PaganCentric

There are a number of issues which come to mind when I think about the following story. Foremost is the dismissive attitude of the author. He starts off his story by pointing out that the placement of a Christian cross in a Pagan worship area is “hardly destructive behavior”. That immediately made me think of the reactions one would get here in Asheville if someone went around erecting pentacles at Baptist churches.

Then in the second paragraph he uses a phrase which always knots my brow. He desrcibes Tech. Sgt. Brandon Longcrier as “a self-described pagan”. That’s a dismissive phrase which suggests there’s something wrong with being Pagan. I often wonder why these same people don’t refer to the subjects of their stories as “a self-described Christian” or “a self-described Jew”.

My point is that the issue at the heart of the story is the disrespect of a sacred Pagan space by Christians. That intolerance, at the core of why this is an issue to begin with, is self-evident in the dismissive attitude of the author in regard to the Pagans in this story. That is what most Pagans face on a daily basis.

A good friend once told me that the best way to understand an issue is to simply reverse the principals. If you’re a Christian and you don’t understand why this is such a big deal, imagine how you would feel if someone erected a large wooden pentacle in front of your church. What messages do you think those responsible would be trying to send you?

- Claire Mulkieran

Cross Placed at Air Force Pagan Circle
By Joshua Rhett Miller
Friday, February 05, 2010

A large wooden cross was placed at an Air Force Academy worship area for pagans and other Earth-centered religions, prompting an investigation by academy officials, though some caution that it’s hardly “destructive behavior.”

Mikey Weinstein, founder of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, said an Air ForceAcademy staffer spotted the cross — erected with railroad ties — lying against a rock at a worship area for pagan groups at the academy in Colorado Springs, Colo., on Jan. 17.

Tech. Sgt. Brandon Longcrier, a self-described pagan who sponsors the group that worships there, said the incident was similar to someone leaving a pentagram or a pagan symbol at the academy’s chapel altar and claimed he and others are victim of a hate crime. In an e-mail to Weinstein’s group, Longcrier said his group had been “thrown under the bus by the system we trusted” and that the “hate crime” has been ignored.

Read Full Story >>

The answer to this question depends upon your meaning of the word “God”. If you’re referring to the narrow definition of “god” to mean solely the Christian concept of “God”, then perhaps the answer to your question is “no”. Pagans are not Christians. However, it’s not that simple. Many Pagans, myself included, believe that there is only one god, and that all religions on Earth reach out to this god in their own way. So, using that definition, thinking of “God” in a larger sense, as a entity or force than cannot be bound by narrow human conceptions, the answer to your question would most definitely be “yes”.

Many Pagans realize that the nature of “God” or the Divine is something that cannot be described by our limited human perceptions. So we make up whatever concepts we need in an attempt to explain that which cannot be explained. This is religion. Many human beings fail to realize that The Divine is not the same thing as religion. I’ve meant many Christians whom I would contend do not worship God at all, but worship Christianity itself. As I have Muslims, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists and, yes, Pagans. It is too easy for us to believe that our way is the only way. To concede that other religions might just be as valid as ours contradicts everything we believe in. So therefore, if someone belongs to another religion and they do not believe what we believe, and we are the one, true way and the only path to God, then we contend that those who follow those other religions cannot possibly believe in God.

This is not true.

To understand what Pagans believe, you must first acknowledge the concept that for a Pagan the concepts of the “Goddess” and the “God” are simply metaphors to help define and shape our understand what the duality of The Divine, the feminine and masculine aspects that exist in all species. Few Pagans think of the Goddess and the God as literal, sentient beings, as many Christians think of their God sitting on a throne in a city in the sky where the roads are paved with gold. To us, these are metaphors which help foster our understanding of the dualistic nature of The Divine, just as that wise, benevolent being sitting on a throne is a metaphor that helps Christians conceptualize their relationship with The Divine. You see, to us, it’s entirely possible that both Pagans and Christians are correct in their basic concepts. We both reach out to the same Universal energy. Christians call in God or Jesus. Wiccans call it The Goddess and The God. Pagans call it by many names.

So, if you can accept that our concept of “God” is different from yours, and that perhaps we’re both worshiping the same thing, then one would have to concede that Pagans most definitely believe in God. We just describe it differently.

~ Claire Mulkieran

[The following was  taken from an excellent article by Joe Kernan in the Warwick Beacon. - Claire]

In a recent “special report,” Costa Mesa, California’s conservative Citizens for Excellence in Education proclaims Halloween nothing less than anti-Christian, according to a story in the Los Angeles Times.

“When the roots of this holiday are traced,” the report contends, “nothing but deadly evil is unearthed.”

