www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4YUZwAmOAU

“Explore the Lower Wisconsin State Riverway, a unique slice of our state that flourishes under a public/private land management plan.”

Fox appears in a segment dedicated to spiritual dimensions of the river, and part of a public ceremony facilitated by Fox and members of Circle Sanctuary will be featured.

“Selena Fox of Circle Sanctuary was among those appearing in the interfaith part of the film that explored some of the spiritual dimensions of the river. Toward the end of the film, Selena also spoke about the need to celebrate and preserve the river as part of a public celebration of the river in August 2009. This event included an environmental ceremony facilitated by Selena that celebrated the river and those connected with it. Members of the Circle Sanctuary Community also took part in the celebration and ritual.”

You can glimpse just a snippet of the ceremony at the end of the preview clip. For those with access to Wisconsin Public Television, the documentary airs Thursday, September 8th, with rebroadcasts throughout the month of September. For those who don’t live in Wisconsin, the film is available on DVD from producer/director Dave Erickson. For more information about the project, call 608-583-3366.

Congratulations to Selena Fox and Circle Sanctuary!

Drew Jacob’s Heroic Path: PNC-Minnesota reports that Drew Jacob, former head of the now-defunct Temple of the River, Patheos columnist, and author of “Walk Like A God,” will embark on an over 3000-mile walk from Minnesota to Brazil in South America, a trip that Jacob sees as a spiritual calling.

PNC-MN Editor Cara Schulz, Drew Jacob, & PNC Contributor Diana Rajchel

“I decided to live the Heroic Life after many years of telling the myths of the ancient heroes. One day I realized that although their stories are fun to read or hear, they would be more fun to live. So I’ve begun to change my entire life to be able to travel and do great things.  To live the Heroic Life means taking action, living for high ideals, charging fearlessly into new and grand plans, building a name around your art or skill, and using your life to change the way the world works.”

Jacob will begin the walk in the Spring after months of training, including a martial arts intensive in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He said that “I believe in a life of travel, traveling freely and finding your purpose in life.  I believe in doing amazing things.” Drew Jacob will be blogging his trip and experiences, here.

A New Abraxas Appears: Abraxas: The International Journal of Esoteric Studies has released its second volume.

“Treadwells and Fulgur are delighted to announce the second issue of the esoteric journal ABRAXAS is now available to pre-order. As with our first issue, writers and artists have kindly submitted material from across the globe: Argentina, Australia, the United States, Mexico, Finland, Poland and the United Kingdom are all represented. Substantially larger than the previous issue, Abraxas 2 offers over 210 pages of essays, poetry, interviews and art, much of it published for the first time. Uniquely produced in a large high quality format, printed on a variety of papers, richly illustrated in colour and monochrome, and offering our first free audio supplement, we hope this issue of Abraxas will provoke and inspire.”

You can find a full list of contributors, here. The new volume of Abraxas will also be available at Seattle’s Esoteric Book Conference being held on September 10th and 11th.

Starhawk Says Thank You: As I mentioned previously the planned movie adaptation of Starhawk’s novel “The Fifth Sacred Thing” has reached its first fundraising goal. Over $75,000 dollars was pledged towards making a professional pitch video to the major film studios. Starhawk, along with producers Paradox Pollack and Philip ‘Mouse’ Wood, have made a special thank-you video to mark the end of this first phase.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUduhvKKw9g

Pollack also recently appeared on the Paradigms radio show to talk about the film and the campaign. Future updates on this project can be found at their Facebook page, or the official project website.

