Pagans.net Blogs

Witches, Fine… But Does Sarah Palin Believe in Religious Tolerance?

Evan Derkacz: “So the important take-away here is not that Sarah Palin worships with loony exorcists, but that this ambitious woman has accepted the spiritual direction and leadership of a religious group that is conducting what you could call a ’soft inquisition’–if you’re not with us, you’d better get with us or we’ll run you out of town. It’s paranoid. It’s cruel. It’s based on an apocalyptic mythology that seems to lead its adherents to wish the worst for their neighbors.

And in some strange backward reverso-rhetorical deconstructionist logic, when we read ‘witch-hunter’ over and over in connection with Sarah Palin we begin to think of her as the hunted witch. And, while we don’t generally approve of the persecution of odd women, we begin to become attached to this association: Palin-Witch. But we must resist. It is a distraction.”

(Via HuffPo.)

Celebrating the Harvest Season

Llewellyn Journal: “This is one of my favorite times of year. Like me, most Witches observe the Wheel of the Year—eight Pagan holidays, or Sabbats, that follow the ebb and flow of the changing seasons. Starting with Lammas (also known as Lughnasadh), on August 1st, we celebrate three harvest festivals, culminating with Samhain on October 31st.

Each of these holidays focuses on a different aspect of the harvest season and each is associated with a new phase of the journey that the god and goddess travel in their changing forms throughout the year. But they all celebrate our gratitude for the abundance and joy in our own lives, and signal the wrapping up of that year’s magick efforts. After all, we are harvesting the fruits of our spiritual endeavors now too, not just the vegetables we heap on our tables.”

(Via Llewellyn Journal.)

Attacker Attempts to Set Woman on Fire

WSIL TV: “Investigators are searching for the suspect in a bizarre attack. Police say the woman walked into a business and tried to set the store’s owner on fire.

The Country Goddess is an uni-faith/multicultural store in downtown Carbondale…

‘We actually have at least 6 different faiths represented in the store. We have belly dancing and organic soaps and aroma therapy and jewelry and candles. So it’s a feel good store.’”

(Via WSIL TV.)

Tracing the roots - psychological, social, cultural - of two millennia of witch-hunting

The accused: “When Americans think of witchcraft, invariably they think of Salem. From 1692 to 1693 the town witnessed accusations, examinations, trials, convictions, and multiple executions. Some 150 residents were imprisoned. A few died in jail. Nineteen people were hanged, 14 of them women. One bold soul, Giles Corey, refused to enter a plea and the court subjected him to pressing - piling stones on his chest to force him to speak. Before dying, it is said, he uttered the words ‘More weight.’

There is no one better qualified to tell these stories and write a general history of witch-hunting than John Demos, Samuel Knight professor of history at Yale University, who won the Bancroft Prize for ‘Entertaining Satan’ (1982), an inspired, exhaustive study of New England witchcraft from different perspectives. When Demos published that book, he included his middle name, Putnam, because he had discovered that he was connected genealogically to the Putnam family that had played a central role in the Salem prosecutions. He expressed hope that when he finished the book he would have also obtained some ‘personal closure.’”

(Via The Boston Globe.)

The Silent Sermon

The Silent Sermon: “It is a fact that if an organ is somehow severed from its body, it will shrivel and die. It cannot exist on its own, and neither can we. Disconnected and cut off from the life blood of our faith, our spiritual life will wither and eventually cease to exist. This is why the fist symptom of spiritual decline is usually inconsistent or infrequent attendance at worship services and the life enhancing gatherings of fellow believers.

Isolation into the self…into the I…me…mine, cuts off the oxygen supply line that is provided in community. We become isolated; in a sense surround ourselves with ‘mirrors’. All we see is ourselves. When we are connected to a community, we surround ourselves with windows. We look through a window, but at a mirror.

We look in a mirror to see how we look, but we look through a window to see how others are. ‘Mirror people’ look at themselves a great deal. ‘Window people’ look beyond themselves at others. They are open to enjoy fellowship, shared lives and growth, which can be encouraged in a loving community.”

(Via The Huffington Post | Raw Feed.)

