Paganism

Pagan Community Notes: Lupa, Deborah Lipp, Trish Telesco, and More!

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Pagan Community Notes is a series focused on news originating from within the Pagan community. Reinforcing the idea that what happens to and within our organizations, groups, and events is news, and news-worthy. My hope is that more individuals, especially those working within Pagan organizations, get into the habit of sharing their news with the world. So let’s get started! A Farewell to Therianthropy: Pagan and neo-shamanic practitioner Lupa, author of books like “New Paths to Animal Totems” and  “Skin Spirits,” has announced that she’s letting her book “A Field Guide to Otherkin” go out of print.

Hounds

Unleash the Hounds! (Link Roundup)

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

Nathaniel Rich at the New York Review of Books looks at the story of the West Memphis Three through Damien Echols’ book “Life After Death,” the “Paradise Lost” documentary series, and the feature documentary “West of Memphis.” Quote: “Investigators asked Jerry Driver, a local juvenile officer and self-described “guru” of the occult, to compile a list of local kids involved in cult-related activities. At the top of Driver’s list was Damien Echols, an eighteen-year-old high school dropout who had been hospitalized for depression. […] In his closing statement, district attorney John Fogleman pointed at Echols and said, “There’s not a soul in there.” That argument carried the day.”

Hounds

Unleash the Hounds! (Link Roundup)

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There are lots of articles and essays of interest to modern Pagans out there, sometimes more than I can write about in-depth in any given week. So The Wild Hunt must unleash the hounds in order to round them all up. First off, congratulations to the wonderful Norse Mythology Blog, which won Best Religion Weblog in the 2012 Weblog Awards (aka “The Bloggies”). Dr. Karl E. H. Seigfried has written the first of a two-part essay on why he believes his blog on Norse mythology beat out heavy-hitters like Religion Dispatches or Freethought Blogs. If you’d like to explore the Norse Mythology Blog, the site’s archive page is arranged thematically, and is a joy to peruse. Haitian musician Frisner Augustin, a master drummer within Haitain Vodou, and director of La Troupe Makandal, died on February 28th from a brain hemorrhage.

Paganism

Interview with Lupa

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Pagan author Lupa, whom I praised some months back for her book “Fang and Fur, Blood and Bone: A Primal Guide to Animal Magic”, has come out with a new book on the somewhat controversial subculture of Otherkin. The book, “A Field Guide to Otherkin”, explains and explores a growing group of people who identify as something other than human. I have covered this subculture in the past since a large number of Otherkin also identify with modern Pagan religions or occult/magical practices, and there is some tension over their inclusion by Pagans worried about mainstream acceptance. Given this, I felt an interview with the author where we explore this subculture would benefit us far more than a simple review. I suppose the first question for the uninitiated is what are Otherkin, and what made you want to write a book on the subject?