Archives For Kickstarter

The Fifth Sacred Thing Movie Project Releases New Video

Jason Pitzl-Waters —  May 9, 2013 — 15 Comments

In 2011 Starhawk raised over $75,000 dollars through Kickstarter to help fund a pitch-reel in order get a feature film based on her post-apocalyptic 1993 book, “The Fifth Sacred Thing,” made. While several Pagan-initiated crowdfunding campaigns have rivaled that impressive achievement, none have surpassed it. This is most likely due to Starhawk’s unique place in our community as one of a small handful of Pagans who have broken through to a wider audience. During the campaign, Starhawk talked about how she feels like the time is now for a film adaptation of her work.

Starhawk at Occupy Santa Cruz. Photo by Matt Fitt, Santa Cruz IMC.

Starhawk at Occupy Santa Cruz. Photo by Matt Fitt, Santa Cruz IMC.

“I so strongly believe that the world needs a positive vision of the future right now. I can’t think of any movie that projects a positive vision of a future here on earth. How can we create it if we can’t envision it? A friend confessed to me the other day that she and everyone she knows thinks it’s already too late, that we’re past the point of no return. I don’t believe that. I believe that the earth is resilient and creative—and we are agents of that creative force called to reinvent our way of life right now. If we can give people some hope, some direction and some inspiration, it seems worth all the risks and the work!” 

Now that it’s 2013, Starhawk gives an update on the progress of the project, and shares a video designed to convey the story of  “The Fifth Sacred Thing.”

“What it’s not: It’s not a trailer for the movie, in the sense that a trailer is a selection of scenes to build interest for a movie that’s already been made.  We haven’t made it yet—and when we do we still intend to make a live-action, feature film with real actors, not an animation.  But until we get the financing to shoot the film, we can’t put together scenes that don’t yet exist.  So we’ve exercised our creativity to show you a bit of our underlying concept, together with the art and music we have been able to create thanks to the amazing support we’ve already received.  So think of it more as a video calling card, something we can use to introduce the project to investors and potential collaborators.”

The video narration is by actress Olympia Dukakis, who has also agreed to star in the film. A closed captioned version of the video can be found, here.

Considering the pace of pitching and making a movie in Hollywood, they don’t call it “development hell” for nothing, it may be several more years before a film is actually made. Then again, if the production team is able to find backers, and a studio (small or large) expresses interest, things could ramp up rather quickly. The Fifth Sacred Thing website will most likely have ongoing updates.

I think a “Fifth Sacred Thing” film could be a welcome antidote to the bulk of post-apocalyptic films that either depict wastelands, unending horrors, or fascist media-controlled enclaves where teenagers are forced to fight for our amusement. A film that posits a humanity able to change, grow, and build something new together in the face of collapse instead of endlessly tear each other apart seems like an antidote that our culture might be ready for. Here’s hoping!

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Unleash the Hounds! (Link Roundup)

Jason Pitzl-Waters —  April 26, 2013 — 13 Comments

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

"Psychostasia" by Daemonia Nymphe

“Psychostasia” by Daemonia Nymphe

  • The great Greek Pagan band Daemonia Nymphe have announced that their new album, “Psychostasia,” will be officially released on May 10th.  Quote: “Six years after ‘Krataia Asterope’ (2007) and many Live dates in Europe, the Greeks led by the duet Spyros Giasafakis & Evi Stergiou are back with their new album ‘Psychostasia’ (the “weighing” of souls by Gods). Since its origins the band uses instruments recreated from the Greek Antiquity [...] ‘Psychostasia’ takes us into the journey of a Life, the journey of a Soul. It starts with Zephiros (the god of Wind), then comes ‘Pnoe’ the breath that animates each thing … During the trip, we will meet Gaia, the forces of Nature, the moon dances for Selene and Eros, to finish into Hypnos’s dreams.” You can order and hear samples of the new album at Prikosnovenie.
  • The reality television program “Wife Swap” aired another episode featuring a Pagan family last night, but according to participant Arana Fireheart, the process from his standpoint was not exploitive. Quote: “[The casting director] reassured me that we would be given the chance to present ourselves as a normal happy family that just happen to be Witches and I trusted that he would keep his word.” So did anyone watch it? How was it? Let us know in the comments. I think it’s fair to say that the show hasn’t the best track record regarding Pagan families, so I’m interested to see if things have evolved. 
  • Stonehenge is looking for a part-time Solstice manager, which has gotten a bit of press attention. One of the qualifications is an ability to maintain good relations with Druid groups and other “stakeholders” who access the stones for special events. Quote: “As English Heritage’s Tim Reeve told the BBC, one of the General Manager’s subsidiary jobs will be to liaise with neo-druid leaders, helping to oversee arrangements for the ceremonies that those leaders conduct to celebrate the summer and winter solstices. The General Manager will work to guarantee, essentially, that the rocks of the 21st century remain as faithful as possible to the rocks of prehistory. It’s ‘important,’ Reeve notes, ‘to ensure we keep the dignity of the stones.’” You guys are lucky I’m not a UK citizen, or I’d have this thing locked up. 
  • A retired Russian Orthodox bishop has been deposed after it was revealed that he was giving psychic counseling at a New Age center in Russia. It seems a fair cop. The Orthodox news site that reported on the incident is in English, but the lingo, acronyms, and haughty triumphalism make it nearly indecipherable to the casual reader (I suppose some could argue the same about my site, though I try to remain accessible). 
  • This story is supposed to be satire, but I can actually imagine certain Heathens saying something like what’s quoted in the “article.” Quote: “It’s an insult to our religion, it is bad enough they turned our God of Thunder into a blond pretty boy in a unitard, but the lack of bloodshed makes a mockery of our beliefs.” You laugh now, just wait until they turn The Morrigan into a superhero character… oh, wait.
Photo: Time Magazine / EFE / ZUMAPRESS

