Top Story: The CNN Belief Blog has a story about Hinduism in America, and how some younger Hindus are trying to “forge a distinctly American Hindu identity that’s more tightly woven into the national fabric.”

The BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir in Houston

“Our parents had to build everything from scratch to make a united Hindu community in this country,” said Tejas N. Dave, 17, a high school junior who volunteers with a project bringing yoga to unprivileged Americans. “Now we’re trying to reintegrate it back into society,” he said, “to make people realize that Hinduism is a religion and a way of life and a philosophy that’s not too different from what a lot of others believe. We’re all trying to make a better society.” Some young Hindus are envious of the attention that American Muslims and Mormons have received in recent years – even if not all of the attention has been positive – and are trying to raise Hinduism’s national profile.

The article mentions the Hindu American Foundation and its work, an advocacy group that has done outreach to the Pagan community in recent years, and profiles younger Hindus who want to take their faith “outside officially Hindu spaces.”

Yet [Kavita] Pallod, 23, has spent a good deal of time thinking about how to apply her faith to her life. “I believe that karma is the principal that guides the universe,” she said, referring to the Hindu concept of cosmic justice. “It’s one of the reasons I joined Teach for America.”

In my recent interview with historian Kevin M. Schultz, he mentioned that Catholics and Jews in the early 20th century worked to “present a positive and forceful image of what it meant to be an American” using the “languages of good Americanism to show they belong.” This article makes it quite clear that this process is well underway for American Hindus. That said, despite Hinduism’s many successes in building infrastructure and mainstreaming some of their practices, there still remains a lot of distrust and hostility, as evidenced by the comments section of the CNN profile. American Hindu organizations will also have to decide, ultimately, how they are going to present themselves to other faiths. Hinduism’s theological diversity has allowed proponents to engage with Pagans, noting their common ground, while also (sometimes vociferously) portraying themselves as monotheists. It’s a complex subject, but American politics hates complex subjects, and the process of “Americanizing” a diverse decentralized umbrella faith may present roadblocks in the future.

In Other News:

• The Washington Post looks at a struggle in rural Virgina over a proposed interfaith center that is being blocked by Christian opposition who call the The Oracle Institute “anti-Christian, a cult and a threat to the community.” The sheriff of Independence, Virginia said in an email that it “looks like it may be another Branch Davidian compound.” Litigation is now pending.
• It seems like just a couple days ago I was writing about how evangelicals have largely made their peace with Harry Potter, I forgot to include the broad exception of Christian leaders who have loads of anti-Harry Potter merchandise to move before the final film fades into memory. Religious schlock-meister Steve Wohlberg is already preparing for whatever comes next, warning of a “third wave” of popular entertainment that will continue to fuel the “global teenage increase in Wicca and the occult.”
• Patheos colleague Eric Scott talks about handing down Pagan traditions to our children, and how it’s a bad idea to not teach them about our faiths. As Scott puts it: “The problem is not in exposing a child to religion, but in refusing to accept that children aren’t going to grow up to be exactly like their parents.” Religious education doesn’t have to be a cage, no matter what our own upbringings may have taught us.
• Scrutiny is growing for Rick Perry’s upcoming Texas faith-rally “The Response,” with his handlers already scrambling to establish deniability for Perry, saying he has “nothing to do with the website” and that there is no vetting of the endorsers (Really? None?). Right Wing Watch is having a field day working their way through the list. Will this all matter should Perry run? My own take on this will be coming up this week at The Washington Post’s On Faith site.

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

Welcome to (Pagan) Music Mondays, a new semi-regular feature here at The Wild Hunt! As many of you may know, I’m a lover of music, and have spent many years exploring albums and artists that appeal to the Pagan spirit. I’d like to expose you to new releases by Pagan artists, and also to bands that explore lyrical themes relevant to our worldviews. This week I’d like to look at Monica Richard’s new EP “The Strange Familiar” and “Mohalepte,” the new album by The Moon and the Nightspirit.

Just about everyone who’s traveled the overlaps between modern Paganism and the Goth subculture have heard of Monica Richards, and it would be fair to say that a large number of those individuals are fans of her work. One half of the classic darkwave duo Faith and The Muse, a band which won over many Pagan hearts with deep lyrical explorations of myth and mysticism, they tackled everything from Celtic mythology to songs from “The Wicker Man.” In 2007 Monica Richards began her own solo musical project. Entitled “InfraWarrior,” it went even deeper into themes like pantheism, Gaia, myth cycles, women as goddesses, and as warriors. It’s a triumph of an album, and quickly became one of my favorites, so I was very excited when I heard that Monica Richards would be releasing a new album, “Naiades,” scheduled for this Fall. To whet our appetites for the new album, she has created a teaser EP, “The Strange Familiar,” featuring four new songs and a dance remix of a song from her previous solo album.

