Word has come to us that seminal Pagan author, theologian, singer, and Druid leader Isaac Bonewits has passed away after a long battle with a rare form of colon cancer. Tributes and blessings for this influential figure within the Pagan movement have been pouring in since Isaac’s wife Phaedra Bonewits announced on August 9th that he was “nearing the end”. On the morning of August 12th, surrounded by family, he passed away.

“This morning, August 12, 2010 at approximately 8 AM ET, Isaac Bonewits passed away peacefully in his sleep. All his brothers and sisters arrived at his side last night. His family and friends surround him now.”

Isaac Bonewits, photo by Ava Francesca, from the ADF website.

A true Pagan polymath, Bonewits seemed to drink deeply of modern Paganism in all its myriad forms. He’s been an initiate into Santeria, religious Witchcraft (both orthodox and heterodox), various magic(k)al traditions, and fraternal Druidism. A man of letters, he wrote many celebrated books, and many more influential essays. Many of the phrases and terminology we now use on a regular basis had their genesis with Isaac Bonewits. His Advanced Bonewits’ Cult Danger Evaluation Frame (ABCDEF) has been used by Federal law enforcement and foreign governments to evaluate religious minorities, and he’s been a visionary in predicting the growing pains our movement would encounter.

Perhaps his greatest gift and legacy to the Pagan movement will be the founding of Ár nDraíocht Féin (ADF), a Druid fellowship that from the outset anticipated the ramifications of our growing numbers, and the strove to meet the challenges that would bring.

“We believe that Neopaganism is eventually going to become a mainstream religious movement, with hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of members, and that this will be A Good Thing, both for the individuals involved and for the survival of the Earth Mother. Neopaganism is riding the crest of the “baby boom.” Many people who grew up in the 60′s and 70′s are discovering us at about the same time that they are realizing both the desperate state of our planet and the eternal relevance of our youthful ideals. Membership in the Neopagan community is quietly growing at a geometric rate, both through word of mouth and the many do-it-yourself books now available, giving us an ever-greater impact on the mainstream culture as a whole.

All these Neopagans are going to need publically accessible worship, teaching, counseling, and healing. Within thirty years we expect to see indoor temples and/or sacred groves throughout North America and Europe, staffed by full-time paid professional clergy. They’ll provide the full range of needed services to the Neopagan community, with no more “corruption” than the Unitarians, the Buddhists, or the Quakers experience. We see globally televised Samhain rites at Stonehenge, and Beltane ceremonies attended by thousands in every major city. We see Neopagan clergy taking part as equals in international religious conferences with clergy from other faiths. We see our children wearing pentacles, Druid Sigils, and Thor Hammers to school as easily as others now wear crosses, Stars of David, or Hands of Fatima.”

That vision of the ADF, written by Bonewits nearly thirty years ago, captures what was so vibrant and vital about him. The audacity of expecting excellence and success from himself, his coreligionists, and his peers. We are now entering the age that Bonewits predicted would come about, and he can cross the veil knowing that the ADF is well-prepared for it. With stable leadership, an engaged and socially conscious membership,  and confident clergy performing their rites in public for hundreds. His role in founding the ADF alone has earned him a place in history. The ADF, in honor of their founder, has erected a special memorial page on their web site today. Including a guestbook where you can leave your condolences.

On a personal note, I would like to say that Isaac’s writings were very influential for me as a younger Pagan, and it is a great sorrow to me that I never got to sit down and speak with him in person. Jazz musician Dizzy Gillespie said, “No him, no me,” regarding Louis Armstrong, and I feel a similar sentiment is true for several of us now making waves and gaining notoriety within modern Paganism. I don’t know if I’ll ever work on televising Samhain at Stonehenge to a global audience, but I will do my part to build a Pagan news and media ecosystem he would have been proud of. Farewell to you Isaac Bonewits. My deepest blessings to Isaac’s family and friends at this time of transition, may he rest with his gods and return to us once again.

