Forgive the melodramatic headline, but I have been grading tests and research papers for about six hours. At least “the big class” is done, and what lies ahead will be more pleasant reading–essays by better student writers.<\/p>\n
So to make up for the lack of blogging, some odds and ends:<\/p>\n
• A web site devoted to iconography of deities and demons of the ancient Near East<\/a>. (Thanks to Caroline Tully<\/a>.)<\/p>\n • I am please to announce that the Consultation on Contemporary Pagan Studies<\/a> in the American Academy of Religion has been upgraded to “group” status, i.e., it is now the Contemporary Pagan Studies group, although their site does not reflect the change. The change gives us more program slots and a longer period before the next oversight review.<\/p>\n • Via Circle Sanctuary, a program for sending “Care Packages” to Pagan military personnel overseas<\/a>.<\/p>\n • Mainly because it has a lot about Gleb Botkin, founder of the Church of Aphrodite and hence one of America’s Pagan pioneers, I just read Frances Welch’s A Romanov Fantasy: Life at the Court of Anna Anderson<\/em>. (Reviewed in the “>Los Angeles Times<\/em><\/a> and The Guardian<\/em><\/a>.)<\/p>\n I really didn’t learn anything new about the C of A., but there is this tidbit, as close as Welch comes to suggesting how Franziska Schandzkowska [Anna Anderson] (1896-1984) fooled so many people into thinking that she was Anastasia, the youngest daughter of the Russian royal family–including Botkin, who knew the real Anastasia when they were both teenagers. Anastasia’s uncle by marriage, Grand Duke Alexander, suggested that Anna was what New Agers call a “walk-in.”<\/p>\n A confirmed spiritualist and table-rapper, Alexander claimed that Grand Duchess Anastasia’s spirit had returned and incorporated itself into another body. His proclamation revealed the extent to which he was impressed by Anna’s memories. ‘She knows so much about the intimate life of the Tsar and his family that there is simply no other explanation for it; and of course it wouldn’t be the first time that a spirit has returned to earth in a new physical form.’<\/em><\/p>\n Y’think?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Forgive the melodramatic headline, but I have been grading tests and research papers for about six hours. At least “the big class” is done, and what lies ahead will be more pleasant reading–essays by better student writers. So to make up for the lack of blogging, some odds and ends: • A web site devoted […]<\/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":[],"tags":[3,5,53,4],"class_list":["post-964","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-blogging","tag-paganism","tag-russia","tag-scholarship"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-fy","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":493,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=493","url_meta":{"origin":964,"position":0},"title":"Pagan studies, nature religion at\u2026","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"August 18, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Pagan studies, nature religion at AAR-SBLFor anyone attending the annual meetings of the American Academy of Religion and Society for Biblical Literature in Philadelphia in November, here is a quick--and not necessarily definitive--list of the Pagan-studies sessions.First, the all-day Conference on Contemporary Pagan Studies, which has been happening since 1998\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7114,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=7114","url_meta":{"origin":964,"position":1},"title":"Contemporary Pagan Studies at the AAR, 2015","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"April 4, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"All of the evaluating and negotiating is completed, and the Contemporary Pagan Studies Group of the American Academy of Religion will be presenting the following sessions at the annual meeting, held November 21\u201324, 2015, in Atlanta: 1 Joint session with the Indigenous Religious Traditions Group: \"The Problem of 'Religion' in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"academia\"","block_context":{"text":"academia","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=academia"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8434,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=8434","url_meta":{"origin":964,"position":2},"title":"CFP: 2017 AAR Contemporary Pagan Studies Group","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"January 23, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"All the calls for the 2017 annual meeting of the American Academy of Religion are now online. The meeting itself will be held 18\u201321 November in Boston. The Pagan studies theme is \"Witch Hunts: Rhetorical, Historical and Contemporary.\" The term \u201cwitch hunt\u201d is used as a rhetorical strategy in contemporary\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"American religion\"","block_context":{"text":"American religion","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=american-religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12050,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=12050","url_meta":{"origin":964,"position":3},"title":"Pagan Studies Call for Papers, American Academy of Religion 2021","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"February 5, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"This is the call for papers for the Contemporary Pagan Studies unit of the American Academy of Religion for the 2021 annual meeting, to be held in San Antonio, Texas, Nov. 20\u201323. (Insert pandemic disclaimer here.) Contemporary Pagan Studies is an interdisciplinary unit, and we welcome submissions of theoretically and\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\/2021\/02\/SanAntonioWelcomeHeader-633x260-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/SanAntonioWelcomeHeader-633x260-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/SanAntonioWelcomeHeader-633x260-1.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":8361,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=8361","url_meta":{"origin":964,"position":4},"title":"2017 Pagan Studies “Call” Completed, Will Be Published Soon","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"December 10, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"As I mentioned, my term has co-chair of the American Academy of Religion's Contemporary Pagan Studies Group ended this year. It's been a log run, if you figure that this effort to bring Pagan studies into the academy started in 1995, with an informal \"who are we\" meeting, more of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"academia\"","block_context":{"text":"academia","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=academia"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11832,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=11832","url_meta":{"origin":964,"position":5},"title":"Conference on Current Pagan Studies Seeks Presenters","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"October 23, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Last year I had the honor to give a keynote address at the Conference on Current Pagan Studies in Claremont, California. Last year's conference involved a train trip. This year, like everything else, it's virtual. Dates are January 16\u201317, 2021. The keynote speakers are scholar Michael York\u00a0 and writer and\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\/2020\/10\/Pagan-Studies-conference-logo.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/964","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=964"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/964\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=964"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=964"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=964"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}