T. Thorn Coyle, “Walpurgisnacht Manifesto 2011.”

Today, I stand for beauty.
I stand for music to lighten the soul.
I stand for healing balms to comfort wounds.
I stand for kind words in the tempest,
And a scrap of bright cloth in the mud of war.

Erynn Rowan Laurie, “Bringing In the May.”

“The ritual itself went off quite well tonight, I thought. We seemed quite a bit more organized than usual, the fire did what it was supposed to, we made our rowan crosses, and tied ribbons on our May bush (the indoor ficus). Feasting was had, and lovely harp music, along with a traditional Irish Beltaine song. I was very happy with everything [...] And so I wish you all a blessed Beltaine (or if you’re in the southern hemisphere, a blessed Samhain) and may all your Gods be with you.”

Cat Chapin-Bishop, “Cat, It’s Beltane.”

“I did get up, and made it to the meeting, and no one minded even that I took the time to pour myself a cup of deep, strong black coffee before we began, or that I took the time to greet my friends, to savor the sun, and to kiss my new love under the new green leaves before we pulled out our notepads and took notes.  For it was Beltane, and it was understood, that there are things more vital than efficiency, and obligations deeper than the ones we can put in words.”

Frater Barrabbas, “Coming Attractions and Other News.”

“I want to spend some time in my garden, continue building up my grove and perform some new ritual workings in it during the balmy summer months. I would like to do some hiking, swimming, camping and kayaking, as well as getting out more and going into town to meet with friends, socialize and eat some exotic foods. I have been stuck in my house most of the winter and I have become a bit stir crazy, so now that the summer is coming, I want to be outside a lot more. I really missed not being able to be outdoors, so I intend to make up for missed opportunities. After all, pagans belong in nature, and nature is anywhere outside of the house! As the summer comes gently sliding into our lives, may you find great pleasure in the wondrous outdoors and the blessings of the gods and goddesses of the land, waters, sky and even below the earth.”

Phaedra Bonewits, “Beltane Meditation.”

“Beltane is the start of summer in my half of the planet, and may it be a full, rich, fecund summer. May babies be strong and crops be abundant and happy couplings begin and ripen. May maypoles be wrapped with joyous wishes and may the dancers find what they desire. May what needs to begin, begin and grow stronger. May what needs to end, slip away with dignity. May the bonfires be bright, and life go on with all its vigor.”

Wes Isley, “May Day: Rekindling the Heart of Beltane.”

“So what does inspire me about Beltane? Running throughout all of these May Day traditions is a sense of unbridled joy, of youth sprinting across a flower-covered meadow beneath the warmth of the sun, with a mischievous and happy gleam in his (or her) eye. It speaks not of planting or consummating or doing anything — but of simply being alive in that moment, with a hint of bright tomorrows to come. Can I bottle that feeling and hold it forever? That’s what I want from Beltane this year, and I don’t think you can manufacture that spirit out of anything organized.”

Grove Harris, “May Day Delights: The Pagan Celebration of Beltane.”

“The dance around the maypole is a communal one, with dancers holding the long colored ribbons and weaving them over and under other ribbons. Around and around, carrying intention into the larger weaving of many strands of community. In some rituals, women and men dance in opposite directions, weaving the gender differences into the larger union. Other dances are more free form, playful and even chaotic. There’s coherence in the pattern, with the inclusion of imperfections and fun, with areas of systematic weave and areas of unique design. Dancers old and young engage, often sharing ribbons and turns around the pole. Around and around, over and under, sometimes in step and sometimes out of phase, how like life. We may not see the overall pattern until the dance is over, so the main thing is to participate, and to do so as fully as possible.”

Donna Hennes, “May Day: A Bawdy Festival of Fertility.”

“May Day is an old European spring fertility and copulation festival held in honor of the trees and their mistresses, the virgin vegetation goddesses. Celebrated as Floralia by the Romans, Walpurgisnacht by the Teutons, Whitsuntide by the Dutch, and Beltane by the Celts, it centered on romantic devotions to the nubile goddesses of spring, Flora, Walpurga and Maia, for whom this month is named. Maia can be traced back to Maya, the pre-Vedic mistress of perceptual reality who was the virgin mother of the Buddha. The Greek goddess, Maia was the virgin mother of Hermes. Her descendant, Mary, the Blessed Virgin Mother of God, is patroness of the month of May, which the early church dedicated to Her.”

