It’s a rare and wonderful think to have a major Pagan-friendly event happening in your figurative backyard. Living in Eugene, Oregon (home of the Slug Queen) I’m lucky enough to attend the yearly Faerieworlds festival during the Summer and witness amazing Pagan (and Pagan-friendly) bands like Faun, S.J. Tucker, Woodland, and Stellamara play in a friendly, colorful, and creative atmosphere. This year, in addition to the now-traditional Summer festival, they are holding a Harvest event taking place over this weekend. What’s interesting is that while Faerieworlds is not explicitly Pagan, and draws individuals from all sorts of backgrounds who appreciate a weekend of fantasy, music, art, and skilled artisans, the openness and embrace of Pagan culture can’t be missed by anyone whose eyes are open to it. Take, for example, the community altar built in front of the main stage at every Faerieworlds.

Faerieworlds communal altar.

Throughout the day people will add offerings to it, while others will offer prayers to their respective gods and goddesses, and it is an integral part of the experience at Faerieworlds. In addition, as I pointed out at the beginning of this post, a variety of Pagan bands and musicians play here, and last night I got to witness the birth of a new one. Treguenda, a group made up from members of Woodland and cellist/composer Adam Hurst, who performed live for the first time last night.

Treguenda

With a sound very close to that of Woodland’s (for obvious reasons) but enhanced with Hurst’s cello and added electronic elements, Treguenda performed a raft of songs about Pagan festivals, the gods, and a special composition dedicated to Aradia. The audience, Pagan and non-Pagan alike, swooped, danced, cavorted, and enjoyed themselves as the night grew darker (some, no doubt, anticipating that evening’s closing act Delhi 2 Dublin). I’m very much looking forward to hearing recorded material from them.

Events like Faerieworlds tap into a deep cultural hunger for romanticism, for a re-enchantment of the world that has long been denied by both secular and religious institutions in the West. I don’t think the recent fantasy boom is happening in a vacuum, nor do I think it is any coincidence that a growing number of people are opting out of traditional forms of religion altogether while still holding onto religious beliefs. While Faerieworlds, or Burning Man for that matter, aren’t explicitly “Pagan” they tap into a primal need for festival, for gathering to honor the numinous, the changing seasons, each other, and our own creativity. I think that these events, especially as we weather hard times, will continue to grow in importance. There is a vital roots-up form of small-p “paganism” emerging here that is very compatible with our more formal adoption of Pagan religion.

Tonight, I’m looking forward to seeing Stellamara and Faun perform this evening on the main stage. I was lucky enough to interview Oliver Pade of Faun yesterday, to talk about their work, performing in the United States, Paganism in Europe, the intersections of Goth and Pagan music, and future plans. You’ll be able to hear that interview in tomorrow’s A Darker Shade of Pagan podcast, so stay tuned, and if you’re in the Pacific Northwest, it’s still not too late to participate!

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.

