A Pagan Festival in Israel: September will see the nation of Israel’s first Pagan festival, at least in our modern era. A new site is promoting a Mabon (Autumnal Equinox) festival, with word being spread by other Israeli Pagan sites.

“The first Israeli Pagan Festival that we shall celebrate together, on September the 22-24^th, 2011. [...] Pagans from all over the country are invited to celebrate together the spirit of kinship and community that Mabon invokes.”

It may seem like an odd occurrence for a land considered holy by all of the Abrahamic faiths, but modern Pagan religions have become a global phenomenon, and according to Dr. Marianna Ruah-Midbar, they could find fertile soil in Israel.

“At the moment paganism is not a large-scale practice here, but I believe it has very big potential,” she said. “Pagan religions are the fastest growing religions in the West, and it could succeed here too, because Hebrewism and Zionism could connect to paganism due to the emphasis on land and Hebrew holidays. Paganism is a close, unusual parallel of more common practices, like environmentalism or traveling to the East. In practice, it really is not very different.”

As I’ve pointed out before, the growth of Paganism in places like Israel helps puncture the lie that our faiths flourish merely as a rebellion against Judeo-Christian norms or as a result of secularism’s ills. The truth is that Pagan beliefs, practices, and theologies, offer an appealing alternative to the often exclusionary monotheisms that have come to dominate the West. I’ll be interested to see how their first festival goes, how many show up, and if they experience any trouble.

TheurgiCon Is Today: Today is TheurgiCon in Berkeley, California, a one-day intensive that focuses on the practice of theurgy, the use of magic and ritual to invoke (or evoke) the gods. This year’s theme is “Tools of Neo-Platonic Theurgy” and features presentations by Don Frew, Tony Mierzwicki, and John Opsopaus. TheurgiCon was founded in 2010 by Glenn Turner, who also founded PantheaCon, here’s an interview with Turner from 2010 about the event.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FpeZ-PR0_c

You can also read impressions from last year’s event here, here, and here. Read more about this year’s presentations at the TheurgiCon website. I’m hoping to have more coverage of this event in the near future.

Transitions for a Circle Minister: Drake Spaeth, a longtime Circle Sanctuary minister and key participant in Circle’s yearly Pagan Spirit Gathering, has announced that he’s amicably stepping down from his clergy position and taking a break from participation at PSG.

“Yet, open circles sometimes close, and the moment of realization comes that the time to move on has arrived.  I am at such a juncture. I would ill serve the many folks whom I have counseled to recognize and heed the call to take a new risk when the time comes, to make the proverbial Fool’s leap into the unknown, if I now backed away from this moment when it has now come upon me with such clarity. Circumstances have impelled me to the point where, despite any wistful desire I feel that the dream might have continued just a bit longer, that I must step down from being a Circle minister.”

Spaeth is not leaving Pagan ministry, but is instead dedicating his time exclusively to Earth Traditions, an organization he co-founded with Angie Buchanan of Gaia’s Womb. Our best wishes to Drake Spaeth on this transition, we have no doubt his decision will be to the benefit of our interconnected communities.

Gus diZerega Joins Patheos: Gus diZerega, political scientist, Beliefnet blogger, and co-author of “Beyond the Burning Times: A Pagan and Christian in Dialogue,” has become a columnist at Patheos. His first column, “The Ethics of the Universal Potlatch,” is now up.

“This is my first contribution to what I hope will be a weekly column here at Patheos. I am delighted to be in such good company with other Pagan contributors, both those I know and those I have not (yet?) met. I hope to explore some of the insights I think Pagan spirituality brings to challenge Western modernity, which far more than many realize, incorporates transcendental monotheistic assumptions antithetical to our own, and does so even in its secular guise.”

I’m honored and pleased to have Gus in our ranks here at Patheos, and I have no doubt his columns will be enriching. As for his blog at Beliefnet, he’ll continue on there, though in slightly different form.

More Community Notes:

• The planned movie adaptation of Starhawk’s novel “The Fifth Sacred Thing,” which is currently in the midst of a Kickstarter campaign to make a professional pitch video to the major film studios, has launched its own website.
• Congratulation to the Washington DC bureau of the Pagan Newswire Collective, which has just celebrated its one-year anniversary.
• The new issue of Witches & Pagans is about to come out, featuring interviews with Pagan chaplain Patrick McCollum and activist, author and Pagan cop Kerr Cuhulain. This isn’t one to miss! More on this issue once I receive my copy.

