“Now every field is clothed with grass, and every tree with leaves; now the woods put forth their blossoms, and the year assumes its gay attire.” -  Publius Vergilius Maro (Virgil)

Tonight and tomorrow (in the northern hemisphere*) are the traditional dates for many of the major spring/summer festivals in modern Paganism. Beltane, Bealtaine, May Day, Floralia, Protomayia, and Walpurgis Night, to name just a few. This fire festival heralds the coming of summer and is a high holiday, a liminal time when the barriers between our world and the otherworld were thin. In many traditions and cultures it is a time of divine union and fertility.

Walpurgis Night bonfire, near lake Ringsjo, Sweden Photo by David Castor

Here are some quotes for the holiday.

“To those who actually practice it, morris dance has an elemental quality, an ancient ritual magic comparable to the whirling dervish dance or the spiritual movements developed by G.I. Gurdjieff. Its gestures are designed to act as a lighting conductor for spiritual energies to unite the universe with the earth and replicate the seasonal cycles of growth, death and rebirth. Morris dancers’ tatter jackets act as symbolic antennae; clogs dash against the ground, awakening slumbering earth gods.” – Rob Young, “Electric Eden: Unearthing Britain’s Visionary Music”

“Despite its modern links to Christianity, Valborgsmässoafton, which has been celebrated in Sweden since the Middle Ages, is one of two Swedish holidays which still resemble their pre-Christian merrymaking. The other is Midsummer. The original pagan festival heralded the onset of the growth season. It attempted to ward off evil, ensure fertility and cleanse the land of the dried and dead of winter. Today, it is still the accepted gateway to long and warmer days.” - Elizabeth Dacey-Fondelius, The Local (Sweden)

“…while Samhain began one kind of yearly cycle, Bealtaine began another, and both could be construed as a kind of “New Year”. In ancient Ireland the High King inaugurated the year on Samhain for his household (and, symbolically, for all the people of Ireland) with the famous ritual of Tara, but in nearby Uisneach, the sacred centre held by the druids in complementary opposition to Tara, it was on Bealtaine that the main ritual cycle was begun. In both cases sacred fires were extinguished and re-lit, though this happened at sunset on Samhain and at dawn on Bealtaine. Bealtaine was a time of opening and expansion, Samhain a time of gathering-in and shutting, and for herd-owners like the Celts this was expressed with particular vividness by the release of cattle into upland pastures on Bealtaine and their return to the safety of the byres on Samhain.” – Alexei Kondratiev, Samhain: Season of Death and Renewal

“Celtic Druids used to hold the festival Bealtaine (Day of Fire) in the highest regard, as it was thought to be the day that divides the year in half. The other half of the year had its ending marked with Samhain on November 1st. The old custom was to celebrate with a rite of setting new fire which in turn was believed to lend life to the burgeoning springtime sun. Cattle were driven through the fire or between two fires as a purification process and lovers passed through the smoke together. Different types of wood held different spiritual meanings and were believed to play an important role in the fertility of the land and cattle in the coming year. Many traditions associated with May Day stem from the old Roman festival of flowers known as Floralia. It was a celebration in devotion to Flora, the goddess of flowers, and spanned five days from April 28th to May 2nd. Gradually, the celebrations of Floralia became added to the rituals of Bealtaine and many of today’s customs and superstitions bear the stamp of the combination of the traditions.” - Cammy Harley, The Southern Star

“The First of May is Beltaine, the celebration of the marriage of the earth itself. In sacred symbolism and mythos the King is identified with the sun, who in order for his reign to be fruitful must marry the land itself, which is seen as a Goddess in her own right. It is in May the earth thrives under the caresses of the sun, when the greenness of the earth reaches toward the sun as toward a lover. There is no timidity in the abundant verdancy of May. In the Pagan Wheel of the Year both God and Goddess are mature, confident, and aware of the danger when they marry at Beltaine. For a King to marry the May-bright land is no half-hearted gesture. The King that spends an early summer evening with the May Queen is the same King who is sacrificed for the land when his harvest time has come.” - Star Foster, Patheos.com

“[May Day's] roots as a holiday stretch back to pre-Christian pagan festivals, and the Gaelic Beltane. The familiar rituals of dancing around the Maypole and the crowning of the May Queen made it a popular seasonal celebration in medieval England. ”May Day is associated with spring and fertility, the sowing of the seeds. It is a rural tradition,” says Julie-Marie Strange, senior lecturer in Victorian Studies at the University of Manchester. ”It’s things like May Day that remind us we were once an agricultural community. We’ve clung on to these traditions and I’m not sure why we’d want to get rid of them now.” - James Morgan, BBC News

May you all be especially blessed this evening and tomorrow.