• Michael York, author of “Pagan Theology: Paganism as a World Religion”, writes a response to Christian apologist Peter Kreeft. Kreeft’s article “Comparing Christianity & The New Paganism” says that “new paganism is a joining of forces by three of the enemies of theism: humanism, polytheism and pantheism,” to which York counters that “Kreeft betrays the essential dichotomizing bi-polarity of the theistic construct.” I recommend reading the entire, highly enjoyable, response.
• SF Weekly blog Exhibitionist looks at recent incidents of animal sacrifice in the Bernel Heights area and explains why they probably weren’t committed by Satanists or adherents to Santeria. The article by Beth Winegarner interviews Mary Ehm, owner of La Sirena Botanica, and yours truly. My two cents: “A good deal of the fear, misinformation, and rushed conclusions in these matters is partially due to anxiety over cultures and traditions we don’t understand, and partially due to the actions of various ‘occult experts,’ who have been sensationalizing and over-stating the problem of ritual animal sacrifice to law enforcement and animal welfare officers.”
• A former Liberty University student reflects on Jerry Falwell’s infamous “the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians” 9/11-blaming comment. While Austin Carty is still an evangelical Christian, he says that he now sees “through this miasma of misunderstanding to see such a mentality for the insidious lie that it is.” My final word on Falwell came at his passing in 2007, where I pointed out that his “intolerant buffoonery was the perfect caricature of anyone opposing the free exercise of our faiths.”
• Tanja Diamond, author of “Beyond Sex: Tantra- A Practical Guide to Extraordinary Living,” blasts the Phoenix Goddess Temple for giving tantric sex practices a bad name. Meanwhile, in the comments of my initial report on the arrests, clients, and visitors, have been speaking up with their thoughts. In addition, some local Pagans have been giving their perspective in my follow-up post.
• In a clip provided by Right Wing Watch, Cindy Jacobs, a leader within the New Apostolic Reformation, lays out the theological importance of Rick Perry’s ‘The Response’ event: What did the indigenous people worship? [...] in Texas here and all of the coast around Houston and Galveston and some of that area, the Native American people were cannibals [...] We just had a prayer meeting in Houston a little a week ago, the governor of Texas, really as an individual instigated this, and 35,000 people showed up to pray and it was only a prayer meeting called within three months, three month period of time. So what happened? The land is starting to rejoice, you see, because of that prayer.” Jacobs, you may remember, gloried in the destruction of Haiti for breaking the “strongman of the occult”, and blamed Shinto for the destruction and horror that the citizens of Japan faced in the aftermath of the recent earthquake/tsunami. She’s now involved in the DC40 campaign.
• British actor, mixed-martial-artist, and reality show contestant Alex Reid has allegedly been knighted by King Arthur (no, not that King Arthur, this King Arthur). Reid traveled to Stonehenge earlier this year to  “find peace and draw energy from the earth,” after a public breakup with wife Katie Price.
• At Patheos, P. Sufenas Virius Lupus sings the praises of smaller, more specialized, deities, specifically Sterculinus, the god of manure-based fertilizer.
• Last month I reported on the decline of religion in the West, and how “least-religious” Estonia seemed to have plenty of religion, just not the formal church-based Christian religion that many consider the default. This assertion is backed up by a new editorial by Ringo Ringvee, adviser at the religious affairs department at the Estonian ministry of the interior, who says the Paganism is thriving in Estonia. “A new phenomenon during the last 15 years has been the rising number of Estonians identifying themselves with a nature-spirituality that could be defined as the Estonian neo-paganism.” It should be noted that Ringvee also stresses that this isn’t a majority of Estonians, and that “during the ancient holy days the groves are not filled with people.” Still, this is a data point in the assertion that Paganism can and does grow in a post-Christian secular environment.
• According to an Asia Times editorial, Taiwan is still ruled by the occult (yay?).
• The bared breast of the Roman goddess Virtus will grace a proposed 23-foot-by-11-foot mural depicting the progress of Norfolk, Virginia.
• Our condolences go out to the family, friends, and fans of actor Andy Whitfield. Whitfield recently passed away after a long fight against non-Hodgkin lymphoma. He is perhaps best known for playing the Roman gladiator Spartacus in the Starz series “Spartacus: Blood and Sand.”

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 newswires have just lit up with the story of Jamyi J. Witch, a Wiccan chaplain at Oshkosh Correctional Institution, who is accused of sexually assaulting an inmate, illegally transporting drugs, and hatching a fake hostage scheme to procure a transfer for her and an inmate.

Jamyi Witch

“The charges stem from a police investigation of an Aug. 10 incident in which Witch, a chaplain at the prison, claimed to have been taken hostage by an inmate. [...]  The inmate told Witch about being jumped by three men while he was in his cell on Aug. 7 and said he needed to get out of Oshkosh. She told him she wanted to leave Oshkosh too because of threats from other staff and she had a plan to get them both out of the facility. Witch told the inmate the plan, which involved him coming into her office, blocking the door and acting like Witch was his mother. She also discussed giving him pills to make him sleepy and allow the guards to enter her office. The inmate said he left his cell on Aug. 10 without signing out and went to Witch’s office. He blocked the door with a board from a bookshelf and Witch’s wheelchair before requesting Witch have sex with him. She complied.”

