and the "war" rages on

I don't get it, and honestly need someone to explain it to me.

I waited until today to watch the Fox News video. There were several things that caused this delay, but the foremost was I just did not really want to see it.

I knew how pissed off I would get and just did not have the strength to deal.

For anyone else who was hanging out under a rock with me until today, here is the piece of crap video that passes for "news" over at Fox.

Let me tell you the specific thing I don't understand.

It's not the intolerance, or even the ignorance. I don't expect such rabid right-wing mouthpieces to actually have any idea about the Pagan faiths. Why would they? I don't expect them to have the knowledge, just to acknowledge that Paganism is a group of religions that has the right to exist.

It is the absolute and overblown attitude that, although these types of "Christians" are the loudest to demand respect, to give respect to any other faith is somehow damaging to their faith. That is what drives me batshit.

I do not understand this, I never have and unless someone provides a good explaination  I never expect to. I have no grasp of this notion. I do not understand why dismissing the faith of others in some way validates your own.

Do not misunderstand, I have no issue with poking a little fun. I personally found the line about liking to burn incense funny, and I am certainly not above poking a little fun at other religions.

I do, however, find it to be a big leap from joking to ridicule. It is also a big leap to holding the position that you hold the only correct position, and so broker no tolerance for the belief or practice of any other faith.

Freedom of religion, not freedom for your religion. Just because you think we're weird, or even wrong, does not grant you the right to decide our holidays are not worthy of observation.

If you want respect, if you really want to end the "war on Christians", maybe you should stop picking fights.

Morality of Pagans by The Providence

What is paganism?

Paganism is an umbrella term used today by numerous faiths and individuals to describe their spiritual path. Pagan was once a derogatory term meaning "uneducated country dweller" used by Christians to refer to rural folk who had not yet converted to Christianity. The essence of paganism is in honouring the earth, animals and nature as sacred and deserving equal respect from us as humans.

Who practises it?

I've met pagans who are teachers, professors, doctors, police officers, politicians, lawyers, military, investment bankers ....

Paganism as religion:

Paganism itself is not an organized religion, but many of the spiritual paths under its umbrella are recognized as religions such as Druidism, heathenism and Wicca.

Paganism and Halloween:

Halloween has its origins in the fire festivals of the pre-Christian faiths of Europe and the British Isles. In Ireland and Scotland this festival was known as Samhain and great bonfires were built at sunset and kept fed through the night to scare away evil spirits. The Celts, Gaels and heathens shared the belief in an underworld as the land of the dead and at the end of October they believed the separation between our world and the land of the dead was at it's thinnest and the dead were able to roam freely among us.

A pagan service:

A pagan ceremony is generally performed in nature. Pagans do not have churches or specified places of worship. Most pagans would share the sentiment "nature is my church." Ceremonies take place on the full moons and also celebrate the changing of the seasons. A typical ceremony involves everyone standing in a circle around an altar with the priest and/or priestess in the centre. Offerings are given, prayers made and a sacred communion is performed.

THE MORAL QUESTION

The biggest pagan celebration of the year is Oct. 31. Most people know it as Halloween.

"This is the one time of year when magic is acceptable. It's okay to be a pagan," says Sarah Lawless, 28, a Maple Ridge native who got into paganism 10 years ago as a way of celebrating the natural world.

She says it's fun being scared, but most of the time there's no reason to be.

Pagans say Halloween is a festival of the dead. It is known by its Irish name, Samhain.

It's believed that spirits of the dead come out during this time, which marks the beginning of the darkest part of the year, a time when green plants are dying and living animals are going to ground, leaving space for the other side to surface.

"Dead things rule. They can come out," says Lawless.

There are two kinds of spirits: good ones and bad ones.

Good ghosts are the spirits which come from positive energy like deceased family members.

"People invite good spirits into their homes. They welcome back their grandparents and want to nourish them and say they remember them. It's said as long as living people remember you, you are not really dead."

The bad ones are a bit trickier. She says they could be a bit of bad energy left over from someone who died in an unhappy state.

She has known people to look for ghosts in graveyards and come back frightened by something they have experienced.

