Whether it is from a religious bias, personal distaste, or misguided efforts to “protect” residents, psychic practitioners and divination peddlers have often faced problems with local governments. The most common way this manifests is an outright ban on divinatory practices, though recent court decisions have increasingly made this route untenable (not to mention expensive). But bans aren’t the only quiver in the arsenal against these business, instead of banning some simply regulate psychics out of existence.

If you’re a fortune teller in Hialeah [in Florida], you need a permit. No proof required. But, like in many cities around South Florida, there’s a fee to operate your fortune telling business. The cost for Hialeah seers: $1,000 … The matter dates back to 1983 when out of fear that a strip of palm-reader shops would develop, the Hialeah council decided to control the business by restricting palm readers, astrologers and fortune tellers to industrially-zoned areas. But embedded by Embedded Video
Download Video Williams would not stand for it and filed a lawsuit challenging the city’s right to keep palm readers out of town. Her attorney Richard Gross argued the city had a right to regulate the craft, but not to stop it. He asked the council to allow seers in commercial areas. Then-Mayor Raul Martinez urged them to consider the amount of taxpayer money that would go to fighting the case, if they did not reverse the council’s 1983 decision. The council agreed. In 1989, the council passed an ordinance that required the businesses to be situated at least 1,000 feet from each other and 500 feet away from residential, school or church properties. It also set the cost of the occupational licenses at $1,000.

This ordinance, its high licensing fees, and combative attitudes towards practitioners of divination caused a drop since 1989 from 39 registered fortune tellers to just two. Now, twenty years later, the Hialeah Council is about to lower the fee to something more in line with neighboring cities.

The cost for Hialeah seers: $1,000. That amount soon might be reduced to $250, if the Hialeah Council agrees to the fee reduction at its next meeting Feb. 24. The ordinance unanimously passed first reading Feb. 9. Hialeah officials felt the fee was an abuse — one that might have been encouraging some to operate illegally — on all of the two registered city spiritualists. ”We’re just doing it essentially out of fairness,” said City Attorney Bill Grodnick.

One wonders what brought about this change of heart. It seems odd that the Hialeah Council suddenly realized the fee was “abusive”, could the loss of business to other cities and the economic downturn have anything to do with this? After all, according to some reports psychics, botanicas, and other services do pretty well in hard fiscal times (plus, I’m sure they hope that the practitioners operating under the table will decide to go legit). But is it too little and too late? Can Hialeah change its image as a city unfriendly to psychics? If not, it may be some unintended blowback in the quiet war against local seers.

Is there something in the water lately? It seems like there has been an odd spike in stories about violent crimes involving (sometimes tenuous) links to Pagans or the occult. Granted, the actual crimes were isolated incidents that took place years apart, hopefully negating (most) crackpot theories about Pagan religions and occult practices encouraging violence, but still, it’s odd. Having said all that, it’s time to add another story to the pile. We now have a very recent, and bizarre, case involving the murder of former police officer Paul Cadigan. The alleged killer is “a pure, 100 percent weirdo” who was a church-hopping Christian (she even recorded a Christian music CD) until deciding she was Wiccan.

[Dianne Parker] stands accused of murdering former Hingham police Lt. Paul Cadigan, 62, whose body was discovered by horseback riders Feb. 8 in a wooded area of St. Cloud, Fla. He had been shot multiple times and his body dismembered, the Brevard County Sheriff’s Department said.

Cadigan had hired Parker for her services as a massage therapist, and police believed they might have argued about payment shortly before the murder took place. The True Crime Report blog paints a picture of a woman who talked about peace and harmony, but also seemed to have some deep anger issues and a need for revenge.

“I committed nuclear fission on my perps! I envisioned them in the middle of a great nuclear explosion and I got to see every grizzly moment! Ahhh! That moment of satisfaction! … You too can demonstrate the way you’d like to get that perp. There are millions of ways of making them suffer and pay for their crimes!!! Have at it! Perhaps the Indians were right in just eliminating those who were harmful to the well being of the tribe!!”

Parker was obviously having some serious life problems just before the murder, which may have pushed her over the edge.

