The Wild Hunt (https://wildhunt.org/tag/wicca/page/32)
When the Sacred Harvest Festival was finished, the first thing I noticed while wandering through the airport was how strange it was that nobody was in a sarong. Or naked. Or drumming. It was a shock to my system, all these pants and suits. Pagan culture is sensory, and visceral, and delightfully messy.
Under the light of a full moon, four teens creep through the crooked iron gates of a long-forgotten cemetery hoping to witness a vampire emerging from his scared crypt. They carry candles, matches, and a package of dime-store incense…
Does this story sound like the beginning of a teenage thrasher film? A Scooby Doo episode? It’s neither. The narrative is actually an example of a very common-place phenomenon: “legend-tripping.” Gail de Vos, storyteller and adjunct professor, defines legend-tripping as:
…an organized journey to an isolated area to test the bravery of the group when faced with supernatural phenomena.
Two weeks ago, I reported on the production and release of the film The WinniPagans by Dodie Graham McKay. Shortly after that article was posted, Covenant of the Goddess’ North California Local Council (NCLC) offered to host a screening at PantheaCon. The screening will be held in presidential suite 1054 on Sunday, February 17 at 10am. Dodie will be on hand to field questions and take comments. Last week I was fortunate enough to receive my very own copy for review. It wasn’t long after my trip to the mailbox that I was comfortably settled into to my seat, popcorn in hand, to watch the film. In anticipation of the U.S. premiere of The WinniPagans, here is my review:
Film Review: The WinniPagans
The twenty-five minute documentary is a gentle examination of Pagan life through the eyes of the WinniPagans. Dodie takes us on a journey into their personal lives, their homes, their workplaces, and their social spaces. On camera, the WinniPagans share stories, reflect on experiences and discuss the unique regional challenges that they face in Winnipeg. The film feels like a sampling or an appetizer, if you will, to something much greater. It gives us a peak behind a curtain into something that seems foreign but, yet, at the same time very familiar.
Today, I’m going to share with you a personal revelation – an admission, of sorts. I frequently write about my Jewish upbringing. But now I must confess that I was really only Jew-ish. In actuality, I was raised a “none.”
As I child, I lived in a wholly secular family environment. We didn’t have a mezuzah. We didn’t belong to a temple. Religion had no place in our lives. Words like “prayer,” “faith” and “God” were foreign terms used by other people. Existence was explained through science and philosophy.
In November the media, along with The Wild Hunt, reported that the Charity Commission for Wales and England declined the the Pagan Federation’s request for charity status in the U.K. Upon hearing the unfortunate news, I worked with my fellow Covenant of the Goddess board members to offer support, “across the pond,” to those diligently working to achieve that coveted status. As a result, I had the pleasure of corresponding with the president of the Pagan Federation, Chris Crowley. Our brief exchange gave me a much better understanding of the situation and I present my findings to you. In a letter dated Oct. 4, 2012, the Charity Commission for Wales and England, a government organization charged with the regulation of all charity organizations, informed the Pagan Federation that its application for charity status had been rejected.