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NEW ORLEANS — It was announced this weekend that the Voodoo Spiritual Temple was finally back in business after an electrical fire destroyed its historic building earlier this year. The temple has become an icon of New Orleans, having been serving visitors and students since 1990. Despite the losses caused by the late winter fire, founder Priestess Miriam was determined to continue her work. She would find a way.
After eight months of fund raising and work, the Voodoo Spiritual Temple is back open at its new location at 1428 N. Rampart Street. With the help of friends, including student Witchdoctor Utu, Priestess Miriam was able to raise close to $25,000 toward the reopening. On her website, she writes, “As Oswan would say, ‘Me and the Father is one!’ Well I say equally that me and the Voodoo Spiritual Temple is one each in the heart of all of you. My goal is to retain the unified structure in which the temple is about and to serve those who are challenged with multiple conflicts in their lives and to educate in a way that people can retain order and discipline in their lives that they will be able to serve themselves and others with the best of respect.” We will be bringing you more on the reopening and future of the temple in the coming days.
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Cara Schulz door knocking [Courtesy Photo]
Schulz applied for the endorsement through the organization’s website, and was recently informed of her acceptance. She does not yet know what the endorsement means specifically for the campaign, but she is glad to have this support. Schulz said, “I am so honored to be endorsed by an organization devoted to helping candidates with a pro-woman stance get elected to office. Their help has been instrumental in electing many women candidates in local, state, and federal offices. My race is going to be exceptional close and their support could even the odds.”
On its website, WomenWinning.org writes that it is “building a statewide movement dedicated to increasing pro-choice women’s representation at all levels of office.This movement includes women, men, Democrats, Republicans and everyone in between. Our members know that electing women isn’t just good for women, it’s good for everyone.”
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BELLINGHAM, Mass. — The Robin’s Nest, a metaphysical store located in the Bellingham Marketplace, recently launched a new charitable giving program to assist local Pagans in need. On the Facebook home page, Robbi Packard writes, “Sometimes we just need a little hand up. This is where the idea of creating an auction to raise funds to meet these needs arose. Through the generous donations of services and items for auction, we will seek to answer that often not sought out prayer for help.”
The Robin’s Nest auction was held over the weekend. It raised over $2,000, all of which will be gifted to a local family to help cover medical expenses. This new charitable event was considered a success, and the store plans to hold a similar auctions every spring and fall. Packard wrote to all of those that contributed, “Thank you for making a difference.”
In other news
- Next October will play host to the first annual Gathering of the Bards.To be held in Greenville, South Carolina at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, the gathering will be a poetry, prose and music contest, as well as a fundraiser for Elder Grove Seminary. According to the site, those performers that place top in the songwriting categories will be featured on the Gathering of the Bards 2017 album. Conveniently for Pagan music fans, this performance event will happen only one week after CalderaFest 2017, and is located only a few hours’ drive away.
- But for this October, another musical event is happening. Coming Saturday, Emerald Rose will play together for the very last time at the Starbridge Event Center in Murryasville, Georgia. The small festival will take place outdoors from 10-12 p.m.
- We are in the middle of Pagan Pride season, and every year there are new events that are held in regions or cities that never had one before. This year marked the first Ann Arbor Pagan Pride Day. It was held Sept 17 on the Washtenaw Community College campus. The event boasted “a Peruvian fire ceremony by James Stovall, plus workshops on Druidry, Hood Magic, and magical cleaning, along with information booths, and vendors.” The event was visited by the local press, who published an article titled “WCC hosted its first Pagan Pride Event.” If you are hosting a unique or new Pagan Pride event, send TWH a press release. We want to share what is going on in local communities.
- Moving from festivals to books, Buckland’s classic Witchcraft From the Inside is “back in print.” However, it has been renamed Witchcraft Revealed and published by Buckland himself. The original was in written in 1971 and was in print for several decades through Llewellyn. Why did Buckland decided to re-release it? He wrote, “I very much believe there’s a lot of life in it yet. It’s a book I would like to see as a standard since it deals with the early history of Witchcraft and Wicca; something that is glossed over a lot these days but which is important to the understanding of our heritage.”
- Author Lorna Smithers, who was the editor of the second edition of A Beautiful Resistance, will be releasing her second book Monday. Titled The Broken Cauldron, the new book is a collection of her stories, essays and poems. Smithers writes, “At the centre of ancient British mythology stands the cauldron: the womb of Ceridwen, Old Mother Universe, symbolising inspiration, wisdom and rebirth. What happens when it lies shattered, the universe fragmented, the world out of kilter? These questions, for a post-modern age imperiled by global climate change and endless warfare, were posed by my deity, Gwyn ap Nudd, a ruler of Annwn and a guardian of the cauldron.” Smithers first book was titled Enchanting the Shadow Lands.
- Perhaps you need some Halloween-inspired reading material? Bundle Rabbit has created a Witches’ Brew Bundle with 20 different fiction titles that fit that category. One of those happens to be author and activist T. Thorn Coyle’s short story, Lizard and Lying Men. Coyle writes, “Lizards and Lying Men is set in 1990s San Francisco, tells the tale of Dagger, working in a peep show, biding her time. How else is a witch-slash-sorcerer-slash-psychic who has turned in her Akashic Library Card supposed to support herself? Then a man walks into her favorite coffee shop, saying he needs her help…and there might be lizards involved.” This story is only available through Bundle Rabbit.
- And lastly, Sencha the Vate has released a new album titled Winter of the Wheel, which is touted as being a return to his “folk rock roots.” He writes, “Winter of the Wheel is a tribute to Pagan Elders who have helped Paganism grow to an internationally recognized spiritual path”
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Go, Cara!
Just curious: in its season, do folk see Cara Cara oranges and give them to you? They are one of my favorite oranges.