TALLAHASSEE, Fla.- Last week, we reported on two bills currently before the Florida State Legislature, Senate Bill 1044 and its companion House Bill 931, that propose granting permission for chaplains to volunteer in Florida schools. These bills aim to authorize public schools to enlist volunteer chaplains to offer student counseling services.
In response to the bills, Lady Bridget of Everglades Moon Local Council in Florida, a local council of Covenant of the Goddess, responded to the proposals in the bills in an open letter to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. Lady Bridget shared the letter with The Wild Hunt.
Executive Office of Governor Ron DeSantis.
400 S Monroe St.
Tallahassee, FL 32399.March 8, 2024
Dear Governor DeSantis,I would be in favor of allowing Chaplains in the schools so long as ALL religions are represented. I am a Wiccan High Priestess and an ordained Minister who offers services to my community. I do counseling, weddings, and handfastings, as well as rites of passage and other services.
My Coven has been in existence since 1994, and a member of Covenant of the Goddess since 1996, and we have been actively training Witches and Wiccans in our Tradition for many years. I look forward to the opportunity to meet young people who are also interested in Wicca and Paganism through this new law that you are about to sign.
Often young people are curious about other religions but do not have the resources available to them to ask about it or have a verified reading list of reliable information, so they turn to the internet. As we both know, many things on the internet are at best untrue, and at worst, dangerous. Our Tradition stresses in-person learning for this reason. It is very helpful to new seekers to have someone curate their reading list and author’s list for them, in order to avoid incorrect information.
This does not mean that we proselytize or go “door to door”, no, that never happens. Those who are interested in the Olde Religion find us themselves, even if it takes years to find a teacher. This new bill that you are about to sign will enable many youths to find a teacher without having to waste years seeking one.
Since we are a legally recognized and legitimate 501(3)c organization, we are also legally able to perform all the duties that other Ministers and Chaplains are allowed to perform. Therefore, we would be enjoying equal access to the school system. Trust me, we have the resources to fight in court if this were denied to us but granted to other religious organizations. We have successfully battled this kind of discrimination in the past; we were part of the movement to get the Pentacle recognized as a symbol for Armed Forces gravestones by the Federal Government. And we are not alone in this, there are several active organizations who would join with us in a fight against discrimination. What the government grants to one religion, it must legally grant to ALL.
Thank you for this opportunity to serve our young people.
Blessings,
Rev. Elizabeth Field
The bills are currently progressing through the legislative process in Florida. If approved, they are scheduled to take effect on July 1.
Lady Bridget told The Wild Hunt that she encourages others in Florida to contact the Governor’s office.
Office of Governor Ron DeSantis
State of Florida
The Capitol
400 S. Monroe St.
Tallahassee, FL 32399-0001Telephone: (850) 717-9337
Twitter/X: @GovRonDeSantis
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Happening this weekend!
Twin Cities Pagan Pride will be hosting their 12th annual Paganicon Midwest Conference, March 17-19, 2023, at the Crowne Plaza Minneapolis West, 3131 Campus Dr, Plymouth, MN.
Paganicon is a Pagan conference with workshops, panels, discussions, social space, live music, a ball, vendors, and more. In its twelfth year, Paganicon is organized by Twin Cities Pagan Pride and a host of volunteers to provide an educational and social venue for Pagans, Wiccans, Heathens, Druids, and other folk, craft, indigenous or magickal traditions. Paganicon welcomes Guests:
Photo Credit: Christopher Penczak
Christopher Penczak is a Witch, teacher, writer, and healing practitioner. His practice draws upon the foundation of both modern and traditional Witchcraft blended with the wisdom of mystical traditions from across the globe as a practitioner and teacher of shamanism, tarot, Reiki healing, herbalism, astrology and Qabalah.
He is the founder of the Temple of Witchcraft tradition and system of magickal training based upon the material of his books and classes. He is an ordained minister primarily serving the New Hampshire and Massachusetts pagan and metaphysical communities through public rituals, private counsel and teaching, though he travels extensively teaching throughout the United States.
Andras Corban-Arthen is the founder and spiritual director of the EarthSpirit Community and is also president of the European Congress of Ethnic Religions headquartered in Vilnius, Lithuania. He is a member of the advisory council of the Ecospirituality Foundation, a United Nations Consultative NGO in Italy, and served for thirteen years on the board of trustees of the Parliament of the World’s Religions. Andras became involved in paganism in 1969 and has taught and lectured publicly about the pagan traditions in over twenty countries; he has been featured in a number of books as well as news media. Originally from Galiza, Spain, he lives with his extended family in Glenwood, a 130-acre pagan sanctuary and nature preserve in a forest of the Berkshire Highlands in western Massachusetts.
