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Unleash the Hounds! (Link Roundup)

Jason Pitzl-Waters — March 18, 2012 — 4 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.

NME and LAShTAL are both reporting that Led Zeppelin guitarist, and noted Aleister Crowley fan, Jimmy Page, is releasing his unfinished soundtrack to Kenneth Anger‘s film “Lucifer Rising.” The album is being released on vinyl, in three formats. The first 93 copies (of course) of the “Deluxe Edition” will be signed. Release date? March 20th, the Equinox (of course). Want to know what it may sound like? Here’s a bootleg excerpt on Youtube.
Author and magician Donald Michael Kraig alerts us to the fact that Lisa Peschel-Hoerter, author of “A Practical Guide to the Runes: Their Uses in Divination and Magic,” is waging a battle against breast cancer and needs our help. Quote: “If you could do anything to help here–even just sending her good wishes, prayers, and magick, it would be deeply appreciated.”
Theologian William Hamilton, part of the Death of God / theothanatology movement, died on February 29th at the age of 87. His views, and the views of his movement were spotlighted in the now-infamous 1966 Time Magazine “Is God Dead” cover. At Time Magazine, Jon Meachum offers a remembrance of the theologian. For Pagans, the theothanatology movement is important for popularizing the idea of a post-Christian culture. Today, Hamilton’s idea of a Christianity, a religion, as a “possibility without the presence of God” has born fruit in a more more praxis-oriented postmodern world.
Paul Lehner, Executive Director of the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), revisits the idea of natural resources having inherent legal rights. Lehner notes that Christopher Stone’s influential 1972 article “Should Trees Have Standing?” came out one year after Dr. Seuss’s Lorax (now a major motion picture) claimed to “speak for the trees” and wonders if one influenced the other. Quote: “‘Trustee,’ importantly, is very specific term used in law to describe a situation where an entity has a right of its own but cannot speak for itself (e.g. an infant or a disabled person) on behalf of that right. The Lorax, again, seemed to be invoking this principle when he said: “I speak for the trees, for the trees have no tongues.” [...] So, while the Lorax is a parable (and perhaps now a commercialization of a parable), there is still a profound legal issue beneath the colorful pictures.”
Conservative Heathen politician Dan Halloran, currently serving on the New York City Council, and a delegate for Ron Paul, is weighing a run for Congressman Gary Ackerman’s seat in the wake of his surprise retirement announcement. Halloran is expected to make a decision next week on whether he’ll run, saying that “Ackerman’s decision has thrown everything into a tizzy.”
In an editorial, Maryland Governor Martin O’ Malley explains why he signed Maryland’s same-sex marriage bill into law. Quote: “We are a people of many different religions and many different faiths. The only way forward in a pluralistic society of diverse faiths such as ours is to have laws that protect and respect the freedom of all, equally.” O’Malley also stated that “the heart of religious freedom is respect for the freedom of individual conscience,” which includes faiths that want to marry same-sex couples just as it includes those opposed to it.
Politics and a famous bust of Anahit, Armenian goddess of fertility, collide. Quote: “Holding posters of the goddess and chanting “Anahit, come home!” roughly a hundred young people gathered on March 7 in front of the British Embassy to present Ambassador Leach with a petition of 20,000 signatures.” Critics of the Republican Party of Armenia’s recent goddess-populism say it’s a ploy to distract from issues like unemployment.
The Associated Press reports on the Pope Benedict XVI’s upcoming Cuba and Mexico visits, noting the challenges he’ll face in each country. The report talks about Benedict’s opposition to Mexican “pseudo-saints” like Santa Muerte, and the challenge to insert the Catholic Church into “the future of Cuba and preparing for a future without the Castros.” R. Andrew Chesnut, author of “Devoted to Death: Santa Muerte, the Skeleton Saint,” says the Pope will encounter an increasingly diverse and pluralistic religious landscape in both countries. I recently reported on the Pope’s planned Cuba visit, and how he doesn’t meet with “non-institutional” faiths.
Turning to Native American/American Indian matters, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service last week issued a permit allowing the Northern Arapaho tribe to kill up to two bald eagles for religious purposes (sparking much discussion and debate). Meanwhile, Ojibwe tribes in Wisconsin, Michigan and Minnesota opposed a Wisconsin bill that would allow wolf-hunting. Anishnaabe elder Dave Courchene Jr. talks about prophesy, saying the the “new age foretold by the elders is already upon us,” and three sites important to Native history were named National Landmarks. Finally, Duane Champagne reminds us that maintaining culture is not an act of violence.
Heathen bait: Thor’s goat made out of scrap metal, and Ullr Fest.
Ben at The Pagan Perspective digs into Caroline Tully’s opinion piece, “Researching the Past is a Foreign Country: Cognitive Dissonance as a Response by Practitioner Pagans to Academic Research on the History of Pagan Religions” in the latest issue of The Pomegranate: The International Journal of Pagan Studies, and stresses “the importance of transparency and open dialogue between academics and practitioners.” Lots of great citations, links, and discussion.

