A Call for Solidarity to Save a Sacred Altar: Greek Hellenic group Thyrsos Hellenes Ethnikoi has issued a call for solidarity to stop what they consider a “cultural crime” underway in Athens. It seems that the famous Altar of the Twelve Gods was finally uncovered on February 17th during railway construction, however, turf battles over jurisdiction have endangered the site, and there’s a chance it could be buried once more by Athens Piraeus Electric Railways (ISAP). Protests have already broken out, and Thyrsos Hellenes Ethnikoi are asking for “all civilized people from all over the world” to call for the altar’s preservation.

“Very recently during constructions on the railway network of Athens, a magnificent Treasure of the Hellenic History was discovered, a masterpiece of the Hellenic Culture, the Sacred Altar of the 12 Gods. Now this Treasure is in immediate danger because of the lack of interest of the Hellenic State, because of the decision of the railway company to bury it as quick as possible. And also know that the Altar and its very site were the center of Athens in Ancient Years. The holiest spot of Athens. Where Hiketes (suppliants) would ask for Mercy! As archaeologists say, it is as important as the golden-elephantine statue of Goddess Athena! This Altar is not only an archaeological remain. It is also Sacred, especially to us, the followers of the Hellenic Ancient Religion. The total devastation of it, means that the Hellenic Culture has been mutilated by the ignorant and dangerous people who rule and they do not respect who they are, where they come from, and especially where they want to lead us, the Hellenes…”

If you’d like to make your voice heard in this matter, you can e-mail the railway, and the Hellenic Ministry of Culture, to make your concerns known. You can find out more here (in Greek), and here (also in Greek, though they say a translation is forthcoming). This call for solidarity is currently spreading through the Hellenic community, and it could be a wonderful opportunity for Pagans outside of Greece to stand with their brothers and sisters in Athens. Also, if you do decide to write in support of saving the altar, remember to be polite and to-the-point in your messages. I’ll update you on this issue as things develop and I learn more.

Selena Fox Joins Wisconsin Protesters: Fresh from her time at PantheaCon, Circle Sanctuary’s Selena Fox returned to her home in Wisconsin where she immediately joined the throngs of pro-union protesters currently congregating in Madison in a standoff centering on the issue of collective bargaining rights.

“Democracy in Action in Wisconsin! Joined the round the clock Public Workers’ Rights rally inside the Wisconsin State Capitol. Amazing energy! [...] The energy inside was amazing! And multi-partisan - those protesting included Republicans, Democrats, Independents, and others. I went there to give support, but also to learn first hand for myself what the scene was like.”

Fox noted that part of the reason she’s there is “to carry the energy from workings I had led in California right to the center of the Wisconsin actions in support of workers rights.” In response to a query from The Wild Hunt, Fox spoke of the “exuberant energy” on display.

“I am continuing to hear from a variety of people concerned about upholding public workers’ rights, including from the interfaith community.  Today two dozen clergy of different traditions joined together with others in the Capitol rotunda and then were part of a press conference afterwards. [...] In the center of the ground floor was the hub of the indoor rally.  Various demonstrators were taking turns leading chants and expressing perspectives in a microphone within a circle of drummers.  In addition to the ground floor, there were people circled around the rotunda on the second and third floors all joining in chanting.  As I walked around each floor, I talked with some of those who had gathered as well as some of the media covering the rally, which has been going round the clock for more than a week.  The energy inside the Capitol was exhuberant.  The passion to stand up for public workers and their collective bargaining rights there was and continues to be strong.”

Selena has promised further updates as she receives word. If there are any other Pagans on the ground at the protests, please feel free to contact me with your experiences and insights. For background on this protest and political standoff, the Wikipedia article is a good place to start. From there, it’s fairly easy to find various political takes on the issue.

Getting Hold of American Mystic: For those who’ve been unable to catch a screening of the documentary “American Mystic”, directed by Alex Mar, and featuring Morpheus Ravenna along with members of Stone City Pagan Sanctuary, you can now order a copy before the film goes into wide distribution this June. You can e-mail the academic distributor Kino Lorber to obtain copies for you or your store, or order online and use the special “PANTHEACON” offer code during check-out.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qhIWz4Lp-E

The DVD will be going “wide” this Summer, which will mean availability on Netflix and iTunes, among other outlets. But if you’d like to get it now, here’s your chance.

