#female revivalist society

[tenth-sentence]

As part of the group, Elizabeth Tomlinson and Sarah Kirkland travelled with Ann Carr around the textile industry villages of Nottingham and Derby, before moving on to Leeds, the centre of the West Riding woollen industry.

"Normal Women: 900 Years of Making History" - Philippa Gregory

[elegantshapeshifter]

.:: Dreamwork and the Oneiric Sabbath ::.

In 906, Regino of Prüm writes in his instructions to the bishops (that later will become the Canon Episcopi), the following:

“This also is not to be omitted, that certain wicked women, turned back toward Satan, seduced by demonic illusions and phantasms, believe of themselves and profess to ride upon certain beasts in the nighttime hours, with Diana, the Goddess of the Pagans, (or with Herodias) and an innumerable multitude of women, and to traverse great spaces of earth in the silence of the dead of night, and to be subject to her laws as of a Lady, and on fixed nights be called to her service.”

This cult, as we said several times, from the Franco-Germanic area will extend throughout the Continent, becoming so a pan-European phenomenon, characterized by nocturnal flights, transformations in animals, processions of spirits and witches gatherings. At the beginning of the history of Traditional Witchcraft, TradCraft has almost entirely been a “dream cult”, and only later somebody physically emulated it. The essence of witchcraft is not physical, it’s a nocturnal experience, it’s oneiric, in 906 physical meetings are not yet present as it will happen later.

Initially, witches fly or shapeshift into animals to participate in a spiritual procession, a cortège that proceeds from house to house eating and drinking the banquets that people prepared as an offering near their hearth, blessing, in turn, the inhabitants of the home: this is the procession of "the good women who go forth at night" or Dominae Nocturnae.

Gradually this horde of spirits ceases to move from house to house, and begins to gather in one single place. Even here, however, they eat, drink and make love. The Procession, the Cortège, becomes the Sabbath. Finally, the sabbath will be "ostented", i.e. emulated, imitated in the physical realm.

But the essence of the Sabbath, its origin, is and remains oneiric. The sabbath represents the world of the spirits, the dead and the fairies. Not surprisingly, the Queen of Fairies is often also the patron of witches: there are numerous trials in Scotland where the accused claim to have visited the Court of Fairies, their kingdom, Elphame, and to have also seen some well-knownly deceased human beings.

Also the dead, moreover, often proceed like a cortège: we are talking about the Procession of the Dead or Wild Hunt, led by the Wild Hunter or corresponding female characters who are also leaders of the Procession of the Dominae Nocturnae.

The dead and the witches are also connected to the Spirit Battles or Night Battles, oneiric fights between witchcraft practitioners (like the Mazzeri of Corsica), in which each witch represented their own village, and the loser of these fights caused more deaths for their own village, while the winner a minor number.  At other times, instead, they fought for the fertility of the fields, and it was thought that those who could participate in these battles could also see the dead and their processions (as in the case of the Benandanti of Friuli).

Therefore, the Oneiric Sabbath is not a monolith: it includes the Procession of the Dominae Nocturnae; the Sabbath; the Wild Hunt and the Night Battles. Quoting Peter Gray (a revivalist writer, not a reconstructionist one): "Initiation in dream is thus revealed as the birth rite of witchcraft. Our origin is embedded in the land of the dead and faery, concealed within the ringing hollow hills."

Allright, now that we understand that the primordial Sabbath is oneiric, that all these possibilities exist ... how to experience it? How did they experience it in the past? In the past people lived very differently from us: they slept together, they ate together, worked in the same place and gathered around the same hearth; they listened to the same storytellers, witnessed the same events and the same sermons. Sharing dreams was commonplace, while today it is almost a miracle if we remember a dream when we wake up. The world has changed, and the situational factors that led to a greater number of "witchcraft" dreams are not reproducible, if not perhaps among the Amish (but at that point it would be the Amish people to drive us out accusing us of witchcraft!).

Therefore the most useful techniques nowadays are the modern ones, which work to make us - humans of today - dream. Today we can no longer gather all around the fire to tell our dreams, and forcing our family to do so will not have the same effect of spontaneous sharing that occurred in the past. But there is no problem: we will use a notebook or a tape recorder instead. Today we no longer have storytellers telling us about the Sabbath, we can participate in storytelling events but today's storytellers do not have the same impact on the psyche of those of the pre-television and pre-social media era. But even here, no problem, we will imagine - replacing the storytellers - the scene at the time of falling asleep and during the day.

So, schematizing, what should we do? 1 - Let’s think of the dream we want to do during the day, and let's take some moments to imagine the scene we want to dream of at night. 2 - In the night, before falling asleep, let's repeat the exercise but let’s totally lose ourselves in the imagination until we get into sleep without even realizing it. 3 - Upon awakening, let’s immediately report the dreams in a notebook that we will have left (together with a pen!) on the bedside table, or on a tape recorder. Even if we had not dreamed of anything, we will still have to write (or speak, in the case of the recorder), so as to deceive our mind, which will pay attention to the dream activity the following days and will allow us to remember our dreams the next times. So when we do not dream anything we will write: "Dear diary, today I haven’t dreamed of anything".

Well, now that we understood the technique, we'll apply it to the various Sabbath themes: a) - To the Cortège of the Good Women; b) - To the Oneiric Sabbath; c) - To Elphame/the Sybil's Paradise, i.e. the Otherworld; d) - To the Wild Hunt; e) - I avoid reporting the Night Battles because they are too dangerous, but if you are reckless and irresponsible, it will be enough to understand the mechanism and apply it here too (at your own risk!); f) - Separate speeches will be: * the shared dream, that is to meet one's "Company" or "Coven" in an oneiric state, and * the discovery of the Animal Familiar Spirit, which will be dealt with on other occasions.

# A: The Cortège of the Dominae Nocturnae

The scene that we will imagine will be that of a night sky, where we will fly - together with other people - riding a broom, on the back of our Animal Familiar Spirit (if it has already been discovered) or turning into him in shapeshifting. At the head of this cortège will be our own Patron Familiar Spirit. Let’s imagine, at this point, that the parade glide and land near a house. Here we will find everything neat, tidy and perfectly decorated. We will proceed all together towards the kitchen. Here we will find ourselves before a huge banquet. Everyone, therefore, starting from the Patron Major Spirit, will eat and drink something, and all together will dance in the house. Once this is done, the Major Spirit will pull out a wooden wand and, touching the house, the inhabitants sleeping in their beds and the pets, will bless them with his/her powers, making a golden light shine out in the house. Once everything is illuminated by this light, which came from the Spirit’s wand, the cortège will proceed again in the air to get to another house where to repeat everything.

# B: The Sabbath or Game of the Good Society (Ludus Bonae Societatis)

The scene to be imagined this time will be a dark forest, the top of a mountain or a hill. By putting the case that the forest has been chosen as landscape, we will imagine a multitude of people, completely naked, around a fire and surrounded by torches. Each of these people, ourselves included, will have a candle in their hands. In front of us there will be our own Patron Major Spirit, to which each person, in turn, will bow with the candle in their hand. Once done, everyone will sit down, eat and drink on the huge wooden tables near the bonfire, on which every wonderful food and beverage will be arranged. The candles that were previously held in hand will now rest on the table in front of us. Once finished to eat and drink, everybody will take their own candle again, and they will dance to form a dance of lights. At the end of the dance, everyone will try to extinguish the candle of the other, but will try to avoid turning off their own, and when all the candles have blown out they will make love in honor of the Major Spirit. The cock will then be heard to sing, the dawn appears on the horizon, and each person will bow again in front of the Major Spirit, before moving away and disappearing into the forest.

# C: The Otherworld or the Kingdom of the Fairies

The scene in this case will be that of a hill, which we will imagine hollow, with a small entry at the bottom. Once penetrated, let's imagine going down a clumped ladder and continuing to descend, descend, descend, now let’s feel fall down and descend, descend, descend. At the end of the descent, we find a gate. Let’s cross it. It is possible to interrupt the visualization here or imagine to arrive, after the gate, in a royal court, captained by two enchanted characters sitting on their thrones, the King and the Queen of Elphame (we can even imagine a single throne, with Patron Major Spirit), and a lot of fairy courtesans and nobles, including also deceased humans.

# D: The Wild Hunt or the Procession of the Dead

Let's imagine a procession made up of penitents with their faces covered and dressed with a tunic carrying a torch, others on horseback but with their faces bowed, and finally a taller and more physically corpulent character, seated on a sparkling chariot filled with precious stones, to guide the procession: the Wild Hunter, who carries with him a club or a stick. All these figures proceed at night from the forest to the streets of the city, sometimes even rising in the air. Among them, we recognize some people that we know that are already dead, and we imagine ourselves parading with them, even us with our tunic, the hood, the face covered and the torch in hand. The face of the Wild Hunter (or the Wild Huntress) will coincide with that of our Patron Major Spirit.

