Just a few quick news notes for you on this Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Margot Alder on Witchcraft, Cults, and Space Travel: <\/strong>Margot Adler, NPR\u00a0correspondent<\/a> and author of the seminal 1979 book\u00a0\u201cDrawing Down the Moon: Witches, Druids, Goddess-Worshippers, and Other Pagans in America\u201d<\/a>, talks to the Daily Camera in Boulder, Colorado about her life and work<\/a> in advance of her presentations at the 64th Annual Conference on World Affairs<\/a>. Of special interest to my Pagan readers will be the story of how she landed the book deal that eventually lead to \u201cDrawing Down the Moon.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThat happened by a complete fluke, way back in 1974. I had sort of a loser boyfriend. He took me to meet his literary agent in a pub. The woman asked me, \u2018What do you do?\u2019 I\u2019ve probably had less than a dozen psychic experiences, but I heard a voice in my head say, \u2018You are standing on a nexus point in the universe. What you do now will change your life forever.\u2019 Because of that voice, I said, \u2018I\u2019m involved in witchcraft.\u2019 Her eyes got really big. She said, \u2018Call me in two weeks.\u2019 She had just left an agency and was looking for clients. She showed me how to write a book proposal. I\u2019d never thought of writing a book. The written word scared me because it\u2019s so eternal.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n She also talks about where she agrees with Newt Gingrich (space travel), the most interesting stories she\u2019s been covering for NPR lately, and \u201clooking at religion from completely outside ourselves.\u201d<\/a> The Conference on World Affairs is currently underway, and continues through Friday. Her two presentations are \u201cWhat is a Cult,\u201d and \u201cThe Lure of Interstellar Travel,\u201d both being given today.<\/p>\n A Step Forward for Marijuana as a Sacrament:<\/strong> In what could a groundbreaking ruling, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has overturned a lower court ruling<\/a> against the\u00a0Oklevueha Native American Church\u00a0of Hawaii, allowing an action to\u00a0prevent enforcement of the Controlled Substances Act against them to go forward<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cPlaintiffs need not allege\u00a0a threat of future prosecution because the statute has already\u00a0been enforced against them. When the Government seized\u00a0Plaintiffs\u2019 marijuana pursuant to the CSA, a definite and concrete\u00a0dispute regarding the lawfulness of that seizure came\u00a0into existence.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n The court also ruled that the church does not need to apply to the DEA first for an exemption, though it did rule in the government\u2019s favor by saying the seized marijuana doesn\u2019t have to be returned or compensated for. You can read more about this case, here<\/a>, and here<\/a>. So far, there have been only\u00a0two instances where entheogens used in a religious context have been able to win legal protection (peyote for Native American ceremonial purposes<\/a>, and \u00a0ayahuasca by the\u00a0Uni\u00e3o do Vegetal<\/a>). If the\u00a0Oklevueha Native American Church (ONAC)<\/a> is able to take this to the Supreme Court and win a religious exemption, and injunction against future prosecution, it could throw open the door to religious groups using marijuana as a sacrament. The\u00a0Rastafari<\/a> are an obvious example, but any group that is able to show a sincere use may also be able win exemptions.\u00a0In my mind,\u00a0legal entheogens are an inevitable eventuality<\/a> of these cases, the question is not \u201cif\u201d but \u201cwhen.\u201d<\/p>\n How Far Does Free Speech and Religious Freedom Stretch in Cases of Alleged Fraud?<\/strong> Speaking of possibly momentous instances of litigation, last year several members of the Roma Gypsy Marks family were charged by the federal government with operating an \u201cadvance fee scheme,\u201d<\/a> allegedly bilking more than a dozen victims out of over 40 million dollars. One of the clients\/victims was famous romance author\u00a0Jude Deveraux, who paid the family $20 million<\/a> over 17 years, saying she was threatened by the family, and was near suicide before law enforcement stepped in. Now, the Marks\u2019 defense team is saying their actions were\/are protected religious practices, and that fortune-telling is protected speech<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cLawyers have argued in court papers that the family members had a constitutionally protected right to practice fortunetelling and spiritual healing because it is a part of their religious belief system and fortunetelling is legally considered to be free speech. [\u2026]\u00a0Attorney Michael Gottlieb, who wrote the 24-page legal document about religious rights, argued that his client, Nancy Marks, 42, of Fort Lauderdale and New York City, did nothing but try to help people, in line with her personal spiritual beliefs. [\u2026]\u00a0\u201cNancy Marks\u2019 conduct is rooted in her religion and spirituality,\u201d Gottlieb wrote. \u201cBased upon this prosecution, the defendant has lost her livelihood and has been unable to make a living using her historical religious and spiritual gifts.\u201d [\u2026]\u00a0The legal argument spells out some widely-held Romani beliefs but also draws comparisons with legal rulings about the rights of people who are Amish, Wiccans, Krishnas, Mormons<\/a>, Catholics and Jews.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Leaving aside the issue of the Marks\u2019 guilt or innocence, the ultimate verdict in this case could have far-sweeping ramifications, especially if judges consider the religion question. Whether or not fortune telling can be a protected religious practice is still very much up in air, judicially speaking.\u00a0In 2010 the\u00a0Maryland Court of Appeals ruled that fortune telling and related services are protected speech<\/a>, and in 2008\u00a0a federal judge tossed out a fortune telling ban in Livingston Parish,\u00a0Louisiana<\/a>. However, in a 2011 case,\u00a0a Virginia judge ruled that divination wasn\u2019t the same thing as religious\u00a0counselling<\/a>. The case here, involving the federal government, could set nationwide precedent for where the line gets drawn between exploitation and religious freedom. So this is one to keep your eyes on. For more on the extended Marks clan, check out the documentary \u201cAmerican Gypsy.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n That\u2019s all I have for now, have a great day!<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Just a few quick news notes for you on this Tuesday. Margot Alder on Witchcraft, Cults, and Space Travel: Margot Adler, NPR\u00a0correspondent and author of the seminal 1979 book\u00a0\u201cDrawing Down the Moon: Witches, Druids, Goddess-Worshippers, and Other Pagans in America\u201d, talks to the Daily Camera in Boulder, Colorado about her life and work in advance […]<\/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":[3293,657,715,3295,1308,1348,1403,3294,1680,1903,1904,1906,2032,2633],"class_list":["post-9453","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-paganism","category-religion","tag-conference-on-world-affairs","tag-drugs","tag-entheogens","tag-gypsies","tag-law","tag-litigation","tag-margot-adler","tag-marijuana","tag-oklevueha-native-american-church","tag-psychic","tag-psychic-services-and-the-law","tag-psychics","tag-romani","tag-wicca"],"yoast_head":"\n