The Wild Hunt | Tag Archive

Archives For Sam Webster

Pagan Voices: Metal Mother, Morpheus Ravenna, Shauna Aura Knight, and More!

Jason Pitzl-Waters — April 18, 2013 — 2 Comments

Pagan voices is a spotlight on recent quotations from figures within the Pagan community. These voices may appear in the burgeoning Pagan media, or from a mainstream outlet, but all showcase our wisdom, thought processes, and evolution in the public eye. Is there a Pagan voice you’d like to see highlighted? Drop me a line with a link to the story, post, or audio.

Morpheus Ravenna

“Actually, if you look deeply at the idea of ‘dark Gods’ in general, they are inherently a product of our dualistic culture, heavily influenced by Abrahamic moral paradigm which equates darkness with negative or harmful forces. In fact, when people talk of the ‘Dark Goddess’, they virtually always mean moral darkness rather than natural darkness, if you examine their language and theology. For evidence of this, I invite you to imagine any deity associated with the darkness of night or the night sky whom you care to think of. Nyx, Nuit, Astarte, Ishtar, Arianrhod of the silver wheel; all the ‘Queens of Heaven’. Not a one of them is usually labeled ‘Dark Goddess’. Hekate is arguably an exception, but I think the point still stands. When we say ‘Dark Goddess’, what we really mean is scary Goddess; or perhaps more specifically, morally ambiguous Goddess.” - Morpheus Ravenna, on the nature of “dark” gods.

Metal Mother (aka Taara Tati)

“Getting into the whole ancient Celtic cultures thing, it was very matriarchal and tribal [...] It was a really profound lifestyle. The more I discover about that, the more I want to learn about it, to be able to see that history and sort of represent that in a way, or glean some power from that. [...] I really came into a full-on obsession last year when I was traveling in Europe. I went on this full journey to all these different ancient sites and sacred sites, and it was empowering for me to be there, and to feel the history of that land, and… my ancestors.” – Taara Tati, aka Metal Mother, in the San Francisco Bay Guardian on the inspirations for her new album “Ionika,” released this week.

Sam Webster (with Herm), photo by Tony Mierzwicki.

“The purpose of sacrifice is to build, maintain, and correct our connection with the Gods, which is why it had to be stopped in ancient times. It is essential for theistic Pagans, but I know atheist Pagans who join in the practice. The common explanation of sacrifice is to somehow ‘feed’ the Gods, but this is generally challenged by the more philosophical understandings of ancient religion that evolved over time. In the West, this view is championed by Iamblichus of Chalsis and found in the book we now call De Mysteriis, arguably the cornerstone text of the western magical tradition. Iamblichus points out that the Gods and all the entities down the hierarchy of being are above humans on the ontological scale and so cannot be affected, never mind fed, by such as we. Rather, sacrifice properly done affects the sacrificer by attuning us to the Gods we invoke (never mind bonding us to those we share it with).” - Sam Webster, author of “Tantric Thelema” and founder of the Open Source Order of the Golden Dawn, from his piece “Toward the Pagan Restoration of Sacrifice.”

Shauna Aura Knight with Tony Mierzwicki and River Higginbotham at PantheaCon.

“We’re causing the pollution, the carbon overload, the climate change, that will haunt our future. We who call ourselves Pagan and Earth-centered should know better. We should know better. Here’s what I’d like to see in the Pagan community. I’d like to see Pagans across the world standing up to choose the sometimes harder road. I’m asking you, all of you, to stop using disposable cups in your rituals, and to stop supporting rituals that do so by not accepting those cups.” – Shauna Aura Knight, from a post at the Pagan Activist blog entitled “No, I Will Not Take Cakes and Ale From Your Styrofoam Cup.”

Angie Buchanan with partner Drake Spaeth.

“Yes, Pagans were responsible for almost 10% of the total judgment of $276,000. History has been made here. Pagans have shown they can support what they believe in with their voices and their money. Our voices [have] value at the international tables of inter-religious dialog. We are at once overwhelmed with gratitude, humbled, and also proud.” – Angie Buchanan, Emeritus Director of the Council for a Parliament of the World’s Religions, and founder of Earth Traditions, on the role of Pagans in the successful campaign to save the Parliament from a fiscal crisis.