Photo: Time Magazine / EFE / ZUMAPRESS

  • In a move that should surprise no one, the Vatican has made it clear that they really, really, don’t like Santa Muerte. Quote: “The Mexican offensive against Santa Muerte (Saint Death) launched by former president, Felipe Calderon, has now gone global. In an interview last week with a Peruvian Catholic news site (Aciprensa), the President of the Pontifical Council for Culture, Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, condemned the cult of the skeleton saint as “sinister and infernal.” The Italian prelate, whom Vatican watcher John Allen recently called “the most interesting man in the Church” and even profiled as a candidate for the papacy, called for both Church and society to mobilize against devotion to Saint Death.” Chances that this will hinder the religious movement? I’d wager they are slim to none. 
  • The interfaith ceremony that took place after the Boston bombing attack excluded humanists and atheists. Quote: “We made it exceedingly easy for the Governor’s staff to find us and include us, but they chose not to do so. The exclusion of non-theists today no doubt deepened the hurt the people in the non-theist community are feeling. What principle was served by our exclusion, I don’t begin to understand.”
  • Come visit scenic Cornwall, we’ve got a really, really, big Celtic Cross. Quote: “We hope it will become an iconic landmark, our version of the Angel of the North, so people don’t just pass by Saltash, but go in.” Also, King Arthur was conceived there, but that’s not exactly a roadside attraction. 
  • Speaking of Stonehenge, here’s a new theory about it. Quote: “…the site, which was occupied continuously for 3,000 years, had evidence of burning, thousands of flint tool fragments and bones of wild aurochs, a type of extinct giant cow. That suggests the area near Stonehenge may have been an auroch migration route that became an ancient feasting site, drawing people together from across different cultures in the region, wrote lead researcher David Jacques of the Open University in the United Kingdom.”
  • My pal Cara Schulz (who also happens to be a Hellenic Pagan), is holding a Kickstarter for a cool-sounding luxury camping book, and in honor of reaching $1,500 of the $4,500 goal she shares a drink recipe on Youtube called the “Blue Gem.” With Summer festival season almost here, maybe we could all use this book? 

That’s it for now! Feel free to discuss any of these links in the comments, some of these I may expand into longer posts as needed.

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Anatomy of a Successful Pagan Kickstarter Campaign

Stacey Lawless —  March 23, 2013 — 2 Comments

Rev. Tamara L. Siuda is the founder of Kemetic Orthodoxy and Nisut of the House of Netjer. The Wild Hunt reported on her successful crowd-funding venture earlier this month, and I caught up with Rev. Tamara to find out more. We talked about her project, the Ancient Egyptian Daybook, and her experiences with using Kickstarter.

Let’s start with the Daybook. It sounds like the ancient Egyptians used multiple calendars. Could you talk about that a little, and how the Daybook will help modern users keep track of important dates? (Also, did I hear that the Daybook will actually be a book and a planner?)

The ancient Egyptians had a minimum of four different calendars in use. They’re all the same length (except for one weirdness in the lunar calendar), with 12 months of 30 days each, and five extra or epagomenal days to round out the 365-day solar cycle.

