Category Archives: Uncategorized

Watching the news . . .

Not surprisingly, The Drudge Report was first with this story, in tandem with Religion New Blog. It’s right up both their alleys. I found it ironic that the woman herself, obviously not playing with a full deck (“I had cut myself. I do that kind of out of habit now.”), could say in her own defense that she was into Satanism, not Witchcraft. Like that will help her?

The Pagans have been happier with the outcome, so far, of the “prayer” lawsuit story. One issue: most Pagans I know do not speak of prayer. Offering Pagan “prayers” in front of a legislative body is, I suspect, just another step on the road towards meeting in rectangular buildings with pews.

It Was Fated

After letting my subscription lapse about three years ago, I have re-subscribed to Fate magazine.

I have to admit I missed it: the UFO sightings, the “True Mystic Experiences” from people who could not possibly be making it all up (this is not the Penthouse Forum, folks).

And the wacky ads: “The most frightening book in print,” the Atlantean crystal headband (only $59.95), the “free” Tarot readings, and all the ads from world-famous psychics and mediums.

In 1994 Llewellyn Publications bought Fate from the small company that had published it since 1948. Knowing better than the earlier publishers, they promptly changed its small, “digest” format to a fullsize 8 x 10-inch magazine. In fact, I had an article published in that first “full-size” issue on the archaeological anomaly of “Colorado ogham” inscriptions.

But it looks now like the conservative readers won: Fate is back in the digest format, only with some process-color pages instead of only black and white photos.

Maybe I should buy the poster of the first issue cover, complete with flying sauces that look remarkably like compact disks with a notch cut out of them. Who knew?

Danish Pagans Gaining Recognition

Articles from Scandinavian papers here and here summarize efforts by Forn Sidr, which means The Old Custom in Norse, to be an officially recognized religion in Denmark, able to perform legal marriages and so on. (Links are via Religion News Blog.)

The Danish Forn Sidr is not to be confused with this one, which is what you will find in a Google search. The English-language version of the Danes’ website is here.

My students always display expressions of amazement when I tell them that a Danish baby is automatically a member of the state Lutheran church unless he or she opts out. This Danish site would enlighten them.

‘Ghosts’ in print

My essay “Ghosts” has been published in the November issue of Colorado Central magazine. Naturally, I’m delighted that the editors, Ed and Martha Quillen, liked it, even though it is probably more “literary” than their usual editorial mixture.

I wrote it last May, composing parts in my head while driving the back roads of Park County, Colorado, on the way home from the trip to Eagle Rock that the essay describes. In some cases, I found myself on the same roads that Dad and I had traveled the previous December on what would turn out to be his last trip into those mountains.

Errata: In the “Florence 2003” section, “windy roads” should be “winding roads.” And I can explain the discrepancy between the number of musicians in the Pearl DeVere funeral-reenactment photos and the text. Really, I can.

I Have Been Waiting for this News Story

Ever since I heard that Saddam Hussein was draining these wetlands, I had enough reason to hate the guy. And ever since the invasion of Iraq last spring, I have been wondering if someone?American troops, British troops, local contractors–I don’t care who–would show up with some earthmoving equipment and start correcting the situation. It looks like that might be happening, according to the BBC’s website. On the other hand, there’s not enough water in the Euphrates any more.

Maybe Iraqis need to take up the infidel custom of holding Ducks Unlimited banquets and auctions to raise money for wetlands restoration.

I Have Been Waiting for this News Story

Ever since I heard that Saddam Hussein was draining these wetlands, I had enough reason to hate the guy. And ever since the invasion of Iraq last spring, I have been wondering if someone?American troops, British troops, local contractors–I don’t care who–would show up with some earthmoving equipment and start correcting the situation. It looks like that might be happening, according to the BBC’s website. On the other hand, there’s not enough water in the Euphrates any more.

Maybe Iraqis need to take up the infidel custom of holding Ducks Unlimited banquets and auctions to raise money for wetlands restoration.

I Have Been Waiting for this News Story

Ever since I heard that Saddam Hussein was draining these wetlands, I had enough reason to hate the guy. And ever since the invasion of Iraq last spring, I have been wondering if someone?American troops, British troops, local contractors–I don’t care who–would show up with some earthmoving equipment and start correcting the situation. It looks like that might be happening, according to the BBC’s website. On the other hand, there’s not enough water in the Euphrates any more.

Maybe Iraqis need to take up the infidel custom of holding Ducks Unlimited banquets and auctions to raise money for wetlands restoration.

I Have Been Waiting for this News Story

Ever since I heard that Saddam Hussein was draining these wetlands, I had enough reason to hate the guy. And ever since the invasion of Iraq last spring, I have been wondering if someone?American troops, British troops, local contractors–I don’t care who–would show up with some earthmoving equipment and start correcting the situation. It looks like that might be happening, according to the BBC’s website. On the other hand, there’s not enough water in the Euphrates any more.

Maybe Iraqis need to take up the infidel custom of holding Ducks Unlimited banquets and auctions to raise money for wetlands restoration.

The John William Waterhouse Revival

The Neoclassical (or some would say Pre-Raphaelite) painter John William Waterhouse, 1849-1917, is enjoying a posthumous career illustrating books on Paganism.

His painting “The Sorceress” appears on the cover of Witchcraft Medicine — see entry for October 29 — while “Circe Offering the Cup to Ulysses” is on the dust jacket of Ronald Hutton’s latest, Witches, Druids and King Arthur, of which I will have more to say soon.

Barbie, the Hot Pagan Witch

I am in debt to Mark Morford’s SF Gate column on the latest, must-have Barbie doll. (Mattel offers a dark-complexioned version as well.) She would be just right to look down on you and your plushies while you are reading some of Llewellyn Publications’ latest teen-witch fiction.