Unleash the Hounds! (link roundup)

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.”

The life and death of Deana Reed

ROSENDALE, N.Y. — Not every Pagan has written books, given lectures, or led life-altering rituals. Most are ordinary people, expressing their faith in simple ways as they live their lives far from the spotlight that follows the luminaries of the Pagan communities. Such was the life of Deana Reed, whose loved ones approached this reporter after her death and burial to tell her story. Reed and her sister, Regina Chiarello, grew up next to one of the many apple orchards which once dominated the Hudson Valley in New York. Her sister recalls the cloud that would sometimes follow tractors working among the trees, and come into their house without warning.