• While we still await to see what the sentence will be for New Age prosperity guru James Arthur Ray, convicted in June of negligent homicide in the deaths of three participants in a 2009 sweat lodge ceremony he led at a retreat in Sedona, we have learned that he promises to never lead a sweat again, at least according to a probation officer’s presentencing report. Quote: “Ray said that he won’t hold another sweat lodge ceremony or any other potentially dangerous activity, but he should be held responsible for his actions, the probation officer wrote.” So I suppose there’s some modicum of solace here for the victim’s families, and the Native American spiritual leaders who’ve long called for such appropriations to stop. As for Ray, he’s totally into numerology now.
• In Indonesia the ancestor-worshipping religion of Borneo’s indigenous forest people, the Dayak, is being cannily re-branded as Hinduism in order to stave off Christian missionaries and cultural eradication. “The Hindus have helped us,” said Mr. Udatn.“They’re like our umbrella.”
• The mother of an accused drug trafficker traveled to Africa in order to have a curse placed on federal prosecutors. Quote: “Alleyne later admitted . . . that she had traveled to Africa to pay an individual to place a ‘hex’ in the form of a witch doctor’s curse on the assistant US attorneys.” Federal agents initially thought she was trying to place a hit on the attorneys, but it turned out to be a more spiritual matter (though not one that bodes well for the hexed individuals if the curse proves effective). The coverage from the New York Post is, naturally, quite tabloid in its content. Words like “witch doctor,” “voodoo,” and “shaman” get thrown around as if they were interchangeable. Does this look like a job for Get Religion?
• Should we be concerned when the Lt. Governor of Florida says things like this? “Ladies and gentlemen, these are very sad times when we allow the minority to poison the minds of the majority. This is exactly what dictators and socialist rulers did [...] Ladies and gentlemen, Christianity is in a fight and it is one of the greatest trials we have seen in modern times. Without a doubt, America and her people are in grave need of prayer, divine guidance, protection, to have good, solid Christians to step up and lead this country on a proper moral path. I firmly believe that if we magnify God, our problems will be minimized.” She does know we live in a secular country, right? Right? Associated Press video of this speech, here.
• Faced with reports of dead animal parts, a local Tampa, Florida television stations asks that favorite questions of mine: “Is it Santeria?” Luckily, they don’t turn to an “occult expert,” but to Dr. Mozella Mitchell from the religious studies department at the University of South Florida. Mitchell is author of “Crucial Issues in Caribbean Religions” and says the incidents cited by the station “are not associated with Santeria” (but could be some form of freelance “black magic”).
• Judith Laura at Medusa Coils announces the publication of her new book “Goddess Matters: the mystical, practical, & controversial”. According to Laura, the book “presents an in-depth look at today’s global trends in Goddess spirituality and emerging Goddess religions.” You can find out more, here.
• The 800-year-old remains of women unearthed in Italy are part of what archaeologist Alfonso Forgione claims is a “witches graveyard” due to the ritualistic aspects found near and in the bodies (nails, dice).
• Does belief in the antichrist matter in politics? Yes, according to historian Matthew Avery Sutton. More here, and here.
• Haitian President Michel Martelly wants to “rebrand” Haiti, and Vodou tourism is part of that vision. Quote: “Do you know how many people would like to come to Haiti and try to understand what Voodoo is?” President Martelly seems very friendly to, and supportive of, the Vodou community in Haiti. Early on Haitian-American musician Pras noted that Martelly had the support of the “voodoo guys” in Haiti, and one of Martelly’s closest advisors and supporters in Haiti has been Richard Auguste Morse, a former musician and businessman who was initiated as a Vodou Houngan (priest) in 2002. What Vodou tourism would look like remains to be seen, though forms of it have been happening for years.
• Kenyan environmentalist and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Wangari Maathai died from cancer at the age of 71 on Sunday. Founder of the Green Belt Movement, Maathai was a practicing Catholic, but often drew on the tenets of the indigenous faiths of her home. She was a feminist, human rights, and environmental trail-blazer in her home country, across Africa, and the world. May her spirit find rest.
• At Patheos, Gus diZerega analyzes fascist Paganism, comparing it with today modern Pagan movement, saying “we need a new historical understanding of Paganism’s recent past.”

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.

Osirid statues near Luxor.

