Top Story: The U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, once the poster child of creeping Christian militarism and religious intolerance, has apparently made vast improvement in recent months. So significant are these  improvements that even Mikey Weinstein of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation is impressed, and accommodations are being made for minority religions, including modern Pagan cadets.

“The academy superintendent, Air Force Lt. Gen. Michael Gould, says the improvements are the result of a topdown campaign to foster respect and a commitment to accommodate all cadets, even nonbelievers and an “Earth-centered” religious group that needed a place for a stone circle so it could worship outdoors. “If we are going to have success in our primary mission of developing leaders of character, we have to do that based on respect in all things, whether we’re talking gender, race or religion,” Gould said. Academy commanders say the school has started to seek out the religious needs of its cadets and accommodate them, instead of waiting for cadets to ask. For example, a Cadet Interfaith Council with about 20 members helps identify upcoming religious holidays so schedules can be adjusted around them, when possible.”

This is hugely good news, not only for our military-bound Pagans, but for the military as a whole. Despite the insinuations by some that religious tolerance and inclusion is counter-productive to good discipline, the reality is that a trustworthy military is one that truly reflects the diversity and values of our nation. That means a military where Pagans, atheists, and other minority belief systems are given the same considerations, without threat of retaliation (or intimidation), during their service, taken care of in peace-time, and fully honored in death.

In Other News: Egyptian archaeologists have managed to raise a 9-ton pylon from the Mediterranean Sea that was a part of a temple to Isis and part of Cleopatra’s palace complex.

“The tower was originally part of the entrance to a temple of Isis, a pharaonic goddess of fertility and magic. The temple is believed to have been near the palace that belonged to the 1st century B.C. Queen Cleopatra in the ancient city of Alexandria, submerged in the sea centuries ago.”

The pylon will be the centerpiece of a new museum dedicated to antiquities recovered from the Mediterranean Sea. You can catch a pretty good glimpse of the pylon, here.

For those of you not keeping track of the Pagans at the Parliament blog, some great content has been uploaded to that site recently. Including audio and video from the “People Call Us Pagans” panel, audio from the “Indigenous Peoples’ Statement to the World”, and video of the “Australian Pagans Speak” community forum. In addition, I’ve also linked to a Patheos.com interview with COG representative Don Frew from the Parliament.

There’s even more great stuff to be found at the Pagans at the Parliament blog, including my previous audio interviews with Michael York, Ed Hubbard, and Zay Speer.

From the “didn’t this happen ages ago” files, it seems that  Jonathon “The Impaler” Sharkey, that subject of documentary filmmakers, and founder of the “Vampyres, Witches, and Pagans Party”, has landed himself in jail for two years.

“Forty-five-year-old Rocky Flash, also known as Jonathon Sharkey, was sentenced in a Marion County court on Wednesday to more than two years in jail. Prosecutors say the man threatened to beat, torture, impale, dismember and decapitate Judge David Certo, who is presiding over another case involving Flash.”

Sharkey was already in trouble for harassing an underage girl, and the judge he was threatening is no doubt the one in charge of that case. Perhaps this will finally close the casket (no pun intended, OK, pun intended) on this perennial Pagan embarrassment’s fifteen minutes of fame.

In a final note, FaithWorld is looking at various picks for the top religious stories of 2009.

“It’s Top 10 time again. As 2009 nears its end, Time magazine and the Religion Newswriters Association in the U.S. have produced their lists of the main religion news stories of the year. They take quite different views. Time’s list is quite broad, the top three being the advance of secularism in Europe, Pope Benedict’s invitation to conservative Anglicans and President Barack Obama’s decision to expand the faith-based office created by George Bush. The RNA picked Obama’s Cairo address to the Muslim world as its top story, followed by the role of religious groups in the U.S. health care reform debate and the Fort Hood massacre allegedly carried out by an American Muslim officer.”