Gus diZerega, “Dancing up the Sun at May Day.”

“The first time I saw Berkeley Morris I was new to Paganism.  As I joined the large group forming the circle within which the dancers were performing, something indescribably ancient seemed to pervade the place.  Here were people celebrating the triumph of life and fertility as they had in one way or another for thousands of years.  Rather than being on the leading edge of “progress” we were deeply immersed in a place of timeless meaning.  It was very magickal, and I have never forgotten it.”

No matter what your tradition, faith, or custom, may this day bring you blessings.

“Now every field is clothed with grass, and every tree with leaves; now the woods put forth their blossoms, and the year assumes its gay attire.” -  Publius Vergilius Maro (Virgil)

Tonight and tomorrow (in the northern hemisphere*) are the traditional dates for many of the major spring/summer festivals in modern Paganism. Beltane, Bealtaine, May Day, Floralia, Protomayia, and Walpurgis Night, to name just a few. This fire festival heralds the coming of summer and is a high holiday, a liminal time when the barriers between our world and the otherworld were thin. In many traditions and cultures it is a time of divine union and fertility.

Walpurgis Night bonfire, near lake Ringsjo, Sweden Photo by David Castor

Here are some quotes for the holiday.

“To those who actually practice it, morris dance has an elemental quality, an ancient ritual magic comparable to the whirling dervish dance or the spiritual movements developed by G.I. Gurdjieff. Its gestures are designed to act as a lighting conductor for spiritual energies to unite the universe with the earth and replicate the seasonal cycles of growth, death and rebirth. Morris dancers’ tatter jackets act as symbolic antennae; clogs dash against the ground, awakening slumbering earth gods.” – Rob Young, “Electric Eden: Unearthing Britain’s Visionary Music”

“Despite its modern links to Christianity, Valborgsmässoafton, which has been celebrated in Sweden since the Middle Ages, is one of two Swedish holidays which still resemble their pre-Christian merrymaking. The other is Midsummer. The original pagan festival heralded the onset of the growth season. It attempted to ward off evil, ensure fertility and cleanse the land of the dried and dead of winter. Today, it is still the accepted gateway to long and warmer days.” - Elizabeth Dacey-Fondelius, The Local (Sweden)

“…while Samhain began one kind of yearly cycle, Bealtaine began another, and both could be construed as a kind of “New Year”. In ancient Ireland the High King inaugurated the year on Samhain for his household (and, symbolically, for all the people of Ireland) with the famous ritual of Tara, but in nearby Uisneach, the sacred centre held by the druids in complementary opposition to Tara, it was on Bealtaine that the main ritual cycle was begun. In both cases sacred fires were extinguished and re-lit, though this happened at sunset on Samhain and at dawn on Bealtaine. Bealtaine was a time of opening and expansion, Samhain a time of gathering-in and shutting, and for herd-owners like the Celts this was expressed with particular vividness by the release of cattle into upland pastures on Bealtaine and their return to the safety of the byres on Samhain.” – Alexei Kondratiev, Samhain: Season of Death and Renewal

“Celtic Druids used to hold the festival Bealtaine (Day of Fire) in the highest regard, as it was thought to be the day that divides the year in half. The other half of the year had its ending marked with Samhain on November 1st. The old custom was to celebrate with a rite of setting new fire which in turn was believed to lend life to the burgeoning springtime sun. Cattle were driven through the fire or between two fires as a purification process and lovers passed through the smoke together. Different types of wood held different spiritual meanings and were believed to play an important role in the fertility of the land and cattle in the coming year. Many traditions associated with May Day stem from the old Roman festival of flowers known as Floralia. It was a celebration in devotion to Flora, the goddess of flowers, and spanned five days from April 28th to May 2nd. Gradually, the celebrations of Floralia became added to the rituals of Bealtaine and many of today’s customs and superstitions bear the stamp of the combination of the traditions.” - Cammy Harley, The Southern Star

