What I Want Our Holy Sites To Look Like

The Kircher blog explores houses made from living trees.

“The habitat is based on an ancient gardening method known as pleaching, which weaves together tree branches to form living archways, lattices or screens… the exterior of the living house is shaped over the course of several decades into a protective crisscross of vines, interspersed with soil pockets and growing plants.” – Tracy Staedter, Discovery News

This is the kind of melding of old traditions with new technologies that our community should be championing! I would be awestruck to see a row of such houses, truly a holy architecture.

What Would A Modern Matriarchy Look Like?

I was recently lucky enough to see the four short documentary films nominated for the The 78th Annual Academy Awards. All were wonderful and thought-provoking but one in particular touched on something very deep within the modern Paganism movement, the idea of matriarchy. The film in question is “God Sleeps In Rwanda” by Kimberlee Acquaro and Stacy Sherman.

“God Sleeps In Rwanda”

The film highlights the struggles of women in the wake of the Rwandan genocide and mass-rape. The genocide left Rwanda nearly 70% female. This created a social and political vacuum in which women, often women who had never had any authority or ambition outside the home, had to fill the vacancies created. Currently Rwanda has the highest percentage of women in parliament in the world. Women make up 30% of local leadership, and women now account for 50% of the college student body (up from 6%).

The documentary makes no predictions on the future of this country or the women in it. Rwanda, reeling from the genocides, is still plagued with problems and could slide once more into violence and chaos. But perhaps the women of Rwanda point to a place of hope and forward movement. A better society centered around the mothers and their priorities. This film is a must see.

Back in October I blogged about the efforts of a coalition of 13 Native American tribes to block a local ski resort from pumping artificial snow made from waste water onto the mountain these tribes consider sacred. On January 11th U.S. District Court Judge Paul Rosenblatt ruled against the tribes which would allow the desecration to go forward.

Shortly after the decision attorney Howard Shanker who represented the coalition in the court battle made this statement.

“This decision further eviscerates the rights of Native Americans to protect sacred lands that are essential to their belief systems. This is a direct affront to traditional Native beliefs and one more nail in the coffin of all the Tribes’ throughout the Country ability to survive in tact. The federal government tends to view Native religions and traditional practitioners with historic and archeological interest. The fact is, however, that traditional beliefs play an extremely important role in the daily lives of many tribal members. These beliefs and traditions cannot be “preserved” or put in a museum, they must be respected and honored. It is a tragedy that the government and the courts do not seem to understand this. Or perhaps they simply disregard this fact because, after all, respecting Native beliefs can be inconvenient for the government when it comes to government land use decisions. It is well established that the San Francisco Peaks are among the most sacred of sites to over 13 tribes in the southwestern United States. Practitioners and political leaders from the Navajo Nation, the Yavapai-Apache Tribe, the Hopi Tribe, the Hualapai Tribe, the Havasupai Tribe, and the White Mountain Apache Tribe all came forward to testify as to the sacredness of the Peaks, a fact that was already well known to the Forest Service before they approved the use of reclaimed waste sewage water to make snow. They all hoped that justice would be accomplished. It was not in this case. Here, the federal government felt, and the court affirmed, that the economic viability of the Arizona Snowbowl Resorts Limited Partnership was more of a priority than the beliefs of hundreds of thousands Native Americans. This decision will be appealed.”

Now the Associated Press is reporting that The Navajo Nation is indeed pushing forward with the appeal on this decision. There is a good chance this case may reach The Supreme Court on appeal. If it does, it will be interesting to see if the SCOTUS will continue the trend of strong support for religious rights under Chief Justice Roberts. One can only hope that justice will prevail and this sacred site will remain unspoiled by waste water for the enjoyment of skiers.

Previous posts on the issue:
10.24.2005 Screw Your Religion! We Want To Ski!

Modern Paganism’s Satanic Panic

Pagan blogger J. Brad Hicks relates how “Satanic panic” in the 1980s and early 1990s spurred some prominent Pagan leaders to do some foolish things.

“I ended up getting a threatening phone call from Pete Pathfinder of the Aquarian Tabernacle Church, telling me that if I kept defending accused Satanists that he and the other Big Name Pagans would make my life a hell on earth, including doing everything in their power to make trouble between me and the cops. I refused to be intimidated, and again, nothing ever came of it.”