The Sothic calendar or stellar calendar starts its New Year based on the heliacal rising of the binary star system Sirius (Sopdet to them, Sothis to the Greeks) over a certain geographic location, usually the royal residence. This usually happens in modern Gregorian August today.

Egyptian_calendar_dark

An Egyptian calendar on papyrus

 

The lunar calendar designates New Year as starting on the day of the first New Moon that occurs on or after the heliacal rising of Sirius. Otherwise, it’s identical to the Sothic calendar except that it occasionally adds an intercalary/epagomenal MONTH when there are 13 moons in a year.

The civil calendar designates New Year as starting on an arbitrary date. Once upon a time, the civil year matched the Sothic year, but because of the slippage of time (each of our years is not exactly 365 days long, and ancient Egyptian calendars had no actual leap days until the late period), the New Year kept moving earlier and earlier in the year until it was occurring in completely different seasons than the celestial events it was supposed to match.

The Alexandrian calendar is a fusion calendar, created by decree under Octavian/Caesar Augustus. It is a civil calendar at its base, but it fixes the New Year date to the Sothic rising date. It then adds leap days as necessary once every four years, and some of the lunar-based holidays retain their lunar dating schema.

The Daybook will explain how each of the calendars is created, and then provide the actual holidays matched up to the various days (each calendar has the same days/months/seasons, except that extra month in the lunar year). So anyone who gets the Daybook can choose a new year date and a calendar type, and then go from there. The project will also include an optional perpetual calendar planner, with Egyptian dates only and a space for people to write in which Gregorian dates they correspond to in that person’s chosen format.

Was this your first venture into crowd-funding? How did you choose Kickstarter as your funding platform? How did you decide to present your project the way you did?

This was my first crowdfunding project. I chose Kickstarter after reviewing various platforms and formats, and finding one that I felt provided enough exposure to get the project done, as well as enough protection for potential investors so that they wouldn’t feel like they were taking too much of a risk providing me with funds for a project that isn’t yet completed. I spent more than a year watching similar campaigns, getting to know other content creators/project owners, and learning how crowdfunding really works, before I created a video and jumped in myself. I decided to go with something fairly light-hearted as I have always believed that academic things don’t have to be utterly boring, and that there is a lot of interest in ancient Egypt that could be captured with the right presentation. I wanted to provide something that represents both what I want to do with the Daybook, and would accommodate the particular interests and concerns of anyone who’d be willing to back it.

Now that you’ve seen the Daybook Kickstarter through, is there anything that in hindsight you wish you’d done differently?  Conversely, is there anything you’re really glad you did do?

I wish I’d spent more time before the project went live, to talk it up amongst my friends and family. Having a wide base of people who already support you before you begin is very important, both to build a starting momentum, and to keep people interested in the project as the days go on and on until the goal is met (or not met). I wish I’d not been as uncomfortable with the idea of asking people for money to help with the project earlier. I could’ve started this project years ago! During the campaign, musician Amanda Palmer, who did a very successful Kickstarter herself last year for an album, appeared at TED and gave a talk called “The Art of Asking” that has since gone viral. In it, she talks about how crowdfunding isn’t so much about asking people for money, as giving people permission to help you. It gave me much to consider, and anyone who is considering crowdfunding a creative project should check it out.

More stamina/more understanding that the project was going to require hours and hours each day to keep working on, would also have been helpful. It was really my day job during those 30 days to get the pledges going and keep the publicity happening. It’s grueling, and if you are not employing anybody to help you promote the project, as I was, you’re doing all of that yourself. The last 24 hours of the campaign I don’t think I got more than an hour of sleep, between both the sheer amount of “push” PR that had to be done, and the excitement of watching us meet and exceed stretch goals.

I am very glad that I went through with the campaign, even after I’d been afraid to start it. I’m delighted that there was such a wide interest, even from complete strangers, and enjoyed interacting with the backers and potential backers during the process. It was also exciting and fun to take part in Kickstarter with other projects that went live around the time mine did – we all contacted each other and provided support and advice back and forth, and had little celebrations at every success. I’m glad that I was able to connect to such a diverse group of people for a project that I think will be beneficial to many, and that others seemed to agree it was worth doing and were willing to provide financial support to make it so.

Were you able to tell if any social media platforms were especially helpful in drawing attention to the Daybook?

