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Pagans join Global Water Dance efforts

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MINNEAPOLIS, Minn – Last Saturday the Global Water Dance was held in more than 90 locations around the world. In Minneapolis, local Witch Rae Eden Frank joined other artists and environmentalists to raise awareness about global and local water issues.​

To draw attention to what the Global Water Dance says is a water crisis, performers come together every other year to perform a four part performance. The first two parts are choreographed to showcase the importance of water as seen by the local community. The third section has performers from around he world performing the same movements while the fourth part has the audience joining the performers in simple movements. In Minneapolis, the event was held at the Stone Arch Bridge and included the audience participating in holding a long stretch of blue fabric spanning the bridge to represent the Mississippi River.

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Efforts made to quell disease concerns at Four Quarters

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ARTEMAS, Penn. — A popular festival venue for Pagan events recently experienced an outbreak of suspected dysentery. Four Quarters Interfaith Sanctuary says it’s working with the Pennsylvania Department of Health to investigate the outbreak and is taking steps to ensure the safety of future events, such as the upcoming SpiralHeart WitchCamp. On the weekend of June 15, the Mad Tea Party took place at Four Quarters. According to Maryland Our Community Now, “By Sunday morning, reports of horrifying conditions began to emerge from festival attendees.

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Wiccan man files lawsuit claiming religious discrimination

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STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. – A Pennsylvania Wiccan alleges he was fired by Health + Hospitals Corporation (HHC) from his custodial job due to religious discrimination. In a lawsuit filed May 22, Carl DeLuca says coworkers and supervisors harassed him for over two years for being what they called a “Satanist and terrorist.” Then, in February 2016, he was terminated from his job. In an interview, DeLuca told The Wild Hunt that he had been harassed over his religion since shortly after starting the job in 2014. Examples of this harassment are outlined in the lawsuit. They include the head of security telling DeLuca to remove his Greenman pendant, although Christian and Jewish employees are allowed to wear symbols of their faith.

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Pagan couple arrested trying to gain property by adverse possession

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WAUZEKA, Wis. — Two Milwaukee area Pagans were charged with entering a locked building during a first court appearance Monday. Brandon Wantroba, known as Alabaster Dubois Degrandpre-Lysone Chiaramonti, and Elizabeth Percy Ryder, known as Fiona Dawn Feria, were discovered by Crawford county sheriff’s deputies at the Kickapoo Indian Caverns near the town of Wauzeka. They were living at the former tourist attraction in an attempt to gain the property by adverse possession. The pair wished to create a Pagan sanctuary.

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Texas House passes religion-based child care services bill

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AUSTIN, Texas —  The Texas House of Representatives passed HB3859 Wednesday, moving the state one step closer to enacting a law that, as it reads, aims to protect the “rights of conscience for child welfare services providers.” The bill was authored by Rep. James Frank (R) from Wichita Falls and, as he stated in a recent comment, “One of our biggest challenges is a lack of adequate, quality foster homes. […] A substantial part of any answer to this problem will be found in the faith-based community.” Rep. Frank’s comment was made after the bill was passed and directed at mainstream media, who generally began calling the bill discriminatory. Frank responded, “At a time when we need all hands on deck, we face the real risk of seeing a large number of [faith-based] providers leave the field, as they are forced to make the choice between devoting a substantial amount of resources in fighting litigation and other adverse action, or using those resources on other services to fulfill the tenets of their faith.”