This new EP showcases a sonic shift from her first solo outing. This is partly due to the participation of Steven James and Marzia Rangel from the art-rock/deathrock band Christ vs. Warhol, and partly due to a hinted-at dramatic life shift. That’s not to say there isn’t plenty of myth and spiritual exploration to be found here, “The Mighty” is a seven-minute dramatic piece that implores the listener to “believe in me, and I’ll take you with me.” In addition, we get a beautiful impromptu live voice and violin piece recorded in a cave with former Changelings violinist Paul Mercer. Fans of Richards’ work with Faith and The Muse should be in pleasingly familiar territory here, while those accustomed to the more tribal sound of her first solo album should find plenty to enjoy as well.

“The Strange Familiar” admirably does the job of whetting the listener’s appetite for the new album, while existing as a satisfying short work that stands on its own. You can order “The Strange Familiar” from Monica Richard’s website, or you can purchase a digital download from Amazon or CD Baby. You may also want to check out some live footage from her recent solo performance at the 2011 Wave Gotik Treffen festival in Germany.

Another band who performed at Wave Gotik Treffen this year was the Hungarian Pagan band The Moon and The Nightspirit. Their new album, “Mohalepte,” is yet another strong entry from Agnes Toth and Mihaly Szabo, who have carved out a place for themselves in Europe’s Pagan-folk scene, joining increasingly well-known names like Faun and Omnia. Since 2005′s “Of Dreams Forgotten and Fables Untold” the band have delved ever deeper into their own language and culture, inviting listeners into “the moss-grown heart of the forest, into the emerald world of ageless, sylvan realms.” They’ve dubbed their evolving sound as “ethereal sylvan music,” an aesthetic you can hear on songs like the title track:

Their latest album also marks the band striking out on their own, amicably leaving longtime label Equilibrium Music. “Mohalepte” can, for now, only be ordered directly from the band’s website. Though you can easily download their first three albums: “Of Dreams Forgotten and Fables Untold”,  “Regõ Rejtem”, and “Osforras” from places like Amazon. The Moon and the Nightspirit is a band filled with a magical, rustic energy, as evidenced by their live performances, part of a strong Pagan musical culture in Europe that has been nurtured by a vibrant festival scene. It makes me envious of what could be here in our own festival culture. There are hints of it in events like Faerieworlds, but we’re a long way from being able to support a Castlefest, let alone several similar happenings. Still, I’m optimistic, and while I can’t afford to experience the European Pagan folk scene first-hand, I can experience excellent albums like “Mohalepte.”

That’s it for this week’s (Pagan) Music Mondays! I hope you enjoyed it. I haven’t quite decided what I’ll cover next week, but I’m sure it’ll satisfy your Pagan music longings.

This Sunday, I have updates on some previously reported stories.

Sacred Paths Center’s Fiscal Crisis: As I reported on Friday, Sacred Paths Center, a Pagan community center serving the Minneapolis-St. Paul area (aka “Paganistan”), sent out a message that they were in dire fiscal straits and needed over 7000 dollars immediately if they were to avoid closure. Now one of the SPC’s board members, CJ Stone, has been interviewed by PNC-Minnesota about the situation.

“We were working from a membership model. A Pagan Community Center has been the dream of several Twin Cities groups, working for the past thirteen years. You would think if the idea of a Pagan Community Center, supported by members, was possible, it would have happened by now. Thirteen years is a long time. When Teisha (Center Executive Director) said , “We have a problem, we have to solve it”, we finally asked, “Are we even using the right model?”

The answer is NO. We have already gotten the members we are likely to get. Even with a tremendous response, say 500 members, it would be barely enough. We just can’t do it. We made the mistake thinking the members would support it. We learned you can’t support a Pagan Community Center just on membership, at least not without years of work to build it up. We just have a month. We need some big donations now, to get off the membership model as a primary source of income, and continue. Then we can get on to better retail, more targeted retail, better service to our teachers and students. Finding a community that needs what we have got, and then serving it clearly and directly.”

