The Wild Hunt

Our Wheel of the Year is a path of constant transition. It reminds us, at times, how nature – all things in fact – are in flow. At times, it feels uncomfortable that flow is real; and, at times, unbearable, that change must happen. One of our deepest mysteries is how impermanence is our bedrock.

My colleagues and I at the The Wild Hunt have been in dialogue about our transition for weeks, and yet, Heather Greene’s departure from the team still seems unreal. The reason for that surreal feeling is that I cannot overstate the depth of Heather’s work, commitment, and dedication to our community. For years, Heather fostered and expanded Jason Pitzl’s founding vision for TWH: that there would be a resource to raise the level of journalism and professional discourse about Paganism in a manner that did not rely on the mainstream media’s assumptions about our community.

As Heather entered the role of Managing Editor, she advocated for that vision daily. She challenged and nurtured each writer, raising our confidence to report and analyze the events that impact our community. She insisted TWH would become a resource for us and others, then manifested that vision in her years of leadership. Heather’s dedication brought TWH recognition from other media sources, including Google. She has been tireless in her enthusiasm. Her knowledge of our community is encyclopedic, and her work at TWH has been constant, dedicated, and sober.

We know Heather is not going far. And yet we will miss her.

[Photo Credit: M. Tejeda-Moreno

Now we look to the future of The Wild Hunt. Our team will continue to serve our community – we will learn from our past challenges and get better with every word, every sentence, every post. The next few weeks will be unusually challenging as each of tries to get comfortable in our new roles. I, for one, will rely heavily on chocolate.

That said, there are two things that I think are important for our community to know. Our team remains dedicated to the vision that Pagan journalism is not only possible, but that we can also provide coverage of our community in a manner that is clearer, better, and more balanced than other media. More importantly, we endeavor to invoke the power of the Fourth Estate on behalf of our community to present facts and not gossip, awareness without judgment. We will work every day to fulfill all elements of that mission daily, and, through it, we hope to maintain your earned trust. Over the next few weeks, I will occasionally interrupt programming to raise issues with you as readers that can help us dialogue on how we offer unbiased reporting, but with a clear understanding of how that task is approached. Some readers have already read my columns and can take a stab at how I think: climate change is real, trans women are women, and Nazis are bad.

The second thing is that we cannot do this without you. The last year has been exceptionally difficult. We really are here for our community, and to do our work, we need your engagement and we need your financial support. Like you, we need to keep the lights on, and this is a costly process. We pay our writers, but some refuse the small amount we offer because they see the fiscal challenge here. That is unfair. I feel we take advantage of their dedication and I think we can do better.

You may recall that in April 2018, we thought The Wild Hunt would have to shut down. That still remains an ever-present possibility. But we also think that our readers see the value of our work and our accomplishments. We believe that you believe Pagan journalism is possible. We will work to maintain your trust, your confidence, and your support. We will work to inform you. We will work to entertain you. And we will occasionally enrage you, just like any other media outlet. But we are the outlet that covers all the neighborhoods of our community without judgments about how we manifest our spirituality, our beliefs, or simply who we are.

Here I close, hopeful that you will be proud of our work – your news source for our community. I invite you to engage with us through our mailing list, and I invite you to join our community of supporters: The Sustainers’ Circle, who contribute a few dollars every month, which makes a huge difference for us and our writers. When I say that it keeps the lights on, I really mean that. We pay people for the work they do, both writers and staff. We pay for the site and we pay for the traffic. And it is hard to make ends meet every month.

We have avoided advertising. We have avoided sponsored articles. We have avoided many offers of sponsorship to build your confidence in us that our reporting is without influence.

We have and we will continue to be focused on being a community service – Pagan “public media,” as it were. That’s why we need to keep asking for your financial help, as much as is comfortable, in The Sustainers’ Circle.

And so we begin.