• It looks like the magic made by Salem Witches Lorelei and Lori Bruno was effective, or perhaps New England Patriots QB Tom Brady has pacts with powers unknown to us, in any case Brady led his team to a crushing  victory over the Denver Broncos in last night’s NFL playoff game. Much was made of the Brady’s Sports Illustrated “cover curse” in the days leading up to the game, but it seems it has been lifted. Jesus, who often receives very public homage from Bronco’s QB Tim Tebow, could not be reached for comment.
• NewRealities has posted an Occupy Wall Street-focused video featuring Starhawk (and LIsa Finthian) entitled “Deconstructing Empire”, a “strategy training workshop on how to organize deconstruction of those that have power over the people.” For more on Starhawk’s interactions with the Occupy movement, check out her official blog. You may also want to listen to her presentation at the American Academy of Religion’s Annual Meeting on “Elemental Theology,” which also touches on these themes.
• A group of influential conservative Christians, including Gary “hypothetical Pagan candidate” Bauer, have decided to back Rick Santorum in the race to see who will be the Republican nominee for 2012′s presidential contest. Family Research Council president Tony Perkins said that “the race is far from being decided.”
• This past week at the popular blog Boing Boing was “Robert Anton Wilson Week,” featuring a number of remembrances and tributes from folks like Rev. Ivan Stang, Erik Davis, and Jay Kinney of Gnosis Magazine. If you are a fan of Robert Anton Wilson’s work, and I know many of you out there are, you should go check it out.
• I now present to you: Sh** New Age Girls Say (though I’ve seen more than a few guys say similar phrases).
• Deborah Harkness’ bestselling novel “A Discovery of Witches” (part of a forthcoming trilogy of novels) is being adapted for the big screen by Warner Bros. Looks like witches (and vampires) are still hot in Hollywood.
• Will Yoga wreck your body? Suhag Shukla says no, but it might make your more Hindu: “Ironically, while much of the yoga industry and mainstream media perpetuate the yoga is asana formula with an occasional nod to pranayama, the leadership of a number of the world’s religions, such as the Vatican, warn their flock that yoga may lead one into exploring and experiencing Hindu belief and practice. I have to say, I concur. True yoga will not wreck your body or make you fat, but it may just open your heart, increase your capacity to see and be divine, and lead you towards a more pluralistic, Hindu view of life.”
• The news that infamous witch-hunter Helen Ukpabio is visiting America has started to spread, Michael Mungai at HuffPo says there should be protests, the International Humanist and Ethical Union reminds us that Ukpabio tried to destroy an organization that works to protect children accused of witchcraft in Nigeria, while PZ Myers says that “this evil, criminal woman ought to be met at the airport and turned right around, if not sent off to trial for crimes against humanity.”
• A British man who attacked a Witch with a bottle at the Witch’s house during a party has been sentenced to two years of prison. I mention this article because it has one of the worst headlines ever: “White witch party bottle attack man jailed.” Seriously, that doesn’t even make sense, are their headlines being written by a keyword script or something?
• A sweat lodge including Natives and non-Natives doesn’t end up going so well.
• An argument over different traditions of Santeria turns tragic.
• Chesterfield County, South Carolina, the place where divination isn’t a religious practice, where a “Wiccan-proof” public invocation model withstood a legal challenge, and where it took the threat of an ACLU lawsuit to stop the local school district engaging in federally-funded proselytizing. Quote: “The board of the Chesterfield County School District voted tonight to adopt a proposed settlement agreement that would put an end to the district’s pervasive practice of school-sponsored prayer, preaching and religious activities aimed at students.” What is with that particular county?

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.

Rosemary Ruether and Starhawk

Here’s the program description:

“Starhawk is the well-known feminist Witch, Earth activist, and writer who initiated the Reclaiming Witchcraft Tradition in San Francisco in 1979. Her books on Pagan ecospirituality, such as The Spiral Dance: A Rebirth of the Ancient Religion (HarperOne, 20th anniv. ed., 1999) and the novel The Fifth Sacred Thing (Bantam, 1993), are still bestsellers. Over the last four decades her thinking and practices have spun off the emergent Goddess spirituality movement, but have also provoked and influenced feminist theologians. One of them is Rosemary R. Ruether, herself a major contributor to feminist theologizing in all Western traditions — be it Christian, Jewish, or Pagan. Over the last ten years, Ruether and Starhawk have developed similar interests in feminist earth practices, honored the four elements and permacultural social principles, and have quoted each other’s work respectfully. In this session all are invited to reflect on the notion of “elemental theology” and/or “feminist Earth practices” as a possible crossroad for feminist theology of different faiths to meet.”

