News

Pagan Community Notes: The Harm of “Witch Hunt”, PantheaCon, and More!

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This morning The Daily Beast published an article about the reactions from the Witch and Pagan community regarding president Trump’s repeated use of the term “witch hunt” to describe the Mueller investigation. While many in the Pagan community have been having this conversation since Trump began shrieking out “witch hunt” across social media starting in 2017 and often in all caps,  the use of the term remains a concern for many. Author David Salisbury, who is based in DC, and one of the organizers for Firefly House, was interviewed and said, in part, “It is particularly horrifying because many modern practitioners of witchcraft devote their lives to seeking compassion and justice.” Salisbury has a new book, “Witchcraft Activism: A Toolkit for Magical Resistance” due to be released the beginning of March 2019, and was reviewed by Publisher’s Weekly last week. The Daily Beast also spoke with author Kitty Randall [aka Amber K]. “To have him compare his situation to the worst period in our history is just infuriating,” Randall said.

Editorial

Column: Soup for the Land Wights

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Pagan Perspectives

Today’s column comes from your humble Weekend Editor, Eric O. Scott. Eric was raised by witches. He has a PhD in creative nonfiction writing from the University of Missouri and has written for The Wild Hunt since 2012. The Wild Hunt always welcomes submissions for our weekend section. Please send queries to eric@wildhunt.org.

Culture

Column: Welcome to Straightbook

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Pagan Perspectives

Today’s column comes to us from Storm Faerywolf, whose column covers the intersection of Paganism and queer identities. Storm is a professional author, experienced teacher, visionary poet, and practicing warlock, and is author of “Betwixt & Between” and “Forbidden Mysteries of Faery Witchcraft.” He lives with his two loving partners in the San Francisco Bay area and travels internationally teaching the magical arts. For more, visit faerywolf.com. The Wild Hunt always welcomes submissions for the weekend section. Please send queries or completed pieces to eric@wildhunt.org.

Culture

Editorial: Douthat’s post-Christian future, a response

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Yesterday, columnist Ross Douthat wrote The Return of Paganism for the New York Times. As the essay’s subtitle commented, “Maybe there actually is a genuinely post-Christian future for America.”

As I read the article, what I find myself focused on is the incredible disservice this essay did to the – writ large – Pagan community around the world. Mr. Douthat reduces “Paganism” to a series of disconnected beliefs in spiritual and supernatural forces that focuses skeptically on moral standards, although he correctly points out that Paganism generally centers on immanent reality as a manifestation of the spiritual. At the same time, Mr. Douthat becomes trapped by the philosophical perspectives of pantheism of Nietzsche, Spinoza, and even Walt Whitman. He plays with the cultic aspects of a Pagan world, and finally does his greatest disservice by engaging in an ever-present, and frankly ignorant, need to link together “New Agers and neo-pagans [sic].” He exposes his ignorance of the Pagan and polytheist community by noting that he has “in mind the countless New Age practices that promise health and well-being and good fortune, the psychics and mediums who promise communication with the spirit world, and also the world of explicit neo-paganism, Wiccan and otherwise.” He ultimately laments that “there may soon be more witches in the United States than members of the United Church of Christ.”

Australia

Notes and Hounds: Australia Edition

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This month, TWH’s Australian correspondent Josephine Winter brings us the latest news snippets from the Australian Pagan Community.  

Western Australia: Combined Covens Participates in PrideFest WA
Last month, Perth-based non-profit Pagan social group Combined Covens participated in PrideFest, Perth’s LGBTQI+  arts, culture and community festival for the second year running. Members of Combined Covens dressed as gods and goddesses for the parade through Northbridge, which marked the conclusion of the festival. PrideFest is organised and facilitated by Pride WA. Originally incorporated in 1993 as Lesbian & Gay Pride (WA) Incorporated, Pride WA began in its earliest form during the 1989 march on Parliament, during the contentious debate about the Law Reform (Decriminalisation of Sodomy) Act 1989 which decriminalised private sexual acts between two people of the same sex.