TWH – Today is Thanksgiving, a holiday celebrated in the United States and some U.S. territories. Several other countries and cultures also observe their own thanksgiving or harvest-gratitude festivals—each with distinct histories and traditions, including Canada, which marks the occasion in October.
Today, Thanksgiving functions largely as a cultural or secular holiday, though historically some of its antecedents and proclamations included religious thanksgiving or prayer. It clearly originated as a harvest festival. Early European settlers in North America brought with them these Old World harvest customs, which later blended into the evolving colonial narrative that Americans now recognize as “Thanksgiving.”
Sarah Josepha Hale campaigned for more than thirty years to establish an annual national Thanksgiving holiday. After her decades of advocacy, the modern holiday took shape during the Civil War, when President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a national day of unity and gratitude in 1863. Congress later formalized the holiday in 1941, setting its permanent date as the fourth Thursday in November.
The story commonly told of the “first Thanksgiving,” though not a national holiday, was a 1621 harvest celebration shared by English settlers and the Wampanoag people, who had helped the newcomers survive by teaching them to grow crops and adapt to the land. This narrative of a harmonious, communal event has been challenged by historians. While the gathering did take place, it was neither seen as historically significant at the time nor reflective of the peaceful unity later mythologized in American culture. Instead, it was a moment of uneasy diplomacy during an era marked by escalating violence, disease, and displacement that would soon devastate the Wampanoag Nation and other Indigenous communities in North America.
Indeed, the day carries a painful legacy for Native Americans and First Nations communities. Since 1970, the United American Indians of New England (UAINE) have marked Thanksgiving as a National Day of Mourning, gathering on Cole’s Hill in Plymouth, Massachusetts, to honor Indigenous ancestors and protest the genocide, land theft, and oppression that followed European colonization.
For many Indigenous Americans, this observance challenges the comforting myth of a harmonious feast between Pilgrims and Native peoples, a narrative that has long obscured the violence and dispossession that shaped the continent. The Day of Mourning commemorates the millions of Indigenous lives lost, highlights ongoing struggles for rights and recognition, and strengthens solidarity among Native communities. It underscores that colonization is not a distant historical event, but an ongoing reality affecting Indigenous peoples today.
The familiar Thanksgiving story taught to most Americans reflects a stark gap between national mythology and the lived history of Indigenous nations. This sanitized narrative, shaped by colonial revisionism, has long erased the experiences and resilience of Native peoples across North America.
As a national holiday in the United States, many stores, U.S. markets, and government offices are closed today, though not everyone has the day off. Many restaurant and retail employees are still expected to work, as are health-care professionals, first responders, law-enforcement officers, military personnel, TSA agents, flight crews, and other essential workers. Let us remember them and their vital service with gratitude.
Despite the many challenges facing our world, assaults on religious freedom, the rise of autocracy, the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine, inflation, immigration crackdowns, mass shootings, the ongoing climate crisis, and the deep uncertainty they create, we have also witnessed extraordinary acts of compassion and courage.
Countless people have stepped forward to help refugees and neighbors, to offer shelter, to protect one another, and to uphold the values of hospitality, duty, and perseverance.
We are especially grateful for you—our readers and supporters—who make our mission possible. Thank you for reading The Wild Hunt and for your generosity in sustaining our work and our commitment to bringing news and perspectives through a Pagan lens.
We wish everyone a moment of peace and a brush with gratitude today.
LOS ANGELES – Wicked: For Good, opened in theaters on Friday, November 21, 2025. The film stars Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande, and concludes the 2024 movie Wicked, adapted from Act One of Stephen Schwartz’s 2003 Broadway musical.
The musical itself is based on Gregory Maguire’s 1995 novel, which reimagines the origin stories of Elphaba and Glinda—better known as the Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda the Good from the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz. That classic movie, in turn, was adapted from L. Frank Baum’s 1900 novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. In For Good, Erivo’s Elphaba fights to reveal the truth about Jeff Goldblum’s Wizard, whose benevolent façade masks a more troubling reality. The film also features Michelle Yeoh, Marissa Bode, and Ethan Slater.
Just before the release of the film, NPR’s Neda Ulaby wrote “What do actual witches think of ‘Wicked’?” Ulaby asks, “self-identified witches” about the film.
We are, of course, disappointed at the use of the term “self-identified.” At no other time does NPR or other media appear to use this phrase when describing spiritual traditions.
Ulaby’s article mentioned Heather Greene, the former managing editor of The Wild Hunt, who is a Witch and author of Lights, Camera, Witchcraft.
“Elphaba redeems the figure of the wicked witch in a way that is very satisfying to practicing witches,” Greene said in the NPR article. “And she’s just an icon of the witch, so generally speaking, the witchcraft community adores her.”