*A very happy Samhain to those of you living in the southern hemisphere!

There are lots of articles and essays of interest to modern Pagans out there, sometimes more than I can write about in-depth in any given week. So The Wild Hunt must unleash the hounds in order to round them all up.

• We have two new high-profile endorsements for Pagan Coming Out Day on May 2nd. The first from T. Thorn Coyle who invokes the memory of Tempest Smith and Harvey Milk, and the second from Phaedra Bonewits who notes that “by coming out, we are affirming our right to love ourselves for what we are.”
• I have to say, the trailer for Tarsem Singh’s movie “Immortals” is very, very, pretty. I will be seeing it for the eye candy alone, if nothing else. Hey, it can’t be as bad as the “Clash of the Titans” remake.
• Over at Killing the Buddha writer Eric Scott (a Wiccan and second-generation Pagan) gets some criticism over his latest essay, “Valhal-Mart,” first from a Christian who points out that Christians get exploited in cinema too, and then from author Alex Rose, who calls Scott a “phony” because “there is no chance he actually believes (choose any sense of the word you like) in norse mythology, much less actively worships Thor.” Mr. Rose obviously hasn’t heard of that whole “modern Paganism” thing.
• The New York Times reports on efforts to have a atheist/secular military chaplain appointed. They note that “a Hindu, possibly even a Wiccan may join their [military chaplain] ranks soon.” But the institutional resistance to a Wiccan or Pagan chaplain has been rather effective in not making that happen.
• PNC-Minnesota‘s special series on Pagans in prison concludes with comments from Pagan inmates and an editorial from reporter Nels Linde. Essential reading, and some of the best reporting done this year for the Pagan community. (Part 1, Part 2,Part 3, Part 4 Part 5 Part 6).
• Time Magazine travels to Sedona to experience the post-James Arthur Ray sweat-lodge deaths atmosphere and finds that “even tragedy won’t keep the seekers from Sedona.” Meanwhile, the James Arthur Ray trial continues.
• Tropaion notes the creation of a “legal vacuum” as different factions fight over re-burial of the Altar of the Twelve Gods in Greece. You can read my coverage of this story, here.
• The Croyden Guardian reports on trial of William Lambert, accused of raping four girls (aged between 11-15) under the pretext of “initiation ceremonies” to pass on the next level of his “witch powers”. There doesn’t seem to be any real connection between Lambert and the existing Pagan community in the area, and he told the girls his powers came “from the black floating monk” that apparently haunted the church yard where he worked.
• At Think Progress, commentator Alyssa Rosenberg notes the “challenges in making gods-come-to-earth movies.” The first is the modern resistance to an approachable deity, and the second is that superheroes “have basically taken on the roles of Greek-style gods in our movies.” I’m sure Grant Morrison would agree.
• Arizona police officers are receiving training in looking “for indicators of underlying criminal activity” in part via “religious “saints” or icons that might be found at crime scenes where Mexican drug cartels have a presence.” In short, that Santa Muerte statue might be an indicator of illegal activity. Some may mock this, but these trainings could be problematic for individuals not involved in the drug trade who happen to follow a religion misunderstood by law enforcement.
• David Briggs notes the growth of Hinduism in America, mainly through immigration. As this population grows, they are finding their political voice, and challenging Western narratives concerning India and Hinduism.

That’s it for now! Feel free to discuss any of these links in the comments, some of these I may expand into longer posts as needed.

My post on Wednesday talking about the anti-Pagan bigotry of Jacksonville, Florida City Council candidate Kimberly Daniels has sparked quite a bit of shock, outrage, and discussion. One reoccurring question is how did Daniels end up on the Democratic ticket, and make it to a run-off, when she held rather retrograde views on gays and non-Christians.

“Is this one of those districts that always votes Republican and the only reason the election is close is because this particular Democrat is a wing-nut and is actually pulling voters from the right of a more main-stream republican candidate? Or is there a viable democratic party that swings this way regularly? Putting it another way, is this a fluke for the region, or a trend? Some context would be lovely.”

Providing that context is Brandi S., a Jacksonville resident and Pagan who initially voted for Daniels.