The story has already been picked up by Gawker and the Daily Mail, who are having a field day. This is in addition to local coverage of the incident. This is not Witch’s first time in the spotlight, she was involved in the “Wisconsin Witch Hunt” scandal of 2001-2002, when now-governor Scott Walker tried very hard to get the chaplain fired from her position.

“Walker objected publicly on the basis of her religion to the chaplain’s hiring, saying: “Witch’s hiring raises both personal and political concerns. Not only does she practice a different religion than most of the inmates — she practices a religion that actually offends people of many other faiths, including Christians, Muslims and Jews.” Walker threatened to launch a government investigation of the chaplain’s hiring, and was joined by Representative Michael Huebsch of West Salem, in his efforts to terminate the woman’s employment. “Taxpayers shouldn’t be forced to accept this hocus-pocus,” Huebsch stated. Huebsch proposed to delete the state appropriation which funded Witch’s position, even though in the past he had repeatedly advocated increasing state funding for prison chaplains. Walker and Huebsch continued their pursuit of the case over the 2001-2002 Christmas holidays. After several weeks of unwanted publicity, the chaplain began to receive death threats and reported that on one day alone she had received 432 emails and 76 phone messages at her home.”

It should be noted that Jamyi Witch was well-qualified for the position, having a masters degree in theology from the University of Wisconsin in Madison. The question now is if the inmate’s testimony is accurate, and if it is, why Witch, who served for nearly a decade in this position, would suddenly act is such drastic fashion. One that could potentially set back the cause of Pagan and Wiccan chaplaincy in prisons. We will be following up on this story, and will be sharing reactions from Pagan leaders and chaplains soon.

ADDENDUM: A.C. Fisher Aldag has found an interesting news report from the August incident.

“Department of Corrections spokesman Tim Le Monds says it happened about 8:30 a.m. He says prison staff members were able to persuade the inmate to open the door and come out after an hour. He says staff members could see into the room the whole time and could have gotten into it in seconds if necessary.“

If that’s true, doesn’t that instantly invalidate many of the charges being made here? Especially the charge of them having sexual intercourse? Wouldn’t that be an event that would make staff member access the room “in seconds”? I think there’s a lot we aren’t being told in regards to this story.

[The following is a report from Cara Schulz at PNC-Minnesota on a message sent to Pagans from the organisers of "DC40," a spiritual warfare event put together by leaders from within the New Apostolic Reformation movement.]

The Reformation Prayer Network, led by Cindy Jacobs, and the Heartland Apostolic Prayer Network, headed by John Benefiel, have joined together to produce a nation-wide event called “DC40.″  The goal of DC40 is to effect “eternal change in our nation’s capitol so our elected officials can govern from a new position of uncompromising light and understanding as we change the spiritual atmosphere over Washington DC forever.” This effort is variously named DC40, Forty Days of Light Over D.C., and 51 Days of Reformation Intercession.

The change DC40 wants to make is electing leaders who fear the Christian God and “find that compromise is not the way” as it is impossible to “compromise with unrighteousness.” The “uncompromising light” refers to a statement released by Heartland Apostolic Prayer Network, which says God’s word should be the legal authority in the United States and Christians should acknowledge no other,  “no power to purpose or accept any compromise of the promises of God, and we declare illegal in the earth any action or any people, Nation or nations that undertake what is contradictory to the Word of God.”

Pagans are pushing back against what they see as malefic magic aimed at erasing the separation of church and state and DC40′s attack on the goddess Columbia. Bloggers Hecate and Literata, both of whom live in the Washington DC area, are calling for Pagans to make daily devotions to the Goddess Columbia and to pray to Her to help this country preserve its foundational commitment to religious liberty.  “I will be spending this time making a daily devotion to her, not against these conservative Christians, but in hopes that they and I might find ways to live peaceably together in a nation that values religious pluralism,” writes Literata.    Hail Columbia is organizing positive interfaith responses to DC40 to counter their agenda.