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

Constitution Classes and Christian Indoctrination

Jason Pitzl-Waters — February 28, 2012 — 61 Comments

Considering the fact that I just wrote about religion, pluralism, and the pagan roots of American democracy mere days ago, it seems ironic that a scandal would break out over classes for government employees that assert the essential Christian character of this nation. This past Thursday, the Baltimore Sun reported that Carroll County commissioners asked county employees to attend a class run by a conservative Christian preacher on the Maryland State Constitution.

“David Whitney, pastor of a Pasadena church and a lecturer for the Institute on the Constitution, bases his teachings on the biblical view of American law and government. He said of the seminar scheduled for Friday, “We will be looking at the language of our founding fathers who wrote they were ‘grateful to Almighty God for civil and religious liberties’ front and center on this document. The Bible is the source of the authority that they looked to.” Critics, including Americans United for the Separation of Church and State and the American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland, said local officials are improperly mixing religion and politics in the seminar and wrongly using $800 in taxpayer money to fund it.”

This course, at first, seems innocuous enough, until you start reading the views of its teacher, David Whitney. For example, he argues that the Maryland Constitution forbids same-sex marriage, and describes his course as method to “free our country from the tyrannical stranglehold of unconstitutional government” (ie same-sex marriage). Rachel Tabachnick at Talk To Action, dug even deeper, and found that the institution that produces these Constitution courses are laced with Christian Reconstructionist writings, a school of thought that pushes for Christian “theonomy,” the belief the all ethics come from the Christian God (sort of like “theocracy lite”). Worse still, David Whitney is chaplain at two neo-Confederate organizations, including one profiled by the SPLC as racist and increasingly militant.

“Like many Dominionists, the Christian Reconstructionists leading and promoted by the Institute on the Constitution have a neo-Confederate outlook. David Whitney is described by the Baltimore Sun as a “conservative pastor,” but he is the chaplain for both the Maryland League of the South and the Southern National Congress. The former is designated as a neo-confederate hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center and the latter holds annual conferences of delegates from Southern states.”

We should be clear that government money is being spent on sending government employees to this class. Americans United has already sent a letter asking the Carroll County commissioners to cut all ties with this class, and to retracts all payment made.

“…the fact that members of the Board and the Board’s Chief of Staff are publicly encouraging employees to attend coerces them to do so. While attendance may technically be optional, when a direct superior strongly encourages employee attendance, many employees will consider non-attendance to be a potential threat to their jobs. And because the Board has placed its imprimatur upon the Insitute’s program, employees that disagree with the Institute’s religious views may conclude that the Board considers them to be uneducated about the requirements of the Maryland Constitution and potentially unfit to continue to work in government.”

One could classify this as an isolated bit of overreach on the part of the Carroll County commissioners, except that there seems to be a concerted push lately to redefine notions of religious freedom and the separation of Church and State in the United States. As The Washington Post reports, presidential candidate Rick Santorum isn’t the only conservative Christian who claims to be nauseated by President John F. Kennedy’s famous 1960 speech on religion and politics.

For conservative Catholics and other conservative Christians these comments were infuriating. Religion should be the source of an unchanging morality that guides all aspects of life, including governing, they argued. Archbishop Charles Chaput, then head of the Denver archdiocese, in a 2010 speech at Houston Baptist University, called Kennedy’s address, “sincere, compelling, articulate and wrong.”

As I wrote on Saturday, the notion that America’s Constitution is a “Christian” constitution is fundamentally flawed, and those who argue otherwise generally have an agenda that includes marginalizing minority religions and voices in our country. The moment we agree that we are living under “Christian” law is the moment the rights of all non-Christians, and Christians who dare challenge such an order, are endangered. These classes, even if they don’t outright proselytize, work to reorder society away from secular pluralism, and towards a “theonomy” where we are all subject to the moral teachings of a single faith. If we do that, instead of returning to constitutional purity, we instead lose the inherent pluralism at the heart of democratic and republican systems of government.

In Paganism, Religion Carroll County, Christianity, Institute on the Constitution, Maryland, Separation of Church and State, Talk To Action

Polytheist Prayers Now Welcome in Frederick County

Jason Pitzl-Waters — July 15, 2011 — 9 Comments

Back in May I wrote an article looking at the issue of opening invocations at various government bodies. At the center of that piece was discussion of a recently enacted policy in Maryland by the Frederick County Commissioners. The new policy was modeled on the one adopted by the Chesterfield County Board of Supervisors in Virginia after they successfully survived a legal challenge by Wiccan priestess Cynthia Simpson. That policy, and the Frederick County Commissioners’ new policy, called for nonsectarian prayers, but only from members of established monotheistic faiths.