“She’s running in an At-Large City Council race, which is city-wide. While there are more registered Democrats in Jax than there are Republicans, the initial race was 76% Republican candidates to just 16% Democratic candidates and 8% running with No Party Affiliation. Daniels was one of just 10 Democrats running in the first election in March. Two Democrats won their races decisively in the initial election (one of whom ran as a fiscal conservative and one of whom ran in a contest where his only opponent was another Democrat in what I presume is the city’s sole liberal voting precinct). Most races in the March election had multiple candidates, so 40% or more of the vote was required to win decisively, and there were run-offs in 8 different races city-wide. TWO of those races have Democratic candidates – the mayoral race, with a candidate who has major Democratic endorsements, and the At-Large Group 1 race, which is the race Kimberly Daniels is running in.

She got enough of the vote to make it through to the run-offs (including, admittedly, mine, as I knew that she was religious but had no idea about her bigotry, hatred, and ignorance at the time of the election), and her opponent is a Republican running on a slogan of Faith * Family * Fiscal Responsibility, so he is definitely a more mainstream Republican capable of getting the Republican votes. Jacksonville has a large African-American population which may swing the vote in Daniels’ direction because she is one of the few African-American candidates running, and the issues she talks about in interviews and on her webpage are things like tackling substance abuse, which is a big problem in Jacksonville, plus she’s a military veteran in a heavily military town, and Jacksonville also has a very disenfranchised Democratic voter base who may not know all of this about her radically right-wing religious views (as I did not until last week – I knew only that she was a church pastor but not what that particular church preached) or may not care simply because she’s one of the only Democrats running in a heavily Republican city, so she may actually stand a chance of winning on that basis alone. I won’t be voting for her this time around, but I won’t be voting for her opponent either. In fact, I’ll be leaving every race on my ballot blank except the mayoral race because there are no candidates in the other races that I can even think of voting for in good conscience.

However, other Jacksonville voters may not feel the same way. Religious views and church participation factor in heavily in Jacksonville elections, and nearly every single candidate is using his or her religion as a selling point in their bid for election. Also, despite having more registered Democrats than registered Republicans, the votes go overwhelmingly to the Republican candidates (and the fact that there are almost nothing BUT Republican candidates running in most races probably helps with that as well). I moved away from Jacksonville for 16 1/2 years after graduating from high school and only recently returned to help care for my elderly grandmother, but I would never, ever choose to live here again for any other reason than that because it feels like being stuck in a time-warp between the pre-Civil Rights-era 1950s and a heavily Republican and Tea Party-influenced present.

As to your first question about how she became the democratic candidate, I honestly don’t know. There was another Democrat running as a fiscal conservative in another local race who won his election decisively in March and I would never have considered him a Democrat based on his running platform and I wrote the local Democratic Party to complain about how few Democrats were running in the first place, and the fact that those that were included conservatives who should have more rightly been running on the Republican ticket. I never got a response, so I never found out quite how this was allowed to happen, but my guess is that candidates just had to file to run – they didn’t necessarily need their party’s endorsement to run as a member of that party. It probably helps, as with the mayoral candidate, but it can’t possibly be a requirement with candidates like this running on the Democratic ticket.”

Thanks to Brandi for providing some context on this election.

[The following is a guest post from Patrick McCollum. McCollum is an expert on the treatment of Pagans in the United States prison system, and has given testimony to the US Commission on Civil Rights on that issue. He is also fighting the discriminatory “5 Faiths” policy in California’s prison system, a case that has been in litigation for over five years, and is currently before the 9th Circuit.]

In reviewing the recent Supreme Court’s ruling in Sossamon v. Texas, where the court found that inmates could not sue for monetary damages if a State institution violated their religious rights under the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA), I find it unfortunate that there is little or no recourse against government officials who knowingly violate the law. This is particularly concerning as in almost every case where these issues are in litigation, the rights which are being denied are the rights of the minority faiths, and those who are denying those rights are primarily the majority faith. In other words, the big story here is not in the little squabbles over who gets a wand, or a Kofi cap, or who gets to participate in a sweat lodge, it is really the unsung battle between the majority faith that is in power and wants to suppress the competition, and those fighting for religious freedom and equality! RLUIPA was enacted primarily to protect the religious rights of minority faiths in prison. If it has no bite or force behind it, who or what is going to compel religious bigots to treat their brothers and sisters of other faiths equally? After a hundred years of a system that has clearly shown it is prejudicial in this regard, the answer is quite clear. Nobody!