"They don't want to talk about it," she says. In Metro Vancouver there are spooky crows and hooting owls in forests. City-dwelling coyotes come pretty close to howling wolves.

Masks are put on to frighten away evil spirits. Images are carved on pumpkins to shoo intruders away.

"A lot of pagans believe the spirits are real. I believe in ghosts. Jack o'lanterns keep away evil spirits from the house," she says.

Halloween is the one pagan festival which resonates with others.

"People get dressed up and have fun decorating their houses. The celebration brings people together," she says.

Paganism is similar in some respects to native North American spirituality.

The sun and moon are celebrated, as well as everything in the universe (even rocks). The universe is thought to be one great being.

"We all come from the same matter. No new matter is being created," says Lawless.

She says pagans got a bad name because the church used the word pagan as a name for people who had not converted to the Christian faith.

"Paganism for me is about respect and honour and love.

"We're really quite normal, everyday people, with ethics and morals and values."

kspencer@ theprovince.com

twitter.com/ kentspencer2

© Copyright (c) The Province

Read more: http://www.theprovince.com/Moral+Question+Pagans/7459666/story.html#ixzz2AiX2b0fU

Pagan beliefs live on locally

Pagan beliefs live on locally

By Chris Bergeron/Daily News staff

The MetroWest Daily News

Posted Oct 29, 2012 @ 12:01 AM

Trick-or-treaters who knock on Heather Jacob’s door this Halloween might be surprised to learn they are

getting candy from a pagan who pray s to ancient deities like Isis and worships the cycles of nature.

A self-described “eclectic pagan’’ who teaches at two area colleges, the Ashland resident believes in “reverence toward

nature and being in touch with its rhythms as a real force.’’

Raised as an Episcopalian, Jacob began studying pre-Christian religions in her late teens and became a practicing pagan in

college.

“That story wasn’t doing it for me. It didn’t fit what my life was coming to,’’ said Jacob. “I’ve always liked studying other

cultures and what truths they held. I want to know what wisdom the ancients had and how to apply that knowledge.’’

Across the region, pagans and Wiccans, a 20th century popularization of pagan beliefs that often includes witchcraft, will

gather this week in homes, bookstores and covens to celebrate the full moon and Samhain, a Gaelic festival usually held on

Oct. 31 , to mark the end of the harvest season and beginning of winter.

Though difficult to confirm, they say their numbers are growing as more young people seek religions that honor nature and

practice tolerance toward those with different orientations.

Baptized a Catholic, Amy Supernor began embracing Wicca at 14 as a way to connect with her Nipmuck heritage.

She took a course in “Wicca 101 ’’ at The Robin’s Nest, a Bellingham store that sells “supplies for all your spiritual and

magickal needs’’ including Tarot cards, incense, herbs and crystals.

A 24-y ear-old massage therapist who works in Hopkinton, Supernor described Wicca as a “nature-based religion similar to

Native American beliefs’’ that celebrates the rhythms of nature and practices “spell work to improve yourself and remove

obstacles.’’

“We’re all on the same path to the same destination, to find our connection with the divine, the divine within us or some

higher power,’’ she said.

Supernor said people sometimes misunderstand the five-starred pentacle bracelet she wears and have asked if she

“worships the devil or casts evil spells.’’

“Particularly around Halloween, I don’t go out of my way to say I’m Wiccan. But I don’t say I’m not,’’ she said.

But Ariana, who asked to only be identified by her Wiccan name, worried her employer and others might misunderstand

why she left the Catholic Church to pursue her interest in “supernatural things.’’

“I’ve always been drawn to nature and found more solace in the ocean or a beautiful sunset than the Bible. I enjoy magic.

Everyone has magical energy that provides an enhanced knowledge of things even if they don’t know it,’’ she said.

But two older men who formerly owned The New Moon occult bookstore said they ’re now pursuing spiritual goals in private

way s away from the public eye.

Bob MacDonald, who first owned the bookstore in Marlborough, said he’d “retreated into private practice’’ in Northborough

where he runs a boarding kennel.