“Board members voted 3-to-2 on Thursday to invite religious leaders to attend their meetings to invoke “divine guidance” for the commissioners and their deliberations. The religious leaders must be ordained and affiliated with a monotheistic religion with an established congregation in Frederick County. Their prayers must avoid referring to any particular religion, denomination or sect.”

An NBC Washington headline called it the “Wiccan-proof prayer policy” and that spin must have caught the attention of County Attorney John Mathias, because the commissioners voted to alter the policy yesterday.

“They voted Thursday in Frederick to adopt changes recommended by County Attorney John Mathias. A key revision eliminates language allowing only those of monotheistic religions to offer the opening invocation. Mathias says such a restriction would have required the county to determine which religions are monotheistic.”

This is an interesting development. In theory, they should be on solid legal ground. Back in 2005 the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decided that Chesterfield County’s policy was diverse enough, meeting the standards set by the Supreme Court in Marsh v. Chambers (though the Hindu American Foundation, The Buddhist Peace Fellowship, The Association on American Indian Affairs, and The Interfaith Alliance did not agree). So either this is a public relations move, or, they think that if this policy is challenged as-is it might not stand up in court. Considering the rather rah-rah “one nation under God” rhetoric of the original press release in May, I don’t think their hearts were suddenly moved by the absence of polytheists, or that they were worried over losing the critical polytheist vote in Frederick County (though they were contacted multiple times for comment by the DC bureau of the Pagan Newswire Collective). So it must mean that there is real concern, perhaps even outside Frederick County, that explicitly excluding non-monotheistic religions could ultimately bring down the “nonsectarian monotheist invocations only” house of cards in Chesterfield as well.

Now that Frederick County is open to polytheist invocation, at least in theory (one that I hope gets tested soon), perhaps it’s time for the ACLU in Virginia to return to Chesterfield County and begin building a new case. In the meantime, I applaud the Frederick County Commissioners for doing the right thing, albeit a few months later than I would have liked.

In Paganism, Religion Chesterfield County, Cynthia Simpson, Frederick County, law, litigation, Maryland, monotheism, politics, Polytheism, prayer, Wicca

Unleash the Hounds! (Link Roundup)

Jason Pitzl-Waters — May 17, 2011 — 15 Comments

The Associate Press reports that Angel Valley retreat in Sedona, Arizona, where the now-infamous and deadly sweat lodge ceremony led by James Arthur Ray was held, has settled a civil lawsuit brought by victim’s families and participants. The sum is not disclosed in the report, and there is no admission of liability by the owners of Angel Valley. The trial of Ray, who is charged with three counts of manslaughter, continues.
In a review for Real Clear Religion, Rod Dreher endorses Jeffrey Kripal’s book “Authors of the Impossible: The Paranormal and the Sacred” which notes that both “orthodox religion and orthodox science” have a hard time grasping the paranormal. Which makes you wonder about the growth of religions and traditions that do embrace phenomena that we can’t explain.
It’s a food-centered week over at No Unsacred Place as Ruby Sara writes about sacred eating in earth-centered ritual, Juniper Jeni tackles the controversy over Bob Parsons shooting an elephant (then eaten by local villagers), Cat Chapin-Bishop charges that “we eat uncaringly, unfeelingly, ignobly,” and Howling Hill talks Pagan food restriction.
The Miami New Times has been following an increasingly odd feud between animal activist (and real estate developer) Richard “Kudo” Couto and Santeria priest Oba Ernesto Pichardo (of Church of Lukumi Babalu Aye v. City of Hialeah fame). There’s too much to sum up here, but as one Santeria practitioner puts it “I don’t see how his job in real estate, when he started his organization, animal defecation, or cartoony music helps the religious community.”
For more on Pagan participation in the Marin Interfaith Council Prayer Breakfast, at which Don Frew was a featured presenter, there’s a second write-up of the event from M. Macha NightMare, the sole Pagan member of the Marin council, who helped pave the way for Frew’s invitation.
A temple to the goddess Demeter and her daughter Persephone was discovered by Bulgarian archaeologists near the town of Sozopol on the Black Sea. For those keeping score, yes, a Christian monastery was built on top of it.
Kendra Vaughan Hovey, a former reality-television star who converted from Wicca to Christianity, now claims to be neither Christian nor Wiccan, simply a Witch. Hovey notes that “if I must label myself anything, this label seems to define my spiritual practices—and who I am at the very core of my being—best.”
How can you tell when a “Satanic” crime might not be Satanic? When only tabloids report on it.
The tenth session of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues started yesterday, featuring an opening address by United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. During the address Ki-moon stated that “we know that indigenous peoples have a close spiritual relationship with nature. Now we have to make the connection between their knowledge—your knowledge—and our world.”
Jamie L. Manson at Religion Dispatches has perhaps my favorite response to the controversy over Jim Wallis and Sojouners rejecting an ad calling for the welcoming of LGBTQ individuals in Christian churches. Manson writes that “so many religious gays and lesbians have to operate “under the radar,” and keep silent about their personal lives,” which is just one reason why I’m largely proud of a modern Pagan movement that is overwhelmingly inclusive to LGBTQ individuals. Even when there is controversy and conflict, it produces an entirely different conversation than what you would find within the dominant monotheisms.
Traditional besom broom makers in the UK are in danger of extinction.
A local newspaper interviews Alaskan resident and rune master Doc Warner.
A report from the Maryland Faerie Festival.