I was lucky enough to get permission from the Contemporary Pagan Studies group to record this talk so that they could make a transcript available later. I’d like to post an excerpt of the entire panel, featuring Starhawk’s opening remarks.

You can download this audio, here.

As you can hear, its a wide-ranging speech that touches on elemental theology, activism, the Occupy movement, permaculture, and other topics. I hope to, in the future, feature more excerpts from this panel, as the contributions were important, not only from Starhawk and Rosemary R. Ruether, but from the responders: Marion S. Grau, Jone Salomonsen, and Heather Eaton. In addition, there was a spirited and interesting Q&A period that should also interest readers here. Once details emerge as to where and when the transcript will be published, I’ll post that information.

There’s more AAR coverage to come, so stay tuned!

Occupy Oakland

“At its essence, the message of the Occupations is simply this: “Here in the face of power we will sit and create a new society, in which you do count. Your voice carries weight, your contributions have value, whoever you may be. We care for one another, and we say that love and care are the true foundations for the society we want to live in. We’ll stand with the poor and sleep with the homeless if that’s what it takes to get justice. We’ll build a new world.” The Occupy movement is not overtly religious, like the Tea Party. The 99 percent includes people of all religious faiths, and people who have none. But I believe its core message and ethic is profoundly spiritual, even prophetic.”

Starhawk goes on to say that the Occupy movement “renews my faith in the human spirit, in our creativity, our craving for justice, our determination to root our world in love.” As mentioned above, you can read her ongoing reports from the various Occupy gatherings in California at her personal blog.

For more on Pagan reactions to the Occupy movement, check out these reports from PNC-Bay Area and PNC-Minnesota. You may also enjoy these recent blog posts from Alison Leigh Lilly, T. Thorn Coyle, Jonathan Korman, and Gus diZerega.

• As you may have already heard, Congressional newspaper The Hill picked up the story of presidential hopeful Gary Johnson’s Q&A with Pagan and Hindu media on Sunday. You can read some follow-up and transcribed excerpts, here. Here’s Star Foster’s take. Here’s PNC-Bay Area’s report. I’m hoping more candidates for high office take the time to speak to their Pagan constituents, here’s to “GOP presidential hopeful courts pagans” being a headline we see again.
• A team from PNC-Bay Area recently attended the Bioneers Conference that took place last weekend in San Rafael, California. Several reports, interviews, and photos are forthcoming. Until then, you can download a short interview with Pagan author and activist Starhawk conducted at the conference.
• Chas Clifton points to a Salon.com review of Debbie Nathan’s new book “Sybil Exposed: The Extraordinary Story Behind the Famous Multiple Personality Case”. An investigation into the famous and much-adapted still-in-print book “Sybil,” it tells how it helped fuel the Satanic abuse moral panic of the 1980s, and in turn ruined thousands of lives. Debbie Nathan is also the author of “Satan’s Silence: Ritual Abuse and the Making of a Modern American Witch Hunt”. This is going on my must-read list!
• The Guardian looks at Glastonbury and its “use of all these sacred sites by different groups. Christians and Pagans, Buddhists and new-agers all flock to the well, the tor and to the abbey. Each of them gleans a different meaning from the same phenomenon.”
• Dominionists advise other Dominionists to tone down their rhetoric, noting that the “language of take over” is “very bad for media”. For more on this, check out a rather even-handed AP article on the political coming out of this movement. Also, a conservative evangelical warns us of the “cult of Rick Perry.”
• LAShTAL interviews Tobias Churton, author of “Aleister Crowley: The Biography: Spiritual Revolutionary, Romantic Explorer, Occult Master and Spy”. Quote: “We are in the position, for the first time in history, to see the Man, warts and all. That’s it.”
• Yeshe Rabbit, Founder and High Priestess of CAYA Coven, has decided to give her view of events at PantheaCon 2011 relating to the Rite of Lilith and the issue of trans exclusion. If you’re new to this discussion and want some context, check out this post.
• Things Pagans have invented: Museums.
• The LA Times features a lengthy expose on the now-infamous Kabbalah Centre, you know, the one that Madonna has been involved in, and is now fraught with scandal.
• A registered sex offender in Oregon was arrested in Idaho for having “sexual contact” with two teenagers. The man, James Stueckle, allegedly met one of the teens through a Wiccan website (no, they don’t say which one).
• Rookie Magazine has an interesting essay up about teenage girls, Witchcraft, the occult, and female power. Quote: “Much of the world’s paranormal history has to do with adults being terrified of teenage girls.”
• Amanda Marcotte asks: Its 2011, why God is still involved in American politics? Quote: “By not challenging the assertion that only Christians should hold office, mainstream journalists encourage bigotry against all religious minorities, including atheists.”

