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Pagan Community Notes: Week of December 18, 2022

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Mid-winter sunrise – Image credit: simonwakefield –  CC BY 2.0

WILTSHIRE, England – The winter solstice is on December 21, at 9:48 pm (EDT) but the annual sunrise celebration at Stonehenge will occur on December 22. As with the past few years, English Heritage will livestream the sunrise on their YouTube channel beginning at 7:00 am with sunrise at 8:09 am (UTC). Conversion times for those around the globe that might wish to watch the livestream can be found on the site Date and Time.

In the U.S., the livestream will begin at 2:00 am with sunrise at 3:09 am (EDT), and on the west coast, 11:00 pm on December 21, with sunrise at 12:09 am (PST) on December 22.

If there is one thing truly good to come out of the pandemic and lockdowns, it is perhaps the elevation of livestreaming and the greater access to global events that would have previously been impossible for many people to ever attend. What started out as a stop-gap measure at Stonehenge during the lockdowns seems to be evolving into a tradition.

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CHESAPEAKE, Va. – The Satanic Temple (TST) and its After School Satan Club (ASSC) has been in the news again this past week. In early December, TWH reported on opposition to a proposed an ASSC in Wilmington, Ohio. Now, similar opposition in Virginia to an After School Satan Club meeting is being voiced, despite ASSC meeting all the criteria for applying for use of the space within the B.M. Williams Primary School in the Chesapeake community in Virginia.

The ASSC request was submitted after a Christian evangelical “Good News Club” group was started at the school earlier this year. Despite the parent who sponsored the ASSC and submitted the request doing everything correctly and to the letter, which school administrators approved, there has been pushback from members of the community. So much pushback the school sent out a letter that specified while the ASSC was “not a District-approved club … the Application was compliant with District Policy,” and that following the guidelines under federal law the program was approved.

Following a 2001 Supreme Court ruling, religious organizations cannot be denied space to hold after-school meetings within public schools. They also cannot discriminate in which religious organizations they allow to use school space. Denying ASSC would be a clear violation of the law.

It was also pointed out that a school principal had sent out an email to parents earlier in the year that contained a flyer and permission slip for the “Good News Club” which was a violation of school policy. ASSC had requested their flyer and permission slips be given the same treatment but were told doing so was a violation of school policy.

Shortly after, the parent in the school district who had signed on to sponsor the program opted to withdraw their name from the application but the ASSC had another parent who intended to take their place. This resulted in the school administrators canceling the program until the application could be resubmitted.

Meanwhile, the amount of outrage expressed by some members of the community has exhibited enough vitriol at a December 12 school board meeting that administrators now want to make a “safety assessment” before approving the resubmitted ASSC application.

There are a number of ways that the school board and school administrators might choose to address the issue that would bode ill for not just the ASSC but any after-school program that is not aligned with purported Christian values. Either rejecting the application due to “safety concerns” or requiring ASSC to hire private security could have major impacts and discourage any non-Christian groups from even applying.

How this shakes out is something Pagans, Heathens, and polytheists should pay attention to since it has the potential to affect other communities both inside and outside of Virginia.

TWH will continue to follow this story and report on any new developments. Currently, there is no date for when the school board will issue a decision but the ASSC is hoping to have its first meeting on January 26, 2023.

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Ardantane logo

JEMEZ SPRINGS, N. M. – Ardantane Learning Center’s  Wiccan high priestess, Amber K, and her partner Azrael Arynn K were recently featured in the Santa Fe New Mexican in a story about their winter solstice ceremony. The article also featured information about a solstice event to be held at the Santa Fe Community Yoga Center hosted by JoAnne Dodgson; commentary from Wiccan priestess, Laura Liles of Lady of the Woods, a Pagan church and coven in Los Alamos; and comments from Nathan Hatfield, who is a supervisory park ranger for interpretation, about the winter solstice at Chaco Culture National Historical Park and Aztec Ruins National Monument.

The inclusion of Pagan and Wiccan practices in mainstream media is notable as it continues to expand outside of the regular deluge October-Halloween-Samhain coverage most magical practitioners have come to expect each year. The article itself does a good job of explaining the ceremonies being held, some of the various traditions associated with Yule and the winter solstice and who celebrates them, as well as some of the myths like that of the Holly King.

