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Indigenous peoples get representation at this year's PantheaCon. A black Pagan outlines her path for resistance. And another Pagan blogger writes about maintaining spiritual discipline in times of extreme trial and stress. It's Watery Wednesday, our segment about news within the Pagan community here and around the world. All this and more for the Pagan News Beagle!

Are the Pagan dead divine? What has the Pagan community's response to Black Lives Matter been? And does Paganism put too great an emphasis on motherhood or not? It's Watery Wednesday, our weekly segment on news and commentary about the Pagan community! All this and more for the Pagan News Beagle!

While people look for many things in a religion, community is undoubtedly one of the most important. This week for Watery Wednesday we took at the ways in which community shapes religion and vice versa. Read on to learn about the 2015 Mythopoeic Awards, the nature of the Muslim fast of Ramadan, and how you can support contemporary Pagan artists. All this and more for the Pagan News Beagle!

Generally, community is a good, even great thing. But sometimes our desire for community can become warped and twisted. This week for Watery Wednesday we look at some of the ways communities have failed in the past as well as ways we're striving to build a better community for the future.

I’m still trying to wrap my head around Pantheacon 2015. It was a very different con for me, a strange mix of ups and downs. It started off incredibly when I got to watch my wife present for the first time. She got wonderful feedback on her work as a hypnotherapist. Throughout the con, and even after the con, a number of people expressed their appreciation for her session and for the work she did for them.

I got to help Shauna Aura Knight in her ritual facilitation workshop. By simply repeating a chant about Air as three others chanted the other elements, we raised some pretty amazing energy in a small space. I got a tiny glimpse of her ritual skills, and it left me wanting more. Much more.

I was the bad kid in a class on knot-tying, that poor student who wants to learn but needs the individualized attention from a teacher too busy to give it. There was important lesson there for this high school teacher to learn. My fellow witches and I sent protection to the witches of future at Devin Hunter’s Rite of Grand Convergence, and I worked to restore order in the world with Christopher Penczak. I met with men about men’s issues, talked with David Salisbury about establishing a Pagan lobbying day in the nation’s capital, and had the opportunity to meet Krampus, who was taking a break from his holiday season duties.

Those were the ups, but then there were the downs.