Arts & Culture
Review: ROME – Empire, Power, People
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Cosette Paneque reviews this exhibition at the Melbourne Museum, which features many items that have never before been seen outside of Italy.
Arts & Culture
Review: I Gave You Eyes and You Looked Toward Darkness
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“If you’re drawn to folkloric density, ancestral memory, visceral horror that rejects comfort, or animist logic where houses and bodies blur,” writes Cosette Paneque in her review of Irene Solà’s novel, “this has power. But know what you’re walking into.”
Arts & Culture
Book Review: The Wax Child
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“For contemporary practitioners of Witchcraft, the novel demands wrestling with a complicated history,” Cosette Paneque writes. “These women weren’t claiming the identity of ‘Witch.’ They were sharing knowledge, building community, exercising what small control they could over their precarious lives.”
Paganism
Column: Australia’s Pagan Festivals
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Australia does not have festivals like Pagan Spirit Gathering or PantheaCon, which draw hundreds, thousands even, of Pagans from all over the U.S. That’s not a criticism; it’s simply a difference, one that largely reflects numbers and processes. However, Australia does have important and meaningful festivals that continue to shape Pagan culture Down Under. Australia is about the size of the U.S. with a population slightly less than that of Texas. According to the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), the U.S. is the third most populated country in the world. Australia comes in at 52.
Paganism
Around the World: Is Australia a Secular Country?
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In 2009, the Parliament of the World’s Religions was held in Melbourne, Australia. Over 6,000 people, including American and Australian Pagans, attended. The theme was “Make a World of Difference: Hearing each other, Healing the earth.” That same weekend, in Sydney, the National Conference for all Concerned Christians was held. Its theme was “Australia’s Future and Global Jihad”. Australia is a secular country.