The SPC board has estimated that they have to raise $7,500 immediately, and $12,000 by the end of July to remain open and viable for the longer term. So far 20% of their goal has been raised, this includes matching funds from an anonymous donor. We’ll keep you posted on this story as it develops.

James Arthur Ray Aftermath: After the negligent homicide convictions for New Age guru James Arthur Ray, Mitch Horowitz, author of “Occult America: White House Seances, Ouija Circles, Masons, and the Secret Mystic History of Our Nation,” ponders whether we should regulate retreats and rituals. While Horowitz acknowledges that Ray-inspired regulations “could be valuable,” he ultimately opposes government intervention.

The public should be alert to such situations—but not at the expense of the free exercise of spiritual experiment that has long characterized our religious culture. When considering crackdowns on ersatz sweat lodges or extreme rites, Americans ought to take guidance from what Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson wrote in 1944: “The price of freedom of religion . . . is that we must put up with, and even pay for, a good deal of rubbish.”

Horowitz endorses better education, something the new not-for-profit organization, SEEK, (Self-help Empowerment through Education and Knowledge), endeavors to do. Meanwhile, the story of Ray’s deadly sweat lodge ritual doesn’t seem to be going away, the Guardian just did a lengthy write-up about Ray, anti-Ray activists (and cult observers) are not letting him slip out of the spotlight, and you can bet there will be appeals once he’s been sentenced.

Winnemem Wintu Postpone Coming of Age Ceremony: Back in April I mentioned that the Winnemem Wintu Tribe in Northern California was coordinating a petition drive to close a small section of the McCloud River so they can hold their coming-of-age ceremony in peace. In previous years a “voluntary closure” was ignored by local power-boaters who shouted racist and threatening epithets at the Tribe. Now, the Winnemem Wintu have decided to postpone this year’s coming of age ceremony because the US Forest Service refuses to enforce a mandatory closure.

“For more than five years, we’ve asked the Forest Service to enforce a mandatory river closure for the ceremony’s four days in order to give us the peace and privacy we need for a good ceremony. They have continually refused to honor this request, even though it is within their power to close the river. Because Marisa is the young woman training to be the next leader, our Chief decided the risk was too great and the indignity of holding a ceremony without complete privacy could no longer be tolerated.”

The Winnemem are planning to try again for a mandatory closure next year, and are considering filing a complaint with the United Nation’s Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. You can keep up with this story by following the tribe’s Facebook page, and their blog dedicated to this issue.

Harry Potter and Witchcraft: Over the years I’ve looked at conservative Christian responses to the ever-popular Harry Potter books and movies. How they “glamorize the power of evil,” inspiring opposition that bordered on parody. Even the Bush administration worried over the demonic powers of Harry. But it looks like the great battles over Harry Potter seducing children into the practice of Witchcraft have finally burnt out, with former critics starting to admit they might have overreacted a bit.

“William Brown, president of Cedarville University, an evangelical college east of Dayton in Greene County, agreed that Christians’ opinions of Harry Potter have changed. “The world did not come apart and children did not immediately become witches and warlocks because of Harry Potter,” he said.”

That’s a big admission from an evangelical heavyweight. It really shows how the oxygen has gone out of this issue (author JK Rowling essentially admitting it’s a Christian allegory probably helped). Not that there won’t continue to be those who find it evil, but the Harry Potter culture war may finally be ending.

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

With the recent legalizing of same-sex marriages in the state of New York there also came a lot of talk about religious exemptions. These additions to the bill’s language were seen as critical to passage, and they exempt clergy and all religious institutions from having to accommodate same-sex couples looking to get married. During this process of negotiation some wanted even greater exemptions, which would include private businesses owned by individuals who had a religious objection to same-sex marriage. Thankfully, those expanded exemptions did not make it into the final language, and the legal status quo remained in place.

Jennifer Pizer, a law professor at the University of California, Los Angeles and an expert on sexual orientation and discrimination, says that’s par for the course in America: You can’t let religious beliefs affect commercial decisions. “People are free to hold these views – they’re not just free to hold those views, they’re protected.” But, she said, “the current legal system does not permit people engaged in business to discriminate based on the proprietors’ own religious views.” Pizer said the New York debate over exemptions hearkens back to a time when religious views were used to justify racial segregation and opposition to equal-pay-for-equal-work legislation.

