Living

Column: Paganism and the Free-Range Kid

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[Today, The Wild Hunt welcomes author Christine Hoff Kraemer. Over the year, The Wild Hunt welcomes guests, like Kraemer, to share unique viewpoints and practices. Doing so is an important part of our overall mission. If you enjoy articles like this, please consider donating to The Wild Hunt. You make it possible for us to continue to provide a world platform to a diversity of voices, and we’ve got four more fantastic writers scheduled over the next three months and more coming in early 2017.

Living

Conversations on consent culture within the Pagan sphere

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TWH – In recent years, there has been growing public discourse surrounding something called ‘consent culture.’ It has led to the institution of laws and policies, the creation of workshops and launching of public actions in mainstream communities around the world. The prime objective is to confront and end the near passive acceptance of what is termed ‘rape culture’ and to replace it with the promotion and enforcement of positive personal interactions initiated through mutual consent. For example, The University of Georgia’s Heath Center joined the “Consent is Sexy” college advocacy campaign. Their website includes a clear definition of what is and isn’t consent. In 2015, the Scottish Police launched a “We Can Stop It” (#wecanstopit) public awareness campaign that featured billboards, press packets, and a clear reminder of the 2009 Sexual Offences Act.

Pagan Community Notes

Pagan Community Notes: ConVocation, Polytheist Death Guild, Pagan Consent Culture and more!

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Over this past weekend, Pagans, Heathens and Polytheists from around the country met in Detroit, Michigan for ConVocation. Held annually since 1995, the conference was reportedly once again a huge success. ConVocation is run by the Michigan-based Magical Education Council (MEC), who also sponsors a June Pagan picnic and the “Beyond the Veil” event in October. Along with its usual merchants room, art show, drum circle and guest speakers, the 2016 event included a number of unique workshops and talks. For example, author and publisher Taylor Ellwood “co-facilitated the Pagan leadership workshop with Annika Mongan and Shauna Aura Knight.”

Pagan Community Notes

Pagan Community Notes: Environmental Statements, Raven & Crone, Christopher Lee and more!

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On Thursday June 18, Pope Francis is scheduled to release a “teaching letter,” also called an encyclical, on the environment. This highly anticipated document will most likely become big news of the week as the Pope enters the debates on climate change. A recent New York Times article suggested that, through this work, he is “seeking to redefine a typically secular discussion within a religious framework.” Many activists, around the world, stand ready to applaud his efforts to publicly engage in the global Earth Stewardship conversation and, thereby, hopefully increase pressure on communities, businesses, organizations and governments to enact change. To some Pagans and others, who already position the Earth or a connection to natural systems of place, at the center of their spiritual practice, the need for such a document might seem superfluous.

Culture

The Radical Roots of Mother’s Day

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Today is Mother’s Day in the United States. The widely celebrated secular holiday is one that honors mothers, mothers-to-be and any mother figures in our lives. For some, this may include grandmothers, aunts, teachers, guardians, Priestesses and anyone that has taken on that maternal role. Last May, Starhawk wrote:
On this Mother’s Day, let us also remember the many, many types of mothering: stepmothers, wicked and otherwise, adoptive mothers, birthmothers, mothers who have lost their children, mothers of projects, plans, movements and creative ideas, aunties and mentors and advisors, mothers of fluid and changing gender, and of course, that mother who sustains and nurtures us all, our Mother Earth! What will it take to create a world that truly honors mothering, nurturing, caring in all its forms?