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Subscribe to this list via RSS Blog posts tagged in Margot Adler

Posted by on in Culture Blogs
And Your Shaggy Dog Too

In what has been called the Glorious Autumn of '79, author-priestess Margot Adler (1946-2014) set out on a coast-to-coast tour promoting her newly-released book, the instant classic Drawing Down the Moon.

On November 13, she was scheduled to speak in an occult bookstore in one of the two small cities that span the Red River on the Minnesota-North Dakota border.

As she arrived at the bookstore, she was met on the sidewalk by a group of irate fundie protestors. One angry nazz threw a stone that struck Adler in the forehead, wounding her superficially.

Nothing daunted, Adler, blood streaming down her face, turned towards the crowd and raised her arms. The chanting Christians immediately fell silent.

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Recent Comments - Show all comments
  • Steven Posch
    Steven Posch says #
    100% fictional. I'll do anything for a Spoonerism.
  • Murphy Pizza
    Murphy Pizza says #
    Christian hypocrisy drives me nuts. That is quite a story...
Not the Sharpest Athame: In Praise (More or Less) of Hans Holzer

Let's face it, Hans Holzer was not exactly the sharpest athame in the circle.

And there's the wonderment of the thing: that even through such flawed tools as ourselves, do They work Their will in the world.

Hans Holzer (1920-2009) was, by all accounts, an interesting guy. Born in Vienna, he PhD'd in Classical Archaeology (assuming this wasn't one of those invisible degrees that occultists are so good at conjuring out of the Air), emigrated to Chicago, and wrote 120 popular-press books on subjects arcane and occult.

In so doing, he gave hundreds of thousands of us our first leg-up into the Old Ways.

Though not exactly the brightest candle on the altar, Holzer had the nose, and the sense, to understand that the rise of the Modern Craft and the New Paganisms were profoundly interesting phenomena, and so—years before Margot Adler did it smarter and better—he traveled across Contemporary Pagandom interviewing the Movers and Shakers who were to become the First Generation of American Pagans. Then he wrote books about them.

In this way, Holzer became an invaluable chronicler of that shining generation of thinkers and doers who created Modern Paganism. In some cases—as with his interviews with Ordún of Chicago's Sabaean Temple—he preserved a record of brilliant and path-breaking work that has since gone largely forgotten.

To be sure, Holzer had his limitations. Often he simply didn't understand his informants. Again and again in his writings, Holzer tries to translate what his interviewees are saying into plain language. Frequently he just plain gets it wrong, transforming the insightful into the banal. That's the danger of interviewing one's Betters.

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Recent Comments - Show all comments
  • Steven Posch
    Steven Posch says #
    Twelve will get you thirteen, Anthony, that that book was his The Truth About Witchcraft, by far Uncle Hans' best-researched book
  • Anthony Gresham
    Anthony Gresham says #
    I remember reading a Holzer book back in the 70's. I can't remember the title. I am almost certain that I made a few notes for f
  • Steven Posch
    Steven Posch says #
    Credit where it's due: it was Holzer and his New Pagans that took the P-word out of the pagan ghetto and began to give it cultura
  • Chris Sherbak
    Chris Sherbak says #
    For me it was "New Pagans." I was in SoCal when Feraferia, CAW and CES were all active (and I was a member of the latter two) and
PaganNewsBeagle 7 Most Read Stories of 2014

It's the last day of 2014, and today we look back at the a few of the most popularPaganNewsBeagle posts of the year (the Beagle started at the end of June, so this only covers the last six months of the year.) Margot Adler; Sumerian hymn, Stonehenge secrets uncovered; a deadly garden; Samhain -- how do you say it?; Silver Ravenwolf; ancient Greek mosaics.

A special edition of the Beagle in July covered the death of Margot Adler.

An ancient Sumerian hymn is uncovered: including the music!

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Posted by on in Culture Blogs

The words we write leave a record. They help define us to others and to ourselves. They tell us where we have been, the struggles and joys we have experienced, and give hints at the future. When I was writing for the Juggler, I began compiling an annual list of the top 10 Pagan quotes of the year.  I find it to be one of my favorite projects of the year.

This year we seem to have struggled with identity. Some of that was defining ourselves to the rest of the world, but a good portion of it was negotiation within our intertwining traditions. Honest disagreements flared up now and then, as always, but there were also deeper questions of self-identification and marginalization. In the WTF department, Time magazine compared witches to terrorists, proving that we still have a long way to go in defining ourselves within mainstream culture.

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PaganNewsBeagle Mighty Dead Edition 2014

Today at the Pagan News Beagle we are saluting seven of Our Mighty Dead -- Pagan (and Pagan-allied) leaders who passed over between Nov. 1, 2013 and October 31, 2014.

Who are the Mighty Dead? We defer to the definition given by M Macha Nightmare, “The Mighty Dead are those practitioners of our religion who are on the Other Side now, but who still take great interest in the activities of Witches on this side of the Veil. They have pledged to watch, to help and to teach. It is those Mighty Dead who stand behind us, or with us, in circle so frequently.” Today we remember Donald Michael Kraig, Judy Harrow, Morning Glory Zell, Jeff Rosenbaum, Peter Paddon, and Pete "Pathfinder" Davis. (Addendum: Sparky T. Rabbit.)

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Recent Comments - Show all comments
  • Anne Newkirk Niven
    Anne Newkirk Niven says #
    Thanks, Lady Pythia, I'll modify the post to state "Pagans and Allies."
  • Lady Pythia
    Lady Pythia says #
    Thank you, Anne. This was a heavy year for most of us.... You may want to delete Jeff R if you want to list Pagans, as Jeff was a
PaganNewsBeagle Watery Wednesday Oct 22

In today's PaganNewsBeagle, we have our Watery Wednesday community news. A watery festival in New Orleans; Paganism and depression; Jewitch ancestors; remembering Margot Adler; a new CSI episode features Wicca.

Bridging the Element of Water and magickal communities, last weekend's Anba Dlo Halloween festival in New Orleans combined environmental issues with Voudon ceremony.

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PaganNewsBeagle: Watery Wednesday Community News August 6

Lots of community news in our Watery Wednesday post: Heathenism recognized by the US Air Force, two book announcements, remembering Margot Adler and the spiritual experience of surfing. Enjoy your Wednesday!

Literata Hurley announces a call for submissions for "Columbia: A Devotional for the Spirits of America."

Josh Hunt reports on progress made with the US Air Force to include Heathenism and Asatru to list of religious preferences for its servicemen and women.

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