Word has come to us that Lady Sintana (Candace Lehrman White) passed away yesterday after a battle with lung cancer. A former burlesque dancer in the 1960s, Lady Sintana founded the Ravenwood Tradition of Witchcraft, and started the Ravenwood Church and Seminary of Wicca, Inc. in 1977 in Atlanta, Georgia. This was at a time when Paganism was not widely accepted, certainly not in the South, and she faced constant harassment.

“The burned crosses if they could get near enough, and they would come with Molotov cocktails. They would come with pickup trucks, shotguns, Doberman dogs, and gas cans. The lighthearted ones would come to do a little initiation experience like the Georgia Tech football players. They would try to piss on the Witches’ porch. They would throw rocks, bottles, coke cans, fire on the sacred circle where we did our rituals.” – Lady Sintana, “People of the Earth: The New Pagans Speak Out”

Lady Sintana

Over the years she not only worked to gain acceptance for modern Paganism in Atlanta, but made great strides for the civil rights of all Pagans through her many court battles. She was a giant within the world of Traditional Craft, and leaves behind an impressive legacy.

Here’s a statement from the House of Ravenwood on her passing.

“Our Lady Sintana’s life’s work was instrumental on both the local and federal level in the fight to insure the freedom for all witches to practice our religion.  Through court battles, public education and continual spiritual guidance of those drawn to our faith, Lady Sintana led Ravenwood to become one of the first churches of Wicca to receive 501(c) 3 status as a not-for-profit church.  Her pioneering efforts led to the granting of tax exemption rights, gathering rights and zoning rights for Ravenwood, setting critical precedents in the ongoing fight for religious tolerance.  Many of the privileges that Wiccans and Pagans enjoy today are the direct result of her irrepressible will and courage.”

PNC-Georgia will be providing more information concerning Lady Sintana’s passing as it’s made available. My deepest condolences to Lady Sintana’s family, friends, and the entire Ravenwood Tradition. May she rest in the arms of her gods and return to us again.

Top Story: For the third time in recent memory a Canadian citizen has been charged with the obscure ordinance against “pretending to practice witchcraft”. The first concerned Vishwantee Persaud in late 2009 who bilked several people, including a lawyer, out of thousands of dollars, the second, from April of this year, was against Batura Draame of Toronto. Now a third case, involving Brampton resident Yogendra Pathak, has emerged.

“Police say Yogendra Pathak, 44 was “putting it out there that he had the ability to practice magic and by doing that he could solve people’s problems… for money.” … Police say they believe Mr. Pathak was operating for over a year and do not yet know how many people have been conned by his alleged scam. They are urging victims and anyone with information to come forward. Mr. Pathak is charged with fraud under $5,000 and pretending to practice witchcraft.”

Persaud, Draame, and Pathak were all charged under the fraud statutes so why the witchcraft charge? Is it really necessary? Canadian author and philosophy professor Brendan Myers finds the law deeply problematic.

“The key word in the legislation is the word “pretending” (in subsections (a) and (c).) As pointed out to me by my friend in London via private correspondence: the word “pretending” here suggests that the State does not believe that witchcraft could be real: anyone who says they are practicing witchcraft is only pretending. That can potentially include those who say that they are practicing the religion. With this in mind, it’s not difficult to imagine a religiously conservative or puritan judge ruling that anyone who practices the religion of Wicca is “pretending” to practice witchcraft.

Our religious practices are already protected by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which is part of our constitution and thus trumps the Criminal Code. But a lot will depend on the eye of the beholder here. It is not difficult to imagine a future government much more conservative than our present one, declaring that witchcraft and wicca is not a religion, and that anyone who practices it is “pretending”. Remember, it doesn’t matter if you think it’s a religion: it matters if the law thinks so. I do not know if any judicial precedents have established wicca and witchcraft as a religion in the eyes of the law. So I’ve written to a lawyer that I know, and I await his response.”

