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06:28 pm - Psy'Aviah - Moments (feat. Suzi Q. Smith)

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06:16 pm - A Few Quick Notes

http://wildhunt.org/blog/2009/12/a-few-quick-notes-13.html

http://wildhunt.org/blog/?p=4047

I just have a few small items to share this Sunday before we gear up for the year-end count-downs and retrospectives, starting with SF Gate columnist Mark Morford, who argues that all the discussions about pantheism in “Avatar” are besides the point, what it’s really about is “alien porn”.

“But wait, we haven’t hit the best part yet. Because in this movie, you don’t merely get to fantasize about the Other from afar or even just indulge in interspecies sex. You get to literally become one of them … Behold, the ultimate in guilty colonialist fetish fantasy epic porn filmmaking, ever. Flawed, broken white man can, with his righteous modern technology, fuse his DNA with super-hot exotic sexually flawless alien species and become the Other and save the world and then score the hot chick from Star Trek.”

Somehow, I don’t think this new angle is going to please Ross Douthat and other conservative commentators much more than the “Hollywood is pantheist” one. For that matter, I doubt it will please the folks who’ve seen “Avatar” and found it to be a deeply transcendent/meaningful experience. As an aside, since we’re talking about movies, I saw “Sherlock Holmes” last night, and was surprised that the entire plot centered on a Freemason/Golden Dawn-ish occult order. By “centered on”, I mean it provided some sort of plot when things weren’t blowing up. It was quite the romp if you turn your expectations down a few notches.

The clinically obsessed folks at the Christian Civic League of Maine continue to stalk Rita Moran, Chair of the Kennebec County Democratic Committee, who was one of two openly Pagan delegates at the Democratic National Convention. Not content with trespassing on private property, or trying to make her book store sound sinister by listing titles found at any Barnes & Noble, they are now engaging in their own sad form of “deep background” looking for some sort of controversy. First it was misquoting a podcast interview she did in 2007, now they are combing through her past involvement with the EarthTides Pagan Network.

“The identities of the members of these organizations are often kept secret. Moran is active in the EarthTides Pagan Network under the pseudonym “Arwen Evenstar.” Under this pseudonym, Moran has written a book review column in the group’s newsletter for the past several years.”

This situation is so sad and pathological, all in an attempt to ruin Moran’s standing with local Democrats.

“It is a sad commentary on politics in Maine that the highest levels of the Democrat Party rely on an occultist whose political prudence consists of Tarot Card reading and crystal-ball gazing; and whose leadership effectiveness is a matter of casting the right spell.”

This one-man “staff” of the Christian Civic League really needs to get a life. It just goes to show you how bothered some Christians get when any other religious perspective dares to seek political power instead of staying silently in the shadows. They try to make sinister activities that would be seen as sanctified and proper if done in a Christian context. This strife only underlines how important our involvement in the public sphere is, and why the “broom closet” must become a thing of the past.

In a final note, the Pagans at the Parliament project seems to be winding down. The last of the video and audio has been posted to the blog, and we have had several post-Parliament missives from attendees, including a statement from Angie Buchanan, one of the Pagan Executive Board members of the Council for a Parliament of the World’s Religions. Buchanan addresses the recent flurry of discussion and controversy regarding definitions, and what was (and wasn’t ) said and done in Paganism’s name at the Parliament.

“In my personal participation and my observation of what happened at the Parliament, there was no attempt to “legitimize” anything, nor was there an effort to ostracize anything. There were many very successful attempts to explain concepts, terms and belief structures in ways and using vocabulary understood by those either unfamiliar with or frightened by our practices — by providing them with a frame of reference.”

Despite the flare-up over definition, and who said what at the Parliament, a situation that I take some responsibility in spreading, I do think this event will be seen as pivotal in modern Paganism’s history. Never before have we been so visible and vocal on the world stage, and I believe some paradigm-shifting happened that may greatly benefit all modern Pagans in the long run. I genuinely thank all the Pagans who took the time and effort to be involved with this event, and made our varied voices and viewpoints heard in the context of the global interfaith movement. What happened was important, I believe that we will ultimately experience more signal than noise as we process our involvement there in the coming year.