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.

The “Wiccan-Proof” Invocation Model

Jason Pitzl-Waters — May 13, 2011 — 61 Comments

As various government bodies in the United States navigate what is and isn’t a violation of restrictions against the endorsement of a particular religion (aka the separation of church and state) when giving an opening invocation, two models have emerged. The first model says you can have sectarian prayer (ie specific invocations to named deities or powers) so long as everyone is invited to participate, and the second model says that only nonsectarian (ie generic invocations to “god”) prayers are acceptable. Conservative Christians activists generally favor the first model, while secular civil liberties organizations broadly prefer the second. Between these two poles a variety of variations have been tested, often in the courts.

In many cases modern Pagans, specifically Wiccans, have been caught in the tumult of what is and isn’t permissible. For example, there’s the “include a Wiccan” gambit to protect yourself from accusations of “open” invocation models that seem to only invite Christians (though mere randomness sometimes isn’t enough), and then there’s the “we don’t want to include a Wiccan” model famously undertaken by Chesterfield County, Virgina. In that case a rotating sectarian model was challenged by a Wiccan when she wasn’t allowed a turn, the county board changed their policy to nonsectarian during litigation and that seemed to be enough to make exclusion of minority faiths permissible. This “nonsectarian monotheist invocations only” policy seems to have made an impression as it is now being emulated by Frederick County, Maryland.

“Board members voted 3-to-2 on Thursday to invite religious leaders to attend their meetings to invoke “divine guidance” for the commissioners and their deliberations. The religious leaders must be ordained and affiliated with a monotheistic religion with an established congregation in Frederick County. Their prayers must avoid referring to any particular religion, denomination or sect.”

The restriction to only “monotheistic” faiths is echoed in local coverage as well. An NBC Washington headline specifically called it the “Wiccan-Proof Prayer Policy.” Here’s what County Commissioners say about their new policy in a press release.

The Frederick Board of County Commissioners today approved an invocation policy to allow prayer at certain of its meetings, consistent with the Chesterfield County, Va., invocation policy upheld by the United States Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit. [...] “We do not believe there would be any disagreement from the majority of Americans that we are still ‘one nation under God,’ as we say in our pledge of allegiance, and that it says on our dollar bill, ‘In God We Trust.’ Our policy does not mandate a one-county religion or endorse any religion over another, but we do acknowledge our Creator.”

While one commissioner was against the new policy because it didn’t allow sectarian prayers to Jesus, he is no doubt mollified by the reassurance that no polytheist will be allowed an invocation. Since the Chesterfield County policy went all the way to the Supreme Court (who refused to hear the appeal) no doubt many will see this path to exclusion as legally bulletproof. The only reason it hasn’t been more widely adopted by conservative Christian-dominated government bodies is that they hate nonsectarian prayer almost as much as they hate non-Christian religions. Indeed, at this moment the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals, who ruled in the Chesterfield case, is hearing case on the legality of sectarian prayer on a supposed open first-come-first-served model.

Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson, the senior judge among the three hearing Thursday’s arguments on appeal, at one point said that the county’s policy seemed geared to favor the “faith of a majority of residents in the county.” “The result of the policy is that the prayer is overtly sectarian,” Wilkinson later said. [...] Katherine Parker, the attorney for the residents who sued the county, said that despite the wording of the county policy, the real effect — as shown by the prayers that have been prayed — was to advance Christianity by the county government.

If the 4th Circuit paves the way for more sectarian prayer, will the Frederick County Government change policy? Is wink-and-a-nudge nonsectarianism enough? Either way, government officials seem to be ensuring that only monotheist lips utter prayers at meetings. Whether these models will ultimately remain “Wiccan-Proof” remains to be seen.

In Paganism, Religion Chesterfield County, Christianity, Frederick County, law, litigation, Maryland, monotheism, politics, prayer, Wicca

Unleash the Hounds! (Link Roundup)