I’m leaving on a series of jet planes today, on my way to MerryMeet, the annual gathering for Covenant of the Goddess (CoG). I have the honor of giving the keynote address, and I’m very much looking forward to being there. Founded in 1975, COG is a unique organization that has been on the forefront of fighting for the rights of Pagans, and creating interfaith dialog. I’ve been spending the last few days refreshing myself on their history, re-reading the many books that address the organization, and looking for ways to best serve the folks that I’ll meet and be speaking to. As religion news increasingly shifts into the realms of new media, I think the participation of organizations like COG are critical to building a robust Pagan news ecosystem, and I hope to discuss with them the ways they can best engage with that future.

I’m anticipating that there will be Internet service at the hotel, so I’ll be updating the blog as usual. Hopefully giving some updates from the gathering itself. In the meantime, I’d like to point your attention to some great Pagan Newswire Collective news and content. First, I’d like to warmly welcome our newest bureau in Washington DC!

“Looks like DC is hitting the Pagan Media Big-Time! I’m happy to announce that Capital Witch has become the latest news bureau (representing the Washington-Metro area) for the Pagan Newswire Collective … With this news comes the announcement of three additional writing contributors. These three individuals come from different backgrounds and groups within our community and will be able to bring a unique view to the latest going-on’s of our area.”

Congratulations to David, Opal, Eric and Sean! I’m looking forward to Pagan-oriented local news from the US capital. This launch is part of the PNC’s larger bureaus effort, which will also see the official debut of our web site this Fall. For the latest PNC-related news, check out our Facebook group, or join our mailing list.While I’m speaking of PNC bureaus and attending gatherings, be sure to check out PNC-Minnesota’s ongoing coverage of the in-progress Sacred Harvest Festival. I’m very excited at the progress we’ve made, and the new bureaus already in the works. It’s all part of a larger goal to create a real Pagan news ecosystem, one that informs our interlocking communities, and creates an ethic where our events and milestones are important and worthy of notice.

That’s all for now, I’ll be updating as I have the opportunity, hope you have a great day!

Florida has long been a hotspot for practitioners of African diasporic religions (Santeria/Lukumi, Vodou, Umbanda), due to its proximity to Cuba, Haiti, and other nations where these faiths first took root. In recent years, these religions have also been co-existing with a growing number of African immigrants who bring their own native faiths with them, most notably Yoruba Traditional Religion. While the Yoruba religion provided some essential spiritual DNA to the diasporic religions, the gulf between them in traditions, practice, and behavior can cause frictions and misunderstandings.  These differences became very pronounced when two Lukumí priests were re-ordained by a group of traditional Yoruba priests in Miami.

“I sincerely believe that those Lukumí olorishas that actively participated in these ordinations consciously mocked our Lukumí forebears and our religious heritage. Their direct participation in these initiations is reprehensible, irresponsible, and by all means unforgiveable because they perpetrate a direct and outrageous affront to us as a religious community. Their actions constitute a deplorable transgression against our religious legacy because they question and cast doubt on our validity and orthodoxy as a growing world religion. As such, I am not willing to sit idly while a misguided and injudicious group of people maliciously burrow at the foundations of our community, disregard its historical plight, destroy its stability, and question its legitimacy and validity, something that has taken the Lukumí and their descendants almost two hundred years to accomplish! We cannot allow the seeds of discord and instability to sprout among us—Traditionalists, Lukumí, and all Diasporan traditions—because instead of promoting understanding and mutual cooperation, these seeds will only evolve into confusion, tension and intolerance. Sadly, instead of seeking unification and cooperation, these initiations will only contribute to the further fractioning of the Orisha religion in Africa and the Americas.” – Obá Oriaté Willie Ramos, Ilarí Obá

This began a debate between the two communities, and culminated in the formation of a council of Oba Oriates in South Florida, who ratified an accord in June concerning initiations and relations between Lukumi practitioners and Yoruba Traditional Religion practitioners. Here’s a brief excerpt.

“Those priests ordained in the Lukumí Religion that for whatever reason wish or are desirous to be ordained by and/or convert to the practices of the Traditional Yoruba Religion will abandon and renounce any and all rights – hierarchical and practical – within the Lukumí Religious system. We will not recognize nor validate the consecration or the privileges of those priests that abandon Lukumí worship to adopt those of the Yoruba Traditionalists. If they decide to abandon Lukumí Religion and are ordained in the Traditionalist rites, they will lose the religious status they acquired through their Lukumí ordination.”

