Cleaning out a stash of frames, mats, framed photos, some of Dad’s old watercolors, etc. today, I found this. It is work from my beginning calligraphy class at Reed College in Portland, Oregon, where the study of calligraphy shaped the visual identity from the 1940s–1980s in particular, and to a lesser extent today. My teacher, …
When you are a scholar of religion, sometimes you forget how seriously people take religion. Riding across New Mexico this week on Amtrak’s Southwest Chief, M. and I went to the dining car for supper. All the tables seat four, and to save space and facilitate service, if there are fewer than four of people, …
A year ago I photographed Jefferson Calico (r.), author of Being Viking: Heathenism in Contemporary America with Giovanna Parmigiani, a visitor to the Equinox Publishing booth at the American Academy of Religion-Society of Biblical Literature joint book show at their annual meetings in Denver, Colorado. I am happy to say that Giovanna has now signed …
I was on my way to a little town in North Dakota where a friend lives about at the intersection of Norway and Washington streets — can you get any more perfect than that? And every little town is dominated by a Lutheran steeple. A friend in Poland and I were emailing about how the …
Continue reading Playing Heathen Neo-folk on North Dakota Highways
Well-known Pagan writer Margot Adler worked for National Public Radio, but she also had a presence at Pacifica’s WBAI in New York City, where she hosted a talk show called “Hour of the Wolf.” The show continued after her death, but no more: WBAI has shut down. Apparently the “listener-supported” thing no longer worked for …
Continue reading Margot Adler’s Old Radio Station Shuts Down
I had to follow Wind over Tide, “a folk band specializing in traditional music of the British Isles and Americas with special emphasis on tales of seafaring and adventure,” which was kind of a challenge. The evening before I was scheduled to give the keynote address at the Fort Collins (Colorado) Pagan Pride Day on …
Continue reading A Proposal for Honoring the Spirit of the Poudre River
Photo: The Very Reverend Jane Hedges rides the 55-foot high “helter-skelter” inside Norwich Cathedral in England.((While her official biography says she was ordained a “deaconess” in 1980, she was elevated to “priest” in 1994. You can’t say “priestess” in the Anglican church — evidently the word makes them think of filmy skirts, tambourines, and sex.)) …
A new article from the Religion News Service, which does not normally acknowledge polytheists, describes the long-standing Pagan revivals in the Baltic republics: The pagan [sic] religions have been spurred especially by a growing awareness of climate change and the rise of conservation movements that tap into a deep local connection to nature and a …
Continue reading Religion News Service: Baltic Pagans Spurred by Conservation
In the last of the four-part post about “the cousins” (start the series here), I raised the question of what do fairies look like. Here is the man who knows, says the (Irish) Independent: “Looking at fairies on my farm is the same as looking at traffic in Dublin. But they don’t come everyday.” “I …
“A soundtrack for the Yule Goat as he abducts children to his mountain fastness in Lapland,” said the blogger that I got this from. Give it a listen, it’s worth it.