Details of John Friend’s “Blazing Solar Flames” Coven Emerge

April 16, 2012 By
John Friend (photo: Dan Winters via NYmag.com)

Since February, I've been keeping a close eye on the fall of John Friend, founder of the Anusara yoga school, since allegations emerged of sexual, legal, and fiscal improprieties. Of those improprieties was the allegation that Friend ran a Wiccan coven, named the "Blazing Solar Flames," as a pretext for sexual liaisons with Anusara students. "John has been the head of a wiccan “coven” that claims to use sexual/sensual energy in a positive and sacred way to help build the efficacy … [Read more...]

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Caught In Another Faith’s Crisis

April 5, 2012 By
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The United States of America is a secular, pluralistic, nation that is home to hundreds of distinct faiths, philosophies, and traditions living, working, and playing side-by-side. Our diversity has often been touted as one of our great strengths, that we don't succumb to endless internal wars, chaos, and strife, that the American experiment largely "works." That said, no matter how "pagan" our democracy, our republic, is, we can't but acknowledge that Christianity has been a driving force in … [Read more...]

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Saami Concerned Over Arctic Expansion and other Pagan News of Note

August 16, 2011 By
Nadezhda Lyashenko. Photo: David Greene/NPR

Top Story: In the second part of a six-part series on the geopolitical ramifications of global warming in the Arctic, NPR's Morning Edition focuses on Russia's aggressive push to claim waterways and resources becoming available as the Arctic ice melts. One group that is particularly concerned over the rush to claim the Arctic is the indigenous Saami people, a group native to the Kola Peninsula of Russia. NPR interviews traditional singer Nadezhda Lyashenko, who discusses the environmental … [Read more...]

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