Rev. Patrick McCollum

There is also a second “gotcha” in the ruling. In these cases, there are two primary types of damages. Monetary damages, and Injunctive Relief damages. Under the law, if a case brought by an inmate has potential monetary damages, then the case goes on until it is decided, even if the inmate serves his or her term and gets out. In the case of Injunctive Relief damages, if the inmate gets out the case becomes moot, because there is no remedy for the inmate to receive once he/she is free, as the discrimination will automatically stop due to the fact that the inmate is no longer under the jurisdiction of the State. In other words, the state can knowingly discriminate against a minority faith inmate for years, with full knowledge that because of the many years it takes to go through the court system, in the end, the case will most likely become moot, which lets them entirely off the hook and free to repeat the same discriminatory behavior against the next minority faith inmate. I might also add, that if the case becomes moot, that means that the attorneys representing the inmates don’t get paid because the case never comes to an end! Consequently, attorneys taking these cases Pro Bono can no longer do so as there is no compensation even if the case is valid and the State was at fault.

As to the Court’s ruling, there are actually two separate principles or issues involved here. First there is the concern that inmates bring frivolous lawsuits against the state, and this in fact does happen. Consequently the courts have struggled to find some way to reduce the number of frivolous lawsuits by inmates so that states are not overburdened with excessive cost and litigation. By taking away the possibility of monetary damages for most inmate lawsuits through various lower court decisions, there has been a significant drop in frivolous inmate lawsuits, and this has helped the situation.

On the other hand, there are some inmate claims which are legitimate. For example, inmates are guaranteed certain of the same rights under the Constitution as we are, one of those being the fundamental right to freedom of religion without coercion or restriction by the government. Something at stake here which was not likely being considered by the court in its ruling, and was probably not one of the claims presented, (legal cases like these are often complex, as only the specific claims made by the inmates are considered in making a ruling. Hence, if inmates made specific claims requesting monetary damages, but did not include in the claim that monetary damages were necessary to provide incentives to compel the State to follow the law, then the court would only rule on the issue of monetary damages in itself, because no evidence was provided to show that the state is intentionally discriminating on the basis of religion and has no intention of following the law unless there are consequences) is the fact that religious discrimination against minority faiths is rampant in the prison systems, and that many prison systems knowingly violate the law because they know that no one can do anything to them, as they are, as they see it, “above the law!” That said and to be fair, there are a number of prison systems which are trying to change their behavior in recent years, and some states have made significant progress.

One thing that particularly concerns me on this issue of prison administrators considering themselves to be above the law, and which I bring up at many correctional conferences, is the immorality of being the agency that is empowered to punish inmates for openly violating our laws, and then taking the position that they, the agency who is responsible for the administration of this punishment and also for the rehabilitation of the inmates in their care, directly and openly violate our laws too, and then thumb their noses at the inmates to show them that the law doesn’t apply to them. I believe this both promotes the wrong message to the inmates, and also promotes corruption in the system. If we want to have a just world, then those who wield justice have to be held accountable just the same as the rest of us.

Now, that the court has made this ruling, what will have to happen is that inmates and outside parties suing on behalf of inmates will need to file a different suit which addresses this secondary and much larger issue!

In closing I’d like to say, that many people don’t consider these issues all that important because they apply to inmates who many consider already deserving of mistreatment. But it’s important to remember that prisons are where the rubber hits the road, and that many of the decisions made there as to what our constitutional rights are, also end up directly affecting our rights here on the outside. The question we have to ask ourselves is this: Are we going to be a nation where everyone is governed by our Constitution, where we all reap the benefits and burdens placed upon it by us, or are we going to be a country where a certain privileged class gets special dispensation, especially if they adhere to the dominant faith, and where discrimination against the rest of us is considered to be just one of the acceptable downsides for deciding to worship differently.

For more on Patrick McCollum’s work in the United States prison system, see this recent PNC-Minnesota interview. You may also want to read my own commentary on this SCOTUS ruling.

On May 17th a run-off election will be held for a City Council seat in Jacksonville, Florida. One of the candidates is part of the radical New Apostolic Reformation, has drawn the ire of LGBT advocacy groups, and commonly makes rather critical statements about President Barack Obama. Oh, and that’s the Democrat in this race.