As long-time readers may know, I like to count down the top Pagan stories of the year at the end of December (here’s a link for my 2006, 2007, and 2008 picks), and you can bet I have some great ideas for this year’s list. I’d also like to hear your ideas. Which Pagan stories, in your opinion, were the most notable in 2009? Let me know in the comments.

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

You have to love the Unitarian Universalists, they’re the only religious denomination that’s includes more theological diversity than the modern Pagan movement does. Pagans, Christians, Humanists, Buddhists, and Jews mix and mingle freely at UU churches across the country. So when I heard about the controversy over the election of Cecil Bothwell, a writer and avowed “post-theist”, to the Asheville city council, I wasn’t at all surprised to hear he’s an active member of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Asheville. What’s the controversy? He’s making national headlines because local Christians are arguing that he can’t serve because he doesn’t believe in God.

“North Carolina’s constitution is clear: politicians who deny the existence of God are barred from holding office. Opponents of Cecil Bothwell are seizing on that law to argue he should not be seated as a City Council member today, even though federal courts have ruled religious tests for public office are unlawful under the U.S. Constitution. Voters elected the writer and builder to the council last month … Article 6, section 8 of the state constitution says: “The following persons shall be disqualified for office: First, any person who shall deny the being of Almighty God.” Rights enshrined in the U.S. Constitution trump the restriction in the state constitution, said Bob Orr, executive director of the N.C. Institute for Constitutional Law.”

The story has made On Faith, Fox, the Associated Press, the Chicago Tribune, and Rachel Maddow (among other outlets).

Naturally, any legal actions to remove Bothwell are ultimately doomed to failure thanks to this thing called the United States Constitution, where Article VI, section 3, states that:

“The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.”

That not only allows atheists and post-theists to hold political office despite local laws and prejudices, but also allows Pagan politicians like Dan Halloran and Jessica Orsini to do so as well. This right of freedom from a religious test for government office or employment was strengthened by the 1961 Supreme Court case Torcaso v. Watkins, that ruled:

“We repeat and again reaffirm that neither a State nor the Federal Government can constitutionally force a person “to profess a belief or disbelief in any religion.” Neither can constitutionally pass laws or impose requirements which aid all religions as against non-believers, and neither can aid those religions based on a belief in the existence of God as against those religions founded on different beliefs.“

In short, it doesn’t matter if you are a theist, post-theist, atheist, or polytheist, you can’t be denied government office or position, at any level, due to your belief, or lack of belief, in divinity. A level playing field that infuriates those who continually insist that America belongs to Christianity alone. A win here for this UU post-theist is a win for all religious minorities, and those concerned about maintaining a separation of church and state.

“I’m fielding e-mails from dozens of people around the country—so far all supportive—and the writers include Christians as well as atheists and Quakers and Muslims and pagans and more. I’ve read some of the thousands of comments posted on blogs and the vast majority of folks support the separation of church and state that has figured so prominently in the history of this country. It is reassuring to me that there is such a broad understanding that freedom OF religion necessarily includes freedom FROM religion, else such a guarantee has no real meaning.”

Congratulations to Councilman Bothwell, may he serve Asheville, and its many Pagan citizens, well.

Even though negotiations for a new global climate accord at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen seem to be rapidly deteriorating, with frustrated demonstrators trying to force their way into the talks, you wouldn’t know it by reading the (largely) right-leaning pundits. They all seem convinced that global environmental-pagan-cult rule is only days away. For example, we have this little gem from Joe Soucheray.

“It is a religious gathering in Copenhagen, nothing more and strikingly pagan in nature, but religious. They might as well be wearing hemp cassocks and green vestments, with a glittering crown of recycled pop-can tops for their spiritual leader, Al Gore, who is trying to pioneer the theological mischief known as plenary indulgences, only this time you can use gasoline to sin in St. Paul if only you plant a tree in Keokuk after first paying a middleman.”

The environmentalism = paganism rhetoric ranges from conspiratorial to spectacularly florid. It makes the usual climate-accord supporting disclaimer by Pope Benedict XVI seem so understated and reasonable.