Deborah Blake

“When disasters are caused by people (as opposed to hurricanes and other acts of nature), it can be easy to feel as though All People are Bad. The truth is, most people are pretty wonderful. More people ran towards the explosion, to try to help, than ran away. There were heroes everywhere. We cannot let a few evil people change how we view the world.” - Deborah Blake, author of “Everyday Witch Book of Rituals: All You Need for a Magickal Year” on the tragedy in Boston, from a piece entitled “In Times of Horror, Joy and Love Must Triumph.”

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

In Paganism, Religion Angie Buchanan, Deborah Blake, Metal Mother, Morpheus Ravenna, Pagan Voices, Sam Webster, Shauna Aura Knight

Pagan Voices: Joseph Merlin Nichter, T. Thorn Coyle, Crystal Blanton, and More!

Jason Pitzl-Waters — February 28, 2013 — 9 Comments

Joseph Merlin Nichter (aka WitchDoctorJoe)

“I first started volunteering at one particular prison because the Protestant chaplain called me and ask me too. He asked me to because the prison had put him in charge of facilitating religious accommodations for the Wiccans, Druids and Asatru (oh my!). And he could not, in good conscious, perform that task because it violated the doctrines of his faith. While I agree that it is a perverse conflict of interest to put him to such a task, I would argue stronger that he should resign his position as a “Chaplain” and return to being a “Priest.” Because there is a difference. Being a priest is about being a servant of your religion, being a chaplain is about being a religious servant to others.” - Joseph Merlin Nichter, a Pagan prison chaplain, writing about “Spells for Cells” at PaganSquare.

Sam Webster (with Herm), photo by Tony Mierzwicki.

“So, when somebody with some seniority and some knowledge in our community makes an assertion, states a clear if challenging opinion, what claim has that on anyone? None, except if the author is lucky, to make you think, perhaps to feel. You are still responsible for your own views, accepting or rejecting theirs. Likewise, we must be mindful of the power dynamics in such a statement. Does the person making the assertion have the power to enforce it, and the desire to? I was asked if I would be imposing a doctrinal test upon anyone who came into circle with me. Seriously? What makes you think I care what you think? Your beliefs and opinions, except to the extent you inform me, are inscrutable to me and a matter of your conscience. Likewise, so are mine to you, except that I’ve been doing some informing. If I don’t think someone is being a “proper Pagan,” why should they care? They have a right to their own opinion, just as I do.” – Sam Webster, author of “Tantric Thelema” and founder of the Open Source Order of the Golden Dawn, on the nature of Pagan authority.

Crystal Blanton

“One moment that sticks out to me was the emotion that was evoked within me when speaking about my own privilege, a privilege that the kids I work with do not have. I think people automatically assume that those who talk about privilege are standing in a “victim” mentality role. I recognize that I am often the oppressed and the oppressor. I am humbled by a society that puts people in a position to be on both sides of the fence and awareness becomes the most important tool we can harness.” – Crystal Blanton, author of “Pain and Faith in a Wiccan World,” on the Pagans and Privelege panel held at PantheaCon 2013. For more on this, see T. Thorn Coyle’s reflections. You may also want to read Crystal’s pre-PantheaCon interview at PNC-Bay Area.

J. Rhett Aultman

“Atheism has, over the past century or so, seen a very serious restriction in its definition. There are many reasons for it, not the least of which are religious interests in America using politics to attempt to restrict science and science education. In a broad historical perspective, though, there have been atheist philosophies within every religious tradition and several religious traditions that classify the cosmos in such a way that there’s simply no room for deities to exist. Your atheist Pagan might take a highly psychological viewpoint on divinity, or may believe that divinity isn’t an entity and thus not subject to existence, or may think divinity is simply “the absolute,” or may simply not really feel concerned with questions about divinity. Much as atheist philosophers have shaped the history of Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, and various aspects of Christianity, atheists in the Pagan community are there, keeping things from becoming ossified into some canonical form of religiosity. Our lack of commitment to existential divinity is a feature, not a bug, and there’s a good chance that we were quite welcome to the discussion before we brought up that whole atheism thing. Let us hang out. Tell us if we’re telling you what your spiritual reality should be; let us have our spiritual reality and speak from it. We’ll get along fabulously. I promise.” - J. Rhett Aultman on the care and feeding of the atheist Pagan.