While not all Pagans think the law should be repealed, there is a grass-roots movement building to work for the law’s repeal. It should be stressed that all the accused perpetrators were caught and charged with existing laws against fraud, so why has this little-used witchcraft charge been dug up again? What real purpose does it serve other than to sensationalize, muddy the waters of religious freedom, and create potential problems for ethical practitioners of magic and witchcraft who happen to charge for various services? How long before an otherwise ethical magic-worker gets charged due to a vindictive former client? It doesn’t seem so far-fetched a scenario considering the recent frequency this law is getting invoked.

Christine O’Donnell’s Lesbian Paganism-Studying Sister: Andrew Sullivan points to a Mother Jones piece regarding the sister of Delaware Senate candidate Christine O’Donnell, the Tea Party and Christian Right favorite who recently won an upset primary victory over the Republican party’s preferred candidate. Christine’s sister Jennie is publicly for many of the things O’Donnell is against (like gay marriage), yet is supporting her in her senate campaign. She’s also very different when it comes to religion.

“I have studied and practiced many therapeutic methods, as well as many different spiritual practices, such as; The Eastern Philosophies of Buddhism, Taoism, Sidha yoga with Brahma khumaris and other yoga practices for self realization. Western philosophies of Christianity, Science of mind, Course in miracles, Catholicism, Native American Spiritualities, Judaism, Muslim, Sufi, Ancient Alchemy of the Emerald Tablet, Metaphysics, Wicca, Pagan and many other world spiritualities.”

While it isn’t completely unusual for a family member to back a relative running for office who publicly works against their stated personal positions and interests on various issues, Sullivan wonders if the emergence of this sister might hurt O’Donnell’s standing with the Christians who supported her candidacy.

“Will the Christianist base support a candidate whose sister has studied Wicca and pagan spiritualities and supports marriage equality for gays and lesbians? Apparently, Jennie believes that much that has been written about her sister is untrue.”

It should be interesting to see how the campaign moves forward with this. Will they go big-tent and soften on some of O’Donnell’s past pronouncements on various social issues, sticking to the fiscal populism the Tea Party prefers? That seems to be the direction the political winds are currently blowing, but it remains to be seen if such a move is sustainable if it risks losing Christian voters who want/demand strong stands on social issues.

Witchcraft Worries Australia: A draft report on freedom of religion submitted to the Australian Human Rights Commission apparently ranks Witches as one of the groups that most worries other Australians according to The Age.

“Which groups of Australians most worry other Australians? Muslims, gays and – astonishingly – witches. That apparently anachronistic result appears in a survey of public submissions to a national inquiry into freedom of religion and belief in the 21st century, from which the draft report was submitted last week to the Australian Human Rights Commission … These views do not reflect mainstream opinion; it takes a certain passion and effort to make a detailed submission, so only those most involved or committed will do so. But they provide a fascinating window into contemporary concerns about religion.”

Some academics are concerned the results are dominated by conservative citizens, skewing the results towards the views of “elderly church leaders who happen to be male and anti-Muslim and gays and pagans and witches”. It remains to be seen what recommendations the Human Rights Commission can make from this draft that would please these respondents while ensuring the continued rights and freedoms of Pagan Australians.

A Look At Faeries Who Are Radical: The Texas LGBT publication Dallas Age profiles eclectic gay Pagan group the Radical Faeries. The article looks at their founding and history, but also notes the changes in attitude and inclusiveness they have gone through in recent years.

“But in more than 30 years of existence, the Radical Faeries have evolved — albeit gradually and with difficulty — towards embracing a more sexually diverse membership. Some Radical Faerie groups accept people of all genders and orientations with the idea that anyone who identifies as a faerie is one. However, many older members still require gatherings to be male-only and the issue of inclusion continues to be controversial. “As an oppressed people, gay men [have] had to overcome their own prejudices against women, bi, trans [and] intersex people,” notes Singleton, who at 28, is part of the younger generation of faeries.”

What role will the Radical Faeries play within the Pagan community as it becomes more open and inclusive? Will what was once a gay-male only tradition soon become something far larger and influential?

Fighting Utah Over Peyote Arrests: Religion Clause reports that the Oklevueha Native American Church has filed suit against the state of Utah in Federal Court to stop them from arresting and harassing church members for their use of Peyote.

