Covenant of the Goddess at a turning point

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Members of the Covenant of the Goddess held their annual Merry Meet and Grand Council Meetings here from Aug. 9 – 12. Grand Council functions as the organization’s national decision-making body, while the Merry Meet gathering consists of workshops and rituals. 47 people registered to attend both events, while 15 registered only for Merry Meet.

Pagan Community Notes: West Coast protests, Druid ritual in Ohio, Emperor Julian, and more.

UNITED STATES — This past weekend saw yet more rallies and protests in both Portland, Oregon and Berkeley, California, two cities that are targeted by right-wing groups due to their reputation for being the most liberal areas in the country. The Portland rally, held Aug. 4, was sponsored by Patriot Prayer and the Proud Boys, and hosted by Joey Gibson. The Aug 5 rally in Berkeley was dubbed “No to Marxism in America 2 / Exposing Communism” and was organized by Amber Gwen Cummings. Sunday’s rally was relatively small with only minor skirmishes and reportedly 17 arrests for carrying banned weapons. Coru Cathudobua priest Brennos was on site as a medic along with five other members of that group; he said there were only about 20 rally supporters, and that the counter-protesters outnumbered the group.

Pagan Community Notes: Florida Pagan Gathering, Cherry Hill Seminary, JaguarMoon coven, and more

FLORIDA —  Florida Pagan Gathering has been rescheduled again and will be held during the original dates, Nov. 7-11. As previously reported, the Florida board of directors of the Temple of Earth Gatherings had moved the dates of their popular Samhain Florida Pagan Gathering to Oct. 31 through Nov. 4 due to an unexpected need to relocate the festival.

Pagan Community Notes: Storm Faerywolf, John Bennett, the Valknut and more

TWH – Author and teacher Storm Faerywolf was recently publicly accused of engaging in sexual misconduct and abuse by a Maryland-based member Faery tradition, but the allegation was soon proven false. The accusations spread through social media, prompting reactions from members of the tradition as well as others, both in support of and against the accuser, who is known as EckoPup Roberts. Faerywolf published a statement May 5 on his own blog that reads in part: “It has recently come to my attention that there is a man in the Maryland area, going by the name ‘Awen’ who is misrepresenting themselves as one of my initiates. Not only have I never heard of this person they are adding injury to insult by propositioning students for training in Faery tradition and then informing them that in order to be dedicated or initiated then they must engage in unprotected intercourse. This is an affront to the tradition that I hold dear, not to mention basic decency.”

Witch recasts Barbies as goddesses and Pagans

RIVERVIEW, Mich. — Oberon Osiris walked into a Detroit CVS pharmacy in 2001 and found himself spellbound by the witchy female vision before him. Osiris himself had been a witch ever since, as a 12-year-old in the late 1960s, he checked out Sybil Leek’s Diary of a Witch from a library. “I read it voraciously and said, ‘That’s what I am – I’m a Witch, I’m Wiccan, I believe in nature and I believe in the other gods,’ ” he recalled. Osiris consecrated his path as a 15-year-old when he lit a candle in his small upstairs bedroom and “did the whole scary initiation thing” detailed by Paul Huson in his book Mastering Witchcraft – which required an initiate to recite the Christian Lord’s Prayer backwards phonetically three nights in a row.