Pagan Community Notes: Sockeye Wildfire, Christopher Blackwell, Charleston and more

On Sunday, June 13, a wildfire exploded in Willow, Alaska, about 80 miles north of Anchorage. According to reports, the wildfire went from covering 2 acres to 6,500 acres within a matter of hours. Gov. Bill Walker has declared the region a “disaster area,” with an estimated 1700 people displaced from their now-destroyed homes. Along with residents, firefighters have had to rescue hundreds of sled dogs, as wells as goats, sheep, horses and many other local animals. Making its home in Willow and now nestled within that devastated region is the Alaska Pagan Community Center (PCC). Fondly called “The Land,” the PCC is a “non-profit Nature Sanctuary and Earth Retreat Center … where people can come out to … celebrate the changing of the seasons and create a relationship with others and the earth that sustains us.” It was purchased just over 5 years ago and has served the local Pagan community ever since.

Pagan Community Notes: Museum of Witchcraft, ACTION Polytheist Issue, Sharon Knight’s Portals and more

The Museum of Witchcraft, located in Boscastle, Cornwall, will be undergoing major renovations over the next two months. These changes will include a complete overhaul of the shop and entrance way. Director Simon Costin said the first two galleries will also be “radically altered to allow for new material.” Part of the gallery expansion will be the installation of old Victorian cabinets donated by the Museum of Zoology in Cambridge. In addition to those renovations, the Museum will also have a new temporary exhibition space.

An Interview with Christopher Blackwell

Since 2004, the Alternative Religions Education Network (AREN) has produced a regular seasonal newsletter called ACTION. For 6 of those years, the pages of the newsletter have been filled with interviews with Pagans, Heathens and Polytheists from around the world. To date, the newsletter has published around 560 interviews that catalog, record and share the memories, practices and work of a huge diversity of people. Since the beginning, one man has been behind the newsletter from the writing of articles in the early days to producing the detailed interviews that we see today. That man is Christopher Blackwell.