6.18.2008
(Pagan) News of Note
My semi-regular round-up of articles, essays, and opinions of note for discerning Pagans and Heathens.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel publishes an article about how Pagans that Selena Fox of Circle Sanctuary knows are excited that a "unicorn" (a deer that grew only one horn due to genetic mutation) was born in Tuscany.
"Unicorns are considered sacred creatures in ancient and contemporary pagan traditions," said Selena Fox, founder and senior minister of Circle Sanctuary, a Wiccan church, resource center and nature preserve with a worldwide ecospirituality ministry on a 200-acre nature preserve about 30 miles west of Madison. "Some pagans are part of the emerging field known as crypto zoology, in which science and myth converge. There are several theories about unicorns having actual origins in living creatures. Well, this report seems to confirm that.
The piece seems more like a way to plug the ongoing Pagan Spirit Gathering, than to have a discussion about the significance of a single-horned deer. For some reason the article keeps bringing to mind Oberon Zell-Ravenheart's old "unicorn" goat-raising business.
Canada seems to be big on controversial child welfare cases lately. First we had the swastika/Odinist case from last week, and now the Children's Aid Society has been called in, and a report filed, after a psychic claimed a young autistic girl was molested.
"Leduc's weird tale began on May 30, when she dropped young Victoria off for class at Terry Fox Elementary and headed in to work, only to receive a frantic phone call from the school telling her it was urgent she come back right away. The frightened mother rushed back to the campus and was stunned by what she heard - the principal, vice-principal and her daughter's teacher were all waiting for her in the office, telling her they'd received allegations that Victoria had been the victim of sexual abuse - and that the CAS had been notified ... "The teacher looked and me and said: 'We have to tell you something. The educational assistant who works with Victoria went to see a psychic last night, and the psychic asked the educational assistant at that particular time if she works with a little girl by the name of "V." And she said 'yes, I do.' And she said, 'well, you need to know that that child is being sexually abused by a man between the ages of 23 and 26.'" ... things got worse when school officials used the "evidence" and accepted the completely unsubstantiated word of the seer by reporting the case to Children's Aid, which promptly opened a file on the family."
Here you thought the use of spectral evidence had been done away with! Luckily the girl had recently been hooked up to a GPS and an auditory monitoring system which conclusively proved that the girl was never sexually abused. But now the mother doesn't want to send the child back to the gullible educational assistant (for obvious reasons), and wants the school to pay for special therapy. Something the school has refused to do at this point.
Controversy swirls in the UK after a local Pagan meeting space/shop in Reddish was refused classification as a temple under the Places of Worship Act of 1855.
"A bid to set up the UK’s first official Wiccan temple in Reddish is living on a prayer after the Government refused to recognise the building as a genuine place of worship. Sandra Davis, high priestess at the Crystal Cauldron, on Gorton Road, is appealing the decision she claims is discriminatory. She applied to have her business - a shop and meeting room - recognised as a temple but this week the General Register Office, part of the Home Office, refused ... The Home Office argues that the religion does not involve worship of a supreme being so is not legitimate, a point which Sandra strongly refutes."
Doesn't involve the worship of a supreme being? I expect that Pagan advocacy groups in the UK are already discussing strategy and responses. Considering the growing numbers of modern Pagans in the UK, this will be an issue that will only intensify in years to come. More on this as I hear it.
The newsroom of the Miami Herald turns to Santeria in order to save their struggling newsroom in the face of an increasingly digital world.
"And then somebody brought a chicken into the newsroom. A sign affixed to the bird — a statue of a rooster in full crow — said: "Brought in by a Santeria priest ... to help save our jobs. Make an offering." The bird, placed last week on a bank of file cabinets in the newsroom of The Miami Herald, drew flowers, wine, pennies, peppermint, dolls, candles and other oblations. A few days later, the McClatchy Co., which owns The Herald and 30 other newspapers around the country, announced it was cutting 10 percent of its work force. At The Herald, that means 190 jobs throughout the newspaper's various departments. So if Santeria — a combination of Catholicism and the West African Yoruba religion — has any miracles to work, it better get busy."
Santerian rituals aside, editorialist Leonard Pitts Jr says that the old-school newspaper business needs to change or die, turning to the web not as a side-project of the newspaper but as the primary means of delivering news. Unfortunately many news organizations seem stuck in the past, and are unable, or unwilling, to change.
In a final note, this Summer Solstice, in addition to your normal religious/ritual plans, you might also want to spare some time to pray for Native American sacred spaces.
"The sixth annual National Days of Prayer to Protect Native American Sacred Places will be observed across the country on June 20 and June 21. The day highlights the dangers posed to sacred places like Mount Taylor in New Mexico. Tribes are seeking to protect the mountain from uranium development amid controversy. "We honor sacred places, with a special emphasis on the need for Congress to build a door to the courts for Native nations to protect our churches," said Suzan Shown Harjo, the president of The Morning Star Institute, which organizes the event."
Public prayers will be performed across the country at many sacred sites, and in Washington, D.C., where the day will be observed on the grounds of the U.S. Capitol on the West Front Grassy Area at 8am on June 20.
That is all I have for now. Have a great day!
Labels: American Indian, Children, Circle Sanctuary, Native American, Pagan News of Note, Paganism, psychics, Santeria, Selena Fox, Summer Solstice, UK, unicorn, Wicca