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.

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!

Top Story: Pagan chaplain and activist Patrick McCollum has recently returned from the first International Conference on Transforming Conflict in Amman, Jordan. The event centered on dialogues with youth and adults from Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and other countries, for which McCollum served as a speaker and facilitator. “It is clear to me that the younger generation in particular, has a clearer vision of what it means to be a global citizen, and it is this shift, in my opinion, that gives us hope for a better future” said McCollum, praising the Arab and Israeli youth who attended the conference. During the conference McCollum also met and spoke with Sharif Zeid Bin Hussein, the cousin of King Hussein the II, and former Jordanian Prime Minster Taher Nashat al-Masri.

Patrick McCollum with Taher al-Masri

“His Excellency was very gracious in his invitation to me, and I thoroughly enjoyed our discussions. Over the course of the evening, we touched on US-Arab relations, the Palestinian–Israeli conflict, the part youth has played in the Arab Spring revolutions and beyond, and new ways to move forward toward peace.”

In addition to his work at the conference, McCollum also met with local Bedouins, and visited the famous sacred sites Petra, Mt. Nebo, and one of the possible sites of Jesus’s baptism by John. In summing up his trip and experiences, McCollum said that “it is clear to me that I will return once again to the Middle East, not only to Jordan, but also to visit Palestine and Israel. And I look forward to once again to be present in the company of the many new friends I’ve made in each of these countries. I firmly believe that drawing on the touchstone of our common humanity, rather than focusing on the age-old narrative of our geographical and cultural differences, is the key to world peace.” The Patrick McCollum Foundation blog is now posting his daily thoughts from the trip if you’d like to know more about his experiences in Jordan, and the work of the conference.

In Other News:

• Sacred Paths Center, a Pagan community center serving the Minneapolis/St. Paul area (aka “Paganistan”), has been able to reach its fundraising goals, and will be staying open. The center announced $13,140 had been raised during the past month, they needed to raise $12,000 to restructure for long-term survival. You can read all of my coverage on this story, here.
• Dead, Mad, or a Poet: A Journal to Faerie, a biannual magazine devoted primarily to poetry, fiction, articles, and art by Pagans, has released its inaugural issue. The first issue features contributions from Kathryn Hinds, Catherine M. Wilson, Kerry Higgins Wendt, and several others. It is edited by S. C. L. Amis, a contributor to No Unsacred Place, and a member of the Pagan Newswire Collective’s editorial team. The magazine is available in both print and PDF formats.
• The planned movie adaptation of Starhawk’s novel “The Fifth Sacred Thing” has reached its first fundraising goal. Nearly $62,000 dollars was pledged towards making a professional pitch video to the major film studios. This is an astounding achievement for Internet fundraising within the Pagan community, doubling what was raised earlier this year for Japan relief. At the project’s website, Starhawk writes that “Lammas is also a time for gratitude, and I am deeply thankful for all the wonderful support we have been receiving in so many ways.”
• COG Interfaith Reports has posted another report from NAIN Connect 2011, the annual meeting of the North American Interfaith Network. This time from Covenant of the Goddess member Rachael Watcher, a longtime interfaith activist, who was elected to the Executive Board of NAIN in 2010.
• Devin Hunter and Rowan Pendragon’s Modern Witch podcast features an interview with yours truly, in which I discuss The Wild Hunt, the Pagan Newswire Collective, my own podcast, and why building our own media is important. You can download the audio file directly, here.

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

• 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.