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Google News 09/14: Pagan pride festival
A religious subculture and celebration of capitalism
Tinker-bell. The Fairly Odd parents. A fairy godmother. These are a few harmless representations of fairies in our culture. But according to a group of self-proclaimed magicians and botany enthusiasts I met today, their names shouldn’t even be mentioned out-loud. Fairies, I was told, are actually dreadful and repulsive spirits, having simply been co-opted by Victorian-age monotheists to resemble the cute magical beings we know them as now. In fact, the practice of hanging a horseshoe on the front door for good luck comes from an ancient spell intended to keep these vile creatures away.
These and other curious insights were revealed to me at a ‘pagan pride’ event I attended today in Ann Arbor. Paganism, a broad term which was first used to describe pre-Christian polytheistic beliefs in Europe, is now being revived by a loose collection of contemporary New Age religions like Druidism, Wicca, and neo-Hellenicism. Their practitioners invoke spirits, perform rituals, and adhere to a wide set of beliefs drawing from paganism.
And here at the Washtenaw Community College park, some of these neo-pagans had assembled, so I went down to learn something about them as part of my Google News series.