“The First of May is Beltaine, the celebration of the marriage of the earth itself. In sacred symbolism and mythos the King is identified with the sun, who in order for his reign to be fruitful must marry the land itself, which is seen as a Goddess in her own right. It is in May the earth thrives under the caresses of the sun, when the greenness of the earth reaches toward the sun as toward a lover. There is no timidity in the abundant verdancy of May. In the Pagan Wheel of the Year both God and Goddess are mature, confident, and aware of the danger when they marry at Beltaine. For a King to marry the May-bright land is no half-hearted gesture. The King that spends an early summer evening with the May Queen is the same King who is sacrificed for the land when his harvest time has come.” - Star Foster, Patheos.com

“[May Day's] roots as a holiday stretch back to pre-Christian pagan festivals, and the Gaelic Beltane. The familiar rituals of dancing around the Maypole and the crowning of the May Queen made it a popular seasonal celebration in medieval England. ”May Day is associated with spring and fertility, the sowing of the seeds. It is a rural tradition,” says Julie-Marie Strange, senior lecturer in Victorian Studies at the University of Manchester. ”It’s things like May Day that remind us we were once an agricultural community. We’ve clung on to these traditions and I’m not sure why we’d want to get rid of them now.” - James Morgan, BBC News

May you all be especially blessed this evening and tomorrow.

*A very happy Samhain to those of you living in the southern hemisphere!

“The month of May was come, when every lusty heart beginneth to blossom, and to bring forth fruit; for like as herbs and trees bring forth fruit and flourish in May, in likewise every lusty heart that is in any manner a lover, springeth and flourisheth in lusty deeds. For it giveth unto all lovers courage, that lusty month of May.” – Sir Thomas Malory, Le Morte d’Arthur

Tonight and tomorrow (in the northern hemisphere*) are the traditional dates for many of the major spring/summer festivals in modern Paganism. Beltane, Bealtaine, May Day, Floralia, Protomayia, and Walpurgis Night, to name just a few. This fire festival heralds the coming of summer and is a high holiday, a liminal time when the barriers between our world and the otherworld were thin. In many traditions and cultures it is a time of divine union and fertility.

Walpurgis Night bonfire, near lake Ringsjo, Sweden
Photo by David Castor

Here are some quotes from the press, and from fellow modern Pagans, on the holiday.

“April could not end more dramatically: bonfires rage across the country in aggressive farewell to winter cold. Walpurgis Night, the 30th of April, is a breathtakingly pagan rite, with choruses gathering round pyres to dispel the cruel winter and conjure up a good harvest year. Romance in the air and empty bottles in the gutter.” - Kim Loughran, The Local (Sweden)

“…while Samhain began one kind of yearly cycle, Bealtaine began another, and both could be construed as a kind of “New Year”. In ancient Ireland the High King inaugurated the year on Samhain for his household (and, symbolically, for all the people of Ireland) with the famous ritual of Tara, but in nearby Uisneach, the sacred centre held by the druids in complementary opposition to Tara, it was on Bealtaine that the main ritual cycle was begun. In both cases sacred fires were extinguished and re-lit, though this happened at sunset on Samhain and at dawn on Bealtaine. Bealtaine was a time of opening and expansion, Samhain a time of gathering-in and shutting, and for herd-owners like the Celts this was expressed with particular vividness by the release of cattle into upland pastures on Bealtaine and their return to the safety of the byres on Samhain.” – Alexei Kondratiev, Samhain: Season of Death and Renewal

“Japanese Taiko drummers are to join this year’s spring rituals at the annual Beltane Festival in Edinburgh. Mugen Taiko Dojo fuses ancient the Japanese spiritual practice, traditionally used to frighten away evil spirits, with Celtic traditions. Beltane 2010, which is held on Calton Hill, is expected to be a sell-out as the party falls on Friday night. A crowd of 12,000 people is expected to watch the pagan-inspired spring ritual…” – BBC News

“Beltane begins at sundown, April 30, and extends until sundown May 1.  Those fortunate enough to be able to meet outside in the country will often have bonfires on the 30^th, which young couples can jump through, celebrating their hopes for love and perhaps fertility.  That night, weather permitting, many will sleep outside, and fertility will have another chance to manifest … Before dawn many of us will be up, myself among them, to watch and applaud Morris Dancers who symbolically dance up the summer sun.” – Gus diZerega, Beliefnet

