The Wild Hunt (https://wildhunt.org/author/damonleff)
Damon Leff is a Witch, human rights advocate and law student. He is the founding director of the South African Pagan Rights Alliance, and editor-in-chief of Penton Independent Alternative Media. He lives with his partner, greyhounds, and other familiars on a smallholding in the southern Cape, South Africa.
A same-sex couple in South Africa filed a legal complaint after being denied access to a wedding venue whose Christian owners cited a fear of ‘eternal consequences’ for agreeing to have the ceremony on their premises.
TWH Contributor Damon Leff talks with Heathens in South Africa and their stance on inclusive Heathenry and Declaration 127.
SOUTH AFRICA — In September 2017, shop manager and Pagan Shuvey Bower-Louw lodged a complaint with the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration against The Foschini Group (TFG), a South African fashion and lifestyles retailer. Bower-Louw says her previous employer discriminated against her because she is a Pagan. Bower-Louw does not call herself a Witch. She describes herself as a Pagan seeking the Higher Self, who follows the cycles of the All Mother. “I have been privileged to have been born within a line of healers.”
[While most of TWH readers are celebrating the beginning of fall, those in the Southern Hemisphere are welcoming spring. Guest writer and blogger Damon Leff provides a brief look into the Pagan groups and their practice in South Africa]
SOUTH AFRICA — South African Pagans, who represent a tiny and largely insular religious minority, celebrated the vernal equinox Sept. 22
While a large percentage of this ‘identity community’ are solitary practitioners, there are a few notable covens who host public seasonal events. These groups are well supported by their own members and by newcomers eager to explore Pagan ritual for the first time. The Grove, arguably the oldest and largest teaching coven in South Africa, was founded in 1996 in Johannesburg.
[Today The Wild Hunt welcomes guest contributor Damon Leff, a human rights activist, Witch, and editor-in-chief of Penton Independent Alternative Media. Leff is also the director of the South African Pagan Rights Alliance, and owns his own pottery studio called Mnrva Pottery. He is currently studying Law at the University of South Africa, and lives in the Wilderness, Western Cape, South Africa.]
“No living thing can seek the light for ever. Not find it. And not be changed.