Rowena Whaling, IPMA’s Best Female Artist, destined to be a singer

NASHVILLE – Rowena Whaling says her mother “was terrified I would become a nun, but I never really thought of that because I knew I was going to be a singer.”

Instead Whaling became a Wiccan high priestess and a singer, and an accomplished one at that. At the Second Annual Pagan Music Awards, held in Nashville in September and presented by the International Pagan Music Association, Whaling was honored as Best Female Artist for the second year in a row. Samples of her sometimes dark, sometimes mystical, sometimes erotic, rock-oriented music — from her CDs My Mother’s Song and Book of Shadows — can be heard on her website, rowenaoftheglen.com. While Whaling’s spiritual path meandered until, she says, she “came out of the broom closet in 1995,” her musical destiny was set early. “I was raised on the road 32 to 36 weeks a year because my parents were theatricals,” Whaling says.

Column: The Spiritual Legacy of Matthew Shepard

Pagan Perspectives

I had always been wary of strangers. Every gay child growing up in the 1970’s learned this important life skill. American culture was, and in many ways remains, openly antagonistic toward our kind; it made sure that we knew our place. I grew up hearing stories, often in hushed tones, about men who had been discovered to be limp-wristed fairies, and who were subsequently shunned, fired from their jobs, and forced to move away to start new lives as outcasts. But living near San Francisco meant that I had a certain level of protection from the harsh realities of a homophobic world, as this was the place many of those outcasts would journey in their search for acceptance.

Column: Leaning Into the Lessons of Samhain

Pagan Perspectives

The shifting of the seasons and the feel of fall in the air brings about some of the most meaningful and symbolic times of the year. Whether it is the crispness in the air, the Halloween decor, or the increasing conversations about the ancestors in mainstream circles, October is a busy month for all things witchy. It is one of the times of the year where some aspects of the Pagan world collide with the mainstream over-culture. While this time can be exciting for many of us, the depths of the coming celebration of Samhain is significant in many ways. We celebrate the turning wheel, the closing year, the power of the underworld, and the thinning of the veil between worlds.

Brooklyn store schedules hex action against Brett Kavanaugh

BROOKLYN, N.Y. — As the Trump administration continues to create great divides within the country and within the Pagan community, many magical people continue to turn to ritual as part of their action and protest. The nomination, hearings, and eventual confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court has triggered a new hex event, one that has been making mainstream headlines. Catland Books in Brooklyn, New York has invited people to participate in a public hexing of Kavanaugh Saturday, October 20, 2018. The ritual is being led by Dakota Bracciale, co-owner of Catland and founder of Black Hand Conjure. The event is described on Eventbrite as a “…publich(sic) hex on Brett Kavanaugh and upon all rapists and the patriarchy which emboldens, rewards and protects them.”  Bracciale goes on to say, “We will be embracing witchcraft’s true roots as the magik of the poor, the downtrodden and disenfranchised and it’s(sic) history as often the only weapon, the only means of exacting justice available to those of us who have been wronged by men just like him.”

A second ritual is scheduled for immediately after the hexing that is titled “The Rites of the Scorned Ones” and is described in part as seeking “to validate, affirm, uphold and support those of us who have been wronged and who refuse to be silent any longer.“

The Wild Hunt reached out to Dakota Bracciale; however, we were unable to conduct a full interview in time for publication. Bracciale did refer us to several other interviews given to other publications.

Recreational marijuana legal in Canada

CANADA – The use and sale of recreational marijuana became legal Wednesday, making Canada the second nation behind Uruguay to legalize cannabis. The Cannabis Act, as it is called, was passed by the Canadian House of Common in Nov 2017 and then by its Senate in June 2018, and approved that month. Recreational cannabis became legal midnight October 17 and, according to news reports, there were shops and buyers ready and waiting. Heathen Robert Rudachyk, who lives in Saskatchewan and has been involved in local government for years, told The Wild Hunt: “It is long past time. Whether you choose to smoke it or not is and has always been a matter of personal choice.