Pagan Community Notes

Pagan Community Notes: The Green Album, Witches at COP21, Scott Walters and more

By |

This fall, a new music project was officially launched called “The Green Album.” The project will result in a single album featuring many popular Pagan music talents sharing songs “themed toward celebrating and drawing awareness to the World that nurtures us.” It is “a collaborative concept album featuring Tuatha Dea, Wendy Elizabeth Rule, Sj Tucker, Sharon Knight, Winter JP Sichelschmidt, Celia Farran, Bekah Kelso, Ginger Doss, Damh The Bard, Kellianna Girouard, Spiral Dance, Spiral Rhythm, Murphey’s Midnight Rounders, Brian Henke and Mama Gina LaMonte.” On the project’s Facebook page, Mama Gina wrote, “I am so excited to be part of this amazing collaboration! I have a brand new song that I’ll be recording […] – but it’s still a secret.” Each of the contributors will be sharing one song, either new or old, for that is inspired by the theme.

News

Pope’s Environmental Encyclical Elicits Pagan Responses

By |

VATICAN CITY — Many, if not most, Pagans consider the Earth to be sacred. This has been true for at least as long as Wicca and other modern Pagan religions have been in the public eye. For many in the mainstream media, this is considered an identifying characteristic of Paganism. Pope Francis of the Roman Catholic Church has finally released his long-awaited 180+ page encyclical on the environment, called Laudato Si. This one document has been in the news for some weeks and is the strongest message about the subject ever released by that Church.

News

New York’s #Flood11 and the Landmark Climate Change Ruling

By |

NEW YORK CITY – On Friday, March 6, #Flood11, as they have been labeled, were found not guilty of disorderly conduct. The ruling not only vindicated the activists, declaring that their actions were within their rights as citizens, but it also set a striking legal precedent. The court openly recognized climate change as a legitimate threat. On Sept. 21, the U.S witnessed the largest organized march against climate change.

Pagan Community Notes

Pagan Community Notes: Doreen Valiente Foundation, Michigan Pagans Adopt-a-Family, AAR 2014 and much more!

By |

Pagan Community Notes is a series focused on news originating from within the Pagan community. Reinforcing the idea that what happens to and within our organizations, groups, and events is news, and news-worthy. Our hope is that more individuals, especially those working within Pagan organizations, get into the habit of sharing their news with the world. So let’s get started! On Thursday, Nov.

Paganism

Column: The Public Trust Doctrine, Climate Magic?

By |

[The following is a guest post by Zay Eleanor Watersong. Zay Eleanor Watersong is a teacher in the Reclaiming Tradition of Witchcraft, community organizer, and law student.  She got her start in Reclaiming with the Ithaca Reclaiming Collective and the Pagan Cluster, sharing priestessing roles in Pagan circles internationally and Reclaiming circles nationwide since 2003.]

“Anthro-arrogance is not an option,” stated one of the law student organizers for the 2014 Public Interest Environmental Law Conference (PIELC) at the University of Oregon in Eugene as they opened the conference on February 27.  “This conference, this planet, expects action.” University of Oregon students took this to heart and continued a long history of protest at the conference with a 100-person walkout shortly thereafter during one of the keynote addresses, protesting the speaker’s anti-transgender stance.  It was an interesting echo of the controversy at PantheaCon in 2012.  Hopefully PIELC too will learn from the experience. This conference, now in its 32nd year, has a long history of bringing together legal scholars, lawyers, activists and organizers to discuss the pressing issues of the day and weave synergistic relationships to address them. It brings together so many who are working at the leading edge, whether in blockades or in the courtroom, to protect the earth which we hold sacred.  There is a deep magic in being able to see the web of laws and policies that hold the current system in place, and seeing the points where if we push just a little bit, things can shift.  Practicing law and practicing spellwork are not that different.