More Community Notes:

• PNC-Washington DC reports that the metaphysical shop Esoterica in Sterling, Virginia is closing down. At their Facebook page, the owners of Esoterica note that “the crux of the matter is that we have been unable to meet our bills with the sales we have made.”
• In Pagan music news, the band Featherscale has just released a new album entitled “Gypsy Heart,” Castalia has done the same with “The Return,” and Murphey’s Midnight Rounders are heading back to the studio.
• The Dogwood Local Council of the Covenant of the Goddess has launched a special page for “13 Magickal Days of Remembrances” for 9/11.
• John Beckett at No Unsacred Place weighs in on the controversy of the planned Tar Sands Pipeline that will run from the oil producing region of Alberta, Canada to refineries on the Gulf Coast of Texas. Here’s a Flickr photostream of those being arrested in civil disobedience against the pipeline.

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

Protecting Sacred Lands: The Environmental News Network reports that the Biodiversity Institute at the University of Oxford, in partnership with the Alliance of Religions and Conservation (ARC) and World Database on Sacred Natural Sites (SANASI), is creating a world map that will display sacred and holy places, including forests in an attempt to raise awareness for biodiversity conservation.

Sacred stream in Tibet. Photo: Shonil Bhagwat

A team of scientists from the University of Oxford are working on a world map which shows all the land owned or revered by various world religions. This “holy map” will display all the sacred sites from Jerusalem’s Western Wall, to Masjid al-Haram in Mecca, to St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City. Just as interesting, the map will also show the great forests held sacred by various religions. Within these protected lands dwell a wide variety of life and high numbers of threatened species. [...] ”We urgently need to map this vast network of religious forests, sacred sites and other community-conserved areas to understand their role in biodiversity conservation,” added Dr. Shonil Bhagwat, also on the research team. “Such mapping can also allow the custodian communities, who have protected these sites for generations, to secure their legal status.”

It should be interesting to see the final results, and what the threshold will be to discern if something is holy/sacred. What about the San Francisco Peaks in Arizona? The Hill of Tara in Ireland? Would they be willing to list modern Pagan-owned lands like Circle Sanctuary or Stone City Pagan Sanctuary? Depending on where the line is drawn, much of the earth could be considered sacred and holy (especially if you’re a pantheist). It should also be interesting to see how this intersects with initiatives like Bolivia’s Law of Mother Earth.

The Interfaith Observer: COG Interfaith Reports announces that Rachael Watcher and Don Frew will be serving on the board for a new interfaith journal/website entitled The Interfaith Observer. Officially launching in September, the journal will endeavor to “explore interreligious relations and the interfaith movement as a whole.”

Don Frew at the Parliament of the World's Religions

“It will provide historical perspectives, survey current interfaith news, and otherwise provide maps and sign-posts for newcomers. It will offer a context to explore and respond to the new religious world around us. The Observer is designed as a resource for the general reader, anyone interested in the subject; but articles will be filled with references and links for those who wish to pursue a particular subject. Along with examining our spiritual and religious differences, the journal will inquire into shared core values, offer various perspectives on the unparalleled religious diversity enveloping humankind, reflect on theological and spiritual issues, and perhaps develop a social network for interfaith activists focused on service. A long-term goal is to help grow connective tissue between large interfaith ventures and stakeholders and the rest of us. We will promote the major institutional players. And provide space for the creative little guys all over the map who are doing wonderful new things.”

Wiccan Elder Don Frew says that TIO will “be to interfaith work what Beliefnet and Patheos have been to comparative religion.” With two Pagans on the ground floor of this new initiative I feel confident that our perspectives and ideas will be included in their content. The Interfaith Observer launches on September 15th.

Teenage Clergy: This year Ganesh Chaturthi falls on September first, a ten-day festival in honor of the god Ganesha. The BBC reports that in Mumbai there is such a shortage of priests for this festival that teenagers are being trained and recruited to lead the necessary ceremonies.

Photo courtesy of the BBC

According to one estimate, there are barely 3,500 priests in the city when it needs at least eight times the number. So the festival organisers have decided to train 700 young boys and girls this year so that more priests can be made available. Interestingly, many of the children taking the “crash course” in priesthood are girls. “I know there will be some hesitation [to hire us] in the beginning because we are so young and then we are girls. But once [the clients] know that we are as good as traditional priests, they will hire us,” says a visibly excited 15-year-old Neha. [...] ”If the children learn the scriptures which are available in a condensed form and take their job seriously they will be accepted,” says Ganesh Pandey, a veteran priest.

