On this, the tenth anniversary of the September 11th terror attacks on New York and Washington D.C., I feel I have little that I can personally add to what has already been said, and what will no doubt be said today. I’ve mentioned before that 9/11 acted as a catalyst in my life, that it drove me towards what is now The Wild Hunt, urging me to stop sitting on the sidelines of my faith community and become an active participant. Over the years I have collected Pagan responses to 9/11, from the political, to the magical, to the deeply personal. This year, rather than explore or opine on a personal level, I will simply share some of the thoughts, remembrances, and initiatives generated this year from within the modern Pagan community.

9/11 Memorial at Ground Zero in New York.

• At PNC-Minnesota Cara Schulz shares some deeply personal thoughts on 9/11, telling of how she lost a friend that day, and asks others to share their thoughts, prayers, and stories from that time. Schulz says that 9/11 “is seared into our DNA.  Most of us, after ten years, are able to look past the events of that day and live normal lives.  Others are still crippled by grief.”
• Circle Sanctuary has created a Facebook page called “Pagans Healing Remembering 9/11.” Its purpose: “Pagans of many paths sharing 9/11 healing & memorial rites, experiences, reflections, plus tributes to Pagans who were killed, wounded, impacted by the September 11, 2001 attacks, rescue, recovery on that date & in the time since. Also a place for Pagans to share visions of hope, strength, renewal, peace, & visions of working together with those of many paths for a better world.”
• In addition, Circle Sanctuary will be holding a “Healing From September 11th” ritual on September 20th at Circle Sanctuary Nature Preserve near Barneveld, Wisconsin. This ritual is free and open to the public.
• Outgoing COG First Officer Peter Dybing, who is also works as a firefighter and EMT, shares his perspective of 9/11. Dybing says he has “spent much time contemplating their sacrifice and am greatly concerned that the memory of their honorable actions is being distorted to support an American obsession with security that leans toward paranoia.”
• The Dogwood Local Council of the Covenant of the Goddess has launched a special page for “13 Magickal Days of Remembrances” for 9/11.
• At their Facebook page, ADF Archdruid Kirk Thomas shares a prayer for 9/11. “Our hearts sing out to the Sacred Dead, who dwell within Your great halls. Grant us, we pray, the wisdom to look deep within ourselves, to see the truth of our lives, that every day we spend in the Midworld may be a blessing unto ourselves, each other, and to the Earth our Mother. Let us not live in blindness, but open our eyes to Your mysteries, that we may revel in every dancing moment. And when our time comes, as it will, let us take that last journey with the knowledge that we have lived full, generous, and pious lives. So be it!”
• New York City Councilman Dan Halloran, one of two openly Pagan/Heathen elected officials in the United States, appears in the new documentary “9/11: Reflections Then and Now.” Halloran lost his cousin, Lt. Vincent Halloran, that day, and nearly lost his brother, Patrick. At a special screening of the film, Halloran said that “one of the most important things to remember is almost every New Yorker was touched by this tragedy, a 9/11 family in New York is not a unique thing.”
• Patheos Pagan Portal manager Star Foster shares her own thoughts and remembrances of that day, exploring theodicy within the context of modern Paganism. “Grappling with why our Gods allowed 9/11 to happen, allow any tragedy to happen, is key to our understanding of the event.”
• Also at Patheos, T. Thorn Coyle writes about reconciliation and 9/11. “We need to reconcile with one another. To do so requires a courage sometimes barely imaginable, and yet we see examples of it every day. We see it each time a firefighter runs toward a burning building. What will we do next time we are on fire?”

My thoughts and prayers are with you all. Please feel free to share your own remembrances, or links to other Pagan expressions on this day.

I have some updates on recent stories covered here at The Wild Hunt.

Phoenix Goddess Temple Arrests: Since my report on Thursday, this story has hit the national and international newswires. It is now revealed that charges include prostitution, pandering, and conspiracy. Most reports I’ve read seem pretty confident that this was nothing but a brothel with a veneer of spirituality painted on as a legal smokescreen. I’ve never seen so many scare quotes being used in a mainstream newswire report before.

Phoenix Goddess Temple members. Photo by Jamie Peachey.

“During a Wednesday search of the Phoenix temple and two church-related sites in nearby Sedona, police seized evidence showing that “male and female ‘practitioners’ working at the Temple were performing sexual acts in exchange for monetary ‘donations,’ all on the pretense of providing ‘neo tantric’ healing therapies,” Phoenix police said.”