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

Heathens on the Plain: PNC-Heartland covers Lightning Across the Plain, the largest heathen gathering in North America, which took place September 24-26.

“On Saturday morning, the Chieftains of each tribe gathered to formalize an agreement on how they should work together to establish strong tribes in the Midwest.  This was the first time that so many Midwestern tribes had met face to face and everyone participating was ecstatic with the results.  The result was several general laws were agreed upon to ensure the autonomy of each group but established procedures that would enable mutual support.”

The event included and estimated 170 adults and 70 children, which is quite impressive for an event that’s only in its second year. It will be interesting to see what the long-term ramifications of these gatherings will be for Asatru and Heathenry in the Midwest and America.

Max Dashú Receives Honorary Doctorate: Artist and writer Max Dashú, famous for founding the Suppressed Histories Archives, and her presentations on female power through history, has been awarded an honorary Doctorate in Ministry by Ocean Seminary College.

“Ocean Seminary College is proud to confer onto Max Dashú the Doctorate of Ministry in honor of her significant and founding contributions to the fields of thealogy and Goddess iconography, as well as to women’s history.

Since the 19070s, Max Dashú has continuously explored, shared, and collected the rich iconographic history of the Goddess. Yet Dashú’s work is not limited to the religious sphere; rather her erudition extends into a critical global examinatoin of the underlying sociopolitical relationships between men and women and a restoration of knowledge of women’s essential role in human history. She has pulled these often disparate academic fields into a cohesive whole that has become the seminal Suppressed Histories Archives. This visual archive and its associated analysis has and continues to inspire women throughout the world to find their roots and reclaim their silenced historical contributions, while fostering renewed womancentric spiitual traditions.”

Ocean Seminary College was founded in 2005, and has a nature-based and interfaith focus in its curriculum. Congratulations to Max Dashú on the honor.

The End of MPN? The Military Pagan Network has released a statement that asks, with time and resources in short supply, if their mission has been accomplished, or if they should continue.

“The question now is MPN’s future. MPN’s ability to inform, educate, and network depends entirely on volunteers to make it happen. The current staff feels that we have done all that we can for now. Given our current resource pool and acknowledging the work of many other organizations, we feel that MPN may close its doors with a sense of “mission accomplished.”

However, given the magnitude and finality of such an action, it is important to us to make one final appeal to those whom MPN represents. If you are a military Pagan (A/D, veteran, or dependent), and you feel strongly that MPN truly needs to stay active, please step forward. Send a message through our online contact form stating your interest in keeping MPN running and how many hours/week on average you are willing to devote to making it happen. We realize that your military mission comes first, but it is up to you to decide whether MPN’s mission can and should continue. If a pool of truly dedicated fresh volunteers comes forward, the outgoing staff will gladly transition the duties and management of the organization over to you. If not, we must take this as a sign that MPN’s mission has been fulfilled to the best of our ability, and MPN will be closed.”

The deadline to contact MPN about their future is Samhain (October 31) 2010. While attitudes have changed within and without our communities about Pagan military personnel, many challenges still lay ahead. If you have an interest in revitalizing and helping the MPN move into the future, I would step forward now. You can contact them on their web site, or at their Facebook page.

Expanding on Theurgicon Coverage: Over at his Beliefnet blog, Gus diZerega expands on the recently held Theurgicon conference in Berkeley, California. First with an exploration of Tony Mierzwicki’s historical presentation, and then on Brandy Williams‘ presentation dealing the Chaldean Oracles.

“I am constitutionally suspicious of hierarchical understandings of reality.  They have had nasty political consequences, feed a lot of egos that believe they are “more evolved,” and I suspect constitute an attempt to apply models of relationship from agricultural societies that viewed nature and people as something to control to a spiritual realm.  Consequently I am most sympathetic to the less rigid models of dimensions that is a possible interpretation of this reality.

I believe this less hierarchical interpretation also fits better with my and other peoples reports of mystical encounters in their various forms. I would hope that less hierarchical forms of description will come to predominate.  My own working model is of a multidimensional tapestry where the closer one approaches “the One” the less differentiation exists and the farther one goes the more differentiation can be seen, maximizing the opportunities for love to manifest.  But it is all one tapestry.”

