On Feb. 20, it was announced the Christine Hoff Kraemer was stepping down from her position as Managing Editor of Patheos’ Pagan Channel. She wrote, “With a mix of excitement and sadness, I am writing to announce my resignation as Managing Editor of the Patheos.com Pagan channel. I will very much miss the way this job brought me into daily contact with such thoughtful, dedicated people—both Pagans and people of other religious traditions.” She added that she plans to dedicate her new found free time to her family.
Raise the Horns Blogger Jason Mankey will be taking up the reins as the channel’s new managing editor. In his own announcement, he wrote, “I hope I can continue the good work Christine’s done as the channel manager here. One of the reasons I love Patheos Pagan so much is that it’s mostly a positive place. I think we tackle big issues and involve ourselves in the big conversations, but I think we do so in a respectful manner.” Mankey doesn’t expect to make any changes to the channel’s direction. He also added that he will still be posting to his own blog, but with less frequency. Kraemer will also continue blogging on occasion at Sermons in the Mound.
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The beloved missing statue of Manannán mac Lir was finally found exactly one month after it disappeared. According to the Derry Journal, on Feb. 21, the 6 ft. sculpture was located “by ramblers” who then “advised members of A company 2nd Battalion Royal Irish Regiment soldiers.” Together with police, they were able to recover the statue. As told to the BBC, the statue had been lying among rocks of the same color, making it very difficult to spot from a distance.
The statue did sustain some damage to the back of its head. Regardless, the local community and others across the world are happy to know that the quest is over and the statue is in one piece. Local photographer Mari Ward, founder of the popular Facebook fan page Bring Back Manannán mac Lir the Sea God and a representative from the local police (PSNI) were interviewed by BBC radio about its return. Ward said, “I am completely over the moon about it.” Local officials now plan to consult the statue’s creator and discuss a re-installation.
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Over the past week, there has been continued discussion on the controversy that erupted at PantheaCon 2015. As we reported last week, blogger Jonathan Korman published an open letter to the creators of a satirical flyer called PantyCon. In that article’s comments, the anonymous writers issued an apology. In addition, Glenn Turner, the founder and organizer of PantheaCon, offered her own public response to all related recent events as well as an apology for any pain caused during PantheaCon. She said, “With the dawning of a New Civil Rights movement this is the question for our times. I’m glad this issue is front and center.”
Since our report last week, there have been a number of additional blog posts discussing these events and others. One of these posts was the recording of the “Bringing Race to the Table” panel, during which the controversial flyer was brought to public attention. This panel discussion can be heard through T. Thorn Coyle’s Elemental Castings podcasts.
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On Feb. 13, the Akron, Ohio Pagan community lost one of its members. As reported by the local news, 22 year old Brian Golec was fatally stabbed outside of his Akron home. His father is now accused of the crime. After his death was made public, there was quick and viral media response in which Brian was identified as a trans woman. However, that fact was later proven to be inaccurate. Golec’s gender identification was eventually clarified by close friends and family, and was proven to have nothing to do with his murder. Unfortunately, the media frenzy only added additional pain to an already tragic circumstance.
The family, the community and Golec’s fiancee have requested privacy in order to mourn his loss. In our initial investigations, we were able to speak with several area Pagans who knew Brian. They called him “likable, easy going, highly spiritual and helpful.” He was a regular at Cleveland Pagan Pride and attended local Pagan community events. Carrie Acree, the owner of Dragon’s Mantle metaphysical shop, said that many people have been buying supplies for memorials, rituals and other workings in Brian’s honor. There is also, reportedly, a benefit planned for May. In addition a close friend has setup a GoFundMe campaign to help off-set the family expenses and a Facebook memorial page to honor his life. What is remembered, lives.
In Other News:
- Author John Matthews has begun a new project to tell the story of the “the iconic Scottish bard, Robin Williamson.” The proposed film Five Denials on Merlin’s Grave will follow Williamson around “in his 50th year as a storyteller, singer and musician, performing his beloved epic poem about the legendary history of Celtic Britain.” This will be reportedly the first time that the epic poem “Five Denials” will be filmed “despite its thunderous import within our poetic tradition.” To fund the project, there will be an Indiegogo campaign. It’s progress and all updates can be found on a Facebook fan page and on twitter @fivedenials.
- It was announced yesterday that documentary filmmaker Bruce Sinofsky had died at the age of 58. Sinofsky is best known for his work on Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills (1996), a film that tells the story of the West Memphis Three. Over at Patheos’ The Witching Hour, Peg Aloi shares her thoughts on the Sinofsky’s work, his influence on the West Memphis case and offers a tribute to his life.
