than any other I have witnessed, saw modern Pagans involved with, and affected by, our political process. This year saw the Chair of the Kennebec County Democratic Committee in Maine outed as a Pagan by a conservative Christian group, who then stalked her and attempted to incite vandalism against her. When that didn’t work they went after the vice-chair (who is also a Pagan). But you don’t have to be a Pagan to get smeared politically, you only have to associate with them. An Asheville City Council found herself the victim of an attack ad based around her participation in a “save the trees” event, and subsequently lost her bid.

However, one of the biggest political events directly involving a modern Pagan has to be the scandal involving a deputy of Stuart Bowen, the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction.

“[Ginger] Cruz, a former spokeswoman for the governor of Guam, originally joined SIGIR as a contractor working for the accounting firm Deloitte & Touche. Current and former SIGIR employees have told investigators that Cruz threatened to put hexes on employees and made inappropriate sexual remarks in the presence of staff members. Cruz is a self-described wiccan, a member of a polytheistic religion of modern witchcraft. “We warned Ginger not to talk about witchcraft, that it would scare people,” a former SIGIR employee said.”

In addition to these events, 2007 saw politics become ever-more Christian focused and identified. With non-Christian expressions of faith being shoved to the margins by Presidential candidates, and non-Christian prayer getting shouted down in our halls of government. With monotheist modes of belief becoming more blatant and forceful across the political spectrum, will there be a place for Pagans (or any religious outsiders) in the near future?

03. Salem’s Psychic Wars (plus other psychic legal developments): Divination and psychic services were all over the news in 2007. With many modern Pagans making a portion of their living from providing tarot readings or other divination methods, laws regulating, taxing, or outlawing these services can become a big issue (fiscally and religiously). Michigan recently started taxing psychic readers claiming it was a “high-income” service, a local Wiccan was successful in getting Caspar, Wyoming to remove its ordinance against fortune telling, Philadelphia used a previously unenforced state law to close down psychics, tarot readers, and other diviners in the city, and Livingston Parish in Louisiana passed a religiously-motivated ordinance against all forms of fortune-telling despite objections from local Pagans.

But the biggest story involving psychics, the law, and modern Pagans had to be the “psychic wars” in the “Witch City” of Salem, Massachusetts. With 10% of Salem’s population practicing Witches, and a large amount of Salem’s tourist income based on Halloween traffic, proposed licensing regulations on psychic readers became a heated debate between rival factions. A debate that took a criminal turn, when one couple decided to use intimidation tactics. A situation that gained national attention, and was even reported on in Time Magazine. The Salem story points to the growing cultural relevance of Pagan faiths (especially when big money is involved) in America. As regional Pagan populations grow, expect to see more conflicts (and cooperation) with local governments over divination services, religious freedom, and local laws.

02. Pagans in the Public Square: A late development this year, but an important one nonetheless, is the recent eruption in the “Christmas Wars” involving modern Pagans. Three separate cases involving public property, religious Nativity displays, and Wiccan participation, have placed modern Pagans on the forefront of the debate over the separation of Church of State, religious freedom, and pluralism. One case is heading for litigation, while another appears to be drawing out into the Spring. Expect these cases to loom large in 2008, and set the stage for next Winter’s battles.

01. The Veteran Pentacle Win, and Pagans in the Military: My top story for 2006 was the Veteran Pentacle Quest, and the biggest for 2007 is the successful win in getting the Pentacle symbol approved for Veteran headstones and markers. In addition, we saw Pagan groups forming coalitions in order to expand that recognition to other Pagan symbols, and an ongoing struggle to get a Pagan military chaplain approved. Aside from activism, we also saw stories about Pagans in the military, and how safe they are in an increasingly Christian military.

The legal and social struggles concerning Nativity displays and Pagan soldiers have some of the farthest-reaching implications for modern Pagans in America. Situations that have gained international attention, and in the case of the Veteran Pentacle Quest, President Bush. 2008 will very likely see even more important developments involving these stories.

That wraps up my top ten news stories about or affecting modern Paganism in 2007. Thanks for reading, and I hope you’ll join me for another year of sifting through the news and views of interest to our communities. See you in 2008!