“The final point of the Pope is dedicated to challenging those notions of man’s relationship with the environment that lead to “absolutizing nature ” or “considering it more important than the human person”, as it eliminates the “ontological” difference between the human person and other living beings”. In the name of a supposedly egalitarian vision of the “dignity” of all living creatures, such notions end up abolishing the distinctiveness and superior role of human beings. They also open the way to a new pantheism tinged with neo-paganism, which would see the source of man’s salvation in nature alone, understood in purely naturalistic terms.“

You know discourse on the topic has flown off the rails when the Pope’s “beware of paganism” boilerplate seems like a breath of fresh air. Amidst the accusations that we’ll all soon be worshiping Gaia in an imaginary socialist utopia, there’s still the issue of if the world can actually move forward on an issue that hundreds of institutions and thousands of scientists have a broad consensus on.

“The fundamental question is who are we as human beings if at some future date the next generation lives in a world with declining prospects and no possibility of reclaiming the beauty of this planet. They will look back at Copenhagen and ask why did you let this fail? What were the arguments? Didn’t you realize that we were at stake?” – Al Gore at Copenhagen.

With all the hot air over the “climategate” e-mails, and the lockouts and walkouts at Copenhagen, I have a hard time believing we’ll be forcing Michelle Malkin to sing “we all come from the Goddess” anytime soon, let alone see a comprehensive accord from the world’s nations that is anything more than a face-saving fig-leaf at this point. Then again, who knows, maybe we’ll get lucky (about the treaty part, not Malkin singing goddess-chants). As for tarring anyone who supports forward movement on climate change as a pagan cultist, I suspect the meme itself will never die, but that it will grow increasingly hollow as the world’s  (non-Pagan) religions increasingly see the need to engage in “climate justice” for their global flocks.

Who abuses animals? It isn’t an easy answer. People engaged in cruelty towards animals can come from all walks of life, and may look completely normal to most people. Because it can be hard to spot someone who is actively abusing an animal, an unfortunate stereotyping seems to have emerged that targets religions that engage in animal sacrifice, and faiths/philosophies that fit into certain sensationalist fantasies (ie Satanism, Witchcraft). How else can you explain quotes like the following?

“An animal welfare official says a beheaded dog and cat found in Philadelphia appear to be the result of a ritual sacrifice. George Bengal, Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals director of investigations, said the dog and cat were found … near a bike path in Philadelphia’s Olney neighborhood along with three beheaded chickens. He said he believes the animals were killed elsewhere and the remains dumped where a passer-by found them. Mr. Bengal said there is usually an increase in ritual animal sacrifices at this time of year because of “a lot of high holidays that different groups celebrate.” But he said most of those sacrifices involve goats and chickens.”

Despite George Bengal’s bizarre statement about Winter-holiday animal-killings, most experts, including officials at the ASPCA, agree that dead animals left in public places usually aren’t put there by Santeros, Pagans, or Satanists, but by disturbed individuals and messed-up kids.

“According to experts, like local anthropologist and folklorist Dr. Eoghan Ballard, and Dr. Randall Lockwood, senior vice president of anti-cruelty services for the American SPCA, sacrificial remains found in parks, especially those adorned with talismans like candles or pennies, are most often the work of religious novices, teens or satanic dabblers.”

Yet, in the same article, a PSPCA official warns adherents of faiths that practice animal sacrifice that there is no  “free pass on animal cruelty issues”, as though all the very public court battles over the issue were simply done so these priests and priestesses could secretly torture animals with impunity. Do Pennsylvania SPCA officials have some sort of special hostility towards minority faiths? That seems to be the assertion of the Rev. Jack Winters, who claims a Humane Society Police Officer and member of the Lycoming County SPCA, while investigating a report that he mistreated his pets, repeatedly stated that Satanists sacrifice animals while noting Winters’ Satanic-themed decor.