Facing foreclosure on her home, Dianne Parker had acquired a Honda SUV, moved in a mattress, some bedding and clothes, and was preparing to live in the vehicle, a neighbor said.

The media are eating this up, partially because Parker was so prevelant on the Internet, presaging a day when getting biographical background on criminals (and victims) will be a simple Google-search away. But I also think the transparency of the alleged killer in this case is also something of a boon for minority faiths and philosophies. Taken as a whole you can see the workings of a disordered and distrurbed mind. Instead of her being a “Wiccan” killer, we know that she was habitually dissatisfied and hopping from church-to-church in a search for meaning and solace. Her openness, while certainlly adding fodder for the sensationalist aspects of modern journalism, also shows how isolated and unaware of their own sickness these sort of killers are.

Don’t call it a comeback! Morris dancing has been here for years! The Guardian’s music blog talks about how a younger generation interested and influenced by Pagan traditions, folk music, and a viral campaign for the faux-documentary “Morris: A Life With Bells On” are bringing new blood to a venerable tradition.

The music plays a major part, and it is through English folk – or the English folk revival scene – that a new generation of more urbane-minded people of both sexes are finding their way to morris dancing. “1960s and 70s British folk was a cool time for music, and bands such as Steeleye Span, Fairport Convention, Jethro Tull and even Led Zeppelin took a lot of cues, sonically and visually, from British folk arts,” says music journalist and proud morris dancer Jo Kendall. As the indigenous music of England, folk has never quite been given the same respect that the traditional music of, say, the US or Jamaica is afforded. Yet morris dancing seems to be changing perceptions about the music that soundtracks it. Those songs that sing of farming, courting couples, regional folklore or other archaic topics are capable of evoking a strong sense of place. Not in a nationalistic way – blind patriotism being the last refuge of myopic idiots – but more in a “Wow, I can’t believe they still do this” kind of way.

For more on the popularity of “Morris: A Life With Bells On”, click here and here. For more on the recent resurgence of interest in folk music, check out this article on “Goth-folk”, and a great article from Zeek magazine about how the new folk and psychedelic bands encourage a pagan, immanent, spiritual outlook. You may also want to read my previous posts on the Morris, Wassailing, and folk-dancing resurgence.

The Los Angeles Daily News profiles santero Charles Guelperin and looks at the rise of Santeria in Los Angeles, which some are now calling the “capital” of the faith in the USA.

“We do not have churches, temples or synagogues,” said Guelperin, a chain cigar smoker after his morning rituals. “My home here is my temple.”Today Santeria, a blend of Afro-Caribbean voodoo and the devotion to saints among many Latino Roman Catholics, has become so big in Los Angeles that many consider the city the Santeria capital of the country. It is a phenomenon that has occurred thanks to the influx of immigrants from Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean and court rulings making it easier to sacrifice animals for religious purposes.

The article goes on to touch on the growth of botanicas (which seem to be doing quite well so-far despite the recession), the tensions created by animal sacrifices, and how the faith is becoming more affluent and cosmopolitan as it integrates with American culture.

“One of the reasons why I’m writing the book about Charlie is because his clientele is so cosmopolitan,” said [Donald J. Cosentino, a folklore professor at the University of California, Los Angeles] “He is just down the street from Paramount Studios, and he’s got a lot of people from the film industry who come to his botanica. Sports people. He’s got businessmen. Men from West L.A. Men from Beverly Hills. He’s got foreign clients. “He is a very cosmopolitan man, a very cosmopolitan priest, and that’s what makes him so interesting.”

With the rise of Santeria on the West Coast and a popular resurgence of Vodou in Florida, we may be looking at a larger trend of younger generations turning to pre and post-Christian religions and traditions to face a challenging world and find an identity. I imagine that we’ll see some interesting cross-pollinations between these syncretic faiths and the growing modern Pagan religions in the very near future.

Is a random prayer taken out of context by a killer “consistent with Wicca”? That’s the assertion made by NBC’s Dateline and Virginia police in a special aired last night on Randall Lee Smith, a delusional loner who killed two people on the Appalachian Trail back in 1981, and attempted to kill two more in 2008.