Abd Al-Munim A-Shahhat, a spokesman for the Salafi group Dawa, has said that Egypt’s world-renowned pharaonic archeology – its pyramids, Sphinx and other monuments covered with un-Islamic imagery – should also be hidden from the public eye. “The pharaonic culture is a rotten culture,” A-Shahhat told the London-based Arabic daily A-Sharq Al-Awsat on Wednesday, saying the faces of ancient statues “should be covered with wax, since they are religiously forbidden.” He likened the Egyptian relics to the idols which circled the walls of Mecca in pre-Islamic times.

The article also notes that Islamist groups in Egypt have long been hostile to the tourism industry, but these sentiments were suppressed under Mubarak’s oppressive regime. Now, however, Egyptian xenophobia and paranoia seem to be blossoming, with government officials harassing foreigners.

Micah Trau, an American who has been studying Arabic with a private tutor for the past three months, decided that after being questioned twice, he would just leave. “I couldn’t take it,” he tells The Media Line from his home in Seattle. “I was there to study the language and the culture, but after being told I was a spy on three occasions I just thought it was time to get out of there before anything worse happened.”

Tourism in Egypt is a multi-billion dollar industry, and is hardly a revenue stream rising Egyptian leaders want to blithely throw away. While hardliners in the local Salafi movement may be calling for pagan statues to be encased in wax, the increasingly politically dominant Muslim Brotherhood seems to be trying to strike a balance between catering to tourists and pleasing Islamic factions who want to see such practices curtailed.

But [Muhammad Saad] Al-Katatny [secretary-general of Freedom and Justice] said that the Muslim Brotherhood regards Egypt’s archeology as belonging to all of humanity, and should therefore be safeguarded. “This heritage belongs to everyone, and one can’t simply remove something he doesn’t like,” he told Al-Ahram daily.

International travel agencies have so far rejected the idea of any restrictions on tourism, and low-price tours are being planned to encourage tourists back to Egypt, hoping to reverse a dramatic downturn caused by the revolution and its aftermath. Even if tourism is allowed, and the statues remain uncovered, will there be any tolerance for the more spiritually-minded tours that draw so many seekers, Pagans, and New Age adherents?

“In this predominantly Muslim country, Egyptologist and spiritual tour guide Amro Mounir, 34, said he encounters many Egyptians who criticize his tours for practicing a form of paganism. But Mounir says the tours are about tapping into the energy of the earth and helping people find the truth.”

It is very likely that the permissive tourist industry many are used to could be coming to an end. It shouldn’t be forgotten that in 2006 Egypt’s Grand Mufti, Ali Gomaa, issued an edict (fatwa) which condemned the work of sculptors and declared un-Islamic the display of statues in homes. At the time, some predicted suicide bombings at ancient temples, though this never materialized. Now that the political climate is far more unstable, could these threats now materialize? Can more moderate and progressive elements in Egypt hold out against an Islamist tide long held back by brute force? We’ll soon see if economic pragmatism and pluralistic aspirations will win out against an energized hardline who see this as a chance to mold Egypt in their image.

The Parthenon atop the Acropolis in Athens.

“The more knowledge we gain about people of the past, the more it perpetuates their memory. People of the past wanted to be remembered, that’s why they built monuments in the landscape. Also, ancient texts such as the Hávamál talk about a person’s name living on after they die (another indication that people in the past wanted to be remembered).”

This debate grows more complex as pre-Christian pagan sites suffer ever more from years of vandalism, wear, and increasing environmental degradation. In Greece, statues and decorative pieces at the Acropolis in Athens have been slowly transitioned into a specially-built museum, while Turkey is currently debating on how to best preserve the ancient giant statues of gods and kings on Mount Nemrut in southeastern region of the country.

Statues near the peak of Mount Nemrut.

“A recent proposal by Culture and Tourism Minister Ertuğrul Günay to move the gigantic sculptures atop Mount Nemrut, which are on the UNESCO World Heritage List, to a museum in order to protected them from harsh weather conditions has sparked controversy among Turkish archeologists and scientists over whether the sculptures should be preserved inside a museum or not. Günay put forth the proposal last week, saying the sculptures can be brought down from the mountain by helicopter and become part of the exhibit in a museum in Kahta, Adıyaman province.