That’s all I have for now, have a great day!

09:01 pm - Mute releases 2 new Nitzer Ebb boxsets

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09:00 pm - Second Decay 'La Décadence électronique' debut re-issued on LP

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05:26 pm - United’s Pagan Problem

http://wildhunt.org/blog/2009/12/uniteds-pagan-problem.html

http://wildhunt.org/blog/?p=4044

United, the airline that breaks guitars, is receiving some more bad publicity, this time from within the Pagan community. A Pagan boycott of the company is being suggested after they seriously bungled the aftermath of an altercation between a zealous Christian subcontractor and a wheelchair-bound Pagan veteran.

“In August I filed a complaint against an employee of United Airlines who verbally attacked me for my religious beliefs. To date United Airlines and their subcontractor Airserve Corporation, have not made any efforts to alleviate the pain and humiliation I experienced. I had been traveling through Chicago on my way home to California when this incident occurred. I was waiting for a wheelchair to preboard my plane, but the attendant arrived too late to preboard me, despite the fact that I had asked him several times to ensure he returned for me on time. He then got another attendant who asked me to pray with him and give up my burdens to god. I am not a Christian and I informed him that I am the minister of a Druid congregation and then asked to change the topic. At this point he became confrontational and got down in my face; he began to quote scriptures at me and was so vehement that he sprayed spit in my face. He told me I would go to hell, quoted scriptures about false idols and told me that I would be a better person with his god in my life.”

After the humiliating incident, Rev. Jessie “Medb” Olson, Senior Druid for Feather River Grove, ADF, complained to United, and after some research, the subcontractor who employed the attendant. While Airserve Corporation (the subcontractor) did eventually fire the crusading individual, neither company has issued a formal apology for the incident, or refunded her ticket.

“…neither United nor the contractor, Airserve corp, has offered any restitution for the humiliation I experienced. United claims to have sent me a certificate for a new flight (no amount has been indicated) but I have NEVER received it and wouldn’t fly with them again if my life depended on it. All I want is my ticket refunded, a small price to pay for the horrendous treatment I received. I want to send a very clear message that United can not allow its employees to harass customers, no matter their religion, particularly helpless ones that can not remove themselves from the situation.”

Olson is calling for the Pagan community and its allies to boycott United and its subcontractors until this matter has been made right. I think the very least they can do is refund her ticket and issue a formal apology. Whether they do so remains to be seen, modern airline travel seems to be fraught with horrible customer service, and few step up and do the right thing without intense public pressure. You can contact United’s customer relations department, here, if you’d like to make your displeasure known. Perhaps the entire ADF and other large Pagan organizations can send a joint statement? I’ll keep you posted as things develop.

10:00 am - Hail To The Unconquered Sun!

http://wildhunt.org/blog/2009/12/hail-to-the-unconquered-sun.html

http://wildhunt.org/blog/?p=4040

Due to family obligations I won’t be blogging today, but I’ll be back tomorrow with my regular daily dose of modern Pagan-related news and commentary. In the meantime I wish a very happy holiday season to you all, and a very happy birthday to Jesus of Nazareth, Mithras, Carlos Castenada, Sol Invictus, Robert Ripley, and Annie Lennox among many others.

Sol Invictus

Happy Holidays! Back tomorrow.

07:05 pm - Disney’s Bad Voodoo and other Pagan News of Note

http://wildhunt.org/blog/2009/12/disneys-bad-voodoo-and-other-pagan-news-of-note.html

http://wildhunt.org/blog/?p=4036

Top Story: Pop-culture critics have been seemingly too distracted by the 3-D CGI spectacular that is “Avatar” to give much attention to the latest Disney 2-D hand-drawn “princess” movie. Luckily, Religion Dispatches delivers us temporarily from discussions about Hollywood’s pantheism to instead talk about presentations of New Orleans Voodoo in “The Princess and the Frog”. According to Michelle Gonzalez Maldonado, assistant professor of religious studies at the University of Miami, the film gives a “prejudiced and misinformed” reading of the often misunderstood religion.

