“I go to group rituals mainly to spend time with my friends.”
If you are Pagan and enjoy answering questionnaires, then Thomas Mitchell, third-year undergraduate in psychology at Nottingham Trent University (England), has one for you.
He comes recommended by Belinda Winder, one of the officers of the UK’s Pagan Federation.
Tags: Paganism
Rosemary Kooiman
As one of my friends said, this is about as ‘out of the broom closet’ as you can get.
When she moved to the Washington area, she and her husband founded the Nomadic Chantry of the Gramarye, primarily to give comfort and support to people involved in the Sports Car Club of America. Today, the Chantry has about 50 members. The Kooimans, car enthusiasts, were active SCCA members and spent most weekends at area tracks, where they helped out with SCCA events and held neopagan circles and celebrations.
Mrs. Kooiman was a member of Mensa, a group that celebrates high intelligence. She compiled a syllabus for a three-year course of study on neopagan beliefs in response to questions from fellow members. She also began teaching classes and holding full-moon circles and celebrations at her Mitchellville home.
She was also active in her late husband’s behalf in the effort to get a Pagan headstone for veterans’ cemeteries.
Tag: Rosemary Kooiman
Writing on walls
I briefly considered live-blogging the “Wiccan” episode of Wife Swap. But if I did, it would be all “‘What a jerk,’ M. muttered” and “‘Oh! My! God!’ M. shrieked.”
So I’ll leave that to others. But I predict a new meme: instead of Wiccans sacrificing goats, it will be that Wiccans encourage their kids to write and draw on the walls.
Where do they find these people? And why are some people pleased?
UPDATE: Jason Pitzl-Waters learned 10 things about Wicca from watching the show.
Painter of yuck
University Diaries goes after kitschmeister Thomas Kinkade. It’s a “theological conundrum.”
At least, says the Los Angeles Times, he parties like an Abstract Expressionist. (Link may expire.)
In sworn testimony and interviews, [ex-employees and others] recount incidents in which an allegedly drunken Kinkade heckled illusionists Siegfried & Roy in Las Vegas, cursed a former employee’s wife who came to his aid when he fell off a barstool, and palmed a startled woman’s breasts at a signing party in South Bend, Ind.
Tag: Thomas Kinkade
From Vinland to “Celtic America” (Part 4)
Reading of Richard Nielsen’s championing of the Kensington Runestone, I was reminded of another independent scholar of marginal archaeology–another engineer, coincidentally–the late Bill McGlone of La Junta, Colorado.
McGlone in turn had been influenced by Barry Fell (1917-1994), a marine biologist and oceanographer. Growing up in New Zealand, Fell had been well aware of the far-sailing Polynesian culture, and he developed a side interest in ancient navigation. He had also learned the Gaelic language while studying at the University of Edinburgh.
(Here are a Wikipedia entry and a detailed obituary with a complete list of Fell’s publications.)
In 1976, Fell published America B.C., an unorthodox survey of North American prehistory, which claimed evidence for visits by ancient Phoenicians, Celts, and others. The evidence was chiefly “epigraphic,” that is to say, based on inscriptions on rocks and caves, etc., here and there. Fell did not even visit all of them, but in his office at the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology collected, transcribed, and in some cases translated inscriptions copied for him by various other people.
Two potential problems arose: sometimes the collectors “improved” the inscriptions, and in other cases, natural features such as cracks in the rock were seen as letters. Still, overall impression of America B.C. and Fell’s subsequent two books were intriguing.
American archaeologists were not impressed. Since it was known that no pre-Columbian culture north of the Valley of Mexico had writing, therefore there could not be any writing, and therefore no one studying ancient writing systems. Epigraphy was for archaeologists working Europe, the Middle East, or Asia. American archaeologists studied artifacts, human physical remains, dwellings, and associated evidence such as pollen and tree rings, but not epigraphy.
