Pagan Community Notes

Pagan Community Notes: Indigenous Peoples Day, New Age beliefs, 1000 Goddesses and more.

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TWH – Throughout the U.S., more and more cities and regions are electing to forgo the celebration of Columbus Day for Indigenous People’s Day. In 1994, the United Nations declared Aug. 9 to be International Indigenous People’s Day. The holiday was first proposed in South Dakota in 1989, but its first official adoption did not occur until 1991 in Berkeley, California. The Berkeley city council adopted the holiday in time for the 500th anniversary of the Columbus sailing.

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Oklahoma child abuse case involves Wiccans

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MEEDER, Okla. — Police rescued an emaciated 15-year-old male, “JJ,” from an Oklahoma farm on July 12. It appears that the boy’s father and stepmother, who have been charged with a number of counts of abuse and neglect, are Pagan. Prosecutors have made multiple allegations of abuse and neglect. JJ weighed just 80 pounds, and had a scalp wound and several broken bones.

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Documentary film casts ‘Enlightenment Spell’

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SALT LAKE CITY – Filmmaker Joshua Samson was “writing a silly little short” some years ago and decided one of his characters would be a witch. “I didn’t want to rely on Hollywood stereotypes about who Witches are,” Samson said. “I knew Wicca existed but I didn’t really know much about it. I decided to start doing some research and build up my knowledge base so I could write a more realistic character.”

The more he read, the more fascinated he became. “Down the line I had conversations with someone who would make some offhand comments about Witches or Wiccans, and I realized that people know even less than I knew starting out,” he said.

Pagan Community Notes

Pagan Community Notes: Summerland Spirit Festival, protests continue, Mystic South and more

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CLAYTON, Wis. — The popular Minnesota camping event Summerland Spirit Festival has been cancelled for 2018. According to the event website, the organization has lost its venue. Since its maiden voyage in 2011, Summerland Spirit Festival has been held at Turtle Creek Glen in Clayton, Wisconsin. While that first festival was a stormy one, Summerland has grown to become a popular destination on the Pagan festival circuit, attracting recognizable speakers and performers.

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Bang a gong: rock music rocks rituals

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TWH — Terry Riley, high priest of the Southern Delta Church of Wicca (part of the Aquarian Tabernacle Church), is preparing a Grease ritual for an upcoming new moon. It will be a “special circle” that will have “a double high priest and a double high priestess so we can get both movies in,” Riley says with a chuckle. “We’re planning on using ‘Greased Lightnin’ ’ to raise the cone of power.”

Movies? “Greased Lightnin’,” that John Travolta song? Grease the movie musical and not Greece the birthplace of Aphrodite, Persephone, Hekate and all those classical goddesses and gods?