We’ve also learned more about the raids on the affiliated Sedona Temple, and the undercover operations that were underway for six months. In addition, some of those arrested have spoken with journalists, insisting that they are not engaged in prostitution.

During an interview with CBS 5 News, three of the women talked while in handcuffs. ”I call myself a shaman. I believe in earth-based healing,” said Holly Alsop. After a six month investigation, Phoenix Police have 18 people behind bars accused of running a prostitution ring at the Phoenix Goddess Temple. When interviewed Friday, the women would not specifically say what the healing practices were, but when they were asked if any of them had sexual intercourse at the church, they had one very clear answer. ”No, no. Absolutely not,” said Amanda Twitty. ”Absolutely not. Everything we do is healing,” said Holly Alsop, and “No,” said Jamie Baker. ”We’re not a brothel, we’re a church,” said Baker.

Whatever our suspicions in this matter, it’s now up to a judge or jury to decide if the evidence gathered by undercover officers is indeed enough to convict them of operating a prostitution ring. Whatever the truth of the matter, this should be an interesting test of how far religious protections can extend. We’ll keep you posted on further developments.

More on Santa Muerte: It seems I wasn’t the only one to have a problem with Tim Stanley’s vicious editorial in the Telegraph, George Conger at Get Religion dissects the assertions made about the Santa Muerte folk religion and finds them wanting.

Photo: Time Magazine / EFE / ZUMAPRESS

“The Telegraph’s argument is: Some illegal aliens from Mexico are devotees of the Santa Muerte cult. Americans do not like illegal immigration from Mexico. Therefore, fears of Santa Muerte lie behind opposition to illegal Mexican immigration. Sorry.  This won’t do. The bottom line: Correlation does not imply causation. [...] to support the claim that American perceptions of Mexican migration to the U.S. are influenced by fears of this cult needs evidence.”

Another UK paper, the Guardian, came out with a much more sympathetic and thoughtful piece on Santa Muerte just yesterday, in what can only be seen as a counter-point to Stanley’s hysteria.

“To one side of the shrine was a candle shop. We decided to buy a candle to put on the shrine as most of the people in the queue were holding candles. I had read earlier that each colour of candle carried with it a meaning: red for love, white for luck and black for protection. We bought a white candle each and went back to the end of the line. The man before us in the queue wore a black singlet, exposing his enlarged biceps which were covered in tattoos; his wrists and neck were draped in gold chains. We observed him carefully when he arrived at the shrine. First he lit a black candle and placed it down in front of him beneath the altar. Then he got down on his knees and crossed himself. With his eyes closed, he began to utter a prayer under his breath. Finally, he stood up and lit a cigarette. He took one puff and left the rest on the ashtray as an offering.”

Also giving a far more balanced look into Santa Muerte is Texas newspaper The Monitor, who notes the rise of altars and spiritual aspects to the drug trade, but gain perspective from anthropologist Antonio Zavaleta. Zavaleta observes that this trend is less about an increase in believers and more about “a relocation of them.”

NAR’s Respect For Other Religions: New Apostolic Reformation guiding light C. Peter Wagner has been on something of a public relations blitz lately, ever since his movement has come under public scrutiny due to its ties with Texas Governor and presidential candidate Rick Perry. Most recently, Wagner was interviewed by Voice of America, where he insists that NAR has respect for other religions, and operates “within religious pluralism.”

C. Peter Wagner. Image courtesy of skywaymedia.

“We don’t believe in taking over a nation. But we believe in exerting as much influence in every one of the mountains to see the values of the Kingdom of God within a democratic society, within religious pluralism,”

Rachel Tabachnick at Talk To Action does a thorough debunking of Wagner’s claims that NAR isn’t seeking dominion, and values pluralism, and Right Wing Watch joins in as well. RWW points out that Wagner admits to his movement’s growing political influence in the VoA interview.

“I think they’re right that the influence is growing and the influence was very strong in The Response meeting. But what I see in the media is that critics of conservative candidates like Rick Perry are accusing him of doing something bad by his friendship with people in the NAR. I don’t know if Rick Perry would consider himself as a part of the NAR but he had some people on the platform and in the audience who were part of the NAR. But I don’t think there is anything worse about being part of the NAR then being part of the Southern Baptists or being part of the Catholic Church or being part of any other segment of Christianity.”