“Many proposals, including those from [Middle East Technical University] ODTÜ, were brought to me for the protection of the sculptures on the mountain. However, none of them convinced me. Among the proposals were covering the sculptures with some chemicals. I asked them to bring me that chemical, but they could not. Some have proposed covering them with a tent or glass. Strong winds blowing on the mountain in the winter would damage the tent. The windows would break,” Günay said.

Noting that the best solution would be to move the stone heads to a museum, he added that he has personally observed the damage sustained by the heads over the past 20 years and that they need protection.”

Some local archaeologists and officials disagree with Günay, saying there is little evidence of the damage he describes. While modern Pagans are not a factor in this story, the situation starkly illustrates the debates currently raging over how to treat these sites. Another question is how moving the statues, if it goes forward, would affect the site’s listing as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and how would these changes affect tourism?

Sadly, scientific examination and debates over the best preservation strategies aren’t the only thing affecting ancient sites of interest to modern Pagans. In some cases sites are being endangered by construction, spurring protests and direct action by local Pagans in places like Greece to protect the newly-uncovered Altar of the Twelve Gods from reburial, or at the Hill of Tara in Ireland, which many feel is being systematically destroyed by highway development. As development, tourism, and environmental factors continue to clash these issues only promise to become more heated and intense. With austerity the buzz-word in a global recession, the preservation of our ancient heritage, and the protection of sacred sites seem to be  low on the priority list. Will these sites simply start disappearing? What is the best way to protect these sites and our religious heritage in a world that seems increasingly indifferent to preservation? What role should modern Pagan communities play regarding sites that we feel are important to our own understanding of the past?

• First off, I hope all my readers, friends, and supporters out on the East Coast, and in the path of Hurricane Irene, are safe and have taken proper precautions. Though the storm is less intense than first expected, there’s still plenty of damage a storm of that size can do.  COG First Officer Peter Dybing offers a prayer for safety, as does ADF Archdruid Kirk Thomas. Some Wild Hunt readers are checking in at this site’s Facebook page.
• 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.”
• At his blog Morehead’s Musings, John Morehead does a follow-up interview with attorney Dan Stidham (original interview, here), who represented Jessie Misskelley of the West Memphis 3 until 2008 (at which point he became a judge). Stidham says that “Satanic Panic convicted the WM3 and the hard work of many people from all around the world refused to let this injustice stand.” I would suggest reading the whole thing, as there’s a lot of great information to be found there. You may also want to read Peg Aloi’s further commentary on the WM3′s release.
• Remember the mini Internet tempest that was the Circle of Moms contest? In short, a group of Pagan mom-bloggers did better than expected in the “faith” category ranking contest, sparking some unfortunate behavior by some Christian participants (though several Christian mom-bloggers did apologize for the behavior of their coreligionists). In any case, the fruits of that victory, in which the top 25 get special featured site interviews, is now up. Congrats once again to Mrs B., Angela, Lily, Joni, and all the other Pagan mom-bloggers who made it.
• Bill Keller at the New York Times Magazine argues that we should be asking presidential candidates tougher questions about their faith, and shares the general questionnaire that he sent out to all the candidates. While Get Religion slammed Keller’s editorial as “bizarre” and called the questions “loaded,” I would love to hear honest answers from the candidates to the question: “(a) Do you agree with those religious leaders who say that America is a “Christian nation” or “Judeo-Christian nation?” (b) What does that mean in  practice?” Meanwhile, Dave Niose, president of the American Humanist Association argues at Psychology Today that concerns over the religious right aren’t overblown.
• The sensationalism-drenched case of Angela Sanford, a Wiccan who killed Joel Levya in what some media described as a ritualistic sacrifice, has seemingly come to an end.  Sanford has plead no contest to second-degree murder, and will face sentencing in October. Sanford originally said the killing was in self-defense against an attempted rape, but that story soon unraveled as the details didn’t fit, and her cell phone listed Levya’s number under “sacrifice.” What really sparked Sanford to violently murder this man remains unknown.
• Here at Patheos, P. Sufenas Virius Lupus discusses the roots of homophobia, and bluntly states that it has no place within modern Paganism, and that Pagans supporting political candidates who engage in homophobia is an affront to our religious values. Quote:  “If modern Pagan religions and forms of animism and polytheism, which are supposed to revere nature to some extent or another, maintain homophobia of any sort (even if it is out of adherence to some ancient texts or traditions, which themselves often have resulted from Christian influence or inadequate modern interpretations of difficult terminologies), then they are aligning themselves with fundamentalist religious viewpoints that would happily seek to outlaw, and even execute, those who are “guilty” of homoeroticism or gender variance. Voting for conservative candidates who have espoused a religious position like this because one agrees with them on fiscal issues is a direct affront to every religious value one upholds as a modern Pagan or polytheist.”
• It looks like all the recent direct-action activism to protect the San Francisco Peaks in Arizona is having some effect, the business magazine Fast Company has run a spotlight on the Hopi Tribe’s new litigation against the wastewater pipeline currently underway. Fast Company’s article is too glib by half, but it is at least getting the story back on the radar of mainstream media. You can read all of my coverage on this story, here. For ongoing coverage of direct-action activism, check out Censored News and Indigenous Action Media.
• In a move that should surprise no one, Texas governor Rick Perry continues to woo influential and high-rolling conservative Christians, including David “paganism and witchcraft were never intended to receive the protections of the Religion Clauses” Barton. Perry has a long history with Barton, a fact that should make any Pagan nervous, if the giant prayer rally featuring several NAR participants didn’t already.
• Reviews of “The Wicker Tree,” the forthcoming companion film to the classic 1973 Pagan-themed horror film “The Wicker Man,” are pouring in from FrightFest 2011, and they aren’t pretty. Total Film complains of a “near-absence of momentum or intrigue,” while WhatCulture! says this film is far sillier than “The Wicker Man,” and that the “film suffers through not making us care” and calls the Christopher Lee cameo a “pointless waste.” Ouch! You can read all of my “Wicker Tree” coverage, here.
• Zeus and Hera have been removed from the Acropolis for safe-keeping, their Parthenon metope will be replaced with a copy, while the originals will be on display a the Acropolis Museum in Athens.
• Has King Arthur’s famous round table been found? The answer is a firm maybe.
• An important lesson in framing Pagan pride from Hecate.