PantheaCon Reflections: There’s no doubt going to be plenty of stories from PantheaCon trickling out in the near future, including some from The Wild Hunt, but for now I wanted to quickly note some round-ups that have already appeared. There’s a report from Donald Michael Craig at Llewellyn, Robert from the Doing Magick blog has a round-up, Peter Dybing describes the experience of “divine exhaustion”, Staff of Asclepius has an interview with con organizaer Glenn Turner, and  Star Foster at Patheos talks about three rituals she attended while there.

“It was interesting to be in a building where there is almost always a ritual in progress. The energy resembled a thunderstorm and even though my room was quiet I found it hard to sleep. When I did sleep I dreamt of rituals, and once I dreamed I scrubbed Erynn Rowan Laurie’s bathtub. I don’t know what that means beyond that there was a bunch of weird energy bouncing around this hotel, but if she’s reading maybe it means something to her!”

While you’re there, you can also spy a picture from the Pagan Newswire Collective meet-and-greet, which features some familiar faces, and a whole host of PNC members.

Sabbat Classic Available for the Kindle: In a final note, Acorn Guild Press is proud to announce that Mike Nichols’ classic work “The Witches’ Sabbats” is finally available for the Amazon Kindle.

“From the award-winning author of The Witches’ Sabbats Web site, Nichols discusses the historical and mythological customs, lore, and traditions associated with the eight Pagan holidays. This illustrated volume includes: A new, never-before published essay, ‘Marking the Sabbats’; a new preface, ‘Counting the Days’; a new bibliography; plus six additional thought-provoking essays!”

I don’t normally plug books like this, but considering the history of this work, and the effort Acorn Guild went to in order to have an e-version made available on Amazon, I thought it worth a quick mention.  For more on the book and Mike Nichols, check out my interview with him.

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

Martha Coakley and the Fells Acre Case: In a historic upset, Republican candidate Scott Brown won the Massachusetts Senate seat left vacant by Ted Kennedy’s death, defeating Democratic candidate Martha Coakley, who many initially saw as a sure thing. The media, and many politicians, are ruminating on how it all happened. While some are debating whether Brown’s win was a referendum on Obama’s presidency, others are saying that the reasons were very local. Columnist Carey Roberts claims that Coakley’s ties to the infamous Fells Acre ritual abuse case damaged her chances far more than the national political media are willing to credit.

“This legal travesty did not attract national attention until last Fall. At that point, Coakley held a nearly insurmountable 30-point lead over her Republican challenger. Then Ann Coulter devoted her December 9 column to the case, calling it the “second-most notorious witch trial in Massachusetts history” and charging Coakley had “kept a clearly innocent man in prison in order to advance her political career.” A month later, Dorothy Rabinowitz delivered the coup de grace. Recounting in the Wall Street Journal how prosecutors cast Gerald as the chief predator, “his gender qualifying him, in their view, as the best choice for the role,” Rabinowitz adjudged the superfluous prosecution was “powerful testimony to the mind and capacities of this aspirant to a Senate seat.” The Rabinowitz editorial was published on January 14. The same day a Suffolk University poll spotted Brown a 4-point lead over Martha Coakley. And when the ballots were tallied nearly a week later, Scott Brown had defeated Coakley by a resounding five-point margin.”

The Fells Acre case was also mentioned in electoral postmortems at The Huffington Post (who called her “doomed from the start”) and The New American. As for Coakley, what are her plans? Why, she’s going to run for reelection as Attorney General. Which makes me wonder, will outrage over the Amiraults carry over to the Fall elections? Or will we be content to forget? For all of my past coverage of Martha Coakley, click here.