“I do not know where to begin my comments on how this film perpetuates offensive stereotypes about Voodoo. The loas are represented as evil spirits full of greed and anger … The terms Voodoo, Hoodoo, and conjuring are used interchangeably throughout. In the end one is presented with an evil religion that will ultimately fail. I did not expect critical race analysis or a sophisticated presentation of Voodoo when I walked into the theater. It is, after all, Disney. I did not expect such a blatant, racist, and misinformed presentation of Voodoo, however. The reduction of religion to magic is also reaffirmed in the curious absence of Catholicism in the film. My son is correct, Disney Voodoo is bad magic; it just doesn’t have anything to do with the authentic African Diaspora religion.”

In addition to getting New Orleans/Louisiana Voodoo horribly wrong, it seems the film gets New Orleans itself all wrong. In another Religion Dispatches piece, Anthea Butler, associate professor of religion at the University of Pennsylvania, says the film is a big desecrating “lump of coal” that “picks up where Katrina left off”.

“I’m going to go all out and say that the entire movie is a wholesale desecration of New Orleans, Creole culture, Cajun Culture, religion, zydeco music, the Evangeline story, and Louis Armstrong (I’ll get to that in a minute.) Rolled up, Disney hates the South, period … I know it’s only a movie, but movies shape how people, especially children, view the world. In the case of New Orleans and the myriad of cultures it holds, to stint on all of the facets that make New Orleans and Louisiana the wonderful, complex, and sometimes exasperating place that it is is a crime. Disney’s princesses, once again, may have big beautiful eyes, but while kids are enjoying the view, Disney’s hack job of deconstructing history by making it “cute” is just as destructive as a category 5 hurricane. Fun and truth do not have to be mutually exclusive to sell a movie, unless of course you’re just bankrupt of ideas.”

Of course, Disney has a long history of acquiring and terraforming pieces of culture, transforming them to a point where most people think the Disney version is the original. There’s a reason why “disneyfication” is a pejorative term. So you get a Disney New Orleans where the Voodoo is bad, Catholicism is absent, tradition is ignored, and history is mangled. In the end, it’s more about extending the Princess brand, than doing something creative or original.

In Other News: The Pierce County Herald spotlights Circle Sanctuary’s efforts to send holiday care packages to troops in Iraq.

“The Circle Sanctuary in Barneveld is also remembering soldiers at Fort Hood Texas – where a Wisconsin unit lost three of its members in last month’s shooting rampage. Selena Fox, a senior minister of the Wiccan Church, said the Circle group sent packages to about 50 active duty personnel at Fort Hood to show extra support. They’ve also provided counseling for the Pagan soldiers at the base – and they sent holiday cheer to 150 Pagan troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.”

I’m sure it’s still not too late to donate, and help them in their efforts.

NPR reports on the rise of sorcery and witchcraft-related arrests and sentencing in Saudi Arabia, and talks to an expert who posits that the recent increase is a reaction to the government trying to curb the influence of the religious police.

“Saudi political analyst Tawfiq al-Saif says religious authorities truly believe they are helping society by discouraging faith in the supernatural. But, he says, there is also a political reason for the recent rise in sorcery cases. In the past few years, the government has tried to curb the influence of the religious establishment by sacking key religious figures, pushing for reform in the courts and criticizing the religious police. “One time, I met the head of the Hey’a [the religious police] and he was really sorry because in the past he was saying that they were free to do whatever they like to enforce the Sharia laws — even, he said, in the public buses, in the train, in the airports,” Saif says. But now that they are under pressure, the religious police are trying to flex their muscles in the few ways they still can, including looking for people who practice magic or who don’t pray five times a day, and for women who don’t properly cover their hair, Saif says.”