In short, you can be Lukumi, or you can be a Yoruba Traditionalist, but you can’t be both. The document emphasizes that though both faiths share a common heritage, they are too different to co-mingle.

“We emphatically reiterate that the practices of the Lukumí Religion and those of the Traditional Yoruba Religion are completely and unequivocally different. As such, we do not currently share any common ritual practices that link us. We consider both religious systems to be totally and unequivocally separate and independent of each other.”

This accord is supported by noted figures within the movement like author Ócháni Lele (Stuart Myers), and Oba Ernesto Pichardo, who was involved in the famous Supreme Court case Church of Lukumi Babalu Aye v. City of Hialeah. Yoruba practitioner Ifakolade Sangobunmi Obatalayemi (Christian Carrazana) has rejected the accord and is encouraging “all Orisa worshippers” to do so as well.

“So in conclusion, the core of the problem lies within Lucumi community; there are those who accept the reality of the situation and are open to learning from the Yoruba; but on the other hand, there are those who are not, and insist on keeping their tradition as they were taught—but are doing so by waging a campaign of falsehoods, insults and isolationism. This Accord is an instrument of that on-going campaign; and it does not fix the problem; but instead, it exacerbates it.

For all the reasons set forth herein,  I encourage all Orisa worshippers, regardless of whether you are traditional Yoruba, Lucumi, Candomble, Vodoun, to deliberate upon this matter; and join together to reject this Accord as an instrument of discrimination and hate.  Most of all, I sincerely hope that for the next up coming conference in Miami(and there will be one soon)  that Ernesto Pichardo, Willie Ramos, and especially all who agree with them, have the courage to attend so we can sit down as adults and discuss our differences so that we can find a way to peacefully co-exist with one another.”

Will tensions cool and relations normalize between the two camps in South Florida? Are there similar tensions in other regions as well, or is this development due to South Florida’s unique concentration of practitioners? If one cannot be Lukumi and a Yoruba Traditionalist at the same time, does this hold true for any other faith as well? Specifically, as more modern Pagans explore and initiate into African diaporic religions will they have to stop practicing whatever traditions they were previously initiated into? I welcome input and feedback from any of my readers involved in African diasporic or traditional African faiths on this matter.

Yesterday, Phaedra Bonewits announced on Facebook that her husband, noted Pagan author and theologian Isaac Bonewits, was nearing the end of his battle with cancer.

Isaac and Phaedra Bonewits.

“Just wanted to address the rumors that Isaac is back in the hospital. He is at home as he had wished, but he is nearing the end. His brothers and sisters are on their way to say goodbye. Please keep us all in your thoughts and prayers.”

Since then, tributes and blessings have been pouring in.

“Dearest Isaac, We shall all miss you so much, but as you take off on that Great Adventure may our love and affection for you act like fuel for your journey – riding the waves of compassion to the Isles of the Blest. Blessings blessings blessings, Awen, Awen, Awen” – Philip Carr-Gomm

“Every day I feel more and more blessed to know Isaac. His sense of humor will inspire me forever — and I will always be jealous of that great shock of hair. Ever-blessings.” – Ashleen O’Gaea

“Our candle is lit for the journey. Fritz and I shall keep vigil with you. Love and all blessings upon you both. May Brid guide his steps and may his ancestors come forth to welcome Isaac home.” - Wren Walker

And hundreds more from Pagans of all positions, faiths, and walks of life.

The Wild Hunt would like to deeply thank Isaac Bonewits for his incalculable contributions to modern Paganism, and wish him a good journey on this transition. My blessings to Isaac’s family and friends during this time. If you want to leave a message of support or blessing, now would be the moment.

Is your town being sued by Americans United (or the ACLU, or the FFRF) for holding sectarian prayers before meetings that invoke Jesus repeatedly? It looks like inviting a Pagan to the proceedings as a legal fig-leaf may just save the day. The town of Greece in New York has just won what may be a landmark decision in Federal District Court over the issue of public invocations at government meetings.