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.

Stonehenge

“Mr Justice Wyn Williams refused to give King Arthur permission to launch a judicial review action – ruling at a High Court hearing in London that there was insufficient evidence to show that the Ministry of Justice might have acted unreasonably. The judge heard that the cremated remains of more than 40 bodies – thought to be at least 5,000 years old – were removed from a burial site at Stonehenge in 2008 and ministers gave researchers from Sheffield University permission to keep the bones until 2015.”

While King Arthur was calling for a “day of action” to protest this decision, another group, Pagans For Archaeology, were pleased that scientific exploration of the remains will continue uninterrupted.

“The very reason we know what we do about Stonehenge and the people buried there is due to archaeology, without it you would know naff all about it, the people and the relationship between the two.”

At their website, PFA makes their case for why the retention and study of human remains is important. As for King Arthur, he insists that this “is not a Pagan argument, it is not a Druid argument. It is a matter of common decency.” Stonhenge is matter of great emotional, religious, and psychological import for many Britons. With the London 2012 Olympics fast approaching, you can be sure that the treatment, preservation, and study of this site will continue to be a newsmaking issue.

Maetreum of Cybele Sends Out a Call for Help: The Maetreum of Cybele, Magna Mater, in an ongoing tax battle with the Town of Catskill, New York, have sent out an urgent plea for funds as what they hope will be the final trial in the matter approaches.

“All along the Town knew they would lose this battle if we could just get it to trial so they have attempted to bury us under legal motions to break us financially and have spent somewhere between 100 to 150 thousand dollars to do so.  I am sad to report that unless we get significant help in this final stages, they might succeed.  Donations so far have helped but we have had to hire a new attorney at about three times the cost as our original attorney.  She is much more experienced and worth the expense but has informed me that the rest of our case will cost us an approximate additional 10 thousand dollars which simply is impossible for us to come up with ourselves at this stage.

Our priestesses have stepped forward to the point of tens of thousands so far but now we are all broke.  Please, this case is important, a milestone for minority religion rights.  If this can be done to us, a legally incorporated religious charitable organization with full IRS 501 c3 recognition, it literally can be done to any minority religious group.  A victory, which is fairly well assured if we can finish the battle, is especially important when political groups are pushing back against non Christians, clean air and water and the basic concept of taking care of each other and our common planet home.”