Those Christian Gun Sights: Since the story broke earlier this week, controversy and commentary has been raging over a military contractor, Trijicon, that had been inserting Bible references into its serial numbers. These sights had apparently been used by some military commanders to hammer home the uniquely magical Christian-ness of the weapons, and their effectiveness in killing non-Christians. Now the company says it will stop inserting the Biblical references, and will provide means for existing sights to modified.

“Trijicon has proudly served the U.S. military for more than two decades, and our decision to offer to voluntarily remove these references is both prudent and appropriate,” said Stephen Bindon, Trijicon president and CEO in a statement. “We want to thank the Department of Defense for the opportunity to work with them and will move as quickly as possible to provide the modification kits for deployment overseas.”

While some in the military defended the Bible references, or didn’t see what the fuss was about, others, most notably General David Petraeus, called the sights “distrubing” and a “serious concern”.

Jessica Orsini Sets Her Sights on Another Term: The Columbia Daily Tribune notes that Jessica Orsini, Alderwoman, 3rd Ward, City of Centralia, Missouri, will be running unopposed for another term.

“Filing for the April 6 school board and municipal election ballots in Boone County ended at 5 p.m. yesterday … Centralia Board of Aldermen: Third Ward Alderwoman Jessica Orsini and First Ward Alderwoman Catherine Simmons are unopposed for re-election.”

Orsini, in addition to being one of only two openly transgendered elected officials, is also a Hellenic polytheistic reconstructionist. So it looks like we’ll continue to have two openly Pagan elected officials in America for a while longer. For more on Orsini, check out Tony Mierzwicki’s interview with her at Witchvox.

More Stupid Things Being Said About Vodou: Mark Krikorian, at National Review Online, joined the growing “it’s all Voodoo’s fault” chorus yesterday with this rousing endorsement of colonialism.

“My guess is that Haiti’s so screwed up because it wasn’t colonized long enough … A major indicator of how superficial is the overlay of French culture in Haiti is the strength of paganism, in the form of voodoo — the French just weren’t around long enough to suppress it, to the detriment of Haitians.”

Yes, if only they had been under the heel of the French for a bit longer, because we all know how well colonialism worked out for the Native Americans. Do these commentators actually read what they write before it gets posted? I wonder. For all my coverage of Vodou in the aftermath of the earthquake in Haiti, click here.

“At 17, when I went off to college, my spirituality did as well. I finally came to realize that the connection I *had* forged, the voice I’d heard in the woods since I was a small child, was Artemis. I was introduced to paganism by a very soft-polytheistic Wiccan; from there, I ran through the usual assortment of Llewellyn publications and wound up with a sort of mish-mosh. I spent twenty years of wrangling through various efforts at implementation, trying somehow to fit my beliefs to Wicca. I tried this sort of “take the best from each” approach – the “many facets” concept that is so popular with a lot of pagans today. But it never really worked for me. I finally realized that my beliefs would never fit Wicca… and that there was this amazing old way that actually *did* fit. When it all boiled down, I needed the hard, deep roots of Hellenism. I needed Hesiod’s Theogeny, his Works and Days. I needed that cohesive pantheon, and the culturally complete approach it allows.”

In my defense I had certainly heard of Orsini, but for entirely different reasons.

“Advocates for transgender equality hail the public, albeit low-key, leadership role played by Orsini, who for the first three decades of her life was known as Jeff Orsini, an Air Force veteran and self-described computer nerd partial to role-playing war games. As one of just two openly transgender politicians to win elected office in this country — the other, Michelle Bruce, is a City Council member in Riverdale, Ga. — Orsini is a trailblazer, said Mara Keisling, executive director of the Washington-based National Center for Transgender Equality.”

So now we have a Hellenic transgender Democratic Alderwoman in Missouri, and a conservative Republican Theodsman on New York’s City Council. I find it very interesting that the two openly-Pagan elected American officials in this era are polytheistic reconstructionists. Just a twist of fate? Or is there something more there? Needless to say, from now on I’ll be watching the career of Alderwoman Orsini just as closely as I’m currently watching the career of Councilman Halloran.

PS – In an entirely unrelated note, I’ll be a guest tonight on the streaming Internet radio program “Pagans Tonight”. I’ll be discussing Pagan news, this blog, and other projects I have coming up. So tune in!