In their latest newsletter, DC40 sent out this response to the Pagan community:

We are well aware of the websites and blogs rallying to try and curse our effort and counter it. Always remember, You can’t curse what God has blessed! Read Psalm 2. Remember also that Jesus is the light of every man. We have read some of your accusations and false perceptions of us, and we say “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” We were once in darkness too, and we call you out of the darkness and into the light. We release the power of blood-covered light over you.

Here is our prayer for you:
“Father, through the faith of Your Son and through the power of His Blood, we come on behalf of those who would curse us. Because of their actions toward us, we have legal spiritual access and we take it!

We release perfect Blood-covered love into the core of your being!
May eternal light flood your hearts this day with the revelation of who you really are, and, more importantly, who God really is! We also pray that this revelation will dismantle and refute all arguments, theories, reasonings, and every proud and lofty thing that sets itself up against the true knowledge of God. Your ladder has been placed on the wrong wall. We call you to your right mind through the finished work of the cross.

You see, there is no DC40 Prayer War. It is finished, you just haven’t come to the truth of it yet. However, if you are reading this, it is too late – we release the arrow of blood-covered truth and convicting power of Holy Spirit into the core of your being, and release grace for you to SEE in Jesus’ Mighty Name!”

We don’t hate you, we love you – you were created by the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob for greatness. “

DC40 plans to have teams in the capital cities of all 50 states and Washington DC linking state capitals to the nation’s capital to help harness the intents and wills of thousands of Christians for this working. They have also released a new app called “Bell 333,” which refers to a Bible verse where God reveals “great and mighty things.” The mobile device app will play the sound of a ringing bell every hour during the event to help affect the spiritual atmosphere in our nation’s capitol.

“I think the idea of ringing the bells on the hour throughout the day is an effort to get people who are involved to pray more frequently and consistently. It is a magical technique to increase the power of their intent through repetitive reinforcement. Even if Christians say that they are petitioning their god to act, this kind of working is functionally equivalent to an effort to use magic on their god’s behalf.” – Hail Columbia blog post titled “DC40 Writes: “The point is our intent. Intent is a force.”

The 51 day events start in Hawaii on October 3rd and moves to each state in reverse order of its entry into the union and continues until November 22.  Christians in the state for the day are to “take point” in praying for the District of Christ, the repudiation of Columbia and other non-Christian deities and religions, and the election of Christian God-fearing candidates.  The rest of the country is to pray that the point state “Fullness of its destiny.”  The group will have Christians by act in concert using a 51Day Prayer Guide to be released on their website.  Minnesota is scheduled to be a point state on October 21st.  The Facebook event “Minnesotans for Liberty and Religious Freedom: Stop the Bigotry of DC40″ can be found here.

Columbia is considered by some Pagans to be the patron goddess or genius locii of the United States.  She is a guardian of freedom and a generous granter of plenty.  In early depictions of Columbia, she wears the cap of freedom and holds a cornucopia.   The eagle and the rattlesnake are sacred to Her.

[For more on the New Apostolic Reformation and DC40, check out The Wild Hunt's coverage. If you'd like to see what Cindy Jacob's message to adherents of indigenous religions might be, you can get a preview of that here.]

Pioneering gay activist and writer Arthur Evans died on Sunday, September 11th, from a massive heart-attack. In addition to being one of the first openly gay men to appear on national television, heavy involvement in the gay liberation movement, and early AIDS-related activism, Evans was also a pioneering figure in the development of gay Pagan spirituality, publishing “Witchcraft and the Gay Counterculture” in 1978 and “The God of Ecstasy: Sex-Roles and the Madness of Dionysos” in 1988. The latter featured his translation of Euripides’ play “The Bacchae” along with commentary on Dionysus as patron of homosexuality.

Arthur Evans picketing against anti-gay policies at the NYC Board of Education.

Diagnosed with aortic aneurysm in 2010, Evans knew he didn’t have long to live and penned his own obituary. Here are excerpts describing his spiritual/religious work.