I look forward to reading his write-ups of the rest of the speakers.

More on Druid Charity Status: As I reported on Tuesday, The Druid Network in the UK has been granted charity status, the first Pagan group to gain such status under the Charities Act of 2006. Now the mainstream media is picking up on the story, including the BBC.

“After a four-year inquiry, the Charity Commission decided that druidry offered coherent practices for the worship of a supreme being, and provided a beneficial moral framework. The decision will also mean that druidry will have the status of a genuine faith. Referring to the tax breaks, Mr Ryder said: “For us that is a very small consideration because we don’t really have that level of income to make that even an issue.” He said what was more important was that it would make administrative tasks a lot easier for the organisation. “It does give recognition with local councils and people who provide premises and services to charities, who will only deal with registered charities,” he said.”

More coverage here, and here, and here. It’s looking like this accomplishment is making waves, and may signal an increased level of respect for the Druid religions in Britain. Congratulations once again to The Druid Network on their accomplishment.

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

DiZerega, who has lost touch with Charles, eventually abandoned right-wing views, and became a political-science professor. He credits Charles with opening his mind to political philosophy, which set him on the path to academia; Charles is one of three people to whom he dedicated his first book. But diZerega believes that the Koch brothers have followed a wayward intellectual trajectory, transferring their father’s paranoia about Soviet Communism to a distrust of the U.S. government, and seeing its expansion, beginning with the New Deal, as a tyrannical threat to freedom. In an essay, posted on Beliefnet, diZerega writes, “As state socialism failed . . . the target for many within these organizations shifted to any kind of regulation at all. ‘Socialism’ kept being defined downwards.”

At his own blog, diZerega expands on the article and targets specific themes relating to the Koch family and their political worldview.

Americans have almost completely lost from sight a crucial distinction underlying the political thinking behind our founding.  All our Founders were as one in arguing that the Constitution created a limited government.  That is why the first ten amendments, our Bill of Rights,  declares limits on what government may do: it may not establish a state religion, it may not abolish freedom of the press, it may not make unreasonable searches and seizures, may not ban firearms, and so on.

Left far more vague is what government can do if people want it to act.  In fact James Madison explicitly said that if at some future date citizens trusted the federal government more than they did the state governments, it should expand its power – as it did during the Great Depression. (I would link to the appropriate passage in The Federalist, but I am moving and almost every book I have is in a box.)

Both the New Yorker article and diZerega’s follow-up make for thought-provoking reading, and I encourage you to check them out.

“The site itself, aside from a few of its blogs, was so watered down as to be completely uninteresting to those looking for something aside from bland platitudes and feel-good inspirational stories. As others have complained, the site seemed direction-less, purpose-less.”

Also quoted in the story is Get Religion’s Terry Mattingly, soon-to-be-former Beliefnet blogger Rod Dreher, and David Gibson of Politics Daily. The piece paints a picture of a media giant that killed a once-popular (though fiscally struggling) religious site through inaction and indecision, a site that’s been losing its audience and faces an uncertain future with its new owners. It’s a very nice round-up on the situation, and I encourage you to check it out (and I’m not just saying that because he say’s I’m at the “epicenter” of the online Pagan community).

“This afternoon we are announcing that Beliefnet has been acquired by BN Media, LLC, which is the investment group behind Affinity4 and Cross Bridge Media, companies many of you know due to our successful working relationships with them over the past year.  This course of events begins a new chapter for Beliefnet, and it’s one that I am confident will enable us to continue our growth and prosperity alongside an organization that is so well-versed in our category and committed to our mission of being the leading provider of inspiration and faith-based content in a multi-faith environment.”

Unsurprisingly, layoffs are now happening (so they can “continue growing”, naturally). But who, exactly, is BN Media? What’s their agenda? While there were concerns that Rupert Murdoch would steer Beliefnet in a more conservative direction, those fears were diminished somewhat by the fact that News Corp. is a vast (largely) secular media empire. But BN Media seems to be a different sort of owner, if their two largest initiatives, Affinity4 and Cross Bridge, are any indication. In short, it seems they are a conservative “family friendly” Christian group. All you have to do is pay attention to all the subtle buzz-words.

