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Pagans get ready to celebrate Earth Day. Oklahoma Pagans face persecution from neighbors. And the role of magic in anarchism is considered. It's Watery Wednesday, our weekly segment on news about the Pagan community! All this and more for the Pagan News Beagle!

For Earth Day this year, I suggest keeping it simple. Pack a handful of your nearest and dearest in a roomy auto and go road-tripping. It could even be more fun if you have no particular destination in mind. You can call on the directions to help guide you to a beneficial place for all. There really are only a few prerequisites to make for the optimum road experience: gas, tunes, and snacks.

To be fair, why not have each rider pitch in with a playlist of road-worthy songs and take turns playing them? Speaking of pitching in, if you're not the driver, don't forget to offer some cash for fuel. The other kind of fuel you require is of course, munchies. You should cover sweet, salty, crunchy, protein-rich, and throw in something healthy if you can. Veggie Straws, celery and carrots, apples, grapes, cheese, hummus, trail mix, and fair trade dark chocolate all make my list. These don't really require a cooler, either. The other thing you don't want to be without is beverages. Water, iced tea or coffee drinks, and juice are all good bets.

Try to get rolling by high-noon so that you still have plenty of daylight to get out and go for a hike, if you choose. Crank the windows down, sing along, and let the good times roll. There is a lot of gorgeous green earth still out there. Get out and enjoy her while you can.

    COLLEEN'S CRAZY TRAIL MIX
    A perfect blend of salty, sweet and spicy.
    organic dark chocolate-covered cranberries
    organic Dried Turkish Figs
    sesame sticks (Cajun)
    brown rice miso crackers
    roasted, salted Peanuts
    organic raw pumpkin seeds
    Greek yogurt-covered pretzels
    wasabi peas
    All of these items should be available in your friendly neighborhood bulk foods section. You can use equal parts of each, or go heavy on your favorites to create your own mix!
    (Recipe concocted by Colleen DuVall, due to the tree-nut heavy trail-mixes already out there)

    BEET HUMMUS
    Start to finish: 20 minutes
    Servings: 5
    This hummus is a vibrant bright pink thanks to the addition of steamed beets.
            1 beet (small, trimmed and peeled, cut into chunks)
            1 1⁄2 cups cooked chickpeas
            1 clove garlic (coarsely chopped)
            3 tablespoons tahini
    3 tablespoons lemon juice
    1⁄4 cup water (plus up to a 1/4 cup more if needed)
    1 1⁄2 teaspoons cumin
    1⁄2 teaspoons salt
    Place the beet in a steamer basket above simmering water and steam, covered, until tender, up to 15 minutes, depending on the size of the beet pieces.
    Place the garlic and chickpeas in the bowl of a food processor and pulse to combine. Add the tahini, lemon juice, 1/4 cup of water, cumin, salt, and cooked beets, and process until smooth and creamy, adding more water, a couple tablespoons at a time, to reach the desired consistency.
    (Recipe adapted from www.dailyburn.com by Willy Street Co-op in Madison)

Photo by ponsulak at http://www.freedigitalphotos.net

The Goddess Gaia is alive
In this time and in this space
She speaks in sunrises
And waves against the shore
She sings with the wind
She dances in moonlight
She holds you close
Your heart beats in time with hers
A great, grand hope and possibility
For this planet.

via Gaia Speaks

Today's Earth Day, and our PaganNewsBeagle today celebrates what we like to think of as Mother Earth's big birthday party with stories that dig under the birthday candles. Is Earth Day a religious celebration?; simple Earth spell; Pagan statement on the environment; Jason (the Wild Hunt) sounds off; things we've learned since last Earth day.

Is Earth Day actually Pagan? (In which case, legally, it might not be legal for schools to celebrate it due to separation of church and state.) A recent court decision says, "No." (Which is actually good news for our side.)

[I have revised one of my posts from Awenydd of the Mountains to share with SageWoman Blogs and Pagan Square  for Earth Day. May you celebrate consciously and joyously!]

As with Terra and Gaia, Earth/Hertha/Nerthus is a Goddess. I think civilizations have always acknowledged her as Mother. We keep calling her by Goddess names, even in monotheist eras.

I find it a little odd that we also call soil “earth”. Mother as the sum of her parts – the physical matter of her body, but reduced to the rocky sediment. But really, ocean is as much “earth” as soil is. Air, lava, and living organic matter are, too. You and I are “earth”.  So this wording from our language draws my eye to the separateness and stage-set attitude of Western Civilization being “on the earth” rather than “in the earth”. On a ground or stage, rather than deep within the biosphere… itself deep within the universe. Above, on top of, dominating, walking on… Planet as mostly inanimate prop to play out the lofty human drama, instead of the reality that Pagans know of planet as living home and community to which we belong and mother from which we emerged… inseparable from ourselves.

I see soil as deep and fecund, and the ground as a lot more than a simple surface. From spinning core and ever-shifting mantle creating a magnetosphere to shield us from solar winds, to rich medium that produces and nourishes all life as well as storing and transforming organic and inorganic matter, to ancient mountains and ocean rifts, to the symbolic shamanic lower world we can descend into for knowledge and experience. It is the fire and the cauldron.

Part of my spiritual work is to bring this vital, communal, and immersive sensibility back into my culture’s relationship with Earth. It is currently and for so long has been sick with

Starlight and brilliance of
Sun's solar flare
White and golden red
Woven tapestry of
Jet black Cosmos.

Green and brown
Of fertile land
Blue of sun kissed
Watery basin.

Rainbow of color
Spread across
Pattern of cloth
Textured and etched
In crystal and stone.

Blackness of heated striation
Of rock's core as gentle bud
Pushes upward towards sun's
Radiant blessing as Gaia sheds
Her parched skin and dons Spring's
Celestial mantle of lusty fertility.

This post is excerpted from my online course, A year and a Day on the Wiccan Path. It was part of the lesson focusing on The Natural World and seemed most fitting in celebration of Earth Day 2015. Enjoy!

Our planet needs all the love it can get. Treat her well and she will return the favor. I propose not just doing this, but throwing her a party as well. Round up a group of your closest pals not afraid to use the term "climate change," and volunteer to clean up a park or river in your neighborhood. Bring along the following to store in cars until you are finished with your day project: a loaf of fresh-baked bread, a large bottle of distilled water (plus extra for all of you), a pretty collected stone, a sage stick with matches or a lighter, a birthday cake (also preferably homemade with organic ingredients), a cutting utensil, recycled napkins, and 15 birthday candles. Have everyone attending bring one of the items listed so this is a united group effort.

Most parks should have a grill facility that you could use to set the smudge stick, if not, bring a small plate or dish to let it rest on and ensure that it goes out safely. When you and your amigos have staked out a picnic bench and brought out all of your packed supplies, light the sage stick and smudge each member of your gathering, clearing them of any residual negative energy. Cast a sacred circle around the group in the tradition that you use. Pass around the bread and have everyone break off a small piece. Leave pieces on different areas of the ground within your circle as an offering to earth's fellow creatures. Then pass around the designated water bottle and have each person sprinkle a little on the ground to nourish the grass and soil.