[15hont1c]

Week 5: The End

Our reflective essay should:

Discuss set text and how your screenplay was inspired by it.

Draw specific links between screenplay + source text.

Show familiarity with relevant aspects of book (period, themes, genre, location, etc)

Discuss writing process and the creative decisions you made.

Reflect on your journey from first idea to finished script.

Use quotes/evidence from screenwriting texts to explain and support your decisions.

Refer to any other books, films, images, etc that influenced your writing process.

Discuss how film would be like?

Discuss animation style, aesthetics, material, color palette, lighting, soundtrack.

Think about intended audience for film.

The tone and style of the reflective essay should follow the appropriate academic tone with citations and bibliography. The reflective essay can also use first person as it is meant to be discussing and analysing our own experiences. 

The Last Night - Strictures of Victorian Society

Utterson is annoyed at the servants who are “huddled together like a flock of sheep.” 

Upkeep of the Victorian calm and self-contained attitude.

The housemaid breaks into “hysterical whimpering.” -> Mass Hysteria

“A rather wild tale.” 

Utterson stands for the audience as he expresses the same doubt/questions the readers ask.

“This drug is wanted bitter bad, sir.”

Depiction of drug addictions.

Victorians can buy over-the-counter heroin; frequented to opium dens and even babies who were born drug-addicts.

Stevenson himself is also a drug addict who was reliant on hallucinogens. 

Poole seeing the masked man who was much smaller than his ‘master.’

Referral as a symbol of something hidden/concealed (like door).

Description is evocative and deepens the mystery.

Upon breaking the door, there was no big reveal; no dramatic scene.

Instead, they found a mirror with their own reflection reflected instead, showing the “evil” duality of themselves. 

The scene also utilises the uncanny -> we expect the extraordinary, but is actually overwhelmingly ordinary in the scene, even though things are not ‘quite right.’ 

There is a duality/juxtaposition in the description of the scene: The twitching corpse and a defaced book as opposed to the boiling kettle.

Prompts the idea of “To what extent did Utterson cause the death of Hyde/Jekyll.”

The final two chapters were written in first person narrative:

Dr Lanyon revealing the core of the mystery.

Jekyll telling the chronological story that happened over the course of the novella through his perspective.

First Letter (Lanyon):

Lanyon receives a strange message, begging to carry out a series of specific and peculiar requests. 

Jekyll/Hyde begs Lanyon for help.

He goes to fetch a drawer containing powders and a test tube from his lab and goes to wait for the mystery man.

Hyde’s too desperate for the drugs, and gives him the option to leave to watch him ingest it.

Dr Lanyon is bound to secrecy - bound by the Hippocratic oath.

He is unable to reveal what he knows.

Even in a vulnerable state, Hyde presents himself as more superior  than Lanyon.

The format of an ‘objective’ third person narrative + ‘subjective’ first person accounts was a trope of Victorian fiction, but was also similar to the medical literature of that period. Anne Stiles (2006) observes that the book’s structure reflects the medical case studies of that period, but also subverts them. Jekyll’s character is both the physician and patient in the story.

Jekyll’s observation states that “man is not truly one, but truly two.” This reflects a Victorian theory that ‘each brain hemisphere might house a separate personality or a separate soul.’ It can be imagined that when a Victorian reads this, they may become afraid of their inner “Hyde” taking over. 

An example of this could be the case study of an injured French soldier called Sergeant F which was discussed in the medical Cornhill magazine.  According to Stiles in her book Popular Fiction and Brain Science in the Late Nineteenth Century on page 43, Sergeant F developed “two distinct personalities upon a gunshot injury in the left brain hemisphere.” His first state is known as intelligent and kindly, while his second state displayed “animalistic and automatic qualities along with impaired sensory impressions.” He is also resilient to pain in this second state. 

Even though Sergeant F was male and his condition was caused by an external factor (gunshot), the ‘multiplex personality’ was almost overwhelmingly a female condition. Felida X was an example of a female patient that was also discussed in the Cornhill magazine. Felida’s condition was natural occurring, exhibited hysteria and has another ‘peculiar secondary state of mind.’ She felt pain when transitioning between the two states. While she felt better in this second state, it had “unfortunate moral consequences,” such as when she got herself pregnant with a man whom she had no romantic interest in the first mind state. Her subconscious base instincts made her chase after the man and impregnated herself due to it.

Applying to Jekyll and Hyde, we can see that Hyde was wrestling against the approaches of hysteria. Hysteria is a centuries old illness that no one really understood at the time. It was usually diagnosed when no other cause could be found for its exaggerated symptoms. Examples include:

Salem Witch Trials

Occurred in 1692, over 200 people were accused of practicing witchcraft.

20 people were hung upon accusations from mass hysteria.

Neighbours and friends turn against one another.

Started because a group of girls exhibited convulsions and weird spastic behaviour -> epilepsy.

Most of them were girls and women.

Anneliese Michel

A German woman who was supposedly ‘possessed’ by a demon after a complicated series of illnesses early in her life.

Suffered a seizure and diagnosed with psychosis of temporal lobe epilepsy.

Took a lot of medication, but her condition worsened (as well as her mental health.)

Began to hear voices and became intolerant to sacred Christian sacred places and objects. 

Stiles (2006) theorised that the small, puny, right-brained Hyde has something of the Victorian femininity about him; emotionally unstable, physically chaotic and somehow ‘lesser’ than his male counterparts. In the novella, Poole describes Hyde as “weeping like a woman.” 

The nocturnal setting, theme of monstrosity and embedded narratives (i.e fragments, manuscripts and letters. 

Key Features of the Gothic

Wild landscapes vs imprisonment

Hyde was constantly ‘imprisoned’ by the duality in Jekyll’s personality. 

Other characters were also imprisoned by the Victorian society’s rules. 

The re-emergence of the past within the present (often represented by ghosts - the thing you thought was dead.)

Exploring the limits of what it is to be human.

Internal desires or forces outside our control.

Perverse, weird and dangerous kinds of sexuality - incest, abduction, violence.

The vulnerable of women in 19th century - the ‘triumph’ of young women over seemingly impossible force.

The Uncanny

Figures that are not quite ‘human’ (dolls, was works, automata)

May feature ‘evil’ doubles.

“Somebody who seems unfamiliar and strange in fact has an identity you already know.” 

No one in the novella could really describe what Hyde looked like; an uncanny physical description.

We can harness the power of the uncanny to enhance the story in our writing.

Less is More 

Planting the seeds and letting the readers’ imagination flow.

Stay Close

Use all senses when writing, stay close to the protagonist and allow the audience to feel their fear.

Make it personal

Use your own fears/phobias to make the scene more realistic.

Give the reader time to feel the fear

Place hints that something disturbing is going to happen.

Create a mood of tension/horror before it actually happens.

Provide something uncanny that is both familiar and unfamiliar.

Allow the sense of underlying unease to intensify over time.

E.g A radio turns on by itself, a child toy changes position.

The Birth of Urban Gothic Horror

Jekyll and Hyde is usually considered as the first ‘urban gothic’ novel. Gothic revivalists of the 19th century believe the threat is no longer an external force, but rather an evil that is curled inside the very heart of the respectable middle class person. This scared the readers at the time even more, as to some extent, the evil was inescapable. The progressive society with the advancement of the Industrial Revolution caused the dark progress of social and psychological effects. Moral decay was an obsession of the Victorians. By identifying and analysing that fear, they seek to control and contain it.

How to Write Dialogue

Unnatural is natural

Not real speech, but a representation of it.

Aim to capture the flavour of speech (without the boring stale bits)

“Natural speech is full of hesitation, repetitions, omissions... when we’re listening to it in real life, our brains filter this out and extract the essential parts (Pierre, 2011).

The S.A.D method

Dialogue is a function of character. Know the character well so their dialogue flows easily.

Status - Who was the upper hand?

Agenda: What is the purpose of the conversation?What do they hope to gain from it.

Desire: What do they want? (What is their ultimate goal/super objective.)

Inhabit their physical space

Listen to how differently different people talk.

Our physical bodies affect our voice. Spend time imagining yourself as the character.

E.g. Timid & trembling? Broad & bold?

Silence is gold

What people don’t say is just as important as what they do.

What are they avoiding to talk about?

Actions speak louder than words.

Explanation kills drama

Characters should talk to each other, not the audience.

“Good dialogue is a manifestation of behaviour, not an explanation” (Yorke, 2013, p150).

Dialogue is not just a Q & A

Good dialogue is surprising and unpredictable.

Promises excitement, but keeps us waiting for it.

Drip-feeds information but withholds answers.

Be ruthless

Dialogue should either move the story forward or reveal something about the character.

If it does not, take that out!

Always read the dialogue aloud.

Make sure the dialogue can actually be spoken/performed realistically.

