Who bears the responsibility for training Pagan clergy? What happens when a Jewish woman tries to reintroduce the divine feminine into her culture? And how are death and darkness treated in Shinto vs. western Paganism? It's Watery Wednesday, our weekly segment on news and analysis from the Pagan community! All this and more for the Pagan News Beagle!

One of the longest running debates in the Pagan community has been how our clergy should be constituted... and whether we even need clergy at all. But there's no question that there is some demand, even if it is among a minority of practitioners, for something resembling the dedicated religious workers found in other religions. But what would it take to make it happen? Cara Schulz discusses at The Wild Hunt.

When we think of blessings we're usually thinking of wards against disease or misfortune and sometimes, more rarely, invocations for fertility or good weather. But not all blessings are the same. Sometimes, you just want to have some divinely sanctioned fun. Gods & Radicals shares one such blessing, in both English and French.

Scholars of Judaism may be ware that in the religion that while God / YHWH is usually described in exclusively male terms, He does have a feminine aspect as well, known as Shekhinah. It is rare, however, to hear anyone aside from theologians speak of the concept. Now one Jewish priestess is hoping to bring greater focus to the divine feminine in her religion and culture.

There sure are a lot of people running this election. And most are religious. But just how many are Pagan? None but a few and Matthew Orlando is among their numbers. Hüginn's Heathen Hof does a profile on the candidate here.

In Paganism, we have a tendency to not only accept mortality and the "darker" aspects of life but to in fact celebrate them. But that's not always the case for every religion. Shinto-Pagan blogger Megan Manson takes a look at the interesting case of Shinto, which does not exhibit the sharp dualism of Western religions but does not embrace death in quite the same way as Paganism either.