Does this mean that the plight of people like Fawza Falih Muhammad Ali and Ali Sibat are due to the last grasps at control by a shrinking power in the country? Or has the “muscle flexing” by the religious police shifted matters to their liking, and we’ll only see more madness and death in the near future? I suppose it remains to be seen, but I worry that any long-term solution to this anti-sorcery madness will come too late for the unlucky caught in this cultural crossfire.

For a somewhat different take on the problem of sorcery in the Middle East, The Epoch Times looks at Dubai, who have far more liberal laws concerning sorcery, but who also deal with rampant fraud and scam-artists.

“In the United Arab Emirates, and Dubai in particular, authorities take a more liberal stance. However, because of the large number of scam artists posing as sorcerers and exorcists in Dubai, police have set up a special task to crack down on so-called “magic-related crimes.” “Some people are just simple and anything will fool them,” Khaleel Al-Mansouri, the head of Dubai’s Criminal Investigation Department, told local newspaper seven days earlier this year. “It’s due to a lack of education, but also because the victims are greedy and are looking for a quick profit. “Our officers are highly skilled and they carry out special undercover patrols in shopping malls throughout Dubai looking for any sorcery crime that might be occurring.” In 2008 alone, fraudsters fleeced Dh130 million (US$35.5 billion) out of unsuspecting members of the public in sorcery scams.”

They also manage to interview a taxi driver, Hassan Hamadi, who also works as an exorcist. He claims he charges no money for his services, and lives in fear of being arrested by the sorcery task-force. However, despite the threat of arrest, because laws are more liberal (no death-penalty) places like Oman in the Persian Gulf has become, according to one journalist, a hotbed of “sorcerers and mystics”. Such is, I believe, the consequence of creating a legal gray area. They eliminate death-penalties and long prison terms for sorcery, but enough of a penalty remains to keep the practice criminal, underground, and unregulated. One wonders if they repealed all laws and dealt with fraud on a purely secular basis if a home-grown “neo-sorcery” would emerge, much like Wicca did in England. Maybe, maybe not, but arresting, and in the case of Saudi Arabia, killing, “witches” doesn’t seem to ever “solve” the problem.

In a final note, here’s a unique opinion essay at the American Thinker by Selwyn Duke that debunks the pagan origins of Christmas, while acknowledging the great debt we owe to “pagan” pre-Christian cultures.

“If we were to discard all things pagan, I should think we’d plunge ourselves back into the Stone Age. We walk on concrete, record our knowledge with letters, and designate our months with names originated/invented by the pagan Romans. We steer our boats with rudders invented by the pagan Chinese; make calculations with numbers invented by pagan Indians; and create computer graphics, medical imaging, and designs for buildings and bridges using geometry formalized by pagan Greeks. And much of our philosophy (and much of that drawn upon by early Christians, mind you) was generated by pagans such as Aristotle and Plato. Should we “go Taliban” and burn all their works — and other books thus influenced? A pious Christian must believe that pagans could not have had the whole Truth, but only an ignorant Christian would believe they had no Truth.”

I would happily concede Christmas as wholly Christian if those same culture-warriors would acknowledge that their foundation is built on the advances made by “pagans”. Heck, I’d even call it a “Christmas miracle”.

That’s all I have for now, have a great day!

09:01 pm - Skinny Puppy speak out on delayed CD release of 'In Solvent See'

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09:00 pm - Morrissey previews autobiography with essay relating to Moors Murders

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06:38 pm - Bad Solstice Math and other Pagan News of Note

http://wildhunt.org/blog/2009/12/bad-solstice-math-and-other-pagan-news-of-note.html

http://wildhunt.org/blog/?p=4032

Top Story: Hey, it happens to the best of us sometimes. Apparently around 300 Pagan revelers showed up to Stonehenge for the Winter Solstice a day early, under the mistaken assumption that the date is fixed on the calendar.