- Along with a new managing editor, Patheos Pagan Channel also announced the edition of a new blog titled “Energy Magic.” Writer Katrina Rasbold said, “This column will explore the dynamics of magic using the movement of energy, both from a spiritual and a scientific perspective.” She will be updating the blog twice a week beginning today.
- This past weekend, ConVocation was held in the Doubletree Hotel in Detroit Michigan. ConVocation is an indoor Pagan conference that has been bringing people together from many mystical and religious backgrounds since 1995. As the week goes by, organizers and others will be pulling together photos, posts and retrospectives on this year’s event and festivities.
- Witches and Pagans Blogger Natalie Zaman announced that Llewellyn Worldwide will be publishing her book Mapping The Magic about [the] sacred sites in America. She wrote “[It] will explore the magic of Washington, D.C. and the states of the Northeast: Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine–as you can see it will hopefully be the first of four books, each covering a different area of the country.” To celebrate, Zaman is hosting a giveaway of either her book or a 2-year subscription to Witches & Pagans Magazine.
That’s it for now! Have a nice day.
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I can’t find any clarification on what the books on “mapping the sacred spaces in America’ are going to cover? Is it about the places our community have been creating, or it is going to be more of a “Here are spaces that the Native Americans honor, we made a list so it’s easier for y’all to exploit those spaces”?
On February 10th, I tongue-in-cheek posted a tweet wondering out loud what inevitable controversy would arise from PantheaCon. Unfortunately, I was not off base. There seems to be something every year. I’ve never been to a gathering of Pagans. I’m a solitary practitioner, through and through, but I understand the need for some Pagans to physically gather. After all, I “gather” with other Pagans online all the time. But I think that these continuing controversies point out the difficulties of creating a Pagan “community,” which seems to be increasingly important to some Pagans. While I understand the sociological and political benefits of Pagans banding together as a community, the independent spirit that it takes to be Pagan is the very thing that keeps us apart.
I’ve been attending PCons since the very first one and enjoy them much. That said, indeed there is drama nearly every year, some years more intense than others. Bear in mind that there are about 10 tracks going during each time slot on the official schedule, and probably that many in the various hospitality suites, and it’s on ten floors of a hotel. This year I found refreshingly drama-free for me until I got home and started seeing discussions online.
I agree with Macha. I’ve been to a few PCons and have had a really wonderful drama-free time. It is a huge event with a lot going on. It’s unfortunate that a single act of poor behaviour by one person or a small group of people overshadows the positive time and time again. I think that’s largely due to the alarmist nature of media (including the blogosphere). Patchouli, if you get the chance, I encourage you to give it a chance and attend.
I would suggest that many of these controversies are not Pagan controversies or micro-drama of some sort. They are human dramas, and our community/movement is struggling with them and engaging them through the usual mix of choice and the press of events forcing our hands.
The transgender inclusion issue of a few years ago and certainly the race issues raised at this year’s Con are not some inside game Pagans made up to give each other claw marks (though we certainly can come up with those). If we are always having “drama-free” times and positive times as a community, that means in part that we are failing to deal with some issues which need to be dealt with.
The drama over those leaflets/faux schedules this year arose from a satirical portrayal of our community’s avoidance instincts and strategies around the race issues. It was not the way many of us might have chosen to raise the issue or see it raised, but it was not a groundless critique either.
We can go a couple of different directions from here. One, we can strive to insulate future gatherings and events from controversy and anything that hints of “drama” and try to make sure the whole thing never gets off-message about unity and positive energy. That way is tempting, but it has a perfect track record of failure. The most it ever accomplishes is to kick the can down the road another year, and the underlying issue has a way of festering and surfacing in ways which are often more painful than the ordeal they were meant to circumvent.
The other route is to recognize these painful issues and talk through them, not around them, both at cons in real space and virtual spaces.
Our capacity to engage issues like race AS Pagans will come to define what Paganism means, and more fundamentally, if it means anything at all.
Is it something core to us, which informs all aspects of our existence and journey through this life? Or, as our enemies like to charge, is modern Paganism more of an aesthetic or lifestyle accessory or a diversion from the ugly realities of life more akin to weekend LARPing or ren faire Sundays in summer than a religion?
I believe it to be the former, and I hope we can find our legs in dealing with the heavy issues even as we seek out fellowship and fun at our gatherings.
Yes, they are issues for society at large, yet in the Pagan context, ppl tend to feel freer to speak up, and that makes all the difference. In my ideal Pagan world, Pagans of different flavors could educate each other without assuming an offensive or defensive stance. I would like to see is build more trust that most of us hold the commonweal as a high ideal.