Expanding religious exemptions to private businesses isn’t simply about same-sex unions. Once you open that Pandora’s box, it would quickly create areas in the United States where certain groups are “relegated to a special untouchable status,” leading to the ostracism of a variety of communities and increasing “balkanization.” If you want to see what that would look like, you only have to watch this video from Anastasia, Priestess of The Temple of the Greek Gods, a Neo-Hellenic group currently based in North Carolina.

In short, Anastasia, along with Christopher, Priest of the Temple of the Greek Gods, were getting married on the weekend of July 4th. Anastasia’s regular hair stylist was closed, and so she searched for a someone else to do her hair and makeup for the ceremony, going through a string of recommendations until she found one willing to do the job. However, that stylist discovered that they were Pagan, cancelled, and then were called again by the salon proprietor’s husband to tell them that Jesus loves them. In addition, the stylist that gave the recommendation, when told of this incident after the fact, said that she “stands with Christ too” and encouraged Christopher to leave the establishment. They also lost their booked DJ, who “dropped off the face of the earth,” seemingly after learning what religion they adhered to.

Now, if any of these incidents can be proven, they are against federal law. Specifically the Civil Rights Act. Which bans “discrimination in hotels, motels, restaurants, theaters, and all other public accommodations engaged in interstate commerce” on the basis of “race, color, religion, sex or national origin.” The only “outs” the salon in question might have is if they were operating the business illegally under-the-table (which means they’ll have a whole different set of problems) or if they were running a private salon “club” where one had to pay a membership due to participate. At least, that’s my understanding of the law. My legal expert readers can clarify/correct me if I’ve missed anything. There may also be local state laws that reinforce federal law on this subject, though I can’t find anything the specifically addresses religious discrimination by businesses.

I would advise (with the understanding that I’m not a lawyer) documenting everything that happened, save all voice mail messages, and create a timeline that you can refer to. If there are any witnesses, get them to do the same. I would then contact a Pagan civil rights organization like the Lady Liberty League, a secular organization like the ACLU of North Carolina, or a lawyer who handles civil rights cases.

The current push in several states to create conscience exemptions for individuals running private businesses, usually in a reaction to same-sex marriage, can have far-reaching consequences for any group that might run afoul of religious sensibilities. The minute we enshrine religious exemptions for businesses in defiance of civil rights laws is the minute we create whole communities where Pagan money isn’t welcome, and by extension, Pagans aren’t welcome. In the case of Anastasia and Christopher the result was inconvenience and emotional harm, but if allowed to stand it could lead to tacitly enforced “no-go” areas for non-Christians.

My thanks to C.L. Vermeers for bringing this to my attention.

On Tuesday PNC-Minnesota reported that Sacred Paths Center, a Pagan community center serving the Minneapolis/St. Paul area (aka “Paganistan”), had unveiled a new national public ancestor shrine and sacred spirit altar. Open for just over two years, Sacred Paths has been seen as one possible model for creating Pagan-centered and dedicated space within a local community. Their journey was profiled by PNC reporter Cara Schultz  in a special video series produced earlier this year (part 1, part 2).

However, just days later, Sacred Paths Center posted an urgent message on their website saying they were out of capital, and that the center is in danger of closing down unless they can raise $7,500 immediately.

“Sacred Paths Center, the Spiritual/Pagan Center, open to all, first of its kind in the United States, is broke. “What, AGAIN?” Yes. “Now why?” Simple: lack of YOUR support. This message will reach thousands and thousands, but how many of you will care enough to do anything? A physical banner has been put in the ground here, proclaiming this area as sacred to us; SPC is that banner. “Pagan Community”, “Paganistan”…it seems they are just words. There are thousands of us here in the Twin Cities metro, and among us all, we can’t give $3000 a month to keep that banner standing open. What does that say—really say—about “Pagan Community”? Less than a dollar each, and yet… Less than a dollar each, and yet… There will be no plea running pages and pages; no dog and pony show; no Benefit Event. If you can’t step up, Sacred Paths Center closes. We need $7500 now, right now for a reasonable chance at a future.”

That statement, posted by memebers of the SPC Board, bluntly highlights that this crisis comes from a lack of local fiscal support. As a member-supported, non-profit community center, recurring donations are vital to their long-term health and viability.  Now, it looks like the “next chapter” of this community center’s story depends on the locals of Paganistan.