Is it just some sort of strange synchronicity that all of these quoted SPCA officials are from Pennsylvania, or is there something else at play here? Are these PA organizations being fed misinformation by  the sort of “cult experts” in “ritualistic crime” thoroughly debunked by Pagan activist, and former Vancouver police officer, Kerr Cuhulain? Or is it a case of fossilized “common knowledge” passed down from the Satanic Panic era? Whatever the case may be, one has to wonder how many animal welfare agencies across this country have been tainted by bad information, superstition, and religious bias. How many officials are out hunting for Satanists or Santeros when they should be paying attention to the neglected and abused children most likely to engage in animal abuse. Just think how much good they could do solving these cases if they weren’t so busy telling police to round up the usual suspects.

For those of you enjoying the wide-ranging discussions about Pagan identity that have emerged in the wake of the Parliament of the World’s Religions (specifically the categories of “Traditional/Indigenous”, “Reconstructionist”, and “Neopagan”), I’d like to quickly point you to some explorations of this topic going on elsewhere. First, Pagan scholar Chas Clifton explores the politics that underly terms like “indigenous”, and whether they can apply to contemporary Pagans.

“So are today’s revived and re-created Pagan traditions “indigenous.” I think not—not because they lack ancient roots, but because they are not generally connected to land claims and other current political issues.”

Meanwhile, at the Pagans at the Parliament group-blog, T. Thorn Coyle has posted a three-part reflection (part 1, part 2, part 3) on Nature Religion, and Paganism as an indigenous religion, while on the road in Tasmania. Thorn wonders if applying “indigenous” labels to certain contemporary Pagan groups might become problematic in the longer run.

“In these conversations about which Pagans are “indigenous” and which are “neo-Pagans” how long is it before indigenous comes to equal authentic and authentic comes to equal pure and pure comes to equal superior?”

I urge my readers invested in this current discussion/debate to read and comment on all of the linked entries, because I think they have some important insights and wisdom to convey. Also stay tuned to the EarthSpirit Voices blog, where Andras Corban Arthen promises a report on the “The Revival of the European Pagan Traditions” Parliament panel that seems to have sparked much of this discussion.

Considering the fact that my initial entry last week about the language used to define (or not define) the various Paganisms at the Parliament of the World’s Religions in Melbourne is edging near 200 comments, I think we can safely say it struck a few nerves. At the heart of the discussion was Ed Hubbard’s quotation from EarthSpirit founder and Parliament Board of Trustees member Andras Corban-Arthen that seemed to imply that some forms of Paganism were, well, not quite Pagan.

“Andras Corban-Arthen points out that Wicca, for example, cannot be seen as an indigenous Pagan faith practice and is instead a modern syncretic movement. Under this description Wicca therefore would not fall under the definition of Pagan, and would be squarely a New Religious Movement, while British Traditional Witchcraft could be considered a Pagan and Indigenous faith tradition.”

From the start of this discussion, I have urged my readers to await word from Corban-Arthen and the other trustees on this matter, before we jump to any conclusions.

“…there is always the chance that comments were misconstrued, or misunderstood. So we should await official word from the Pagan members of the Parliament Board of Trustees before we accuse anyone of trying to drive wedges between different Pagan groups. Context is king, and I don’t want to start any flame-wars for an off-the-cuff idea or mis-stated opinion.”

Now, we have some of that clarification. Andras Corban-Arthen has sent me a statement from Australia, clarifying his statements and positions. I am reprinting the statement in-full below.

On representing, defining & speaking for all pagans:

I am nobody to define “paganism” for all pagans, much less presume to speak for them. Neither is anybody else, for that matter. It would be absurd and laughable for anyone to seriously try to assume such a role. Paganism (however anyone defines that term) is far too wide and complex a topic to fit neatly within any one person’s definition. Whenever I talk publicly on the subject, particularly in front of non-pagan audiences, I start by mentioning that fact, and continue by saying that my views represent only myself, and, to whatever general degree, those in my immediate community who’ve given me permission to represent them. I said this at the Parliament prior to each of my presentations; so, for that matter, did my pagan co-presenters and colleagues on the Parliament’s Board of Trustees.