Reference:

Stiles (2006) - https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=KyFrjbezjSgC&pg=PA43&lpg=PA43&dq=sergeant+F+brain+study&source=bl&ots=XgsrEFdmxR&sig=ACfU3U0cTzmOzIkZPnboQKh4FeOQA41Zzg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiC5dm7t4LgAhVho3EKHTYRAJcQ6AEwA3oECAUQAQ#v=onepage&q=sergeant%20F%20brain%20study&f=false

[thephilosopheroftheboudoir]

Grim History

The Rise of Wahhabi Islam and the Conquest of the Arabian Peninsula

    In the early years of the 18th century, the impoverished region of the central Arabian peninsula called the Najd was a veritable backwater. Dominated by the northern Arabian Rashid tribe with support from the Ottoman Empire, the Najdi people were suffering from poverty due to agricultural difficulties. The practice of Islam had faded away and given rise to superstitious rites and the worship of saints in its place. Violence, lawlessness, and constant raiding by Bedouin tribes were seemingly never-ending problems. Out of the chaos came a young student of Islamic law named Muhammed ibn Abd-al Wahhab who promised to alleviate their distress if they returned to the way of life set out by the first adherents to the Muslim religion.  His  teachings transformed the Arabian lands and set the course of the region on the path to fundamentalist militant Islam.

    Born sometime in the first decade of the 1700’s, Abd al-Wahhab came from a family of judges. Raised in the Sunni Hanbali school of Muslim jurisprudence, he chose his devotion to the practice of law at an early age. After going on pilgrimage in Mecca and Medina, Adb-al Wahhab returned to his native village of Uyayna, convinced after what he saw there that Muslims had abandoned the true and pure form of Islam as it was originally planned out by the prophet Mohammad. He began preaching about the purification of Islamic teachings and soon began attracting adherents to his revivalist style of militancy and literalism. Male followers were made to wear a plain white thobe and turban on their heads rather than the traditional Bedouin iqal, the black rope used to hold their headscarves in place. Female disciples were commanded to dress with extreme modesty in the full black burqa covering all parts of their bodies except for their eyes.

    Aside from the memorization of the Qur’an, the early Wahhabis believed that every aspect of their lives had to be done in strict obedience to Allah without any influence from anything else. Thus, praying to saints, a practice that had gained in popularity in those times, was strictly forbidden. Even the intervention of doctors in illnesses or injuries was banned because the patient in such situations did not seek out guidance from Allah instead. Women were to be highly regarded just as long as they married and did their wifely duties. Social interaction between members of the opposite sex was outlawed to prevent extra-marital affairs; this social taboo, if broken, was punishable by public whippings and beatings. Followers of Christianity, Judaism, or any other religion were regarded as sorcerers and agents of evil and Muslims who practiced or believed anything other than the Wahhabi cult’s doctrine were thought of as heretics and enemies of the true faith of Islam.

    Muhammad ibn Abd-al Wahhab starting gaining notoriety when he and his followers set out on a campaign to clean up their society. They began their rampage by destroying a coffin containing the remains of a revered saint, said to have healing powers. The people of the Najd also had taken to worshiping sacred trees which they believed to have supernatural powers; Abd-al Wahhab and his followers cut these down. They also found a woman who had been known for speaking publicly about cheating on her husband; when they commanded that she repent, she reacted with defiance and claimed to be proud of her infidelity. Her punishment was that they buried her up to the neck in sand and threw rocks at her head until she died. Public beheadings were another common punishment for other transgressions. To top it all off, the Bani Khalid tribal chief Sulaiman ibn Muhammad ibn Ghurayr forced the Wahhabis to leave the eastern Najdi region because they declared taxation to be against the teachings of Islam, something that did not impress a chief whose main source of income was tax revenues.

    Abd-al Wahhab moved on. Upon arriving at the town of Dhiriya, he was welcomed in and soon struck up a friendship with Muhammad ibn Saud, the grandfather of Abdul-aziz ibn Saud, the first king of the modern nation of Saudi Arabia. Muhammad ibn Saud was impressed by the strictly disciplined followers of Abd-al Wahhab and the two agreed that by combining the Wahhabi teachings with militant tribal politics, they could conquer the Arabian peninsula. After forming this alliance, they built up an army and seized the town of Riyadh. Whipped up into a frenzy of religious zeal, the Wahhab-Saud alliance’s army began raiding nearby tribes, forcing them to convert as they conquered each one. They marched on the eastern towns of Hasa and Qatif, down to the peninsula of Qatar, south to Oman and Yemen, then north to the Rashid fortress in Ha’il and the Shi’ite-dominated  city of Karbala. All along the way they gave the conquered people the choice of peacefully converting to the Wahhabi creed or being slaughtered. They all chose to convert and the first Saudi emirate of Dhiriya was born.

    Next they turned their attentions to the Hejaz, the western strip of the Arabian peninsula where the holy cities of Mecca and Medina were under the control of the Ottoman Empire. They seized these cities too and ruled them for years, refusing to allow any Muslims other than Sunni Wahhabis to perform the Hajj pilgrimage. But as time went on, the insular Wahhab-Saud alliance had no contact with the outside world. The Industrial Revolution produced new technologies for killing and new strategies for warfare and the Wahhabis, smug in their fanatical conceit, knew nothing of them. The Ottoman Empire built up a proxy army of Egyptian soldiers who marched on the Hejaz, decimating the Wahhabis and taking control, once again, of the cities of Mecca and Medina. Meanwhile, the Ottomans also supplied the Rashids with war materiel and assisted them when they attacked Riyadh, forcing the House of Saud to flee to Kuwait where they lived in exile until their return in the 20th century.

    To this day, the Sauds have maintained their alliance with the Wahhabis who act as the official governing body of religious clerics in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Wahhabi doctrine not only acts as the founding principle of national and religious identity for Saudis but it also provides the belief system for fundamentalist terrorist groups like Al Qaeda and ISIS. Their goal of dominating the world through a radical, draconian interpretation of Islam is the modern ancestor of the fanatical teachings of Muhammad ibn Abd-al Wahhab.

Darlow, Michael and Bray, Barbara. Ibn Saud: The Desert Warrior Who Created the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Skyhorse Publishing, 2012

[minnesotadruids]

Bearded Old Men? Demographics of Druids: Not So Bearded, Not Very Old, And Not Male Dominated.

Regarding my prior post about the annual elections of Oakdale Grove officers, you may have noticed that aside from myself, everyone else elected to a grove office was female. Crone Wolf was elected as our Bard, Amy as Master of Ceremonies, Helen as Server, and Courtney as Preceptor. Long has it been a stereotype that druids are a bunch of bearded old men, and that stereotype is becoming more inaccurate all the time. Younger people (female, male, and gender non-binary) are becoming more interested in druidry. My druidic practice started out in earnest in the middle of my college career, and 13 years later I still can’t grow a beard to save my life. So I am aging; but at 33 I don’t consider myself old, though neither I do foresee myself sporting a beard anytime in my future. Regardless of my very real beard-envy and attraction to men with a fine beard, it is quite the trivial matter to get hung up on when addressing stereotypes of the modern druid. I am young, I am a cisgender gay male, and I am multiethnic. Like most druids I am white, but I am also half Mestizo. In 2015, Carleton Grove joined up with Oakdale Grove for a large group Beltane reunion. Carleton Grove is the oldest Grove of neo-druids, period. By this scope of neo-druidry it excludes any masonic or antiquarian revivalist druid movements. Carleton Grove is old, but has also always had the youngest members. Confused yet? For those who are unaware, Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota is the home of Carleton Grove. In a nutshell, the Reformed Druids of North America (RDNA), the first non-masonic, non-revivalist druid movement was created at Carleton in 1963 by a group of college students. As members graduated, this branch of neo-druidry began to spread wherever they went and founded new Groves. Carleton College is only a four-year institution and does not admit non-traditional students; therefore, for the last 54 years the druids of Carleton Grove have always been between the ages of 18-22. Furthermore the membership turnover is 100% in any given four year cycle, and the traditions are more or less passed down like a sorority or fraternity. I believe the Arch-Druid of Carleton Grove, Anna, has graduated this last spring. When we had the combined Beltane ritual in 2015, of her grove members that could attend, seven out of eight of them were women. Technically, as Arch-Druid of Oakdale Grove, I am quasi-obligated to report the results of our election to Carleton Grove: the Mother Grove of the RDNA. All Arch-Druids of Reformed Druid Groves (well, technically any Third Order druids) are members of the Council of Dalon Ap Landu: the governing body of the Reformed Druid movement. We all report to the Chairperson of the Council, which happens to be whomever the Arch-Druid of Carleton Grove is. Since Anna has likely graduated (and she was originally the one who initiated contact with me), I do not know who to reach out to right now, but I think it might be Madeline who could be a senior this year. Either way, it is publicly accessible information that I can find through the Office of the Chaplain at Carleton College or through the Student Activities office. It would also be great to coordinate a Samhain group ritual, but I’m drifting way off topic. I think it’s refreshingly ironic that with most world religions, the Grand Poobah is an old man or someone trying to cling to outdated ideals, whereas in the Reformed Druids of North America, the Council Chairperson is among the youngest people in the entire movement, bringing new interpretations, ideas, and fresh perspectives that allow our traditions to grow and evolve organically. In the last 54 years at Carleton Grove, there have been 56 Arch-Druids: 56 council chairpersons. Looking at the historic record of their names in chronological order, I have had to take a guess at some of the gender-neutral names, but it appears that while 27 were men, 29 Carleton Arch-Druids have been women, and I think that’s a pretty good achievement! With paganism in general growing in the 21st century, more and more children are being born into pagan families, though there are still plenty of individuals who become pagan or realize their paganism later in life. I foresee that the former will be a slow but gradual trend over the next couple of generations, and the latter will continue in tandem. Perhaps in a hundred years, we could see a partial normalization of druidic or pagan practices in western society.

