The Marin Independent Journal reports that Jo Carson’s documentary film “Dancing With Gaia” has finally been completed and will be shown at the Fairfax Film Festival.

“An exploration of earth-based spirituality shot at sacred sites around the world, including Marin, the film will be shown for the first time at 2 p.m. April 5, a highlight of the 10th annual Fairfax Film Festival. A former Lucasfilm camera operator now working as nurse at Marin General Hospital, Carson traveled throughout Europe, the Mediterranean and the United States, filming the sacred sites of ancient earth-centered religions. She interviewed 15 visionaries along the way.It’s taken 20 years, but Jo Carson’s documentary, “Dancing with Gaia,” is at long last finished and ready for its world premiere.”

The film was inspired by Feraferia co-founder Fred Adams (who is also featured in the film), and features interviews with Pagan luminaries like Monica Sjoo, Cerridwen Fallingstar, and Kathy Jones. For those who can’t make it to a film festival showing, Carson says that there will be a DVD release out soon. Documentaries featuring Pagans are rare enough that I very much look forward to seeing this.

Did any of you catch the 200th episode of “CSI” last night? If so you were treated to an exorcist-haunted take (thanks to direction by William Friedkin) on Santeria (or was it Voodoo, the show is a bit hazy on that front) that manages to imply that the loa/orisha Ogun is some sort of evil demon (complete with subliminal Pazuzu-esque demon-head flashes) and paints adherents to Afro-Caribbean religions as wholly alien and apart from “normal” life.

“There was a piece of white leather in her hand with traces of powdered Datura on it, which was also in Silvia’s system. It’s a powerful hallucinogen that is reportedly used in Santeria voodoo rituals to speak with the dead. Brass and Nick check out local Datura dealers and come across some voodoo chanting with bongos and shrieking and possibly a couple seizures. There is some voodoo priest guy hauled in for questioning, but nothing ever comes of it. Weird  … When brought in, [the killer] still claims his innocence. Until his voice gets low and deep and he blames it on a Voodoo God. Ray twists his arm up, then leaves the room and punches a wall …”

Really awful. Some truly exploitative stuff here. Not a single attempt to paint the killers actions as completely outside the norm for African diasporic faiths, or that “Ogun” is simply a manifestation of his mental illness. In fact, there isn’t really any exposition concerning Santeria at all. It all exists as a prop for Ray Langston (Laurence Fishburne) to get upset and punch things.

I haven’t been keeping track, so I’m not sure when this happened, but Pagan author A.J. Drew has closed down his web sites, started a goat farm, and is selling his most popular Internet addresses for 10,000 dollars.

There have been and still are plans to incorporate PaganNation.com into community software A.J. Drew began several years. However, maintaining this site is beyond our capabilities at this time, the software is not yet ready for release, and the obligations generated when his business was destroyed and the convention failed are pressing. He would very much like to conclude his former life without those obligations. In an effort to meet those obligations: PaganNation.com, WitchesBall.com, and TheRealWitchesBall.com Are for sale as a package: $10,000.00. Should a sale not take place prior to the launch of our software, PaganNation.com will return in a much improved format.

I’m not sure who would be willing to pay that much for 3 domain names (nor do they provide contact information for interested buyers), but who knows? Perhaps there is someone out there with deep pockets who covets “TheRealWitchesBall.com”, I couldn’t say. Aimee Drew (A.J.’s wife) also briefly explains her husband’s 2006 electrocution accident, and the subsequent deterioration of their previous life. It isn’t known if this is a permanent retirement from active participation with the larger Pagan community, or simply a step back to regroup, whatever the situation I wish them peace.

Author and “Techgnostic” Erik Davis shares his introduction to the new book “Mushroom Magick: A Visionary Field Guide” where he ponders the enduring myth of “shrooms” as a precursor to religion.

“…appearances can deceive. Despite the fact that Psilocybe spores carpet-bombed wide swaths of our planet millennia ago, there is little hard evidence for psychedelic mushroom use in traditional societies—even among groups that consume other mind-expanding plants and brews. Along with Mesoamerica, where royal weddings were capped with mushroom-fueled dance parties, the only other bulls-eye is Siberia, where shamans (and ordinary folks) consumed Amanita muscaria, the non-psilocybin-containing fungus whose psychoactive alkaloids were also passed around through the quaffing of urine. In Europe, there is scant suggestion of mushroom use, despite the ubiquity of several species. Solidly documented cases of probable Psilocybe intoxication begin in the eighteenth century, and they suggest that these accidental shroomers discovered nothing particularly cosmic in their trips—although some did get the giggles. Nonetheless, a number of authors insist that a hidden mushroom cult of fungal gnosis, rooted in Neolithic shamanism, has been passed down secretly.”

Like many myths that gained popularity in the 1960s, the European “mushroom cult” has obtained a reality of its own, with thousands using the fungus both recreationally and for sacred purposes.

In a final note, The Sun interviews Colin Meloy of The Decemberists about their new concept album “The Hazards of Love”, and how folk, metal, and prog-rock are linked together through a shared love of myth and mysticism.

“Metal and folk share a similar fascination with mythology, mysticism, pre-Christian stuff, paganism. Led Zeppelin are the most obvious bridge between the folk revival and classic metal. But Black Sabbath had quite a bit of that with Fairies Wear Boots etc.”

Considering The Decemberists’ new album features “a shape-shifting forest dweller” and a “jealous forest queen”, it might just appeal to fans of myth-drenched pagan-friendly music.

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

“Feraferia emerged from a utopian California subculture of simple living, minimal clothing, and “natural” foods that predated the better-known 1960s counterculture by at least thirty years … Feraferia’s theology celebrated humans’ erotic union with nature, expressed through an annual ritual cycle … To Feraferia … the Maiden aspect was most important – Kore Soteria, the Holy Maiden Savioress. The unique characteristic separated Feraferia, Adams wrote, from other Pagan groups…” – Chas Clifton, “Her Hidden Children: The Rise of Wicca and Paganism in America”

Fred and Svetlana Adams in the mid-60s. Photo by Harold Moss.

While best known for his attempts at organizing the emerging Pagan community in America, Adams was also an accomplished artist and illustrator whose work appeared in several publications and other media.

“Of the many groups I have encountered, Feraferia is one of the most difficult to describe. Feraferia – the name is derived from Latin words meaning “wilderness festival” – is the most intricately formed of the Neo-Pagan religions in the United States … it is a jewel, an artistic creation, the private vision of one man, which sits like a beautiful crystal on a shelf, highly admired by mostly from afar.” – Margot Adler, “Drawing Down the Moon”

While small, Feraferia managed to influence several Pagan traditions, and earn a place for itself as a vital part of our early history. Adams, along with fellow pioneers Oberon Zell-Ravenheart and Isaac Bonewits, helped create uniquely American forms of modern Paganism quite different from numerically dominant Witchcraft traditions.

“The natural fountainhead of human endeavor is not reasonable utility but extravagant mythopoeia. The myths and dreams of Paradise, common to all peoples, predict future actualities for this Planet. Trans-cultural images of the glowing orchard of innocent love constellate from the Collective Unconscious an evolutional FIAT of Cosmos.” – Frederick Adams, “Oracles of the Faerie Faith (The Faerie Manifesto)”, 1970

May he be united with his Goddess, and know peace.
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