“In the fall of the 1975, Evans formed a new pagan-inspired spiritual group in San Francisco, the Faery Circle. It combined countercultural consciousness, gay sensibility, and ceremonial playfulness. In 1976 he gave a series of public lectures at 32 Page St., an early San Francisco gay community center, entitled “Faeries”, on his research on the historical origins of the gay counterculture. In 1978 he published this material in his ground-breaking book Witchcraft and the Gay Counterculture. It demonstrated that many of the people accused of “witchcraft” and “heresy” in the Middle Ages and Renaissance were actually persecuted because of their sexuality and adherence to ancient pagan practices.

In 1984 Evans directed a production at the Valencia Rose Cabaret in San Francisco of his own new translation, from the ancient Greek, of Euripides’ play Bakkhai. The hero of Euripides’ play is the Greek god Dionysos, the patron of homosexuality. In 1988, this translation, together with Evans’ commentary on the historical significance of the play, was published by St. Martin’s Press in New York under the name of The God of Ecstasy.

In 1988, Evans began work on a nine-year project on philosophy. Thanks to a grant from the San Francisco Arts Commission, it was published in 1997 as Critique of Patriarchal Reason and included artwork by San Francisco artist Frank Pietronigro. The book is a monumental overview of Western philosophy from antiquity to the present. It shows how misogyny and homophobia have influenced the supposedly objective fields of formal logic, higher mathematics, and physical science. Evans’ former doctoral advisor at Columbia University, Paul Oskar Kristeller, called the work “a major contribution to the study of philosophy and its history.”

Evans work, especially “Witchcraft and the Gay Counterculture,” would end up being influential in the formation of the Radical Faeries.

“Arthur Evans was asserting the role of queer spirituality in his book Witchcraft and the Gay Counterculture, 1978. His book was a strong initiative in the Radical Faerie movement, influencing gay men to examine their relationship between gay spirituality and the old Pagan Nature religions. In his chapter entitled “Magic and Revolution,” Evans writes that it is the role of gay men to look forward to re-establishing our communication with nature and the Great Mother, to feeling the essential link between sex and the forces that hold the universe together…We look forward to regaining our ancient historical roles as medicine people, healers, prophets, shamans, and sorcerers. We look forward to an endless and fathomless process as coming out — as Gay people, as animals, as humans, as mysterious and powerful spirits that move through the life cycle of the cosmos. (154-5).”

Today, as we talk about gay/queer Paganism’s second wave, with groups like the Brotherhood of the Phoenix, Circle of Dionysos, and  Ekklesia Antinuou flourishing, it’s important to remember those who paved the way. Figures like Evans not only laid the groundwork for gay Pagan spirituality, they also anticipated the battles over gay marriage back in the 1970s. May he rest in the arms of his gods, and may his spirit be remembered.

Officers of Avalon, a non-profit benevolent association for Pagan and Wiccan law enforcement, firefighting and emergency medical personnel and their families, has elected Peter Dybing as its new president starting on October 1st. On hearing the news, Dybing commented that “for me this is a great oppertunity to build on and add to the successes of this trusted Pagan organization.” The outgoing president, Kimberley “Windwalker” Long-Ewing, wished Dybing and the rest of the incoming governing board the best, and thanked all Officers of Avalon members “for the opportunity to serve”. Past OoA Presidents, also called Preceptor Generals, have included individuals like Kerr Cuhulain, author of “Pagan Religions: A Handbook for Diversity Training”, and a longtime debunker of Satanic Panic “occult experts.”

Peter Dybing

While a long-time participant in the modern Pagan community, Dybing, a trained EMT and volunteer firefighter, first gained widespread public attention for his efforts on-the-ground in earthquake-ravaged Haiti, giving us a Pagan perspective of what was going on there. He would go on to volunteer in the Gulf during the Deepwater Horizon disaster, and in August of 2010 was elected First Officer of Covenant of The Goddess for 2011.

“I wanted to serve the Covenant, they do some really wonderful things in terms of interfaith work, public information work, and people doing work in prisons. There’s some great things [COG does] I want to support. I think it’s really important because we’ve made so many inroads over the years that those things continue to get our support.”