Kristoffer Hughes is Chief of the Anglesey Druid Order and the award-winning author of several books including As the last leaf falls and Cerridwen: Celtic Goddess of Inspiration. He is the designer of the Celtic Tarot and the forthcoming Yuletide Tarot and The Book of Druidry. He is a graduate of the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids and is its thirteenth Mount Haemus Scholar. He was born to a Welsh family on the foothills of mount Snowdon and is a native Welsh speaker who is devoted to the Welsh pantheon of deities. He is also a part time Welsh language television actor and presenter. He lives on the sacred Isle of Anglesey, the last stronghold of the ancient British Druids. He can be reached online via angleseydruidorder.co.uk
- Festival favorites, Sharon Knight and Winter, will be the Friday Night Concert entertainment. International musicians who are currently working on their eighth studio album, called Undertow, which they anticipate being completed in Spring 2023. Dynamic music & dance project, The Mechanist & The Star Goddess, will open the entertainment for the Equinox Masquerade Costume Ball. The band combines electric violin, heavy percussion, and mesmerizing movement to create a profound sight-and-sound experience. They will be followed Open Investigation, who take original 60’s to 70’s style Classic Rock and Blues music to the next level with a fusion of with Folk-Rock harmonies, gutsy vocals, and a psychedelic backbone.
- 2023 Art Show – The Third Offering: A Sacred Gallery Space. Artists from all over the U.S. will be displaying all types of visual media. The Art Gallery is free and open to the public.
Twin Cities Pagan Pride is a 501(c)3 independent organization. Its mission is to educate the general public about earth-reverent faiths, promote religious tolerance for all faiths, and to provide a forum for the exploration, comparison, contrast, growth and expansion of diverse spiritual and religious ideas, theories, practices, traditions and views.
Ár nDraíocht Féin’s Chokecherry Grove (Denver, CO) will be holding a one-day virtual event on Methods of Divination on Saturday, March 16th, 2024.
Our planned speakers are as follows:
- ADF’S ARCHDRUID REV. JEAN “DRUM” PAGANO will talk about his new MOON ORACLE.
- G. R. GROVE will speak on the OGAM.
- JAMES “PIGEON” FIELDER will discuss GAMING DIVINATION.
- LISA LANYON will speak on the TAROT.
- The day will conclude with a PANEL DISCUSSION on IMPROMPTU DIVINATION: WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN YOU FORGOT YOUR TOOLS?
Each speaker will speak for an hour, followed by half an hour for questions. There will be two sessions in the morning, starting at 9:00 am MDT and 3:00 pm MDT. The sessions will be recorded, and copies shared with everyone who signs up. Note that this is a series of technical workshops and there will be no opportunity for personal readings.
The panel discussion will be followed by an ADF Core Order Ritual celebrating the first quarter moon and the Spring Equinox. To get an idea of what this will involve, see our ebook “Prayers and Invocations for Chokecherry Grove, ADF”. Everyone who signs up for the workshop will get a coupon code for a free copy.
Information is available on Chokecherry Grove’s site. They noted that the price for the whole day’s series of Zoom links is $10, and the payment link is on the sidebar to your right. (They also added that if the link is viewed on a phone, they advised to scroll down to the bottom to choose “view web version” to see the links.)
Padraic Fitzgerald via Cherry Hill Seminary
Free Online Sat Mar 16: Padraic Fitzgerald on Nordic Neopagan Identity–at a Norwegian Heavy Metal Festival
Coming to the Center Hosts Padraic Fitzgerald on “The Formation of Nordic Neopagan Identity, Religiosity, and Community at a Norwegian Heavy Metal Festival,” the topic of his 2023 dissertation.
Saturday, March 16 at 3:00 PM Eastern Time.
The Cherry Hill Seminary program is free but guests must register for the Zoom link.
Padraic Fitzgerald is an adjunct instructor at the College of Charleston in their Religious Studies department. He recently graduated from the University of Denver and Iliff School of Theology Joint Doctoral Program in Religious Studies (’23). His dissertation, titled Til Valhall!: The Formation of Nordic Neopagan Identity, Religiosity, and Community at a Norwegian Heavy Metal Festival, explores the Midgardsblot heavy metal festival as a temporary sacred space where people self-identifying as belonging to or adjacent to Nordic Neopaganism engage with manifold forms of Nordic folk symbolism to refine religious identities and achieve religious experiences. His research interests include material religion with an emphasis on the natural environment and religious musicology, the “greening” of religion, Northern European folk traditions, Neopagan movements, and the relationship between religion and popular culture. For questions, contact chs@cherryhillseminary.org or visit Cherry Hill Seminary
Announcements
COLUMBIA, SC — Today Cherry Hill Seminary announced the launch of a spring annual appeal fundraising campaign, “A Universe of Possibilities.” With a goal of $20,000 in both gifts and pledges, more than $11,000 has already been committed.