As I’ve pointed out again and again, my bottom line is how their growing influence will affect religious minorities in the United States. NAR leaders have, time and time again, expressed their hostility to Pagan and occult belief systems, and any politician who willingly associates with them should be questioned regarding how much of their agenda they support.

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

Last year I warned that intensifying polarization over the issue of illegal immigration was leading to the demonization of Santeria and related syncretic faiths practiced by immigrants. Since then things have only gotten worse, especially in Arizona where a series of draconian laws, including one tailored to eliminate public school classes that are seen as too Mexican-focused, have deepened divisions. It didn’t have to be this way, many prominent conservatives, including George W. Bush, Orrin Hatch, Charles Hagel, Richard Lugar, and John McCain once supported compromise legislation like the DREAM Act, and  large swathes of Americans (including conservatives) support establishing a path to citizenship. I note this because I don’t think finding solutions to immigration issues has to be partisan, and that politicians who employ “kick ‘em all out” rhetoric are unwittingly feeding something ugly that they may not be able to control. I say this as preface to a startlingly ugly editorial in the Telegraph by conservative historian Tim Stanley, who frames illegal immigration not simply in terms of economics or crime, but as a religious war with a “Mexican death cult.”

Santa Muerte

“…the debate about illegal immigration isn’t just about competition over jobs or lingering white racism. Many Americans share the European fear that mass migration is subverting their democratic culture from within. In the same way that exotic cells of Jihadists have established themselves in London and Paris, criminal gangs motivated by bloodlust and kinky spiritualism have been found living in the suburbs of Boston and Atlanta. One of its many manifestations is the cult of Santa Meurte. [...] Tens of thousands of Mexicans living in America venerate Santa Muerte and have no association with crime. Nor is the cult purely ethnic: in North California, the Santisima Muerte Chapel of Perpetual Pilgrimage is tended by a woman of Dutch-American descent. But the prevalence of Santa Muerte imagery among drug traffickers injects an interesting cultural dimension to the debate over illegal immigration. It accentuates American fears that the drug war in Mexico is turning into an invasion of the USA by antidemocratic fanatics.”

While Stanley does include the disclaimer that many Mexicans who venerate Santa Muerte aren’t criminals, that is more than counter-balanced by connecting Santa Muerte to Muslim extremism over and over again.

“The goal of these groups is to undermine democracy and govern autonomous secret societies through family, blood and religion. [...] in Mexico, family and religion filled the vacuum left by the failure of socialism.”

I would recommend not reading the comments section of this editorial as it makes the most heated debates here at The Wild Hunt look like happy playtime, but there was one comment I thought was worth mentioning from R. Andrew Chestnut, author of the forthcoming book “Devoted to Death: Santa Muerte, the Skeleton Saint” from Oxford University Press.

“The more “vicious threat” we face than Santa Muerte worshipers is our own insatiable demand for the methamphetamines, marihuana, and heroin supplied by the narco cartels. Moreover, Santa Muete (Saint Death) is a more complex folk saint than the demonic Grim Reapress of your piece. She aslo has many devotees among Mexican law enforcement.”

Indeed, if there’s a spiritual war being waged, it’s internal, not external.

“In secret meetings that draw on elements of Haitian Voodoo, Cuban Santeria and Mexican witchcraft, priests are slaughtering chickens on full moon nights on beaches, smearing police with the blood and using prayers to evoke spirits to guard them as drug cartels battle over smuggling routes into California. Other police in the city of Tijuana, across the border from San Diego, tattoo their bodies with Voodoo symbols, believing they can repel bullets.”

The worship of Santa Muerte is a complex thing, not easily used as proof of some sort of larger constructed “Mexican death cultists vs. United States Christian values” meme, and certainly not limited to being a “narco-saint”.

The authorities have condemned Santa Muerte as a “narco-saint,” worshipped by drug traffickers, cartel assassins and dope slingers. But the worship is more a reflection of contemporary Mexico, says the anthropologist J. Katia Perdigón Castañeda, the author of “La Santa Muerte: Protector of Mankind.” The cult is an urban pop amalgam, New Age meets heavy metal meets Virgin of Guadalupe. It is no accident that it is also cross-cultural — that the centers of worship are the poor, proud heart of Mexico City and the violent frontier lands of Laredo, Juarez and Tijuana. The cult borrows equally from Hollywood and the Aztec underworld. Altars, necklaces and tattoos honoring Santa Muerte also make appearances in Mexican American neighborhoods from Los Angeles to Boston. ”The believers may be drug dealers, doctors, carpenters, housewives. The cult accepts all. No matter the social status or age or sexual preference. Even transsexuals. Even criminals. That’s very important, that the cult of Santa Muerte accepts everyone,” Perdigón told me, “because death takes one and all.”