The people of Jacksonville need a fresh breath. They need to know who they are voting for. I am not going to play the political games of pretending to be someone or something else to get elected and then having to spend four years living a lie. Everyone seems to be afraid of the word change because of the promises of other politicians who put a bad taste in the mouths of the people. Well, I must say that without change…things will stay the same! We just need the right kind of change. Before our cities can change, the hearts of men must change. When my heart was changed, everything around me fell into place. A lot of people talk about change, but my life is an example of it. By voting for me you will get a leader that is relevant, holds a high standard of morality and integrity is a shaker and mover that can make things happen in this city and does have a heart and mind to work FOR THE PEOPLE.”

But when Democratic candidate Kimberly Daniels says she’ll work “for the people,” does she mean the non-Christian people? Daniels has made a truly dizzying amount of anti-Pagan (and anti-any-religion that isn’t her brand of Christianity) public statements.

“At Spoken Word Ministries, we have church members who have had sex changes, participated in high-level occult rituals, witnessed shape-shifting (the changing of human beings into animals), and many other sinful problems.” - Kim Daniels, page 11, Delivered To Destiny (Charisma House, 2005)

“We have experienced much success in one-session deliverances [exorcisms]… However, there have been times when I have personally walked homosexuals, ex-witches and drug addicts through sessions that took place over a couple of years.” - Kim Daniels, page 151-152, Clean House, Strong House, 2003, Charisma House

“Lord, expose the work of every witch, sorcerer, spiritualist or person from the dark side operating through [Barack Obama's] cabinet members or through anyone else closely associated with him. We block the power of the influence of the Yoruba religion and all other groups of black people who worship their ancestors, in Jesus’ name. We put barriers around the Unites States that will bind and block the witchcraft coming from Kenya to influence our president in Jesus’ name. Let the power of every dedication of his past be broken, in Jesus’ name” - Kim Daniels, Charisma magazine, A Prayer For Barack Obama, January 19, 2009

I’m not exaggerating when I say that is only a sample of the rhetoric Daniels uses on a regular basis. She even takes a page out of good-ol’ Jack T. Chick and gives us the cursed candy Satanic Halloween narrative.

“The key word in discussing Halloween is “dedicated.” It is dedicated to darkness and is an accursed season. During Halloween, time-released curses are always loosed. A time-released curse is a period that has been set aside to release demonic activity and to ensnare souls in great measure. [...]  Curses are sent through the tricks and treats of the innocent whether they get it by going door to door or by purchasing it from the local grocery store. The demons cannot tell the difference. [...] During this season witches are celebrating the changing of the seasons from summer to fall. They give praise to the gods for the demonic harvest. They pray to the gods of the elements (air, fire, water and earth). [...] While the lukewarm and ignorant think of these customs as “just harmless fun,” the vortexes of hell are releasing new assignments against souls. Witches take pride in laughing at the ignorance of natural men (those who ignore the spirit realm).“

So when Kimberly Daniels talks about binding, exorcising, and waging spiritual warfare against “witches” she isn’t being metaphorical, she means us. How would you like Daniels representing your interests in Jacksonville? A lot of commentary and response has been focused on her anti-gay remarks, and what appears to be an anti-Semitic comment about Jews “owning everything,” but even if  we somehow contextualize all the statements that are currently getting press, it doesn’t erase her blatantly obvious opposition to modern Paganism. Does anyone honestly think she’ll erect some illusory theological firewall when making policy decisions? Kimberly Daniels isn’t getting any real heat for her anti-Pagan slurs (“sacrificing babies to shed innocent blood”, “orgies between animals and humans”), but it is there where the depth of her extremism is truly laid bare.

Pagan Community Notes is a companion to my usual Pagan News of Note, a series more focused on news originating from within the Pagan community. I want to reinforce the idea that what happens to and within our organizations, groups, and events is news, and news-worthy. My hope is that more individuals, especially those working within Pagan organizations, get into the habit of sharing their news with the world. So lets get started!

International Pagan Coming Out Day: It is less than a week to Pagan Coming Out Day, May 2nd, and PNC-Minnesota has a story up about a local IPCOD celebration that will feature a screening of the documentary “American Mystic”.

“The event takes place May 2nd at the Sacred Paths Center and is open to all Pagans and Pagan allies, no matter if you have been ‘out’ for ages or are not yet able to be open about your Pagan spirituality.  It directly follows the usual Monday night Pagan Potluck and the event is offered as a free gift to the community.  An opening Hellenic-style libation to Hestia, a Goddess that strengthens the bonds of family and community,  kicks off the evening, with champagne cocktails, non-alcoholic drinks and desserts to follow.  Once everyone has their treats, the movie American Mystic will be screened for the first time in the Twin Cities area.  The documentary opened at Pantheacon to rave reviews.”

