News

Pagan Community Notes: EarthSpirit Community, Florida senate race, solar eclipse and more

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BOSTON — The weekend’s scheduled “Free Speech Rally” was overshadowed by thousands of counter-protesters. According to reports, there were only a “few dozen” rally attendees, who were eventually escorted out of the area to the sound of the crowd cheering. The event’s organizers have claimed that the rally was not related to the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, but protesters were unconvinced and showed up in force. Among the crowds were a number of people from the Pagan community. Specifically, members of the EarthSpirit Community, which is based in Massachusetts, were on hand with their own signs.

Hounds

Unleash the Hounds! (link roundup)

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There are lots of articles and essays of interest to modern Pagans and Heathens out there, more than our team can write about in depth in any given week. Therefore, The Wild Hunt must unleash the hounds in order to round them all up. 

We start today’s roundup with religious freedom stories:

The Florida Senate approved SB 436 “Religious Expression in Public Schools.” As with many religious freedom bills, SB 436 seeks to protect people from discrimination related to their practice of religion. However, according to Americans United, this senate bill and the corresponding Florida House Bill 303 “would erode the separation of church and state in Florida’s schools in violation of the First Amendment.” Americans United goes on to say that, “both versions of the bill would put Florida’s public schools in a bind, as they would be forced to choose between violating the new state law and violating the U.S. Constitution.”

News

New Nature’s Spirit Conference unites science, religion, activism

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NORTH PALM BEACH, Fla. — In late January, the newly created Nature’s Spirit Conference brought together scientists, activists, and spiritual leaders from various religious traditions to raise awareness for and address the critical water and environmental challenges facing South Florida.The goal of this day-long conference was twofold: to provide scientific information about the environmental challenges facing Florida and to explore interfaith and spiritual opportunities that will invigorate environmental activism. The conference took place January 28 and was organized by the Pagan Environmental Alliance and the Justice Action Ministry of the First Unitarian Universalist Congregation of the Palm Beaches, and it was held in the Congregation’s sanctuary. Under near perfect weather, activists and others gathered to strengthen their understanding of the connections between science and their various religious paths with the goal of helping Florida’s ailing environment. The criticality of the moment was not lost on the morning panelists who focused on educating the forty or so conference attendees on the vital issues facing the state and her waters.

News

Hurricane Matthew: Pagans in the southeast respond

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UNITED STATES – “We boarded up the house and we left town because our house isn’t (concrete) block construction, it’s wood. We live in an area where there are lots of trees and we weren’t confident that a cat 3, 4, or whatever hit land that we would be safe,” said Kathy Lezon, a priestess from Vero Beach, located on Florida’s Treasure Coast. Hurricane Matthew was a slow-moving behemoth of a storm that flared up on Sept. 28 and quickly shot up to hurricane status, at one point topping off the scale as a category 5 storm with sustained winds of 160 mph before weakening slightly to a category 4 before making landfall in Haiti, Cuba, the Bahamas and bouncing along the Florida coast before skirting north along the Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina coastline. It also affected areas well beyond those that were directly impacted.

News

Pagans take a public stand for Florida Everglades

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[The Wild Hunt welcomes Nathan Hall as today’s guest journalist . He makes his home in South Florida where he works for a local media company and lives with his wife and soon-to-be first child. He grew up without any real religious background but always felt connected with the spirits of the land. Because of this connection he has always felt a strong kinship with environmental causes and the primacy of nature over humanity’s exploitation of it. Nathan has followed many paths, including ceremonial magick, Norse and Druidic traditions.