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.
- It’s Groundhog Day! That day of the year in which we all sit down to watch one of Bill Murray’s finest films. It’s also Candlemas.
- If you’re a dealer in outsider art, you simply must have a Witch. Quote: “When asked why she decided to participate in the fair for the first time this year, Santa Fe dealer Laura Steward succinctly explained, ‘One of my artists is a witch,’ referring to sculptor Erika Wanenmacher, a.k.a. Ditch Witch. ‘I like this fair because it’s more interested in people, in the artist’s minds.’”
- More witchcraft-television is coming your way thanks to the Lifetime network. Quote: “Based on Melissa de la Cruz’s best-selling novel, Witches Of East End centers on the adventures of Joanna Beauchamp (Ormond) and her two adult daughters Freya (Dewan-Tatum) and Ingrid (Boston) — both of whom unknowingly are their family’s next generation of witches. Amick stars as Joanna’s mischievous witch sister Wendy.”Will the television series go as far as the novels? If so, it will be very Pagan-y indeed.
- The very first Parliament of the World’s Religion in 1893 wasn’t all handshakes and pluralism, Michael J. Altman at the Religion in American History blog points out that Swami Vivekananda (representing Hinduism had some very pointed critiques of the dominant monotheisms that were essentially edited out of the official history. Quote: “We who come from the East have sat here on the platform day after day and have been told in a patronizing way that we ought to accept Christianity because Christian nations are the most prosperous. We look about us and we see England, the most prosperous Christian nation in the world with her foot on the neck of 250,000,000 of Asiatics. We look back into history and see that the prosperity of Christian Europe began with Spain. Spain’s prosperity began with the invasion of Mexico. Christianity wins its prosperity by cutting the throats of its fellow men. At such a price the Hindoo will not have prosperity.” As is almost always the case, the truth is messier than the narrative crafted by history.
- Congratulations to Crystal Blanton on the publication of her new book, “Pain and Faith in a Wiccan World: Spirituality, Ethics and Transformation.” Quote: “[The book] fuses spirituality and counseling concepts to add a deeper layer of personal growth and connection to living the Wiccan path. This book looks beyond the concepts of ritual and reaches into previously untouched territory within the Pagan book market to address thriving as a Pagan.” Crystal is a friend, and someone who truly walks her talk. Be sure to check this out.
- M. Macha Nightmare adds her own take on the recent Claremont Pagan Studies Conference. Quote: “Others have written about Sabina Magliocco’s keynote speech on Saturday on “The Rise of Pagan Fundamentalism.” I will only add a few notions I jotted down. She spoke of the fact that foundational narratives foster group cohesion, and the core experiences are those common to all people of all religions. She pointed out that the reconstructed traditions are growing faster than witchen traditions, and that their practitioners tends to disdain syncretism.” For more on this, check out the guest post from Patrick Wolff here at The Wild Hunt.
- Pioneer Press covers the newly launched “Pagan Voice” show, produced by Pagan Living TV. Quote: “From a small studio in St. Paul’s old Hamm’s Brewery, Todd Berntson’s 58-minute television show has been picked up by a handful of cable access stations around the country, from the St. Paul Neighborhood Network to stations in Spokane, Wash., and East Hampton, Mass. [...] “What’s kind of interesting about this is, this is the first time in history that the Pagan spiritual community has had its own television show,” said Berntson, a chiropractor from Apple Valley.”
- Religion & Politics publishes an excerpt of “The Rise of Liberal Religion: Book Culture and American Spirituality in the Twentieth Century” by Matthew S. Hedstrom. Quote: “My examination of religious reading and publishing programs not only demonstrates the powerful cultural force of liberalism in the mid-twentieth century, but also suggests new ways of seeing the cultural imprint of liberal religion in our own times.”
- The growing sort-of protest against “the evangelical cult of virginity” is investigated at Patrol. Quote: “This leads to a lot of material that makes huge pretense to being provocative, but is fact mostly a faux-edgy affirmation of the establishment conservative-evangelical status quo. We’re getting, for example, a lot of confrontational-sounding talk about virginity, but very little actual confrontation with the virginity cult.”
- Healing rituals: You’re doing it wrong.
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.