Jason Pitzl-Waters — May 3, 2011 — 33 Comments

I don’t know if you’ve heard, but apparently Osama bin Laden was killed. PNC-Minnesota has reactions from the local Pagan community. Zaratha “will not apologize for rejoicing in Osama bin Laden’s death, “ Lori Dake thanks the troops, Star Foster is conflicted, and Erynn Rowan Laurie wonders if that means the troops get to come home now.
The town of Bel Air in Maryland has overturned its total ban on fortune telling. They have also removed the word “occult” from existing laws on fortune telling, no doubt to protect themselves from religiously-motivated lawsuits. Bans on fortune telling in Maryland have been dropping at a regular pace since the Maryland Court of Appeals ruled that fortunetelling and other psychic services are protected speech and cannot be outlawed by local ordinances.
Yesterday was Pagan Coming Out Day, check out some reflections on the event from P. Sufenas Virius Lupus, Sia at Full Circle, Kayleigh, Star Foster, Serenity Athenina, Diana, and GG from the Pagan Princesses. Coverage of local events no doubt coming soon from our PNC bureaus.
A woman in Texas is filing a religious discrimination lawsuit after being fired for allegedly threatening to curse her coworkers. Victoria Vaughan says the alleged spiritual threat is a “mischaracterization of events,” and that her supervisor at Texas Health and Human Services Commission overreacted to Vaughan explaining her “deeply held religious beliefs.” I can’t find a copy of the complaint that isn’t behind a paywall, if any of my readers who practice law or have access to such things can help out it would be most appreciated.
The American Spectator dings the “Evangelical Left” via a book review of Peter Leithhart’s “Defending Constantine: The Twilight of an Empire and the Dawn of Christendom”. Being something of an apologist for Constantine, Leithhart notes how the Emperor “ameliorated some of Rome’s pagan savagery.” Blame for later anti-pagan excesses are squarely on his descendants, while Constantine is praised for trying to build a harmonious society.
Both Jeff Lilly and Cat Chapin-Bishop endorse the term “Pagan” in response to Scott Reimers’ piece at Patheos suggesting that our movement find a new collective label. For more on this topic, you may also want to check out T. Thorn Coyle‘s two-part essay discussing some questions and one possible answer to the issue of calling ourselves Pagan.
Investigation Discovery will be airing a special on the West Memphis 3 case this Thursday. New attention has been focused on this case since the WM3 (Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jesse Misskelley Jr.) won the right to new evidentiary hearings scheduled to begin on December 5th. In addition to new DNA evidence the defense wants to look at jury misconduct in the case.
I09 examines the television commercial for Time-Life’s Mysteries of the Unknown book series and is convinced it is secretly some sort of subtextual New Age porno. Is this true? Read the book!
Over at Killing the Buddha Beatrice Marovich (with illustrations by Krista Dragomer) meditates on how we use the skins of animals and how she created a secular “animal altar” to pay respects to some mink skins that were given to her.
Lupa has a thought-provoking two-piece essay on being a (white) American Shaman. Part 1, Part 2. Do check it out, and add your thoughts and comments.
Congrats to No Unsacred Place for being named The Druid Network’s featured site for May!

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.

Quick Note: More on Cherry Hill Seminary Graduation Ceremony

Jason Pitzl-Waters — March 1, 2011 — 5 Comments

As I mentioned recently, Cherry Hill Seminary held the first graduation ceremony under their new program at the Sacred Space Conference in Maryland. On hand for the ceremony was a team from PNC-Washington DC (aka Capital Witch). They have put together this very nice video report.

“One of the first events of Sacred Space 2011 was hosting the first event graduation ceremony of Cherry Hill Seminary. Six students graduated from the ceremony with three in attendence. We had the chance to sit down with Cherry Hill staff and talk about the importance of the graduation and their work moving forward in the field of higher education for Pagans.”

Kudos to David and the team at PNC-Washington DC, and congratulations to the six Cherry Hill Seminary graduates! To find out more about CHS’s educational offerings, please check out their web site.

In Paganism, Religion Cherry Hill Seminary, Maryland, PNC-Washington DC, Sacred Space Conference, Washington DC

Pagan Community Notes: PaganDASH Campaign, Post-PantheaCon Stories, Cherry Hill Seminary, and more!

Jason Pitzl-Waters — February 27, 2011 — 35 Comments

Pagan Community Notes is a companion to my usual Pagan News of Note, a series more focused on news originating from within the Pagan community. I want to reinforce 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 lets get started!

Counting Pagans in the UK: In one month, the 2011 British census will begin. As in 2001 citizens of England and Wales will be able to mark what their religious affiliation is, a change in procedure that saw minority religions gain significant attention. For the first time, Britain was counting its Pagan citizens, and around 40,000 individuals labeled themselves as Pagans, Wiccans, or Druids (making them the 7th largest faith grouping in the UK). However, many Pagans, and the scholars who study them, believe that number is far higher (Ronald Hutton, for example, thinks there are around 250,000 Pagans, circa 2001, equivalent to the Hindu population). So this year a consortium of Pagan organizations are pushing the PaganDASH (Facebook) campaign to encourage all British Pagans to fill out the census, and to do so in a uniform manner.

“The ONS wants to count us. They have a ‘mandate of inclusion’ which means they are looking for ways to include us in their figures. Looking at the raw data that was provided last time to us gave us some startling insights. However, as mentioned, by just writing Pagan on your form, we lose the data for various paths, and our diversity — but there is a simple solution — one that’s worked elsewhere. In Australia in 2001 there were 10,000 Pagans in the census. Just 5 years later, with this initiative, their numbers are being counted as nearer 70,000. So if we can do the same here, and get more accurate numbers it will go a long way to getting the recognition we have fought for, and deserve.”