On Thursday, U.S. District Court Judge Charles Siragusa ruled in favor of the town and dismissed the suit. “The Town did not begin having prayer at meetings in order to proselytize or advance any one, or to disparage any other, faith or belief,’” Siragusa wrote. “…The Town’s prayer policy, to the extent that one exists, is to invite clergy from all denominations within the Town, without any guidance or restriction on the content of prayers. The Town will also permit anyone who volunteers to give an invocation, including atheists and members of non-Judeo-Christian religions such as Wicca, and has never denied a request by anyone to deliver a prayer.” The town has invited clergy to the meetings by using a list of churches included in a local newspaper and by accepting requests from anyone else who was interested. There are few houses of worship in Greece that are not Christian.

So how diverse has the town’s opening prayers been? In the original suit, Americans United noted that “over the past decade, all but two of the prayergivers have been Christian.” The “non-Judeo-Christian” religions, specifically Wicca, didn’t come into play until litigation had been already been threatened against the town. Enter Jennifer Zarpentine, a local Wiccan, who provided the first sectarian Pagan invocation to the Town of Greece.

“In just a few seconds’ time during the April Town Board meeting, Jennifer Zarpentine made Greece history. Zarpentine, a Wiccan, delivered the first-ever pagan prayer to open a meeting of the Greece Town Board. Her hands raised to the sky, she called upon Greek deities Athena and Apollo to ‘help the board make the right informed decisions for the benefit and greater good of the community.’ A small cadre of her friends and coven members in the audience chimed in ‘so mote it be.’”

Zarpentine would go on to defend Greece’s invocation policy, telling the press that they are “including everybody”. Conservative Christian advocacy organization the Alliance Defence Fund, who represented Greece in these proceedings, are understandably excited by their win.

“America’s founders opened public meetings with prayer. Public officials today should be able to do the same,” said ADF Senior Legal Counsel Joel Oster. “Opening public meetings with prayer has always been lawful in America, and the court here affirmed that it still is today.” “As the court itself concluded, invocation policies like the Town of Greece’s are constitutional,” Oster explained. “In fact, the court specifically pointed out that government attempts to mandate watered-down prayers that don’t mention a specific deity, as demanded by Americans United, would violate the First Amendment by placing government in control of the content of prayer. An organization with ‘separation of church and state’ in its name should not advocate for a violation of the Establishment Clause.”

An AU spokesperson said they were “obviously disappointed” by the ruling, but there has been no official statement, nor word on if they plan to appeal the ruling. You can download a PDF of the decision and order, here. The question now is if this twist in the battles over sectarian prayer at government meetings will stand up to legal scrutiny, or if it will be overturned on appeal. In other cases, mere randomness hasn’t been enough, so will towns being served cease-and-desist letters go the extra step of inviting a Pagan to the proceedings? It will also be interesting to see how diverse Greece stays once the legal dust has settled. Will Jennifer Zarpentine be invited back to invoke Apollo and Athena on a semi-regular basis? What do you think? Are sectarian prayers OK if they are suitable diverse?

The North American Interfaith Network (NAIN), one of North America’s oldest interfaith organizations, recently held their yearly gathering in Salt Lake City, Utah. At the meeting, Covenant of the Goddess member Rachael Watcher, a longtime interfaith activist, was elected to the Executive Board of NAIN. Watcher is the second Pagan to serve on the Board, she will be joining Grove Harris, a member of Reclaiming, who has served with the Pluralism Project and the Council For A Parliament of the World’s Religions. COG’s National Public Information Officer released this statement on the election.

Photo from Earth Spirit Voices

“Our CoG National Interfaith Representative – Rachael Watcher attended that meeting, and was elected to a four year term on the NAIN Board of Directors. This is important news for Wiccans and Pagans everywhere. Once again we are represented on the board of one of the oldest and most well respected interfaith organizations in North America. This election of Rachael demonstrates that CoG’s collective support for interfaith is reaping rewards of respect and inclusion for the entire Pagan community.”

This is yet another advance for Pagans within the interfaith movement. In addition to NAIN’s two Pagan board members, there are currently three Pagans, Andras Corban-Arthen, Phyllis Curott, and Angie Buchanan, serving on the Board of Trustees of the Council For A Parliament of the World’s Religions. Also, it should be noted that the United Religions Initiative has seen active Pagan participation for the entirety of its ten-year history.