In addition to the gun, police found a treasure trove of evidence Randall Lee Smith had hidden deep in the woods: Scott Johnston’s sunglasses, more than 20 knives, meat cleavers and other items. And they found some bizarre drawings and notes, including this “prayer:” “Hail to the guardians of the watchtower of the north. By the powers of mother and earth hear me…show me thy glory…I invoke thee oh, ancient one.” Police say the notes and symbols are consistent with a religion called Wicca — a pagan group that worships nature, and considers its leading members witches.

Dateline is hardly a bastion of level-headed reporting, but this seems a bit much. If he had scraps of Biblical verse scattered around would they be “consistent with Christianity”? Ceremonial elements and notes do not the religion make, and it was irresponsible for Dateline to report the information this way. Did they think that adding a “Witch angle” would make things more exciting for their viewers? Also,” considers its leading members witches”? So only the “leading” members then? Are we all working our way to witch-hood? As for Randall Lee Smith, we can’t ask him what his actual beliefs were since he died in custody shortly after being apprehended from injuries sustained during a crash. Yet another victory for sensationalism.

Today is the festival of Lupercalia, the ancient Roman observance of fertility and the coming spring. Not to be confused with the commercialized martyr’s celebration held yesterday, Lupercalia is a holiday sacred to the god Faunus, and the mythical she-wolf who reared Romulus and Remus the semi-mythical founders of Rome. It was considered an important holiday of religious observance and purification.

“Lupercalia ” by Domenico Beccafumi

There are many lurid accounts of what goes on during Lupercalia, some make it seem like an excuse for copulation and frivolity. One of the best descriptions I have found on the web comes from W. J. Kowalski’s excellent Roman Calendar page.

“The rites of this day included the sacrifice of a goat or a dog at the cave-grotto known as the Lupercal. With the sacrificial blood wiped across their foreheads, the youth partaking in this ceremony would then run the circumference of the Palatine hill, perhaps about 5K, tracing the traditional route of the city boundary traced by Romulus the day he founded Rome. In the process, girls who approached the runners would be brushed or splattered with the februa, thongs of sacrificial goatskin, presumably bloody, symbolically blessing them with fertility. Red is the color of the day as it is with Valentine’s Day, the day invented to replace the Lupercalia. Fertility and sexuality were likewise replaced with the puritanical pipedream of sexless Love.”

Most (non-Pagan) people wouldn’t even know about Lupercalia if it were not for the constant stream of Valentine’s Day articles in the press. The favorite trend amongst bored newswriters and editorial columnists seems to be talking about the ancient pagan influences of a particular holiday. This has done more to further an awareness of ancient (and modern) paganism than any Pagan advocacy group could hope to attain. So as more people grow sick and tired of the Valentine’s Day expectations, perhaps I’ll be hearing more “blessed Lupercalias” in the future.

A very blessed and fertile Lupercalia to you all!

My semi-regular round-up of articles, essays, and opinions of note for discerning Pagans and Heathens.

It looks like crazy and criminal Pagans in the courtroom come in threes. First there was the horrific occult-tinged child murders perpetrated by Lawrence Harris, then the crazy attempted murder ring-leader  Terisa “Red Phoenix” Davidson, and now a jury is beginning deliberations in the case of Kathleen Hilton. Hilton, a Wiccan grandmother, allegedly set fire to her son’s estranged girlfriend’s apartment building, killing five occupants.

Hilton has been behind bars since her arrest shortly after the tragic fire. During the trial, she testified to hearing voices. To refute such claims, the state introduced testimony from forensic psychologist Tali Walters, who was appointed by the court to determine if Hilton was competent to stand trial. Less than a month after the fire, Walters interviewed Hilton on three occasions at Taunton State Hospital. At trial, Walters recalled Hilton talking extensively about witchcraft and her spiritual beliefs in Wicca. Hilton also mentioned during those interviews that she had communicated with a tribal council of dead Native Americans, Walters said. Despite these assertions, Walters concluded that Hilton was not suffering psychosis or a mental illness.

