During the Middle Ages, they were big on the Magick Circle as the proper means to perform Magick-Use (an idea that they believed that they inherited from the ancient Egyptians, passed on through the Greeks). We know this because the Middle Ages produced a great number of grimoires, the best known being the various versions of the Book attributed to Solomon. During the Elizabethan Age (the latter 1500s), they had a ferocious vogue for both Theater and Magick-Use; put these two together and you have Theater that depicts Magick-Use, which they took seriously enough to be very conscientious about how they presented it on the stage.
Since theater “acts things out” for us, we can see that their idea of Circle-Casting was essentially the same as ours; there is no real difference between what we do today, when we Cast a Circle, and what they did during Elizabeth’s time. Barnaby Barnes (a fellow play-writer in Shakespeare’s company) gives us two admirably detailed Circle-Castings in The Devil’s Charter; Shakespeare provides us with a Circle-Casting in Henry VI, Part II (I.iv), although regrettably without Barnes’s copious description (Shakespeare’s stage-notes refer obliquely to the “ceremonies belonging” to the Making of a Circle and let the matter go at that).
Marlowe’s Faustus (I.iii) is another play in which the Magick-Using scholar conjures a Circle (in part by Saluting the Four Elements), and so Circle-Casting enters the Faust legend- memorably put on film in 1926 by F.W. Murnau.
Sort of the Spielberg of the Weimar Republic, Murnau invests his scenes with what must have been amazing special effects at the time. (The flight scene still astonishes with its degree of accomplishment.) The pertinent point for us arrives when Faust summons Mephisto- by Casting a Magick Circle.
Please note at the start of the scene (1) the full moon hanging overhead, and (2) the cross-roads that Faust approaches to perform his Magick. The book which he has with him is his Magickal Grimoire- note how he first shapes the Circle with his Book, which he then presents to the Four Directions (in order to Quarter the Circle).
Then- and this is what I love- through the marvel of Silent Film German ingenuity, we see Faust’s Circle burst into power, in possibly the first presentation of the activated Magick Circle in the history of film. Special effects cause the Circle’s Energies to Rise into the Universe; more special effects signal the approach of Mephisto. A comet crashes to the earth- and the Dark One is present. “You summoned me; I have arrived.”
The whole movie is very gripping (it holds up very well); most fascinating is a 1926 view of a Wizard conjuring the Space of the Magick Circle. Check it out:
I was out of town for the weekend so I wasn’t able to watch True Blood when it aired last night. I just sat down to watch it and I was pleasantly surprised.
Of course, there was the usual Vampire drama and Werewolf Drama, not to mention the shape shifter gone off the deep end. But there was also some further exploration into the character of Holly Cleary, a Wiccan.
It showed her and one of the series main characters in the woods with a circle of candles. She cast the circle with salt and invoked the Goddess with an athame. And honestly, I believe it was one of the truest and most sympathetic Wiccan rituals on television. It seemed real. Like any number of Wiccan rituals I have attended or even performed as a solitary so many years ago. Of course, the show is a dark fantasy series so she didn’t stay in the land of “real Wicca” for very long. The purpose of this ritual was to help Arlene, her fellow waitress, terminate a pregnancy that Arlene believed was evil. Not just an unwanted pregnancy but also the demon spawn of a psychopathic ex who died in the first season after a string of murders. Since the show is not set is real life, it is entirely possible that the baby was exactly that. Though an expertise in herbalism can in fact produce the desired results, I am willing to bet that most Wiccans today would not assist a co-worker in such a venture. In spite of the dark fantasy setting, I think it is entirely possible that Holly Cleary could be a television Wiccan who can be a good example to viewers. As Alan Ball has promised, next year will be “The Year of the Witch” so anything can happen in this alternate universe.
Both as a fan of genre television and as a Pagan, I am eager to see where he takes us.
As a side note, Dragon*Con is taking place in Atlanta, GA this coming weekend. I will be in attendance mostly as a fangirl, but will keep my eyes peeled for Juggler Topics. However, several True Blood actors will be guests and I plan to attend at least one panel and ask a question that would be of interest to readers here. Stay tuned for a recap after Dragon*Con.
Wiccaxploitation: like “exploitation,” but instead of “exploitation”- “Wiccaxploitation” (pronounced like “Wicca’s Ploitation”).
I.E.: a work that treats Wicca in an exploitative or sensationalized manner; kind of like there was Blaxploitation Cinema in the early 1970s- only Wiccaxploitation.
For instance- for exploitative and sensationalized presentations of Wicca, I would put The X-Files; That Mentalist episode; The Craft; and That Bones episode in- the Wiccaxploitative category.
The camera surveys the scene from above; a house has burned to the ground. Fire-fighters finish up in the background as investigators move in. A crow caws ominously. We learn that the source of the fire was a lit candle, and that a circle of some kind of fine powder has been spread around the house. A metal wardrobe has survived the flames. Pried open- it reveals (in shocking closeup) a woman’s skeleton, dressed in white. The Brainy Female investigator determines that the skeleton is real; the bones very old; that they were defleshed naturally, and re-articulated.
