offered-the-grim:

I find it quite comical that the current conspiracy theory that the Illuminati are trying to control our government and other aspects of life goes directly against what the original Bavarian Illuminati were about, which was to oppose superstition, abuse of power, and prejudice, as well as control of the freedom of philosophy and science.  The current belief is that the Illuminati are controlling the government, preventing information from the public, and that they are abusing power as the ones in power.

The roots of the contemporary Illuminati conspiracy fantasy (imaginary bullshit doesn’t qualify as a “theory”) ultimately boil down to good old-fashioned superstitious fear of atheism. Unlike Freemasonry, the Bavarian Illuminati did not discriminate against atheists, and membership did not require belief in a supreme being. Its model of the perfectibility of Man was in step with the emerging Enlightenment philosophy of the time which realized that [“Judeo-“]Christianity, long assumed to be the “foundation” of Western civilization, was really something more akin to scaffolding, something that may have served a purpose at one time, but was perhaps overdue to be dismantled and cleared away to make room for more refined tables of values and conceptions of who Man really is and how he should see himself.

The rest is commentary; the dynamics of dirty politics and psychological fearmongering from the late Nineteenth Century to the present day explain the rest. For a great historical perspective on the historical, actual Illuminati that really existed and the way its specter influences the present American political climate, I recommend Architects of Fear: Conspiracy Theories and Paranoia in American Politics by George Johnson. Reading it today, it’s almost spooky to realize it was written over thirty years ago.

thewildhuntblog:

In 2007, after a decade-long struggle, Pagan and Wiccan organizations succeeded in getting the Pentacle approved for military veteran headstones and markers. After that victory, in July of 2007, a rally was held to start the push for two more symbols: the Druid Awen and the Heathen Thor’s Hammer. Two Heathen organizations, The Troth and the Asatru Folk Assembly, were represented at that rally, and from it a wider movement to get the Thor’s Hammer approved emerged. Now, after a six-year journey which included some inter-organizational tensions within the Heathen community and a U.S. Dept. of Veteran’s Affairs rule change, it appears the symbol has finally been approved.

Thor’s Hammer Emblem.

The updated emblems list is the only place where this addition is noted. There’s no media release, news story, or even blog post that I’ve been able to find about this development. So I have no way of knowing when, exactly, the official approval went through. I have sent a note to The Troth for an official statement on this victory.

The 2007 4th of July Pagan Religious Rights Rally in Washington DC featuring Wiccan, Druid, and Asatru leaders. Photo: Witchvox

Until we find out more, here’s a relevant quote from Diana Paxson, an Elder in The Troth, in the wake of the Pentacle Quest and the 2007 July 4th rally.

“America has always been noted for creativity, in religion as in all else. Each new faith, whether immigrant or homegrown, enriches our culture. Today, when Buddhist temples and Islamic mosques may be found in many parts of the U.S., one might wonder why the VA denied a Wiccan veteran the right to have a pentacle on his headstone for ten years, and the Army has still not hired a Pagan chaplain. Paganism does not seek to replace other religions, but Pagan perspectives can revitalize the ways in which we relate to our history, our ancestors, and especially, in this time of climate crisis, to the environment. Rather than resisting, America should welcome the Pagan contribution to our cultural diversity.”

For now, congratulations to all Heathens and Asatruar on this amazing victory! Forward to the Awen! If you or a loved one are a Heathen veteran and want the Thor’s Hammer for a headstone or marker, you can find ordering information at the VA website.

http://wildhunt.org/2013/05/thors-hammer-approved-for-veteran-headstones-and-markers.html

thewildhuntblog:

An Interfaith Proclamation in South Carolina

“If it can be done in the South, it can be done anywhere….”

A 2012 Gallup poll showed that 7 of the top 10 most religious American states are in the south east. A Pew Forum study expounds on that statistic noting that “The South, by a wide margin, has the heaviest concentration of members of evangelical Protestant churches.” Of these top ten states, South Carolina is number six. Of the estimated of 4,723,723 residents between 72-90% are protestant with up to 50% being evangelical. Informally, South Carolina has the reputation for being the “go to” state for evangelical Baptists. (Pew Forum, “Key Findings on Statistics on Religion in America”)

Commonly-seen South Carolina License Plate

Considering that data mixed with a few assumptions and a pinch of extrapolation, why would any Pagan consider moving to South Carolina? It would appear to be a lonely and potentially hostile place for minority religions. However, America’s religious tapestry has been changing. And, as I recently found out, it’s never too soon to take a closer look “under the hood” and look beyond the numbers.

