Happy 4th of July

“Neither Pagan nor Mahamedan nor Jew ought to be excluded from the civil rights of the Commonwealth because of his religion.” – Thomas Jefferson, quoting John Locke Hail to the pen and muse of Thomas Jefferson, who wrote the Declaration of Independence! Hail to those who’ve honored the true spirit of our founding documents, who defended us with arms, who challenged us with nonviolence, and reminded us of our true nature through art and rebellion. httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDsZ1aUoeko Happy Independence Day! Also, happy belated Canada Day to my... Read more

Interview: Kevin Michael Schultz on “Tri-Faith America”

July 3, 2011 By Jason Pitzl-Waters

Despite the fact that the history of the United States is incredibly well-documented, many of us labor under various misapprehensions regarding our nation’s past. This seems especially true of America’s religious history. Lately it seems as if there’s been an inundation of pundits, amateur historians, and demagogues trying to frame us into a reductive (Protestant) Christian mold, painting a picture of harmony and piety that endured until the post-60s culture wars started raging. This sort of narrative leaves little room for religious minorities and outsiders to understand their own... Read more

Unleash the Hounds! (Link Roundup)

July 2, 2011 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. In New Mexico, Peter Dybing lets us know that immediate danger to the Ardantane learning center from wildfires has passed. More reactions to the recently released “Christian Witness in a Multi-Religious World: Recommendations for Conduct” have emerged. Evangelical commentators at Christianity Today seem somewhat... Read more

Lon Milo DuQuette on “Aleister Crowley – Revolt of the Magicians”

July 1, 2011 By Jason Pitzl-Waters

I’ve often been intrigued by the novels written by Pagans and occultists. Whether well-known like Starhawk’s “The Fifth Sacred Thing,” now in the process of being pitched as a feature film, or obscure like Stewart Farrar’s post-apocalyptic Wiccans-save-the-world (or at least Britain) novel “Omega.” I feel that religiously-motivated works like this can often tell you a lot about the beliefs, ambitions, and hopes of the author. While “religious fiction” is often synonymous today with Christian literature, we shouldn’t forget that modern Paganism and the occult/magickal... Read more

The Future of Unitarian-Universalism and other Pagan News of Note

June 30, 2011 By Jason Pitzl-Waters

Top Story: The Religion News Service is featuring a story (alternate link) on the 50th anniversary of the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA), and whether the shrinking (162,800 members, down 1,400 from last year) creedless denomination can endure for another fifty years. httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wezp1W2HKlU “For 50 years the UUA has conducted a virtually unprecedented experiment: advancing a religion without doctrine, hoping that welcoming communities and shared political causes, not creeds, will draw people to their pews. Leaders say its no-religious-questions-asked style positions the UUA... Read more

What Does the New Christian Missionary Code of Conduct Mean?

June 29, 2011 By Jason Pitzl-Waters

A coalition that claims to represent around 90% of the world’s Christians, the World Council of Churches (WCC), the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue (PCID), and the World Evangelical Alliance (WEA), have released joint recommendations for the conduct of Christian missionaries. This document is the result of five years of consultations among the three bodies, and is being touted as “a major achievement” in building consensus on the issue among Christians. “In the past five years we have been building a new... Read more

Breaking: New Mexico Fires Threaten Pagan Learning Center

June 28, 2011 By Jason Pitzl-Waters

The raging Las Conchas wildfire in New Mexico, which has been threatening the Los Alamos National Laboratory, is also within 20 miles of Ardantane, a Pagan learning center in the Jemez Mountains. According to the Covenant of the Goddess (COG) PIO blog, there’s no immediate danger as “wind is blowing in a direction away from Ardantane and towards Los Alamos.” Here’s a statement released today by Ardantane: “By now, many of you have heard that a huge wildfire is raging... Read more

Will Gay Marriage Mean More Religious Pluralism?

June 28, 2011 By Jason Pitzl-Waters

It is far too easy to quote the (largely Christian) opponents to New York’s decision adopting same-sex marriage and use it to make some larger point. You’ve got the Catholic Bishop of Brooklyn advising his flock to shun lawmakers who voted for same-sex marriage, you’ve got the Family Research Council making some disturbing allusions about the Empire State Building, and you have presidential candidate Rep. Michelle Bachmann trying to be simultaneously for states rights and a Constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage (even Fox News said she was... Read more

(Pagan) Music Mondays: Faun and The Machine in The Garden

June 27, 2011 By Jason Pitzl-Waters

Welcome to (Pagan) Music Mondays, a new semi-regular feature here at The Wild Hunt! As many of you may know, I’m a lover of music, and have spent many years exploring albums and artists that appeal to the Pagan spirit. I’d like to expose you to new releases by Pagan artists, and also to bands that explore lyrical themes relevant to our worldviews. This week for our inaugural edition I’d like to look at two albums that were released this... Read more

Fear of a Post-Christian Planet

June 27, 2011 By Jason Pitzl-Waters

As I was putting together a roundup of stories for today, I noticed an ugly thread running through them all. A unifying ethos of fear, intolerance, ignorance, and hate towards any understanding or practice that fell outside a very narrow interpretation of Christian monotheism. Of a “Christian” America and a “Christian” West. They are all very different stories, but they all seem to be about enforcing an increasingly tenuous status quo, desperate sandbagging against a post-Christian ethos in the West. “…a post-Christian... Read more