News

Embezzlement saps funds from the Council of Magickal Arts

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FORT WORTH, Texas –Members of the Council of Magickal Arts, or CMA, are standing up to help make the organization whole after it was discovered that its director of finance, Alicia Wilson, had reportedly spent more than $4,000 out of operating funds on personal purchases. Wilson was elected to the position at the Texas-based council’s annual Samhain festival last year. The first unauthorized purchase occurred less than three months later, on January 25, 2016. The embezzlement represents about half of CMA’s operating budget, according Megan Dobson, the council’s interim director of communications. Even so, plans for Samhain 2016 continue unabated.

Pagan Community Notes

Pagan Community Notes: Heathens Speak; Sacred Stone Camp; Phoenix Rising Austin and more!

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TWH – As we reported last week, the Asatru Folk Assembly made public statements on its Facebook page that ignited an immediate backlash from users, which then spilled out across Heathen communities, the blogsophere and beyond. In reaction to those Facebook statements, a number of Heathen organizations and individuals publicly responded to the AFA posting. On its website, The Troth published “An Official Statement from The Troth.” It reads, in part: “The Troth stands against the AFA’s vision of what Asatru should be, and we do not recognize their beliefs as representative of a majority of American Asatru (Heathenry). There are no arbiters of who can and cannot worship our deities, but the Gods themselves.”

Pagan Community Notes

Pagan Community Notes: Michael Wiggins, Asatru Folk Assembly, Canadian Wildfires, and more!

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DETROIT – On May 4, Michigan’s Pagan community lost one of their beloved leaders. Michael Wiggins was a teacher, artist, dancer and the “face of Convocation,” an annual Pagan conference held in Michigan. He was born into a Pagan family, making him a second generation witch. He was president of the Michigan Education Council and was declared “Michigan Pagan of the Year” in 2013 for his influence on local events and his advocacy work in the community. A memorial fund has been set up to raise the needed money to cover his various unexpected final expenses. The current goal amount, which is now at $10,000, was raised twice over the past four days after donors quickly exceed the original and secondary marks.

Pagan Community Notes

Pagan Community Notes: Phoenix Goddess Temple, Ray Buckland, Doreen Valiente Play

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As we reported in February, the trial had begun in the Phoenix Goddess Temple prostitution case. At the time, temple leader Tracy Elise told The Wild Hunt that she believed that she would be found innocent because she was “confident that the jurors recognize that the Phoenix Goddess Temple was never the brothel that prosecutors claimed.” However, on Mar 2, the jury disagreed and handed down a guilty verdict on all 22 counts. Among those charges were the “conspiracy to commit illegal enterprise, illegal control of an enterprise, operating or maintaining a house of prostitution, multiple counts of money laundering and multiple counts of pandering.” During the trial, Elise maintained that the temple was not a house of prostitution but a space offering spiritual services.

Paganism

Pagan Community Notes: McCollum in Thailand, Temple of the River, and More!

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Pagan Community Notes is a companion to my usual Pagan News of Note, a series more focused on news originating from within the Pagan community. I want to reinforce the idea that what happens to and within our organizations, groups, and events is news, and news-worthy. My hope is that more individuals, especially those working within Pagan organizations, get into the habit of sharing their news with the world. So lets get started! Patrick McCollum’s Visit to Thailand: As I mentioned back in January, Pagan chaplain and activist Patrick McCollum will be traveling to Thailand in February at the invitation of Dhammakaya temple in the Pathumtani Province, where he will be honored as a World Inner Peace Ambassador, and share Pagan rituals and practices with Buddhist Lamas.