Luxor_Temple-Egyptian_calendar

Egyptian calendar on the wall of the Temple at Luxor

Kickstarter provides project creators with extensive metrics. More than a third of the attention, in terms of both page views/video views and actual backing, came from Facebook, and at least two thirds of that came from specific promoted posts at a low cost threshhold (specifically, five promoted posts at $10 each, spaced out across the campaign, promoted to “friends of friends”). A significant amount of attention also came from Twitter, where I somehow got the attention of a number of important authors including Neil Gaiman, Laurell K. Hamilton, and Judith Tarr, who “re-Tweeted” information about the Daybook to their own followers. Smaller responses came from LinkedIn, Pinterest, Tumblr, and Reddit, in that order. It does seem that social media is an important tool in getting one’s message out for a Kickstarter campaign.

Have you got any future projects lined up that you might crowd-fund?

 I have been asked by a number of my backers about whether or not I’d be willing to open a second Kickstarter campaign to meet the final “stretch goal” that we did not achieve in the campaign, which was a fully-interactive calendar app for mobile (iPhone and Android), that was estimated to cost between $36K and $40K to produce. I’m not ruling that out, though I’m certainly going to take a break between campaigns if only because I’m exhausted from the first one! Thirty days of having to be on top of a Kickstarter campaign is a lot of work. I put in between 5-8 hours each day, with no days off. Any day that you don’t promote your campaign is lost backers. You have to stick with it constantly, and continually stir up publicity, to succeed. It’s like running a marathon – you can’t stop until the finish line.

Do you have any advice for Pagans who are considering crowd-funding for their own projects?

 Do your homework before you begin. Decide which of the several crowdfunding sites is appropriate for your project; there are completely different philosophies, acceptable project types, and audiences on each site. Once you decide which site you want to use, start looking up projects that are similar to the one you want to do. Contact the project creators. Most will be very happy to talk to you about their process. I had four Kickstarter mentors, all of whom were successful and who were tremendously helpful to me as I planned and executed my project. Make sure you contact your existing family, friends, and audience – most extremely successful projects are presented by people who already have a following/established brand. And don’t be afraid to ask.

 

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Pagan Community Notes: Nora Cedarwind Young, Starhawk at Harvard, and More!

Jason Pitzl-Waters —  March 18, 2013 — Leave a comment

Pagan Community Notes is a series focused on news originating from within the Pagan community. Reinforcing the idea that what happens to and within our organizations, groups, and events is news, and news-worthy. My hope is that more individuals, especially those working within Pagan organizations, get into the habit of sharing their news with the world. So let’s get started!

An Appreciation of Nora Cedarwind Young: News has come from several sources that Circle Sanctuary Priestess, Death Midwife, chaplain, and Green Burial advocate Nora Cedarwind Young is terminally ill, and isn’t expected to live much longer. In response, Circle Sanctuary has posted an appreciation of her rich and varied life, allowing friends, family, and admirers to leave their own messages and remembrances.

Nora Cedarwind Young

Nora Cedarwind Young

“We invite you to share your memories and appreciations of Nora, her life, and legacy here. Nora is in the final part of her life’s journey, and although her condition is such that visitation and phone calls are not presently options, we plan to share with her what is expressed here. Please send love and support to Nora and to her husband Bud and to close friends Joanna, Elaine, and Giving who are assisting with caregiving.  Also, send love and support to Nora’s four children and four grandchildren.”

I was honored to meet and spend time with Nora at Pagan Spirit Gathering a few years ago. She acted as “Den Mother” to our cabin of featured presenters, and showed herself to be a warm, expansive, and embracing presence. It was obvious to me, and others, the inherent skills she possessed as a priestess, as a chaplain, and as a friend. My only regret is that I never took her up on her offer to visit her in Washington, it always seemed like there would be time enough for that in the future. I hope this transition is a gentle one for Nora, and that her gods will be with her, as she has been there for so many. My blessings.

Starhawk at Harvard: Author, activist, and Reclaiming co-founder Starhawk recently gave a talk at Harvard Divinity School entitled “Permaculture and the Sacred.” The video recording of that talk is now up and available to be viewed at the HDS website.

Starhawk at Harvard Divinity School.

Starhawk at Harvard Divinity School.

“Starhawk, contemporary witch, activist, and permaculturist, spoke at HDS on March 7, 2013, about how earth-based spirituality can inform and empower efforts to build sustainable communities and societies. Starhawk is a founder of Reclaiming, a contemporary Pagan tradition that blends Goddess spirituality and social activism, and of Earth Activist Trainings, which equips people to combine permaculture design with political organizing and spiritual practice. A leading interpreter of feminist Wicca, she is the author of The Spiral Dance,The Fifth Sacred Thing, The Empowerment Manual, and many other books.”

