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

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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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1st Crochet Project! Tarot pouch w/ reading "pad"

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.

Strawberry Banana Bread

We get up reletivelyearly around the Hippie household. Unfortunately "awake" is not the same as "alert" and although my girls are starving the instant they wake up, I am not in a cooking mood till closer to 9am. One answer, when we just cannot face another bowl of cereal, is muffins and quick breads. Our strawberry plants are starting to fruit, and so I wanted to find a strawberry-banana bread recipe before the berries started to pile up. We like this one, from Cooks.com and so when we start to get more than a few berries at a time I can bake it up and freeze the loaves. I used canned, whole strawberries this time, and it turned out very flavorful and not too sweet, although I might try adding nuts next time.

H,W,

STRAWBERRY - BANANA BREAD

1 c. fresh strawberries 1 3/4 c. all-purpose flour 2 tsp. baking powder 1/4 tsp. baking soda 1/4 tsp. salt 1/4 tsp. nutmeg 1/4 c. sweet butter 1/4 c. plus 2 tbsp. sugar 2 eggs 2 very ripe bananas, mashed Toss strawberries with 2 tablespoons flour and set aside. Mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and nutmeg in small bowl. Cream butter slowly adding sugar, beating at medium speed; add eggs, beating well. Add flour mixture and bananas. Mix until dry ingredients are moist. Gently fold in strawberries. Spoon batter into loaf pan coated with cooking spray. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

Windy weekend

We had a wicked pop up storm Saturday night! 55mph winds and torrential rains. We had no real damage to our property, blessedly, but there are trees down all over and our power was outfor about 10 hours overnight. One good thing about being Pagan, you have plenty of candles around the house in these situations! So we lit candles, tucked the girls onto the couch ( their room was 'too dark') and rode it out. Here are a few pics from our tour of the storm carnage this morning. Now I'm off to clean out the pool since we did not get the cover on it before all hell broke loose.

Little Lady

The Hubs went back to work a little over a month ago, that's when and why we "switched back" and I am now at home working, housekeeping, gardening and homeschooling. The Hubs really likes the job which is basically pulling metal out of construction and mining debris to be recycled. Much to the girls delight, he brings home "pretties", rocks and cool pieces of metal. I spent some time today looking up geology curriculum for the Ladybug so she can identify the rocks, minerals, and metals he brings home. I have gotten some "pretties" as well, but none I love as much as this.

He saw her going down the belt and chased her down, almost knocking down his supervisor. I love him for doing that. She is pretty perfect, silver and black, cradling her womb where life stirs. 

I have lots and lots of cool stuff, as far as my faith is concerned. I have even blogged about the plethora of altars in and around our home. Lots of blessed tools, statues, stones, pentacles, wands, cloaks, and athames, but this is now my favorite piece of  pagan paraphernalia. 

Above the fact it is so completely awesome that some melted nickel happened to find it's way in this shape and then rolled happily past my hard working Hubs to be plucked out and placed in my hand, she reminds me of a simple truth: I don't need any of my cool stuff! Don't get me wrong, I like stuff, a lot. I have my pagan paraphernalia and tools spread all through the house in cabinets, on altars and shrines, even outside in the yard, but I know I don't really need it.  Because my Path weaves my faith and practice into my everyday life, all that stuff rarely even gets used, except maybe Sabbats or High Ritual. My faith is more spread through the the day like salt in cooking. Not too fancy, but it doesn't taste right without it. You still might get fancy, add in layers and fixings, but you leave the salt. I will continue to have cool stuff, and to make cool stuff ,  and to use it, but I have nestled that speckled little piece of metal onto my kitchen shrine, and into my heart, sent by my Lady and given in love by my beloved.

H.W.

W.I.L.F.