TWH – The Wild Hunt team is taking a break today to celebrate the end the secular year and the beginning of a new one. But before we close out our last post of 2021, I thought it would be fitting to look back and review the top news that impacted our community over the past year.
Looking back turned out to be harder than I thought. There was some good news in 2021: the movement to eliminate witch-hunts seemed to strengthen, and there were important strides in Indigenous representation, including the confirmation of Secretary Deb Haaland as the 54th United States Secretary of the Interior and first Indigenous person to hold the office.
U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland [Franmarie Metzler, Wikimedia Commons, public domain]
That said, it was still a foggy year, if somewhat less dark than the unmentionable one beforehand. But like headlights through fog, there were moments when the path ahead was clear and, other times, when the foot stayed on the brakes because what was ahead looked much worse.
The year had the echo of Charles Dickens: “There was a great hurry in the streets of people speeding away to get shelter before the storm broke; the wonderful corner for echoes resounded with the echoes of footsteps coming and going, yet not a footstep was there. ‘A multitude of people and yet a solitude.’”
Many of the festivals and regular events that strengthen the Pagan community vanished again. Many meetings of groups, groves, and covens stayed virtual. But the COVID-19 vaccine offered some hope for more social gatherings, and by midsummer, there was a return to some community moment – which then vanished in late fall under the weight of the delta and omicron variants.
The pandemic’s effect on our community and our economy has worn away much of our familiarity, as the intimacy of gatherings remains rare.
COVID-19 remains the top story of 2021 overall, in my opinion, but not the most critical for our community. Unfortunately, I think that “honor” belongs to the United States Capitol attack on January 6.
Regardless of political identity, what happened that day thrust Pagan, and particularly Heathen, imagery into the media limelight because of the actions of Jacob Anthony Angeli Chansley, now most commonly known as the “QAnon Shaman.”
Jake Angeli Chansey, the so-called “QAnon Shaman” [TheUnseen011101, Wikimedia Commons, public domain]
Chansely, as readers may recall, espouses a mix of beliefs that include a personal understanding of Christianity mixed with occultism and alien new-age. Chansley declared that “in order to beat this evil occultic force you need a light occultic force … [you need] a force that is of the side of God, of love … almost like on the side of the angels … as opposed to the demons.” In reflecting on the Capitol storming, Chansley said that “What we did on January 6 in many ways was an evolution in consciousness, because as we marched down the street along these ley lines shouting ‘USA’ or shouting things like ‘freedom’… we were actually affecting the quantum realm.”
In an instant, Chansley – who is neither Heathen nor Pagan – arguably became the most famous “pagan” on the planet. The optics were not good for our community.
Fortunately, Heathens and Heathen groups responded quickly. The Troth, for example, condemned the extremism that Chansley represents and denounced the appropriation of Heathen symbols for bigotry, hate, and white supremacy.
Chansely was arrested in January and pleaded for a presidential pardon from then President Trump. It didn’t happen.
His lawyer said that Chansely “regrets very very much having not just been duped by the President, but by being in a position where he allowed that duping to put him in a position to make decisions he should not have made.” At his trial appearance on March 8, 2021, federal judge Royce Lambeth remanded Chansely to custody and denied bail. Judge Lambeth said that Chansely’s legal arguments made by his attorney were “so frivolous as to insult the Court’s intelligence.”
Chansely pleaded guilty to one count of obstructing a congressional proceeding and agreed to accept the prosecution’s recommended sentence of 41 to 51 months. Judge Lambeth sentenced Chansley to 41 months in prison.
The next bit of national news related to Heathen imagery was the Ásatru Folk Assembly’s (AFA) purchase of a Lutheran Church. The purchase and creation of the church happened in late 2020 but catapulted into the international spotlight during the spring and summer of 2021 as the “whites only” church received national coverage. The spotlight turned on the AFA and what most people saw as a representation of “paganism” was not good.
Heathens have been collateral damage in identity politics, an injustice that faith must overcome. Helping to address that injustice is a responsibility we share to each other and one that we at TWH, as a news service, take very seriously. I am confident the “most famous pagan” will be forgotten and the honorable actions and stories of Heathenry will dominate in the longer term.
As everyone knows, the last days of 2021 have been galvanized by the omicron variant, which now tempers optimism about 2022, at least its first few months. But that’s tomorrow’s article.
The Wild Hunt team looks forward to another year of serving the collective Pagan, Witchcraft, Heathen, and polytheist community. As our motto says, we will continue to “cover the cauldron.”
We wish all our readers and supporters a very safe and happy New Year’s Eve, and much peace and success in the coming year.
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