“The lawsuit seeks to block state and federal law enforcement from arresting or bringing criminal charges against church members who “fear reprisal from both state and federal governments for openly practicing their religion,” court papers state. … The lawsuit was filed in Utah because since 1999, church members here say they have been harassed, arrested and prosecuted for using peyote, court papers say.”

This has been an ongoing issue in Utah, and one that will no doubt bring the issue of religious entheogens to the mainstream media once more. We’ll be paying attention to this case as it develops.

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

Back at the beginning of this year I mentioned a new book by Bron Taylor, a specialist in environmental and social ethics at the University of Florida, called “Dark Green Religion: Nature Spirituality and the Planetary Future”. The book posits that the future of religion may be nature religion, as he pointed out in an interview with Religion Dispatches.

“…traditional religions with their beliefs in non-material divine beings are in decline. The desire for a spiritually meaningful understanding of the cosmos, however, did not wither away, and new forms of spirituality have been filling the cultural niches previously occupied by conventional religions. I argue that the forms I document in Dark Green Religion are much more likely to survive than longstanding religions, which involved beliefs in invisible, non-material beings. This is because most contemporary nature spiritualities are sensory (based on what we perceive with our senses, sometimes enhanced by clever gadgets), and thus sensible. They also tend to promote ecologically adaptive behaviors, which enhances the survival prospects of their carriers, and thus their own long-term survival prospects.”

Author, radio host, and Huffington Post blogger Anne Hill, intrigued by the concepts and themes in the book, recently decided to interview Taylor for her Dream Talk Radio program and podcast.

“I always appreciate a chance to refine my thinking in areas where I have a lot of strong opinions, and the confluence of spirituality, nature, and politics is one such place. Reading Bron Taylor’s excellent new book, Dark Green Religion: Nature Spirituality and the Planetary Future, has given me that chance. I read most of this book while in British Columbia, teaching a group of 90+ people at a Reclaiming camp, the theme of which included “listening to the land, to sense the coming shift.” In spite of my misgivings about the theme, I thoroughly enjoyed the camp and the friends I was teaching with, and in our planning process we had several lively discussions that helped me refine even further my thoughts on the issues raised in Dark Green Religion. As soon as I got back from all that travel I interviewed Bron on Dream Talk Radio, so I pretty much unloaded onto him all the thoughts I’d had throughout the previous week. Whether you have read the book or not, I would love to hear your comments about our discussion, so without further ado here is the podcast.”

What results is an interesting conversation regarding nature, divinity, politics, spirituality, apocalypse thinking, and how different movements and groups have adopted “dark green religion”. You can download the entire interview, here. I encourage you to check out the interview and comment about the program at Anne Hill’s blog. You may also want to check out the Facebook page for Taylor’s book.

David Salisbury from PNC-Washington DC has a report up from last night’s Lady Liberty League 25th Anniversary Reception, including several Youtube videos and photos.

“Thanks to all the hard work from many people in our community and abroad, the Lady Liberty League 25th Anniversary Event went off without a hitch last night here in DC. Together, we helped make this a night to remember in Pagan history, and the history of the modern religious rights movement.”

You can also see recorded video from the live stream.

My thanks to David for covering this event, and congratulations to Lady Liberty League on their anniversary, may they continue their important work for 25 more years. Please visit the PNC-Washington DC site for more on this event.

I’d also like to note that the Hindu American Foundation (HAF) has issued a press release regarding their Capitol Hill Reception from Tuesday night. Here’s an excerpt mentioning their honoring of Patrick McCollum.

The Mahatma Gandhi Award for the Advancement of Religious Pluralism went to Reverend Patrick McCollum, a leading chaplain of the Wiccan faith, who spearheaded an effort to overturn a hiring policy in California that limited the hiring of chaplains to five-faiths: Protestant, Catholic, Jewish, Muslim and Native Americans.  Rev. McCollum also joined HAF and 40 other faith based and civil liberty organizations to advocate for the introduction and passing of the Workplace Religious Freedom Act.  He spoke on the need for America as a whole to recognize the need for plurality in society.

“I want especially to thank the Hindu American Foundation for even acknowledging people who do this work,” lauded Rev. McCollum. “In the spirit of accepting the award, I would like to be a representative of all the unsung heroes, men and women, who work daily to bring about pluralism for all people. So it isn’t just me, there are so many people who need to be recognized for this important work.”