So a Wiccan would write in “Pagan – Wiccan”, a Druid “Pagan – Druid”, and so forth. This initiative is already gaining some press, and as The Druid Network points out, could result in better representation in government. This is an excellent opportunity to chart the growth of modern Paganism in the UK (one we don’t have in the United States), and I hope British Pagans of all stripes support this initiative.

Child Care at Pagan Conventions: The Pagan Newswire Collective’s Bay Area bureau has published the first installment of a multi-part series on child care and Pagan families at conventions. Focusing on the recently completed PantheaCon, Lily Shahar Kunning, looks at the options, and lack of options, families with small children have at such events.

“In fact, the ‘Con is not fully aware of how many children attend, as they are not formally registered if they are under 12. But parents attending PantheaCon agree- there are tens of dozens of children in attendance, and more come every year. Yet there is no formal “track” for children to attend, no formal childcare arrangements, and most events in the schedule are not kid-friendly.”

As our movement grows, and becomes increasingly multi-generational, issues of how we treat our youngest, and oldest, members will become increasingly pressing. We are at a point now where organizers are straining under the weight of continual growth and popularity, yet we often lack the infrastructure and capital to expand as much as we need to. How we deal with issues like child care, and the inclusion of younger Pagans, can have far-reaching ramifications in our future. Stay tuned to PNC-Bay Area for the next installment of this series where they’ll discuss family-oriented programming at PantheaCon.

Pagan Leadership Panel: One of the panels I participated in at this year’s PantheaCon, led by Modern Witch Podcast host Devin Hunter, was on Pagan leadership in the 21st century. On the panel was Hyperion of The Unnamed Path, Ms. Rabbit Matthews of CAYA, and myself. Devin has uploaded the video he took to Youtube, and is up now in seven parts.

You can find the other six parts, here. I think some very important topics were touched on, and I’m thankful that Devin was able to record his panel and share it with the world.

Cherry Hill Seminary Graduation Ceremony: Yesterday at the Sacred Space Conference in Maryland, Cherry Hill Seminary held their first graduation ceremony under their new program. Certificates were presented to six students, and PNC-Washington DC (aka Capital Witch) was there to report on the event. Below you can see some video taken during the ceremony.

PNC-Washington DC/Capital Witch will be posting photos later with exclusive interview footage of the CHS faculty and student graduates. So please stay tuned to that site for further updates, and congratulations to the six Cherry Hill Seminary graduates! To find out more about CHS’s educational offerings, please check out the web site.

A Trip to Lucky Mojo: On their way home from PantheaCon the PNC-Minnesota bureau were lucky enough to stop at the famous Lucky Mojo Curio Company, took pictures, and interviewed proprietor Cat Yronwode.

“People of a mixed back ground often find Hoodoo resonates with them because it calls to part of their cultural back ground. It is a very vital, very American form of magic. I love it, I was born Jewish, and then joined the Baptist church and now am a spiritualist. I have always felt at home in Hoodoo. I would say that since the dawn of the internet age, there is more white people practicing it, but there always were. It has never been something that was exclusively Black, although black cultural nationalists have claimed so.”

For anyone who has shopped at a hoodoo store, and loved it, this article and interview should bring back many pleasant memories.

Addressing Dianic Exclusion of Transgendered Women: In a final note, I wanted to quickly point to this run-down of issues regarding the exclusion of transgendered women at Dianic events at PantheaCon.

“The debate continued. No one won, as-such, but winning wasn’t the point. Though I’m not unbiased in this matter, I doubt anyone would disagree that, at the end, the Dianic elders present were affected by the experience. I believe them when they said that they had no wish to harm transsexual and transgendered women, but they remained firm. Wendy Griffin, toward the end, got quite upset, stating that the issue is effectively one of religious freedom, and that what was being proposed effectively would prevent her from engaging in her religion. Ruth Barrett, who I must admit showed astonishing strength in retaining composure throughout the event — for her, the issue was that she wanted to continue to run events at Pantheacon, but that a non-discrimination policy would effectively mean that she could not continue to do so.”

This is a very large issue, and this link will just be the beginning of my own exploration. In the weeks to come the Bay Area PNC bureau will be posting a report, and I will be following up with my own here at The Wild Hunt. I’m hoping to include interviews with individuals on both sides of this discussion, and hopefully spark a wider discussion regarding gender identity within modern Paganism.

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

Post-Samhain/Election Pagan News Catch-Up

Jason Pitzl-Waters — November 4, 2010 — 1 Comment

The last couple of weeks have been pretty crazy, what with all the Samhain/Halloween coverage, followed immediately by election night, so lets catch up with some Pagan news of note we may have missed.

