In Defense of Paganism – A Call To Action

December 11, 2023 ~ Tracey ~ Leave a comment

Local Business Targeted by Extreme Christian Group

Christian church members protest outside Frey’s Hermetic Supplies

Frey’s Hermetic Supplies in Huntington Beach is being targeted by an extremist Christian church. Church members have shown up to several of the store’s outdoor faires, intentionally disrupting rituals at the events. The small business, a hub for the local Pagan community, is being targeted specifically because it is Pagan. Now, there is a possibility that Frey’s may no longer be able to hold these popular faires because of the church’s disruptive activities. Not only would this be extremely detrimental to Frey’s, but also to the other vendors and small businesses that participate in the faires.

Please sign this petition and help us stop the harassment of Pagan practices in southern California. It will only take a moment of your time to help protect our community.

https://www.change.org/p/stop-harassment-of-pagan-practices-in-socal

Please contact freyshermeticsupplies@gmail.com for more ways to help.

Yule with Reclaiming L.A.

December 6, 2023December 11, 2023 ~ Tracey ~ Leave a comment

Join Reclaiming LA for Yule at the beach! This mid-winter solar festival marks the shortest days and longest nights of the year. We will honor the season of restorative darkness by visiting the Pacific Ocean, allowing the waters of our coastline to wash away the parts of the old year that no longer serve, and looking ahead to a time when the sun will make its return.

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 16, 2023

1:30 PM: Gather on the beach for drum circle

2:00 PM: Ritual Begins

***We suggest attendees leave extra travel time to get to this location, and carpool if possible.***

LOCATION

Nicholas Canyon County Beach
33850 Pacific Coast Highway
Malibu, CA 90265

The parking entrance can be hard to see. If you’ve gotten to Leo Carrillo you’ve gone too far. You can park on PCH for free and trek in, or park in the lot for $8. If you park in the lot, there are two levels of spots, and if you drive down one level, there are closer spots to the stairs leading to the beach and the ritual site. There are also ramped walkways. We will be gathering on the beach. Look for drums to find our group!

INFO

Please dress warmly; we won’t have a fire at this location.
You will be invited to go into the ocean as part of the ritual. Please bring your own swimsuit, towels, and a change of clothes if you plan to participate.
Bring something you would like to use to make sound: whether percussions, other instruments, or something unexpected!.
Bring your own sun hat, sunscreen, water bottle, etc.
There will be no shared potluck. Bring whatever snacks you will need individually.
If you are called, you may bring white and yellow flowers as an offering to the deities we work with.
All genders welcome!
Children welcome with adult supervision.
To support those in recovery, this ritual is clean and sober.

ACCESSIBILITY

The ritual space is approximately 100-120 yards from the parking lot. To get to the ritual space, one must descend two standard stair cases or ramped walkways from the lot and then a short staircase to the sand. The ritual will be held on the sand by the beach, where it’s relatively level. There are very few sound reflective elements near the ritual space that would reflect sound back to attendees. We are planning to complete the ritual before dusk, as the beach closes at sundown. We have written this accessibility statement to be as inclusive as possible so that people with accessibility concerns do not have to do the labor of asking.

If we have overlooked some aspect, please email us at info@reclaimingla.org, and we will do our utmost to answer.

A Solstice Land Blessing

December 6, 2023 ~ Tracey ~ Leave a comment

Contributed by Rev. Heather Westenhofer

It is sunset, and I am standing on a ridge in East Orange, in the wildlife corridor between Irvine Regional Park and Peters Canyon Regional Park. A healthy-looking coyote has woken up and is on the hunt. A lone purple sage plant, the only known specimen to grow south of Blackstar Canyon, is beginning its fall growth period. A tarantula hawk is building a burrow, in preparation for its prey that will be walking the land as the day comes to an end. A white-tailed kite hovers nearby, scouring the landscape for dinner. Each week I visit this piece of land and get to know its inhabitants more and more. To developers, it is just empty space ready to be turned into a profit. The developers look the other way from teeming life already there, from the wealth that is the expansive vistas of this open space.

I raise my hands in the east to begin the Sphere of Protection ritual which is a fundamental part of my Druid practice. I have crafted a unique version of this working, calling in elements with imagery of the local wildlife and banishing that which threatens it. The Sphere of Protection culminates in a blessing which I can only hope will hold the land in its web of safety for another week.

It is hard to imagine all of the threats our native species face. This entire wilderness area was burned by wildfire in 2017. However, the most intense pressure on wildlife comes from urban sprawl – the noise, pollution, and habitat fragmentation that comes from careless human behavior. But even our sympathetic city council is not willing to stand up to big business, even to request a new Environmental Impact Report for this particular project to update the 2005 (!) original.

Would you like to learn more about connecting to this threatened land, and lend your magic for its protection? Join me for a solstice land blessing on December 23. And support our magic with action: sign the No Orange Heights petition. Our few remaining open spaces in Orange County are so unique and precious. We can’t afford to lose another acre.

Rev. Heather Westenhofer (she/her) is an artist, registered yoga teacher and ordained minister of the Sacred Well Congregation. Heather is currently working through the Bard Apprentice curriculum of the Ancient Order of Druids in America and serves on the Ritual Planning Committee of Reclaiming LA. Sometimes she can be found on Instagram at suburbanartemis.