“A crowd of around 300 people, wearing traditional costume, met at the mystical stone circle on Monday morning to mark the rising of the sun on the shortest day of the year. But unfortunately their calculations were slightly out meaning they had in fact arrived 24 hours prematurely … A spokesman for English Heritage said: ‘About 300 people turned up a day early on Monday morning. We took pity on them and opened the stone circle so they could celebrate anyway. They were a day early but no doubt had a wonderful time as well.’”

While this has inspired some snark, it also provides a helpful reminder that the solstices (and equinoxes) are moving targets, and that you should always check before inviting 300 of your closest friends to frolic at the stones.

In Other News: Mistakenly early-bird Pagans weren’t the only bit of Pagan-oriented solstice coverage going on, the South Yorkshire Star interviews 82-year-old Wiccan Elder Patricia Crowther (one of, if not the, last living High Priestesses initiated directly by Gerald Gardner) for the holiday and finds her remarkably well-preserved.

“Patricia’s appearance – a full head of thick curls, barely wrinkled skin, and a razor-sharp mind – belies her years. “On my natal chart the moon is in Gemini, which is the sign of youth and the young-at-heart, and I know that has something to do with it,” she says. Her home is filled with unusual ornaments, most of which represent figures from mythology or the Goddess herself. There are also dozens of pictures of Patricia as a glamorous young woman. One particularly striking image is that of Patricia sitting naked on a stool for her initiation. “That’s what you have to do when you’re initiated – you go as you were born into life,” she explains. “There’s nothing dirty about it.” As with any qualification, becoming a High Priestess takes time and training.”

Crowther has a new book, “Covensense”, that was released this year. According to one review it contains some “narrow convictions” that will please some BTWs, and frustrate some of the more eclectic Wiccans out there. Personally, I think it’s wonderful that she’s still writing books, no matter how opinionated they might be.

Turning from Solstice-related stories for a moment, I want to quickly highlight two interviews with Pagan-friendly band Faith and the Muse, who’s latest Shinto-inspired album, “Ankoku Butoh”, was a top pick in my year-end best-of list. First Liz Ohanesian of the LA Weekly chats with them about the new album, then gets them to pick their favorite supernatural J-Horror films.

“Japan has one of the oldest traditions of ghost tales, even as far back as 1776, scholar and artist Toriyama Sekien attempted to categorize them in his illustrated series of collections of ghosts and spirits. But their origins can be found even earlier, and coincide with oral tales of Nature spirits – these are actually classic Goddess tales, found not only in Japanese Shinto belief, but in Celtic, Nordic and even Native American mythology – all the same foundation of the consequences that await when one messes with Nature. J-Horror has its very own Nature Mother, with snow-white skin and unbelievably long black hair, the vengeful spirit of the Woman Wronged.”

It’s an interesting-sounding round-up of films, especially for those who thought J-Horror began and ended with “Ringu”. For more Faith & The Muse goodness, and to order a copy of “Ankoku Butoh”, check out their official web site.

The Philadelphia Daily News has a cautionary tale about getting into arguments over religion. It seems that after two men had an argument over whose tradition of Santeria was better, one decided to end the argument permanently with a sawed-off shotgun.

“Hernandez, of Camac Street, North Philadelphia, shot Luis Freire, 55, because they had argued over whose version of the Afro-Caribbean religion Santeria was better, according to the statement, which the prosecution presented as evidence. “Unfortunately, in this day and age, it’s a sad commentary that killings happen over disputes ranging from heated arguments about religion to minor disputes over someone looking at someone the wrong way,” said Assistant District Attorney Brian M. Zarallo.”

Needless to say, Christian Hernandez’s strain of Santeria, whatever it was, won’t be well-served by having a convicted murderer in its ranks. It certainly makes the Internet flame-wars and rampant snark within the Pagan community seem sedate by comparison.