“In the words of Witchcraft writers Janet and Stewart Farrar, the Beltane celebration was principally a time of “unashamed human sexuality and fertility”. Such associations include the obvious phallic symbolism of the Maypole and riding the hobbyhorse. Even a seemingly innocent children’s nursery rhyme “Ride a cock horse to Banburry Cross …” retains such memories. And the next line, “to see a fine Lady on a white horse”, is a reference to the annual ride of Lady Godiva through Coventry. Every year for nearly three centuries, a skyclad village maiden (elected “Queen of the May”) enacted this Pagan rite, until the Puritans put an end to the custom.” – Mike Nichols, The Witches’ Sabbats

“You start in April and cross to the time of May
One has you as it leaves, one as it comes
Since the edges of these months are yours and defer
To you, either of them suits your praises.
The Circus continues and the theatre’s lauded palm,
Let this song, too, join the Circus spectacle.”
- Ovid, Fasti (V.185-190)

May you all be especially blessed this evening and tomorrow.

*A very happy Samhain to those of you living in the southern hemisphere!

Tonight and tomorrow (in the northern hemisphere) are the traditional dates for many of the major spring/summer festivals in modern Paganism. Beltane, Bealtaine, May Day, Floralia, Protomayia, and Walpurgis Night, to name just a few. This fire festival heralds the coming of summer and is a high holiday, a liminal time when the barriers between our world and the otherworld were thin. In many traditions and cultures it is a time of divine union and fertility.

Walpurgis Night bonfire, near lake Ringsjo, Sweden
Photo by David Castor

Here are some quotes from the press, and from fellow modern Pagans, on the holiday.

“It is Beltane! The Earth softens under the caress of the sun and all the world is new. We emerge from the darkness of a long, difficult winter; our eyes drink in rolling green hills budding branches and tender shoots. We breathe deeply the fresh fragrance of radiant blossoms. Merriment calls!” – Selena Fox, Circle Sanctuary

“A sex ban imposed on performers before last year’s Beltane Fire Festival has had an unexpected, and happy, consequence – a baby born exactly nine months later. Rupert Smith, who was playing the part of a Red Man, during the fiery pagan event last year, celebrated the lifting of the ban with his partner – who just happened to be May Queen Fenella Hodgson – after returning from the Calton Hill festivities. The result was son Reuben, now three months old, and, for his efforts, Rupert has now been promoted to the leading role of the Green Man – the May Queen’s betrothed – this year.” - Catherine Salmond, Edinburgh Evening News

“May Day roots go back a long way. For Gaelic peoples it was celebrated as Beltane. Germanic tribes observed it as Walpurgisnacht. In the Middle Ages, the English would erect maypoles and hold “Morris” dances. Some typical ways May Day is celebrated is by crowning a May Queen, putting up a maypole and making May Day baskets and leaving them on the doors of your neighbors, friends and family members. In the late 19th century, May Day became a symbol of the achievements of the labor movement (which brought you the two-day weekend, the eight-hour work day and a minimum wage), and was celebrated as “Labor Day.” Cold War politics rescheduled America’s Labor Day. It is interesting to note Beltane and Walpurgisnacht both use bonfires as part of the celebration. Fires protected the people from spirits and purified the land for a good growing season. It reminds me a bit of prairie burning.” – Regina Murphy, The Emporia Gazette

“I will be back to celebrate the dawn on May 1, arriving well before dawn at Berkeley’s Inspiration Point in Tilden Park.  There, every year, in no matter what the weather, Berkeley Morris performs Morris dances to ‘bring up the sun’ and honor the day.  I have always felt something almost primordially right about this way of celebrating the dawn and the beginning of this season. I remember one year during a ferocious downpour they danced in the puddles and a decent crowd of us stood under umbrellas to honor them and the date.  More often they dance as the light gradually grows until the sun breaks through on the far eastern horizon, bathing us in its gentle light.  When the weather is decent, and it usually is, hundreds show up.  Not all are Pagans, but they are certainly Pagans at heart, honoring the turning of wheel, the sacredness of this day, and the warmth of community.” – Gus diZerega, A Pagan’s Blog