What is interesting about this tragic case from a legal standpoint is that it asserts that adherence to Wicca or belief in spirit communications doesn’t equate to a psychosis or a mental illness. If Pagans, Wiccan, and occult believers aren’t crazy for the purposes of prosecutions, that could mean that they can’t be considered crazy in custody cases or as witnesses.

Psychics aren’t the only ones experiencing a slight uptick in business. The Palm Beach Post has an article about a local Botanica that is seeing increased business in this economic downturn.

For those believers, Vegueria so far is doing a better job of quelling fears than the complicated solutions debated by the U.S. Congress. “People have always come here with their economic troubles,” says Vegueria’s wife and business partner, Raquel, 54. “But now it’s even more so. A lot of people are out of work. He does what he can to listen to them, calm them, give them hope.” She says her husband is doing more pro-bono consulting these days. “Some can hardly afford to pay anything,” says Raquel. “They pay when they can.” The Veguerias are not alone. Other Santeria practitioners say the percentage of believers wanting to discuss economic travails has increased.

But can this slightly larger influx of money into psychic and occult services counteract a larger economic collapse? Esoteric answers are often a last resort for a scared general populace, and when that money also runs out I can’t imagine the psychics, practitioners of Santeria, or Pagans will be any better off. In fact, if this recession goes on for too long it may become very dangerous to be a Witch.

The Nigerian newspaper Punch looks at the growing number of mentally ill people in Osogbo and wonders if it is connected to creativity or native spiritual beliefs, a view that is strongly refuted by a local Ifa scholar.

Does the high level of creativity in Osogbo account for the unusually high number of mentally ill people? World acclaimed Ifa scholar, Ifayemi Elebuibon, does not believe so. Elebuibon said three factors were responsible for madness. Elebuibon, the Awise of Osogbo, who delivers papers in American and European universities on Ifa divinity, said mental illness could be contracted through heredity, evil attack and drug abuse. Tracing the traditional genealogy of madness, Elebuibon said, the Alara and Ajero royal families were the first to be beset with madness in Yoruba cultural worldview. According to him, “Mental illness is becoming rampant because people have departed from the ways of our forebears. We used to have intermediaries before marriages were consummated but now a man sees a woman on the road and off they go into marriage. Nobody cares to investigate the families of the spouse or the intending husband in order to know what kind of family their son or daughter is getting married to. Some families have hereditary mental illness.”

The piece goes on to look at more common factors in causing a increasingly visible mentally ill population: poverty,  hard drug-use, and a lack of social support systems. I’m glad to see this paper refuting the more romantic ideas of mentall illness. There is nothing more tragic than a society that treats depression, “heroic melancholy” and madness as “creative” or “holy” conditions.

For those of you who enjoyed my mention of the “Goddess on Earth” show yesterday, you might also want to check out another woman-centric New York gallery showing in March entitled “Fata Morgana: The New Female Fantasists”.

Dabora Gallery and Phantasmaphile’s Pam Grossman are proud to usher in the spring season with the group show “Fata Morgana: The New Female Fantasists,” on view from March 14th through April 12th, 2009. It features fourteen of the most vital and visionary women artists working in the US today. In literal terms, a fata morgana is a mirage or illusion, a waking reverie, a shimmering of the mind. Named for the enchantress Morgan le Fay, these tricks of perception conjure up a sense of glimpsing into another world, whether it be the expanses of an ethereal terrain, or the twilit depths of the psyche. The artists of “Fata Morgana: The New Female Fantasists” deftly utilize the semiotics of mysticism, fantasy, and the subconscious in their work, thereby guiding the viewer through heretofore uncharted realms – alternately shadowy or luminous, but always inventive.

You can check out a couple images from the show, here. You might also be interested in some of the artist’s web sites: Carrie Ann Baade, Lori Field, Katy Horan, Tina Imel, and Susan Jamison. It almost makes me want to be in New York. Almost.