Afterlife? Pagans believe in the here and now

Afterlife? Pagans believe in the here and now: “Wicca, the most widely known form of Paganism, encompasses many traditions. But there are also Hellenes, Romans, Kemetics, Norse and Germanic Heathens (often referred to as ‘satr’), Druids, and others; all of us follow, in one form or another, the customs and traditions of our ancestors.

There are not many of us by the standards of the ‘great’ religions, but I like to think that we have some small voice in ideas about what happens to us after death.

Christians focus on the afterlife, while Pagans have had their eyes set on the here and now. For a Christian, this life is only preparation for another. It is unsurprising, then, that they should focus on questions relating to the afterlife, but Christians often forget that this kind of discourse is meaningless to non-Christians.”

(Via Journal Gazette.)

Halloween decorating: Utahns spare no expense on scares

Halloween decorating: Utahns spare no expense on scares: “Utahns seem to like decorating for Halloween almost as much as at Christmas.

Just ask Jim Lauscher of The Village Christmas Shoppe at Gardner Village, who said business in Halloween decorations is already brisk.

‘Halloween in the state of Utah is the second biggest holiday for decorating,’ he said. ‘I am from the Midwest, and on Halloween people dress up the kids for one night. Here they are starting to decorate the inside and outside of houses on Oct. 1.

‘The other thing about Halloween is that price doesn’t matter,’ he added. ‘I have trouble selling a $100 Christmas item, but selling a $200 witch is no problem.’ “

(Via Salt Lake Tribune.)

Pagan Pride Day addresses religious tolerance

Pagan Pride Day addresses religious tolerance - Columbia Missourian: “Elm Street in front of Peace Park will be filled with tarot card readers, educational groups and vendors selling homemade gifts on Sunday as part of the sixth annual Pagan Pride Day. The event will be held from noon to 7 p.m. in Peace Park.

‘The purpose of Pagan Pride Day is to sponsor and promote tolerance in the world for all religions, to educate the public about paganism and to raise food and donations for charity,’ said Victoria Chance, Columbia coordinator for the national Pagan Pride Project.

Joyce and River Higginbotham, authors of ‘Paganism: An Introduction to Earth-Centered Religions and Pagan Spirituality,’ will speak during the day.”

(Via Columbia Missourian.)

Witchcraft in Wasilla

Witchcraft in Wasilla: “Max Blumenthal has the goods on the Kenyan preacher Thomas Muthee (who claims to have chased down a witch and cast out the spirit of witchcraft from his village) who laid hands on Sarah Palin at the Wasilla Assembly of God church, apparently before she ran for governor. He prayed for the casting out of witchcraft, and for her financial and political success. This past weekend, Blumenthal himself filmed additional footage of Muthee preaching at the church, which he says he will post in a short documentary soon.

The footage Blumenthal posted yesterday at The Nation, along with the footage from Palin’s 2008 speech to the church’s ‘Masters Commission,’ is the best, and to my knowledge only, video of Palin in her church environment. She even referred to Muthee prophesying her political success in her 2008 speech, in which she also discussed her proposed gas pipeline as ‘God’s will,’ and in which other church pastors referred to Alaska as an ‘end-times refuge’ for believers.”

(Via The American Prospect.)

Palin affair claim, ‘witchcraft’ blessing dog McCain camp

Palin affair claim, ‘witchcraft’ blessing dog McCain camp | theage.com.au: “According to the paper, three members of the man’s family, including one by sworn affidavit, have claimed Mrs Palin had an affair with husband Todd’s former business partner, Brad Hanson. Mr Hanson owned a snowmobile dealership with her husband, who terminated the partnership after he heard stories about the allegations in 1996. This was around the time Mrs Palin was mayor of Wasilla.

The controversial choice for Republican vice-president is also the subject of a grainy YouTube video showing her being blessed in her home-town church three years ago by a Kenyan pastor who prayed for her protection from ‘witchcraft’ as she prepared to seek higher office.

The video shows Mrs Palin standing before Bishop Thomas Muthee in the pulpit of the Wasilla Assembly of God church, holding her hands open as he asked Jesus Christ to keep her safe from ‘every form of witchcraft’.”

(Via TheAge.com.)