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.

• Not too long ago hardliner Iranian clerics accused associates of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of “witchcraft” and “summoning genies.” If you’re President Ahmadinejad how do you respond to that? By launching a “non-governmental organisation to identify those engaged in divination and exorcism as well as ‘deviant schools of thought and false Gnosticism’”. They are hoping an attack on “nonconformist youth culture, Sufi sects, [and] non-Islamic Gnostic groups such as popular Indian theosophical cults” will distract the public from their own “occult” scandal.
• Kathryn Price NicDhàna links to a transcription of the closing prosecution arguments in the almost finished trial of New Age prosperity guru James Arthur Ray, accused of negligent homicide in the deaths of three participants in a sweat lodge ceremony gone horribly wrong. For a wrap-up of the marathon closing argument by Ray’s defense team, click here. Once we have a verdict you can expect a long wrap-up with commentary at The Wild Hunt.
• The Tarotpuu blog reprints a 1942 lecture by artist and occultist Lady Frieda Harris, who is best known for providing the artwork for Aleister Crowley’s Thoth Tarot. Thanks to Mary K. Greer for the link.
• Mississippi Justice Court Judge Theresa Brown Dearman has been sanctioned by Mississippi Supreme Court for, among other things, “ordering someone to attend church, on pain of being sent to jail if he doesn’t comply.” It seems, thankfully, that compulsory worship is still unconstitutional.
• Juxtapoz finds some occult-themed street art. More here.
• Salon.com travel column Trazzler (Trazzler? Really?) features a slide show of places to celebrate tomorrow’s Summer Solstice. They note that “the primal desire to be outside dancing and carousing late into the night is irrepressible at this time of year.”
• K.C. Hulsman updates us on the ongoing effort to to have the U.S. Army recognize and add Asatru/Heathenry as a religious preference for the official U.S. Army database. This is being spearheaded by the Open Halls Project, who says they need “one thing from you, the soldiers, former soldiers, and military spouses. We need you to send use your name, rank, Status (active, reserves, national guard, veteran, or spouse) to our email. heathenopenhalls@gmail.com” So spread the word!
• PZ Myers infamously doesn’t like religion or the belief in magic all that much, but he seems pretty OK with Alan Moore. In response The Daily Grail calls Moore “one huge gateway drug to the woo,” while  Technoccult thinks the real question may be “whether what he describes as magic is truly ‘magic’ at all.” All I know is that “Promethea” is one of the best comics ever.
• Ann Coulter rips into Ron Paul, and uses Wicca to illustrate her point about Paul’s marriage plan: “Under Rep. Paul’s plan, your legal rights pertaining to marriage will be decided on a case-by-case basis by judges forced to evaluate the legitimacy of your marriage consecrated by a Wiccan priest — or your tennis coach.” This makes it so Paul’s defenders have to mention Wicca too. Keep this up and soon every prominent conservative will be dropping Wicca into their conversations.
• Our best wishes to the on retreat Buddhists at the  Diamond Mound Retreat Center near Bowie, Arizona, who are currently right in the path of the Arizona wildfires.

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.