Only artifacts would prove convincing, just as the sparse artifacts found in the mid-1960s at L’Anse aux Meadows had carried more weight than all the sagas in proving that the Norse had visited North America.
More to come.
Tags: Vinland, Celtic America, Barry Fell
No marker for Wiccan veteran
A Wiccan sergeant from the Nevada National Guard was killed in action in Afghanistan. Now his widow runs up against the Veterans Administration’s refusal to permit a pentacle marker on the graves of Wiccan veterans, notes the Las Vegas Review-Journal (Link may expire, so I will quote at length.)
Stewart’s widow, Roberta, said she will wait until her family’s religion — and its five-pointed star enclosed in a circle, with one point facing skyward — is recognized for use on memorials before Stewart’s plaque is installed.
“It’s completely blank,” Roberta Stewart said, pointing to her husband’s place on the memorial.
She said she had no idea the pentacle could not be used on her husband’s memorial plaque until she had to deal with the agency after the death of her husband.”
Patrick Stewart’s dog tags, which Roberta Stewart wears around her neck, carry the word Wiccan on them to identify his religious beliefs. But she said he was never told the Wiccan religion was not officially recognized during his 13 years of military service in different capacities.
“By they way, if you die for your country, your religion won’t be recognized, that would be nice to know,” Roberta Stewart said.
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and its National Cemetery Administration prohibit graphics on government-furnished headstones or markers other than those they have approved as “emblems of belief.” More than 30 such emblems are allowed on gravestones and makers in veterans cemeteries, from the Christian cross to the Buddhist wheel of righteousness. A symbol exists for atheists too.
So what is the VA afraid of?
Various Pagan groups have been stonewalled, if you will pardon the pun, by the VA up until now, but enough embarassment will cause the bureaucracy to move.
Of course, not all Pagans are Wiccans, but Wicca, broadly defined, is the largest Pagan grouping, so let’s start there.
UPDATE: Jason Pitzl-Waters offers additional information and links.
Tags: Pagan veterans
Bands that will be playing in Hell …
…are listed in the Field Guide to Evangelicals.
So have evangelical Christians developed a sense of irony, like those upwardly mobile black professionals who decorate with Aunt Jemima and Sambo advertising art?
Maybe so, based on some of the reviews.
Notice the lack of protest marches, burnings, and murders from people who might not like it.
But humor + religion is a dangerous combination. One day you’re chuckling at Lark News, and the next day you’re at Landover Baptist Church.
Goths once sacked Rome
And Oleg Volk is wondering what that would look like now.
Ah, “Goth,” one of few words that is almost as ambiguous as “liberal” or “conservative.” I mean, could you read this and then describe what is a “conservative”?
More serious blogging coming this weekend, I promise.
Tag: Goth
On the heels of the “cartoon jihad,” singer Deeyah’s new video may be the next excuse for rioting.
Muslim pop singer Deeyah has irked the Muslim world with her provocative new music video that shows her stripping off a burka to reveal her bikini-clad body.
In the clash of civilizations, “fight fire with hotness,” says one quoted blogger.
But the video’s not all about booty-shaking your way to freedom of expression. The video reportedly features other Muslim and Middle Eastern women who have fought for women’s rights. There are women, throughout the video, pictured removing strips of tape from their mouths.
She was born in Norway, but that country’s radical Muslim community made life so uncomfortable for her that she moved to the United Kingdom. Death threats continue.
As I once wrote, “Aphrodite will not be denied.” You either acknowledge the powers of the gods, or they will assert themselves in uncontrollable ways.
I had thought that Haifa Wehbe was “the Muslim Madonna.” But I can’t keep up with American pop stars, let alone those from elsewhere.
Tags: Deeyah, Cartoon jihad
Font change
Since my Web-design gurus say that sans-serif fonts are more readable on the screen than serif fonts (the opposite applies on paper), I am trying a switch to (depending on your system) Verdana, Arial, or generic sans-serif.
Archived pages are in the old font. Your comments are welcome.