The Wild Hunt (https://wildhunt.org/tag/pagan-community-notes/page/12)
This week’s round-up of the stories in the news that may have the greatest impact and be of interest to the Pagan Community at large. These include more concerns over Stonehenge, the vandalization of a Hindu Temple, the passing of Robin “Beket” Arnhold, and more.
UNITED STATES – The Connecticut Post ran a story on Friday about Wiccans and Pagans and the full moon eclipse that occurred last night. While reporting on any celestial phenomenon is fairly routine in the news cycle, reporting on what Pagans and Wiccans are doing during one is not. Rev. Alicia L. Folberth, president of the Panthean Temple of Connecticut was interviewed for the article on what kinds of activities Pagans and Wiccans might schedule. The lunar eclipse is only one to occur in 2019. From an astrological viewpoint, eclipses can have a big impact and forewarned is forearmed.
TWH – This week we take a look back at a few of the new stories in the mainstream that we covered that had an impact on the collective Pagan, Heathen, and Polytheist communities.
The Parliament of World Religions hosted a larger amount of programming featuring Witches and Pagans than in the past. TWH spoke with four Pagans who planned to attend PoWR to get their perspective and what they hoped to accomplish by attending. After the conference, guest contributor, Karen Dales gave us aa bird’s eye view of some of the activities in her article. As a lead up to PoWR, the Global Wicca Summit cyber conference was held in early September and centered around the theme “Wicca as a Global Faith” with the primary purpose of providing the community with open discussion and worldwide networking.
This weekend, a now former writer for Gods and Radicals, “Dr. Bones” a self-described anarchist / egoist-communist, occultist, and gonzo journalist, was accused of sexual misconduct in a lengthy Twitter thread. Gods and Radicals promptly responded to the accusation and tweeted a brief statement early Sunday morning supporting the accuser and announcing that they would be removing all of Bones’ articles. Gods and Radicals added that they would no longer be distributing his book. Later on Sunday, Dr. Bones posted an apology on his blog site, The Conjure House, stating “This will be my last post, and it is not to ask for pity. It is to firmly and clearly state I have committed unforgivable actions, and as such will retire completely from both writing and politics.” He further added that “I have violated not only the trust of my readers, of my comrades, but most of all my wife.
This morning The Daily Beast published an article about the reactions from the Witch and Pagan community regarding president Trump’s repeated use of the term “witch hunt” to describe the Mueller investigation. While many in the Pagan community have been having this conversation since Trump began shrieking out “witch hunt” across social media starting in 2017 and often in all caps, the use of the term remains a concern for many. Author David Salisbury, who is based in DC, and one of the organizers for Firefly House, was interviewed and said, in part, “It is particularly horrifying because many modern practitioners of witchcraft devote their lives to seeking compassion and justice.” Salisbury has a new book, “Witchcraft Activism: A Toolkit for Magical Resistance” due to be released the beginning of March 2019, and was reviewed by Publisher’s Weekly last week. The Daily Beast also spoke with author Kitty Randall [aka Amber K]. “To have him compare his situation to the worst period in our history is just infuriating,” Randall said.