Congratulations once again to Patrick McCollum on this honor.

Tonight from 7-9pm (Eastern) in Washington DC the Lady Liberty League will be holding their 25th Anniversary Reception at the Universalist National Memorial Church. Pagan chaplain Patrick McCollum, who just received the Mahatma Gandhi Award for the Advancement of Religious Pluralism, will be honored.

“Join national and regional Pagan Rights activists, spiritual leaders, and practitioners of many traditions in this interfaith celebration. Founded in 1985, Lady Liberty League (LLL) is a national and global Pagan civil rights and religious freedom organization. LLL is coordinated by Circle Sanctuary, an Ecospirituality center and Shamanic Wiccan church that has been serving Pagans worldwide since 1974. This special evening includes networking, refreshments, and remarks by Selena Fox of Wisconsin, Lady Liberty League’s Founder and Executive Director, and Patrick McCollum of California, LLL Chaplaincy Affairs Director and among this year’s recipients of the Hindu American Foundation’s Mahatma Ghandi Award for the Advancement of Religious Pluralism. The evening will include an overview of the history and accomplishments of Lady Liberty League, including its origins in September 1985 in the networking that defeated federal anti-Wiccan legislation.”

For those who can’t be in Washington DC to attend, they will be live-streaming the ceremony on the Internet. You can find the link for the stream, here. I’ve also embedded it below.

In addition to Selena Fox and Patrick McCollum, several other Pagan leaders are planning to participate in the reception, including Marci Drewry, Director of Military Affairs, Sacred Well Congregation, Holli Emore, Executive Director, Cherry Hill Seminary, and Peter Dybing, First Officer-Elect, Covenant of the Goddess. So if you get the chance, tune in!

Last night the Hindu American Foundation (HAF) awarded Pagan chaplain Patrick McCollum the Mahatma Gandhi Award for the Advancement of Religious Pluralism at their 7th annual Capitol Hill Reception. McCollum, a long-time activist for the rights of minority religions, has worked with Hindu organizations and individuals for several years in his quest to obtain equal treatment for religious minorities in the United States prison system. HAF recently supported McCollum in the ongoing court battle with the state of California over their discriminatory “five faiths” policy.

Patrick being presented the award by Suhag Shukla. Photo courtesy of the Lady Liberty League.

Previous recipients of the Mahatma Gandhi Award for the Advancement of Religious Pluralism include the Rev. Barry Lynn of Americans United, Right Reverend J. Jon Bruno, Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles, and Preeta Bansal, Commissioner, United States Commission on International Religious Freedom. Holli Emore, Executive Director of Cherry Hill Seminary, who attended the ceremony, had this to say about the event.

“The Hindu American Foundation articulates with refreshing clarity the vital importance of religious pluralism. The skill with which they have reached across the proverbial political aisle, in several directions, should be an inspiration and example to Pagan activists. We do, after all, share the HAF “ideals of understanding, tolerance and pluralism.” The budding relationship between HAF and Pagan leaders like Rev. Patrick McCollum holds significant potential.”

This is, needless to say, a great honor. One that hopefully signals a new era of cooperation, sharing, and solidarity between American Hindus and modern Pagans. Below, I’ve included the full press release sent out by Circle Sanctuary shortly after the ceremony ended.

Patrick McCollum & Selena Fox. Photo courtesy of the Lady Liberty League.

On Tuesday, September 14, 2010, Wiccan minister Rev Patrick McCollum received the Mahatma Gandhi Award for the Advancement of Religious Pluralism from the Hindu American Foundation (HAF). The award was presented during the seventh annual Capitol Hill reception sponsored by HAF. This year’s reception was held in the Gold Room of the US Congress Rayburn Building.

Patrick was one of four award recipients. Neal Katyal, acting Solicitor General of the United States received the Pride of Community Award. Community activist Shal Agarwal received the Dharma Seva Award. US Congressman Edward R. Royce (Republican, Orange, California) received the Friend of the Community Award.