You can see a video of this report, here. Why is there a priest shortage in India? One explanation is that priesthood is no longer seen as a fiscally attractive role, and many children of traditional priests are going into finance and other fields. This shortage has created new opportunities for younger people who may not have had the opportunity to become ritual leaders before. For modern Pagans, I wonder if this development amongst our cousins in Hinduism could offer a lesson in how we approach our own future leaders? To integrate them more fully into our rites, give them more responsibilities, and not shy away from teaching them our faith?

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

• If the embryonic Rick Perry candidacy has done one thing of real merit, it has been to inspire mainstream media coverage of the New Apostolic Reformation. Wednesday’s edition of Rachel Maddow’s show on MSNBC featured an interview with Forrest Wilder of the Texas Observer, who has been closely covering Rick Perry’s new religious allies. This has led other outlets, like Salon.com’s War Room to also take note. In fact, those of us who’ve been early adopters in following this pernicious religious movement have been spoiled for choice lately. The question now is if this spike in coverage is adequate sunlight antiseptic against their infection of spiritual warfare tactics? As for Wilder, he says coverage of “The Response” has been shallow, at best.
• Peter Dybing, National First Officer of Covenant of the Goddess, has issued a call “for ministers of all faiths and political persuasions to take a stand” against Dominionists who “seek to enslave the entire nation to their religious values for their own good.”
• A judge in Illinois has denied an inmate’s request for a copy of Anton LaVey’s the Satanic Bible. The State Department of Corrections argued that the book encouraged “hatred and violence.” Beth Winegarner at the Backward Messages blog weighs in on the case, saying that “only in a society where some religions are favored over others could a judge — whose salary is paid by the people — tell a member of one faith that he cannot have access to his holy text, when access to such texts while imprisoned is otherwise protected by law.”
• Did you like Thor comics but wish they were more Celtic? Well, today is your lucky day, Marvel Comics has announced that the Celtic thunder-god Tanarus will be (no doubt temporarily) replacing the Norse god after the current major crossover epic wraps up. I’m personally waiting for the debut of Lugus: Lord of the Lightning Flash!
• Religion Dispatches reports that the Human Rights Committee of the United Nations has issued General Comment No. 34, which explores freedom of speech under international law, and says that “prohibitions of displays of lack of respect for a religion or other belief system, including blasphemy laws, are incompatible with the Covenant.” The document also rejects “any restrictions on the operation of websites, blogs or any otherinternet-based, electronic or other such information dissemination system.” Austin Dacey sees this as a serious step forward in eliminating blasphemy laws, saying it will give a legal framework for those trying to push reforms.
• I’m a little behind the curve on this one, but fantasy author Mercedes Lackey released a new collection of novellas at the end of 2010 entitled “Trio of Sorcery” that revisits fan-favorite (and Pagan-favorite) character Diana Tregarde. It’s been twenty years since the last book in that series, “Jinx High,” was published, and Lackey had long-soured on publishing any more stories with that character due to obsessive stalkers and death threats by disturbed individuals who thought Lackey was a documentarian and not a fantasy novelist. With the current boom in the urban fantasy genre, and with some water under the bridge, is Lackey thinking of returning to her Witchy protagonist again for new full-length novels?
• Former political candidate and (alleged) Witchcraft-dabbler Christine O’Donnell is making news again thanks to the publication of her new book “Troublemaker,” where she addresses the “dabble-gate” missteps of her 2010 Delaware senate campaign. O’Donnell calls the infamous “I’m not a Witch” ad “a wrong-headed move, made for all the wrong reasons, but it was mine.”
• At Witchvox, Heather Awen addresses of issue of using strip-mined crystals as spiritual tools, prompting a thoughtful meditation on the subject from Lupa at her Therioshamanism blog. At her own blog, Awen gives tips on greening your rituals.
• Here at Patheos P. Sufenas Virius Lupus asks “what does sexual liberty look like?” Lupus notes that “as polytheists, and as people who claim to be “earth-based” and “nature-based” in their spiritualities and theologies, there is absolutely no reason to view gender variance or diversity of sexual orientation—which exists in abundance in non-human animal natures—as anything to be upset over or worried about, so long as it is carried out in ways that are also appropriate to human nature and social conventions.”
• Finally, let me give a warm welcome to the Pagan Newswire Collective’s news bureau: PNC-Texas (aka Lonestar Pagan)! They’ve already got some great stuff up, and I look forward to their future participation. Oh, and while I’m on the subject of the PNC, we’re looking for a motivated media-savvy volunteer to be our new Bureaus Coordinator, if you’re interested in this important role, do drop us a line.