Announcements:

      • Cherry Hill Seminary will host two virtual events in the coming weeks. First, on Saturday, January 7, at 2:00 EDT, CHS executive director, Holli Emore, will talk about her recent trip to Egypt and her experiences as “an American Kemetic traveling in a Muslim country, the temples, tombs, wildlife, gardens, poverty, riches, beauty both lush and austere, the environmental danger to all Egyptian monuments, and everywhere the warmth and kindness of the people.” Emore’s talk, “Nile Pilgrimage” will be via Zoom, and pre-registration is required. The second event is part of CHS’ “Coming to the Center” lecture series and will feature noted English historian, Professor Ronald Hutton on Saturday, January 28, at 3:00 pm EDT. The event is free but requires pre-registration.

      • M. Macha NightMare, Witch at Large, will be featured in The Marin Interfaith Council’s, “Getting to  Know Your Neighbor’s Faith: Ask Me Anything!” on December 21, 2022, at 6:00 pm (PST). The Council describes the event as “Every Third Wednesday of the month at 6 pm, we will be hosting an hour-long event where you can join, either in person or online, to learn about a different faith tradition from a practitioner of that faith, and ask any questions you may have. Our guest each month will share a little about their faith, then take questions.” The event is both in person at First Presbyterian Church San Rafael, 1510 Fifth Ave. San Rafael in Canoles Hall (entrance on Mission Ave.), and virtually via Zoom.

      • Mystic South Conference has issued a “Call For Papers for 2023.” The annual event is held in Atlanta, Georgia, and will take place on July 14-16, 2023. Mystic South is a polytheistic conference and the call is for papers of a polytheistic spiritual nature. Blocks of the allotted time for those submissions that are accepted will be one hour. Presenters receive free access to the entire conference in exchange for their presentation of their paper. Papers may be either written and read or read and audio/visual in format. Those interested can submit a 400 +/- word abstract via the event’s website, deadline for submitting abstracts is February 28, 2023. The event states, “This is a perfect place for those that are not used to presenting academic papers; such as students, junior faculty, or those that are looking for tenure or promotion credits.” Questions pertaining to papers may be directed to the Papers Coordinator, Gypsey Elaine Teague (gypseys@gmail.com).

      • The 5th International Conference on Arts and Humanities Women in religion: from spiritual leadership to female empowerment, organized by the International Centre for Studies of Arts and Humanities (ICSAH) and the Dante Alighieri Society of Nicosia in cooperation with the Università degli Studi di Milano and the Pontificia Università Salesiana has issued a call for papers: “This year, we invite proposals that explore the female share in leadership roles related to religion (saints, prophetesses, priestesses, nuns, preachers, witches, shamans and more), and emphasize how their achievements are reflected in history and art. How prominent female figures have compromised men’s secured positions of power in socio-religious structures? What was their role in shaping gender-responsive societies? We encourage also papers that examine through a gender lens the impact of religion on civic life by analyzing the deeds of women of faith from a political perspective, or deal with cases of political power over religion, in cases of women who achieved to change traditional religious concepts, practices, customs or symbols. We welcome papers that deal with all religious systems from ancient to present times.” The deadline for submissions is March 30th, 2023. The conference will take place on May 8 – 9, 2023 in Milan, Italy.

    Upcoming Events:

      • On Tuesday, December 20, Circle Sanctuary will livestream, “Winter Solstice Eve Longest Night” from 7:00 – 8:00 pm (CST) on its YouTube Channel. On Wednesday, December 21, at 7:00 pm (CST), the group will participate in the “Solstice Night Multifaith Longest Night” an interfaith event held at the Fitchburg Memorial United Church of Christ, 5705 Lacy Road, Fitchburg, WI 53711-5321, located near Madison, Wisconsin. The event will also be livestreamed on the Fitchburg Memorial UCC’s YouTube channel.

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      • The Sunday, December 18, broadcast of A DARK SOLSTICE, is available for online listening for anyone who missed the programming. The Dark Nation Radio program is an annual three-hour program of neo-medieval, pagan, Viking chants, and dark folk for the longest nights of the year (in the northern hemisphere), and hosted by Jeffrey Weinstock. Other upcoming programs on Spirit of Resistance Radio that may be of interest: on Tuesday, December 27 – DJ Cypher’s Psychobilly Family Power Hour—rockabilly, psychobilly, horror punk, and assorted mayhem; and on Sunday, January 1 the Dark Nation Radio 3-hour 2022 retrospective. Both shows begin at 9:00 pm (EST).

