Pagan Community Notes

Pagan Community Notes: Deborah Schoenfeld, Circle Cemetery, Academy of Arcana and more

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It has been reported that the Air Force Equal Employment Opportunity office at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, has dismissed Deborah Schoenfeld’s religious discrimination complaint. In a story we brought to you in October, Schoenfeld had allegedly been subjected to verbal harassment by co-workers, and after lodging a formal complaint, was fired from her position. In response, the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) stepped in as her advocate and filed its own complaint with the EEO. Military.com is now reporting that this “witch” complaint has been rejected. According to the article, the office said that “she filed too late and … the individuals she claimed discriminated against her are not Air Force employees.”

Pagan Community Notes

Pagan Community Notes: Mount Franklin Pagan Gathering, Witch School, GBG Calendar and more!

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In late August, the Mount Franklin Pagan Gathering (MFPG) ran into a hurdle after being handed a number of new requirements from Parks Victoria. MFPG is one of the oldest and longest running ‘free to attend’ Pagan gatherings in Australia with its first event held in 1981. Named after an extinct volcano, MPFG is always scheduled for late October. However, the organizers recently announced that they had been “informed of the changes in administration surrounding Parks Victoria …These changes impose upon us limitations and requests for documentation that are nothing less than astonishing in number and in time frame. Last year, the Gathering paid for two years’ worth of permits in full, however the requirements have now been changed significantly.” They go on to explain that Parks Victoria now requires a nine page detailed application, other fees, forms, and consultations.

News

Morning Glory Zell Foundation Plans Delayed by Pending Eviction

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COTATI, CALIFORNIA –When the Morning Glory Zell Memorial Foundation was formed in December 2014, it had an ambitious goal: to purchase “property and financially [sustain] physical infrastructure and community services of the Church of All Worlds (CAW) and its affiliate schools and organizations,” according to the official charter letter. Advertisements at the time stated, “A major objective is creating a rural Pagan retirement village with a permanent home for Morning Glory and Oberon’s enormous library and museum collections of Goddess figures, magickal tools and artifacts, altar setups, liturgical and research materials, ritual regalia, seasonal decorations, etc.” It was to be located in northern California. A statement released by the foundation this past February set forth the minimum criteria for the land being sought, and established a price range of $400,000-800,000. Those plans are now being shelved for the immediate future, as that enormous collection — as well as Oberon Zell himself — must be relocated quickly due a pending eviction from RavenHaven, where he and others have lived for some time.

Hounds

Unleash the Hounds! (Link Roundup)

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There are lots of articles and essays of interest to modern Pagans out there, sometimes more than our team can write about in-depth in any given week. So The Wild Hunt must unleash the hounds in order to round them all up. We begin with two updates on stories previously reported:

A Georgia State House Committee completely tabled the pending SB129 “Religious Freedom Restoration” bill. The unexpected action reportedly killed the bill’s chances of enactment for the foreseeable future. This was the bill that prompted a public response from the Aquarian Tabernacle Church and multiple reactions from the local Wiccan community.

Living

An Interview with Christopher Blackwell

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Since 2004, the Alternative Religions Education Network (AREN) has produced a regular seasonal newsletter called ACTION. For 6 of those years, the pages of the newsletter have been filled with interviews with Pagans, Heathens and Polytheists from around the world. To date, the newsletter has published around 560 interviews that catalog, record and share the memories, practices and work of a huge diversity of people. Since the beginning, one man has been behind the newsletter from the writing of articles in the early days to producing the detailed interviews that we see today. That man is Christopher Blackwell.