{"id":7539,"date":"2015-10-27T10:46:22","date_gmt":"2015-10-27T16:46:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=7539"},"modified":"2015-10-30T20:26:10","modified_gmt":"2015-10-31T02:26:10","slug":"its-late-october-who-can-keep-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=7539","title":{"rendered":"It’s Late October \u2014 Who Can Keep Up with the News?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"psstThere is more Pagan-related stuff popping up in the news and publishing world than usual right now. I wonder why. So here are some highlights:<\/p>\n

\u2022 Gwendolyn Reece is a university librarian<\/strong>, blogger (Diary of an Occult Librarian<\/em>)<\/a>, and scholar \u2014 one recent publication, “Impediments to Practice in Contemporary Paganism<\/a>,” appeared in the most recent issue of The Pomegranate. <\/em>So it made sense for the communications and marketing office at her employer, American University in Washington, DC, to go to her as their in-house expert on all things Halloween-ish.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2022 The phrase “post-Christian Europe” has become a journalistic clich\u00e9.<\/strong> So a writer for The Week<\/em> imagines what a post-Christian and pagan [sic<\/em>] world might look like.<\/a><\/p>\n

So, could we go back to paganism? This is more than an idle question. Our era is still \u2014 much more than we care to admit \u2014 very much defined by Christian ideals, which \u2014 much more than we care to admit \u2014 were very much defined in opposition to pagan ideals. Looking at the pagan worldviews that once ruled Europe should give us some insight into the West today, and, perhaps, its future.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The article is free from much knowledge of actual contemporary Paganism outside of Iceland. But he does make the point that sacrifice was key to ancient Paganism, even though nowadays it is euphemized or just plain considered icky<\/p>\n

\u2022 There is a type of book that I call “I go among the Witches.”<\/strong> Mostly I associate these with the 1970s, such as Susan Roberts’ Witches U.S.A. <\/em>(1971), Hans Holzer’s The New Pagans<\/a><\/em> (1973 but now on Kindle!), and the queen of them all, Margot Adler’s Drawing Down the Moon<\/em> (original publication 1979).<\/p>\n

A new entry in this genre is Alex Mar’s Witches of America<\/a>. <\/em>In a review titled “Eat, Prey, Learn Magic,” Rhyd Wildermuth gives it two thumbs down.<\/a><\/p>\n

Much touted by the internet press\u2013but met with muted reservation by most witches, her book offers a sordidly pornographic and self-aggrandising narrative disguised as an elucidating look into the way witchcraft is practised in the United States.\u00a0 Belonging alongside a 1980\u2019s issue of National Geographic<\/em> (we\u2019ll get to the pendulous breasts<\/em> in a bit), exploitative British-tourist narratives, and freak-documentary, Mar\u2019s book tells the tale of her search for authentic witchcraft in the most \u2018extreme\u2019 of American Pagan experiences.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u2022 Want to sample Alex Mar’s book for yourself?<\/strong> Check this excerpt in New York <\/em>magazine: “The Powerful, Unlikely Appeal of Witchcraft \u2014 Even for a Skeptic<\/a>.”<\/p>\n

That\u2019s what this is like, the embarrassing wide-openness that witchcraft requires: a movement or voice or improv class, in which the actor is expected, required by her work, to throw herself all the way in. To make a flailing mess of herself as the only route to truer performance.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

‘Cause her readers\u00a0 understand the thea-tuh. <\/em>Or as others say, “Fake it ’till you make it.” Nothing about deity in this excerpt, however.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There is more Pagan-related stuff popping up in the news and publishing world than usual right now. I wonder why. So here are some highlights: \u2022 Gwendolyn Reece is a university librarian, blogger (Diary of an Occult Librarian), and scholar \u2014 one recent publication, “Impediments to Practice in Contemporary Paganism,” appeared in the most recent […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[131,66,95,5,29],"class_list":["post-7539","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-europe","tag-halloween","tag-journalism","tag-paganism","tag-witchcraft"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-1XB","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":11025,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=11025","url_meta":{"origin":7539,"position":0},"title":"A New Book for the Pagan Studies Series on Pagan Aspects of Pizzica in Southern Italy","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"November 18, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"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\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"academia\"","block_context":{"text":"academia","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=academia"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/giovanna-and-jefferson.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/giovanna-and-jefferson.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/giovanna-and-jefferson.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/giovanna-and-jefferson.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/giovanna-and-jefferson.jpg?resize=1050%2C600 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/giovanna-and-jefferson.jpg?resize=1400%2C800 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":12347,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=12347","url_meta":{"origin":7539,"position":1},"title":"Interview with Kaarina Aitamurto on Russian Paganism","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"August 2, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Prof. Kaarina Aitamurto, University of Helsinki, is interviewed here for the World Religions and Spirituality Project about her research on Paganisms in Russia. She has published on Russian Paganism in The Pomegranate (here and here) and co-edited the important collection Modern Pagan and Native Faith Movements in Central and Eastern\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Finland\"","block_context":{"text":"Finland","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=finland"},"img":{"alt_text":"Kaarina Aitamurto, Univ. of Helsinki","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/kaarina-aitamurto-203x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":892,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=892","url_meta":{"origin":7539,"position":2},"title":"Let’s Hear It for BP605.W53!","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"June 12, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"When you visit a university library that uses Library of Congress call numbers, are you tired of finding books on Wicca in the BF's along with abnormal psychology?(For example, my book Her Hidden Children is at BF1566 .C55 2006. At least The Paganism Reader made it into the BL's, the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"publishing\"","block_context":{"text":"publishing","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=publishing"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3757,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=3757","url_meta":{"origin":7539,"position":3},"title":"Survey on Pagan Needs","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"January 26, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Gwendolyn Reece, a librarian\u00a0 at American University in Washington, D.C., with a background in religious studies, is conducting a survey \"to understand the importance of different practices to the Pagan\/Witch\/Heathen community in the United States and identify the needs, challenges, barriers, and perceptions of risk faced by Pagans\/Witches\/Heathens that influence\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Paganism\"","block_context":{"text":"Paganism","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=paganism"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9623,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=9623","url_meta":{"origin":7539,"position":4},"title":"How Paganism is Good for Men","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"June 23, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"With all the talk about how witchcraft = empowerment for women, here's something different: \"7 things paganism can teach the modern man\" It's in a newspaper, so don't expect great depth, but at least it means that the Paganism stories now run at the summer solstice, not just at Halloween.","rel":"","context":"In \"Britain\"","block_context":{"text":"Britain","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=britain"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/secure.i.telegraph.co.uk\/multimedia\/archive\/02947\/LEE-STONES_2947618a.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5788,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=5788","url_meta":{"origin":7539,"position":5},"title":"New Book on Ukrainian Paganism","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"July 6, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"The Return of Ancestral Gods: Modern Ukrainian Paganism as an Alternative Vision for a Nation by Mariya Lesiv, who teaches in the Department of Folklore at\u00a0 the Memorial University of Newfoundland, has now been released by McGill-Queen's University Press in Canada. From the publisher's site: In The Return of Ancestral\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Europe\"","block_context":{"text":"Europe","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=europe"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.mqup.ca\/filebin\/images\/products\/main\/9780773542624.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7539","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7539"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7539\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7564,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7539\/revisions\/7564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}