Dybing’s tenure as First Officer was marked by its expansive outreach to, and engagement with, the Pagan community. During that year he publicly commented on a variety of hot-button issues, and led an initiative that raised $30,000 dollars for Japan earthquake assistance.

“This project also represents an important moment in Pagan history. Working together across intrafaith boundaries this community has demonstrated the maturation that has occurred over the past few decades. We have established that we are an effective and unified religious community that can respond to world events, take action when necessary and work together in support of achievable goals. Gone is the quietly whispered sentiment that Pagans do not work together or that Pagans do not give to charity.”

It seems certain that Dybing will bring his style of hands-on engagement to Officers of Avalon, an organization of first responders who will no doubt appreciate his “act now” activist impulses. One can also hope this signals a new era of growth and engagement for this organization. My congratulations to Dybing, and to the other board members that were elected.

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.

• The Seattle Times reports on the passing of Brian Fairbrother, a well-known and liked barista, who was also a member of the local Pagan community. Fairbrother defined himself as an “urban Pagan,” and commissioned the “Sacred Shrine of Caffeina, Goddess of the Waking Day” near his espresso walk-up back in the 1990s. Fairbrother died as a result of head injuries from a bicycling accident. May he rest in the arms of his gods, and may his family and friends be comforted.
• Sarah M. Pike, author of “Earthly Bodies, Magical Selves” and “New Age and Neopagan Religions in America” , writes about the 2011 Burning Man for Religion Dispatches. According to Pike, “for those “Burners” who are true converts, it is a religious event on a massive scale.” Pike also cites the work of Lee Gilmore, author of “Theater in a Crowded Fire: Ritual and Spirituality at Burning Man”, who argued for the event being “pagan” at its roots.
• Pagan chaplain and activist Patrick McCollum will be speaking this evening at an interfaith event in California. The event will be held at St. Mary’s College and is entitled “Young People on the World Stage.”
• Soriah with Ashkelon Sain, a duo whose album “Atlan” made my A Darker Shade of Pagan top-ten for 2009, returns with a new release for 2011 entitled “Eztica.” Described as “a neo-tribal, mystically ethereal, paranormally enrapturing musical experience” this mix of throat singing (what Soriah calls “an offering to nature in her own tongue”), atmospherics, and ritual, is truly captivating. The CD will be available on October 11th from Projekt Records, you can purchase a digital download now via Amazon (and, I’m assuming, iTunes). The title track, ”Eztica,” can be downloaded for free.
• R.F. Foster, author of “Words Alone: Yeats and His Inheritances”, discusses W.B. Yeats, faeries, and the Irish occult tradition for the Oxford University Press blog.
• Speaking of music that appeals to modern Pagans, Kate Bush is putting out a new album this year, her first since the 2005 double album Aerial. It’s entitled “50 Words For Snow” and will be released on 11/21 via Bush’s own label, Fish People.
• The Dogwood Local Council of the Covenant of the Goddess recently participated in a  24 hour prayer vigil to celebrate unity in prayer.  The event encouraged people of all faiths to experience how others worship,  with displays from many different religions and sects. A picture of the prayer alcove they erected for the event is now on Dogwood’s site splash screen, and Michael Cheiron gives his account of the event. In related Dogwood news, Local Coucil Second Officer, Lady Arsinoe recently conducted a small-scale demographic study of modern Pagans.
• Congratulations to Rebecca Elson at The Magical Buffet on hitting their five-year anniversary. In a press release, Elson said that “The Magical Buffet is proof that if you’re considerate, hard working, and have a good sense of humor you can accomplish amazing things.  I’m really proud of The Magical Buffet and I’m endlessly grateful that so many people read and support it.  The site is really about me and my readers, we’re definitely partners.”
• Transcendental Meditation (TM) is back on the rise. “The rolls of practitioners have tripled in the past three years, according to the Transcendental Meditation Program, the practice’s national organization.”
• A warm welcome to Teo Bishop, whose “Bishop In the Grove” blog has joined the Patheos family.

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.