Editorials like Stanley’s do nothing more than feed fear and hysteria, creating further roadblocks to addressing illegal immigration in a constructive ways by framing the problem as war for the religious soul of America itself. Reinforcing that immigrants, illegal or otherwise, aren’t simply “taking our jobs” they are something truly “other,” and not to be trusted. This leads to anti-immigration sentiment manifesting in ways that targets the very beliefs (or at least assumed beliefs) of immigrant groups (illegal or not). This leads to profiling, and ultimately, hate crimes. By saying that some illegal immigrants might be secret death-cultists who are just as bad as Muslim extremists, you tar all immigrants with suspicion and fear. A point that’s acknowledged by Stanley in his editorial.

“Sadly, Mexicans seeking work get caught in this existential drama and are either swallowed up into the gangs or demonised in the US for crimes they have not committed. Nevertheless, Americans of every ethnicity are legitimately concerned about their country being poisoned by a criminal subculture that blends political corruption with ritualised murder. Europeans should not be so quick to judge their transatlantic friends. Americans face a vicious threat of their own.”

Nevertheless, nevertheless, nevertheless. Repeat it like a mantra until the guilt of harming the innocent along with the guilty fades from the waking mind. Don’t think about the followers of Santa Muerte or other “cults” practiced by immigrants that will now be seen as suspicious simply because they believe as they do. Even if they have a visa, or are second, third, or forth generation United States citizens. Even if they pay the same taxes and have the same worries, we now must worry if they are secretly in league with “antidemocratic fanatics.” This kind of editorial is dangerous tinder for fires that aren’t easily put out, once lit. Fear-mongering of this sort does nothing to solve the problems posed by illegal immigration, or of drug trafficking, all it does is create something new to worry about.

The Phoenix Goddess Temple in Arizona, a neo-tantric religious organization that defines itself as “a sacred place to know the secret inner wisdom of the Cosmic Mother,” was raided by police on Wednesday. Eleven women and five men were taken in for questioning, and made to do a “perp walk” for the cameras, but police would not say, exactly, what the raid was looking for.

“CBS 5 News has also learned this was part of a long term investigation that spanned from the Valley to Sedona. Police served three additional search warrants in the Sedona area and detained several more people for questioning at those locations. [...] [Sgt. Steve] Martos would not confirm the nature of the investigation, saying investigators would be working well into the night and more details would be available tomorrow.”

It was revealed that police also raided Sedona Goddess Temple, an affiliate of the Phoenix Goddess Temple. It’s plainly obvious that this is a raid looking for proof of prostitution, though previous sting operations have turned up empty-handed. Why else do a highly publicized raid and perp-walk? So far, there are no reports of actual charges being made, and Phoenix Goddess Temple has released no statement regarding these events. If Phoenix Goddess Temple was simply a house of prostitution with a veneer of religion painted over it, wouldn’t they have been closed down by now? Earlier this year the Phoenix New Times called the temple’s activities “New Age prostitution,” though the men and women at the temple insist that they are engaged in a higher calling.

But despite the obvious eyebrow-raisers at the temple, [Temple founder Tracy] Elise says she’s doing nothing wrong. “The temple is really a church for us,” she says. “We open ourselves with love as an empty channel, and that’s the authority by which I heal. I don’t get my credentials on the ground level. I get my calling and I am under the jurisdiction of the most high.”

Even if no charges are brought from this current investigation, the writing is on the wall. It’s obvious the police are looking for any excuse to shut these temples down. The question now is, should they be able to? Even if some sessions end in “happy endings” aren’t their activities protected by law so long as they don’t directly charge money for sex? If they took this matter to court, would they be able win broader protections since they are religiously sincere in their activities? How should the broader Pagan community engage with sacred sexuality practitioners?

The New Alexandrian Library, overseen by the Assembly of the Sacred Wheel, is a project that hopes to create “a library worthy of its namesake” focused on esoteric knowledge, mystical and the spiritual writings from many traditions, and the “history of our magickal communities.” Based in Delaware, the NAL broke ground earlier this year on the domed buildings that will house their growing collection. Last week, the library was gifted with four paintings created by the legendary 20th century British occultist Dion Fortune, author of such works as “Psychic Self-Defense”, “Mystical Qabalah”, and “The Sea Priestess”.