MacDonald, 59, now attends a Unitarian Universalist church but still believes, like Wiccans, he can touch the divine through

nature.

“When I worship I go in the backyard and look around. I don’t feel I need a medium or a preacher to interpret God’s words,’’

he said.

Looking back on his years organizing Wiccan activities from his bookstore, MacDonald said wistfully , “A lot of times it just

got silly .’’

“We attracted a lot of kids. Sometimes it seemed like they just wanted a Goth costume party ,’’ he said. “Now I like to get

together with close friends. Speaking just for my self, by recognizing a divinity in nature, you can be fed by it, nurtured by

it.’’

Once one of the most visible practitioners of Wicca in the region, Sabazius Athame, who later bought the New Moon, said,

“I’ve walked away and fallen in love with God.’’

Born Charles Urban and raised in Framingham, Athame became a Christian minister in Missouri after serving in the U.S. Air

Force. Feeling he “wasn’t connecting with the deepest sources,’’ he studied Asian philosophy , and eventually embraced

Wicca. He took his Wiccan name in 1999 as “part of my passage to the occult.’’

Athame moved the New Moon to Princeton and sold it before moving to Worcester. Now 62, he said he’d felt “some

disenchantment’’ because some Wiccans were becoming so “organized’’ they were cutting themselves off from their pagan

roots.

After battling heart disease and cancer, he said he was sustained through his medical problems “by the one-to-one

relationship with God.’’

“I left the organization but my walk continues,’’ he said.

A witch, pagan and business owner, Tara “Lady T’’ Projin hopes her new store, Charmed, which she describes as a

“metaphysical and occult boutique’’ in downtown Marlborough, provides a welcoming home for “those searching for their

own Magickal path.’’

Located at 163 Main St. in sight of city hall, it sells books, candles, magical supplies and works by local artists.

Jason Matthews, a self-described “psychic empath’’ who can “pick up on the emotional climate of a room or person,’’ gives

astrological readings.

Wayne Needler gives seminars in Wicca and holds a monthly workshop “to make your own wand’’ to use in rituals and

casting spells.

Lady T said Charmed will hold monthly full moon ceremonies and will host a traditional Samhain “dumb supper’’ on Oct. 31

when “the veil between the living and the dead opens at its widest.’’

The meal will feature five courses served in reverse, with desert first, and be eaten in silence so ancestral voices can be

heard from the beyond.

Lady T said she became interested in paganism as a child from her late father’s interest in Gaelic culture and Tarot readings.

She said Charmed staff won’t do readings or sell religious items to customers under 18 without their parents’ permission. She

added that women between 13- and 34-y ears-old are “Wicca’s “fastest growing group.’’

“People are always searching for something more,’’ said Lady T. “People fear what they don’t understand. We’re about

ancient wisdom and respecting people. There’s nothing to fear from us.’’

Copyright 2012 The MetroWest Daily News. Some right s reserved

\

Halloween Economics: Scariest Numbers Around

By JOSH HERR, The Fiscal Times

October 27, 2011

Total American Halloween spending is estimated to hit $6.86 billion this year – making Halloween the second largest commercial holiday in the U.S. behind Christmas.  And while the holiday has always been about marketing, ghosts, zombies, vampires, witches and even pets dressed as Robin Hood will (rightly) take the spotlight.

As the early Catholic Church spread its teachings across a largely pagan Britain, it needed a hook to sell the populace. Incorporating rituals of Celtic end-of-summer festivals into a minor Christian holiday, the church created All Hallows Day (today called All Saints Day) and with it, All Hallows Eve, the night-before festivities in which the Celts were given license to exercise their pre-Christian urges. 

Later, poor Scottish and Irish children used the holiday as an excuse to go “souling,” or traveling door to door in costumes begging for food, in a manner similar to Christmas caroling of the time. In Victorian London, All-Hallows became an outlet for the frustrations of the working poor (take note, OWS protestors). But when those Scots and Irish came to the land of opportunity as immigrants, they brought their traditions with them – and Halloween as we know it began to take shape.

Wicca is America's fastest growing religion, says Witch School

Wicca is America's fastest growing religion, says Witch School:

'via Blog this'

Congratz Mrs. B!

