Adocentyn Research Library reopens!

After a long and resilient journey amid the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Adocentyn Research Library (ARL) is thrilled to announce its eagerly awaited reopening to the public.

Pagan librarians rescue books, preserve history

TWH – Michael Smith, acting director of the New Alexandrian Library, became spellbound as he was packing up books and materials recently donated by the Theosophical Society of Washington, D.C., including four decades of bound volumes of Theosophist magazines dating to 1901. One of Smith’s husbands, Jim Dickinson, became perturbed. “When we were boxing up the Theosophical Society library, my husband Jim yelled at me – a lot,” Smith said, chuckling at the memory. “He kept saying, ‘Put the book in the box so we can move it.’ It was such an incredible collection of all sorts of esoteric topics that I had never seen before.”

Thanks to two Pagan-centric institutions — the New Alexandrian Library, located near Georgetown, Del., and the Adocentyn Research Library, a similar enterprise located in San Francisco’s East Bay — Pagans and the general public alike now have access to thousands of Pagan, metaphysical, and esoteric books and periodicals, including rare and out-of-print works. Both libraries continue to accept donations of Pagan and Pagan-related books.

Pagan Community Notes: TDoR 2017, Interfaith Podcast, new Pagan survey, and more

TWH – Today marks Transgender Day of Remembrance. People around the world are honoring those people that have been lost in 2017 due to transgender-related violence.  There services and rituals that are being held specifically within Pagan communities. Trans woman Brianne Ravenwolf of Circle Sanctuary will be co-facilitating a ritual, which will live stream on Facebook at 1 p.m. central. We spoke with Ravenwolf in 2016 for our annual TDoR article. She said, “For me [TDoR is a] very solemn day and has been.

Pagan Community Notes: URI, Erin Lale, Dirge Magazine and more

The United Religions Initiative (URI) held its global summit leadership meeting in Sarajevo, beginning Sept 11. The weeklong meeting brought together URI representatives from around the world and from many different religious backgrounds. The organization’s goal is to “promote enduring, daily interfaith cooperation, to end religiously motivated violence and to create cultures of peace, justice and healing for the Earth and all living beings.” Rev. Donald Frew was at the Sarajevo meeting as a representative of Covenant of the Goddess. Frew has been working in interfaith circles for decades, sometimes even as the lone Pagan voice at the table.