A Pagan Burial at Circle Sanctuary: The Wisconsin State Journal covers Circle Sanctuary’s green cemetery dedication, which coincided with the cremains burial of Circle Sanctuary Community member Bruce Parsons.

Nora Cedarwind Young, a green burial educator based in Washington state, participated in the burial and open house Sunday. She said that in modern-day burials, the casket is placed in a grave lined with a concrete and steel-reinforced vault. “The body is never truly returned to earth,” said Young, who also identifies as a Wiccan or pagan. “In a green burial, we are not only reducing the unnecessary use of resources and chemicals, we are preserving open spaces and greenways.” Death is a sure thing that’s going to happen to all of us, Young said, adding that today consumers want sustainable choices. “If I eat organic food for 30 years, why would I want to put chemicals in it at the end?” she asked. “I’d much rather be a sandwich for a tree or compost for the earth.”

Circle Cemetery is the first Pagan-run cemetery in the United States that will also allow for full (non-cremated) body burials in addition to the burial of cremated remains. You can read more about Circle’s cemetery, here.

Banning Psychics: The town of Bel Air in Harford County, Maryland won’t be lifting its 30-year ban on fortune telling despite fears of legal action and the recent overturning of a similar ban in nearby Montgomery County.

“The commissioners’ failure to act came after people, including church representatives, spoke out against the practice of fortune-telling, likening it to witchcraft and sorcery. The board is hoping the town won’t face any legal challenges, which three of the commissioners said they would not bother trying to defend. After the Maryland Court of Appeals declared a similar Montgomery County ban unconstitutional in June, Bel Air has been challenged to make fortune-telling legal. The American Civil Liberties Union has also urged the town to overturn the ban because it threatens freedom of speech.”

The fear-mongering from local religious leaders and Christians gets quite dramatic, with one local paster exlaiming that “fortune-tellers always target children”, and a resident calling the “occult” practice “demeaning, destructive, demoralizing and detestable.” The problem is that local law enforcement and the town commissioners know the law is unenforceable, and are stuck trying to please local residents while avoiding a costly lawsuit. Something has to give, and it will no doubt happen soon. For more on this subject, see my Psychic Services and the Law series.

Happy Retailers in Salem: Though slightly smaller than in previous years, an estimated 60,000 to 70,000 people flooded into Salem on Halloween night, and local retailers seem happy (and tired) with how things turned out.

“This Halloween was perfect: perfect weather, perfect family event, perfect shopping and perfect Halloween night finale. And perfectly huge crowds. ”It’s been a really good October,” said Rinus Oosthoek, executive director of the Salem Chamber of Commerce. “You can tally up the money afterwards, but we had the crowds and people did some shopping.” It was so busy almost every store ran out of something. “I couldn’t handle all the readings,” said Lorelei, a witch and psychic who did about 30 readings a day this past weekend at Crow Haven Corner, an Essex Street witch shop.”

In addition crime wasn’t a big problem, and crowds went home promptly on Sunday night. So it looks like Halloween really is recession-proof, at least in Salem. For more on Salem’s festivities, check out my recent interview with Salem business-owner (Hex and Omen) and promoter Christian Day.

Santeria and the Science of Trances: MSNBC/Discovery News reports on a new study about hypnosis and trance, and discusses it within the context of Santeria, a religion that often utilizes trance-states during rituals of divine possession.

In his study “Hypnosis and Hemispheric Asymmetry,” published in the Jan. 2010 edition of the journal Consciousness and Cognition, he noted higher hypnotic susceptibility in those who, before being hypnotized, processed information much more quickly in the left brain hemisphere than the right. But during hypnosis, the situation flipped and the right became faster. No one knows whether they are born with that wiring or if it comes through experience. ”Clearly, highly hypnotizable brains are different,” said Naish, “but what you do once you are hypnotized is largely down to expectation. If you have the assumption that you visit the spirit world and can’t remember what you did there, then I dare say that’s what you do.”

You can find the abstract for this study, here. It could be interesting reading for any religious community that works with trance states and hypnotism. As for this article, it’s nice to see a focus on Santeria that steers clear of the usual sensationalism and actually interviews experts and practitioners of the faith.

“Sweetheart, I didn’t bring any cigarette or rum, but I am here.” The Miami Herald reports on Vodou Fete Gede observances in Haiti, the first since the massive earthquake killed a quarter of a million people and left millions more homeless.

Like many, he didn’t know exactly where their bodies were put to their final resting place. So he came to the Universal Tomb, an oversized gray and white concrete structure that long symbolized those who had died violent deaths under army rule. Now it is also symbolic of those killed in the quake as survivors placed flowers, beeswax candles and meals around it, pouring the coffee and perfumed Florida Water on the altar. As each approached the tomb, they knocked its walls with their open palms as if to announce their presence. “Sweetheart, I didn’t bring any cigarette or rum, but I am here,” said one man. Elsewhere in the cemetery, thousands participated in Gede as some became possessed by spirits and others paid homage to Baron Samedi, the Vodou guardian of the cemetery.