On the “redefinition” of paganism:

Not to split too fine a hair, but for there to be a “redefinition” of paganism, there would first need to be an accepted definition, and there simply isn’t one — there are many, and some of them substantially contradict each other. Some of the more alarmed comments from your readers seem to have been in reaction to the idea that someone would attempt to “redefine” paganism for all of them. This is not something that I or any of the other speakers at the Parliament ever proposed to do; in fact, I don’t believe that any one of us even used the word “redefinition” once. It was Ed Hubbard who started talking about “redefinition” in his blog, and while he’s certainly entitled to his opinion, his opinion does not accurately represent my own views nor, I daresay, the views of other speakers at the Parliament (more about this below).

On the definition of paganism in relation to “indigenous European spirituality”:

This is by no means a new definition of paganism — some of us have been using it for at least 25-30 years or longer, and it is fairly common among many pagan reconstructionist groups. If it is new to some pagans, then perhaps that is an indication that they’re not as well-informed as they could be regarding some important conversations and perspectives that have been developing in certain sectors of the pagan movement for quite some time, as well as an incentive to get better informed.

On the role of the Parliament:

Perhaps because in the U.S. we’re mostly used to hear the word “parliament” in reference to legislative bodies (e.g., the British or Australian Parliaments), there may be an incorrect and unrealistic weight being given to what happens in the Parliament of the World’s Religions. The word “parliament,” in its basic sense, means “conversation,” and that’s precisely what the PWR is and does — an ongoing conversation (or series of interrelated conversations) on topics that have to do with religion or spirituality. It is not a governing body of any sort, nor an accrediting institution or bureau of standards. It is not about to try to define paganism for pagans, nor decide who’s a pagan and who is not…

On the distinction between “Indigenous Spirituality” and “New Religious Movements”:

In the interreligious community, there are several different categories under which various religions are grouped. This is done for the sake of understanding better the nature of & relationships among religions, the categories are not cast in stone, and there is often a lack of consensus as to which categories certain religions belong to. Indigenous traditions are generally those associated with a specific culture, ethnicity, and geographical region and which predate the arrival or development of a larger, more “organized” religion (examples are the Lakota, Yoruban, or Wurundjeri spiritual traditions among many others). New Religious Movements tend to be those formed since around the middle of the 19th century which have a character uniquely their own, or which derive, but are significantly distinct, from older and more established traditions. These are generally considered to include, for instance, the Bahá’ís, the Christian Scientists, the Mormons, the Brahma Kumaris, the Hare Krishnas, the Pentecostals, the Theosophists, the UUs, various New Age sects, etc. It is simply not true, as some have suggested, that the interfaith movement bestows more emphasis or credibility on the Indigenous over the NRMs. There are some interfaith leaders who (usually in private) dismiss indigenous groups as regressive, theologically unsophisticated, and lacking anything of value to offer the modern world (I strongly disagree, of course). On the other hand, the Bahá’ís, for example, are hugely respected among interfaith people, and Dadi Janki, the international head of the Brahma Kumaris, was one of the speakers at the Parliament’s closing plenary, a role which many covet as a status symbol. Modern pagan groups are typically categorized as NRMs, and rightly so, in my opinion. But I, for one, have long been arguing that *some* forms of paganism which still can be found today more properly qualify under the Indigenous category, and this year, for the first time, that argument was finally seriously considered and, to whatever degree, accepted. I would add that while this perspective may indeed help other religions to look at us differently and thereby gain us some added acceptance & credibility, that is not at all the main reason (or at least not mine) for proposing this categorization.

On the question of Wicca not being “pagan”:

This statement, made by Ed Hubbard on his blog (and not by me or any of my fellow panelists), seems to have aroused the most controversy. For the record, here are the definitions which I used in my “Introduction to Paganism” which was widely distributed at the Parliament:

“Paganism is a term that refers collectively to the Indigenous, pre-Christian cultures and spiritual traditions of Europe, some of which have survived into the present, while others are being reconstructed or revived in modern times.”

