So How Is That Mainstream Acceptance Coming?

I think that those of us who live in urban areas or college towns often forget that modern Paganism hasn’t really gained mainstream acceptance or understanding in much of our country. I read three articles today (when it rains, it pours) that help highlight the current state of modern Pagan practitioners in America.

First we have the case of a local community in North Carolina where a local Pagan group has joined the “Adopt-A-Highway” program. This has caused enough controversy in the town of Gastonia to warrant a local television spot. In the spot it was revealed that the woman behind the sign who opened a local cafe’/occult shop last summer has been receiving death threats.

“Miller said she has been receiving death threats since her caf? opened last summer, but she hopes the highway adoption can prove to people that her group wants to make a positive impact on the community. She said it also intends to adopt another highway in the near future.”

North Carolina has also been in the news recently for a local school board’s plan to enact a controversial policy over the disbursement of religious literature, and if it will allow Pagan literature alongside Christian tracts.

Another story highlights how fringe groups tend to gather together in places that may not be too tolerant of “alternative” lifestyles. The article deals with the Hidden River Resort, a nudist retreat on the Florida-Georgia border. In addition to hosting nudist/naturist events the retreat has also become a haven for local Pagan and LGBT groups looking for a place to meet.

“Hidden River hosts special events throughout the year including group events and workshops. “We have had lesbian and pagan gatherings. In fact earlier this month, the Phoenix Fire Pagans were here. They are the original tree huggers and earth worshipers,” said Hatten.”

The somewhat tolerated nudist resort acts as an protective umbrella for smaller groups in an area where they most likely wouldn’t receive a warm welcome if they tried to own and operate a resort their own resort. As for Pagans consorting with naturists? I’m sure old Gerald would approve.

Of course being an out Pagan in some places would be almost unthinkable. Like Tahlequah, Oklahoma where tattooing may soon become legal. There, local tattoo enthusiasts have to biblically justify their body art to assure the townsfolk they aren’t horrible Pagans.

“According to Craig, the popular Bible passage relating to not injuring oneself relates more to pagan ritual. “The Bible says you’re not supposed to ‘let blood for the dead,’” said Craig. “Which means you’re not supposed to participate in ritualistic destruction of your body to raise the dead, things like that.” Craig is a friend of the Smiths, and Karen is quick to talk about his devotion to God…Safari has a number of customers who are preachers part-time, according to Karen.”

I wouldn’t ask for a pentacle tattoo in that town.

Taken together, these articles help paint a picture of what it means to be a modern Pagan in much of our country today. Keeping in “the broom closet”, receiving death threats when you go public in the “wrong” place, making alliances to survive and celebrate openly. While our numbers and acceptance are growing, it will be a long time before Pagans all across America feel free to be open about who they are.

(Pagan) News of Note

Some articles, essays, and news stories that have caught my eye.

The Philadelphia City Paper profiles the “Sacred Sexuality Beltane Festival” taking place April 27th – 30th. Writer Ashlea Halpern seems impressed by the Pagan festival’s breadth and scope.

“What started out eight years ago as a family-friendly Pagan fest with flower garlands and naked hippies dancing around the maypole has evolved into a pansexual, clothing-optional retreat offering workshops and lectures-at least half of which are Pantheist-oriented and taught by instructors with names like Puck, Freeheart and Wilddragon…”

The festival will also feature talks by authors Raven Kaldera and Jennifer Hunter among others.

Chas Clifton points out a blog entry by Classical Archaeology graduate student Troels Myrup Kristensen on the mutilation of pre-Christian (pagan) inscriptions by early Christians.

“Damnatio memoriae frequently involved the removal of the names of ‘bad’ emperors from public inscriptions. This was a relatively easy procedure, but usually left behind some awkward gaps in the texts. One of the most famous examples of this is the honorary inscription on the Arch of Septimius Severus, where the name of Geta was erased. The modification of the inscription is more obvious today, as the original bronze letters have disappeared. A phenomenon that has received considerable less attention is the Christian removal of names of pagan gods in inscriptions.”

Sadly the need to eliminate “pagan” thought is still around, from Islamic fatwas against Egyptian “idols” to conservative Christians who continue to conflate Pagan belief with Nazi-ism. Did you know that opposing the drilling of ANWAR makes you a sinister Nazi pagan? It’s true, just ask Bruce Walker.