In a final note, the Suwanee, Georgia, school board is wrestling with how to handle public invocations after two substitute teachers, both Wiccans, asked for fair and equal treatment. This led to rumors that invocations would be eliminated entirely, an aim that was denied by the couple.

“Locals John and Rene Checkett addressed board members Tuesday and noted it was in no way their “aim or goal to remove prayer from our school system.” A story in last Friday’s Democrat quoted Rene Checkett to that effect, after rumors to the contrary drew a standing-room only crowd to a scheduled Dec. 15 board meeting. That meeting was canceled due to lack of public notice. The issue, Rene Checkett explained, was fair treatment for those with minority religious views. The couple, both Wiccans, met with Supt. Jerry Scarborough and board chair Jerry Taylor behind closed doors Friday to make their case for fair and equal treatment, particularly in regard to district policies. Both Checketts are substitute teachers. Taylor addressed a full crowd at the 6 p.m. meeting and made clear the district’s intent to handle the matter. “As a school district we need to adopt a policy that deals with religious activities in our school system that adheres to the rights of everyone based on the law of the land, which protects everyone,” Taylor said.”

The school board is going to be unveiling a new policy on public invocations in January, and it should be interesting to see how they address the concerns of religious minorities without causing an uproar with the local Christians.

That’s all I have for now, have a great day!

09:01 pm - KMFDM announces new remix album 'Krieg'

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09:00 pm - Vomito Negro returns with 'Skull and Bones'

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11:00 am - Hollywood’s Rampant Pantheism

http://wildhunt.org/blog/2009/12/hollywoods-rampant-pantheism.html

http://wildhunt.org/blog/?p=4025

The New York Times conservative columnist (and blogger) Ross Douthat seems like a fairly smart guy, but he tends to lose his cool whenever his theological buttons (he’s Catholic) get pushed. Remember his “living in Dan Brown’s America” freak-out from May? Now he’s wound-up again over James Cameron’s new CGI opus “Avatar”, and how it’s symptomatic of a deep-rooted commitment to pantheism amongst Hollywood’s elite.

“It’s at once the blockbuster to end all blockbusters, and the Gospel According to James. But not the Christian Gospel. Instead, “Avatar” is Cameron’s long apologia for pantheism — a faith that equates God with Nature, and calls humanity into religious communion with the natural world. In Cameron’s sci-fi universe, this communion is embodied by the blue-skinned, enviably slender Na’Vi, an alien race whose idyllic existence on the planet Pandora is threatened by rapacious human invaders. The Na’Vi are saved by the movie’s hero, a turncoat Marine, but they’re also saved by their faith in Eywa, the “All Mother,” described variously as a network of energy and the sum total of every living thing. If this narrative arc sounds familiar, that’s because pantheism has been Hollywood’s religion of choice for a generation now.”

Douthat pokes pantheism saying it romanticizes nature instead of acknowledging the “suffering and death” of our world (with just a pinch of the conservative environmentalism = pagan religion meme, and a dash of despair over America’s syncretism added for spice). That it offers no transcendent literalism as the dominant monotheisms do, instead damning its adherents to simply being “dust and ashes”.

Smelling chum in the waters, Beliefnet’s conservative blogger, Rod “Crunchy Con” Dreher, decided to join in on the anti-pantheism pile-on. Bemoaning how Hollywood has suffered a “creative defeat” by “trading in its sentimentalized version of Christianity” for a “sentimentalized pantheism”, (he also seems to misunderstand the concept of panentheism in relation to Orthodox Christianity, but that’s a different topic) and linking to Weekly Standard neoconservative commentator John Podhoretz’s review of the film.

“…one would be giving James Cameron too much credit to take Avatar-with its mindless worship of a nature-loving tribe and the tribe’s adorable pagan rituals, its hatred of the military and American institutions, and the notion that to be human is just way uncool-at all seriously as a political document. It’s more interesting as an example of how deeply rooted these standard-issue counterculture clichés in Hollywood have become by now.”