“People are so afraid: How will I pay the rent? Will our daughter make it home from war? How will we get through this next crisis? Will the planet hold up under these climate shifts? Will my son make it home from school today? What if I die alone and unloved? What if the Gods aren’t real? Love is greater than our fears. All of them. Even the very real fears. Even the imagined fears. Love is greater.“ – T. Thorn Coyle explaining how love is greater than fear. Thorn has a new book out tomorrow entitled “Make Magic of Your Life: Passion, Purpose, and the Power of Desire.”

P. Sufenas Virius Lupus

“One of the matters which Thorn pointed out in the discussion is one that I’ve very much taken on board over the last twelve years: don’t make very much of the distinction between “the mundane” and “the spiritual” or “the otherworldly,” especially as it applies to events like PantheaCon. PantheaCon is just as much a part of the world as anything else is, and the world with all of its marvels and difficulties is just as much a part of PantheaCon as the gods, spirits, and magic are–and in fact, sometimes even more than we would expect! Thinking back over the PantheaCons I’ve attended since 2007 (i.e. all of them between then and now), I can remember each year just as accurately by what the sleeping arrangements were and how clean I and my fellow room-sharers kept the bathroom (or not) as I can by what events occurred that year or what sessions I offered. I know my memory can be unexpectedly prodigious for such details, even surprising myself on some occasions, but likewise, food varieties and availabilities and amount of rest and patterns of carpet and size of luggage and comfortability and sexiness of clothes and status of ongoing health situations–which, to some, would constitute “mundane matters”–are just as important to me in my memories of these events as the presence of the gods, the movements of spirits, the effects of magic, and the positive or negative influences of specific individuals have been on each occasion. The “mundane” often gives the basis from which we are able to access the “spiritual,” and to ignore this is to ignore one of the very most basic and important teachings of the wider pagan umbrella at present, I think.” – P. Sufenas Virius Lupus on processing his post-PantheaCon experiences, and the false separation between the “mundane” and the “spiritual.”

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

In Paganism, Religion Crystal Blanton, J. Rhett Aultman, Joseph Merlin Nichter, P. Sufenas Virius Lupus, Pagan Voices, Sam Webster, Thorn Coyle

Unleash the Hounds! (Link Roundup)

Jason Pitzl-Waters — January 17, 2013 — 56 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.

I’m not saying this from any kind of religious perspective, but dang “Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters” looks terrible. OK, to get into it a little bit, let me say that I have no problem separating the idea of a folkloric/fantasy witch from other kinds of real-world witchcraft (I’m a savvy consumer of pop-culture). But you know what? Real, innocent, people were tried, convicted, and killed for being “witches” in our collective history, and it still goes on today. So you gotta walk a real fine line if you’re going to make your protagonists witch-hunters and you’re going to mix-and-match fantasy witches with the witch-trials in Early Modern Europe. I don’t see that here. Also: it looks really terrible.
A theistic Satanic group in Florida (The Satanic Temple) is planning to hold a rally on January 25th in solidarity with Gov. Rick Scott’s support of a school “inspirational messages” law (in essence, a school prayer law). Quote: “The Satanic Temple embraces the free expression of religion, and Satanists are happy to show their support of Rick Scott who — particularly with SB 98 — has reaffirmed our American freedom to practice our faith openly, allowing our Satanic children the freedom to pray in school.” I have no idea if this is serious, or if someone is engaging in some next-level trolling. Whichever the case, the Huffington Post is on board, and local media is paying attention.
Chas Clifton responds to P. Sufenas Virius Lupus’s recent Patheos column, “Bringing Back the Gods,” by pointing out that Gerald Gardner wasn’t very spiritually inclined towards deity worship. Quote: “Think about that, the chief founder of a new Pagan religion who never had one of those knock-you-down experiences with the gods that convinces you that She, He, or They are really there.” It should be noted for clarity that Clifton is all for brining back the gods. Lupus responds to Clifton’s response at his personal blog.
Last week was Benin’s annual Vodun festival,the Associated Press has a report. Quote: “Though Benin appears to be where slaves brought to America and the Caribbean learned about Voodoo, the nation itself has a mixed history with the religion. Mathieu Kerekou, a one-time Marxist dictator turned elected president, banned Voodoo practices during the Cold War [...] Now, the religion has its own national day Jan. 10. It coexists peacefully with Islam and Catholicism, the other major religions in the country.”
Sam Webster, author of “Tantric Thelema” and founder of the Open Source Order of the Golden Dawn, is now writing for a column for Patheos entitled “Pagan Restoration.” Quote: “The world will be a better place if the ancient religious cultures of Europe, the Mediterranean, and Mesopotamia are restored to their glory, suitably updated by what we have learned in the last two thousand years. This column is dedicated to achieving this end. We shall call this project Pagan Restoration. To do so, the Pagan community must mature into a healthy, sustainable religious movement.” It should be a thought-provoking journey!
Indian Country Today columnist Duane Champagne asks: How should Native Americans best attempt to protect sacred land? Quote: “A new and promising movement, however, may be afoot. Lately, various nonprofit land-conservancy organizations have used federal and state law to buy land and put it into conservancy trust. And Indian tribes have organized and joined such conservancies, e.g. the Native American Land Conservancy. These groups have also used existing law to remove sacred places from the market and taxation, while preserving plants and animals thereon. Under this approach, the land can be protected from intruders. In many cases, tribes don’t have to explain why they want to preserve the land—as long as they can make strong environmental arguments.”
Senator John Kerry has introduced “The Workplace Religious Freedom Act of 2013” (S.3686) which would, “prohibit employment discrimination on the basis of religion specifically in the areas of ‘garb, grooming, and scheduling.’” If passed, it would mean Pagans could get their holidays off without fear of getting fired or harassed.

