The Man Behind The Wild Hunt

Patheos chats with Jason Pitzl-Waters about Pagan media. By Star Foster You may not know the name but you certainly know his work. Between The Wild Hunt , A Darker Shade of Pagan podcast on Pagan Radio Network, his work with the Pagan Newswire Collective or his contributions to PanGaia , Thorn , newWitch , and Patheos, he's been persistently seeking to raise the bar for Pagan journalism. He was kind enough to share some of his story and give us his thoughts on the future of Pagan media. Most of us know you as "the guy that writes The Wild Hunt," but you wear quite a few hats. You're also involved with Warriors and Kin, The Juggler, Darker Shade of Pagan podcast, and Pagan Newswire Collective. Did you plan to become so involved with Pagan media, or did it sort of evolve on its own? I would love to say now that this was all a part of some ambitious ten-year plan, but I got involved in the wonderful world of Pagan new media almost by accident. I certainly never thought I would be where I am today, writing an influential blog, speaking at festivals, and coordinating media projects. Sometimes, on reflection, it seems rather strange, but I also feel incredibly blessed to be where I am. A very good friend often joked that I'm "fate boy," in that life seems to guide me toward paths I would never have consciously suspected. I'm among a growing number of Pagans who have to get their daily Wild Hunt news update or they get cranky. What was your original vision for The Wild Hunt? Did you ever expect it to become such a must-read site for the Pagan community? Was there a particular milestone where you realized "Hey, this is getting big..."? I started The Wild Hunt as something of a hobby, a writing project born out of my frustration that there wasn't a Pagan news site like The Wild Hunt for me to read in the morning. The first couple years of the site, which I urge everyone to ignore, were a long process of me finding my voice, becoming a better writer, and ultimately, deciding that what I was doing was too important for me to stop doing. I never expected it to become any one's must-read site. In the beginning I was just incredibly flattered that anyone read it, and I'm touched that some of my original readers and supporters are still around and still commenting. It's hard to pin down a single milestone, but I think that from 2006 to 2007 The Wild Hunt went from "just some blog" to a going concern in the wider Pagan media landscape. As The Wild Hunt has become popular, your opinion has gained weight in the community. Do you feel free to express yourself, or do you feel a responsibility to provide a more objective viewpoint? I do feel a responsibility to provide an objective, albeit "pro-Pagan," viewpoint when I write my blog. That doesn't mean I never interject my opinion or write editorials -- that does happen -- but I do strive to avoid using The Wild Hunt as a personal bully pulpit. Because of that I do put limits on how I express myself, otherwise I wouldn't be serving the wider community, I'd only be serving myself. One of the things I love about The Wild Hunt is that you try to represent the entire Pagan community, not just any one branch of it. I'm curious, how do you describe your personal spiritual path? That would be telling! But seriously, I've often avoided being specific because I don't want my personal affiliations to influence people's perceptions about what I write, or where I might stand on a particular issue. But in the interests of transparency, the bulk of my spiritual makeup is tied to various forms and traditions of modern religious Witchcraft. The rise of modern Paganism has been almost in lock step with technological advances, from the occult renaissance of the late 19 th century when trains and newspapers were everywhere to TweetUps at this year's PantheaCon. I personally found the modern Pagan movement due to an indie media article on the internet. Paganism is supposedly a collection of earth-based religions, so why do you think we're so hooked on technology? I have it from reliable sources that the internet is based on Earth, so I think we're good. Why are we hooked on technology? Because new and old it has reliably offered our communities a way to organize, share information, and connect across great distances. The concern is to balance our lives with technology so it doesn't obscure or undermine our larger goals. So long as we work toward that balance I think there's nothing wrong with worshipping in the woods one night, and Tweeting about it the next (unless you're oath-bound, then that might be bad). Pagan magazines have undergone significant changes in the past year. Both PanGaia and Pentacle have morphed into new publications. As traditional print media is crumbling, do you think Pagan magazines can survive? Yes, I think Pagan magazines can and will survive, but I also think they'll never hold the positions of prominence they once did, and that's okay. New media is just inherently better at certain things, like sharing news, social networking, and grass roots