Dolores Ashcroft Nowicki with donated Dion Fortune paintings.

“This previous weekend Dolores Ashcroft Nowicki gifted the NAL with paintings of the four Archangels painted by Dion Fortune that were used in Dion’s first ritual room and in Dolores’ first ritual room. We are very grateful.”

The paintings were donated by Dolores Ashcroft Nowicki, director of Servants Of the Light, a Hermetic order descended from Fortune’s Society of the Inner Light, and herself a widely regarded author and occultist. Caroline Kenner, a supporter of the New Alexandrian Library, said she was “deeply inspired” by the artworks, and that they will be “appreciated in perpetuity by people who understand their power.” The gift was made at a recent fundraiser on behalf of the library that featured Ashcroft-Nowicki as a speaker.

This is a high-profile gift for a library project that is still in its early stages, one that no doubt reflects well on its governing board. For ongoing updates on the New Alexandrian Library check out their Facebook page.

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.

• Duke Divinity School professor Mark Chaves, author of  “American Religion: Contemporary Trends,” explores why a growing number of Americans are willing to say they don’t belong to a religious tradition. I recently mentioned Chaves in an earlier post about the decline of religon, and what that might mean for modern Pagan religions.
• British shaman/Vodou initiate Peter Aziz has been jailed for 15 months for distributing brews of ayahuasca at a retreat in 2007. Aziz’s lawyer said at the sentencing that “It has caused him a considerable amount of worry as far as his personal beliefs are concerned. He has learned what can be learned from this and will not be before the court again.” Ayahuasca contains DMT, which is an illegal controlled substance in Britain. In the United States it is legal to import and use ayahuasca so long as you are a member of one of the groups, like O Centro Espirita Beneficiente Uniao do Vegetal, who has established that the drink is an essential and central part of their religious practice.
• A memorial benefit celebration for influential author and art historian Merlin Stone, who died earlier this year, is being held on September 24th in Clearwater, Florida (Facebook event link). Stone was author of the seminal book “When God Was A Woman,” and a successful Kickstarter campaign was recently held  to produce a memorial documentary project in her honor.
• Tombo Studio, a boutique run by Feri Tradition and sacred dance instructor Anaar, has unveiled a new website design for its current line of handcrafted costume clothing, modeled by some well-known West Coast Pagan luminaries (Morpheus Ravenna, Sharon Knight, and T.Thorn Coyle) and photographed by Paul Nordin.
• It’s Pagan Pride time again! That means many local Pagan groups are getting their one dose of media attention for the year (maybe two, depending on how media outlets cover Halloween). So far we have reports from Ontario, Pennsylvania, Wyoming, Texas, Connecticut, and many more to come.
• If you’re in the Pacific Northwest this month, you should check out Faerieworlds Harvest on September 16th-18th in Eugene, Oregon. All the fun of Faerieworlds, but with milder weather!  Pagan favorites SJ Tucker, Faun, Woodland, and Stellamara are all slated to perform. Also of note is the Esoteric Book Conference this weekend in Seattle, Washington. I’m planning to attend both, so expect to hear more on these events in the near future!
• Religion Dispatches is featuring an article on Burning Man from Jay Michaelson entitled “Burning Man in the Age of Rick Perry.” In it Michaelson says that “a dogmatic religionist cannot abide the inspiration of another. Unless it is within the same religious system, it is damned, or confused, or pagan, or worse. Thus the dogmatist is only left with data which confirm her existing categories of thought. All contradictory data is removed from consideration. Whereas, any religious/spiritual progressive must be inspired precisely by the plurality of revelatory experiences.”
• Also at Religion Dispatches is a review of Kevin M. Schultz’s book “Tri-Faith America: How Catholics and Jews Held Postwar America to Its Protestant Promise.” Reviewer Edward J. Blum says that the book “helped explain how and why at seventeen I used the language of “Judeo-Christianity” for conservative evangelical ends, while remaining intellectually and morally open to civil rights and liberal crusades.” For more on this topic, check out The Wild Hunt’s interview with Kevin M. Schultz.
• The latest volume of the Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature, and Culture is now out, and it features some articles that should be of interest to my readers. These include “Sacred Nature: Earth-based Spirituality as Popular Religion in the Pacific Northwest” by Mark A. Shibley and “Cinema of the Not-Yet: The Utopian Promise of Film as Heterotopia” by Adrian Ivakhiv. There’s also a review of Bron Taylor’s “Dark Green Religion: Nature Spirituality and the Planetary Future”.
• This just in, gluing mirrors to campaign signs isn’t a calling-card for Santeria.
• Theology matters on the campaign trail now more than ever.
• The debate over banning black magic in India.