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.

• Early reviews of “The Wicker Tree” from its Fantasia 2011 screening are emerging. Fangoria says it “can’t match the impact of its predecessor.” Twitch opines that it “is going seen as horrific and blasphemous to those who saw the original film as an act of horror and blasphemy.” Sound on Sight opines that it is “not only a great genre film, but a film that pushes the boundaries of cinema itself.” All the reviews point out that this is a far more broadly comic film than it’s spiritual predecessor. You can read all of my “Wicker Tree” coverage, here.
• A documentary is being made about writer and conservationist Sigurd F. Olson. According to his biographer, Olson “was an apostle of awe, a witness for wonder, and an icon of the modern wilderness movement whose words will continue to stir hearts and souls for generations to come.” Something for pantheists and Pagan nature-lovers to keep an eye out for.
• The BBC presents “The Ancestors are Calling,” a radio documentary of a South African woman weighing the decision of whether to become a traditional healer and provide “a channel for the power of the ancestral spirits,” or “get on with her life as a young African woman in the 21st Century.”
• A Kickstarter campaign is under way to produce a memorial documentary project about sculptor and art historian Merlin Stone, who passed away earlier this year. Stone was the author of the seminal book “When God Was A Woman.” You can find our more about the project, here.
• Reality Sandwich features and essay by Starhawk about the ongoing effort to produce a film version of her novel “The Fifth Sacred Thing.” With 30 days to go, $44,733 of the $60,000 goal has been pledged. You can find out more at the project’s website.
• The Quietus features an interview with writer and magician Alan Moore. In it Moore talks about his magazine Dodgem Logic and why he’s not on the Internet: “I don’t want to be connected to that kind of all pervasive kind of cyber culture any more than I want to be connected to the physical world more than I can help it.” We all still await the “future release” of his “The Moon and Serpent Bumper Book of Magic.”
• There’s more good news in the ongoing Sacred Paths Center story: PNC-Minnesota reports that Earth House Project has presented Sacred Paths Center with $978.62 in fulfillment of a pledge to donate 25% of the proceeds from their Midsummer Gather. SPC has now raised $9795 towards their goal of $12,000 by July 31st.
• Rick Perry’s ever-controversial “The Response” event continues to make news. Finally questioned about all the controversial endorsers by the press, Perry  said that he appreciates “anyone who’s going to endorse me, whether it’s on The Response, or whether it’s on a potential run for the presidency of the United States,” and that “just because you endorse me doesn’t mean I endorse everything that you say or do.” I don’t think endorsements work that way. You can’t accept all endorsements, but only welcome the parts you agree with. If that were the case Obama and McCain would have simply brushed away their pastor issues in 2008 with no worry. Now we learn that Perry may not even speak at the event he helped create.
• The latest TheoFantastique Podcast features an interview with Erik Davis, author of “Nomad Codes: Adventures in Modern Esoterica”.
• Check out the amazing collection of photos from Life Magazine on Haitian Vodou. The photos are from a June 2011 Haitian Vodou ceremony. Meanwhile, Christian groups continue to wage “Spiritual Warfare” on Vodou, showing just how toothless the new missionary guidelines really are.
• Seattle PI reports on a story involving a doctor, heroin addiction, threats, shamanism, and a substance illegal in the United States. A documentary was made about the shaman arrested, Dimitri “Mobengo” Mugianis.  More about this as I unravel it. Thanks to C. Vermeers for the tip-off.