While ceremonies for the dead took place the small island nation braced itself for the potentially devastating Tropical Storm Tomas. This is in addition to fighting a cholera outbreak that has already killed nearly 500 people. May the loa of water and wind spare the people of Haiti any further death and suffering this year.

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

In Paganism, Religion burial, Circle Cemetery, Circle Sanctuary, earthquake, economics, Haiti, Halloween, law, litigation, Maryland, Pagan News of Note, possession, psychics, Salem, Santeria, trance, Vodou

Quick Notes: Fortunetelling Laws, Ali Sibat, and Vodun Activism

Jason Pitzl-Waters — June 11, 2010 — Leave a comment

Let’s start off your weekend with a few quick notes.

Another Fortunetelling Law Overturned: The Maryland Court of Appeals has ruled that fortunetelling and other psychic services are protected speech and cannot be outlawed by local ordinances. The ruling stems from a long legal battle by Montgomery County resident Nick Nefedro, who has been mentioned at this blog before, and his win may be the most devastating blow yet to laws targeting fortunetelling.

“Fortunetelling may be pure entertainment, it may give individuals some insight into the future or it may be hokum,” the Maryland Court of Appeals wrote in a 24-page opinion. “People who purchase fortunetelling services may or may not believe in its value. Fortunetellers may sometimes deceive their customers. We need not, however, pass judgment on the validity or the value of the speech that fortunetelling entails.”

Previous cases that overturned anti-fortunetelling ordinances often did so on religious grounds, but this case didn’t pursue a religious angle, and I thought it would suffer because of it; however, the appeal to freedom of speech seems to have been convincing. As a result, a much broader precedent has been reached, one that may be replicated in similar court battles. It remains to be seen if Montgomery County will now try to appeal to a Federal court. Nefedro was backed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland in this case, here’s an excerpt from their press release concerned the decision.

“This case has never been just about fortunetellers, but about the fundamental right to free speech,” said Ajmel Quereshi, an attorney with the ACLU of Maryland. “While individual fortunetellers can be punished if they fraudulently exploit their customers, banning all fortunetelling is overbroad and unconstitutional. It is not the role of government to decide that broad categories of speech can be banned merely because it finds them distasteful or disagreeable.”

Here’s hoping lawmakers across the country are paying attention to this decision.

When Will Ali Sibat Be Released? Lebanese citizen Ali Sibat, who was nearly executed for the crime of sorcery in Saudi Arabia but given a last-minute reprieve due to protests and political maneuvering, is still rotting in a cell, and his wife wants to know when he’ll be released.

“The wife of a Lebanese TV psychic convicted in Saudi Arabia on charges of witchcraft appealed for her husband’s release on Friday, just months after he escaped beheading in the kingdom. Samira Rahmoon, 46, said Lebanese officials promised her in April that her husband would soon come home, two years after Saudi religious police arrested him during a pilgrimage there … ”We are lost,” said Rahmoon, clutching a cracked frame holding a photograph of her husband, 49-year-old Ali Sibat, during a small protest outside the prime minister’s office in Beirut.”

So far there is no word on when, or if, Sibat will be released from custody. Recently there have been signs that Saudi citizens are getting fed up with power plays by the local religious police, who have been locked in a political struggle with the country’s (relatively) more moderate monarchy. This battle has often seen members of other faiths, even if they are citizens of other countries, drawn into their machinations.

Curses on Trafficking: Benin (not to be confused with the modern day country of the Republic of Benin, formerly known as Dahomey), monarch Omo N’Oba Erediauwa has called on Vodun and other indigenous religious practitioners in Nigeria to place curses on those who would participate in human trafficking and kidnapping.

“The fight against kidnapping and related crimes took a fresh turn in Benin City, the Edo state capital on Thursday, as voodoo priests, herbalists and traditional worshippers came out in large numbers to invoke the wrath of the gods and place curses on persons behind the acts. The Benin monarch Omo N’Oba Erediauwa at a meeting with the traditional stakeholders last week, directed them to set aside this Thursday (yesterday) for the men in the kingdom to place curses on kidnappers, while the women would take their turn to perform the similar exercise tomorrow, Saturday.”

Human trafficking in Nigeria is a rampant problem, with even important officials taking part in the practice. This move by Omo N’Oba Erediauwa is canny since many accounts of have surfaced of Nigerian women and children being threatened into silence and slavery by Vodun curses and vows. If news of this public show of opposition by indigenous religious leaders spreads, it may counter-act some of the power these modern-day slavers hold over their victims.

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

In indigenous, Paganism, Religion ACLU, Ali Sibat, Human Trafficking, law, Lebanon, litigation, Maryland, Nick Nefedro, Nigeria, psychics, Saudi Arabia, Vodou, Vodun

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