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.

In October, The Pagan Federation, an international organization that was founded in 1971 to provide information on Paganism and counter misconceptions, celebrates its 40th anniversary. What was originally started in Britain now has branches throughout the world, including Mexico, Russia, and the United States. While the Pagan Federation (PF) is a vibrant force in Europe and the UK, many Pagans in America might not know of their work or understand the importance of this organization, so I’ve turned to Council member Vivianne Crowley to help us understand the PF’s accomplishments and future challenges. Vivianne Crowley is author of “Wicca: A Comprehensive Guide to the Old Religion in the Modern World,” and a Jungian psychologist. She recently joined the faculty of Cherry Hill Seminary.

Vivianne Crowley

Why was The Pagan Federation necessary? How did it first come together?

Forty years ago there was little understanding of Paganism and many people thought ‘Pagan’ meant ‘Satanist’. The Pagan Federation was established to provide accurate information about Pagans and their practices and to ensure that Pagans were not discriminated against. The Pagan Federation also acted as a contact point for Pagans to find others. In pre-internet days, finding others of like mind wasn’t easy and we can easily forget how hard it was for people and how isolated many people felt from people of like mind.

At 40, what do you think The Pagan Federation’s greatest accomplishment has been? How successful has the PF been in fulfilling its mission to “support all Pagans to ensure they have the same rights as the followers of other beliefs and religions?”

There have been many successes in establishing Pagan ministry in healthcare settings, in prisons and other state institutions, but there is still a long way to go. The Pagan Federation is an international body, so the situation varies across the world. In some countries, the Pagan revival is only just beginning. Despite 40 years of the Pagan Federation, we still have problems with the tabloid press, though not quite as extreme as in previous decades. But nowadays, it’s not always Wiccans and Witches that are targeted. One of our UK tabloids seems to loathe Druids, which is strange in a UK context. Most British people love their Druids.

You joined the Pagan Federation as Secretary in 1988 (Ronald Hutton calls it a “refounding”). Could you talk a bit about the work you’ve done with the organization? What’s your current involvement?

I sit on the Council of the Pagan Federation, which is the body gives guidance and advise to the elected Committee. I’m involved mainly in talking about the work of the Pagan Federation to government bodies, universities and the media. I also represent the Pagan Federation at interfaith events. Unofficially, currently I’m also the President’s part-time PA and fielder of his media calls. My husband Chris is in the second year of his three year term as President.

In October the Pagan Federation is holding a celebration for its 40th anniversary, marking “the achievements of the past and seeking vision, energy and new inspiration for the challenges to come.” What challenges in the future do you feel are the most pressing?

One of the main challenges is what I call ‘mainstreaming’ Paganism – embedding Pagan thinking in the everyday life of wider society. Many of today’s ideas about sexual equality, freedom of lifestyle choices and environmentalism were once seen as Pagan and radical, but they can rapidly become the norm of generations. I see Pagans as people at the leading edge of where social and cultural thinking are going. Our challenge and task is to contribute to shaping the future of our societies so that humankind can survive and adapt to the planetary challenges ahead.

As a Pagan academic and psychologist, what do you feel are the most significant changes and advances made within the realm of modern Paganism in the past 40 years? How does The Pagan Federation fit within that?

The Pagan Federation’s role is to create an international community of like minded people who can support and encourage one another in the development of a Paganism that is vibrant and meaningful to our generations and those that are to come. While our roots are in ancient tradition, we are creating a spirituality for the future that can sustain people when the monotheisms wither and fall away, as inevitably they will. As a psychologist, I remind academic colleagues from other disciplines that monotheism is just a short blip in the history of human religious practice and one that we are now outgrowing. The challenge ahead is to create a meaningfully spirituality that helps create a sense of common purpose across diverse societies and ethnicities, and between nations.

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I’d like to thank Vivianne Crowley for taking time out of her busy schedule to do this interview. For more information on The Pagan Federation’s 40th anniversary celebration, a two-day event in London that will feature speakers like Ronald Hutton, Emma Restall-Orr, Graham Harvey, Philip Carr-Gomm, and Caitlin Matthews, check out the Pagan Federation website.