      In other news:

        • NASA announced last week that while it intends to continue its commitment to studying climate change, it has canceled “the GeoCarb mission, which was a collaboration with the University of Oklahoma and Lockheed Martin that intended to put a greenhouse gas–monitoring satellite into geostationary orbit.” The GeoCarb mission was originally chosen in 2016 by NASA but according to a statement released late last month, NASA plans to “instead implement a plan for pursuing alternate options to measure and observe greenhouse gases.” Spokesperson Thomas Zurbuchen, the associate administrator for science at NASA Headquarters in Washington said in the statement, “Decisions like this are difficult, but NASA is dedicated to making careful choices with the resources provided by the people of the United States. We look forward to accomplishing our commitment to state-of-the-art climate observation in a more efficient and cost-effective way.” Also included in the statement, “NASA reached the decision about GeoCarb because of technical concerns, cost performance, and availability of new alternative data sources, as well as to keep the Earth Science portfolio aligned with overall science priorities. GeoCarb sought to probe the natural sources and exchange processes that control carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, and methane in the atmosphere over the Americas. NASA will collaborate with the principal investigator team at the University of Oklahoma to plan an orderly close out the project.” The cost of GeoCarb was originally projected and capped at $170.9 million while the current estimates were over $600 million. One of the planned actions is “to augment its greenhouse gas observations by prioritizing a greenhouse gas mission as the first Earth System Explorers mission, obtaining greenhouse gas data from international and commercial partners, extending the Orbiting Carbon Observatory-3 mission aboard the orbital laboratory, and conducting additional airborne observations.”

        • In repatriation news, Pope Francis has made the decision to return three 2,500-year-old marble pieces of the Parthenon to Greece. The three pieces or fragments consist of a head of a horse, a head of a boy, and a bearded male head. They have been held in the papal collections of the Vatican Museums for at least two centuries. Instead of simply returning the pieces to Greek officials or The Acropolis Museum, Pope Francis instead designated them as a “donation” to Archbishop Ieronymos II, the head of the Greek Orthodox Church and Greece’s spiritual leader, and as an expression of “a concrete sign of his sincere desire to follow in the ecumenical path of truth.” There has been open speculation that returning the marbles in this fashion was done to avoid setting a precedent that could pave the way for other items in the Vatican Museums to be called into question and ultimately force the Vatican to return large portions of its collections.


        Positively Noteworthy

        This past October the monolithic and iconic carved statues of Rapa Nui, commonly known as Easter Island, were impacted by a wildfire. Despite the best efforts of volunteers, over 100 moai, (the Rapanui name of the statues) were damaged by the fire which roughly spanned a one square mile area. Rapa Nui National Park is a UNESCO-designated world heritage site.

        While the damage to the stone of the standing ancestral giants on Rapa Nui remains largely unknown, many are scorched and marred by soot. UNESCO has allocated close to $100,000 to help with assessing the damage and for potential repair efforts.

        For the Rapanui people, these massive statues represent their ancestors and are a cornerstone of their cultural and spiritual traditions that span over 1,000 years. These traditions were only rediscovered and reembraced after the Rapanui suffered through several centuries of the damage and destruction of colonization.

        Each moai was carved in the likeness of a tribal leader or “grandfather” who died and was installed atop a platform known as an ahu that contained the elder’s remains. Each moai is unique and has its own name. Many modern-day Rapanui can trace their family history and ancestry back to a moai.

        The moai stand in various locations around the island, numbering over 900, serving as silent watchers, protectors, and even inspiration for the Rapanui people.


        Tarot of the week by Star Bustamonte

        Deck: Sun and Moon Tarot, by Vanessa Decort, published by U.S. Games Systems, Inc.

        Card: Major arcana X (10) Wheel of Fortune

        The week ahead while certainly reflecting the turning of the wheel and the shift in seasons, also speaks to new opportunities that may offer a fresh start or a shift of energy for a more positive approach. Wisdom, flexibility, and creativity are likely to figure prominently, underwritten by strength.

        Conversely, if something appears to be “too good to be true,” a discerning eye is called for as hasty decisions based on faulty data can result in poor outcomes and results.

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