These remarkable achievements, along with the “in the trenches” interfaith outreach and activism by individual modern Pagans, has ushered the modern Pagan movement to a place of global attention and influence that’s nearly unprecedented considering where we were a generation ago.  A lot has happened since Paganism “came out” to the global interfaith community in 1993, and we’ve since built bridges and new understandings at a remarkable pace. Whatever our future, these achievements ensure that the voices of modern Pagans continue to be heard by the world’s religions. Congratulations to Rachael Watcher on her election!

A few quick notes (with videos) for you this Saturday.

Eat, Love, and Pray to a Hindu God: News has been popping up all over the place concerning actress Julia Robert’s interview in Elle Magazine, where she says that she and her family are practicing Hindus.

“Roberts, 42, tells the fashion magazine that she and husband Danny Moder and their three children, 5-year-old twins Phinnaeus and Hazel and 3-year-old Henry, all go to temple to “chant and pray and celebrate.” “I’m definitely a practicing Hindu,” says Roberts, who grew up with a Catholic mother and Baptist father. That seems to make her the most famous convert since the late George Harrison, a member of the Beatles who embraced Indian mysticism in the 1960s.”

As the Politics Daily article points out, Roberts is hardly the first famous person to convert to Hinduism. But those converts weren’t about to release what is expected to be a major blockbuster picture, that grew from an already popular Oprah-approved memoir, that features praying at an Indian Ashram (and later studying with an Indonesian medicine man) as a central focus of the book. Bali has already seen a tourism boom, and I can imagine India has as well. The real question at this point is will this film, and the high-profile conversion of its star, create a new Western Hindu “boom” in America? It isn’t the first time such a thing has happened, and the reverberations of such a resurgence could have interesting effects on trends within modern Paganism. Will we see a more robust Indo-Paganism rise from all the eating, praying, and loving?

He Wants to Be President: So it’s official. Hip-hop artist Wyclef Jean is going to run for the presidency of Haiti. Time Magazine says that Jean could be the factor that engages the Haitian diaspora and creates a new relationship between Haiti and the United States.

His presidential run, win or lose, could build a long-awaited bridge between Haiti and its diaspora: a legion of expatriates and their progeny, successful in myriad fields, who number more than a million in the U.S. alone. International aid managers agree that Haiti can’t recover unless it taps into the education, capital, entrepreneurial drive and love for the mother country that Jean epitomizes — even if his French (one of Haiti’s official languages) is poor and his Creole (the other) is rusty. “A lot of Haitians are excited about this,” says Marvel Dandin, a popular Port-au-Prince radio broadcaster. “Given the awful situation in Haiti right now,” he says, “most people don’t care if the President speaks fluent Creole.”

This decision has come with criticism, including from his longtime friend and band-mate Pras, who is backing Jean’s opponent, Michel “Sweet Micky” Martelly (also a musician), in the November elections. What isn’t clear is where various candidates stand on the question of religion in that country, and how their win would affect Haiti’s Vodou community. Jean’s grandfather was a Vodou priest, but that isn’t necessarily an indication that he’ll concern himself with maintaining the fragile balance between Catholic, Protestant, and Vodou factions within the country. We’ll keep you updated as this election season approaches, and I’ll be looking into finding informed sources on religion and politics in Haiti.

Abbey For Sale: Have around 2 million dollars lying around? Want to buy Aleister Crowley’s Abbey of Thelema?

“The dilapidated, whitewashed Italian villa, set amid the hills of Sicily, was owned in the 1920s by Aleister Crowley, whose outrageous drug-taking, keen sexual appetite and interest in mysticism later made him a cult figure for the Beatles, David Bowie, Ozzie Osbourne and Iron Maiden. The cottage, near the town of Cefalu in Sicily, contains explicit, erotic frescoes of men and women entwined together, painted by Cambridge-educated Crowley when he lived there in the early 1920s.”

The property is in disrepair, and the locals are afraid of it, but estate agents are hoping it could be turned into a museum dedicated to Crowley (and thus attract tourists). Could a high-profile Crowley fan buy it and restore the murals? If not, there’s a very good chance this piece of occult/magickal history could be lost forever.

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