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.

“One overlooked area in which Nazism and modern leftism converge is the worship of nature, the expansion of a gentle and loving appreciation of divinely created beauty into an obsession bordering on religious fanaticism.  Mark Musser, in his new book, Nazi Oaks, Advantage Inspirational, not only explores the historical development of radical environmentalism within the Nazi movement but he explains how this totalitarianism is grounded in a violent rejection of the historical Judeo-Christian worldview, which views nature as a blessing created for man by God.  The Old Testament, as Musser explains, has an historical and a metaphysical prelude to problems which we associate with modern and thoughtful secularism.”

You see, the modern environmental movement didn’t spring from the transcendentalist-inspired American conservation movement (which predated the advent of National Socialism), or even from the growing awareness sparked by Earth Day and some real pollution problems in the 1960s and 70s, it’s all about Nazis! Mark Musser, author of “Nazi Oaks”, breaks it all down in an editorial report for the conservative media watchdog Accuracy in Media.

“…what later became known as the Final Solution was in fact an eco-imperial plan rooted in racist biology with ecological predilections. That this eco-imperial plan would far exceed the evils of the western powers in their drive to colonial expansionism has of course gone on largely unnoticed. However, the Final Solution was specifically contemplated by Hitler to resolve this Jewish “existential” threat. In short, the revenge of Nature against the Jews was to be carried out by the Nazis, who thought themselves to be the Master Race precisely because they deemed themselves the most ‘natural’ or ‘authentic,’ i.e., the most in tune with Nature’s pantheistic ways-all of which was largely defined by Ernst Haeckel’s evolutionary Social Darwinism called Monism.”

Oh, and if you think falling back on Thoreau as the philosophical underpinning of your environmentalism is going to save you from being called a Nazi, think again. Musser’s got that one covered as well.

“…while Henry David Thoreau, perhaps the first environmental hippie of America going back to the 1800′s, was blaming the immigrant Protestants and Puritans for despoiling the New England landscape, German romantics were blaming the invasive Jewish people for the same environmental degradation taking place all around their countryside as the Industrial Revolution, supposedly fueled by Jewish capital and banks, inexorably despoiled the forested landscape and sullied wildlife habitat with dirty cities and international commercial markets.”

You see, if we had given Thoreau political power, he no doubt would be eliminating immigrant Protestants in gas chambers! The only non-Nazi option is to embrace free-market capitalism and Christianity (and meat-eating, one would suspect). It’s all just the latest salvo in the conservative slight-of-hand to make fascism a “liberal” movement, all you have to do is ignore all the anti-liberal/(non-National) socialist/communist rhetoric and actions of the Nazi party, not to mention the fierce culture war they waged against “degenerate” modern art.

I’m not trying to engage in some philosophical jujitsu to say that Republicans/conservatives are really the Nazis here, but I am calling for a cease-fire in the “who’s a Nazi” game. Reductio ad Hitlerum is a logical fallacy for a reason. We could draw parallels all day between the Nazis and various elements of modern-day political movements on the left and the right, but that wouldn’t make the connections accurate or pertinent to what’s actually happening in our world. It just clouds the waters, and leads to more shouting matches. Calling Pagans, or environmentalists, or vegetarians, or Republicans, or Obama, Nazis may feel good at first, but once you’ve equated someone with the modern equivalent of ultimate evil, there’s no where else to go. You are trapped in your fallacy, and the only options are to double-down on your hypothesis, tunneling ever-deeper into conspiracy theory and paranoia, or admit that you were being excessive in your rhetoric and back down. Acknowledging that someone who thinks differently than you, and believes differently than you, isn’t necessarily going to put you in a gas chamber.