The cawing of carrion birds leads them to another body, on whom the burning house collapsed. A pair of feet poke out from the wreakage- feet clad in red shoes. The Brainy Female looks at her partner, the Hunky Guy. “Don’t say it.”
He does anyway- “We’re not in Kansas anymore.”
There is a very interesting Pagan “anti-war” movie in Centurion, which opened today in an arts-house release in Manhattan. Set during the Roman occupation of northern Britain (what we call Scotland) in 117 CE, it intrigues as a Pagan All Quiet on the Western Front, or Platoon, or Saving Private Ryan; it should appeal to both Pagans who identify with Classical culture, as well as those who do so with Celtic (or in this case, Pictish). (Pagans who have mastered the Celtic languages may find it agreeable that the Picts’ lines are spoken in Scot Gaelic, sub-titled into English.) Fair warning, though- to sit through this movie is to endure an exceptional amount of graphically rendered, gory violence. It should be noted for two striking female characters: (1) a nigh-supernatural hunter/tracker, and a warrior-woman of Xena-like skill (if one knows Celtic mythology, one would compare her to Scathach), and (2) a Witch, a herbal healer, who lives outcast in the forest.
Warning: This way lie Spoilers-
The mystery genre seems to be a thriving hotbed of stories involving modern Pagans. A quick search through Amazon reveals at least five authors with mystery series set in modern Pagandom: Rosemary Edghill (pen name of eluki bes sahar), M. R. Sellars, Dolores Stewart, Annette Blair and Madelyn Alt. I read very few mysteries, but I did find and read Edghill’s Bast Mysteries and the first couple of Sellar’s Rowan Gant Investigations shortly after they came out. I believe that Edghill kicked off the subgenre, but if anyone knows of earlier works, I’d love to hear of them.
Today, however, we’ll focus on the first three books of Alt’s Bewitching Mysteries. Alt is still actively producing this series: the most recent book was released in April and the next is scheduled for January. These books are mysteries and so the plot is: someone gets killed and the protagonist figures out whodunit. I shan’t discuss the plots more than tangentially in these reviews. Instead, I am more interested in how Paganism is depicted and how our religion and related issues (like magic) are integrated into the stories.
I am finding Alt’s books absolutely charming. The Bast books were great, but Karen Hightower (Bast) is drifting away from a coven-based tradition towards a faith which is less structured throughout the series. Alt’s Maggie O’Neill, on the other hand, is a small-town Catholic girl slaving at a dehumanizing call-center who, while seeking shelter from a storm, lands ass-first across the threshold of Enchantments, a antique store which includes an occult shop on the second floor. Maggie is quickly hired by the store’s owner Felicity Dow (Liss), an English émigré and Witch (one presumes Gardnarian, but it’s not made explicit in the first three books, though Maggie is reading a quote from Valiente from Liss’ books by p.23). Maggie is clearly a sensitive and is identified as an empath by Liss, and so any important part of the series is Maggie’s discovering Wicca and being drawn to a new faith. The books are, in part, a conversion narrative.
A second reason that I find the series charming is more personal: it is set in a small town of some 6,000 in Northeastern Indiana, and I was born maybe 25 miles away in Kokomo. We moved away when I was seven, but the town’s fixation on basketball and the other details of small-town life all ring true.
The Trouble with Magic is a basic introduction to the town of Stony Mill and more characters than Alt particularly knows what to do with. In addition to Liss and Maggie’s immediate family (one brother and one sister, two nieces, Mom, Dad and Grandpa), the book presents the 29-year old unmarried Maggie with two obvious potential suitors: a strait-laced, probably evangelical police officer, Tom, and the dark, handsome and dangerous (He wears leather! He’s a former military intelligence officer! He makes knives!) Marcus who is probably the High Priest of Liss’ coven. Alt also introduces an entire cast of paranormal investigators, the N.I.G.H.T.S. (Northeastern Indiana Ghost Hunting & Tracking Society) which include the brownie-baking proprietress of a favorite new local eatery, a butch former nun, a tech wiz, and an Amish dowser in addition to Liss and Marcus.
I am tempted to criticize the inclusion of N.I.G.H.T.S. as being a bit extraneous to both the themes of the novels and the plots, but paranormal research has always been a neighbor of modern Paganism. And such material has been successfully incorporated into other novels like Bradley’s gothic novels (Ghostlight, Witchlight, Heartlight and Gravelight). Furthermore, when I searched for the full name of the acronym for this article, I discovered that there seems to be several similar groups in Indiana, and so the group’s appearance in the novel seems to be thoroughly apropos to the setting.
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My fellow bloggers have been doing a fantastic job covering the occurrences of Wicca on television and in the movies. I am also grateful that these things exist because any exposure to Paganism for “The Mainstream” is a good thing, even when it is poorly represented. That being said, where is the television for Hard Polytheists, Reconstructionists or other Non-Wiccan Pagans like myself?