Beyond that, I proposed three main categories of pagan approaches:

“There are three main general categories through which paganism can be defined. Traditional paganism represents the survivals into modern times of Indigenous European beliefs and practices among, for instance, the Celts, the Balts, the Basques, the Slavs, and the Germanic and Scandinavian peoples. What has survived of traditional paganism is typically found in small, isolated rural communities in regions of Europe which retain strong ethnic identities and in which the ancestral languages have not been lost. Reconstructionist paganism is a modern attempt to recreate traditional forms of paganism through the study of literary, historical, linguistic, and archaeological sources; it includes such practices as Ásatrú (Norse paganism), Celtic Reconstructionism, and Hellenic Ethnikoi. Neopaganism is a mostly urban and syncretic effort to develop modern forms of paganism within mainstream Western culture, including Wicca, Neodruidism, and Celtic Shamanism.”

I fully understand that this definition is narrower than what a lot of pagans would use, and that many pagans (including some of my co-panelists) might well disagree to one degree or another with various aspects of it, and that’s just fine with me. Such a definition is not meant to be the final, absolute statement of what paganism is (again, no one can really do that), but a brief, working statement to serve as a foundation for further discussion & clarification of who we are. I don’t even agree with all of it myself because there are gray areas between the categories that just can’t get addressed by its brevity (for example, some forms of Ásatrú really fall more properly under “Traditional” than “Reconstructionist”).

All of this is by way of clarifying that this “controversy” comes from a misrepresentation of the above in Ed Hubbard’s blog. Ed writes: “Andras Corban-Arthen points out that Wicca, for example, cannot be seen as an indigenous Pagan faith practice and is instead a modern syncretic movement.” So far, mostly correct, though what I actually said was that Wicca didn’t belong under “Traditional Paganism,” but under “Neopaganism.”

Ed goes on: “Under this description Wicca therefore would not fall under the definition of Pagan, and would be squarely a New Religious Movemen…) I said no such thing; if Ed had left the word “Traditional” before “Pagan” there’d be no argument (though there probably also wouldn’t be any controversy). Finally, he writes: “…while British Traditional Witchcraft could be considered a Pagan and Indigenous faith tradition.” Again, not only did I not say that, but the term “British Traditional Witchcraft” did not once cross my lips during the entire Parliament. It is entirely Ed’s extrapolation & misrepresentation of what I said & wrote.

I don’t know Ed Hubbard; as far as I am aware, I only just met him at this Parliament, where he introduced himself to me as a pagan journalist. Since I don’t know him, I’m not in a position to judge whether this was an honest misunderstanding and thus inaccurate reporting on his part, or a deliberate misrepresentation meant to generate controversy for ulterior motives. I’d like to think it’s the former, especially in the light of other statements Hubbard made in Melbourne which would indicate a tendency on his part to jump to hasty conclusions without fully understanding what’s involved. If that’s the case, it might be useful for all of us to reflect on how easily a tempest can be stirred in the pagan teapot by the omission of just one key word.

I hope this sheds a little more clarity on some of what we discussed at the Parliament. In case anyone’s interested, I will be posting more about all this, including the pagan participation at the Parliament’s Indigenous Assembly, on our EarthSpirit Voices blog .

Thanks,

Andras Corban Arthen

So there you have it. Problems and controversies solved? New ones created? Was this merely a tempest in a tea-cup? Feel free to respond to the statement in the comments section.

While I generally keep my music podcast A Darker Shade of Pagan from getting entangled in the daily workings of The Wild Hunt, every once in awhile I like to alert my readership of some great Pagan and Pagan-friendly music that I come across. Since I just posted my ADSOP top ten of 2009 show, I thought I would share what I thought were some of the best albums that speak to the Pagan soul from the past year. Consider it a gift-giving guide to the Pagan in your life dissatisfied by what usually passes for “Pagan music”.