Statue of Cybele from Balchik.

“The ancient temple of the Hittite, Phrygian, and Greek goddess Cybele, which was discovered by accident in Bulgaria’s Black Sea town of Balchik in May 2007 has been declared for sale, the Varna daily Pozvanete reported … The temple of the goddess Cybele is preserved really well, and according to archeologists, is the only one of its type in Europe. The temple is also the best-preserved building from the Hellenic Age in the Balkans. It includes a number of statutes of Cybele, coins from the time of the Roman Emperor Valens, and other ancient artifacts.”

The Director of the Balchik History Museum is calling the proposed sale a “sacrilege”, and is disappointed both with Kushlev’s asking price (too expensive for the city, who have already paid 100,000 BGN to secure and cover the site), and the lack of movement by the Bulgarian state to nationalize the site. Unless the state makes a move, anyone can now swoop in an claim this former temple, and the statues and artifacts within it, for themselves. Potentially robbing Bulgaria of a unique archaeological find.

“The temple of the goddess Cybele is preserved really well, and according to archeologists, is the only one of its type in Europe. The temple is also the best-preserved building from the Hellenic Age in the Balkans. It includes a number of statutes of Cybele, coins from the time of the Roman Emperor Valens, and other ancient artifacts.”

Scientists believe that this temple, unlike other finds from the Hellenic era, can be completely restored and opened to the public. It would truly be a shame if it were dismantled and spread around to museums and private collections across the globe. Will the goddess show her hand and stop the destruction of her temple, preserved for so long beneath the earth? Only time (and an influx of money or political will) will tell if this temple is destroyed, or turned into a place of pilgrimage and learning.
]]> http://www.patheos.com/blogs/wildhunt/2008/10/for-sale-temple-of-cybele-slightly-used.html/feed 2 http://www.patheos.com/blogs/wildhunt/2008/10/around-pagan-blogosphere.html http://www.patheos.com/blogs/wildhunt/2008/10/around-pagan-blogosphere.html#comments Fri, 10 Oct 2008 13:45:00 +0000 Jason Pitzl-Waters http://patheos.com/blogs/wildhunt/2008/10/around-the-pagan-blogosphere.html Articles, essays, and thoughts of note from the Pagan blogosphere.

We start off with some sad news. M. Macha Nightmare and T. Thorn Coyle have posted moving tributes to their friend Tara Webster, priestess of Hecate, and Soror Adessa of the Open Source Order of the Golden Dawn. Webster passed away on October 8th after a long struggle with brain cancer. Thorn, who was at Webster’s side during her passing, recounts how Hecate came to claim her.

“After a couple of hours of singing, the call came inside of me. A chant arose to one whom I have barely met. Your Matron tapped my shoulderblades. I wrote a chant for Her, for you. We sang that chant. We sang and sang. I left the room to grasp the counterpoint. When I came back in to sing it, S. said “Her breathing has really changed. We need to get someone.” I paused. You were not breathing. The spaces between breath were big enough to hold the stars. All gathered, we chanted the Heart Sutra. Over and over, as you crossed. Hecate took you. Your spirit opened the door we had closed. Literally. It swung open and out you went. Mighty priestess. So skilled. So gorgeous. You lay in state in your rhinestone tiara, naked, as we blessed you.”

Macha recounts Webster’s participation in the Goddess 2000 project, and their shared connection with an old Pagan cartoon.

“…when Tara and I first met, we discovered we had a lot in common in terms of both approach and praxis. My experiences with my first coven, the Holy Terrors*, paralleled hers in many ways. I spoke of a cartoon published in an East Coast Pagan rag, Harvest (defunct), in the ’80s that we Holy Terrors couldn’t believe was so like we were. When we HTs first discovered this cartoon, we rolled around laughing. No one we knew subscribed to Harvest (if it even had subscriptions). We treasured our photocopies of the few episodes we’d found; later I found an opportunity to mail away for better copies of a full set. The cartoon was the Death Crones, and Tara was part of the Flaming Crones, the circle from which this cartoon arose!”

