A delayed reaction to Barbara Bradley Hagerty’s NPR pieces

Two weeks after blogging about it, I finally listened to National Public Radio reporter Barbara Badley Hagerty’s interview with the (mostly) teenaged Wiccans.

A thought struck me: Is Wicca still the only religion that requires a rebuttal? In this base, Bradley Hagerty goes to some teens at some big evangelical church in Colorado Springs for quotes about falling into Satan’s clutches and that sort of thing.

Elsewhere in her series, someone outside that church discussed the Pentacostal Toronto Blessing, but it was still within an overall Christian context.

One non-rebuttal voice was the manager of Celebration, the leading New Age (for lack of a better term) bookstore in Colorado Springs. Twenty years ago, when Celebration was much smaller, that job was filled by the notorious MC herself. Originally, the woman who started Celebration, Coreen Toll, was highly skeptical about Paganism, being at the time pretty much of a “white light” New Ager herself.

To her credit, Toll, who started quite small (one shelf of astrology books and a rack of imported India-print dresses in one room of her house) and built the store up from there, later developed an apprecation of Paganism in its various forms (Ka-ching Ka-ching).

Accommodating polytheists . . . and who else?

This commentary from USA Today got under my skin. When the Church of the Lukumi Babalu Aye won its court case a few years ago, I was pleased overall, although the “leaving dead chickens under bushes” part seemed pointless to me. A number of my students have cited the case in papers as evidence of the expanding boundaries of American religious freedom. Likewise, we have frequently discussed the Smith case, when the Native American Church collided with the state of Oregon, leading to new federal legislation . . . that was overturned as unconstitutional (see final paragraphs).

But, indeed, how far should courts go in the name of religious freedom? The part about beating the puppy to death as part of a shamanic ritual: from a detached (let’s say Martian) perspective, is that any different than the Santeria sacrifice? But it bothers me so much more.

And don’t get me started on people like this. I don’t feel like cutting them any slack at all.

Joseph Wilson: A Craft Pioneer’s Life

Joseph Wilson published one of the first American Pagan newsletters, The Waxing Moon, in the 1960s and through his correspondence with Robert Cochrane, established the “1734” tradition or current or call-it-what-you-will in American Craft. (Another version of 1734 history is here.

His spiritual autobiography is now appearing serially in The Cauldron, but you may read the whole thing online here at his Toteg Tribe site. I recommend it. American Paganism suffers from too much how-to in relation to the what-happened.

Virtually Troy

I still have not see Brad Pitt and Orlando Bloom in the movie, but, meanwhile, some complex computerized reconstructions of the various levels of Troy can be seen online here. They are part of a web site, Project Troia, documenting collaborative archaeological work between the University of T?bingen and the University of Cincinnati.

Virtually Troy

I still have not see Brad Pitt and Orlando Bloom in the movie, but, meanwhile, some complex computerized reconstructions of the various levels of Troy can be seen online here. They are part of a web site, Project Troia, documenting collaborative archaeological work between the University of T?bingen and the University of Cincinnati.

Virtually Troy

I still have not see Brad Pitt and Orlando Bloom in the movie, but, meanwhile, some complex computerized reconstructions of the various levels of Troy can be seen online here. They are part of a web site, Project Troia, documenting collaborative archaeological work between the University of T?bingen and the University of Cincinnati.

Virtually Troy

I still have not see Brad Pitt and Orlando Bloom in the movie, but, meanwhile, some complex computerized reconstructions of the various levels of Troy can be seen online here. They are part of a web site, Project Troia, documenting collaborative archaeological work between the University of T?bingen and the University of Cincinnati.

The Pagan Blogosphere

If you’re reading this, you may be wondering where to find other blogs by Pagans. And the short answer is, there is no one place. But here are some suggestions:

The gigantic and professionally designed Witches’ Voice web site has a blog section.

You can find some links at The Juggler, the collaborative Pagan blog.

Another site that rates blogs is Pagan Blogs of the WWW. Find yet another list here. And there is a somewhat outdated site here, although some links were dead the last time that I looked.

“A Witch among the Navajos” update

I have added a photo of Malcolm Brenner to his article “A Witch Among the Navajos,” which I added recently to my web site. This humorous photo did not appear in the original Gnosis article, but it was taken about the time of the events he describes, outside the very trailer next to the chapter house in Shiprock, New Mexico.

Malcolm posts occasionally about his writing and life here

Berkeley’s Pagan Pride Parade

Some photos from the Pagan Pride parade, 15 May 2004, in Berkeley, California, are online. (Image-intensive pages will load slowly on a dial-up connection.)

Blogging–and gardening–resume

Back from visiting a key North American cell of the International Tazi Conspiracy, M.C. and I are deeply involved (sore backs, dirty fingernails) in the frantic May gardening spurt imposed by Colorado weather, which goes from blizzard to summer in the blink of an eye.

One of this year’s goals is to enjoy some hawkmoth watching in the fading light of dusk. Actually, that’s a side benefit to having some of the Solanaceae with their white blooms in the night: Datura, Nicotiania, Hyoscyamus.