For more on Starhawk’s permaculture work, she has pictures and a narrative up from an Earth Activist Training she conducted in January on her blog. Starhawk’s most recent book is “The Empowerment Manual: A Guide for Collaborative Groups.”

Considering Sacred Space: The 2013 Sacred Space Conference in Maryland happened earlier this month, and several blogs now have reviews and insights up from their time there. Literata says that the conference “lives up to its description as a conference for intermediate to advanced esoteric and magical practitioners,” while the Heartache Into Beauty blog says “it raises the bar for other pagan events with its high-quality, high-level presentations and rituals.” Lastly, Irene the “Pink Pagan Priestess” described the conference as “amazeballs,” which I assume is high praise indeed.

Altars at Sacred Space.

Altars at Sacred Space.

“Sacred Space draws together a truly gifted group of presenters.  They come from an impressively varied background–we have established authors who are bravely breaking new ground, ritual practitioners from every path imaginable (Reconstructionist, Shamanic, British Traditionalist, Chaos Magick…you name it, it was probably there), and luminary Priests and Priestesses who have sought out new connections to Spirit and brought that knowledge back with them.  The only downside to the conference is that I do not own a time turner!  There were several times during Sacred Space when I wished to be in more than one place at one time.  The bevvy of fascinating topics was almost overwhelming.”

2014′s Sacred Space conference will be held March 13-16 and will feature Orion Foxwood, M. Macha Nightmare, and Selena Fox as featured presenters.

In Other Pagan Community News:

 

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

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Pagan Community Notes: Kyril Oakwind, Coreopsis, Spiral Rhythm, and More!

Jason Pitzl-Waters —  March 11, 2013 — 2 Comments

Pagan Community Notes is a series focused on news originating from within the Pagan community. Reinforcing the idea that what happens to and within our organizations, groups, and events is news, and news-worthy. My hope is that more individuals, especially those working within Pagan organizations, get into the habit of sharing their news with the world. So let’s get started!

In Memoriam: Kyril Oakwind (1951-2013): Word has come to us that Gardnerian and Church of All Worlds Priestess Kyril Oakwind passed away on March 9, 2013 after a long struggle with metastatic breast cancer. Oakwind served as a board member for Sweetwood Temenos, was founder of the Madison, Wisconsin area Pagan Tea & Talk, and publisher of Converging Paths Magazine. In a post today at her Facebook page, Selena Fox at Circle Sanctuary sent blessings for Kyril Oakwind’s many contributions to the Pagan community.

Kyril Oakwind

Kyril Oakwind

“Remembering Wiccan priestess, Pagan elder, neighbor, & friend Kyril, who died yesterday after a long battle with breast cancer. Thankful for Kyril’s many contributions to Paganism, near & far, over the years. Blessings to her in the realm of the Ancestors. Condolences & support to her family, friends, & all of us mourning her passing. Blessed Be.”

In an email to me Selena Fox went on to add that “she not only did teaching, rituals, and networking in the great Madison, Wisconsin area, but did writing and editing of Pagan publications that connected Pagans further away.” May we remember her, and all those who did the work of building connections in our community. Our condolences go out to her friends and family. What is remembered, lives.

The Return of Coreopsis: Coreopsis, a peer-reviewed journal of myth and theatre, is returning to publication thanks to Concrescent Scholars, the academic wing of Concrescent Press in Richmond, CA. According to Editor-in-Chief Lezlie Kinyon, Ph.D, the Spring/Summer issue will be published April 29 and the Fall/Winter issue will be published on October 29.

cropped-Final-Banner-theatre-949x152

“I am overjoyed to tell all of you that my peer review journal, Coreopsis, is coming back into publication. The submission period is open for 2013 – We go “live” on February 14 on our new site now published by Concrescent Scholars, the academic wing of Concrescent Press in Richmond, CA.  Submission are open to young scholars and working artists as well as established scholars.”

While the submission period for the Spring/Summer issue has now passed, the Fall/Winter issues submission deadline is August 15 with a theme of “Penny tae th’ Guisers: An examination of medieval performance before 1400.” Submission guidelines can be found, here.

Spiral Rhythm Turns to Kickstarter to Fund New Album: The band Spiral Rhythm, a regular fixture at many Pagan festivals and events, launched a Kickstarter to fund the recording of a new album. Now, with one week left, they need just over $3000 dollars to make their $10,000 goal.

Spiral Rhythm performing live.

Spiral Rhythm performing live.