In places all over the country, schools are replacing their Halloween parties with “fall festivals” because of parental concerns about the holiday’s religious roots.

“There is a kind of amazing concern for the demonic world among Christians these days,” says Newton Malony, a psychology professor at the evangelical Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena who was quoted in the Times story. “A lot of people believe very strongly that there are demons, and to participate in Halloween is to encourage the demons.”

Continue Reading »

Five women were paraded naked, beaten and forced to eat human excrement by villagers after being branded as witches in India’s Jharkhand state. Local police said the victims were Muslim widows who had been labelled as witches by a local cleric. The incident occurred on Sunday in a remote village in Deoghar district.

Correspondents say the abuse of women who are branded as witches is common, but rare footage of the incident has caused outrage across India.

Police went to Pattharghatia village after being informed about the incident by a group of villagers.

“On Sunday morning the victims were taken to a playground where hundreds had assembled to watch the ghastly incident,” deputy inspector general of police Murari Lal Meena told the BBC.

Read Full Article >>>

[This is from Fox News, so you  just know it must be true. *wink* - Claire]

A new book by a former speechwriter for President George W. Bush includes a report that White House officials did not want to give the Presidential Medal of Freedom to author J.K. Rowling because her writing “encouraged witchcraft.”

According to Think Progress, author Matt Latimer in his book “Speechless: Tales of a White House Survivor” writes that the award became very politicized. He states, “This was the same sort of narrow thinking that led people in the White House to actually object to giving the author J.K. Rowling a presidential medal because the Harry Potter books encouraged witchcraft.”

Read The Full Story >>>

Now, I’m not a big Harry Potter fan, but neither am I a hater. If a kid shows up on my doorstep on Halloween dressed as Harry Potter, it won’t offend me any more than if he showed up dressed as a Hassidic Jew carrying a calculator and a bag of gold coins. I’m able to differentiate between what is fantasy (despite prejudiced undertones) and what is reality.

The truly depressing part of the Bush Administration, in my mind, was that we were being ruled by an Evangelical Christian who didn’t believe that certain Americans had a right to practice their religion. We were being ruled by a president who was part of a Right-Wing, Ultra-Christian ideology that believes that J.K. Rowling got together with the Freemasons and the Illuminati and hatched this nefarious plan to convert all of the Christian children in the United States into diabolical, baby killing, pre-marital sex practicing heathens. Is anyone really surprised that the Bush Administration objected to giving an award to J.K. Rowling? We all know that a reasoned sense of Reality was not George W. Bush’s strong point.

I came across an article to bothered me. The Reading Pagans And Witches organization is holding the Celebrating Earth Spirituality Festival today in Stoudtburg Village, in Adamstown, Pennsylvania. Needless to say, there are zealots rushing forth to denounce it. A dozen or so Christian groups and churches are trying to organize a “wall of prayer” around the village.

James Horning, executive director of Crossfire Youth Ministries in nearby Eprhata, Pennsylvania, said, “We are asking the Christians in the community to come out and make a circle around the entire facility and stand there for one hour and pray on behalf of the community, and then go home. No signs, no shouting, no protests, just a visible sign that we disapprove … of the whole underlying theme.”

Those wacky Christians. They do so hate competition, don’t they?

- Claire

Some Shops Shun A Pagan Festival
By Ron Todt
Associated Press

ADAMSTOWN, Pa. | In the rolling hills of deeply religious rural Pennsylvania sits Stoudtburg Village, a tiny hamlet modeled on a German town. On weekends, tourists come here to visit shops on the ground floors of closely set three-story houses painted bright colors on pedestrian-only streets.

But this weekend, plans for a nature-worshipping group of modern pagans and witches to hold a festival in this picturesque section of Adamstown are getting a mixed reception, with some shop owners welcoming the visitors but others saying they plan to close.

“My personal feeling is that it’s not something that I’d want to have anything to do with,” said Jane Lesher, standing Friday amid the yarn creations of her shop The Soxy Lady, which will close Saturday. “I don’t see how it’s going to benefit the village, especially if it’s going to leave a bad taste in the community’s mouth.”

Read the full article >>

References

• Reading Pagans And Witches
• Stoudtburg Village
• Crossfire Youth Ministries

A recent story on an Internet news web site titled Independent Mail reported on August 19, 2009 that a Williamston, South Carolina man faces six counts of third-degree sexual exploitation of a minor and one count of unlawful neglect of a child. Williamston Police Chief Richard Inman said Scott Darrell Starnes, 32, of Edgewood St. Wednesday turned himself in to the Williamston Police Department.