“Despite its modern links to Christianity, Valborgsmässoafton, which has been celebrated in Sweden since the Middle Ages, is one of two Swedish holidays which still resemble their pre-Christian merrymaking. The other is Midsummer. The original pagan festival heralded the onset of the growth season. It attempted to ward off evil, ensure fertility and cleanse the land of the dried and dead of winter. Today, it is still the accepted gateway to long and warmer days.” – Elizabeth Dacey-Fondelius, The Local

“Long before it was a code word for distress or a major holiday of the Soviet Bloc, May Day was a pagan ritual celebrating the arrival of spring. That primal, earth-mother definition drives the Phillips neighborhood’s May Day parade, one of the Twin Cities’ most visually spectacular festivals and a kickoff to Minnesota’s all-too-short warm-weather months. The parade’s most striking feature is the gigantic puppets built by local kids and neighborhood groups…” – Decider Twin Cities

“There are four great festivals of the Pagan Celtic year and the modern Witches’ calendar, as well. The two greatest of these are Halloween (the beginning of winter) and May Day (the beginning of summer). Being opposite each other on the wheel of the year, they separate the year into halves. Halloween (also called Samhain) is the Celtic New Year and is generally considered the more important of the two, though May Day runs a close second. Indeed, in some areas—notably Wales—it is considered “the great holiday”. “ – Mike Nichols, The Witches’ Sabbats

May you all be especially blessed this evening and tomorrow.

“…in 28 years there had never been a punch-up at the Mount Franklin Beltane gathering of witches – an event that has drawn up to 700 spell-casting Victorians … last year, a small group known as “the trolls” caused an upset by hanging headless dolls from trees and otherwise carrying on in a dark-hearted fashion. ‘There was a nasty element we’d never seen before, and it ended in a violent altercation, and has essentially ruined what was once a beautiful event,’ a high-profile witch, speaking anonymously, told The Sunday Age. ‘I mean, you’re meant to embrace the darkness in witchcraft, but you’re also meant to keep it in balance with the light. These guys were all about the darkness. It’s not like there were a lot of them but they’ve done a lot of damage.’”

There are so many things wrong, journalistically speaking, with this article. Including the reliance on a “high-profile” anonymous source, and failing to get the “trolls” side of the story. On the whole, it could very well be that some imperious white-lighter Witch “lord” got up the nose of some goth kids and picked the “violent altercation” alluded to anonymously. Sadly, the article doesn’t give us enough information to make a judgment either way. One of the more reasonable assessments of local tensions that the article provides comes from a Satanic store-owner.

“I grew up with witchcraft in the ’70s, when witchcraft and Satanism were one and the same. This was a time when the black arts were truly forbidden. Now it’s all about white light,” he said forlornly. “The practitioners of today almost go out of their way to remove the mystery and darker aspects of their craft.”

So were the “trolls” nasty violent brutes, or simply misunderstood kids raising the hackles of people who had a fixed idea of what their celebration should be? The article doesn’t really answer that question (though congrats to fellow Pagan blogger Caroline Tully on getting interviewed).

Meanwhile, back in America, a group of teenage hoodlums is Washington are giving a local Christian after-school program the vapors.

“Rainier Chapel’s youth group, ELIFE, is struggling to keep its participants. ELIFE leader Tom Warner said the problem lies with a disruptive group of teens who hang out in the park adjacent to the church during ELIFE activities. Warner said parents don’t want to bring their children to ELIFE because of those teens … Some of the teens outside chant Wicca spells, do drugs and drink alcohol, Warner alleges. “I feel like I’ve enabled a drug ring,” Warner said.”

Teen Witch drug addicts! Oh cripes! There is just one problem with Warner’s assertions, the cops haven’t found any evidence of it yet.

“Police Chief Joe Vukich said while his officers will keep an eye out for any illegal activity, his main goal is for his officers to befriend members of the group. If officers talk to them, maybe they can learn why they are loitering outside the church. “I told (my officer) he needs to hang out there and make friends with the kids and the pastor,” Vukich said. If there is indeed drugs or underage drinking, the police will act accordingly, Vukich said … “It’s possible we have a terrible drug problem out there. We do have a substance abuse problem in Rainier, Tenino and Bucoda,” Vukich said. ‘It’s also possible there isn’t a problem. Nevertheless, we’re trying to take a community approach. We don’t really know what the situation is.‘”

Is Warner concerned about drug-abusing Wiccans, or is he concerned with having competition? He is currently dispersing flyers claiming “the cops will be after you” if ELIFE attendees go outside and run around. Sounds more like a turf war, than concern over underage substance abuse. Perhaps these “Wiccan-chanting” teens are simply having some fun at ELIFE’s expense? If so, raising the stakes by calling the cops in will only make it more exciting for them. To bad the journalist didn’t try to interview any of these teens to get their side of the story, and find out what their real motivations are.

