Letter from Hardscrabble Creek

Today marks the seventh anniversary of Letter from Hardscrabble Creek, originally the name I gave to a column that appeared in various long-gone Pagan zines.It all started with this....

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"Just when you thought you knew what Colorado Springs was all about," commented a poster on one of the Colorado Pagan email lists.It was the City Dionysia festival, complete with a performance of Euripides' The Bacchae.There is, of course, a Facebook page, where you can see some photos.I missed it...

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Click over to Pagans for Archaeology, where Yvonne interviews Australian Pagan scholar David Waldron, author of Shock! The Black Dog of Bungay: A Study in Local Folklore, about dogs, folklore, and the Pagan revival.I think a key issue for me was that transmission of symbols, images and ideas from the...

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An interesting round-up of Scottish and Pictish-themed movies at Codex Celtica, as well as discussion of new pop-historical writing on King Arthur....

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I noticed this post about Mark Teppo and urban magick on Instapundit, linking to an Amazon blog item about his thoughts on the nature of magick.Like I said, the definition [of magick] is a bit slippery, and it might be a bit much to attribute to the writing of a...

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I spent the last three days camping with friends up on the Arapaho National Forest.I have done a little deep-winter camping before, but never before on skis with a sled.I learned that my sleeping bag is not really warm enough for -18 F. (-27 C.) nights. Must remedy that.Even after...

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• Icelandic Pagans curse the nation's economic rivals. See what happens when you mix polytheism and international banking? (Via Pagan Newswire Collective.)• I do like what Iceland may do for freedom of the (online) press.• We are the Empire, and we have the chariot-racing to prove it. Video no. 2...

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From Dark Roasted Blend, a selection of weird and steampunk toys, activating "the threshold between wonder and horror."Alien Clone Baby, anyone?...

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Here is a little bit of synchronicity in my historical reading. I am not sure if it "proves" anything, other than the fact that it is difficult to sort people into "good guys" and "bad guys."1. At the library, I recently picked up The Long Morning of Medieval Europe: New...

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The US Air Force Academy's official site for Pagan ritual has received a lot of attention. I first mentioned it on January 27 when I saw the Air Force news release.In faraway Virginia*, Eugence C. Buie, a retired Disciples of Christ minister, wrote an op-ed piece criticizing his local newspaper's...

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I linked to a site about sex with ghosts, so why not sex with elves?Call them "the hidden people," call the them the Shining Ones, whatever you like. These are not garden gnomes we are talking about: "They're not like small, ugly gnomes. They're more like tall and beautiful."And they...

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An op-ed piece in Sunday's Denver Post made an interesting suggestion. People who work—or want to look like they are working—in coffee shops ought to move to their public libraries instead.Then coffee shops could go back to being coffee shops—places of intellectual ferment and conversation, instead of solo customers taking...

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As mentioned here previously and at The Wild Hunt, Patrick McCollum, volunteer Wiccan prison chaplain in California, has sued the state to overturn a policy of hiring paid chaplains only from certain religions. A new article at BeliefNet summarizes the case. Excerpts:Supported by interfaith scholars and church-state separationists, the Rev....

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Venetian Carnival reveler taking a cappuccino break.It's that fat Tuesday again, and Boston.com offers a selection of Carnival pictures from around the world.This one comes from Venice. "But Italian Catholicism always had a strong pagan residue in its cult of the saints as well as in its vaguely erotic sadomasochistic...

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Readers in Los Angeles: the lizard people have been quiet lately, but you should still be on your guard. Helpful information is available...

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From my current reading, Essentials of Fire Fighting:As you look at the world around you, the physical materials you see are called matter. It is said [passive voice!] that matter is the "stuff" that makes up our universe.Sheesh.Maybe instead of being a volunteer firefighter I should be editing the textbooks.Anyway,...

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Back on January 27th, I mentioned that the US Air Force Academy, located near Colorado Springs, had created a ritual space for followers of Pagan religions.Jason Pitzl-Waters has been keeping up on various reactions, including some form of magic performed by (presumably) evangelical Christians, who think that putting two large...

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I took the quiz and came up with Epicurus, who is truly "the most misunderstood philosopher of antiquity."   Watch a short video about him.Take the My Philosophy Guru test yourself!...

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Lots of talk about Vodou lately here among the polytheists (and among those who "view with alarm").Christopher Chase, the Pomegranate's reviews editor, offers this link to a sort of portal site on Vodou. Reviews editors are like that....

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From Publishers Weekly, a short review of a new book co-authored by Nikki Bado-Fralick, my co-editor in the Pagan Studies book series (This book is not a part of that series, however!)Toying with God: The World of Religious Games and Dolls by Nikki Bado-Fralick and Rebecca Sachs Norris, Baylor Univ....

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That is the takeaway message from Barbara Ehrenreich's new book Bright-sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America.Like much of Ehrenreich's writing, it is fueled by righteous anger.First, as a breast cancer patient, she is disgusted by the happy-face positive thinking of what she calls "pink ribbon...

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Following a link from another religion blog, I dropped into today on Beauty Tips for Ministers (subtitled "Because you're in the public eye, and God knows you need to look good.")I read this:SO many of you have written to let me know that TLC will be airing an episode of...

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The University of Amsterdam has one of just a few graduate programs in the study of Western Esotericism, which is often contrasted with Christianity as follows (from a lecture handout based on work of Antoine Faivre).Christianity                                                          EsotericismPersonal deity                        ...

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The Bryn Mawr Classical Review's book-review feed recently served up a review of William V. Harris's Dreams and Experience in Classical Antiquity The reviewer writes,Some combination of [cultural expectations, generic demands, and the imperatives of performance and publication.], Harris argues ...  accounts for the relative frequency in antiquity of the...

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Anne Hill has her annual Brigid Poetry Festival going—check the comments for linkage.Me, I just had to get Out. Cabin fever was setting in, and walking the dogs close to home or going up on the ridge to cut firewood just was not curing it.So we strapped the touring skis...

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