Top Story: Circle Cemetery, located at Circle Sanctuary Nature Preserve, just north of Barneveld, Wisconsin, has become America’s first National Pagan natural burial ground and contemporary Green cemetery to be platted and recorded in Wisconsin.

Selena Fox at a memorial for Marion Weinstein.

“For its first fifteen years, Circle Cemetery took the form of an area on a ridge top where cremains were placed and Green funerals were conducted.  In 2005, Selena, along with her husband Dr. Dennis Carpenter, Circle Sanctuary church attorney Chip Brown and others in the Circle Sanctuary Community began the legal process of permitting body burials and expanding the size of the cemetery to 20 acres.  Circle Sanctuary minister Rev. Nora Cedarwind Young of Washington State assisted with Green cemetery platting research. In Spring of 2010, Selena, Dennis, and Chip took the expanded cemetery proposal before local government officials through a series of meetings.  Circle Cemetery zoning was approved by the Town of Brigham Zoning Committee on April 20, by the Brigham Town Board on May 4, and the Iowa County Zoning and Planning Committee on May 26.  On June 15, Circle Cemetery’s plat was approved by the Iowa County Board, and the following day the remaining official signatures were added to the plat and the plat was recorded, completing the process.”

While there are other Pagan sites that allow for cremains, this is the first Pagan-run cemetery in the United States that will also allow for full (non-cremated) body burials. Circle Cemetery currently  holds the cremains of seventeen Pagans. Celebrations for this development are planned at this year’s Pagan Spirit Gathering Summer Solstice festivities in Missouri and at the Solstice Full Moon evening at Circle Sanctuary Nature Preserve in Wisconsin.

If you are interested in supporting Circle Cemetery fiscally, you can donate here. For inquires relating to arrangements for cremains placement, body burials, and memorial markers, you can contact Selena Fox.

A Pagan Buddha Killer: The long-running religion e-zine Killing the Buddha features an essay by Eric Scott about growing up in a Pagan family, and gathering the children of his parent’s coven years later to celebrate Lughnasadh.

“We sat in the den of the house in the suburbs, chewing on scalloped potatoes and roast beef, and wondered what to do. We longed for the mystery we felt when we were young. We longed for the magic that turned TV rooms into temples. We longed to feel something again at the moment the scimitar carved the mystical from the mundane. We talked, and we frowned, and we decided that next year, we would take the festival of Lughnasadh.”

An excellent look at growing up Pagan in a Pagan family; I recommend reading the entire thing. Also worth checking out is his piece Hrafspa, which also appears at Patheos.com.

Andrew and the Archdruid: Andrew Sullivan at The Atlantic references a recent essay by John Michael Greer (Archdruid of the Ancient Order of Druids in America) that talks about peak oil (a favorite topic of Greer’s) and the revitalization movements that will emerge as the reality of peak oil sinks in.

“The optional features [of revitalization movements] range all over the map from the harmless to the horrific. A focus on purification, for example, is one common optional feature, but purification can mean a great many things. In the Native American revitalization movements of the twentieth century, for example, it usually meant abstaining from alcohol and other toxic products of white culture, and did a great deal to help First Nations communities begin to recover from the ghastly experiences of the previous century. In the European revitalization movements that sprang up in the wake of the Black Death, by contrast, it usually meant getting rid of Jews and other social outsiders who were blamed for spreading the plague, and helped lay the foundation for the witch hunting mania of the following centuries.

It seems uncomfortably likely to me that such movements could be set in motion by the emergence of peak oil as a publicly acknowledged crisis. Tendencies in that direction are already welded firmly in place in popular culture across the industrial world. The Sarah Palin supporters who turned “Drill, baby, drill” into their mantra du jour are engaging in incantation, to be sure, but there’s more to the slogan than a comfortable thoughtstopper; a great many of the people who mouth it believe with all their heart that all we have to do is drill enough wells and we can have all the petroleum we want, and they are willing to do whatever it takes to get those wells drilled. That plan of action can’t deliver the goods; they might as well be out there with the cargo cults, building mock airfields on isolated Pacific islands hoping to bring back the DC-3s full of K-rations and cheap trade goods that landed on a hundred archipelagoes during the Second World War. Still, that’s not something they are likely to grasp any time soon; mere reason has essentially no power against a nascent revitalization movement.”

In a follow-up essay, Greer discusses ritual and magical thinking within revitalization movements, and drives home the point that the time of brighter futures is rapidly drawing to a close (you may also want to look at his essay explaining why magic won’t solve our problems).

URI at 10: Don Frew at the Covenant of the Goddess (COG) Interfaith Reports blog discusses the United Religions Initiative, COG’s history of participation in the interfaith organization, and its upcoming tenth anniversary on June 26th. Frew makes a request for a the Pagan community to take part in a joint working of protection for the URI so that its work can continue.

“Every year, my coven celebrates Samhain.  Our ceremony usually includes a trance journey to the island of the Dead to speak with the ancestors.  I often encounter recently passed interfaith friends on the shore.  A few years ago, right after his death, I encountered Gary Smith [an NA/Oneida URI representative] on the shore.  He was intent upon impressing upon me that that the protective work we did at the founding of the URI wasn’t a one-time thing; that such work needed to be done on a regular basis, especially on the anniversary of the URI’s founding: June 26.

I have tried to live up to this, and have shared Gary’s message with those folks in interfaith who wouldn’t be too taken aback by messages from the dead about magical protection rituals.  On the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the URI’s founding, I feel moved to share Gary’s message with the wider Neopagan / Pagan / Indigenous community who might read this blog and invite you to share – in whatever way your path does so – in the magical / spiritual protection of the URI, that its work “to promote enduring interfaith cooperation, to end religiously motivated violence, and to create cultures of peace, justice, and healing for the Earth and all living beings” might continue to grow and prosper.  So mote it be!”

The United Religions Initiative is one of few modern interfaith organizations that had modern Pagans involved from the very start, and has done a lot to spread awareness of our faiths, and to build bridges with indigenous groups around the world. So protecting it for another ten years seems like an excellent idea. For information about the official 10th anniversary celebration in Amman, Jordan, click here.

Pagans on Godspeed: The Progressive Radio Network show Godspeed has had a run of Pagan guests recently. On 05/30 they interviewed Galina Krasskova, on 06/06 they interviewed Phyllis Curott, and this week they’ve interviewed Pagan scholar Sabina Magliocco author of “Witching Culture: Folklore and Neo-Paganism in America”.

“In this hour, topics include: Italy and regional folklore; ‘Strega Nona’ or Grandmother Witch; religious festivals in Europe as economic and political opportunities; how they changed when the economy changed; how the role of women also changed; the “old religion” and old ways of healing; a brief history of Wicca in England; the rise of Wicca in Europe and the U.S.; core beliefs of Wicca; alignment with the natural world and cycles; conflict with Roman Catholic clergy; Neo-pagans in America; Harry Potter – reaching out to reconnect with our magical, mystical being; individual and group worship; holidays and festivals; the importance of folklore — why is it a continuing inspiration and guide.”

All the shows seem available for download, so load up your mp3-player and enjoy!

That’s all I have for now, I’ll be leaving for PSG tomorrow, so stay tuned for the coming week’s line-up of guest-posters!