To depart from the topic of age in the druidic community, I think the Reformed Druids of North America may have been the first druid organization to ordain a transgender individual. I’m not sure when he entered the First Order of the RDNA, but Emmon Bodfish was ordained to the Third Order and joined the Council of Dalon Ap Landu in 1977. 

One of Emmon’s most well-known contributions to the Reformed Druid movement was the Salutations of Day, a solar-oriented type of moving meditation sometimes compared to yoga or tai chi. I am very grateful for Emmon’s contributions to the Reformed Druid movement, though it is with heart-wrenching sadness whenever I tell anyone that Emmon was beaten to death in 1999, and the murder case was never solved. I try to honor his legacy by sharing the Salutations of Day with others. Transgender Day of Remembrance this year is Monday, November 20, 2017.

Shifting back to look at the current state of druidism, at least within the Reformed Druid movement, it is my perception that the majority of druids are women. In 2012 or 2013 I surveyed the member list of the Reformed Druids of North America Facebook group. At the time I think there were under 200 members, and about two thirds were women. Now in 2017, the group membership is closer to 1000, and in conducting a similar survey, I ascertained that the demographics appear to be approaching an even split, and about one percent openly identify as gender non-binary or a similar category.

Among Oakdale Grove, it’s about an even split for the current membership. And if I’m reading my notes correctly, it looks like 16 out of the 26 druids I’ve ordained to the First Order since 2013 are women. In my interactions with other druid groups in Minnesota, Dancing Waters Protogrove (ADF) is a small group but mostly male. Druids of the Mist of Stone Forest Grove (not affiliated with any druidic order) is also a smaller group but perhaps an even split, and Northern Roots Grove (not affiliated with any druidic order) is mostly women.

In 2016, I attended the ADF Upper Midwest Retreat here in Minnesota, and that was about 60% women. Reverend Amy Castner is the one who took the photo above, though we all said she should have been in the photo with us. She is after all, the Regional Druid (high ranking) for ADF’s Upper Midwest region, and I think she’s on the cusp of Generation X and the Millennials.

In 2017 I attended the ADF Upper Midwest Retreat again, though it was in Illinois this time, and the turnout was again about 60% women. This time Amy is in the photo with us in the blue dress. By the way, these are wonderful people that I have had the privilege of meeting and partying with! Next year the ADF Upper Midwest Retreat is probably going to be somewhere in central or north-central Wisconsin, and is open to anyone interested in any type of druidry though it is an official ADF event.

So to all women druids, I say that you have a powerful presence ― I am thankful that you are tearing down the stereotypes that we’re just a bunch of bearded old men. I say to all my fellow druids, we are all ages, we are young, we are elders, we are wise crones and sages. To people of all races, all ethnicities, you are welcome, you are valid. If you feel the call to honor the Earth-Mother in her many forms, yes you can identify as a druid. To those who are LGBT, I stand among you, and I hope you can find safety and peace in druidry. All who are peaceful and respectful of others are welcome in Oakdale Grove of the Reformed Druids of North America.

[rachelswirsky]

Silly Interview with Anaea Lay (who wants to read your hate mail)

Rachel Swirsky: You were in Women Destroy Science Fiction--a project I greatly admire. What appeals to you about the project? What was your story like?

Anaea Lay: The Destroy series has been so phenomenally successful and huge that it's hard to remember that it started as an announcement that basically went, "You know what?  Screw this.  We're going to do a thing. Details forthcoming, let us know if you're in."  I'm both irritable and prone to scheming wild projects, so an announcement like that is a perfect recipe to pique my interest.  I sent them my info: i actually volunteered to read their hate mail for them since I get a bit of a kick out of getting hate mail.  I have a weekly quota of cackling I have to meet and reading hate mail makes it really easy for me to hit it.

They did not take me up on that offer, but did ask me to write a personal essay for a series they were putting up on their Kickstarter page.  There's less cackling involved in that sort of support, but I was game.  It's pretty short and you can still read it online if you want.  It's mostly about how I found SF at just the right moment for it to assure me that I wasn't as alone or strange as I thought I was.

What I like most about the Destroy project as it's grown and developed is how conversations around it have grown and developed.  A lot of voices that were always there, but usually at the edges or hard to go find have been amplified and brought closer to the main stream of the conversation.  That's the kind of effect that stretches beyond a single anthology or project.  Twenty or thirty years from now, I'll get to be the pedant droning on in convention hallways about how this and that other thing taken for granted ties back to this project and here see all the ways I can tie them together.  People will humor me and act like I'm being terribly interesting, and when they finally escape, I'll cackle.  (I'll probably still have a quota to meet.)

RS: You have an unpublished novel. You quote what John O'Neill had to say about it: "…an unpublished novel set in a gorgeously baroque far future where a woman who is not what she seems visits a sleepy space port… and quickly runs afoul of a subtle trap for careless spies.” Can you tell us more? How did you come up with the idea, and did it surprise you where it went?

AL: That novel was a bit of an experiment.  I had a big, sprawling space opera universe that I'd been building in the back of my head for years while working on other things.  It was time to start actually working on things there, but while I knew a lot about it, things in the back of my head tend to be squishy and hard to work with.  So I decided to do a safety novel first, something that would let me touch on the major set pieces  without any risk of pinning myself in later or breaking something I'd need.

Which meant I had no idea what I was going to do with it when I sat  down.  I knew I wanted a pair of sisters as the protagonists, and I wanted the younger sister to do some protecting of the older sister, then just kept throwing things out there to see what happened.

I'm in the process of re-working on of the plotlines from that novel into a game for Choice of Games.  It's serving as a learning workhorse for me again because I'm using it to experiment with all the things I learned while doing my first game with them.  Clearly pirates, spies, and snarky computers are the learning tools every modern writer needs in their workshop.

RS: You used to podcast poetry--how do you go about figuring how to give a poem voice?

AL: I hosted the Strange Horizons poetry podcast, but I did as little reading of the poetry as possible; that's our venue for getting in a variety of voices and it seems to me that if people are particularly invested in my voice, they can get plenty of it in the fiction podcast.

That said, I would step in when we were short on readers or there was a poem that particularly caught my eye.  (Editor's privilege is a marvelous thing!)  Reading poetry is both easier and harder than reading prose; poems are frequently crafted with a very deliberate ear toward how they sound, which means you're not likely to find the text dull to interpret vocally.  At the same time, you then have to do justice to the choices made in how the poem was put together, and justify it being you doing the reading rather than any given reader's interior head voice.  So I look for the tools the poet gave me, then look for the ways I'm best suited to using those tools and build my performance around that.  I'm a complete sucker for consonant clusters and sibilants.

RS: What was wonderful about running the Strange Horizons podcast?

Running the Strange Horizons podcast is fantastic.  I've given the poetry podcast over to Ciro Faienza, who was one of our staff readers for the poetry podcast and the single most common provocation of fanmail the podcast has gotten.  That podcast takes a lot of work, and I'd gotten to the point where I was very aware of a lot of ways it could be better, but realistically wasn't ever going to have the time to implement any of those improvements.  Ciro immediately made some great changes and I'm really looking forward to what he does as he gets into his groove.

The politic, and mostly true, answer to what's fantastic about doing the fiction podcast is getting to read the stories early and then pull them apart and put them back together in order to give a good reading.  The slightly more true answer, which has been growing over the course of the podcast, is the responses I get to the podcasts from the writers and the audience.  I pretty much only consume short fiction in audio form these days, which leaves me very grateful to all the places that are making it available.  Every time somebody reminds me that I'm one of those people is really great, especially when they're reminding me because they liked what I did.

But also, I really like getting to pull the stories apart and put them back together.

RS: So, on your website, you claim that the rumors I am a figment of your imagination are compelling. What are those rumors and why are you compelled by them?

AL: I actually exist as a multi-bodied individual quietly working to bring the world under the rule of a mischievous alien intelligence through widespread distribution of coffee and sunlight.  We've already conquered most of California and are making great headway in Washington.  Every sip of coffee you take, and every day with bright, clear skies, our agenda advances that much further.

Once, upon being informed of this (it's no fun to subvert an entire civilization if they don't know it's happening - you have to advertise) the person I was warning expressed skepticism about the veracity of my claims.  Apparently, according to them, the very concept of a multi-bodied individual is imaginative speculation and the idea of being one even more so.

