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Page: Profile: Wren's Nest News Local
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Article: 20944
[Pagan]
Date Posted:
7/27/2009
3:55:43 pm EDT
Wvox Stats
Views: 2,390
RSS: 12,906
Comments: 6
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Pagan Pride Day Planned In Manchester, N.H.
Author: Patrick Meighan Source: Nashua Telegraph (NH)
Title: PAGAN PRIDE DAY PLANNED IN MANCHESTER
Despite the name, Southern New Hampshire Pagan Pride Day isn't just for crazy people who dance naked around a fire.
Actually, very few pagans anymore dance naked around anything, and one purpose of the day is to help clear up Hollywood-fed misconceptions of what modern pagans do.
“We don't have green skin. We don't dance around the fire naked. We don't do evil,” said Kali Fyre, Southern New Hampshire Pagan Pride president and coordinator of the day of vendors, workshops and entertainment on Sept. 12 at the Unitarian Universalist Church, 669 Union St., Manchester.
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Community Thoughts: There are 6 comments posted | Reverse Sort |
| You Can't Dance Around Naked This Summer | Jul 29th. at 8:06:59 pm EDT
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Lora (Leominster, Massachusetts) - Email Me
It's obvious that no one in New England dances around naked nine months out of the year. You'd freeze your behind off. This summer in particular has been a bloody mosquito-fest, so any skyclad groups celebrating Lammas this weekend had better slather themselves in bug repellant. Even so, working in the garden while wearing a hat, t-shirt and long pants soaked in citronella and geranium oil, I still look like a darn measles patient, I'm that covered in bites.
And yeah, if you are going to make the case that you are perfectly normal, then probably you should give your magical name as "Susan" or "Joe." Just sayin'.
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| Clearing Public Misconceptions? | Jul 29th. at 5:57:14 pm EDT
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Lady-hearted Mojo (Irving, Texas) - Email Me
There is a twofold purpose. One is to give members of the pagan community a place and a day to stand with pride in what they believe about themselves, about their spiritual path, about their tradition.
“The other is to make the greater community outside the pagan tradition aware of who we are and to really correct misconceptions and misunderstandings about what we believe and what we do. To give outsiders an inside view.”
While I agree with the first purpose I have grown to question the second after having attended many, many PPD's. For the most part, Christians don't come to PPD to learn about Paganism unless they are considering it as a new spiritual path and those that aren't interested in a new path come to protest the event. You're not going to convince them of anything. And let's be real, attendees at PPD are hardly getting an "inside view" into anything, but the good overview provided by some PPDs is still of great value.
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| No Such Thing As Bad Publicity? | Jul 29th. at 1:18:08 am EDT
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R. Cicero (Seattle, Washington) - Email Me
Believe it. The lead-in is bad enough, but then one of our own has to blurt out something that at best alienates a substantial wing of the pack. And I know this must sound offensive (my turn now!) , but for once could we get a quote from someone like a Robert Smith or Susan Johnson, instead of Raven Ivyclogs or Merlin Bongloader? At what point did our literary ancestors (Aleister Crowley, Gerald Gardner, Doreen Valiente, even Scott Cunningham) instruct us to throw out our formal names and use our supposedly secret magical names in everyday affairs? Especially when speaking to a newspaper, and pretending to be normal! And what is up with this relentless need to categorize things neatly and be 'normal' anyway? Are we not creatures of the heath, children of the night and free spirits one and all? Are we supposed to just shove our anarchistic and polyamorous and LHP brothers and sisters into the closet on, of all days, a Pagan Pride event? Explain those ethics to me please.
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| I Agree. . . | Jul 28th. at 5:07:18 pm EDT
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Dynnys Derwydd (Lubbock, Texas) - Email Me
. . . as I am a Gardnerian who was initiated skyclad and still worship that way on occasion. Too bad many so-called "Puritanical" ideals have seeped into many Pagan traditions, viewing ritual nudity as somehow wrong. Especially when we live in a society which upholds unrealistic, therefore unattainable, views of human beauty (both feminine and masculine) .
Still it is nice to know that we as group (Pagans & Heathens) are letting our voices be heard, and letting the general public at least know some basic Pagan viewpoints (right, wrong or indifferent) . Sadly anyone stepping forward is seen by the media as some expert, when , more than likely, they are expert only in their own tradition/path. Even though I am personally getting sick and tired of so-called Gardnerians and Alexandrians using the titles "Lord" or "Lady" when they are not a part of those traditions vernacular. Oh well, I guess some people still have ego problems.
Gnothi Seauton
honi soit qui mal y pense,
Dynnys Derwydd
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| Reporter Versus Source | Jul 28th. at 2:07:19 pm EDT
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Terry (Irvington, Virginia) - Email Me
It's difficult to outguess the biases of this article properly attributed to the reporter, versus its source. Either way, the outcome is prejudicial against those of us who do follow skyclad paths, and so violates both larger needs of pagan communities to stand up for our collective civil rights, AND is contrary to UU principles of promoting social and related legal justice.
In no way does following a skyclad path imply being crazy. To the contrary, indoctrinating kids to be homophobic as seems to be part of the tactics in schools of reducing sensitivity to the degree that RRR body-intolerance is a pathology and dehumanizing, has been widely linked among skyclad path pagan leaders who've tried to study such issues, with a decrease in acceptance of skyclad rituals in many pagan communities. Even those not on skyclad paths should be outraged at use of subconscious indoctrination tactics to skew perceptions of social norms to promote civil rights oppression. Beyond that, studies have found that common practices of indoctrinating kids to develop self-images and boundary concepts around mall bought textile costumes stunts emotional development in those key areas an average of 18 months by teen ages, and so arguably amounts to a form of child abuse via textile costume fetishism. Who exactly are the crazies there?
It's likely true that only a minority of current pagans follow skyclad paths. A reasonable representation of such paths would mention that some do so as expressions if spiritual or ideological purity (that could be related to purity practices of other religions) , or as an outward technique to connect more closely with nature, often seen as a representation of Goddess comparable to rituals of other religions, or as an element of protest against oppression with a history in Wicca and Strega going back centuries (eg, as outlined in Leland's "Aradia, Gospel of Witches") .
Any pagan pride leaders who would express the attitudes towards skyclads in this article, please step aside as leaders, or find associates who are able and willing to deal with media in a way that's educational and promotes civil rights important to various minorities among pagans, but never sets up well intentioned or malicious reporters to denigrate us or directly or indirectly promote the abridgement of civil rights.
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| Dancing Nakiddd..... | Jul 28th. at 12:44:56 pm EDT
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Thorin (Newaygo, Michigan) - Email Me
Well....to the best of my knowledge, Heathens never did the whole "Dance around naked" thing, ergo....to say that we don't do it anymore is more related to those in the Wiccan tradition that did.....and NOT Pagans in general. Other than that, looks like a good article.
Thorin
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