There is a very rich pool when it comes to movies and anything that is pre-Christian/historical can fall into that category. Television is a harder sell, though, because television viewers tend to have shorter attention spans. Many shows today are exact replicas of each other. Once a network finds a formula that works, they exploit it. For instance, turn on the television and just try to find something that isn’t “Law and Order” or “The Closer” or a similar show with similar themes. Go ahead, I’ll wait.
There have been some notable television offerings for the non-Wiccan. I would love to explore them all, and perhaps I will over time. A classic would be a little show you might remember that aired on Syfy/Sci-Fi a couple of years ago: Battlestar Galactica. This re-imagined series (for which the term “re-imagined” was coined) was gritty, powerful and well produced. The human race were hard polytheists living on 12 planets called the 12 Colonies of Kobol. Their religion resembled that of the ancient Greeks. Accuracy be damned, too, because they were in another part of the galaxy and who knew what Greek Polytheism looked like in their universe. That being said, the writers seemed to care about their characters and the belief system they portrayed. The spin-off/prequel Caprica is surprisingly enjoyable and begins again in January with its second season.
There are also historical dramas, with heavy emphasis on “Drama.” HBO’s series Rome is a prime example. While religion wasn’t a main plot point, it was an important part of the lives of the characters so they were able to treat the subject fairly. The history was a little sketchier but that is why it was a drama and not a documentary. The show featured a cast of phenomenal actors and characters we could really identify with, in spite of passage of time.
That brings me to another show that would be a draw for non-Wiccan Pagans that I have recently rediscovered. It was a little show that only lasted 8 episodes in the us and 13 in Australia. In 1997, Fox Television produced a show intended to compete with the Xena and Hercules franchises. The show, called Roar, was produced by Shaun Cassidy (yes, THE Shaun Cassidy) and stared a very young and incredibly talented Heath Ledger. The show centered around a young Celtic prince who lost his family to a waring tribe. The Romans, however, were knocking at the door of Ireland and he feels if the tribes don’t unite they will fall victim to the conquerors. It is a strange mix between Paganism and Christianity and the show is set in 400 AD. Though the historical accuracy is lacking, the characters are shown as being connected to the land. I love the character of Fergus who constantly shows his disapproval of situations by exclaiming “Sweet Brigid!”
On top of the clearly Polytheistic shows, there are other offerings that touch on Pagan topics whether the writers know it or not. My absolute favorite show on television right now is Fringe, which is about to enter its third season. There is nothing specifically Pagan about the show, except the archetypes! I love Fringe for the Girls Underground theme.
These are, of course, just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. What other examples of Polytheism or non-Wiccan Paganism are out there on Television?
Upon reflection, works of popular entertainment that include Wicca and Neo-Paganism have a tendency to arrive in “cluster-bunches.” We have just concluded such a “cluster-bunch,” and are poised for another significant installment in the on-going series: “Let’s introduce Wicca to America.”
Yeah, it’s just another list feature like any other blog might have, but we’re giving it a Pagan twist. And so in good ol’ LBRP order, here are five novels that more Pagans should read and fall in love with. Do tell us in the comments why these are not obscure, why you hate them and what favorites of yours that more Pagans should know about instead. The point of any entertainment list, after all, is to make people disagree with the selections.
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Earth
Tex and Molly in the Afterlife Richard Grant, 1999.
Aging hippies Tex and Molly get high and fall to their deaths into a hidden sacred well in Maine, and that’s the beginning of their adventures as they try to save the old woods from the threat of a genetically engineered super-tree being created by an evil forestry conglomerate.This was Grant’s second attempt to move out of science fiction and into mainstream fiction, and it remains his most successful work to date. (My teacher prefers Rumours of Spring, but Tex and Molly is that rare book set in the here and now where Paganism is integral to the plot.)
Grant is not a Pagan author, but it’s quite clear from Tex and Molly that he knows us and that he sympathesizes. The timeline, for instance, covers the weeks from Beltane to Summer Solstice, and along the way the plot embraces environmentally activist street-theater performers, a coven of witches, a CAW nest of technopagan teens, a homeless tree spirit, the Gods Bear and Raven, a solitary shamanic drum practioner, and a chthonic uber-diety of destruction who ultimately agrees to help (for the sake of the dust mites). Will the Great North Woods be saved? Will the (befuddled consumerist scientist) guy get the (activist street-performer) girl? Will the CEO of the Gulf Atlantic Corporation find his missing daughter? Will the spirits of Tex and Molly negotiate the strangeness of the spirit world and find each other and their rest? Well, of course. But it is through the weaving of these threads together that Tex and Molly creates one of the finest tales yet told of us as modern Pagans.
It was bound to happen: after 1996′s The Craft, it was surely a mere matter of time before someone got the idea to remake The Craft for guys; hence 2006′s The Covenant. Not meaning to make too much of basically a teen Witch-Flick (for guys), I find the film notable (1) for being so guy-centric; (2) as an example of the degree to which the Salem Witch-Past informs American consciousness about Witchcraft; and (3) as one of a number of recent works that demonstrate how firmly the Wiccan Magick Circle and Book of Shadows (or some such related Magickal volume) have fixed themselves into American perception of Magick-Use.
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