The law in this case seems pretty clearly on the side of the Maetreum of Cybele, but Catskill is going to wage a scorched earth legal campaign in hopes the Pagans run out of money and energy first, stating that “the town was already too deep into the case to give up and that significant dollars could be saved by preventing exemptions for illegitimate religions.” A court date is set for November 15th. We’ll keep you updated on further developments. For those wanting to an make a tax-deductible donation, you can do so directly via paypal to: centralhouse@gallae.com. Or you can contact them through their website.

In Other News:

• Over at PNC-Minnesota Cara Schulz writes an excellent essay on the trials and tribulations faced by the organizers of Sacred Harvest Festival, and how they have persevered and survived.
• The Dogwood Local Council of the Covenant of the Goddess has announced that they will sponsor a Pagan Prayer display at the Unity Church of Gainesville, part of a 24 hour prayer vigil to celebrate unity in prayer.  The event encourages people of all faiths to experience how others worship,  with displays from many different religions and sects.
• Just a reminder that the 1st Annual Conference on Earth-Based, Nature-Centered, Polytheistic & Indigenous Faiths is quickly approaching. The theme for the one-day conference on September 24 in San Francisco is “Gender & Earth-Based Spiritualities”.  Speakers include Vicki Noble,  T. Thorn Coyle, Joi Wolfwomyn, Lady Yeshe Rabbit, and Diana Paxson. Acclaimed poet and social theorist Judy Grahn has just been added to the program.
• Head over to Get Religion to check out the Pagan edition of their “guilt files,” religion stories they have been meaning to cover, but haven’t found the time to get to.
• For those of you who were at the Morrigan devotional ritual during the 2011 PantheaCon, or wished they were at that ritual, you may want to check out an upcoming weekend intensive entitled “Answering the Call: Battle Goddess in Times of Change”. Led by Morpheus Ravenna, T. Thorn Coyle and Sharon Knight, the intensive promises to answer “an urgent call to rise up, prepare ourselves for times of change, help our communities become strong and resilient.” You can find out more about this event, here. The Facebook event page can be found, here.

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

• The Associate Press reports that Angel Valley retreat in Sedona, Arizona, where the now-infamous and deadly sweat lodge ceremony led by James Arthur Ray was held, has settled a civil lawsuit brought by victim’s families and participants. The sum is not disclosed in the report, and there is no admission of liability by the owners of Angel Valley. The trial of Ray, who is charged with three counts of manslaughter, continues.
• In a review for Real Clear Religion, Rod Dreher endorses Jeffrey Kripal’s book “Authors of the Impossible: The Paranormal and the Sacred” which notes that both “orthodox religion and orthodox science” have a hard time grasping the paranormal. Which makes you wonder about the growth of religions and traditions that do embrace phenomena that we can’t explain.
• It’s a food-centered week over at No Unsacred Place as Ruby Sara writes about sacred eating in earth-centered ritual,  Juniper Jeni tackles the controversy over Bob Parsons shooting an elephant (then eaten by local villagers), Cat Chapin-Bishop charges that “we eat uncaringly, unfeelingly, ignobly,” and Howling Hill talks Pagan food restriction.
• The Miami New Times has been following an increasingly odd feud between animal activist (and real estate developer) Richard “Kudo” Couto and Santeria priest Oba Ernesto Pichardo (of Church of Lukumi Babalu Aye v. City of Hialeah fame). There’s too much to sum up here, but as one Santeria practitioner puts it “I don’t see how his job in real estate, when he started his organization, animal defecation, or cartoony music helps the religious community.”
• For more on Pagan participation in the Marin Interfaith Council Prayer Breakfast, at which Don Frew was a featured presenter, there’s a second write-up of the event from M. Macha NightMare, the sole Pagan member of the Marin council, who helped pave the way for Frew’s invitation.
• A temple to the goddess Demeter and her daughter Persephone was discovered by  Bulgarian archaeologists near the town of Sozopol on the Black Sea. For those keeping score, yes, a Christian monastery was built on top of it.
• Kendra Vaughan Hovey, a former reality-television star who converted from Wicca to Christianity, now claims to be neither Christian nor Wiccan, simply a Witch. Hovey notes that “if I must label myself anything, this label seems to define my spiritual practices—and who I am at the very core of my being—best.”
• How can you tell when a “Satanic” crime might not be Satanic? When only tabloids report on it.
• The tenth session of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues started yesterday, featuring an opening address by United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. During the address Ki-moon stated that “we know that indigenous peoples have a close spiritual relationship with nature. Now we have to make the connection between their knowledge—your knowledge—and our world.”
• Jamie L. Manson at Religion Dispatches has perhaps my favorite response to the controversy over Jim Wallis and Sojouners rejecting an ad calling for the welcoming of LGBTQ individuals in Christian churches. Manson writes that “so many religious gays and lesbians have to operate “under the radar,” and keep silent about their personal lives,” which is just one reason why I’m largely proud of a modern Pagan movement that is overwhelmingly inclusive to LGBTQ individuals. Even when there is controversy and conflict, it produces an entirely different conversation than what you would find within the dominant monotheisms.
• Traditional besom broom makers in the UK are in danger of extinction.
• A local newspaper interviews Alaskan resident and rune master Doc Warner.
• A report from the Maryland Faerie Festival.