I just saw over on Confessions of a Pagan Soccer Mom that not only did Mrs. B WIN the top 25 Faith Blogs but there were 12 Pagan blogs in the final top 25! I think that's tremendous! There was a lot of drama about Pagan blogs even being "allowed" in the Faith category of the Top 25, so I am very proud that the Pagan blogoshere stood up for out choice to be Pagan and to want to blab about it on the internets. So take a minute and swing by CPSM and congratulate her, and check out some of the other great blogs that are in the Top 25, both Pagan and "mainstream".

H.W.

WTF?

Wiccan Chaplains Won't Get Paid to Serve State's Practicing Inmates, Court Rules

By Erin Sherbert, Thu., Jun. 2 2011 at 2:10 PM

Comments (4) 

Categories: WTF?

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Wicca is supposed to be about harmony!

​Bring out the wand and chalice. Despite the fact that more than 500 of California prisoners practice Wicca, the state is not required to have Wiccan chaplains on staff, a San Francisco judge has ruled.

Patrick McCollum, a Wiccan chaplain who volunteers in prisons, and a group of inmates sued the state because it would not pay Wiccanchaplains to serve the 598 prisoners who practice the craft. Since 1957, the state has paid clergy of various faiths to provide religious services to inmates, including Jewish, Muslim, and Native American.

Before adding any new paid clergy, the stateDepartment of Corrections and Rehabilitationconsiders the size of the inmate population served, the cost, existing alternative means to accommodate inmates of that faith, and security. Using those criteria, the state concluded that a Wiccan chaplain wasn't needed, according to the lawsuit.
In 2006, McCollum filed a lawsuit claiming the state is discriminating by denying Wiccans access to places of worship and sacred items.

He noted in the suit that one of the San Quentin inmates was hospitalized, yet his Wiccan chaplain was not allowed to visit him because his chaplain wasn't a paid staff member. Yet the courts decided this was an isolated incident and was not a "continuing violation."

On Wednesday, the Ninth Circuit Court sided with the lower courts' ruling against McCollum, stating that he pursued litigation for his own interests. Essentially, he was asking the state to pay him for his volunteer service, the ruling stated.

"The added wrinkle in this suit is that the chaplain is pursuing constitutional claims that are derivative of the inmates' claims rather than his own," the court wrote. "McCollum attempts to transform his employment discrimination action into an effort to vindicate the inmates' First Amendment rights.

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The Young Witches of Salem

Web-based reality series about Salem witches set to begin filming in August

E-mail | Print | Comments (23)Posted by Sean Teehan June 6, 2011 12:47 PM

By Sean Teehan, Town Correspondent

A Web-based reality show set to  premier this fall will put witchcraft front and center as it focuses on young wiccans in Salem.
Filming for the Click Vision TV show, "The Young Witches of Salem," is scheduled to begin in mid to late August and will feature five young Salem residents who practice Wicca, said Antony van Zyl, a managing partner and producer at the Los Angeles-based Click Vision.
"The show focuses very heavily on people who made the very private choice to follow an eons old religion," van Zyl said in a telephone interview. "The show brings a tremendous amount of interest in the everyday lives of theses individuals."
An effort to dispell negative stereotypes such as evil spells and creepy ceremonies associated with Wicca was a driving force in the show's development, van Zyl said.
"Preconceived notions of Wicca and witchcraft are so dire," van Zyl said, adding that many wiccans suffer from discrimination in the workplace and elsewhere. "[Wicca] has so many elements that are held so dearly with what we call now environmentalists."
"The Young Witches of Salem" will document the everyday lives of the five young wiccans as they navigate one of the city's busiest seasons, Halloween.
"This is a heavy load that can be difficult, obsessive, yet very rewarding," a Click Vision TV statement said. "We will share their lives as they live in the crucible of the Witch City."
With season one in the works, van Zyl said he hopes the show will both entertain and serve as an educational tool for the many who possess little to no knowledge about the wiccan religion.
"This is a very real religion that is one of the fastest growing worldwide," van Zyl said.