In a final note, today is the feast of St. Valentine aka St. Valentine’s Day. Normally I would list the many and sundry media articles that detail the pre-Christian origins of this seemingly Sainted day, but I’ll concentrate on Lupercalia tomorrow (the actual day of its observance). In reality, St. Valentine’s Day most likely isn’t the holiday created to replace Lupercalia. When Lupercalia observances were suppressed by Pope Gelasius I in 494, the pre-existing Feast of the Presentation of Jesus at the Temple (which in the Julian calendar fell on the same day as Lupercalia) was promoted in Rome as the purification of the Virgin Mary (later called Candlemas). Since the month of February and Lupercalia were seen as times of purification by the Romans, the new emphasis on Mary’s purification makes perfect sense. The Feast of St. Valentine, established two years later by Gelasius doesn’t seem to have much to do with the replacement of Lupercalia. If you want to blame someone for equating love with St. Valentine’s Day, you’ll most likely have to blame Geoffrey Chaucer (who hath a blog). In any case may you all have a happy (and by this point thoroughly secularized) Valentine’s Day celebration with the romantic partner(s) of your choice.

That’s all I have for now, have a great day!

The Riverspace Arts center in Nyack, New York is premiering an exhibition in March that may be of interest to my  readership. Entitled “Goddess on Earth”, the show is the culmination of a six-year project by photographer Lisa Levart that aims to unveil the goddesses in the lives of individual women.

The Riverspace café will be transformed to house the multimedia installation that celebrates the strength, self-esteem and wholeness of contemporary women and girls. An empowering, feminist sanctuary emerges out of a collage of moving and still projections, international music and the women’s recorded voices as they reflect on the feminine divine. Working with women of all ages, Levart has captured evocative contemporary interpretations of know and little known goddesses from many countries and cultures including Native American, China, Egypt, Greece, Hawaii, Scandinavia, India, Ireland, Sumerian, Japan and Tibet. Collectively these portraits convey the resonant and multifaceted manifestations of the feminine spirit.

Included in the 60 women photographed for the project are several well-known and accomplished individuals, like author Isabel Allende (as Yemaya), actress Karen Allen (as Habetrot), and singer/songwriter Suzzy Roche (as Calliope). The show runs from March 7th through March 28th and is part of Riverspace’s tribute to Women’s History Month. For more previews of the photos, and information about a forthcoming book collection of the work, check out the Goddess on Earth web site.

Today is the start of Pantheacon, the only annual modern Pagan convention in the western US (and probably the biggest indoor Pagan convention in America). A veritable smörgåsbord of talks, panels, workshops and rituals  (click here for a full list), this year features plenty of my fellow Pagan bloggers in attendance (and leading workshops) including M. Macha NightMare, Deborah Oak, Lupa, Erynn Laurie, Thorn Coyle, Virginia Beach, and newly-minted Beliefnet blogger Gus diZerega.

While meeting together we will have a rich smorgasboard of workshops before us,  on history, ritual, music, interfaith, herbalism, politics, different traditions, healing, and much more, including just celebrating our being together.  I’ll share some of the presentations with you. It is wonderful to see British Traditionalists (like me), Celtic, Asatru,  African Diasporic folks, Druids, Erisians, and many more come together to celebrate the many ways human beings have to honor the Divine. The Sacred spins out its beautiful abundance and we respond in kind,  Many old friends practice these other paths, and it is always a joy to see them again as we gather from all over the west, and sometimes even farther away.

In addition to the authors, BNPs (big-name Pagans), academics, and religious leaders, Pantheacon also features an interesting mix of musical selections for convention-goers. This year you can check out everything from the classic Pagan-folk of Holly Tannen and Ruth Barrett, to the ritualistic word-fusion of Pandemonaeon, to Heathen-metal band Hauk (you can read a recent interview with the band, here). So really, a little something for everyone.

I only wish I could be there to experience and report on it all, but sadly it wasn’t to be this year (I’m looking to have my first Pantheacon experience next year), so be sure to check out the bloggers who are attending for reports and updates (attendees are also welcome to leave comments here as well). Good journey to those attending, I hope you all have a wonderful time*.

* Oh, and I hope some of you out there attended the pre-Pantheacon Cherry Hill Seminary Winter Intensive on power, politics, and religious pluralism featuring talks from Patrick McCollum and attorney James L. Bianchi. If not, be sure to seek out some CHS faculty and staff and ask for more info about the school’s future, there’s a lot of exciting stuff going on (full disclosure, I’m on the BOD of CHS).