Meanwhile, David Salisbury at PNC-Washington DC/Capital Witch mentions the DC-area IPCOD event sponsored by the Open Hearth Foundation.

“Sponsoring DC’s event is the Open Hearth Foundation who just announced that our location will be at the back gates of the White House. Really, if you’re going to come out as anything, it might as well be right on the President’s doorstep! Participants should gather at the sidewalk area in front of the White House on Pennsylvania Avenue at 7:45pm. A public coming out ritual will being at 8:00pm, followed by walking to a local restaurant for community sharing and celebration. In addition to the gathering itself, the OHF will also have support volunteers on-site to help those who might find the coming out process difficult or emotional.”

You can see a full list of scheduled IPCOD celebrations, here. Follow IPCOD on Facebook, here. In the interest of full disclosure, I should mention that I serve in an advisory capacity on IPCOD’s executive board. I’m working with this project because I think a unified effort towards ‘coming out’ is a needed one, a complimentary movement to our already vibrant Pagan Pride days. I hope you’ll support IPCOD, and help spread the word. Addendum: Here’s more on IPCOD from Patheos.com.

Calling Ourselves Pagan: Since we just talked about “coming out” as a Pagan, perhaps we should also talk about the label of “Pagan” itself. In a recent guest-post for Patheos.com, Scott Reimers advocated finding a different word for our diverse movement. In response, author and teacher T. Thorn Coyle wrote a two-part essay discussing some questions and one possible answer to the issue of calling ourselves Pagan.

What do I think is this thing that ties such diverse ways and means of practice, experience, and belief together? We all have a sense of “Divine with us on earth.” The Gods are not just far off in Asgard, they are in our gardens and our homes. Goddesses don’t just live in some distant place, they help us run our businesses, and teach our children. And these Gods and Goddesses have their own agency, too. Paganism(s) and systems of magick – as they exist in contemporary religious expression in this loosely knit group of practitioners – hold theologies of immanence in common, whether this is directly acknowledged or not. Magick would not work without direct divine connection. Rituals would be meaningless or simply psychological exercises if there was not some strong, direct sense that whatever sacred energies or forces we work with were not here with us, right now.

That is what drew me to Paganism in the first place: God was not off in some distant and transcendent place. God Herself, and individual sacred expressions such as trees, ocean, stars, this particular God or that particular Goddess… were all moving, flowing, acting, resting, and directly making up the cosmos(es) right now. And so was I. If this was not the case, our magic would be simple begging and supplication. Instead, our magick, for those of us that do it, becomes a way to help create the world. Those of us who don’t do operative magick celebrate the realization that this sacred expression is with us every day. And for this, we give thanks: we dance around Maypoles, we raise horns of wine and beer in honor, we light candles to draw us deeper into contemplation, we make love as a way to draw closer to our Gods, knowing that often our Gods are as close as the breath of our lovers.

I anticipate that we are collectively stuck with “Pagan” for the foreseeable future. Perhaps a day will come when the various religions, traditions, and groups under our wide umbrella get big enough to not see (or need) the agency in being part of something larger, but I don’t think that day will come in my lifetime. However, for now, solidarity and collective effort is still needed to safeguard our basic rights, and advocate for equal treatment. To build basic religious services, and to gain the attention of the wider world. Even when we do reach the point where Wiccans, Druids, Asatru, and other faiths no longer need to be thrown together for various political reasons, we may find that we are all still attending the same parties.

The Correllians Get a New First Priestess: The Correllian Nativist Tradition have announced a restructuring and expansion of their Council of Elders, and have named a new First Priestess to replace the now-retired M. Rev. Krystel High-Correll.

“In addition M. Rev. Krystel High-Correll, First Priestess of the Correllian Tradition, has already been in retirement for several years now. As Retired First Priestess Lady Krystel does and always will enjoy the same level of respect and dignity that she has born for the last three decades of her imperium. Now, after much consideration, we are pleased to announce an Heir to the office of First Priestess: Lady Krystel and the entirety of the Council of Elders are pleased to name Rt. Rev. Traci Logan Wood as Heiress and Acting First Priestess, in accordance with the Rules of Succession of the Correllian Tradition as outlined in the Tradition bylaws. May the Blessing be upon the Acting First Priestess!”