May Tara Webster rest in the arms of Hecate. We here at The Wild Hunt offer our most sincere condolences.

Over at Letter From Hardscrabble Creek, Chas Clifton reports on the publication of a book that will be sure to please many long-time Pagan community members.

“‘Green Egg Omelette: An Anthology of Art and Articles from the Legendary Pagan Journal’ will be shipping soon and can be pre-ordered from Amazon with the link above or from the publisher. Oberon Zell did the heavy lifting: tracking down long-lost contributors, making editorial decisions, and laying out the pages. I wrote a general introduction and shorter introductions for each chapter.”

A sure treasure-trove of classic Pagan writing. I can’t wait to get my hands on a copy. As for the Green Egg itself, while the print magazine is long-gone, it still survives as a online ‘zine. Also, while you’re at Chas Clifton’s blog, be sure to check out his post about water witchery.

Author Sarah Kate Istra Winter (aka Erl Queen on LJ) links to an interview she gave for the online e-zine Sequential Tart.

“I do think the myths are important. For one thing, they are usually our first introduction to the gods. Sure, it’s extremely important to begin forging relationships yourself, to learn of the gods directly, from experience. But that’s a long process. And many people have a hard time relying on that type of experiential knowledge. The myths tell us about the collective beliefs and experiences of the people who first worshiped our gods. Even if the stories often conflict with each other, even if one can’t take everything literally, an overall picture emerges of the gods’ traits, likes and dislikes, mannerisms, etc. It’s an important foundation. From cult practice (of course, another important foundation for the modern religion), we might learn that Apollon left Delphi each winter and the oracles ceased. But it is from myth that we learn why, and where He goes (Hyperborea), and what that place is like.”

You can find more information about Winter’s book, “KHARIS: Hellenic Polytheism Explored”, at her web site.

Medusa Coils reports that the Glastonbury Goddess Temple has succeeded in acquiring St. Benedict’s Church Hall from the Church of England for the purpose of Goddess-oriented worship and rites of passage.

“Glastonbury Goddess Temple was able to come to an agreement with St. Ben’s Parish Council regarding the previous restrictions on the use of the Hall, which was owned by the Church of England and persisted even after the sale of the Hall. St. Ben’s Parish Council has agreed to allow use of the Hall “without let or hindrance” for Goddess activities including ceremonies, courses, workshops, and other community activities, as well as a dedicated space for Pagan marriage ceremonies and handfastings.”

You can read more about this story, and the plans Glastonbury Goddess Temple has for the space, here.

In a final note, The Pagan Prattle rightfully mocks “what passes for sane in some parts of the world”. Specifically the recent story of a college student who accused an English teacher of blasphemy, and threatened to set her on fire for being a witch.

“A 20-year-old male student has been expelled from an adult education college after he poured liquid over his English Literature teacher and threatened her with a lighter and a cigarette. He accused her of being a witch. According to another report, Najor allegedly told police that he was trying to kill her by pouring holy water over her. More detail about the incident is given, suggesting that Najor was inspired by his Christian faith…”

The young man in question, Darin Najor, while initially detained in a psychiatric hospital, is now facing assault charges. One wonders if he attends some sort of church, or if this was his own special blend of crazy.

That is all I have for now, have a great day!
]]> http://www.patheos.com/blogs/wildhunt/2008/10/around-pagan-blogosphere.html/feed 1 http://www.patheos.com/blogs/wildhunt/2007/03/week-of-polytheism.html http://www.patheos.com/blogs/wildhunt/2007/03/week-of-polytheism.html#comments Sat, 31 Mar 2007 21:38:00 +0000 Jason Pitzl-Waters http://patheos.com/blogs/wildhunt/2007/03/a-week-of-polytheism.html Pagan bloggers Chas Clifton and Nikolaos Markoulakis have pointed out that the New Statesman has posted a weeks worth of articles on modern Paganism. Contributors include Markoulakis, his colleague James Head, and Damh (aka Damh the Bard). In addition to their recent contributions, animist and author Graham Harvey has also contributed several articles recently.
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