“Cross Bridge is committed to providing high quality, inspirational programming and resources, bridging the gaps in current mainstream media, while conveying uplifting messages and nurturing positive outlooks … Through our partnership with FOX Networks Group of News Corporation, Cross Bridge is integrating value-based legacy media programming with an interactive, new media experience.”

“What groups do you support? We work with many charities and ministries and other organizations such as booster clubs. Most promote, support and protect traditional family values and religious and constitutional freedoms. Click here for a listing of some of our charities and ministries.”

When you do click to see what groups Affinity4 supports, it’s a who’s who of conservative Christian organizations. Focus on the Family, Massachusetts Citizens for Life, Trinity Broadcasting Network, Promise Keepers, Concerned Women for America, and Christian Broadcasting Network, to name just a sampling. Now, BN Media, and its holdings, can support whomever they like, but it doesn’t paint a very rosy picture of future interfaith interactions and diverse viewpoints on Beliefnet. How long will the new pay-masters tolerate a Pagan blog? Not to mention all the New Age stuff. Will Rev. Barry Lynn soon find himself increasingly uncomfortable?

Aside from concerns over Beliefnet’s new owners scrubbing the site clean and “family friendly”, the big issue is if Beliefnet can ever get its mojo back in an increasingly crowded field. With Patheos, Religion Dispatches, the Huffington Post’s religion section, CNN‘s just-launched Belief Blog, and the Newsweek/Washington Post-supported On Faith all looking to draw folks interested in religious news and views, will Beliefnet end up like MySpace (another News Corp. acquisition)? Perennially behind the curve and slowly leaking readership/users? Whatever happens from now, I think it may be the beginning of the end of Beliefnet as we currently know it (and I feel fine).

“It looks like News Corp. Chief Executive Rupert Murdoch has lost faith in Beliefnet. After only three years of ownership, the media giant is seeking a buyer for Beliefnet, a website devoted to religion and spirituality. The decision was first reported by AllThingsD and confirmed by people with knowledge of the situation. News Corp. acquired Beliefnet for an undisclosed sum in 2007, with plans to integrate it with the company’s other faith-based units, including HarperCollin’s Zondervan unit, which publishes bibles and Christian titles such as Rick Warren’s best-selling “The Purpose Driven Life.” Fox Home Entertainment also operates Fox Faith, a label that distributes family films and Christian DVDs to retailers and through churches and ministries … As with other digital assets, News Corp. has decided to jettison Beliefnet as no longer fitting with its strategy.“

Back in 2007 I was rather pessimistic about Rupert Murdoch’s company acquiring the site; I didn’t think it would lead to some new synergistic golden age for the fiscally unstable religion hub.

“No doubt promises of independence and a glorious future are forthcoming, but I’m not sure this will be good for the already-marginalized religious minorities who were once strong supporters of Beliefnet. I wouldn’t be surprised at all if, over the next few years, Beliefnet grows ever-more Christian and conservative in tone. A “family friendly” site to help promote Fox Faith films and hype new Christian book releases from (coincidentally) Zondervan.”

In defense of the new owners, they did fiscally stabilize the site, and tried their best to adapt to the new blogging and social networking culture that grew up in the years since Beliefnet first launched (blogging was still in its infancy back in 1999). They even installed a Pagan blogger (Gus diZerega) back in 2009, after years of complaints over how the site treated its non-Christian communities. But the question now is, who wants Beliefnet? While they are still the most popular religion site on the Internet, their numbers have been softening of late, shedding nearly 400,000 regular visitors in the three years under News Corp. Some, like former Beliefnet News Producer Ira Rifkin, think the site may have run its course.

“Beliefnet has made itself irrelevant and US magazine down-market by dropping all serious content – even its blogs have lost all their umph. How many bumper-sticker-depth, saccharin lead features consisting of no more than – literally – “inspirational” one-liners, cheery photos of flowery fields or “15 Love Lessons from ‘Sex and the City’” can you run before serious readers looking for consequential spiritual/religious insights to help guide their actions realize how trite it all is, get bored and log off, taking sponsors with them? Beliefnet is worth very little in today’s media market. Empress Oprah might be a good match, except she has no need to spend money on a much inferior version of her own product line. In short, Beliefnet may have run its course. We’ll see.”