Alison Boland, a film graduate student at the University of Texas, has made a short documentary entitled “Under One Sky” about the Austin-based group Interfaith Action of Central Texas (iACT). Tom Davis, the Public Information Officer of the Live Oak Local Council, of the Covenant of the Goddess is interviewed in it. (Hat-tip COG Interfaith Reports)
The PNC Bay Area bureau is conducting a series of interviews in the lead-up to PantheaCon in San Jose. So far they’ve interviewed David Salisbury, Lisa Spiral Besnett, and Joseph Merlin Nitcher: “Pantheacon is a truly amazing thing, it offers such a large variety of activities, events and opportunities, I therefore have numerous motivations to attend and am drawn by the full spectrum of interests. I find the diverse assortment of presentations both spiritually and intellectually stimulating, no matter what your interest or flavor, there’s something there for everyone. I particularly love the interaction, attending various rituals allows me to exploring different traditions, meet new people and make new friends. The social aspect is also a big motivation; there are some friends I only get to see at Pantheacon, which makes the whole experience that much more meaningful.”
A secret history of women and tattoo.

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.

Unleash the Hounds! (Link Roundup)

Jason Pitzl-Waters — September 7, 2012 — 112 Comments

Noted early-music performer Owain Phyfe, a long-time fixture on the Renaissance Faire circuit, science fiction conventions, and Pagan festivals like Pagan Spirit Gathering, passed away this week from pancreatic cancer. Selena Fox of Circle Sanctuary, who knew Owain, had this to say about the musician: “Thank you, Owain, for good times, friendship, & carrying on the bardic tradition with old & new songs & stories! Thank you for being part of the Pagan Spirit Gathering & Green Spirit Festival! Blessings of our Welsh ancestor Owain Glyndwr, upon you as you make your way in Annwn, the Otherworld!” You can find out more about Owain at his Wikipedia page, or this article from Renaissance Magazine. What is remembered lives.
How do you stop a witch-hunt from happening? In rural India, groups of women who met through micro-loan programs are banding together in solidarity to resist the hysteria that can come with an accusation of witchcraft, and have met with some success. Quote: “In one case, a woman was accused of causing disease in livestock and an attack was planned. Members of the self-help groups gathered in a vigil around the woman’s home and surrounded the accuser’s home as well, stating their case to the accuser’s wife. Eventually the wife intervened and her husband recanted and ‘begged for forgiveness.’” So how do stop witch-hunts? Empowering women seems an important first step.
Brian Pulliam, a racist skinhead who has been arrested in connection with a double homicide, is receiving scrutiny for his Asatru faith, which he believes requires him to drink alcohol. The story has prompted a representative of the local Asatru community in the Albuquerque, New Mexico area to speak up and clarify their beliefs, distancing themselves from Pulliam. Quote: “…his claims that Asatru requires him to consume mead for various holidays during the year are baseless. While many of us choose to drink mead or other alcoholic beverages during our celebrations, there is absolutely no requirement to do so. People whose medications won’t allow them to drink alcohol, those who are underage, and active service members in the Middle East, to name just a few examples, are capable of fully celebrating without mead.” The author, Sorn Skald, also noted that Pulliam’s racism would not be welcome in the group with which he worships.
The Vancouver Sun has more on the unfolding controversy over Public Safety Minister Vic Toews’ move to stop the issuing of new contracts for minority-faith chaplains, including a Wiccan chaplain, because he’s “not convinced” that it is needed. Quote: “For the past six years, Wiccan priestess Kate Hansen has been visiting federal inmates across British Columbia who follow the pagan religion, guiding them in meditation and leading them in prayerful chants [...] ”If they choose to scrap this, they’re denying the rights of all of these people – their access to spiritual advisement of the religion of their choice,” Hansen told Postmedia News.” For more on this situation, read my post from yesterday, and be sure to check out the comments section, which features input from a Canadian Pagan prison chaplain.