There's not a lot I can do in the face of such claims.  There are people who don't believe in the moon landing.  There's not a lot I can do about people who insist on remaining skeptical about coffee and sunshine powered conspiracies.  But I do find such relentless denial of obvious reality to provide a fascinating insight into human psychology, especially when the stakes are this high.

The projects question: got anything you'd like to mention to readers?

The biggest thing I'm in the middle of right now is the Dream Foundry, which is a very cool new organization that's connecting different types of creative professionals all across science fiction, fantasy, and the rest of the speculative world.  We're running useful articles on our website and starting up some very fun programming on our forums.  We've got really big plans for the future (Contests! Workshops! Assimilation of the entire industry into our standards for compensation and professional conduct!) but we're already doing some very neat things, which is great for an organization that's less than a year old. In the short fiction realm, I just had "For the Last Time, It's not a Raygun," come out from Diabolical Plots. It's a tiny bit a love letter from me to Seattle, though I'd understand if it looks more like hate mail to some people. Much larger, my first game with Choice of Games, "Gilded Rails," came out late last year.  It's a huge (340k) interactive novel where you're trying to secure permanent control of a railroad in 1874, during the very early days of the labor movement and age of Robber Barons.  You get to choose between fixing markets or helping out small scale farmers, you've got a possibly-demonic pet cat, and a supreme court ruling over inheritance law for a big tent revivalist operation accidentally turned society into a more egalitarian alternate history where just about the entire cast might, depending on what you choose, be female.  Also, I snuck in hot takes about the contemporary theater and poetry scenes, which is exactly the sort of timely, incisive commentary everybody needs in their business sim.  I spent roughly forever, and also an eternity, working on this, so I'm really thrilled to have it out in the world.  It could be said that I'm cackling over it.

[truthaboutislam-blog1]

The Status of Muslim Women in Communal Life

The status of the Muslim Women in Islam is extremely respectable and elevated, and she affects the life of each Muslim in her locale. For sure, a Muslim Women is the underlying instructor who contributes towards building an honorable society given that she pursues the direction of the Book of Allah and the Sunnah (tradition) of His Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihiwasallam (Peace be upon him) since adherence to the Quran and the Sunnah keeps each Muslim - male or female – away from being misinformed in any way.

The misguidance and deviation of countries are the aftereffect of being far away from the way of Allah The Almighty and from what His prophets and messengers, may Allah exalt their mention, came with. The Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihiwasallam (Peace be upon him) Said: "I am leaving behind two things, you will not go astray as long as you cling to them, the Book of Allah and my Sunnah."

The Noble Quran mentions the great importance of the role of Muslim women, regardless of whether she is a mother, spouse, sister or girl, her privileges and obligations, and this has been explained in detail in the cleaned Sunnah.

Her significance lies in the gigantic weight and obligation that is put on her shoulders, and the challenges that she needs to bear - duties and troubles that are now and again more prominent than those which a man needs to manage. Subsequently, one of the most significant obligations is to demonstrate appreciation to the mother, be loyal to her and go with her in generosity. In this issue, she is to be given priority over the dad. Allah The Almighty says (what means):

{And We have enjoined upon man [care] for his parents. His mother carried him, [increasing her] in weakness upon weakness, and his weaning is in two years. Be grateful to Me and to your parents; to Me is the [final] destination.} [Quran 31:14]

{And We have enjoined upon man, to his parents, good treatment. His mother carried him with hardship and gave birth to him with hardship, and his gestation and weaning [period] is thirty months.} [Quran 46:15]

A man came to the Messenger of Allah Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihiwasallam (Peace be upon him) and said, "‘O Messenger of Allah! Who among people is the worthiest of my kind companionship?’ He replied: ‘Your mother.’ The man asked, ‘Then who?’ He replied: ‘Your mother.’ The man then asked, ‘Then who?’ So the Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihiwasallam (Peace be upon him) replied again: ‘Your mother.’ The man then asked, ‘Then who?’ He replied: ‘Then your father.’ " This implies that the mother should be given three times the dutifulness and good treatment that the father is given.

As regards to the wife, her status and her impact in making the spirit quiet and peaceful has been clearly shown in the noble Quranic verse where Allah refrain where Allah The Almighty says (what means): {And of His signs is that He created for you from yourselves mates that you may find tranquility in them; and He placed between you affection and mercy.} [Quran 30:21] Al-Haafith Ibn Katheer rahmatullah alaih commented on this verse, saying, "It encourages love, affection, compassion and piety since the man keeps his wife either because he loves her, or because of compassion and pity for her if he has a child from her."

The unique stance that the Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihiwasallam (Peace be upon him) wife Khadeejah, may Allah be pleased with her, took in supporting him and calming and reassuring the Messenger of Allah Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihiwasallam (Peace be upon him) when the angel Jibreel (Gabriel), may Allah exalt his mention, first came to him in the cave of Hiraa’.

The Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihiwasallam (Peace be upon him) returned to Khadeejah, may Allah be pleased with him, with the first revelation and with his heart trembling, he said to her: “Cover me! Cover me! I fear for myself." Khadeejah, may Allah be pleased with her, said, “Rejoice. Never! By Allah! Will Allah fail you? You maintain kinship ties with your relatives, you help the poor and the destitute, you serve your guests generously and you assist those who have been afflicted with calamities.”

We should also not forget ‘Aa’ishah, may Allah be pleased with her, and her great contribution as the great Companions used to acquire the knowledge of Hadeeth (narration) from her, and many of the female Companions learnt the various rulings pertaining to women's issues from her.

In the recent past, during the era of Imaam Muhammad bin Su‘ood rahmatullah alaih his wife advised him to accept the call of the revivalist Imaam Muhammad bin ‘Abdul-Wahhaab rahmatullah alaih when he offered his call to him. His wife's advice had a great impact on him agreeing to renew and disseminate the Da‘wah (Islamic propagation). Today we see the effect of that in the firm belief of the citizens of the Arabian Peninsula.

There is also no doubt that a house in which there is kindness, gentleness, love and care, along with the correct Islamic upbringing will greatly affect a man. He becomes – Allah willing – successful in his affairs and in any matter, whether it is seeking knowledge, trading, agriculture, or any other work.

[sandiegodjstaci]

The Hipster's Guide to Classic Country Music

The Hipster's Guide to Classic Country Music

Let’s face it…if your mountain man beard, microbrew fetish, and pipe collection are no longer enough, classic country music can help you get to the next level of hipster (so can a pair of Wrangler jeans). My name is DJ Staci, the Track Star, and I grew up on country music. I lived on a 5-acre llama ranch just outside of Seattle during the grunge era…do you see how there’s a hipster seed in there? I knew I was not your standard redneck when, at 14, my dad’s hunting drew me towards vegetarianism (celebrating 26 meat-free years now). At 18, I pierced my nose and moved to southern California where I could eat tofu, get feminism tattoos, and vote for democrats in a diverse, shame-free environment…but that country music seed definitely grew roots throughout my childhood. In fact, during my 20s, I escaped my days of drinking expensive juice and visiting organic farmer’s markets by honky tonkin’ every week. I would go line dancing at the Brandin’ Iron Saloon in San Bernardino (the biggest & best honky tonk a.k.a. country bar west of Gilley’s…and watch John Travolta & Debra Winger in “Urban Cowboy” if you don’t understand either of those references).

  Memes from We Hate Pop Country

  Unfortunately, country music withered up and died after the 2000s. After DJing at the world’s largest country music festival (Stagecoach–the country cousin of Coachella), I had to stop listening to country music on the radio. The so-called country you hear on the radio today is known as “pop country” by country music purists (those of us who prefer classic country or “real” country). The artists who “ruined” country music are people like Taylor Swift, Sam Hunt, Florida Georgia Line, Thomas Rhett, & Luke Bryant (and many others). Follow “We Hate Pop Country” on Facebook to learn more.

If you like “Wake Me Up” by Avicii, “Honey I’m Good” by Andy Grammer, “I Will Wait” by Mumford & Sons, “The Country Death Song” by the Violent Femmes, “Easy” by Sheryl Crow, “Wish I Knew You” by the Revivalists, “Wagon Wheel” by Old Crow Medicine Show, or Philip Phillips, classic country will be a great fit. If watching the movie Walk the Line turned you into a Johnny Cash fan, rest assured there is plenty more music like that out there. If you resonate as a defiant outsider or a feminist or a government-hating pothead, classic country music welcomes you with open arms! Classic country is outlaw music–pure and simple. It was created by people who knew they were on the outskirts of mainstream society and unshakingly flipped it the bird à la Johnny Cash at San Quentin (below).

