{"id":9308,"date":"2012-03-14T11:57:58","date_gmt":"2012-03-14T18:57:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildhunt\/?p=9308"},"modified":"2012-03-14T13:06:04","modified_gmt":"2012-03-14T20:06:04","slug":"quick-notes-congregational-paganism-pagan-metal-and-a-pagan-millionaire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildhunt\/2012\/03\/quick-notes-congregational-paganism-pagan-metal-and-a-pagan-millionaire.html","title":{"rendered":"Quick Notes: Congregational Paganism, Pagan Metal, and a Pagan Millionaire"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

A few quick Pagan news notes for you on this Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Congregational Paganism in Arizona: <\/strong>The East Valley Tribune spotlights<\/a> the Sacred Spiral Pagan Church of Arizona<\/a>, who recently received their\u00a0501(c)3 status, and explores why they\u00a0abandoned\u00a0the small-group coven model for a congregational model.<\/p>\n

\n
Sacred Spiral Pagan Church of Arizona - Beltane 2010<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

High Priestess Rosemary Szymanski disbanded her coven in favor of the Sacred Spiral Pagan Church of Arizona in 2007, having gained 501(c)3 status, which means that the federal government recognizes the group as a tax-exempt church. The whole process of becoming a church took about two years, but the wait was mostly because of paperwork, Szymanski said.\u00a0In the years since abandoning the title of coven, Szymanski, founder and president, has worked with her fellow witches to organize openly and spread knowledge about Paganism.\u00a0\u201cCovens are much more secretive,\u201d Szymanski, a witch for 17 years, said. \u201cSo in 2007, I banned the coven and created the church.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Sacred Spiral doesn\u2019t have a physical space at this point, but they do say they are hoping to open a community center. While Sacred Spiral Pagan Church is hardly the only Pagan group to adopt a congregational model (just look at CUUPs<\/a>), I think this article is interesting in that it showcases, albeit indirectly, a criticism of the small-group \u201ccoven\u201d model (they are \u201cmuch more secretive\u201d). It also seems to reinforce the idea that Pagans are, broadly speaking, dedicated to building \u201ccommunity centers\u201d instead of \u201cchurches.\u201d So even a congregational Paganism is going to seem much different than congregational Christianity.<\/p>\n

Bend Before the Ways of (Pagan) Heavy Metal: <\/strong>The Loyola University student newspaper, The Greyhound<\/a>, interviews Jill Janus<\/a>, lead singer of the band Huntress<\/a>. In the interview, Janus makes clear that Paganism is a primary motivator for her musical career.<\/p>\n

\n
Huntress<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cI draw most my influence from witchcraft, I\u2019m inspired by the beauty of Paganism. I\u2019ve been compared to King Diamond and Rob\u00a0Halford\u00a0(Judas Priest) due to my vocal range and theatrics. [\u2026]\u00a0We wanted to write an album that would transport the listener to another realm, we create our own reality and want you to experience that. Spell Eater is drenched in occult imagery. There are many secrets woven into our songs. I want our fans to seek the secrets.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The debut album by Huntress, \u201cSpell Eater,\u201d is due out on May 8th. You can download or listen to their debut single,\u00a0\u201cEight Of Swords,\u201d<\/a> now. Let it not be said that I don\u2019t throw a bone to fans of Pagan metal now and then!<\/p>\n

ADDENDUM:<\/strong> Juggler<\/a> contributor Trevor Curtis adds:<\/p>\n

You forgot to mention that Huntress is the opening act on the Paganfest 2012 tour, along with the amazing Arkona (Russian Pagan Metal) and headlined by Turisas, fine Finnish pagan metal band. I\u2019m seeing the tour here in Charlotte on Easter, think I\u2019ll have to post a review to The Juggler.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

You can find the FB page for Paganfest 2012, here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Return of Bunky:<\/strong> Way back in 2007<\/a> Ellwood \u201cBunky\u201d Bartlett, a Wiccan, won over 40 million dollars in the Maryland state lottery. Since then he\u2019s kept a pretty low profile. \u00a0There was talk of him opening a Pagan seminary<\/a>, he threw one big party<\/a>, and helped out a couple who wanted to get married<\/a>. But for the most part, he\u2019s stayed under the Pagan media radar, even the store he once bailed out and taught at<\/a> has gone out of business<\/a>. So I was somewhat surprised to see him emerge again on video-game news site Kotaku<\/a>, trying to raise one million dollars on Kickstarter<\/a> to build a fan-funded massive multiplayer gaming environment.<\/p>\n

\n\n<\/div>\n

Described as \u201call of the good things in\u00a0Second Life,\u00a0World of Warcraft,\u00a0Rift,\u00a0Star Wars: The Old Republic and the like all rolled up into one game,\u201d Bartlett\u2019s Kickstarter project has been\u00a0the object of much derision on Twitter today<\/a>, where some have mocked its lofty goals and error-riddled language. There\u2019s no concept art or even much explanation as to how the game will run. It only promises to be \u201cnothing like what is out there.\u201d\u00a0But if Bartlett is a millionaire, why does he need Kickstarter? I tracked him down to find out.\u00a0\u201cA smart investor has partners,\u201d Bartlett told me in an e-mail. \u201cI will be investing as well. This also helps me to see if there is actual interest in the type of game I am proposing.\u201d \u00a0I asked if he\u2019s ever worked in game development before.\u00a0\u201cI have not, but I never owned an investment company or a pizza shop before, but I do now,\u201d Bartlett said.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Bartlett has only raised\u00a0around\u00a0$300 dollars towards this dream project, with a 50-day window to raise the money. So it seems likely this project won\u2019t be going anywhere anytime soon, at least not with this funding model. It should be noted that successful million+ Kickstarter campaigns are rare, and depend on a huge amount of goodwill and a good reputation<\/a>. Still, I wish him luck in his endeavors (not that a lottery winner is having a luck problem).<\/p>\n

That\u2019s all I have for now, have a great day!<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A few quick Pagan news notes for you on this Wednesday. Congregational Paganism in Arizona: The East Valley Tribune spotlights the Sacred Spiral Pagan Church of Arizona, who recently received their\u00a0501(c)3 status, and explores why they\u00a0abandoned\u00a0the small-group coven model for a congregational model. High Priestess Rosemary Szymanski disbanded her coven in favor of the Sacred […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,6],"tags":[159,706,3232,3233,1554,1728,3231],"class_list":["post-9308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-paganism","category-religion","tag-arizona","tag-ellwood-bunky-bartlett","tag-huntress","tag-jill-janus","tag-music","tag-pagan-metal","tag-sacred-spiral-pagan-church-of-arizona"],"yoast_head":"\nQuick Notes: Congregational Paganism, Pagan Metal, and a Pagan Millionaire<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A few quick Pagan news notes for you on this Wednesday. 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