So I guess the conservative intelligentsia has spoken (David Brooks must not have gotten the memo). Pantheism is bad, Hollywood is bad, Americans are foolish eclectic-syncretic Eckhart Tolle-reading dupes who love pantheism, and we (and our souls) are all in big (I assume) trouble. Of course this reading of Hollywood’s output is a tad skewed, and relies on a rather scatter-shot selection of films (“Dances With Wolves”, Disney’s “Pocahontas” and “The Lion King”, “Star Wars”, and, well, “Fern Gully”, I guess) to convince us that pantheism is the with-it thing in Hollywood and beyond. But it just doesn’t seem to line up as well as they seem to think it does. I mean, isn’t Harry Potter supposed to be all stealth-Christian underneath the spells and hexes? Is the Dan Brown gnosticism panic over and done? What about Star Trek’s secular rationalist populism? Where’s the outrage there?

It seems to me that this is all just a big excuse to write about how America’s going to heck in a hand-basket because Christianity isn’t being treated like the cool kid at the pop-cultural lunch table in a few films. There are plenty of reasons to criticize Cameron’s “Avatar” (which I haven’t seen yet), from claims that it’s visually repetitive of his past work, that it peddles old white-guilt fantasies, or that it’s filled with clunky “godawful” dialogue, but pantheism? Really? That’s the awful thing that really stands out? Just wait, after “Hypatia”, the “Clash of the Titans” remake, and the “Percy Jackson” adaptation hit theaters in 2010, it’ll be polytheism, not pantheism, that’s the real problem. I look forward to the forthcoming Ross Douthat column on the subject.

For more Pagan commentary on “Avatar”, check out Chas Clifton’s musings on “creeping pantheism”, Adrian J. Ivakhiv’s review that notes the “pagan mythology with a sledgehammer” aspects of the film, and Kvond’s philosophical and multiple-hyphenated take on the whole thing. Have you seen “Avatar” yet? What do you think? Creeping pantheism? Popcorn-munching eye-candy? Something else?

07:34 am - Test

http://wildhunt.org/blog/2009/12/test.html

http://wildhunt.org/blog/?p=4028

This is just a test post. It will be deleted shortly.

11:00 am - A Blessed Solstice

http://wildhunt.org/blog/2009/12/a-blessed-solstice.html

http://wildhunt.org/blog/?p=4003

Today* is the Winter Solstice (unless you live in the Southern Hemisphere, then it’s the Summer Solstice), the longest night and shortest day of the year.

Sun Halo at Winter Solstice

This time of year is held sacred by many modern Pagan and Heathen traditions, and has a rich history in ancient pagan religion.

The solstice time was marked as special by pre-historic peoples in both Ireland and England. While there is scant evidence of specific celebrations, it is generally thought that the pagan Celts did mark the solstice time.

Germanic pagans and modern Heathens celebrate Yule at this time. During this holiday the god Freyr was honored. Several traditions we associate with Christmas (eating a ham, hanging holly, mistletoe) come from Yule.

The ancient pagan Romans celebrated Saturnalia which typically ran from December 17th through the 23rd. The festival honored the god Saturn and featured lavish parties and role-reversals. From Saturnalia we can see the traditions of exchanging gifts and decorating evergreen trees indoors that would be adopted as Christmas traditions. Following Saturnalia were the birth celebrations in honor of Sol Invictus (the Unconquered Sun) and Mithras both held on December 25th.

Many modern Pagans, including Wiccans, Witches, several Druidic traditions, and their many off-shoots hold this time as one of the eight Sabbats/holy days. Usually called Winter Solstice or Yule. It is a time when many of these traditions celebrate the re-birth of the god by the mother goddess.

Here are some quotes on our winter observances.