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.

Respecting (and Not Respecting) Native Culture: There seemed to be several stories in recent days concerning reactions to indigenous and Native cultures. Some of these stories were positive ones, like a New York Times profile of the new Denver Art Museum’s initiative to credit individual American Indian artists, instead of simply listing the tribe it was made by. However, this newfound sense of respect hasn’t carried over into all aspects of our culture, as the ongoing discussion over the wave of criticism from conservative pundits regarding a traditional Native blessing given by Dr. Carlos Gonzales at a memorial service for those killed and injured in the horrific shooting in Tuscon, Arizona shows. Last week the Indian Country Today Media Network profiled several Native voices regarding the conservative media outcry over the blessing, and today, in a follow-up report, Rob Capriccioso notes that several blogs are weaving conspiracy theories about the one pundit, Power Line’s Paul Meringoff, who did retract his insensitive comments.

Former Washington Times scribe Robert Stacy McCain played the role of an alarmist, writing in a Jan. 31 blog post, titled, “Power Line Gets Scalped: Did Indian Tribe Money Influence Akin Gump Decision?,” that he believed tribes had knocked off Mirengoff—and somehow former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was involved, too. “You may recall that Pelosi and Democrats were elected in 2006 on a promise to clean up the ‘culture of corruption’ in Washington. Exhibit A in the Democrats’ case against the GOP that year? Yeah: ‘Casino Jack’ Abramoff’s shady dealings with Indian tribes,” McCain wrote. “So in criticizing that Yaqui prayer at the Tucson memorial, Paul Mirengoff wasn’t just being politically incorrect, he was also offending a lucrative segment of Akin Gump’s lobbying clientele, whom the firm had recently hired three lawyers to service. Small wonder that Mirengoff was likely forced to choose: Quit blogging at Power Line or quit working at Akin Gump.”

What does it say about any culture, blog or otherwise, when a member can’t retract, or be wrong, without others invoking a web of intrigue to explain it? So instead of a pundit simply deciding he went over the top, embarrassing his employers in the process, and that being accepted, his apology is marked as “worthy of a political prisoner” or an example of the “slow erosion of our speech.” Free speech for some may be never having to say your sorry, but being a part of a community means that our words and actions have consequences. Behind these various conspiracy theories were actual American Indians who were hurt and offended by the attacks, distortions, and smears, that some can’t acknowledge that is troubling.

While we are on the subject of not respecting Native Americans, their religion, and their culture, we have some news in the ongoing James Arthur Ray sweat lodge deaths trial. The trial is set to begin on February 18th, but the defense team are trying to have the proceedings moved from Yavapai County (home to New Age hub of Sedona) to a court in Phoenix, saying the jury pool is too tainted and biased (an allegation locals aren’t too happy about).

“Ray’s lawyers made a similar request last summer, which was denied by Judge Warren Darrow. At the time, though, Darrow said he’d still consider the request as the case moves closer to trial. The Associated Press reports that his attorneys say jury questionnaires reveal widespread prejudice against Ray in Yavapai County.”