organizing. The people who once picked up a magazine for those things, if they have a reliable internet connection, don't really need to any more (except, perhaps, out of brand loyalty). I think we'll see, or perhaps I just hope we'll see, more limited-edition art objects, thicker and more in-depth journals, and magazines focusing on content that the internet can't easily reproduce. You use a lot of different types of social media to give people access to The Wild Hunt and the social media landscape is constantly shifting. Livejournal has been around awhile but Twitter is relatively new. Facebook has undergone several major overhauls in the past few years. Is there anything happening with social media right now that you find exciting? I think the ideas behind the Diaspora project are exciting, and point to a social networking future that is open, private, and in your control. The possibilities of such a system for modern Pagans are endless. I've had friends who were techno-mages and I recall visiting online shrines to Pagan deities. Some Pagan groups conduct ritual and teaching through webcams and forums. I listened in on PantheaCon panel discussions via podcast. Many Pagan leaders offer divination through Skype. Crowley, Gardner, and Dion Fortune never did it that way. Has technology become just another spiritual tool? Like ritual knives and prayer beads? I think Crowley and Gardner (though possibly not Fortune) would have loved the internet! As for modern technology being a "spiritual tool," why not? Humans have always imbued their tools with religious and spiritual meaning. Why should a laptop, or a DJ setup, be any different from a sword? A lot of "homemade" Pagan sites died when GeoCities closed down. Some mourned the loss of a Pagan internet era, others rejoiced at the death of the animated Pagan.gif. Do you think the loss of Pagan digital milestones and data are things we should be concerned about as time goes by? Should there be a Pagan digital media library project? There's always the Internet Archive for those who really miss the GeoCities experience, and there already are digital media library projects that are trying to preserve Pagan and occult texts online ( www.sacred-texts.com , for example). I do think it would be interesting to see a real, scholarly attempt to create a robust record of the Pagan internet experience, but it would have to be massive at this point to really be exhaustive to any degree. You work hard to network and co-ordinate diverse Pagan media outlets. What do you think Pagan media should be focusing on as a whole? How do you envision the future of Pagan media? We need a newswire(s); we need "hard" news for our community that is produced by our community. Secular news agencies aren't going to care about our communities the way we do, nor should we expect them to. I think that should be the next big step in Pagan new media, and one that I'm deeply invested in. The future of Pagan media in the next twenty years will be Pagan new media going "pro" in various ways (a process that is already underway), solidifying into a new ecosystem of information and interaction with a variety of larger "hubs" providing context, content, and coordination. When it comes to Paganism and media technology you've become the default "go-to" guy. How do you feel about being in that role? In all honesty, it's an honor and a privilege that people want to hear my views on anything. If I truly am the "go-to" guy for this stuff, I can only hope to be a good ambassador to the wider community regarding the potential of these technologies. In researching for this interview I discovered that you're also a painter. I've read that you are a fan of Klimt, but your style seems more like Van Gogh, if Van Gogh was painting the Arcanas of the tarot. Do you plan to turn your paintings into a tarot deck one day? I paint far too slowly for that! I also think my rather large painterly work would look pretty cruddy squished down that small, as the texture is a big part of its appeal, at least for me. As for Klimt, I sometimes feel he's my Holy Guardian Angel, helping me achieve my artistic True Will. Since launching The Wild Hunt in 2004, Jason Pitzl-Waters has become one of the leading voices for analysis and insight into how modern Pagan faiths are represented within the mainstream media. In addition, The Wild Hunt has also conducted in-depth interviews with prominent figures within modern Paganism, academia, and religion journalism. Jason wants to raise the level of discourse and journalism on important issues within the modern Pagan and Heathen communities, while advocating a broader commitment to encouraging religious multiplicity and solidarity (where appropriate) with surviving indigenous and non-monotheistic faith groups. Jason also hosts a Pagan music podcast, A Darker Shade Of Pagan , and is a visual artist: Epimetheus Studio. Star Foster is a Pagan numbers-geek roaming the wilds of the North Georgia mountains. She enjoys bluegrass, RPGs, war novels, and keeping abreast of the wild, wonderful world of Modern Paganism.