There’s been a lot of chatter online about Naomi Wolf’s (author of “The Beauty Myth”) upcoming book “Vagina: A New Biography, “ specifically concerning language that explicitly (and implicitly) points towards a Goddess consciousness for women connected to their vaginas. One example: “Despite the repeated invocations of cutting-edge scientific research, the smell of patchouli pervades throughout: there are sentences such as “the vagina may be a ‘hole’, but it is, properly understood, a Goddess-shaped one”. Brace yourself.” A Guardian reviewer called it “dumbed-down feminism” that acts “lesbianism never happened, nor class, nor vast swaths of feminist theory.” You get the idea, the scorn is rising on this one, has Naomi Wolf jumped the shark?
Paul Louis Metzger, author of “Connecting Christ: How to Discuss Jesus in a World of Diverse Paths, ” which I reviewed not too long ago, interviews Mike Stygal of Pagan Federation London and Foundation for Religious Diplomacy Evangelical Chapter Director John W. Morehead for the New Wine, New Wineskins podcast. They, quote, “discuss matters of religious diplomacy between Christians and Pagans and explore why the two groups generally have a hard time interacting with one another.” You can directly download the audio, here.
A couple weeks ago I reported on Lakota, Dakota and Nakota efforts to purchase the land known as Pe’ Sla, an area in the Black Hills of South Dakota, that was being sold by its owners. This land is sacred to the Sioux, central to their creation story. After gaining media attention, the scheduled auction was stopped, and now spokespersons say progress has been made in getting the money together to purchase the land, though the process is still at a delicate stage. Quote: “Though the Rosebud Sioux Tribe (RST) has recently announced progress in their efforts to purchase the sacred site of Pe’ Sla in the Black Hills of South Dakota and RST President Rodney M. Bordeaux has stated to the public, “We have secured funding for the earnest money deposit of Pe’Sla,” the purchase is not final. According to Debra White Plume, a resident of Pine Ridge, information stating Pe’ Sla has been saved is not entirely correct.” We’ll keep you posted on further developments in this case.
With “Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters” coming out soon, and Vin Diesel possibly starring in the in-development “The Last Witch Hunter,” IndieWire asks the pertinent question: “Is Witch Hunting a thing now?” It’s obviously time for a remake of “The Craft”!
Over at his Witches & Pagans blog, Sam Webster asks: “do we really want to be using this kind of Belief-language?” Quote: “It’s the Christian mode for thinking about religion. (We’ll talk more about them in a future post.) Do we want to model our religious thought on theirs? I don’t. I think it poisons our view of Paganism if we uncritically adopt the belief-oriented Christian view of religiosity and supports their distorted understanding of the rest of us.”
Reminder! If you haven’t yet, please support Patrick McCollum’s campaign so he can represent Pagans at the Awakened World 2012 gathering in Rome. Also, congratulations to the New Alexandrian Library for meeting their latest crowdfunding goal in getting their library built!

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.

Pagan Voices: Yeshe Rabbit, Thorn Coyle, Star Foster, Sam Webster, and More!