“For several years we’ve been working towards a goal that you, our fans, set for us- make another album! With an eye towards stepping it up a notch, we will be entering a professional recording studio. We are hoping to cover studio and mixing/mastering time as well as post production pressing, packaging, and pachyderms (just kidding about that last bit – wanted to see if your paying attention), Spiral Rhythm is throwing ourselves upon the mercy of you, the fans, by initiating this Kickstarter project. Our hope is to make one shiny new CD, but if we raise the roof with this thing, we have enough material for two. Two! Want to help? Of course you do.”

If you’re a fan of Spiral Rhythm’s work, now’s the time to support them in their efforts. A $20 donation gets you a digital download, and a $35 donation gets you a copy of the physical CD (once recorded). The band adds that “we all do this for love, not profit, and we have to take into account jobs, children, family, all of which can interfere with the concrete reality of making a new CD.” They vow the new music will get recorded, but I’m sure it would help if they made their fundraising goal.

In Other Pagan Community News:

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

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Pagan Community Notes: Pagan Living TV, Idle No More, and More!

Jason Pitzl-Waters —  January 8, 2013 — 13 Comments

Pagan Community Notes is a series focused on news originating from within the Pagan community. Reinforcing the idea that what happens to and within our organizations, groups, and events is news, and news-worthy. My hope is that more individuals, especially those working within Pagan organizations, get into the habit of sharing their news with the world. So let’s get started!

Pagan Living TV Launches: Pagan Living TV, a non-profit media organization that seeks to create a world “where Pagan spirituality and philosophy is an influential voice in mainstream culture,” has launched their weekly video news program “The Pagan Voice.”

“Pagan Living TV is a charitable non-profit organization that produces a weekly news program that discusses the issues of today from a Pagan perspective.  This is the first professionally produced broadcast program that is produced in a multi-camera television studio, and is distributed on both the internet and on local cable channels in some major cities.”

As you can tell from watching the video, the production values are considerably higher than previous Pagan video-news efforts (no insult to those worthy efforts, merely an observation) showcasing Pagan Living TV’s ambition in raising the bar. As Pagan scholar Chas Clifton notes: “Although it’s still just talking heads in the studio at this point. At least there is a studio, not a sheet tacked to the wall.” I’ll be watching the growth of Pagan Living TV, The Pagan Voice, and future shows with interest.

Pagan Involvement With ‘Idle No More’: Last month I posed the question of whether modern Pagans should involve themselves with the growing indigenous/Native activist movement known as Idle No More. Since then, some high-profile figures within modern Paganism have visited the camp where where Chief Theresa Spence, of the Attawapiskat First Nation, is holding a hunger strike, or gotten involved with Idle No More actions. First, Pagan philosopher Brendan Myers, who lives near Victoria Island in Canada visits Chief Theresa Spence’s camp and share’s his observations.

Chief Theresa Spence's Camp

Chief Theresa Spence’s Camp

“Of all the many social groups which comprise Canada’s social fabric, the First Nations, the Metis and the Inuit have a special place in our identity.They gave to “us”, the visitors on this land and their descendants, a gift so precious and so valuable it’s likely that nothing we could give them in return could possibly compensate them. That gift was the land on which this country was built. Without one or two other ethnic groups in our history, we would have a different country, for better or worse; without the First Nations, we would have no country at all. Therefore, Canada has special responsibility, it seems to me, partly arising from the various treaties which the Crown signed with the First Nations, but also arising from the ‘economy of honour’ that surrounds gifts of that magnitude. Canada’s moral obligation, at minimum, to ensure that the living standards of First Nations people are at least as good as that of the average middle-class non-native Canadian person – and that’s not impossible, and that’s perhaps only the least of what Canada should do.”

In addition to Brendan Myer’s impressions, Shelley TSivia Rabinovitch, co-author of “An’ Ye Harm None: Magical Morality And Modern Ethics,” and co-editor of the “Encyclopedia Of Modern Witchcraft And Neo-Paganism,” has also been visiting Chief Spence’s camp and attending Idle No More actions urging Pagan solidarity with this movement: “I feel wonderful. And I will do it again. And again. AND UNTIL STEPHEN HARPER HEARS that he cannot sell out this country.” Also of note, author and teacher T. Thorn Coyle attended an Idle No More solidarity action in Oakland, California and shares her thoughts:

“On Saturday, I joined a couple hundred people in solidarity with Idle No More. Chief Theresa Spence has been on hunger strike for more than 25 days now, challenging the Prime Minister of Canada to a meeting regarding the sanctity of the earth and indigenous sovereignty. Idle No More is standing up – singing, drumming, dancing, and blockading – for the rights of free waterways, and land unpolluted by dangerous fracking. I want to support this challenge, this attempt to afflict the closely held privilege of the short sighted governments and corporations that are only seeing the immediate need for profit or even more insidious: an upholding of a level of comfort that we’ve come to think of as a need. We don’t need to use as much fossil fuel or natural gas as we currently do. We could instead adjust our lives to use less, or more wisely. But most often we don’t, because we – as a society – like our comforts. Idle No More has the ability to challenge, not only the governments and corporations, but to challenge our own assumptions about what it is we need. They are doing the job of comforting the afflicted of the land and the people and creatures on the land, and afflicting the comfortable – the prime minister and those of us who want to consume all the things we are used to.”

For the latest updates on Idle No More, check out their website. I will continue to monitor Pagan responses to, and solidarity actions with, this movement.

In Other Community News:

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

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Pagan Fundraising Initiatives: Patrick McCollum, New Alexandrian Library, Orpheus Pagan Chamber Choir

Jason Pitzl-Waters —  August 22, 2012 — 6 Comments

A bright and ongoing success story in the Pagan community has been the utilization of crowd-funding sites like IndieGoGo and Kickstarter to collectively raise funds for important projects. Starhawk raised over $75,000 dollars to help fund a pitch-reel in order get a feature film based on her book “The Fifth Sacred Thing” made. Peter Dybing helped raise $30,000 dollars for Doctors Without Borders in the wake of the 2011 Japan earthquake and tsunami. Pagan singer-songwriter SJ Tucker was amazed when a Kickstarter campaign for Tricky Pixie’s European tour more than doubled their initial goal in a matter of hours (and kept on growing). In addition, several smaller initiatives have managed to collectively raise thousands for Pagan projects: The readers of The Wild Hunt funded my upcoming trip to the American Academy of Religion’s Annual Meeting, Chicago-based Pagan/magical performance troupe Terra Mysterium raised funds for their new show “The Alembic,” and the Goddess community funded a documentary film in honor of Merlin Stone.

Crowdfunding sites allow an easy mechanism for fundraising in communities that may have social networks and organizations, but not the robust money-raising infrastructure of already-established mainstream institutions. This is a place modern Paganism is in today, and more and more of us are turning to these sites as a solution to our “money problem.” There are hundreds of thousands of Pagans out there, millions around the world, and they desire to see our projects and initiatives advance just as much as any other faith community. So I’ve started a new feature to regularly check in on fundraising campaigns within our interconnected communities in hopes of giving them wider exposure, and also documenting the crowdfunding phenomenon as it relates to modern Pagans. I hope you’ll find things to support, and also learn important lessons in what makes a campaign succeed.

Send Patrick McCollum to Awakened World 2012: Longtime readers should be familiar with Pagan chaplain and activist Patrick McCollum. Patrick has been working as a Pagan chaplain and activist for well over twenty years. He was one of the founding members of the Lady Liberty League, and has been involved in numerous legal struggles involving modern Pagans. In 2008, he testified before the US Commission on Civil Rights on prisoner’s religious rights, saying he “found discrimination against minority faiths everywhere”and that the problem was “endemic.” Today his work continues as he travels the world acting as global ambassador for modern Paganism, visiting India, Jordan, Thailand, and other locales, advocating for cooperation and sharing a Pagan perspective with the world’s religions. Because of his work he’s been invited to be a facilitator at Awakened World 2012 in Rome, Italy. To get there he needs to raise 3,500 dollars to cover his expenses.

“I have been invited to join the Dalai Lama’s International Peace Council and the Association for Global New Thought as a Core Group Leader to help facilitate a world event in Rome, Italy, Awakened World 2012 this October. The event will be attended by many of the foremost political, religious and human rights leaders in the world, and my fellow Core Group team will include such luminaries as: Yolande IIiano, Chairperson, Religions for Peace Europe, HH Pujya Swami Chidananda Saraswati, President of Parmarth Niketan Ashram in India, one of India’s largest spiritual institutions, Sister Joan Chittister, OSB, CO-Chair of the Global Peace Initiative for Women, His Eminence Walter Cardinal Kasper, President, Pontifical Council for Ecumenism, Ela Gandhi, former South African Parliamentarian and granddaughter of Mahatma Gandhi, Dean Lawrence Carter, Dean of Martin Luther King Jr. International Chapel, Rev. Marcus Braybrooke, President of the World Congress of Faiths, and Lynne Twist of the Pachamama Alliance and others.