“…there is no “Far Right.” There are only ordinary people and Sinisterists, who have an utterly secular or pagan religion based upon the worship of the lie. So when you meant a Leftist who presumes to oppose drilling for oil in ANWAR or off the coast of the United States or the building of refineries, and you try to explain to him that the world may come to the brink of nuclear Armageddon because of his irrational indifference to the vast production of oil allowed America to defeat the Nazis in the Second World War, do not be surprised if the Leftist yawns: like all Sinisterists, including those who lead Germany into the Second World War and committed the Holocaust, his faith is in the idols of nature and he is willing to see any crime committed to protect his jealous gods and goddesses.”

The LA City Beat profiles a documentary about the tragic life of Basilio Vargas, a 14 year old worker in a Bolivian silver mine. Vargas practices a syncretic form of Christianity where he worships Jesus above ground but gives homage to a pre-Christian “demon” who rules the mines.

“He works incredibly hard shifts at the dangerous mine, where most of the workers don?t live past 40; and he is the sole support of his family, who lives in a stone shack at the mine?s entrance. Like many of the other miners, Basilio also worships a pagan demon, whom he believes controls life in the mines, and who requires libations of coca leaves and sacrifices of llamas. As Basilio explains, he believes in Jesus the Savior ? but underground, homage must be paid to another deity entirely.”

Finally, local psychics, astrologers and tarot card readers all agree that the Edmonton Oilers will win the first round playoff series against Detroit.

“Now leading Detroit 2-1 in the series, Edmonton will win in five games. OK, maybe six. Or seven. Unless, of course, Detroit takes the series in seven — as predicted apologetically by Detroit clairvoyant Geraldine Branch. She promises next year will be “a really good year” for the copper and blue.”

So if you were waiting to place bets (where legal), I guess now is a good a time as any. Have a good day.

What’s Next For Generation Hex?

Steven Taylor at Dreamflesh interviews Jason Louv, editor of the book Generation Hex, and longtime contributor to Disinformation. Taylor talks to Louv about youth culture, Columbine, the Internet, and magic.

“The internet’s also been great for bringing people together but to be honest I’m sick of the internet, and the problem, especially with discussions about magic, is that it can be hard to separate out the people who have actually practiced magic in any kind of deep or meaningful way, and those who just like to talk about ideas. Both are great but for those who are just getting started and are looking for actually useful and meaningful information it can be a real mess. But I suppose that’s how it’s always been with magic, anybody looking to get some proper information has always had to sift through small landfills’ worth of charlatanry. Internet discussion forums and even books like Generation Hex are just puffery really when compared to the experience of sitting down or going out in the world and actually doing magic, so the most I can hope for in the current occult “climate,” even my own little corner of it, is that hopefully people will take away enough of a sense that there are other people out there doing this stuff and that helps it become OK for them to actually take that first step and do some experiments without having to feel like they?re completely alone or crazy.”

Louv’s future plans include developing the site Ultraculture into a sort of open occult artistic collective, and working on his Tantra.

Second-Hand Christianity

Are you suffering from the effects of second-hand Christianity? Pagan blogger Brad Hicks lays out the similarities between the dangers of second-hand smoke and second-hand religion.

“We don’t get to pick whether or not somebody else shoves their Christianity into our space and down our throats. And like the people who ask smokers to put their cigarettes out, we’re treated with great hostility by anybody around us when we object to it, like we’re the intolerant ones. I told him that second-hand Christianity and second-hand smoking are, in fact, the exact same issue…nobody in America who works for a living can go half an hour of any workday without at least one reminder that non-Christians in general and atheists in particular (as we were freshly reminded last week by a University of Minnesota survey, the only minority in America more hated than the Islamist fundamentalists that we’re actually at war with) are second-class citizens, not full Americans, not even really people. And we get even less choice whether or not to be exposed to their religious sentiments.”

Sunfell gives further comment.

“I am not sure if the paradigm really fits, but it did serve to make me observe the environment in which I live. I am surrounded by Christian verbiage, symbolism, protelysation, etc. I regularly get behind vehicles with religious messages on them. I see people with Christian themed t-shirts wandering the halls of this building. All prayers in the Chamber are said ‘in Jesus Name’. In Hobby Lobby, the music was all contemporary Christian, which served as a catalyst to run me out of there ASAP.”

Despite the fears of some, America still has a culture that is dominated by Christian ideas and imagery. So the question is, how does that affect non-Christian faiths? For all our talk of a Pagan worldview, how much of our thought processes are influenced by the subtle and pervasive Christian influence. Are we all suffering from second-hand religion?