“Most people are on the world, not in it—have no conscious sympathy or relationship to anything about them—undiffused, separate, and rigidly alone like marbles of polished stone, touching but separate.” - John Muir

“Your descendants shall gather your fruits.” - Publius Vergilius Maro (Virgil)

Today is Earth Day. Originally spearheaded in 1970 by Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson as a national “teach-in” on urgent environmental issues, it has since become an internationally recognized holiday in 192 countries. Earth Day is partially credited with jump-starting the modern environmentalist movement, and helping to pass legislation like the Clean Air and Clean Water acts. Earth Day also had a profound affect on modern Paganism in the United States.

“The spirit of Earth Day 1970 did not just happen; its roots could include the gradual stirring of environmental consciousness that accelerated in the 1960s, but that stirring itself had deeper roots in an American consciousness of a special relationship with the land, even if that relationship was often abusive. Still, if there was a year when Wicca (in the broad sense) became “nature religion,” as opposed to the “mystery religion” or “metaphorical fertility religion” labels that it had brought from England, that year was 1970.” – Chas Clifton, Her Hidden Children: The Rise of Wicca and Paganism in America

Modern Pagan and Heathen faiths, whether they identify as “nature religions” or not, have a special sacral relationship with the natural world. Our gods and goddesses can be found in oceans, rivers, forests, and mountains (indeed, in many cultures, Earth is the primal mother of most acknowledged gods and powers), some pre-Christian cultures envision a World Tree that binds reality together. Our rites often mark the changing seasons, and once tracked the progress of crops essential to our survival. Deity is not merely a transcendent force separate from creation, deity is everywhere and within every thing. Each of us holds the potential to be like the gods, and we acknowledge that the gods and powers walk and exist among us still. So it isn’t surprising that many Pagans feel a special urging to advocate for the environment and the protection of the natural world.

The Pagan notion of a sacred and interconnected Earth still persists today, and continues to make some people, both Christian and secular, uncomfortable. Despite these qualms, elements of immanence, pantheism, and various indigenous perspectives have become increasingly popular and “mainstream” in our modern culture. Look no further than the mega-blockbuster movie “Avatar” being released on, and in conjunction with, Earth Day for proof of this.

2010 is the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, and many special commemorations and actions are being planned. At PBS, you can watch the documentary “Earth Days”, which looks at the origins of the day, and the birth of the modern environmental movement.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXSMwfpt2MM

Today, with immense environmental challenges facing us, from climate change and the destruction of natural ecosystems to the impending fresh water shortages, the ideals and message of Earth Day are more vital than they have ever been.

“For most of our history, we slept on the dirt, perhaps cushioned by a thin layer of leaves or animal skins. We rested on Earth as on the bosom of our mother. Until we polluted the lakes and streams, we sipped the water, our lives utterly dependent on it, as we sucked the milk from our mothers’ breasts. The food we require for life either grows directly from the soil or the waters or else consists of herbivores and omnivores who eat plant life and whom we eat in turn. Earth nurses us and feeds us as do our mothers, who themselves in turn are dependent on Earth.” – Jordan Paper, The Deities Are Many: A Polytheistic Theology

Want to get active? Find out where you’re at, reduce your carbon footprint (and your water footprint), support small farms and eat ethically, teach on global climate change as a moral issue, invest green, vote green, and go green.

“I will sing of well-founded Earth, mother of all, eldest of all beings. She feeds all creatures that are in the world, all that go upon the goodly land, and all that are in the paths of the seas, and all that fly: all these are fed of her store.” – Homer

Let’s make every day Earth Day.