“Our Christian friends are often quite surprised at how enthusiastically we Pagans celebrate the ‘Christmas’ season. Even though we prefer to use the word “Yule”, and our celebrations may peak a few days before the twenty-fifth, we nonetheless follow many of the traditional customs of the season: decorated trees, caroling, presents, Yule logs, and mistletoe. We might even go so far as putting up a ‘Nativity set’, though for us the three central characters are likely to be interpreted as Mother Nature, Father Time, and the baby Sun God. None of this will come as a surprise to anyone who knows the true history of the holiday, of course.” – Mike Nichols, The Witches’ Sabbats

“Many modern pagans attempt to observe the solstice in the traditional manner of the ancients. “There is a resurgent interest in more traditional religious groups that is often driven by ecological motives,” said Harry Yeide, a professor of religion at George Washington University. “These people do celebrate the solstice itself.” Pagans aren’t alone in commemorating the winter solstice in modern times. In a number of U.S. cities a Watertown, Massachusetts-based production called The Christmas Revels honors the winter solstice with an annually changing menu of traditional music and dance from around the world.” – Brian Handwerk, National Geographic

“Ancient and not-so-ancient cultures were keenly aware of the sun’s annual cycle and many of them worshiped the sun. In fact, there was a lot of sun worshipping going on in Northern Europe. Ancient observatories like Stonehenge in Great Britain and the cavelike Newgrange in Ireland are examples of this. It’s no accident that the early Catholic Church established Dec. 25 as the day that Christ was born. No one really knows the exact date of Christ’s birth, but one of the reasons the church chose Dec. 25 was to battle against the great pagan celebrations that occurred around the time of the winter solstice, when the sun was “reborn” and started its upward climb into the sky.” - Mike Lynch, HeraldNet

“Celebrate Yule with a series of rituals, feasts, and other activities. In most ancient cultures, the celebration lasted more than a day. The ancient Roman Saturnalia festival sometimes went on for a week. Have Winter Solstice Eve and Day be the central focus for your household, and conceptualize other holiday festivities, including New Year’s office parties and Christmas visits with Christian relatives, as part of your Solstice celebration. By adopting this perspective, Pagan parents can help their children develop an understanding of the multicultural and interfaith aspects of this holiday time and view “Christmas” as just another form of Solstice. Have gift exchanges and feasts over the course of several days and nights as was done of old. Party hearty on New Year’s Eve not just to welcome in the new calendar year, but also to welcome the new solar year.” – Selena Fox, Circle Sanctuary

“‘Tis the season to be merry, and for some adherents of Pagan and earth-based religions, that means celebrating time-honored traditions that center on the Winter Solstice, which occurs on Monday. “The Winter Solstice, or Yule, has always been a time of celebration,” said Jim Mosher, of Topeka, high priest of the MoonShadow Coven, an earth-based religious group. “It is the return of the sun, the promise of the evergreen boughs and the birth of the midwinter — or sun — king.” The Winter Solstice is the shortest day and longest night of the year for those living north of the equator. Mosher noted the sun on the Winter Solstice is at its lowest point of the year in the sky. In Topeka, the sun is above the horizon less than 10 hours. In Yule celebrations, which Mosher said date back thousands of years, people conduct rituals designed to welcome back the sun and longer days of light.” - Phil Anderson, The Topeka Capital-Journal

No matter what your religion or tradition, may this year’s winter celebrations and observances bring you peace and joy!

* The Winter Solstice happens on December 21st at 17:47 UTC. Which means that it happened at approximately 09:47 AM PST for me. You can calculate the time for your own neck of the woods, here.

08:03 am - 9 Elma - "Live Industrial 13 - Cannes 2009"

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09:01 pm - Tracklist and pre-orders for 5th volume 'Endzeit Bunkertracks' 4CD box

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09:00 pm - Rammstein replacement keyboardist in car accident on way to show

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09:00 pm - The Human League have signed record deal with 'Wall of Sound'

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09:01 pm - Unter Null returns with 2nd album, 'Moving on' in 3 different versions

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