  Johnny Cash after photographer Jim Marshall asked him to do a shot for the warden (San Quentin Prison – 1969)

  Did you know Loretta Lynn, who sang the feminist anthem “The Pill,” & Jack White from the White Stripes, who also has some killer bluegrass tunes, created an album together? Did you know Johnny Cash has covered songs by Nine Inch Nails and Depeche Mode? Have you heard Lady Gaga’s country roads version of “Born This Way?” Did you know Beyonce has a kick ass collab with the Dixie Chicks (the girl-power Texas band who was banned from country radio for saying they were ashamed that George Bush is from their home state) called “Daddy Lessons”? Did you know the black lead singer of Hootie & the Blowfish bailed on the band so he could start a solo country music career (country fans know him as Darius Rucker)? Did you know when I DJ classic country parties, I have to ask the client if swear words are OK?

Do I have your attention now? I thought so. Let’s continue 🙂 You’ll love the country artists as much as you love their music–I promise.

  Justin Timberlake & Chris Stapleton performing together at the 49th Country Music Association Awards

  THE KING OF COUNTRY MUSIC

First, let’s start with the forefather of all country music kick-assery: Hank Williams. Hank signed to MGM Records in 1947 and his twangy anthems changed country music forever. He was famously fired by the Grand Ole Opry in 1952 after one of many no-shows. He lived a turbulent life that his son Hank Jr sings about in his cornerstone song “Family Tradition.” In true rock star style, Hank Sr. died of heart failure brought on by prescription drug abuse and alcoholism in 1953. Hipster-friendly Hank Williams songs include:

I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry

Hey Good Lookin’

Jambalaya (on the Bayou)

Tear in my Beer

Your Cheating Heart

  TOP 125 CLASSIC COUNTRY SONGS FOR HIPSTERS

Pour yourself some Popcorn Sutton’s Tennessee White Whiskey (that’s legal moonshine for you city slickers) & get ready for some serious drinkin’ music free of “Friends in Low Places,” “Achy Breaky Heart,” “Boot Scootin’ Boogie,” “Old Town Road,” and “The Git Up.” I’ve includes lots of notes & trivia about the playlist songs because we hipsters can’t just enjoy music in a vacuum…we like to sound like a seasoned expert when putting on a playlist for friends, yes? I’ve included standards as well as a number of “B sides” that will even impress country music enthusiasts…you know the kind of people who still say “Country Western.”

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18 Wheels & a Dozen Roses, Kathy Mattea

9 to 5, Dolly Parton

A Boy Named Sue, Johnny Cash

All My Exes Live in Texas, George Strait

Amarillo by Morning, George Strait

Are You Ready for the Country, Waylon Jennings

Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way?, Waylon Jennings (Referring to Hank Williams Sr.)

Back Where I Come From, Kenny Chesney

Bed You Made for Me, Highway 101

Before Country Was Cool, Barbara Mandrell

Born to Boogie, Hank Williams Jr. (Hank Sr’s son)

Chattahoochee, Alan Jackson

Church on Cumberland Road, Shenandoah

Coal Miner’s Daughter, Loretta Lynn (Watch her biographical movie “Coal Miner’s Daughter” staring Sissy Spacek!)

Coat of Many Colors, Dolly Parton

Copenhagen, Chris Le Deux (Yep, chew killed this underground country singer with a cult following. His catchy, hilarious love song to Copenhagen chewing tobacco is like a country version of “Can’t Feel My Face” or “Mary Jane.”)

Copperhead Road, Steve Earle (Listen carefully…After coming home from war, this soldier gives up on the family tradition of making moonshine because he realized when he was in Viet Nam that he could just grow weed instead.)

Country Boy Can Survive, Hank Williams Jr.

Country Club, Travis Tritt

Country Roads, Take Me Home, John Denver (Lucky if I get through this one without tearing up…)

Cowboy Take Me Away, Dixie Chicks

Crazy, Patsy Cline (Sadly, the anthem of Battered Woman’s Syndrome…Patsy was in a violent marriage at the height of her fame. Written by Willie Nelson.)

Cripple Creek, Earl Scruggs & Lester Flatt

Devil Went Down to Georgia, Charlie Daniels Band

Digging Up Bones, Randy Travis

Dixieland Delight, Alabama

Down at the Twist & Shout, Mary-Chapin Carpenter

Dueling Banjos, Roy Clark & Buck Owens

El Paso, Marty Robbins (After writing this song, Marty Robbins was flying over El Paso & had a revelation that he was the cowboy in the song in a past life…so he wrote “El Paso City” about that experience.)

Elvira, Oak Ridge Boys

Elvira, Oak Ridge Boys

Every Little Thing, Carlene Carter (Yep, June Carter’s daughter…she called Johnny Cash “Stepdad.” Roseanne Cash’s “Tennessee Flat Top Box” is also a good one.)

Family Tradition, Hank Williams Jr (A proud nod to his famous father…”Put yourself in my position–if I get stoned and sing all night long, it’s a family tradition.” When you hear this song at a honky tonk, know the customs! When Jr sings, “Why do you drink?” The crowd shouts back “To get drunk!” When Jr sings, “Why do you roll smoke?” The crowd shouts, “To get high!” When he sings, “Why must you act out the songs that you wrote?” The crowd shouts, “To get laid!”)

Fancy, Reba McEntire

Fishin’ in the Dark, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band

Flowers on the Wall, Statler Brothers

Folsom Prison Blues, Johnny Cash

Fool-Hearted Memory, George Strait (His first of SIXTY #1 hits–the most in country music history! Too many for this list but do check them out.)

Get a Rhythm, Johnny Cash

Guitars & Cadillacs, Dwight Yoakum (One of the few west coasters on the list…from Bakersfield, California — also a vegetarian!)

Have Mercy, Judds (A female country duo–mother & sister to famous actress Ashley Judd!)

Highway Man, The Highwaymen (The Highwaymen are Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, & Kris Kristofferson.)

Hillbilly Rock, Marty Stewart

Honky Tonk Man, Dwight Yoakum

Hooked on an 8-Second Ride, Chris Le Deux (Pronounced “Le Doo”)

Hot Rod Lincoln, Commander Cody

I Ain’t Livin’ Long Like This, Waylon Jennings

I Love a Rainy Night, Eddie Rabbitt

I Think I’ll Just Sit Here & Drink, Merle Haggard

I Walk the Line, Johnny Cash

I’m No Stranger to the Rain, Keith Whitley

If You’re Gonna Play in Texas, Alabama

If You’ve Got the Money, Willie Nelson

If Your Heart Ain’t Busy, Tanya Tucker

It Only Hurts When I Cry, Dwight Yoakum

Jackson, Johnny Cash & June Carter

Jolene, Dolly Parton

Jose Cuervo, Shelly West

Kaw-Liga, Hank Williams Jr. (Hank Sr also does this one.)

Lay You Down, Conway Twitty

Long Time Gone, Dixie Chicks

Louisiana Saturday Night, Mel McDaniel

Luckenbach Texas, Waylon Jennings & Willie Nelson

Mama Tried, Merle Haggard

Maybe It Was Memphis, Pam Tillis

Meet Me in Montana, Dan Seals

Midnight Girl in a Sunset Town, Sweethearts of the Rodeo

Mountain Music, Alabama

Mud on the Tires, Brad Paisley

Mule Skinner Blues, Dolly Parton

My Kind of Girl, Colin Raye

Next to You, Shenandoah

No Time to Kill, Clint Black

Nobody Wins, Radney Foster

Norma Jean Riley, Diamond Rio

One Piece at a Time, Johnny Cash

Only Daddy That’ll Walk the Line, Waylon Jennings

Orange Blossom Special, Johnny Cash

Pancho & Lefty, Willie Nelson & Merle Haggard

Papa Loved Mama, Garth Brooks

Past the Point of Rescue, Hal Ketchum

Pick-Up Man, Joe Diffie

Play Something Country, Brooks & Dunn

Redneck Girl, Bellamy Brothers (During the corresponding Redneck Girl line dance, when the song says, “A redneck girl got her name on the back of her belt,” dancers shout, “Bullshit! Bullshit! F— you!” When the song says, “She’s got a kiss on her lips for her man and no one else,” dancers repeat, “Bullshit! Bullshit! F— you!” When the song says, “A coyote’s howling out on the prairie,” dancers howl. Finally, the song says, “First comes love, then comes marriage.” After “love,” dancers interject, “Then sex!!!”)

Ring of Fire, Johnny Cash

Rockin’ With the Rhythm, Judds

Rodeo, Garth Brooks

Rough & Ready, Trace Adkins

Saturday Night Special, Conway Twitty (Yes, the same guy they famously poke fun at on “Family Guy”–see below)

Sin Wagon, Dixie Chicks

Smoky Mountain Rain, Ronnie Milsap

Sold, John Michael Montgomery

Some Girls Do, Sawyer Brown

Song of the South, Alabama

Stampede, Chris Le Deux

Stand by Your Man, Tammy Wynette

Straight Tequila Night, John Anderson

Streets of Bakersfield, Dwight Yoakum

Sweet Dreams of You, Patsy Cline

Tempted, Marty Stuart

Tennessee River & a Mountain Man, Alabama

Thank God I’m a Country Boy, John Denver (He’s an outspoken vegan and & rep for P.E.T.A #MeatlessMondays)

That Kind of Girl, Patty Loveless

That’s My Story, Collin Raye

That’s What I Like About You, Trisha Yearwood (She’s married to Garth Brooks & is a celebrity chef with a reality cooking show.)