“Something that fascinates me about Cherry Hill Seminary is the multitude of people, groups and cities being changed for the better by our students,” said Executive Director Holli Emore. “Just a handful of examples are: serving a UU congregation as minister; running CUUPs groups; being hospital and hospice chaplains; offering spiritual direction services to clients; organizing a new tax-exempt Pagan congregation; leading a landed Heathen hof; teaching the arts for Pagans; active duty military service; running LGBTQ support groups; advising prison chaplains and management; and so many more things.
“How could we even begin to count how many lives Cherry Hill Seminary may be touching through our students?” Emore continued. “Then there is simply the enrichment experienced by so many who take a course out of curiosity and learn that there is a whole world of Pagan religious studies out there.”
A Universe of Possibilities appeal will run through April, or until goal is reached. Those wishing to contribute may visit this link
Cherry Hill Seminary serves Pagan and Nature-based communities by providing transformative education and empowering students to advance academically and lead spiritually, envisioning a world where people of Pagan and Nature-based spiritualities can receive competent and compassionate spiritual support.
Upcoming Events
Ivo Dominguez Jr. announced a 3-day summit called Shield and Spell: A Gathering for Witches, Healers, and Empaths. The summit will cover spiritual protection and defensive magic from April 2nd to 4th, 2024. They write “Shield & Spell Summit is here to guide you through these challenges and answer your questions with wisdom from seasoned practitioners. Join us to deepen your knowledge in auric protection and defensive magic.”
The event includes Chaos Magic by Azariel Flame, Crystal Magic with Nicholas Pearson, Anti-Vampire Wards with Alexa Branco, Auric Clearing workshop series with Wendy Mata, and a Zoom Q&A panel with Sen Elias from New Orleans City Crescent Conjure, Ivo Domingues the author of The Four Elements Of The Wise, Nicholas Pearson the Author of The Seven Archeotype Stones, and Aunt Carla the founder of The Red Soul Flower.
Details are available on the Shield and Spell Summit website.
IshtarFest is back!
TWH received word that “We are continuing Ishtarfest as an international virtual conference.” This year’s theme is “Passion & Strength: Sheroes & Heroes.” The content of this festival is Sumerian/Mesopotamian-based so that we can immerse ourselves and learn about our pagan roots in the fertile crescent. You do not have to be a practitioner of Mesopotamian/Sumerian Reconstructionism, though you will meet some at this festival for sure. The festival is open to all who wish to learn more about religious practices, myths, and beliefs 5000 years ago.
The organizers wrote: ” We have so many new presentations for you. There are opportunities for additional presentations.
Interested? Please submit a proposal.
This is Inanna and the gods of Mesopotamia; their passions run deep. In addition to traditional spirituality, feel free to explore deeper aspects of sexuality and body-positive empowerment. No nudity, but otherwise, let your imagination wander.
We encourage you and/or your group to write a class, a ritual, a cooking demonstration, perform music, or present any themed spiritual offering surrounding Sumerian mythology and culture.”
This is a virtual festival visit their website for additional information.
Circle Sanctuary’s Pagan Spirit Gathering (PSG) is one of America’s oldest and largest Nature Spirituality festivals. Since 1980, PSG has been bringing together Pagans of many paths and places to create community, celebrate the summer solstice, and commune with nature in a sacred environment.
Registration is now open for the 2024 Pagan Spirit Gathering, a national weeklong celebration of Summer Solstice, being held June 16-23 in south central Missouri, USA. This year’s theme is Resonating Radiance.
Pagan Spirit Gathering, also known as PSG, brings together Pagans of many paths and places to create and live in a magickal village community. The Gathering includes rituals, workshops, concerts, merchanting, bonfires, drumming, candlelight labyrinth, Pagan Leadership Institute, life passages programs, and other activities. Learn more & register
The Mystic South Conference announced that the sixth annual event will take place July 26-28, 2024! Mystic South is filled with workshops, educational abstract presentations, rituals, community building, and much more. With the backdrop of the grand city of Atlanta, be a part of our celebration of the diversity of the peoples and religious practices, both past and present, that make up the Southern US region.
The conference also announced that their tickets are on sale. Get your tickets now and, get some for your friends, your neighbors, or just some random person you met on the street!
Tarot of the Week by Star Bustamonte
Deck: Ostara Tarot, by Molly Applejohn, Eden Cooke, Krista Gibbard, and Julia Iredale, published by Schiffer Publishing, Ltd.
Card: Six (6) of Wands
The next seven days are likely to offer up some well-deserved recognition for achieving a measure of success when it comes to goals or milestones that have been met. Be mindful that one person’s accomplishments in no way diminish what others have achieved.
Conversely, there is liable to be an emphasis on not allowing the ego to brandish victories as a way to take center stage or even wield them as a weapon. Such behavior is very likely to precipitate a fall from grace and be reflective of an overall lack of confidence.
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