Jason Pitzl-Waters — August 24, 2012 — 21 Comments

Pagan voices is a new spotlight on recent quotations from figures within the Pagan community. These voices may appear in the burgeoning Pagan media, or from a mainstream outlet, but all showcase our wisdom, thought processes, and evolution in the public eye. Is there a Pagan voice you’d like to see highlighted? Drop me a line with a link to the story, post, or audio.

Ivo Dominguez Jr. of The Assembly of the Sacred Wheel participating in Rabbit’s “I Stand Against Rape” campaign.

“Live that truth. Speak up about rape. Take risks and say things out loud. Make sure you vote for those who respect the rights of women. Don’t worry about the economy so much: as the majority labor force in this country, and the majority in colleges and universities at this time, women will be able to figure things out with the economy once we are able to stop wasting our time on, you know, worrying about being raped or forced to have children who are products of rape. It is amazing how resourceful and smart we are about things like money, medicine, and astrophysics when we don’t have to trouble our pretty little heads about this other crap.” – Yeshe Rabbit, speaking about the “I Stand Against Rape” campaign, which invites men to make a public declaration against rape and share it with the world. You can see a selection of the participants, including my entry, at Rabbit’s Pintrest page.

T. Thorn Coyle

“Patrick has offered service to the larger Pagan community at great expense to himself for many years, working in the US and on the international stage. It is a powerful thing to have a Pagan in such a high profile position at events like Awakened World. I feel grateful for his willingness to do this work, and will lend my support. Patrick, you’ve worked long and hard for us, and it is time for us to do some work to support you.” – T.Thorn Coyle of Solar Cross Temple and Morningstar Mystery School writing in support of Patrick McCollum’s fundraising effort to send him to the Awakened World 2012 gathering in Italy.

Sam Webster (far right) with Chic and Sandra Tabatha Cicero, and Lon Milo DuQuette at a PantheaCon gathering.

Sam Webster (far right) with Chic and Sandra Tabatha Cicero, and Lon Milo DuQuette at a OSOGD PantheaCon gathering.

“As Socrates said (in the Apology), “the unexamined life is not worth living.” These kinds of questions are how humans have examined their lives by challenging themselves in their insight, or in their despair, to answer them. Or fail to. Here are the deep dark waters of the human experience. The record of humanity, especially the religious record, is the record of all the many ways we have attempted to answer them, as far back as writing goes, and arguably even farther. Long have we plumbed those depth and weighed those answers.” – Sam Webster, founder of the Open Source Order of the Golden Dawn (OSOGD), and author of “Tantric Thelema,” on the topic of religion and spirituality.

Star Foster

“When you look at other religious cultures who have survived over the millennia, including polytheistic cultures, you find that the process of creating, expanding and strengthening family was extremely important. Like anything else, these traditional processes could be, and sometimes still are, used to abuse and harm. Just as with a knife that can both slice bread and cut flesh, we don’t simply abandon traditional things because they have the potential to be used to harm. We already work positively with elements that could be used to harm in the wrong hands: divination, initiation, magic, etc…” – Patheos Pagan Portal editor Star Foster, asking if arranged marriages would work for the Pagan community.

Frater Barrabbas (left) with fellow magician Tony Mierzwicki.

“I guess you could say that I prefer my current employment environment where my technical expertise is easily determined by tangible results that I produce every day. A professional magician would function more like a clinical psychologist, often with only some subjective testimonials indicating that the magick worked for this person or that it greatly helped them. As for me, my professional skill-set is constantly being challenged and measured, even certified by an official testing regimen. Since there is nothing like that in the occult world, then claims of self-mastery and teaching accolades would have to be verified by the subjective opinions of various individuals. For myself, I would find this too intangible and tenuous. There is also the problem that if I initiate and teach someone, any fees that I might apply to that teaching would have to be done on a purely “quid pro quo” basis. I could never charge another initiate anything more than what would cover my out of pocket expenses, if even that.” – Frater Barrabbas, on why he won’t become a Professional Pagan Magus.

Book cover for “Manifest Divinity”.

