Category: Editorial

Notable Area Pagans Speculate on 2011

I sent a request out to several Pagans I considered notable, experienced, and yes, maybe intuitive enough to speculate on the coming year with some degree of accuracy. I asked three questions:

  1. What is your intuitive vision for the future of the Pagan community for the next year?
  2. If a Tarot card, or another archetypical symbol would reflect your vision,  which would it be and why?
  3. How will Paganistan look different in a years time?

Responses I received in no particular order:

Susu:

1. The financial squeeze for many should result in a tighter embrace of our collective of our ties to each other.
2. The symbol I see is the spiral cycling in and out simultaneously.
3. Paganistan’s  population will grow as the gods of the dominant religion continue to fail the people.

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Interview with Pagan Athropologist, Murph Pizza

I had the opportunity to interview Murph Pizza in August at the Sacred Harvest Festival. She is affectionately called Paganistan’s own “resident anthropologist”. Murph secured her Doctor of Anthropology degree about a year ago. Her published thesis is called, “Paganistan, the growth and emergence of a contemporary Pagan community in Minnesota’s Twin Cities”. It is an ethnography, or recent history and an analysis of what kind of patterns, practices, and customs exist in the Twin cities. It is available through the University of Minnesota library, inter-library loan.  She offers insights into Minnesota Pagans, that you may not know or have forgotten… Read on!

Murph Pizza, PHD Cultural Anthropology

What is Pagan culture?

When we talk about in anthropology about, ‘what is culture’, we kind of have working definitions but what we try to instill, when we are talking about culture, is that culture is patterns of learned behavior. They are passed on from one generation to the next, and usually they are passed on systematically somehow. They could be religious traditions, they could be foods or recipes, but anything that is cultural is learned. To be able to see the emergence of Paganistan as a culture you need a long enough span of time to see what is continuing to be repeated, and when are the innovations in the community necessary. That is really interesting to watch.

Is Pagan culture something outside of mainstream culture, or is it totally contained within it?

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Give Christmas Back to Christians (and perform good deeds)

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In a recent essay Pagan author, T. Thorn Coyle, asks: 

“anyone who is not a Christian and who celebrates Christmas: what exactly do you think you are doing? Why are you contributing to this beast, this monster, this creature that not only feeds on the sweat of poor people around the world but simultaneously takes more and more money to just maintain its caloric requirements? Why have you – atheist, Pagan, Christian, or Jew – been taken in?”

That’s an interesting question to ponder and her entire essay is worth a read.

If you are not celebrating Christmas on Saturday, what could you be doing instead?  You could be living out your religious ethics of service to the community by volunteering for Meals on Broomsticks this Saturday.  Spend a few hours helping others – and bring your family and older children along.

UMPA, the Upper Midwest Pagan Alliance has, for the fourth consecutive year, signed up with the Union Gospel Mission to serve meals to senior citizens and low income families residing in two high rises in the Twin Cities. This service commitment requires 8-15 people willing to share a part of their day serving meals, chatting, and maybe even singing a carol or two.

When – This Saturday December 25, 2010 (our fourth year!!)
Where – Meet at the Union Gospel Mission- located at 435 E University Ave.
in St. Paul. It is just East of I35E and North of East Seventh.  MAP
Time – Gather at 11.15am, we load up and drive away shortly after 11:30 am so be prompt.   Contact us if you plan to attend!

UMPA says that dressing up for the occasion adds to the fun, so get out your elf, Santa, or Grinch costumes.  Nels Linde and Judy Olson say that the food is really secondary to the people they deliver meals to, it is the time and attention that the elders receive that is so greatly appreciated.    They also noted that the meal delivery is usually done by 1:30pm and the volunteers then go to Cecil’s Deli for a fun lunch.

Winter Solstice Lunar Eclipse

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Like most Minnesotans I was unable to watch the lunar eclipse take place due to thick cloud cover.  Likewise, due to that same cloud cover, I was unable to see the Sun reborn this morning.   I’ll have to settle for watching it second hand on youtube.

In some Pagan traditions Winter Solstice day is a time of omens that tell what will happen during the coming year.  The day is seen as a parallel for the year, with the dawn showing how the year will start and sunset showing how it will end.  Any changes in weather, clouds, wind, bird sightings, and even things such as money found on the ground or an overheard bit of conversation are carefully recorded along with the time of day that the omen occurred.  This time line of events is then related to the months of 2011, similar to a horoscope.

Others are honoring the god Freyr for Yule, spending the day eating a ham, hanging holly, mistletoe and exchanging gifts.  Or perhaps you are celebrating the Saturnalia or Sol Invictus.  Most Pagans are celebrate the Winter Solstice as one of the eight Sabbats, when the god is re-born by the mother goddess.

I am celebrating the Heliogenna, a holy time of somber remembrance and exuberant joy as Dawn leads a re-Born Helios across the sky once more.

My your Solstice day be a joyous one, filled with family, friends, and good food – and my all your omens be positive ones.

The Best Gift is Hope

This is dedicated to one of my best friends, Debbie. I love you.

These ornaments are getting old and the bow is a bit wrinkled but I can’t help feeling joy when I look at them.

There’s a bit of a story to these, so I hope you will indulge me. About 16 years ago, my husband left me, so it was just me and my son together. He also racked up a considerable debt before leaving the state, and I was left to pay it off. It was near Christmas and I had no money. When I say “no money” I mean I had NO MONEY – I was eating rice and would get a bag of veggies each week that the grocery store was going to throw out. I would buy 1 package of hotdogs a week so my 3 year old son had meat. We had no phone. No tv. No car. The electric company was threatening to shut our heat off.

And I was losing sleep over holiday gifts.   All that to deal with and I was worried about gifts.  Can you believe that?  Yes, I bet you can.

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