A Glad Midsommar to Heathens all over the world from the Northern Path.
Today I give thanks to Sunna for her warming rays, and for the summer’s bounty. This is a wonderful point on the wheel of the year, and a time for light and laughter.
Hail Sunna!
According to a recent announcement on a Heathen discussion list, Steve McNallen of the Asatru Folk Assembly (AFA) will be speaking at a pan-Pagan gathering in front of the White House on July 4th. The gathering will celebrate the Veterans’ Pentacle victory, and advocate for further Pagan religious rights, including the placement of the Thor’s Hammer and the Druids’ Awen symbol on gravestones of Heathen and Pagan veterans. Diana Paxson of The Troth and the Fellowship of the Spiral Path will also conduct a ritual at the event. The gathering is being organized by Caroline Kenner and the Chesapeake Pagan Community. Further details will be announced on a new website on May 18, and on Witchvox on May 20th.
Here is the text of the announcement from the Heathen list:
Please consider this your invitation to join with
other heathens in a show of support for adding the
Thor’s Hammer to the list of acceptable symbols on
military headstones.
The good men and women of heathenry, who put on that
uniform and defend our nation, should be able to be
buried beneath the Hammer. We owe them at least that
much.
Pagans from various faiths will come together in front
of the White House in Washington DC this 4th of July,
to voice our concerns regarding this most worthy
cause.
Representing heathenry, the featured speaker will be
Steve McNallen, founder of the Asatru Folk Assembly.
Please join us to show your support.
Benjamin Bagby appeared today on the National Public Radio program Here and Now. The occasion was the release of his Beowulf performance on DVD.
According to the host, the performance is a show-stopper, with audiences hanging on every word. Bagby discusses returning the piece from written to oral tradition, and how the mentality is rooted in the tribal past. Of course, there are some vivid sound clips. You can hear the interview here.
Pagans, Heathens, and outdoorspeople everywhere, take note: antlers are now a fashion item. According to the New York Times Fashion & Style section, antlers are sprouting in all sorts of trendy places in New York, including the Soho men’s store Odin. They were also featured on headwear in a recent John Galliano fashion collection.
The story has great list of antler sightings, as well as a photo slideshow. It also takes a stab at analyzing the Zeitgeist:
“It’s an iconic indication of some sort of rural lifestyle, I guess,” said the designer Rogan Gregory, who briefly displayed antlers in his store on Franklin Street. “It’s like, if a store has antlers on the walls, that somehow makes them legitimate.”
The author goes on to to spin various theories for the antler boom, including a reaction against 1990s minimalism, war fatigue, yearnings for Nature, and childhood nostalgia. Nowhere does the idea of Paganism rear its ah, horned head.
For a brief moment, Nature is In, at least in New York. If we are aware of this vogue, however, it is probably nearly over: by the time the mainstream becomes aware of a trend, it has probably already been chewed up and spit out by the fashionistas. Anyone who already has antlers around should seize the moment, and have some people over while you are still trendy. By June, this is going to be SO first-half-of-2007.