On January 3, 2013, South Carolina’s Governor, Nikki R. Haley, declared January to be Interfaith Harmony Month.

She invited a state-wide organization called Interfaith Partners of South Carolina to her offices to make the proclamation official and demonstrate support for interfaith work.

The Interfaith Partners of South Carolina, established in 2011, was the vision of Dr. Carl Evans, professor emeritus of University of South Carolina’s Department of Religious Studies. Among its members is Holli S. Emore, Priestess of the Temple of Osirieon and president of Cherry Hill Seminary. Originally, Dr. Evans invited Holli to be a non-voting, “adviser” with her religious-affiliation labeled as “other.” He was uncertain how some of the more conservative members would react to a Pagan presence.

However, it didn’t take long before she corrected her title. And, in the wake of that revelation and the follow-up discussions, Rev. Ed Kosak, a well-respected Charleston Unity minister, made a personal apology to Holli and a public apology to all Pagans at both his Sunday sermons. You can read Holli’s personal account called, Healing in the Bible Belt and Surprise from the Pulpit.

On January 3, Holli was in attendance at the Governor’s proclamation representing Pagans along with the other members of the Interfaith Partners of South Carolina. Holli remarked that the Governor shook her hand and in no way made her feel uncomfortable. Alone, these are remarkable changes for South Carolina’s cultural landscape, but that’s not the end of the story.

Gov. Nikki Haley

Let’s look a bit closer at Gov. Nikki Haley herself. She is the first woman ever to be elected to South Carolina’s chief executive office. And, she is the first Governor of Indian descent; only the second in the nation behind Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, another Southern state.

Getting back to faith, Gov. Haley was raised Sikh in the small South Carolina town of Bamburg. Her New Age-guru sister, Simran Singh, told WISTV reporters in 2010, “the family was forced to move twice due to racial discrimination.” Although now Methodist, Nikki Haley maintains close contact with her father Dr. Ajit Singh Randhawa, who also happens to be the Sikh representative for the Interfaith Partners of South Carolina.

Adding to her multi-cultural background, Gov. Haley recently “appointed Tim Scott, the first African-American to the U.S. Senate from a Southern State since Reconstruction.” (Washington Post, “The Fix”)

Priestess Holli S. Emore is quick to say that she does not agree at all with the Haley’s conservative political agenda. In fact, when the former “Tea Party darling” announced the January Interfaith meeting, Holli did not believe it would ever come to pass. However, the meeting and proclamation have happened, surprising many in South Carolina’s interfaith community.  And, it all took place beneath the image of the Roman Goddess of Hope, Spes.

Seal of South Carolina

It is interesting to note that there were no cameras or reporters of any kind in the meeting room or at the Governor’s offices. Over the last few weeks, there has been little to no media attention on the Governor’s embracing of interfaith communication.  Even the Governor’s own news feed does not mention the proclamation except in one place: buried within her posted schedule.

10:30 AM: Gov. Haley proclaimed “South Carolina Interfaith Harmony Month”, Statehouse, Columbia, S.C.

This leads us to speculate on the motivation and reasoning behind Gov. Haley’s decision intentions. Was it a political move? If so, what kind? Or, was it purely personal? I contacted the Governor’s office for a statement but received no response.

While we could speculate all day without getting anywhere, Holli made an excellent point in our interview:

Someone said to me, ‘You know that only a conservative politician could have gotten away with this in such a red state.’ I think she has a good point. A more liberal governor might have avoided openly supporting interfaith work out of fear that they would be pilloried by our mostly-conservative electorate. Even so, I give Haley credit for going out on the limb. As an Indian-American female, she certainly knows about discrimination against minorities, and she said as much during our visit with her.

She’s right. If the more traditionally conservative politicians and public figures embrace interfaith communication, their followers will be more inclined to follow suit. And, if these interfaith talks include Pagans or any other minority faith representatives, awareness, understanding and acceptance will eventually follow right behind. Culture will adapt, gradually and organically, without anyone realizing it’s doing so.

Interfaith Parnters of South Carolina at the Governor’s Office, January 3, 2013

http://wildhunt.org/2013/01/an-interfaith-proclamation-in-south-carolina.html

A pleasant surprise. The so-called Bible Belt is not quite as cut-and-dried culturally as it’s made out to be. That part of the country has a long way to go before true religious liberty is realized, but I will file this under “Good Things” for the time being.

A traditional religion, one built on “right belief,” requires a closed information system. That is why the Catholic Church put an official seal of approval on some ancient texts and banned or burned others. It is why some Bible-believing Christians are forbidden to marry nonbelievers. It is why Quiverfull moms home school their kids from carefully screened text books. It is why, when you get sucked into conversations with your fundamentalist uncle George from Florida, you sometimes wonder if he has some superpower that allows him to magically close down all avenues into his mind. (He does!)

