thewildhuntblog:

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch and the Associated Press are both reporting that a consent judgment has been handed down in the case of Hunter v. Salem Public Library Board of Trustees, in which Salem, Missouri resident Anaka Hunter was denied access to websites dealing with Wiccan and Native American customs due to the filtering software being used by the library. In addition, Hunter reported that she was “brushed off” and intimidated by library employees and board members. The settlement, approved by U.S. District Judge E. Richard Webber, says that the library agrees to remove the “occult” filter, among others, for library patrons. The ACLU, who represented Anaka Hunter, noted that “public libraries should be maximizing the spread of information, not blocking access to viewpoints or religious ideas not shared by the majority.”

Salem Public Library

“Even libraries that are required by federal law to install filtering software to block certain sexually explicit content should never use software to prevent patrons from learning about different cultures.”  - Tony Rothert, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Eastern Missouri

The Wild Hunt covered this issue extensively last year when the ACLU filed their lawsuit against the library, at the time I explored the long, strange history of Internet filtering services and how many of them contain filters that remove minority and alternative religious viewpoints in deference to their (then) largely Christian user base.

“The more one digs, the more it seems that the “occult” category was one created to cater to the“constellation of values” of conservative Christian religious groups in the United States. Phaedra Bonewits, whose site, Neopagan.net, is listed as “occult” by Netsweeper, claims that the initial target market for filtering software “was Christian households, thus all the ‘cultic’ keywords being included with the porn.” I tried to contact Netsweeper by phone and email for background on how a site comes to be labeled as “occult” in their system, but a representative never responded.” 

Any library that receives federal funds is obligated to install Internet filtering software under the Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA). However, that filter is only supposed to block only obscene material, and content deemed “harmful to minors.” Sadly, either through ignorance of what various filter groupings contain, or misplaced (and illegal) paternalism, some libraries “overblock” the Internet stymieing open information and free inquiry. This was exactly the scenario warned of by critics of CIPA, and other advocated of an open and free Internet.

“Libraries should be bastions of free thought and information access; but, as the actions by the Salem public library demonstrate, Internet Freedom (and freedom of religion) aren’t just under attack overseas — the same censorship technologies used by oppressive regimes are finding their ways into our own back yards.” - Sascha Meinrath, Director of New America Foundation’s Open Technology Initiative.

This victory comes at a time when Pagan religions are emerging from their classification as “alternative,” or “occult” belief systems, as evidenced by the Book Industry Study Group’s decision to reclassify books on Wicca and modern Paganism as belonging in the Religion section rather than the Body, Mind, & Spirit (aka Occult) section (not to mention the fact that the University of Missouri lists the Wiccan Sabbats in it’s Guide to Religion). Still, even if Wicca and other faiths were unpopular, reviled, and relegated to non-religious categories, it would not change the fact that no belief system should be filtered by our government, under any circumstance. The adoption of Internet filters are supposed to protect children from pornography and harmful material, not keep adults from doing research. There shouldn’t be an option to block the sites of minority religions for institutions receiving federal funds, and no library committed to free expression should enable such a filter if provided.

My only regret at this decision is that it won’t create new precedent in which we can use to stop other public institutions from over-blocking Internet search results. We need to change the very filtering industry itself, which is, as a whole, mostly unresponsive, secretive about their databases, and grudging to change. That many of the filtering companies who provide their software to libraries here also provide that same software to oppressive governments overseas is an irony that should not be lost on us. A first step towards greater freedoms is the destruction of the “occult” filter, an outdated and discriminatory filter created by the fearful. The decision handed down today in Missouri is a small step towards that goal.

http://wildhunt.org/2013/03/occult-internet-filter-dropped-at-missouri-library-in-settlement.html

[Grumpy Cat] GOOD [/Grumpy Cat]

“Boldly defying Crowley’s warning not to comment on the Book of the Law, Ipsissimus Don Webb provides in-depth interpretation from both Black and White Magical perspectives, including commentary from Dr. Michael A. Aquino, who served as High Priest of the Temple of Set from 1975 to 1996. Webb examines each line of the Book in the light of modern psychology, Egyptology, existentialism, and competing occult systems such as the teachings of G. I. Gurdjieff and contemporary Left-Hand Path thought. Discarding the common image of Crowley formulated in a spiritually unsophisticated time when the devotee of the Left-Hand Path was dismissed as a selfish evil doer, Webb unveils a new side of Crowley based on his adoption of the Loki archetype and his aim to become a vessel of love for all humanity. In so doing, he shows how the Book of the Law is connected to both Right- and Left-Hand Paths and reveals how Crowley’s magical path of mastery over the self and Cosmos overthrew the gods of old religion, which had kept humanity asleep to dream the nightmare of history.

“Providing in-depth analysis of Crowley’s sources and his self-identification with the First Beast of Revelations from a profound esoteric perspective, Webb takes his views out of the Golden Dawn matrix within which he received the Book of the Law and radically recasts the Cairo Working as a text of personal sovereignty and a relevant tool for personal transformation.”

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Ipsissimus Webb’s teaching - as well as Ipsissimus Aquino’s - has been instrumental to my own Understanding of Thelema - The True Law of Liberty - and the Work of the First Great Beast in the context of the emerging Aeon. I know this will be a worthwhile read and respectfully encourage anyone curious about the teachings of Crowley as relevant to the present day to consider giving it a look.

XEPER::REMANIFEST::REYN TIL RUNA

Brother Virgil

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.

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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

“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.”

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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.

“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.”

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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.”