For the record, today’s “headline” features are “Movie Mom Looks Ahead At New Family Films”, “Support For Military Families”, “How To Treat Yourself Royally”, and “12 Ways To Be  A Better Listener”. It’s not exactly what you would call gripping, hard-hitting, or even fascinating. Still, 2.4 million readers is nothing to sneeze at, and that might tempt a news or media outlet to acquire the site/brand and do something new with it. But whoever acquires Beliefnet will be dealing with a very changed religious-news and information landscape. Where once the site stood alone, they now have competitors in an expanding God(s)-beat on the Internet. Patheos, Religion Dispatches, the Huffington Post’s new religion section, CNN‘s just-launched Belief Blog, and the Newsweek/Washington Post-supported On Faith are just some of the sites it must now contend with, not to mention the ever-thriving religious blogosphere where folks can find original and curated news to fit their particular social and theological niche.

So, to echo Get Religion’s question, who do you think should acquire Beliefnet? What changes should the prospective buyer(s) make if they do pick it up? Should Beliefnet survive at all? Will it go down in history as an early failed experiment in new media attempts to cover religion and spirituality, or will it rise once more and keep its spot at the top?

In 2009, religion attracted significantly more attention in new media sources than in the mainstream media.in a sample drawn from millions of blogs and social media finds that religion was a top story in nearly a quarter of the weeks studied (11 out of 45 weeks) … The blogosphere and other social media tools have grown over the past few years. According to the Pew Internet & American Life Project, 51% of internet users post online content that they have created themselves. Eleven percent of all adults use blogs. The use of Twitter has tripled since 2008. At the same time, the number of reporters assigned to the religion beat in the mainstream media has been shrinking. According to Debra Mason, executive director of the Religion Newswriters Association, at least 16 major print news outlets have reduced or abandoned their religion beats since 2007. At the same time, she says, online newspapers such as The Huffington Post and Politics Daily have increased their religion staff. “We’re in the midst of growth of the [religion] beat online,” Mason says, “but newspapers haven’t kept up with the trend and have instead let religion coverage languish.”

This year we’ve already seen the launch of the Huffington Post’s religion section, joining sites like Beliefnet, Patheos, Religion Dispatches, and the Newsweek/Washington Post-supported On Faith in expanding religious coverage on the Internet. Now they are joined by CNN who has just launched their Belief Blog a few days ago.

“The CNN Belief Blog covers the faith angles of the day’s biggest stories, from breaking news to politics to entertainment, fostering a global conversation about the role of religion and belief in readers’ lives. It’s edited by CNN’s Dan Gilgoff and Eric Marrapodi, with daily contributions from CNN’s worldwide newsgathering team and frequent posts from religion scholar and author Stephen Prothero.”

With CNN joining the fray, I wouldn’t be surprised to see more mainstream news outlets (MSNBC, Fox) launching their own religion sections online. This is an encouraging trend, the more religion coverage, the better, in my mind. What is in question is how diverse will their coverage be? In other words, will they cover minority religions and modern Paganism beyond mere tokenism? So far it’s been hit-or-miss with Internet religion sections. It took Beliefnet years to give Pagans a consistent voice on their web site by finally recruiting Gus diZerega to blog for them, and the HuffPo Religion section hasn’t really recruited any consistent Pagan columnists at this point, relying on religion-tagged Pagan contributions from other sections. So far Patheos has been the most Pagan-friendly with a dedicated Pagan portal helmed by a Pagan and filled with Pagan content.

But it isn’t so much that I’m demanding sites hire Pagans or develop Pagan sections per se, only that minority faiths get the attention they deserve when a story breaks concerning them. In this sense Religion Dispatches has excelled, giving us academic and knowledgeable commentary on issues most news sources skim over. Their coverage of Vodou in the wake of the Haitian earthquake is to be commended, and I can hope more dedicated religion sites follow their lead. After all, on the Internet you have limitless space, and few time constraints, so there’s no reason to shy away from in-depth reporting or insight. Here’s hoping CNN makes the most of their new section, and really gives it the attention it deserves. As for Pagans we need to continue doing it for ourselves, so we can continue to participate and influence the conversations over faith on the Internet and in the news.