Each of the esteemed Core Group Leaders are being supported by their communities to attend and facilitate the gathering, and so I am asking you my spiritual community, to join together and support me also, so our voices will be heard and Paganism and Earth Based Spiritual Traditions will be represented at the table when the discussions regarding the future of our planet take place.”

The event takes place this October, so Patrick has only a month to raise the money. If you want to support Patrick McCollum’s work, please spread the word or donate to this endeavor. As an aside, I want to note briefly that I helped set up the campaign for the Patrick McCollum Foundation, but I’m not working directly for the foundation on this campaign. All monies go directly to the Patrick McCollum Foundation to fund this trip.

New Alexandrian Library Raises Funds to Finish Construction: At the end of 2011 the New Alexandrian Library, a project that hopes to create “a library worthy of its namesake” focused on esoteric knowledge, mystical and the spiritual writings from many traditions, officially broke ground on their physical space in Delaware.  Last month the foundations for that library were poured for the dome structure that will be erected. Now,an IndieGoGo fundraiser has been launched to pay for the next stage of construction. I originally reported on this campaign at the beginning of August, and since then they’ve managed to raise over $3000 dollars towards their $12,500 goal. There are 21 days left to go, so if you want to help realize a physical Pagan-owned and run library on the East Coast this is an excellent time to join the campaign.

“The New Alexandrian Library (NAL) will be a resource for those that believe in true freedom and equality for religious studies – a resource that includes all of the esoteric and non-mainstream (but growing!) religions – not just the the usual 3 or 4.  The NAL will make as much content (literature, periodicals, art…) available via the web the greates extent allowed by copyright law, etc.  - so it can be a true resource for ALL of those that can benefit from such a resource!

We are the Assembly of the Sacred Wheel, a legally recognized Wiccan non-profit religious organization based in the Mid-Atlantic region. The form of Wicca that the Assembly practices is syncretic and draws inspiration from Astrology, Qabala, the Western Magickal Tradition and the folk religions of Europe. Keepers of the Holly Chalice, the founding coven of the Assembly began its life in February of 1984. The Assembly was incorporated in the state of Delaware in 1993 and was granted 501(c)(3) status by the IRS in 1995.”

The NAL project has already started building an impressive collection, one that includes the recent acquisition of rare Dion Fortune paintings gifted by Dolores Ashcroft Nowicki. As NAL board member Ivo Dominguez Jr says in the video above, this is a project initiated by us, for us, one that deserves our support so that it can become a reality. For more information check out their Facebook page, or go to their official website. You can read all of The Wild Hunt’s coverage of the New Alexandrian Library project, here. I’m hoping to further spotlight this initiative in the near future with a guest post from the Assembly of the Sacred Wheel.

A Pagan Chamber Choir Hopes to Fund First CD: The Orpheus Pagan Chamber Choir, located in Denver, Colorado, seeks to “build community by  sharing  with our audiences the power and beauty of choral music from many historical and cultural traditions.” As this Pagan choir has gained attention within their local community, more and more people have asked when they will record a CD of their music, so they’ve launched this fundraiser to make it happen.

“Ever since Orpheus was founded, people have been asking, “Do you have a CD?” With your help, we’ll be able to say, “Yes, and here it is!” We’ve become known for our unique events: our Twelfth Night Yule Concert & Viking Feast, our programs that fuse ancient with future. Why should our CD be different? We want to make the world premiere recording of the powerful Missa Druidica, our unique covers of Mummers’ Dance, Ancient Mother, We Won’t Wait, and other favorite Orpheus tunes.

We want to record just the way you love us: live musicians doing something that seems to touch people’s souls. We’re over 30 voices and instrumentalists. We can’t just hole up in someone’s garage and turn on a switch. If we were in Hollywood or New York, we could find a studio large enough to hold all of us, but here in Denver we need to rent space and a satellite recording truck! And we’re not using digital instrumental sounds either. It will be all live, all real, all Orpheus.”

They’ve already raised $1,475 of their $4000 goal, with 43 days left to go on their campaign. A $25 dollar donation gets you a pre-released edition of the CD. So if you’re a fan of Pagan choral music, be sure to check this campaign out!

Those are the highlighted campaigns for this edition. Please send me word your crowdfunding campaigns, and I may spotlight them on a future edition of this new feature. Let’s all work together to promote important projects within our community, and destroy the notion that we can’t or won’t fund projects that are important to us. If you can’t donate, the best way to help is to share these campaigns to your social networks, exposing them to as many people as possible. Thanks for reading, and thank you for supporting Pagan community!

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