ADSOP’s Top Ten Albums of 2009

10. Soriah with Ashkelon Sain – “Atlan” [Purchase: CD, MP3]

What do you get when you mix a shamanisitic throat-singer with the mystic sound-scapes of former Trance to the Sun guitarist Ashkelon Sain? You get an intense and world-bending album of darkly meditative compositions that explores an Aztec worldview (the album is sung in Nahuatl).  Many albums promise to bring you on a ritualistic journey, but few bring the goods. “Atlan” does, but be warned, this isn’t some breezy guided meditation, but an intense full-immersion into Soriah’s explorations into his own ethnicity and heritage. Harsh yet gentle, at times both hypnotic and jarring, this is a unique album. One that wonderfully inhabits a sound  that is both dark and “pagan” in scope. Well worth checking out.

09. The Hare and the Moon – “The Hare and the Moon” [Purchase: CD]

I like to go on and on about The Wicker Man soundtrack, it’s one of the touchstones for A Darker Shade of Pagan, a way to explain the aesthetic and mood I often try to evoke. Many bands have taken inspiration from this film, but few make me take notice, or use that as a jumping-off point into even stranger and darker places. The Hare and the Moon is one of those bands. An unsigned UK band, they utilize traditional folk songs, but marry them to spooky soundscapes, almost militaristic drumming, odd and esoteric sound samples, and understated female vocals. The result is a wyrd marriage that references Coil almost as much as it does The Wicker Man. Why these folks haven’t been scooped up by a proper record label yet baffles me. Get clued in now so you can say you knew them when.

08. Various Artists – “Leaves of Life” [Purchase: CD, MP3]

Some of my favorite artists from 2008, like Fern Knight and Silver Summit, didn’t release new albums this year, but thanks to the folks from the band Arborea we have this benefit compilation to tide us over till 2010. Featuring tracks from the aforementioned bands, along with other ADSOP-friendly artists like Mariee Sioux, Marissa Nadler, and Alela Diane (among others). It not only serves as a nice overview of the current Indie-folk scene, but it also supports a great cause, as proceeds from the sales of Leaves of Life will go towards the World Food Program. So you not only get an album of great music, but you also get to see your dollars going to charity, a sure win-win! Oh, and the music is top-notch as well.

07. Eluveitie – “Evocation I: The Arcane Dimension” [Purchase: CD, MP3]

I’m not the biggest fan of metal, but the burgeoning genre of Pagan folk-metal has been slowly growing on me. The best of the pack this year, so far as my tastes are concerned, has to be the Swiss band Eluveitie’s  “Evocation I: The Arcane Dimension”. Picture if Faun or Omnia started out as metal-heads and you get an idea of the sound (which they call “Celtic Helvetian pagan metal and folkmusic”). Dual female vocals mixed with gruff metal-guy vocals that places a bit more emphasis on the “folk” than on the “metal” for this record. Oh, and the Pagan side of things? Pretty darn solid, as you can see from the lead singer dressed as Cernunnos  on the cover. If, like me, you are curious about folk-metal, but don’t know where to start, this album may be a great place.  Why not start with watching the video for their first single “Omnos”.

06. Lisa Hammer – “Dakini” [Purchase: CD, MP3]

There is a lot I could say about Lisa Hammer’s (from the band Mors Syphilitica)  wonderful new solo album “Dakini”, but perhaps the following quote from the artist really says it all. “The intention behind this cd was to create music for ritual, meditation and sex. Ideally, all 3 at once. It was designed to carry the listener away from the manifest world and into a deeper space. The Indian ragas correspond with times of the day, so the CD represents a condensed 24 hours, which is perfect for ritual, or any emotional and spiritual trip. The medieval songs are matched with Indian ragas and tribal drums, Appalachian folk music, Middle-Eastern drones and opera to bring the four directions together, North South East and West. It’s a cultural and spiritual mix, all blending together in one CD. Each of the songs has its own meditational/trance-inducing quality, regardless of its origin.” I honestly don’t know what I could add to that, other than to say she’s right, and the album is excellent work.

