A Merry Beltane

Last updated on: April 29, 2012 at 10:45 pm By Jason Pitzl-Waters

Tonight and tomorrow (in the northern hemisphere*) are the traditional dates for many of the major spring/summer festivals in modern Paganism. Beltane, Bealtaine, May Day,Floralia, Protomayia, and Walpurgis Night, to name just a few. This fire festival heralds the coming of summer and is a high holiday, a liminal time when the barriers between our world and the otherworld were thin. In many traditions and cultures it is a time of divine union and fertility. Here are some quotes for the holiday. “Beltane is a... Read more

Peter Dybing Retires from Public Paganism

Last updated on: April 28, 2012 at 10:12 pm By Jason Pitzl-Waters

On Saturday, Peter Dybing, current president of Officers of Avalon, and former First Officer of the Covenant of the Goddess, announced that he was resigning from all, quote, “organizations, positions, posts and responsibilities in the Pagan community.” In a statement posted to his blog, Dybing expressed a desire to return to anonymity, saying that his very public role was causing him to neglect his partner and engaging in behavior that he personally disapproved of. “My commitments to community service have required that my partner Rebekah make... Read more

Two Kinds of Witchcraft? Resisting Cynicism, False Dilemmas, and Moral Panics.

Last updated on: April 28, 2012 at 12:24 pm By Jason Pitzl-Waters

For several years I’ve been asking the question of what do we do when the men and women accused of “sorcery” and “witchcraft” are no longer “over there” in Africa or the Middle East, and are instead at our doorsteps. “If this trend isn’t seriously addressed soon, we may find this madness turning its eye towards “safe” occultists and Pagans in places like America, the UK, Australia, Brazil, and Canada.” Now, with the UK still reeling over the murder of Kristy... Read more

Katrina “Foxglove” Kessler 1989 – 2012

Last updated on: April 27, 2012 at 10:36 am By Jason Pitzl-Waters

On April 21st, Katrina Kessler, known by many in the Pagan community as Foxglove, passed away after a car accident in San Diego, California. An up-and-coming figure in our community, Kessler worked at the World of Witches Museum in Salem, starred in, and helped produce, “The Young Witches of Salem,” did reporting and production work with MagickTV, and hosted the video series “Foxglove’s Lost and Found.” Shortly before her death she was working with a community service organization called The Circle in California.... Read more

Should Fatal Encounters Fill in the Blanks on Witchcraft Slaying?

Last updated on: April 26, 2012 at 10:55 am By Jason Pitzl-Waters

Through 2010, and into the beginning of 2011, I covered the case of Angela Sanford, a Wiccan who killed Joel Leyva in what some media described as a ritualistic sacrifice. While Sanford initially said the killing was in self-defense after Leyva tried to rape her, that story started to unravel when evidence surfaced that the violent encounter may have been premeditated. Ultimately, Sanford plead no contest to second-degree murder, and was sentenced to 20 years in prison. Now, the story is being dramatized... Read more

Beliefnet News Conflates Paganism and Harry Potter with Witchcraft Killings

Last updated on: April 25, 2012 at 11:29 am By Jason Pitzl-Waters

A good news blogger will often try to spot trends and underlying issues in the stories of the day, using the strengths of the format to make links, provide more depth, and uncover nuances overlooked in the big headlines. However, sometimes a writer will commit the car-crash equivalent of same, using keywords and lazy cut-pasting to score pageviews for his or her employer. I believe the second scenario happened on Monday when Beliefnet Senior Editor Rob Kerby carelessly conflated the... Read more

The Wild Hunt Podcast, Episode 3: Pagan Chants and Pagan Documentaries

Last updated on: April 23, 2012 at 10:20 pm By Jason Pitzl-Waters

Welcome to the latest installment of a new supplemental feature here at The Wild Hunt, The Wild Hunt Podcast (focus groups loved the name). This weekly podcast will take a deeper look at stories, links, and personalities that I feature in my daily updates. In this third episode of The Wild Hunt Podcast we interview author, ritualist, and Wiccan Elder, Ivo Dominguez, Jr. about Pagan chants, and his revived Panpipes Pagan Chants Site (and yes, we also discuss the recent controversy concerning Z.... Read more

“No School is Being Told to Teach About Paganism” in Cornwall

Last updated on: April 23, 2012 at 10:24 am By Jason Pitzl-Waters

Last week I deconstructed the Daily Mail’s sensationalist assertions regarding the teaching of Paganism in British religious education courses, specifically in Cornwall. I pointed out that there is no hard-and-fast mandate requiring schools to insert Pagan religions into their curriculum, and that the RE advisory council is exactly that, advisory. This didn’t stop conservative Catholic columnist Christina Odone from flying off the rails, using the story as a jumping-off point to rail against any who dare place non-Christian faiths on equal ground with... Read more

A Happy (Pagan) Earth Day to You!

Last updated on: April 22, 2012 at 10:05 am By Jason Pitzl-Waters

“No dogma taught by the present civilization seems to form so insuperable an obstacle in a way of a right understanding of the relations which culture sustains as to wilderness, as that which declares that the world was made especially for the uses of men. Every animal, plant, and crystal controverts it in the plainest terms. Yet it is taught from century to century as something ever new and precious, and in the resulting darkness the enormous conceit is allowed... Read more

Unleash the Hounds! (Link Roundup)

Last updated on: April 21, 2012 at 10:54 am By Jason Pitzl-Waters

There are lots of articles and essays of interest to modern Pagans out there, sometimes more than I can write about in-depth in any given week. So The Wild Hunt must unleash the hounds in order to round them all up. First off, we have an update on the ongoing John Friend Anusara scandal, this time with Friend directly addressing his views on Wicca. It comes from a NY Magazine feature published this past Sunday, and in it he says that “I take Wicca... Read more