Ray’s lawyers are also trying to prevent cult deprogrammer/consultant Rick Ross from giving testimony for the prosecution. They  (prosecutors) want Ross to evaluate Ray’s programs, and testify on how coercive they may be. This trial, once it actually starts, should be very, very interesting.

Opening, Restoring, and Protecting Goddess Temples: Starting with a bit of good news on this topic, the Roman Forum’s Vestal temple and houses, after a lengthy restoration effort, is now open to the public.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=xF1HK4WANxo

No doubt modern followers of Vesta, and those interested in the restoration of pre-Christian temples, will be most pleased! Meanwhile, despite the economic turmoil in Greece lately, restoration efforts in Athens are being pushed forward, with many seeing it as a matter of national pride to continue the work. However, not all efforts regarding ancient temple sites are as well received as those in Greece or Italy, the Goddess Pages is calling for protests over plans to build a visitor center in the middle of a prehistoric goddess sanctuary in Nettersheim, Germany.

“At first we thought this must be a bad joke. Unfortunately the concealed plans are already very advanced. An architect is already dreaming about eternalizing this outrageous action and a mayor is dreaming of hordes of tourists bringing their money. This construction in the middle of this sanctuary would be an terrible crime. It’s more than about questioning the subject of reputation, prestige and profit, fact is it would destroy irretrievable evidence of our foremothers and ancestors. We’re sure the public has not yet realized that this plan exists. In the past churches were built on sanctuaries to honour goddesses in order to destroy them. Today is it to be Info Centers built to attract tourists which will destroy our remaining sanctuaries?”

You can read more about the proposed visitor “cube, ” here. The German article notes conflict “about the ‘male’ form of a cube” not being “compatible with the ‘female’ matrones.” There seems to be a Facebook campaign already underway. You can see some pictures of the Deae Matrone sanctuary, here. Thanks to Medusa Coils for tipping me off to the story.

While restoration efforts happen for ancient temples, modern Goddess worshipers, like those in the Sisterhood of Avalon, carry on in creating new traditions and fellowships. The Waterloo Record in Canada has a profile of a small Sisterhood of Avalon group, and interviews local hearth mother Tiffany Lazic.

“The sisterhood is about “gathering the tools for self-empowerment,’’ said Lazic, a holistic therapist in private practice, who meditates several times a week and journeys to Avalon in her mind twice a month. Pagan faiths, often described as earth-based religions, adhere to ritual practices and follow different mythologies including Celtic, Norse and ancient Greek traditions. [...] Lazic started the Kitchener group in July 2009 which now has 11 active members. Worldwide, there are 350 members in the group which has a seminary in the United States. For Lazic, the sisterhood seemed natural. Her parents were classic teachers and as a child she immersed herself in Greek mythology.”

What’s nice about the article is that it treats this local hearth of the Sisterhood as it would any other religious congregation. As modern Pagans start and continue to build their own temples and communal spaces, an emerging continuity could develop between the new and the old, and modern Paganism could truly restore its place in the public mind as a world religion.

A Quick Note on the HuffPo-AOL Deal: For those who keep track of new media business, you may have heard that the Huffington Post has been purchased by AOL. For some relevant commentary, see Jeff Jarvis, Newspaper Death Watch, Fishbowl LA, and PC World. I wanted to note this here for a number of reasons, first, HuffPo has Pagan bloggers, most notably Anne Hill, Grove Harris, and Donna Hennes (among others), and secondly, because this is just another sign of how the blogosphere is gaining in prominence, and becoming professionalized. Many have noted that blogging as an activity is declining among certain demographics, and while some hope this signals a return to print or more traditional forms of media, I think its simply a sign that the “faddish” nature of the technology has faded as more suitable social technologies have emerged to keep folks in contact and update your friends on your latest adventures.

In many areas, particularly religion, new media is where the future of journalism lies. Relevant and well-written content about our faiths is more vital now than it has ever been. The ability of our faiths to be heard, to inform ourselves and others effectively, will rest in our ability to navigate the changing world of Internet media. Our ability to create our own news organs, and to work within the increasingly condensing content giants, will decide for many how we are perceived. This is our chance to make sure the Pagan voice(s) ring out to the world, and I hope some of you will join me for my talks at Pantheacon later this month as I explore some potential solutions and ways forward.

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