Arizona RESPECT act fails but inspires Mississippi

Legislation targeting The Satanic Temple by banning Satanic memorials, statues, altars, and displays fails after initial committee approval. However, the legislation has inspired a a similar bill in Mississippi with even a stronger Christian-centric language.

Pagan Community Notes: Week of February 8, 2024

In this week’s Pagan Community Notes: Arizona Government Committee voting on the Reject Escalating Satanism by Preserving Essential Core Traditions (RESPECT) Act, House of Black Cat Magic shares first episode, festivals updates and events.

Unleash the Hounds! (link roundup)

There are lots of articles and essays of interest to modern Pagans and Heathens out there, more than our team can write about in depth in any given week. Therefore, the Wild Hunt must unleash the hounds in order to round them all up. 

Now that September has arrived, it won’t be long before the mainstream media increase their interest in exploring modern Witchcraft practice. A television news outlet in New York state got a jump on the rest sharing a story titled “Speak No Evil: Witchcraft’s popularity on the rise in Hudson Valley.” As noted on the site, journalist Tara Rosenblum  spent “four months exploring and gaining access to a mysterious, secretive world that most people don’t even know exist: a thriving underground community of witches.” The video opens with haunting, fast paced music over four Witches wearing dark hooded robes and standing with an outstretched arm by an altar.

Unleash the Hounds (link roundup)

There are lots of articles and essays of interest to modern Pagans and Heathens out there, more than our team can write about in depth in any given week. Therefore, The Wild Hunt must unleash the hounds in order to round them all up. 

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Just one day after PantheaCon closed its doors the 2017 conference, the city in which its hosted was devastated by unexpected and historic flooding. The L.A. Times called it “the worst flooding to hit Silicon Valley in a century.” In the weeks prior to PantheaCon, the area was hit with heavy rains, eventually causing the local reservoir to overflow and sending excess water into a creek that runs through the city.

Pagan Community Notes: Phoenix Goddess Temple, Ray Buckland, Doreen Valiente Play

As we reported in February, the trial had begun in the Phoenix Goddess Temple prostitution case. At the time, temple leader Tracy Elise told The Wild Hunt that she believed that she would be found innocent because she was “confident that the jurors recognize that the Phoenix Goddess Temple was never the brothel that prosecutors claimed.” However, on Mar 2, the jury disagreed and handed down a guilty verdict on all 22 counts. Among those charges were the “conspiracy to commit illegal enterprise, illegal control of an enterprise, operating or maintaining a house of prostitution, multiple counts of money laundering and multiple counts of pandering.” During the trial, Elise maintained that the temple was not a house of prostitution but a space offering spiritual services.