Pagan Community Notes

Pagan Community Notes: Orlando, Lady Epona, Hexing Help and more!

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ORLANDO — Tragedy struck early Sunday morning when a man open fired inside a crowded Orlando night club killing an estimated 49 people and injuring 53 others. As of publication, federal officials have not conclusively linked the attack to the organization Daesh. However, state and local officials are calling it a terror attack due to the gunman’s history and personal statements. The owner of the nightclub Pulse, which bills itself as the “hottest gay nightclub” in Orlando, posted this message: “Like everyone in the country, I am devastated about the horrific events that have taken place today. Pulse, and the men and women who work there, have been my family for nearly 15 years.

Culture

Column: For One Brief Shining Moment, CalderaFest

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I think a little trip in the WABAC (Wayback) Machine is in order. In 1982, Chris De Burgh released an album called “The Getaway.”  The most famous song, by far I would guess, was “Don’t Pay the Ferryman,” an art rock piece describing the voyage of a soul over –- presumably -– the River Styx and warned to keep his obulos from the ferryman until the voyage reaches the other side. On the flip side of the album (a literal location back then) was a short song called “Where Peaceful Waters Flow.” This song is full of Anglocentric imagery that effortlessly echoes Pagan themes. It could as readily be both a song to a beloved as it could be a song to the Goddess.

Culture

Tuatha Dea presents The Green Album

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Due to be released next weekend, The Green Album is a collaborative work containing songs from 14 different Pagan musicians. The project was born in late 2014 and has been spearheaded by Tuatha Dea, a “Celtic, Tribal, Gypsy Rock Band” from Tennessee. Not only is The Green Album a collection of songs expressing an eclectic musical variety, but it also focuses on the preservation and stewardship of our ecosystem. Each song is devoted to the theme and 25 percent of the album’s profits will go to the nonprofit organization Rainforest Trust. “Music is the Universal language.

Pagan Community Notes

Pagan Community Notes: JD Taylor, Where Witchcraft Lives, Brimming Horn Meadery and More!

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It was announced last week that blues musician and activist JD Taylor has died. Taylor was known to the Bay Area Pagan community, performing at the Berkeley Pagan Festival, PantheaCon, and Elderflower. Although she wasn’t Pagan herself, Taylor was heavily involved in regional “women’s and LGBT activist communities.”  As noted by the Bay Area Reporter, “some would remember Ms. Taylor as the small woman who was the subject of a photo showing her being beaten by a very large SFPD officer during the Castro Sweep police retaliation in the Castro on October 6, 1989.” Taylor was born in New Jersey in 1946, moving to San Francisco in 1975.

Pagan Community Notes

Pagan Community Notes: The Firefly House, Cherry Hill Seminary, Tuatha Dea and more!

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On  June 6,  The Firefly House, a pan-Pagan organization in Washington D.C., organized a ritual on the steps of the Supreme Court of the United States. Spokesperson David Salisbury explained that the ritual’s goal was “to channel energy from the goddess Columbia, which [they] used to cast a spell upon the nation for love and justice, in advance of a decision on marriage equality.” Salisbury is referring to the Obergefell v. Hodges case, which was argued on April 28. As we reported, the case has the potential to “effectively, make same-sex marriage legal in all 50 states without eroding each state’s right to regulate marriage laws as their citizens’ see fit.” Of this past weekend’s ritual, Salisbury said, “We focused objects of power to send the energy: Justice cards from the tarot, a rattle to shake up change, a rainbow flag for hope, a shield to protect against bigotry, a wand to manifest the desire for equality, and a quartz stone to anchor the dawning of a new equality era.”