Cherry Hill News

Join your Cherry Hill Seminary friends at PantheaCon on Thursday, February 11, from 8-10 PM in the lobby sushi bar of the Doubletree Hotel. Cash bar and sushi, all are welcome!

Scott Mohnkern, Staff and Faculty member at Cherry Hill Seminary, will be giving an interview on a new podcast, Raven Radio, this Sunday, February 7th at 11 a.m.  Mountain time. The subject is his new book A Year of Viking Ritual. Be sure to tune in.

We may not have a football team, but Cherry Hill Seminary now has a beautiful auto sticker! Order today for $7, or look for us at PantheaCon and buy one directly for only $6.

When she closes her eyes, rubs her temples or handles a favorite rock, psychic Maureen Temple Richmond can see pictures in her mind: whether your boyfriend cheats, whether your stocks are doomed, whether you’re about to get fired.

But that’s meat-and-potatoes astrology. Boyfriends do cheat. Stocks tank.

For Richmond, the real thrill of having psychic powers comes from the high-wire act of finding lost things – a service she offers at the recession-friendly rate of $50 an hour. No find, no fee.

Read the whole article on Cherry Hill Seminary student Maureen Temple Richmond and her psychic and astrology skills in the Midtown Raleigh News.

Nikki Bado-Fralick, a member of the CHS Board of Directors, and Rebecca Sachs Norris, have recently published Toying With God: The World of Religious Games and Dolls. This book examines the relationships among religion and commerce, play, politics, ritual, fun, and other aspects of contemporary culture.

Pick up your copy on Amazon.com or via Cherry Hill’s student bookstore.

Greetings!

February is the month of light and love. The light of the Goddess Brigit that fires the poet’s brain; the love shared on the 14th when the influence of Aphrodite and Eros permeates the atmosphere.

CHS will be offering its annual Winter Conference with the delightful Steven Posch, followed by PantheaCon in San Jose. For those of you who may not know, PantheaCon, now in its 16th year, is probably the largest gathering of Pagans on the West Coast, drawing around 2000 people together for an endless round of workshops, lectures, panels, rituals, parties, you name it.

CHS students, faculty, and administration will be well represented. If you go, look for offerings from William Blumberg, Kirk Thomas, Tony Mierzwicki, and several others. We hope to see many of you there.

At the end of last month, several folks from CHS presented at the Sixth Annual Claremont Conference on Current Pagan Studies at Claremont Graduate University in Southern California. The event was broadcast live online via Elluminate. CHS is delighted to support the conference and delighted that the field of Pagan studies has become richer and more widespread. This is us, folks! We are building our own culture, and in the process changing the overculture as we take our places in the sun.

Please help us with your donations – establishing a seminary and gaining accreditation is a long and expensive process – as well as enrolling in our programs and volunteering. CHS is a collaborative effort. And while I’m at it, I tip my pointy black hat to the volunteers who produce this newsletter for you.

Blessings in the living land,
Macha/Aline O’Brien

Note to students: The Ancient Philosophy class has been canceled.

Situated in the mythical planet Pandora, James Cameron’s motion picture Avatar is a metaphor for the relationships between human beings and their affective and religious (or if one prefers, their spiritual) relationships to the earth.

The Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture invites proposals for a special issue tentatively titled “Avatar and Nature Spirituality.” The overall goal is to illuminate the nature of the biocultural ground that Avatar has promoted, and which has also led to significant contention.

For more information on the JSRNC and how to submit your proposal, please visit its website.

The American Public Health Association is calling for abstracts and the Caucus on Public Health and the Faith Community would like to see more on faith-based health programs that feature underrepresented faith traditions such as Wicca.

The deadline for submitting an abstract is February 11. The APHA Annual Meeting & Exposition is November 6-10 in Denver, CO.

Hello everyone, I have the following announcement to make:

I was recently approached and have just been installed this morning on Imbolc, to the Executive Board of Directors of a United Nations NGO, Children Of The Earth. This organization focuses on international youth utilizing spirituality as a tool, to bring about positive change in approaching many of the world’s problems. There are chapters across the world.

While the Executive Board is composed of a small number of people, I feel honored and humbled to be included in the company of such distinguished individuals as a State Senator, the Speech Writer for Dr. Martin Luther King, and other similarly situated persons. I will also have the honor of working with our Advisory Board, which includes the following individuals:

James O’Dea, Institute of Noetic Sciences, California

Moty Benjakar, M.D., Chief Psychiatrist of UNESCO

Betty Williams, Nobel Laureate

Robert Muller, Former Assistant Secretary of the UN

Marshall Rosenberg, Non Violent Communication

Alfredo Sfeir Younis, Former World Bank Senior Economist

As an open Pagan, it gives me great hope that we as a community will have the opportunity to have our ideas heard and considered, and that our young people … who stand on the threshold of the future, will be excepted for who they are.

Blessings to all,

Patrick McCollum