Culture

Witch recasts Barbies as goddesses and Pagans

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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.

American Conservative

Pagan Community Notes: John Slade, American Conservative magazine, March 31 and more

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ST. PAUL, Minn — Reclaiming member John Slade, who was seeking a party endorsement to run for a seat in the Minnesota House of Representatives, fell short in his bid in three rounds of voting on March 10. Slade was seeking to replace retiring incumbent Sheldon Johnson as representative of the east side of the city. The decision was made at a convention of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor party, the local affiliate of the Democrats who have selected winning candidates in the district for decades. Had no candidate reached a 60 percent majority in the voting, a primary would have been called pursuant to the complex election system in place in Minnesota.

Pagan Community Notes

Pagan Community Notes: California fires, Raven’s Loft, Elaine Coleman, and more

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CALIFORNIA – For a second time this year, massive and catastrophic fires are destroying parts of California. The Thomas fire, which is the biggest, is currently being called the “fifth-largest in the state’s history,” and it reportedly continues to force “new evacuations in towns as far north as Santa Barbara.” The state’s famous Santa Ana winds have only made the situation worse. The state boasts a large Pagan population from south to north. The last set of fires, which occurred in the fall, brought local Pagans and many distant friends together to perform water magic in order to help curb the damage and stop the flames. As columnist Crystal Blanton wrote, “Rain magic and other forms of weather related workings have a long history in many different cultures.

News

Honoring our veterans

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UNITED STATES – Every year, Nov. 11 is a day set aside to honor those who have served in the five branches of the armed forces. Flags are flown; parades are held; ceremonies are attended. Nov. 11 was chosen because, on that day in 1918, an armistice, or temporary cessation of hostilities, was declared between the allied nations and Germany during the first world war.

Paganism

Pagan Community Notes: Covenant of the Goddess, hex ritual, Pagan copyright issues, and more

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ONTARIO, Calif. — Covenant of the Goddess members elected a new First Officer Saturday. Canu, who has been a member for 25 years, will be moving into the position Nov. 1, along with the newly-elected board. Canu said,”My goals include drawing on CoG’s deep combined experience to: support our local councils’ and solitary members’ needs and goals, such as intrafaith interaction with the broader Pagan community; review our membership processes and barriers to joining the Covenant; support our interfaith work and plan for the periodic costs of interfaith representation at the Parliament of the World’s Religions and North American Interfaith Network events; and engage all of our members to make CoG more focused on, and communicative about, what we have to give directly, like community events, philanthropy, and networking.”