Hicks goes into even more detail in the comments section where he discusses the fear of persecution amongst several well known big-name Pagans that may have spurred the anti-Satanism trend in modern Paganism to new levels.

“…the only way for several hundred thousand Neopagans and Witches to not end up dangling by their necks from tall trees, any imminent day now, was if the Neopagans and Witches proved to the public that they were even more anti-Satanist than the Christians were, and if we went out of our way to “out” to the cops anybody we suspected of being involved in Satanism. A tiny handful of organizations refused to toe this party line; mostly the Wiccan/Pagan Press Alliance and us at AMER. So over the course of about a year, I think this was around 1988 or 1989, we at AMER and the WPPA (and I think WADL?) came under massive pressure to reverse ourselves in public, or if we wouldn’t do that, to at least shut up. It mostly took the form of a whispering campaign; I was able to trace some genuinely nasty slanderous rumors back to Selena and the G’Zells, and the G’Zells in particular deserve horrific shame for what they tried to do to local Thelemists on the west coast.”

These conflicts may be old news to long-time Pagan insiders, but as a born-and-bred Midwesterner it is the first I have heard of such a collaborative (and political) effort amongst Pagan leaders. It draws into question how much of our need to constantly affirm our non-Satanic leanings stems somewhat from the fall-out of this panic. It would be very interesting to hear this story from the leaders he names or those close to the leaders during that time. I also wonder how they feel now about the Satanic panics of that era (Bonewits denounces the idea of any widespread Satanic abuse), especially now that the vast majority of people accused of Satanic ritual abuse have been proven innocent.

Wicca: Part of Shadowy Conspiracy

Man, I just can’t wait to get to that “certain level” so I too can be part of the massive Wiccan conspiracy. Gianni DeVincent Hayes, Ph.D. (a conspiracy expert!) writing for the American Chronicle lays bare our wicked ways.

“This too is a shadow organization, as it reveals its true self only to its members who rise to a certain level. Over the years, Wiccans have attempted to legitimize themselves by founding satanic schools, establishing websites, presumably promoting the white witches vs the black witches rumors, and even outright denying that witchcraft is demonic. Instead, they say that they don’t believe in any God, and that their existence is for man to search for the truth through their practices.”

You can’t buy entertainment like this. Well, technically you can, but why bother when they are more than happy to hand out free samples of this lunacy. It almost makes me want to get in on the act. If we are going to branded as part of some global underground conspiracy shouldn’t we be writing our own press releases?

Farewell To The Night Stalker

Actor Darren McGavin passed away of natural causes at a Los Angeles-area hospital yesterday. He was 83. McGavin is particularly famous to fans of occult-themed entertainment due to his role as Carl Kolchak: The Night Stalker.

McGavin as Kolchak

The 1970s cult show starred (and was produced by) McGavin as a newspaper reporter who investigates mysterious and unusual cases. His adversaries ranged from vampires to 19th century alchemists. His work on that series was a direct influence on shows like “The X-Files” (who paid tribute to McGavin by having him appear in an episode as a 50s-era paranormal investigator). Many modern shows that incorporate occult or paranormal elements owe at least a small debt to Kolchak.

In addition to McGavin’s work with “Kolchak: The Night Stalker”, he was probably most famous for his role as the father in the holiday classic “A Christmas Story”. For a full listing of his work you can find his IMDb profile, here. This humble blog raises a glass to the passing of a fine actor.

The Peacock That Repented

Both Chas Clifton and Jennifer Emick point to a blog post from Michael J. Totten’s “Middle East Journal”. The post deals with Totten’s visit to Lalish, the holy land of the Yezidis. Yezidi is a small Middle Eastern religion which is a syncretic fusion of Islamic, Sufi, and pre-Islamic pagan belief. The central figure of their faith is the angel Melek Taus (aka The Peacock Angel), perhaps better known as Satan. But unlike the terrible rebel angel of the dominant monotheisms, Melek Taus repented his rebellion and is now first among God’s servants. Comic book fans may find this all familiar due to the character “King Peacock” (a Yezidi super-hero and police detective) from Alan Moore’s comic “Top 10″.