Why is this mentioned on a Pagan themed web site? I mean, child abuse of any kind is simply inexcusable. But why do I mention it here? Well, this all came to my attention for no other reason than that Starne’s wife said he is a “male-witch”. From the tone of the story, that one fact alone seems to explain the sexual exploitation and the unlawful neglect. Why, if he’s a witch, the clearly he must be a child molester, performing dark arts in the family’s basement.

Continue Reading »

by Stephanie Kolcz
Examiner.com

Don Larsen’s military chaplaincy served several thousand military servicemen and servicewomen throughout his career, allowing him to reach them through his Pentecostal faith and the endorsement of the Chaplaincy of Full Gospel Churches, a Dallas-based association of Pentecostal churches . He was praised by Chaplain Kevin L. McGhee, the head of his chaplaincy and Larsen’s supervisor, who called him the best chaplain amongst the twenty-six chaplains serving at Camp Anaconda in Iraq. McGhee continued to rain praise upon him, saying “I could go on and on about how well he preached, the care he gave.”

The purpose of military chaplains, as stated by the Air Force Chaplain Corps and echoed among the other branches of the U.S. Military, is to “offer a broadly based ministry aimed at meeting the diverse pastoral needs of the pluralistic military community.”  They are told to abide by the First Amendment by supporting the free exercise of religion, both directly and indirectly, for all members of the Military Services, their dependents, and other authorized persons.

The 22 February 2006 bombing of the Golden Mosque in Samarra, Iraq, which collapsed the dome of a 1,200-year-old holy site and triggered attacks between Shiite and Sunni militants, prompted Larsen to make a decision – and a change of heart – regarding his own personal faith.

Larsen describes the transformation in him as when “I realized so many innocent people are dying in the name of God. When you think back over the Catholic-Protestant conflict, how the Jews have suffered, how some Christians justified slavery, the Crusades, and the fighting between Shiite and Sunni Muslims, I just decided I’m done.” He decided to convert from Protestant to Wicca, stating, “I will not be part of any church that unleashes its clergy to preach that particular individuals or faith groups are damned.”

Read More @ Examiner.com >>

We hope you and your family are at a wonderful place in your lives during this Lughnasadh. It has always been a special time for us, as we celebrate the harvest season and look forward to the beginning of the new year (which for me has always occurred at Samhain, not January 1st). In honor of the day, I thought perhaps I would share something that I stumbled across online. It’s a Lughnasadh Ritual by Sandra Kynes, which I found posted to the Llewellyn Encyclopedia. I won’t post the entire ritual here, but will simply post the set-up. You can read the rest of the ritual at Llewellyn.

Setup
Items needed for this ritual include: Six pieces of fruit, vegetables or a combination placed in a basket near the altar; Chalice; A wand or athame can be used to cast the circle; Honey mead or other honeyed drink such as chamomile tea; Cornbread on a plate; A small cup filled with grapes.

Background
In our modern world it is easy to forget how important a successful harvest was to our ancestors. They had cause for celebration: A good harvest meant survival in the dark, cold months ahead. A poor or bad harvest signaled the beginning of difficult times. Even though we can nip out to the supermarket whenever we need something, this is a good time to give thought to where our food originates and reverence for the cycles that produce it. Better still, tending a garden keeps us in touch with the Goddess and her bounty. Even if your garden consists only of tomatoes or herbs grown in pots on a balcony, these taste all the sweeter for having been nurtured by your own hands.

Tonight’s circle is created to give thanks for what the Lord and Lady provide. The late summer harvest is a time of transformation; a time to take stock of how the year has unfolded thus far, what you h ave done, and what you are ready to reap. The fruits of the seeds planted in the spring (physical and spiritual) are ready to be gathered in.

Read More @ Llewellyn Encyclopedia >>

I stumbled across an article this morning about a new witch being hired at a place called Wookey Hole Caves in the United Kingdom.  Wookey Hole Caves is a show cave and tourist attraction in the village of Wookey Hole on the southern edge of the Mendip Hills near Wells in Somerset, England. The cave is noted for the Witch of Wookey Hole – a roughly human shaped rock outcrop, reputedly turned to stone by a monk from Glastonbury.

Apparently someone decided once upon a time to cash-in on the notion that a witch was once turned to stone there by a monk, and it’s been something of a gaudy tourist attraction ever since. I mention this because I couldn’t help but wonder if I should be offended by all this. I mean, if one assumes that the mythical story actually happened, is this not a celebration of the murder of a witch (possibly one of my ancestors) by a representative of the Christian Church? Of course, no one ever thought about Wiccans, Pagans or genuine witches when they erected this cash cow. If anything, their estimations about who and what a witch is seem to have been drawn from The Wizard of Oz, not anything remotely near reality.

Continue Reading »