In each of these stories it is entirely possible that the antagonists are everything their opponents say they are: dark, drug-abusing, violent, hooligans. But we aren’t provided the resources to make an informed decision in either case presented here. This is a failure of basic journalism. Each article went for a more sensationalist story about outside forces of chaos intervening in something “good” (whether it was a Pagan gathering or a Christian after-school program), instead of giving us a more traditional assessment of each side’s take. Casualties of Halloween-season reportage, or lazy reporting?

* Australia is in the Southern Hemisphere, so the seasonal holidays are normally reversed. Hence Beltane instead of Samhain.
]]> http://www.patheos.com/blogs/wildhunt/2008/10/troublemakers-or-just-misunderstood.html/feed 5 http://www.patheos.com/blogs/wildhunt/2008/04/merry-beltane-2.html http://www.patheos.com/blogs/wildhunt/2008/04/merry-beltane-2.html#comments Wed, 30 Apr 2008 12:24:00 +0000 Jason Pitzl-Waters http://patheos.com/blogs/wildhunt/2008/04/a-merry-beltane-2.html “What potent blood hath modest May.”
- Ralph W. Emerson

Tonight and tomorrow (in the northern hemisphere) are the traditional dates for many of the major spring/summer festivals in modern Paganism. Beltane, Bealtaine, May Day, Floralia, Protomayia, and Walpurgis Night, to name just a few. This fire festival heralds the coming of summer and is a high holiday, a liminal time when the barriers between our world and the otherworld were thin. In many traditions and cultures it is a time of divine union and fertility.

Walpurgis Night bonfire, near lake Ringsjo, Sweden
Photo by David Castor

“We celebrate the new crops coming in, celebrating initiation and fertility. It is a sharing of Appalachian traditions. West Virginia is among the most Appalachian of the states. A lot of the traditions that were here tonight were celebrated here not even a hundred years ago.” – George Fain, president of Marshall University Pagan Association

“On the night itself, hundreds of performers lead a fire-lit procession around [Calton Hill]. They move through a fire gate and round points representing earth, air, water and fire. The festivities reach a climax when the Green Man, a symbol of the first growth of summer, arrives and is crowned by the May Queen.” – Martin Couper, The Edinburgh Evening News

“Beltane, meaning bright fire, is one of the four Celtic cross-quarter festivals celebrating the changing of seasons. ‘People have, as far as we can tell, [always] celebrated the changing of the seasons,’ Dr. Robin Larsen, co-founder and director of the Center for Symbolic Studies says. Beltane, an ancient festival typically celebrated on the last two days of April and the first two days of May is a time to awaken the earth’s spirit to get ready for spring. ‘March doesn’t feel so spring like,’ Larsen says. ‘When you get to the end of April you’re really there and you know summer is coming.’” – Tara Quealy, Chronogram Magazine

“Each year, in the evening of April the 30th, Swedes and Finns celebrate Saint Walpurgis, one of the most popular festivities during the year alongside of Christmas and Midsummer. Walpurgis Night receives the name of “Valborg” in Sweden and “Vappu” in Finland, and is a very lively celebration where people spend the night together and sing traditional songs to welcome spring.” – Scandinavica.com

“Thursday is May Day, which, depending on your leanings, is a pagan pole-dancing holiday, a day of labor solidarity against The Man, a day off for immigrants and their supporters, or some combination of all three, a grab-bag of un-American activity. (To the latter group, Happy Law Day!)” – Swati Pandey, Los Angeles Times

“The festival of May Day (May 1st) has been widely celebrated for centuries, even millennia. Essentially a seasonal and floral festival concerned with the spring rebirth of vegetation after its death in winter, it is a festival of all things green in nature … our modern May Day holiday has a rich past, redolent with symbolism and meaning. Whether we take a deep historical view, or whether we just have fun in the sun, May Day (Beltaine) is one of the key turning points of the ritual year.” – Rob Tillett, Astrology on the Web

