News

Lilith’s Lantern extinguished after 13 years

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Last week we reported that the website Lilith’s Lantern had been shut down. Founded in 2003, the site was run by the members of Mandorla coven, many of whom had worshiped with Feri tradition founders Victor and Cora Anderson. It was considered to be a resource that reflected a line of teaching that came directly from their mouths. Also called the Anderson tradition, and Faery and Faerie, the practice was eventually called “Feri” by Victor Anderson himself, and these varied names reflect the way this Pagan path has grown and evolved. Victor Anderson’s story of being initiated as a boy in the 1920s by a “tiny old woman” sitting in a circle he found one day in his native Oregon was recounted in Drawing Down the Moon.

Living

Reviving the ancient visiting traditions of Europe

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TWH – Opportunities to knock on the doors of neighbors — with the expectation that they will provide a gift upon the opening of the door — has largely been relegated to trick-or-treating customs. But these visiting traditions extend back thousands of years in many parts of Europe. Typically the ritual involves some sort of exchange between the visitor and the host that bolster community ties, reinforce common values of culture and religion, and — at least symbolically — redistribute wealth. Sarah Stockwell-Arthen, a member of the EarthSpirit community in western Massachusetts, has researched “visiting” and made efforts to recreate some of these practices in her neighborhood. That effort began with wassailing, for which many songs still survive and from which she could glean understanding about how and why it was done. She has also experimented with going a-maying and even knocked on doors around Samhain.

Living

The life and death of Deana Reed

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ROSENDALE, N.Y. — Not every Pagan has written books, given lectures, or led life-altering rituals. Most are ordinary people, expressing their faith in simple ways as they live their lives far from the spotlight that follows the luminaries of the Pagan communities. Such was the life of Deana Reed, whose loved ones approached this reporter after her death and burial to tell her story. Reed and her sister, Regina Chiarello, grew up next to one of the many apple orchards which once dominated the Hudson Valley in New York. Her sister recalls the cloud that would sometimes follow tractors working among the trees, and come into their house without warning.

News

New Pagan survey takes a different approach

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TROMSØ, No. –American researcher James R. Lewis, a professor of religious studies at the University of Tromsø, has decided it’s time to take the pulse of Pagan communities once again. Since before the advent of the internet, there have been several such surveys, each with its own specific area of focus. While the new Pagan III survey has some questions that have caused some participants to scratch their heads, other academics are largely supportive of any effort to more accurately describe the dynamics within Pagan communities. Lewis’ work reaches back specifically to a census survey conceived by Andras Corban-Arthen in the 1980s.

Culture

“A Legacy of Druids” collects modern insights into ancient religion

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AMHERST, Mass. — Ellen Evert Hopman first collected the interviews in her new book, A Legacy of Druids, in 1996. She did so using methods that might seem antiquated in today’s fast-paced world: by having conversations in person, and by asking questions by mail. The fact that it took twenty years to publish the results of her work echoes the words of the late Isaac Bonewits, “as fast as a speeding oak.” Some things simply should not be rushed.