The article features Witches and spiritual practitioners and is available at NPR.
Screenshot from CNN Watch
ATLANTA- CNN has released a documentary series titled “Devoted” featuring Donie O’Sullivan. The documentary series in introduced as follows: “In a fractured world where trust in institutions has eroded, Donie O’Sullivan joins people on their spiritual journey as they question societal norms and find new sources of meaning.”
The first installment of the series is titled “Witchcraft” and notes “Witchcraft, Wicca, and Paganism are more popular than ever, with some estimates topping 2 million practitioners in the US. Donie O’Sullivan meets with modern witches to discover what they’ve found in witchcraft that they haven’t elsewhere.” By accounts, the recording took place at LA Pagan Pride and includes members from the Pagan community.
The series remains behind a CNN paywall and is available only to subscribers. The series is available on the CNN website.
Thank you again!
As many of you know, since January, The Wild Hunt’s site has grown incredibly, with over 500 visitors to our site per hour and 400,000 per month.
That growth is humbling—and inspiring. But greater reach also brings greater responsibility and, yes, real costs.
We know it is a pain to ask for money!
Your support this past month has been deeply moving. We’re grateful for every single contribution—large or small. Every dollar makes a difference. And because we’re a nonprofit, 100% of your donation goes directly toward our mission: providing accurate, engaging, and meaningful coverage of modern Paganism and religion that deepens understanding and sparks conversation.
Our editors are unpaid, and some of our staff volunteer their time. Yet we believe that good journalism—and good people—deserve to be paid for their work.
We’ve tried advertising before, and the results spoke for themselves: readers were flooded with Christian ads. That’s not who we are, and it’s not the experience we want for you.
We’ll never hide our stories behind a paywall. Our community deserves access, regardless of means. To keep Pagan news free, independent, and authentic, we rely on you.
If you’ve been thinking about supporting The Wild Hunt, now is the time.
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As always, our deepest gratitude to everyone who has brought us this far.
Events and Announcements
Do you have news to share with our community?
Announcements? Festivals? Elevations? Events?
We’ll share it with the community in the
TWH Events Calendar featured on the Front Page.
(Yes, it’s free, we just need your information.)
Let us know at pcn@wildhunt.org
More Events at our new Events Calendar
Tarot of the Week by Star Bustamonte
Deck: Dark Side of Tarot, artwork by Corrado Roi and Pamela Coleman Smith, text by Sasha Graham, published by Lo Scarabeo.
Card: Ace of Wands
This week is apt to offer some abject lessons in limits; what is possible and what is not; as well as the consequences for pushing boundaries beyond what can be accommodated. The law, rules, regulations, and other formal, well-established systems for creating and maintaining order are liable to figure prominently. Taking a systematic approach to problem-solving and advancing a cause or project is likely to be in the spotlight.
In contrast, a world without restraint or any semblance of order has the potential to be a hotbed of continually erupting chaos. Those who flaunt their ability to disrupt the rules of order to suit their own agendas may succeed in the interim, but are unlikely to maintain positions of leadership long-term. The counteraction to such behavior is demonstrating personal accountability and integrity, and both encouraging and enabling others to do the same.
Beyond Black Friday
As the holiday shopping season begins, we’d like to pause and offer a gentle reminder that Black Friday often pulls our focus toward large corporate retailers. Yet our Pagan and metaphysical communities are sustained by small, independent businesses that truly benefit from our support. Local bookstores, spiritual shops, Pagan musicians, artists, craftspeople, and makers all rely on this season to keep their work and their magic, powerful and present for everyone.
Small Business Saturday, held the day after Black Friday, is dedicated to celebrating and supporting these local enterprises. Although the initiative was launched by American Express in 2010, it has grown into a meaningful reminder that our purchasing power can uplift the small businesses that enrich our communities. In 2025, Small Business Saturday falls on November 29, offering a perfect opportunity to shop local and support those who create with care and intention.
Just a few days later comes Giving Tuesday, a global movement encouraging generosity in all its forms—donations, volunteering, advocacy, and acts of kindness. Founded in 2012 by the 92nd Street Y and the United Nations Foundation, Giving Tuesday serves as a counterbalance to the consumerism of Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Today, Giving Tuesday (#GivingTuesday) is observed in more than 90 countries and has become an important moment for nonprofits, religious organizations, and community groups worldwide.
Many Pagan organizations are doing important work. Almost all of us rely on community support. By choosing to give, donate, or shop within Pagan and allied circles, we help sustain the initiatives, artists, and institutions that empower our community and allow it to flourish.
👉 Don’t forget: supporting The Wild Hunt helps sustain independent Pagan journalism.
And remember, countless Pagan and Pagan-allied groups are doing extraordinary work and would welcome your support as well.
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As always, our deepest gratitude to everyone who has brought us this far.
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