“The Earth softens under the caress of the sun and all the world is new. We emerge from the darkness of a long, difficult winter; our eyes drink in rolling green hills budding branches and tender shoots. We breathe deeply the fresh fragrance of radiant blossoms. We have survived!” – Selena Fox, Circle Sanctuary

May you all be especially blessed this evening and tomorrow.
]]> http://www.patheos.com/blogs/wildhunt/2008/04/merry-beltane-2.html/feed 1 http://www.patheos.com/blogs/wildhunt/2008/04/national-day-of-prayer-vs-may-day.html http://www.patheos.com/blogs/wildhunt/2008/04/national-day-of-prayer-vs-may-day.html#comments Thu, 24 Apr 2008 15:28:00 +0000 Jason Pitzl-Waters http://patheos.com/blogs/wildhunt/2008/04/national-day-of-prayer-vs-may-day.html “Perhaps it’s just as well that you won’t be here tomorrow, to be offended by the sight of our May Day celebrations here.” – Lord Summerisle, “The Wicker Man”

Next week, thanks to a quirk of the calendar, one of the biggest religious festivals within modern Paganism will coincide with the yearly National Day of Prayer. The National Day of Prayer, in theory a time for all Americans of faith to unite and pray (in their own manner) for the well-being of the country, has long been co-opted by conservative Christian evangelicals who operate a “task force”. This group (essentially run by Focus on The Family) runs the bulk of NDP events, and excludes non-Christians from active participation.

“The National Day of Prayer Task Force was a creation of the National Prayer Committee for the expressed purpose of organizing and promoting prayer observances conforming to a Judeo-Christian system of values. People with other theological and philosophical views are, of course, free to organize and participate in activities that are consistent with their own beliefs. This diversity is what Congress intended when it designated the Day of Prayer, not that every faith and creed would be homogenized, but that all who sought to pray for this nation would be encouraged to do so in any way deemed appropriate. It is that broad invitation to the American people that led, in our case, to the creation of the Task Force and the Judeo-Christian principles on which it is based.”

Sounds reasonable, right? Can’t the non-Christians throw their own party? The problem is that the NDPTF bills itself as the “official” site for the National Day of Prayer, and attacks any governor who won’t support their efforts with an official proclamation. In addition, Christian coordinators who attempt to throw an inclusive event under the NDPTF auspices are barred from running future events. So JewsOnFirst is calling for citizens to lobby their governors to shun the NDPTF, and either not issue a proclamation, or issue an inclusive statement that doesn’t empower such a narrow view of acceptable public prayer (or crib talking points from Focus on the Family).

“The National Day of Prayer has been hijacked! What began in 1952 as President Truman’s declaration of a National Prayer Day for all Americans is now excluding and dividing us on religious lines. The “Task Force” excludes Jews, Muslims, Catholics and even mainline Christians from participation in the events it coordinates around the country. Many of those events are staged in government venues with elected officials, in a deliberate affront to the separation of church and state.”

You can find contact information for your governor, here. You can find a sample telephone script and sample letter on the inclusive prayer day site. You can also find a listing of proclamations already issued.

Let’s hear it for inclusive prayer!

While I encourage my readers to participate in this call for inclusiveness, I think the fact that the National Day of Prayer falls on May Day/Beltane is far too good an opportunity to pass up! If there is a NDP event being held at your state capitol, why not take a gaggle of Pagans and Heathens in their best May-finery? Or why not hold an event as near as possible to the “official” NDPTF-organized shin-dig? Imagine May-poles and hobby-horses prancing while the evangelicals studiously pray against gay marriage. If the NDPTF is given a government building to hold their meeting, demand one for a really inclusive gathering! Invite anyone who’ll show up! Pray to your assorted gods and goddesses!

We’re a deeply religious people.

If all else fails, hold a procession past the capitol reminding the lawmakers that a “National Day of Prayer” includes all faiths, not just the ones with the political clout to co-opt it for their own ends. When a prayer event hijacked by conservative Christians falls on May Day, who knows what could happen!
]]> http://www.patheos.com/blogs/wildhunt/2008/04/national-day-of-prayer-vs-may-day.html/feed 2