Religions have spent eons honing defenses that keep outside information away from insiders. The innermost ring wall is a set of certainties and associated emotions like anxiety and disgust and righteous indignation that block curiosity. The outer wall is a set of behaviors aimed at insulating believers from contradictory evidence and from heretics who are potential transmitters of dangerous ideas. These behaviors range from memorizing sacred texts to wearing distinctive undergarments to killing infidels. Such defenses worked beautifully during humanity’s infancy. But they weren’t really designed for the current information age.

***

A brilliantly stated summary of ideas I’ve been thinking about for the last couple of years or so. While broadly-stated “religion” as such is unlikely to disappear from human culture in any foreseeable future, the old monoliths are going away. It’s a done deal.

The emerging 24/7 interconnected Information Age will be what finally brings the old edifices of conventional religion to a state of permanent obsolescence. The sheltered propaganda bubbles that protected the obsolete ideologies from competition and critical scrutiny just don’t work anymore.

The false premises of Abrahamic monotheism don’t hold up to critical scrutiny; they cannot compete in the arena of ideas with our refined and continually evolving understanding of how our world really works, who and what we really are, and the way we should see ourselves.

Understand this, and the last few years of hysteria, desperation and moral panic from the guardians of the expiring Aeons will make a lot more sense. Look for the “true believers” to publicly double down on their rigid dogmatic ideologies for a time. The retreat to ever-shrinking home-schooled, sheltered enclaves will continue. Then look for phony tears of victimhood and persecution when their opinions are not magically exempt from criticism and the rules of evidence.

Others, who follow conventional religions more from conditioning and habit than anything else, will begin to catch on. The emotional implications of such a transition can be difficult (take it from me). Now is the time to encourage the best kind of curiosity in our friends and loved ones, and make the most of the freely-available knowledge and learning at the disposal of most anyone reading these words. Now is the time to question old assumptions about what our options are (i.e., monotheism vs. atheism) and proactively shape the emerging Aeon into one that maximizes actual - as opposed to rhetorical - Life (in the life-worship, “really living instead of just existing” sense of the word), Liberty (i.e., “more, not fewer choices for future action”), and the Pursuit of Happiness for all, not just married religious straight Americans.

Every end of every “world,” every “age,” every Aeon is the birth of a new beginning. This is a great time to begin remaking your own.

XEPER::REMANIFEST::REYN TIL RUNA

—Brother Virgil

Between the sneering contempt of Piers Morgan and the shrieking, pants-shitting hysteria of Alex Jones, there is the voice of Reason.

“All the best customs of Christmas, from carols to trees to spectacular decorations, have their root in pagan ideas and practices. These customs were greatly amplified by American culture, as the product of reason, science, business, worldliness, and egoism, i.e., the pursuit of happiness.”

***

An interesting “opposing view.” The author lays it on a little thick tooting the Ayn Rand dog-whistles toward the end, but the greater points of the article are well-taken.

“I’ve been following the Religious Right since 1980, and I’ve seen this crowd go through lots of ups and downs. I recommend that Americans not exaggerate the Religious Right’s power but don’t underestimate it either.”

***

Good analysis. You could call the theocratic Right “dead” in a “Jason at the end of a Friday the 13th movie dead” kind of way - at least at the national level of American politics - so long as you understand there will most assuredly be a sequel in the future. But at the state and local level, it will be a completely different story in their regional strongholds of power. Let’s not forget those who live in those places.

“The problem is that both parties have been slow to embrace real pluralism and religious diversity in their one prime-time 3-day infomercial to the American people (and in certain senses, the world). This may not be a problem for this election cycle, but it is increasingly going to be an issue as that slow demographic shift keeps on shifting, and more states start to be evenly divided between Christians on one side, with “nones” and “others” on the other. The “unchurched” (non-Christian) vote is going to be a real thing in the years to come, and we’re a frustratingly diverse demographic. Asian-Americans are a key growth point for non-Abrahamic religions across the country, while a whopping 12% of state residents are adherents of a New Age, Pagan, or esoteric faiths in Colorado, with another 20% fitting into the “none” category. These are growing populations that can’t be ignored forever.”

***

Credit to the Dominionism is destroying America Facebook page for finding this first. As they note: “They misuse Christian here. I get tired of that. Its the far right Fundies and Evangelicals who are the problem here. But yes, America is about diversity, be it religious or otherwise.”