“Patrick is not only the first Pagan to receive this award, but the first Pagan to receive an international interfaith advancement award. This is an important milestone in Pagan interfaith relations,” said Rev. Selena Fox, Senior Minister, Circle Sanctuary. “I am glad that Patrick and his work to build bridges of understanding and collaboration among those of many faiths was honored.”

In his remarks upon receiving the award, Patrick expressed appreciation for this recognition, and also spoke about the importance of respecting diversity and sacredness of human beings. “We are all part of the human family and we must learn to respect each other and live in harmony.”

About 150 attended the reception, including Hindu American Foundation members, Americans United for Separation of Church and State staff, and several US Congressmen and Congressional staffers. Also among those attending this interfaith reception were Pagans from the Patrick McCollum Foundation, the Lady Liberty League, Cherry Hill Seminary, and Circle Sanctuary.

Patrick’s international interfaith work also will be honored during the Lady Liberty League 25th Anniversary Reception taking place in Washington, DC on Wednesday, September 15, from 7-9 pm EDT. Selena, Patrick, and a variety of Pagan and interfaith leaders will be speaking. Reception is free and open to the public. More details are on-line: www.circlesanctuary.org/liberty. A video of the reception will be streamed live on the internet – tune in!

Maggie Beaumont, CHS Dean of Students, Patrick McCollum, Holli Emore, & Selena Fox.

As the press release mentions, tonight McCollum will be honored at the Lady Liberty League 25th Anniversary Reception, also in Washington DC. David Salisbury from the Pagan Newswire Collective’s Washington DC bureau will be there to cover the event, so stay tuned to their web site for more information. I’ll be posting more about this award, and tonight’s ceremony, as the information comes to me. Congratulations to Patrick McCollum!

The African country of Benin is thought to be the birthplace of Vodun (aka Vodou/Voodoo), and it is the third largest religion in that country (after Christianity and Islam). But despite the enduring popularity of Vodun in Benin, it has been slowly losing ground to Islam and Christianity, particularly in places like Cotonou, the country’s economic hub and largest city, where Christianity is prevalent. Enter Vodun priest Dah Aligbonon Akpochihala, a direct descendant of the semi-mythical princess Aligbonon, who’s become an evangelist and advocate for a new openness within his faith.

“Mr. Aligbonon takes it a step further. He regularly speaks on radio and television in Benin, a priest with a will to electronically diffuse the wisdom of ancestors from centuries past. The aim, in his telling, is to bring voodoo and associated teachings out of the closet and up to date, just like with the rapid-fire training he is developing to create initiates in three months, instead of the usual three years. Even though voodoo is widely followed in Benin — “The double practice persists, even among university people,” says Mr. Iroko — an unjustified stigma still comes with it, Mr. Aligbonon says indignantly. “Voodoo is not the devil, and still less Satan,” he writes emphatically in one of the pamphlets for sale in his storefront, a detailed guide to the religion’s principal divinities.”

Vodun priests in Benin have long complained, even to directly to the Pope, about smear campaigns by Christians against their faith.

“Two days into his 10th African tour, Pope John Paul II tacitly acknowledged vodun’s hold tonight, meeting in Cotonou with a group of its practitioners and leaders and telling them that, while they would certainly gain from converting to Christianity, “the church considers freedom of religion to be an inalienable right, a right that brings with it the responsibility to seek the truth.” In response to his proselytization, the vodun leaders made their own point about some members of the church that seemed to reflect strains. “One cannot but bitterly deplore the campaign of systematic denigration to which the practice of vodun is subjected by certain churches and parishes,” said Senou Zannou, a spokesman for the group of 30 senior vodun priests who met the Pope and placed him on a carved wooden throne to address him.”

It seems things have reached a point where some aren’t content with this status quo any longer. Aligbonon, according to the New York Times, has become quite popular with young people in Cotonou, and a quoted historian and sociologist both agree he’s become an influential figure within the Vodun community in Benin. Could this mean the dawning of a new activist spirit within the Vodun community in Benin, the cradle of that religion? Will his new, faster, training process swell their ranks? Perhaps a new day is dawning in the person of Mr. Aligbonon? It will be interesting to see how this affects not only Vodun in Benin, but Vodou in Haiti and the diaspora.