The Wild Hunt (https://wildhunt.org/author/miraselena/page/69)
Heather is a writer, film historian, editor, and journalist, living in the Deep South. She is an acquisitions editor at Llewellyn Publishing and the author of the book "Bell, Book, and Camera." She has collaborated with Lady Liberty League, and formerly served as Public Information Officer for Covenant of the Goddess. She has a masters degree in Film Theory, Criticism and History from Emory University with a background in the performing and visual arts.
For many, today is Easter. While I have never personally celebrated the holiday, I confess to having enjoyed some of its trappings, such as egg hunts, pastel M&Ms and peeps. While those were always a treat, springtime marked a very different religious celebration for me. You’re thinking of Ostara. Of course, that’s true.
I am starting this journey in the early days of American cinema; from its inception in 1895 through its development into a viable culturally-influential industry. I’ve dated this period as “pre-1939.” Many of you will recognize 1939 as being the release date of Metro Goldwyn Mayer (MGM)’s classic film The Wizard of Oz, a film that contains the most iconic Hollywood witch in American cultural history. From 1895 to 1916 moving pictures were just a technical novelty. As film historian Jeanine Basinger said, “No one really took movies very seriously. It was thought that they were a fad.” Most early movies depicted actual events, landscape photography, historical re-enactments or popular stories.
After reading the Wild Hunt article on the Community Wreath, Babette Petiot, a French Polytheist living in the Auvergne countryside, decided to begin a community wreath in France. When I read about this project, called Aureole Païenne, I immediately contacted Babette. I was terribly curious about the Pagan experience in France. Which traditions are prevalent? What obstacles do they face? Where do they make spiritual purchases?
I’d like to introduce you to Duncan Lawrence, a five-year old Georgia native and son of a well-respected local Druid elder. In 2007 Duncan was born 16 weeks premature at 1 lb. 7 oz. and 12.25 inches. The doctors told his parents, Tom and Amanda Lawrence, that Duncan would most likely be blind, tube-fed, wheel-chair bound and uncommunicative.
South of the Australian mainland lies the island-state of Tasmania; an island recognized for its remarkable natural bounty. Over 40% of the island is currently covered in protected park lands and natural preserves. In the North West corner of Tasmania is a remote area called the Tarkine, named for the Tarkiner Aborigines who once called it home. Within its 447, 000 hectares (about 180,000 acres), the Tarkine contains the largest single tract of undisturbed temperate rainforest in Australia and one of the largest in the world. These old-growth forests have remained virtually undisturbed since the existence of the ancient Gondwana supercontinent and are home to an unknown number of native flora and fauna, such as the Eucalypt forest, and rare animal species, such as the endangered Tasmanian devil.