“We donated today when I saw it. It’s a valuable, necessary resource and the community needs to put forward the money so that we can keep it going.” - Shelly Tomtschik, Sacred Paths Center volunteer

Cultural anthropologist Murphy Pizza, a Pagan scholar who lives in Minneapolis, says that the Twin Cities boast “the second largest contemporary Pagan community in the US, “ and that there is a “unique Minnesotan Pagan culture.” I was able to speak with two local Pagans who are part of this unique culture to see what their views and reactions were on this development. For Nels Linde, an editor at PNC-Minnesota, the main question is if the Sacred Paths Center can broaden its support at this urgent crossroads moment.

“The Sacred Path Center has been funded by, and the center of activity for, a relatively small but active section of our community. Many wonderful events, services, and concerts, as well as the Ancestor Shrine have been hosted there. The Center appeared to be burdened with high overhead at this location from the start, and now may be also threatened by extended light rail construction and possible gentrification inflation after completion. It has rallied once already, but it remains to be seen if a much larger number of the thousands of area Pagans value it enough to support it on a monthly basis. Without grant funding, or a continual fundraising effort, consistent moderate donations seem the Center’s best hope.”

Elysia Gallo, an employee at Llewellyn Worldwide, the world’s oldest and largest independent publisher of metaphysical books, located in nearby Woodbury, Minnesota, wonders if they tried to do too much, too soon.

“It would really be a shame if Sacred Paths Center were to close down, because so many Pagans have held it up with pride as an example of what a strong and sustainable community we have here in the Twin Cities… but if people aren’t supporting it monetarily, then we’re all just kidding ourselves. We have metaphysical bookstores which also serve as community hubs and meeting spaces, but they’re not putting on concerts and things like that, they’re more constrained in their usages. I just wish Sacred Paths Center would finally figure out a sustainable model of growth, which would include them figuring out what the community values enough to pay for, and keeping their expenses trimmed to just sustain those things until they’re strong enough to deliver the whole enchilada. I think they tried to go for that far too soon.”

Both responses seem to boil down to what the local Pagan community in the Twin Cities is willing and able to support. The issue of money and funding for Pagan organizations, community centers, temples, and service-based initiatives within our interconnected communities is still largely unsettled. Jonathan Korman, Secretary of Solar Cross Temple, a non-profit religious organization based in California, thinks there are two roadblocks to creating a culture of fiscal support: That many modern Pagans are still “deeply anti-institutional, and regard the lack of institutions as a feature, not a bug” and that “Pagan institutions are below the critical mass where Pagans are able to see the benefit of the institutions and the need for their financial support.”

Can Sacred Paths Center, located within a large Pagan community, reach that critical mass? For now we are left with the question asked by the SPC Board in their appeal: “Does it end here? Or does SPC go forward with your help?” For those interested in giving some support to Sacred Paths Center, you can find donation information at their website. Or you can contact them via email.

ADDENDUM: PNC-Minnesota has posted an interview with Sacred Paths Center board member CJ Stone.

“The immediate needs to keep the doors temporarily open were covered. The Center needs 7500 dollars to continue to operate through this month. The Board has decided that 12,000 was what we needed by midnight of July 30^thor we will close the facility. If we can secure that 12k dollars, we can pay our bills to zero and have a positive balance to keep the center open and by able to steer the Center in a direction that will be financially viable.”

Read the whole thing for insight into what the center’s plans are, what they need, and why they got into trouble.

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.