“I don’t believe just because you choose not to do something that you are a bad person. I think you made a different choice. You have to live in our society so you get to decide what you will do and won’t do. Society is differnet for different people. We know people in the Pagan community who are very closeted, whose family doesn’t know what their actual spiritual practice is. And we know people who just can’t understand why you can’t be spiritual every minute of the day and out there and open and loud and proud. The culture you are living in is not necessarily as uniform as we’d like to believe.” - Lisa Spiral Besnett, author of “Manifest Divinity,” responding to a question from PNC Minnesota about personal boundaries and choosing not to do what a deity has told you to do.

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

In Paganism, Religion Frater Barrabbas, Lady Yeshe Rabbit, Lisa Spiral Besnett, Pagan Voices, Sam Webster, Star Foster, Thorn Coyle

Pagan Community Notes: New Alexandrian Library’s Foundation, A Circle Minister’s Protest, A Sierra Club Interview, and More!

Jason Pitzl-Waters — July 24, 2012 — 9 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!

New Alexandrian Library Lays Foundation: At the end of 2011 the New Alexandrian Library officially broke ground on their physical space in Delaware. A project that hopes to create “a library worthy of its namesake” focused on esoteric knowledge, mystical and the spiritual writings from many traditions, and the “ history of our magickal communities,” 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. Now, the foundation for the dome structure has been recently completed, and PNC-Washington DC interviews Assembly of the Sacred Wheel (NAL’s sponsoring organization) Elder Michael Smith about the process.

New Alexandrian Library foundation.

“…sacred waters from around the world, sacred protective objects and crystals charged for this very purpose at our Between The Worlds gatherings’ main rituals in 2000, 2004, and 2007 are placed throughout the foundation. This work was designed to root all of the power and intention we have raised to support the Library over the years. Additional ritual and magickal work will be done at each step of the construction. The specific dome construction allows us to place objects and implant workings into each seam between the triangles – to help the project grow and prosper each step of the way.”

Smith says the project is on-schedule, and construction of the dome kit will begin soon. You can receive regular updates on the library’s progress at their Facebook page. As always, monetary donations, no matter how small, are needed to make this happen. One can donate through the NAL’s website or through the Causes campaign ‘Support the New Alexandrian Library.’ You can read all of The Wild Hunt’s coverage of the New Alexandrian Library project, here.

Circle Minister Joins Eagle Scout Protest: Due to an ongoing policy of the Boy Scouts of America “not granting membership to open or avowed homosexuals,” one recently affirmed by its leadership, a growing number of Eagle Scouts, the organization’s elite members, have been resigning their membership and sending back their badges and medals. One of that growing number is Bob Paxton, a Circle Sanctuary Minister, who was interviewed yesterday by Pagan Newswire Collective Managing Editor Cara Schulz about his decision.

“I can say that as a Pagan my experience as a Boy Scout directly lead to my choosing the Pagan spiritual path. Experience that I had in the woods, experiences I had in summer camps, experiences I had in some of the ceremonial occasions very much led me in that direction [...] We are hoping to accomplish, not only by sending the letters but by publicly sending the letters a public shaming such that if nothing else it’s my hope that down in Irving, Texas as these letters and these medals come in with the mail delivery every day that somebody opens them up, puts them on a table, and takes a look at this and says, “You know, something’s wrong here. We have to do something else. People that we nurtured up to the verge of manhood are coming back to us now from 10, 20, 30, 50 years and saying no, you can’t be like this.” If that doesn’t stand a chance of changing their hearts, I don’t know what will.”

As Paxton notes, his Pagan experience began as a Boy Scout, and no doubt many Pagans nurtured a reverence for nature in a scouting organization. Today, groups like the Spiral Scouts attempt to recreate the scouting experience from with a Pagan lens. Paxton says that as a Pagan minister, and an LGBT ally, he felt the national organization ratifying the exclusion of gay men allows a culture of bullying that could not go unanswered. No doubt other Pagan Eagle Scouts are considering the same steps that he has.

Nature Spirituality Podcast Interviews Former Sierra Club Director: Tomorrow, the Faith, Fern, and Compass podcast, hosted by Alison Leigh Lilly, and her husband Jeff Lilly, will post part one of an interview with Former National Director of the Sierra Club Melanie Griffin in a two-part special.