05. The Moon & The Nightspirit – “Osforras” [Purchase: CD]

I’ve been following the Hungarian Pagan band The Moon & The Nightspirit since their first album, and they just seem to go from strength to strength. After the musical quantum leap of their last album  “Rego Rejtem” (which means “I conjure magic” in Hungarian) Agnes Toth and Mihaly Szabo’s fruitful exploration of their homeland’s music and folklore continues to deepen and mature with this release. This is no place-holder, but an expansion of a strong and ever-confident musical voice. This is one of the most talented openly Pagan bands operating today, and they deserve a much wider audience among Pagan music lovers. I can’t wait to see what they do with their next album.

04. Bat For Lashes – “Two Suns” [Purchase: CD, MP3]

I doubt I’ll have to work hard to convince you that Bat For Lashes (the musical outlet of singer-songwriter Natasha Khan) is worth checking out. Her album “Two Suns” was shortlisted for this year’s Mercury Prize, and she appeared on David Letterman, garnering her plenty of mainstream attention. She’ll no doubt be on plenty of year-end lists of popular taste-makers everywhere. So let’s talk instead of how Khan mixes indie-rock, New Age tropes, Kate Bush-isms, and drum-machines to craft a meditation on how we live in two worlds at once, the spiritual and the material, and how that conflict creates the tension necessary for great art. It is, as Khan puts it, “the philosophy of the self and duality, examining the need for both chaos and balance, for both love and pain, in addition to touching on metaphysical ideas concerning the connections between all existence.”

03. Faith & The Muse – “Ankoku Butoh” [Purchase: CD]

After 2007′s excellent “InfraWarrior”, Monica Richards first solo outing, which explored themes of eco-spirituality, female empowerment, and myth, I wondered where her main project, the darkwave band Faith & The Muse would go. The answer it seems is “East”, and “Ankoku Butoh” is an immersion in Shinto, drums, and a “sonic atavisms for the warrior within”. This is a powerful and driving record that displays a band reinvigorated and at their creative peak. My only lament is that this came out so late in the year (October 31st) so I haven’t had the time to live with and explore it as I’d like. But still, this is a quality album, and should rightly be in the collection of any goth-Pagan fan worth their salt. Oh, and the album isn’t just an album, but a CD-DVD-Book set that is a work of art in itself.

02. Unto Ashes – “The Blood of My Lady” [Purchase: CD, MP3]

It could have been a disaster. Two long-standing members of Unto Ashes left the band, and songwriter-singer Michael Laird was left pretty much on his own to decide if the project was going to continue. Isolated, he went on to craft what may be the project’s strongest outing in years. Drawing deeply on strains of Neofolk and dark ambient, “The Blood of My Lady” is a darkly meditative work that careens from hushed ballads to stomping militarism and back again. Alone, Laird  has pursued the ultimate work, union with the goddess, she who is “everywhere and nowhere”, an album of “thirteen spells conjured for The Lady”. If you listen closely, you can sense that She has heard his call.

01. Fever Ray – “Fever Ray” [Purchase: CD, MP3]

To call this solo project by Karin Dreijer Andersson (one half of the amazing Swedish electronic music duo The Knife) “dark”, or “mythic” makes it sound too small. Just another musician dabbling with sound-scapes and Jungian tropes. It would be better to say this is a primal heartbeat from our inner core. A place where we lose the ability to quantify a thing or expression and instead we fumble along with made-up terms like “synth-druid” or “tribal electro weirdness” to express how synthesizer-created music can touch places usually reserved for drummed fire-trances or high-ritual. Fever Ray is Karin, and Karin is inhabiting the mythic core of humanity on this album. It is holy, pedestrian, lonely, loving,  and dark. The darkness of sadness and loss, but also the dark of potentiality, of the coming birth. This my favorite “pagan” album of 2009, though I doubt she would classify herself so, such labels lose meaning when you travel deep enough.

You can download my latest podcast, featuring songs from all these albums, here. I hope you’ll explore these releases, and perhaps find some new music to love. As always, apologies to all the other artists who released great albums this year, I only have room for ten.