• At the excellent Religion In American History blog Kelly Baker points to a a conversation about sacred space in America with Erika Doss, Anthea Butler, Jacob Kinnard, and Edward Linenthal in newest issue of Material Religion: The Journal of Objects, Art and Belief. According the Baker, the conversation includes mention of the special outdoor worship area for Pagan cadets at the Air Force Academy. The circle was officially dedicated in May of this year.
• Washington state Corrections officer Jayme Biendl was murdered by an inmate in January. Her killer was a Jekyll-and-Hyde figure who was “entrenched” in “religious activities”. A public disclosure request has resulted in a release of any records regarding Biendl, and the Associated Press leads its report on those papers with a complaint filed over a Wiccan cabinet in the communal chapel. It should be noted for the sake of clarity that the prisoner who killed her had never filed a grievance against the officer, and is, by his own admission, Christian.
• BBC Scotland has an audio-only interview up with Robin Hardy, writer/director of “The Wicker Tree”, the forthcoming companion film to the classic 1973 Pagan-themed horror film “The Wicker Man.” The film will be having its world premiere at this year’s Fantasia Festival. You can read all of my “Wicker Tree” coverage, here.
• Cara Schultz at PNC-Minnesota reviews the forthcoming “Tears of the Sun” by SM Stirling, the latest installment in the Emberverse series, which features several positive Pagan protagonists.
• A box of dead animal parts was found outside a Tampa, Florida prison,  Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Maj. Kenny Davis thinks that it’s “probably somebody putting a spell on somebody.” The Tampa Tribune helpfully seeks out the opinion of University of South Florida religion professor Mozella Mitchell, who notes that “no legitimate African derived religion in the Caribbean and Latin America” would do this, and that this is the “distorted practice of some group.”
• For a special July 4th post at CNN author Kenneth C. Davis explains why the United States isn’t a Christian nation. In the process of making his case he quotes my favorite treaty.
• At USC’s Trans/Missions Maura Jane Farrelly looks at the influence of pseudo-historian David Barton on presidential candidate Rep. Michele Bachmann and plugs the forthcoming book “The Anointed: Evangelical Truth in a Secular Age.”
• While Bachmann likes Barton, Barton may prefer Rick Perry. Quote Amy Sullivan: “Is that sexism at work? Possibly. Maybe even probably.”
• Religion Clause reports that the parliament of Georgia (the country, not the US state) yesterday passed an amendment that will allow minority religious groups to register as legal entities. Orthodox Christianity is the dominant religion in Georgia, and this may allow greater protections and rights for religious minorities.
• The novel “Gods Behaving Badly,” about a greatly diminished Greek pantheon sharing a flat in London, is being made into a movie, with an all-star (and somewhat bizarre) cast and a change of location to New York. Check out this lineup: Aphrodite played by Sharon Stone, Apollo played by Oliver Platt, Artemis played by Edie Falco, Demeter played by Phylicia Rashad, Dionysus played by Nelsan Ellis, Eros played by Gideon Glick, Hades played by John Turturro, Hermes played by Henry Zebrowski, Persephone played by Rosie Perez and Zeus is, get this, played by Christopher Walken. “Gods” was originally going to be a television series, but it looks like that never panned out.

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.

The post-rockist critical world of popular music has seen the rehabilitation of several previously out-of-favor genres. Disco, metal, goth, even (perhaps especially) teen-pop. Young musicians, looking for fresh sounds and new ideas are casting further and further afield from the (classic and indie) rock canon. The Los Angeles Times looks at the latest previously derided genre to get a shot a redemption, one that I thought my readers would appreciate, New Age music.

New Age music preached spirituality, environmentalism, self-evolution and the like, yet when musicians and the major record labels saw the successes that an auteur like [Steven] Halpern had with his cottage industry, big money soon followed. “New Age music was one of the very first completely amateur-driven genres,” said Mcgowan. “Yet it became commercialized around the same time as Ronald Reagan’s remaking of America in 1984, where something that started as a countercultural hippie movement was completely co-opted.” New Age became big business, leading to subsequent Halpern releases with oddly utilitarian titles like “Music for Your PC” and “Attracting Prosperity,” not to mention the international success of Enya, who has sold more than 75 million records worldwide.

And yet for all of this co-option and financial success, for this new generation of music makers and artists, New Age music strikes at this trend in the 21st century. For Portner, the music serves as an aural balm: “Being on tour and listening and playing loud music every night, I just want to listen to something that’s going to calm me down after.”

Which might be how this new wave of New Age helps a generation of listeners who don’t remember Reagan, the ’80s or when Whole Foods Market was just a funky grocery store and not a corporate conglomerate. “We are in such deep need of chilling out these days and popular culture for this generation doesn’t leave you with any room for meditation or space,” said Mcgowan. “Sitting and quietly listening to a New Age record is the opposite of checking your Facebook every two minutes. It’s as far from that kind of mentality as you can get.”

This revival isn’t just manufactured hype, blogs brag about scoring old New Age cassettes, labels are re-releasing out-of-print classics, and ultra-hip music emporiums like Boomkat feature a number of New Age-inspired albums. So for all of the Pagans out there who were buying New Age albums and cassettes during the genre’s original hay-day, it looks like your collections have ripened into hipness. Dazzle your 20-something hipster coreligionists when you whip out that original pressing of Clannad’s “Legend,” or knowingly talk of how you were into Enya “before she got big.” What should be interesting to see is if this renewed interest in New Age sounds translates into experimentation with the practices and concepts that were associated with the music.