The Gambler, Kenny Rogers

The Pill, Lorettta Lynn (Also check out her cover of Nancy Sinatra’s “These Boots Were Made for Walking.”)

The Race Is On, Sawyer Brown (or any of the older versions)

The Thunder Rolls, Garth Brooks

Ticks, Brad Paisley

Tight-Fittin’ Jeans, Conway Twitty

Tonight We Ride, Tom Russell (We played this at my dad’s funeral…definitely a “b side.”)

Tougher Than the Rest, Chris Le Deux

Tulsa Time, Don Williams

Two Feet of Topsoil, Brad Paisley

Walkin’ After Midnight, Patsy Cline (Check out the Cyndi Lauper cover!)

What Was I Thinkin,’ Dierks Bentley

When You Say Nothing At All, Keith Whitley (Alison Krauss’ version might be more popular though…)

Whiskey, If You Were a Woman, Highway 101

Why Not Me, Judds

Wide Open Spaces, Dixie Chicks

Will the Circle Be Unbroken, dozens of versions

Wrong Side of Memphis, Trisha Yearwood

You Ain’t Woman Enough, Loretta Lynn

You Really Had Me Going, Holly Dunn

You’ve Never Been This Far Before, Conway Twitty

    There are a few current country artists with that classic country sound: Chris Stapleton, Brothers Osborn, some Miranda Lambert (try “Gunpowder & Lead” or “Little Red Wagon”), or Cody Jinks.

If you’re afraid country music is too white, straight, or conservative for you, check out Little Big Town’s “Girl Crush,” Maddie & Tae’s “Girl in a Country Song,” the Dixie Chicks’ “Goodbye Earl,” Los Lonely Boys’ “Heaven,” Kacey Musgraves’ “Follow Your Arrow,” Big & Rich’s “Love Train,” Garth Brooks’ “We Shall Be Free,” John Anderson’s “Seminole Wind,” or anything by Charlie Pride, Cowboy Troy, k.d. lang, or Freddie Fender.

If you enjoy a good DJ mix, I’m not the only one doing creative things with country music–check out DeeJay Silver, DJ Sinister’s Country Fried Mix, VDJ JD, DJ Bad Ash, or DJ Hish (who I was on the roster with at the Stagecoach Festival and the Moonshine Miles Festival).

Film enthusiast? In addition to watching Johnny Cash’s biographical Walk the Line, you can also try some of these country cult classics: Coal Miner’s Daughter (about Loretta Lynn), Urban Cowboy (with John Travolta & Debra Winger), Pure Country (starring George Strait), Sweet Dreams (about Patsy Cline), Eight Seconds (with Luke Perry)…as well as anything starring Dolly Parton (like 9 to 5 or Steel Magnolias) or Kris Kristofferson (like A Star Is Born or Blade). Dwight Yoakum has a few famous cameos as well (like Sling Blade or Crank). But the real question is: are they “acting” or just “acting natural”? Once you understand that reference, you officially get a gold star in the hipster country music Olympics!!! (Leave me your thoughts in the comments below.)

If you enjoyed the Hipster’s Guide to Classic Country Music, I urge you to explore bluegrass and folk music. And, yes, I know not every “staple” classic country jam is on the list (again, comment below). I also have my Guitar-Infused Country & Classic Rock Wedding Cocktail Hour Playlist and Ultimate Bluegrass Wedding Cocktail Hour & Dinner Music Playlist you can scope out. Some say “crank it up,” but, around here, we say “Hank it up!” Enjoy your hip classic country tunes! 

  LISTEN TO THE HIPSTER’S CLASSIC COUNTRY PLAYLIST

Check it out on YouTube or Spotify.

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  GIVE IT TO ME BABY

[marcjampole]

Trump making racist statements about the Squad is not a reelection strategy, but a temporary tactic in the southern strategy the GOP has employed since the 1950’s

Now that the initial stench of Donald Trump’s racist comments about four freshman Democratic female Congressional representatives has lifted, most analysts are discussing this series of racist tweets as if they represented an overall election strategy: make these four progressives candidates the “face” of the Democratic Party. This gambit—if it is one—attempts to take the focus away from the inherent and obvious racism of the comments and place it on presenting the Congresswomen’s views as radical and un-American—“socialism” and “communism” are the words being bandied about by Trump, Mark Meadows, Lindsay Graham and the usual gang of idiots (apologies to the soon-to-be-defunct Mad Magazine). 

In my view, calling a series of disgusting tweets the beginning of a strategy of identification is just typical Republican backfill of their leader’s stupidity and virulent racism. It’s a silly idea to base the election strategy on making Representatives Ocasio-Cortez, Pressley, Omar and Tlaib—known as the Squad—the face of the Democratic Party for two big reasons: 1) As soon as the Democrats have a nominee or an unbeatable frontrunner, she or he will be the face of the Democrats, no matter what the GOP wants.  2) The more times that Republicans label as “socialist” positions that most people agree with such as universal healthcare insurance, support of government action to address global warming, cheaper college and making the rich pay their fair share of taxes, the less people are going to care about what you call it. Recent surveys show this process kicking in, especially among millennials and Gen-Zers. Many people are happy to call it socialism, as long as they get healthcare.  

The mainstream media has been happy to go along with the idea that making four minority Congressional representatives the face of the Democratic Party constitutes a strategy because it plays into their current obsession with splitting the Democratic Party into two warring factions—the crazy left-wingers and the centrists. On most issues, all that separates these two groups is the speed with which they want to get to the ultimate goals and their willingness to piss off entrenched interests. The real internal problem for the Democrats, of course, is that the large funders of the Party have a slightly different agenda than do Democratic voters and small donors. The Dem fat cats are happy to clean up the environment, provide good healthcare to all and raise wages—as long as they (the big donors) don’t have to pay for it, or can make money from it, as in the case of union-busting charter schools. 

Even those pundits who have kept their aim zeroed tightly on the obvious racism of Trump’s remarks—another in a long line of crude Trump attempts to create an us-versus-them mentality among his core—have missed the target to a certain degree. The real point of the Trump anti-Squad remarks involves not just racism and economic issues, but misogyny and fundamentalist Christian values as well. As University of Arkansas professors Angie Maxwell and Todd Shields point out in their recent The Long Southern Strategy, from its inception after the Supreme Court declared segregation illegal in the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision, the Republican “Southern Strategy” has combined racism, sexism, revivalist-tent religion and right-wing economics in almost equal measures. 

The goal of the Southern Strategy has always been to change voting patterns in the south from straight Democratic to straight Republican. This multi-decade strategy has involved pandering not only to racist views, but also to old-fashioned ideas that women should stay at home cooking and raising children and to an extreme religiosity based on accepting the words of the Bible without interpretation. The GOP infused these long-time core “southern” values with its brand of small-government capitalism by attaching racial code words to discussions of government efforts to help the poor, aged and down-trodden, to make racist voters believe that social welfare programs primarily benefited minorities. As Maxwell and Shields write, ��Poor southern whites have long been conditioned to forfeit a personal battle in the service of winning an imagined war from which they do not benefit.” In this historical context, Trump’s anti-Squad tweets, full of venomous lies, e.g., that these women said they hate Jews, is not the beginning of a strategy, but another tactic in the GOP’s long southern strategy.

Maxwell and Shields take a complicated approach to their telling of history. Instead of a straight chronology, each chapter follows a single theme from the 1950’s until today and then presents a series of recent studies that show how different the south is from the rest of the country and how open the south was to receiving the racist, sexist fundamentalist message spouted to a larger or smaller extent by Goldwater, Nixon, Ford, Reagan, both Bushes, McCain, Dole, Romney and Trump. The themes include southern racism, southern white privilege, the myth of a post-racial country, traditional southern sexism, the southern white patriarchy, the gender gap in voting, the revival-tent roots of contemporary southern religion, southern white fundamentalism and the myth of the social conservative.

The professors analyze literally hundreds of surveys and studies on attitudes and beliefs. The surveys show what we always knew: There are racists, misogynists, Christian fundamentalists and economic right-wingers everywhere, but in all cases, there are more in the south. What is eye-opening, however, is the degree to which these four social characteristics are correlated, among both southerners and northerners. Some examples: The more likely people are to believe that blacks are inferior, the more likely they are to think that women should not hold elective office. The more likely they are to be against the Equal Rights Amendment, the more likely they are to think that whites are currently discriminated against because of affirmative action. Those who believe in fundamentalist religion tend to express greater racial resentment and sexism. These many connections between strands of belief create a tightly woven culture, resistant to change.