In addition to naming Traci Logan Wood as First Priestess, a lifetime appointment, Ed Hubbard was also named as the new First Elder of the tradition and several new members of their Council of Elders were named in order “to fulfill the duties and offices needed for a Tradition that has become truly global.” My congratulations to to Wood, Hubbard, and the new Elders.

In a somewhat related note, congratulations to Pagans Tonight, which is quickly approaching its 500th episode.

More on Pagans in Prison: The PNC-Minnesota special series on Pagans in prison continues today, featuring an interview with Emrys Anu, a Wiccan Minister volunteering for the last six years at Rush City Correctional Facility.

“I work with mainly 20 – 40 year olds, and we work always within a ritual circle. Whatever work we plan for that day, we do in that circle. We create that as sacred space, and we consider what we do in there as our sacred work. We may have a lecture, a meditation, a reading, a ritual, or we may just talk. We just finished a ‘lecture’ on ‘what is Wicca?’. The history, and Paganism will be coming up. (Laughs, “It always comes up, “Do you worship Jesus, too?”) They often are asking for some kind of healing work. Typically some kind of energy work. We do a lot of different blessings. Blessings for impending court cases. When people leave we do a special blessing that always ends with “DON’T COME BACK! ”. We sometimes play games and do fun things. We play Wiccan charades, or ‘Wiccan Hangman’ and ‘Wiccan Hangman in Theban’. We have a fantastic energy sensing werewolf game that we play. We may discuss a book or do ritual planning. A few weeks before a Sabbat we talk about ritual in general, and what we will do for this one. How does it connect to nature and what is going on inside of us. It may be a full moon or dark moon. These might have some simple spell work within it. We meet once a week for two hours.”

Read the entire interview, here. In the next installment, Nels Linde will feature transcribed letters from prisoners and some editorial thoughts on the issue. This has been some excellent coverage on the issue, and I highly recommend heading over to PNC-Minnesota and reading the entire series (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4).

Patheos Interviews of Note: I just wanted to close with some quick links to two interviews of note over at the Patheos Pagan Portal. First, Galina Krasskova interviews author Melitta Benu, a practitioner of  Alexandrian Reconstruction. Then, the Staff of Asclepius blog interviews Pagan author and lecturer Janet Callahan. Both are thought-provoking and worth checking out.

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

The Maetreum of Cybele, Magna Mater, in an ongoing tax battle with the Town of Catskill, New York, saw their already years-long fight extend further as Catskill appealed a recent ruling in their favor. Now, The Daily Mail reports that the Town of Catskill is publicly committing to fighting this case to the bitter end, no matter how expensive it gets.

“Acting Catskill Town Supervisor Patrick Walsh said Tuesday that if the town didn’t pursue the case, it may open the door to other isolated religious groups to pop up and claim exemptions. “It’s the principle of the whole thing,” Walsh said about continuing the costly legal struggle with the matriarchal clan. “Obviously we hate to be spending the money on the thing.” [...] Walsh said the town was already too deep into the case to give up and that significant dollars could be saved by preventing exemptions for illegitimate religions. “If it’s a legitimate religion and they have legitimate use of the property then that’s what we want to find out,” Walsh said.”

In a public statement, Rev Cathryn Platine of the Maetreum of Cybele noted that spending thousands to collect tax from a tiny religious group is apparently more important that collecting tax from Wal-Mart.

“Forget the Constitution, forget freedom of religion, forget equal protection under the law, Catskill’s Town Council alone get to decide which religions are legitimate and which are not. Walsh went one step further and declared the Cybeline Revival illegitimate. The Town of Catskill has apparently indicated a willingness to break the Town budget to discriminate on the basis of religion when they were unwilling last year to fight the demands of Wal-Mart citing the legal costs of doing so. There can be no doubt that Catskill feels they can win by outspending a poor group of spiritual women and intimidate any other religious minority from seeking their legal rights under New York and Federal law, they have now stated so clearly and on the record.”

The Town of Catskill has made its priorities very clear, corporations get tax breaks, but federally recognized religious organizations they don’t like, don’t. The law seems pretty clearly on the side of the Maetreum of Cybele, but Catskill is going to wage a scorched earth legal campaign in hopes the Pagans run out of money and energy first. If you want to help the Maetreum, they are looking for donations towards their legal costs, and hopefully larger rights organizations will sit up and take notice of this case.