Melanie Griffin

“After a wildly successful premiere season during which the new podcast hosted by Alison Leigh Lilly and her husband Jeff Lilly grew in leaps and bounds reaching listeners worldwide, Faith, Fern & Compass celebrates with a two-part special exploring the changing face of environmentalism and the growing interest in nature-centered spirituality. Former National Director of the Sierra Club Melanie Griffin has been a leader in the national environmental movement for more than 25 years; as an activist and lobbyist, she has been instrumental in the passing of ground-breaking legislation to protect the environment and regulate industry in the United States. In an exclusive interview with FF&C co-host Jeff Lilly, she shares personal reflections on her experiences working for the Sierra Club, exploring the ways that science, technology, the economy and social media has shaped the conversation about ecology and environmentalism over the past few decades, and how her own faith has played an important role in her commitment to the planet.”

Lilly has long been a champion of environmental concerns within the context of modern Paganism, and is the coordinator/editor of the Pagan Newswire Collective’s No Unsacred Place group blog, which explores the relationships between religion and science, nature and civilization from a diversity of modern Pagan perspectives. Griffin says she “sees the divine most strikingly in the natural world,” and this should be a must-listen program for anyone interested in how our faith, and environmental activism can intersect. You can subscribe to Faith, Fern, and Compass on iTunes, or download directly from their site.

In Other Community News:

Noted Pagan writer and clergyman Sam Webster, founder of the Open Source Order of the Golden Dawn (OSOGD), and author of “Tantric Thelema,” has started a new blog at the Witches & Pagans Magazine site entitled “Arkadian Anvil: Hammering out a Pagan Future.” Webster, who holds an M.Div. and is a Doctoral candidate in History at the University of Bristol, UK, under Prof. Ronald Hutton, wants “to take any and all ideas and practices that are called Pagan, Magic[k]al, Esoteric or Wiccan, and subject them to the anvil. Like a new-forged steel sword being slapped on the anvil to test its mettle, we will examine ideas like ‘nature worship’ or ‘earth-centered’, like ‘elder’ or ‘Pagan leader’, or even ‘Goddess’ or ‘God’ and see if they will hold up under the strain.” Sounds like a must-read/follow to me!
Paperback and PDF versions of Michael Lloyd’s “Bull of Heaven: The Mythic Life of Eddie Buczynski and the Rise of the New York Pagan” are now available for order! Ebook editions will follow soon. This is a must-own for anyone curious about the history of modern Paganism in New York, or of the development of modern Paganism in general. Check out a guest post Lloyd wrote for The Wild Hunt on preserving our history.
On a somewhat related theme, Eric Scott writes about the difficulty of finding and learning about your spiritual lineage. Quote: “If Deryk hadn’t brought his strand of Wicca from England. . . If Deryk hadn’t come to St. Louis for his work. . . If they hadn’t started Watersmeet. . . In so many ways, I owe everything I am to these two strangers. Who were they?”

That’s all I have for now! Speaking of Pagan community events, I’ll be at Faerieworlds this weekend, and hope to share with you the many Pagan elements of this wonderful event. So stay tuned! As always, if you have community news you’d like to share, please drop me a line.

In Paganism, Religion Alison Leigh Lilly, Assembly of the Sacred Wheel, Bob Paxton, Boy Scouts, Bull of Heaven: The Mythic Life of Eddie Buczynski and the Rise of the New York Pagan, Circle Sanctuary, environmentalism, Eric Scott, Faith Fern and Compass, Michael Lloyd, Michael Smith, New Alexandrian Library Project, Pagan Community Notes, PNC-Washington DC, Sam Webster, Sierra Club, Witches and Pagans Magazine

Archives For Sam Webster

Pagan Voices: Metal Mother, Morpheus Ravenna, Shauna Aura Knight, and More!

Pagan Voices: Joseph Merlin Nichter, T. Thorn Coyle, Crystal Blanton, and More!

Unleash the Hounds! (Link Roundup)

Unleash the Hounds! (Link Roundup)

Pagan Voices: Yeshe Rabbit, Thorn Coyle, Star Foster, Sam Webster, and More!

Pagan Community Notes: New Alexandrian Library’s Foundation, A Circle Minister’s Protest, A Sierra Club Interview, and More!

Wild Hunt Posts by Author

Wild Hunt Fall Funders

Wild Hunt Supporter Links

Archives

Meta