The economic aspect of this nexus of beliefs is particularly weird, as it has become a mask for racism even as GOP economic policies have hurt virtually all Americans, especially its large army of southern white voters. As it turns out, the 2016 decision of a majority of Electoral College voters to cast their ballots for Trump in and of itself immediately assuaged the feelings of economic insecurity among Trump voters. Several surveys show white perceptions of competition from minorities and general economic anxiety among whites decreased dramatically just by virtue of Trump assuming office. It’s the perverse mirror image of the emergence of the Tea Party movement almost within days of Obama’s inauguration. As Maxwell and Shields write, “The economic masks the racial so much so that many do not even see it.” The economic positions become a coded substitute for racial ones, which explains why those who manifest racist attitudes so often vote against their own economic best interest.

Trump’s strategy for reelection in 2020 is the same as his strategy was in 2016 and the same as the strategies of every other Republican candidate for president since Goldwater in 1964—summon a large turnout by a core of supporters throughout the country defined by the traditional values of southern society: the inferiority of non-whites, the subservience of women to men throughout society and a fundamentalist religion that enforced both misogyny and racism.  It’s the long southern strategy that has seen the south flip from solidly Democratic to solidly Republican in the course of a lifetime.  

The one thing that Trump has added to the mix is his virulent anti-immigration stand that he has racialized by only going after immigrants and refugees from non-European countries.  Reagan and Bush II in particular had much more humanistic approaches to legal and illegal immigration, and all the former Republican presidents and presidential candidates steered clear of racializing Muslims, although many other Republican office holders and candidates have not refrained from virulent anti-Islamic rhetoric. The anti-Squad tweets and follow-up thus make for a great reinforcement of the long southern strategy. 

The flaw in Trump’s campaign to add people from the Middle East and Central and South American countries to the legion of the despised, inferior, un-American “other” is that it has more than doubled the size of “America’s internal enemies.” That also means more voters in opposition to the Republican program, including not only the Latino and Muslim minorities, but the many industries that depend on immigrant employees with a variety of educational backgrounds, the families into which these minorities marry and the communities where they have established deep roots. It might even convince a number of upper middle class and wealthy voters who supported Trump solely to get tax breaks and regulatory relief to now vote against what has been for them a useful rouge. 

That doesn’t meant that Trump is destined to lose the 2020 election. Voter suppression laws will still keep many Democrats home. Russian interference may include fixing the ballot box, as some believe happened in Michigan, Florida and Pennsylvania in 2016.

But by including immigrants in the southern strategy, Trump has hastened the process by which the majority of Americans embrace both diversity and western European social democracy. As immigrants from everywhere and educated young people fill thriving cities and high tech capitals throughout the country, Virginia has already turned from red to blue, while Georgia, North Carolina and Florida are purple with Texas headed in the same direction. The future of an American democracy lies only in a diverse mixed economy with lots of government regulation and programs and a highly progressive tax system. Note that I wrote “the future of an American democracy,” and not “the future of America.” Those who support an economy tilted towards those already wealthy and the 21st century version of the nexus of southern values—AKA Republicans—have shown time and again that they care less about having a democracy than they do about imposing their will on American society.

[sonnefur]

I am going to cry

I’ve found the first hard evidence that my religion has been coopted by... troubling people. They’re bigoted, sexist, misogynistic, homophobic, anti-semitic hateful people. Nationalists. Presumably white. 

I feel... sick to my stomach. My heart hurts. I’m afraid. I’m so afraid. 

Content warnings for homophobia, misogyny, xenophobia, so much hate.

I’ll admit I started off kind of snippy, but then horror. I didn’t have the will to be snippy any more.

You both like paganism, and pagan.

Stranger: hey you

Stranger: you need to come to terms with reality

You: huh?

Stranger: there is nothing wrong with traditional patriarchal norms

Stranger: nor is there anything wrong with a masculine dominated polytheistic ethos

You: ill disagree with you there

You: probably because youve never been hurt by the patriarchy

You: but these things happen

Stranger: patriarchy will return

Stranger: no but it's okay to hurt people who aren't hetero males

You: unfortunately its never really left

Stranger: they are actually problematic

Stranger: it isn't strong enough

Stranger: we need full patriarchy

Stranger: not just implicit

You: im sorry you feel that way

Stranger: i am sorry but you have no right to tell me what to do

Stranger: I am born superior to you

Stranger: We need to bring back those values

You: thats cute but no

Stranger: you only exist like this because of the law

You: i exist as i choose to exist

Stranger: what if the law made you legally effectively a 3rd class slave?

You: thats all

Stranger: no you don't

Stranger: you have no rights

Stranger: you fucking faggot

Stranger: you owe me respect

Stranger: I am sick of having to live in this stupid monotheist nation

You: respect is earned not owed

Stranger: it is earned only by men

Stranger: never by faggots

You: cute but youre wrong again

Stranger: you're brainwashed by egalitarianism

Stranger: why does equality make sense at all?

Stranger: equality is a bad thing

You: and youre obsessed with your dick

Stranger: no

You: yeah

Stranger: masculinity is about chromosomes and testosterone

You: and your rage boner because you think your rights are being impinged upon

You: women have testosterone

Stranger: not as much

You: everyone has testosterone

Stranger: not even close to as much

Stranger: women are stupid trash

You: tell that to women with pcos

Stranger: look, the idea of love is another stupid idea

Stranger: any man who loves a woman or another man, romantically, is just a tool

Stranger: that shit is shameful garbage

Stranger: we need to bring back the roman value of gravitas

You: sounds like someone is bitter

You: hm

Stranger: i simply want to rule

You: solemnity?

Stranger: i want a new roman empire

You: you dont seem particularly solemn

You: i stand by my observation of the rageboner

Stranger: we need a class of highly selected highly intelligent males who can wield power

Stranger: no sissy talk

Stranger: you're just a fucking faggot who thinks he has any say in the world

You: wrong on two counts

Stranger: protip faggot: you shouldn't

You: You know who liked men?

Stranger: pure patriarchal power will return with brutality

You: Roman men

You: And Hellenic men

Stranger: actually romans considered the men who were penetrated low status

Stranger: and guess what freak

You: More rageboners?

Stranger: by the 3rd century roman culture had come to consider homosexuality a bad thing

You: Sources?

Stranger: the medieval world was roman-esque in culture, largely, and was homophobic

Stranger: homophobia was a step forward in civilization

You: Sources?

Stranger: we must revive romanitas

Stranger: oh my god faggot

Stranger: this shit is basic

Stranger: KNOWLEDGE

Stranger: you fucking FREAK

You: I'm quite familiar with Roman and medieval history

You: I'd like your sources

Stranger: this is incredibly basic, what am I wrong about?

Stranger: please, tell me anything I'm not accurate about

You: So you're saying you have none

Stranger: you're insane

You: No sources?

You: That's unfortunate

Stranger: you don't have sources for telling me caesar got assasinated either

Stranger: you dumb fag

Stranger: it's called common knowledge

Stranger: you're feigning ignorance to spread your aids

You: Not necessarily

Stranger: you filthy faggot freak

You: Maybe you should get the rageboner looked at

You: An erection lasting so long can't be good for you

Stranger: maybe you can go google if it's livy, or suetonius

Stranger: or someone else

You: Priapism is not healthy

You: Maybe it's Livy or Suetonius?

You: That's not a source

Stranger: you're very focused on erections, faggot

Stranger: maybe is maybe

Stranger: you don't fucking know either

You: And you're very focused on men who love men

Stranger: god you fucking pathetic sicko

You: How does it harm you, when a man loves another man?

Stranger: look, homosexuals are fine as long as they do their shit in private and hide it out of shame

Stranger: stay the fuck away from normal society and children

Stranger: and maybe your extra nice relatives won't throw you to the dogs

Stranger: maybe

Stranger: that's returning

Stranger: you'll see

Stranger: you think it's not? you're nuts

You: I'm curious

You: If homosexuality is fine, why bring up 'faggot' as a constant pejorative?

Stranger: I've been part of a nationalist pagan revivalist group since 2015

Stranger: we revive graeco-roman mores and religion

You: Oh?

Stranger: and by the way a more highly romanized form of christianity is acceptable

You: What's it called?

Stranger: but we must actually revive the empire itself

Stranger: i'd rather not tell you, you could easily use that info to find my real name and location

Stranger: it's all very public

Stranger: so no, I can't reveal that

Stranger: just know that the roman revival is coming

You: I have better things to do than try and look up some random person on the internet

Stranger: people think paganism is all viking fans

Stranger: we're here to bring back the romano-greek pantheon

You: Interesting

Stranger: and by the way the men of the iliad would strike you down just for being the sissy that you are

Stranger: sure the archaic classical world accepted homosexuality

You: Unlikely

Stranger: but they later came to revile it

Stranger: by the time of neoplatonism, homosexuality was reviled

You: Proper guest-host relations were very important to the Hellenes

Stranger: yes, as to the Germans

Stranger: common cultural traits

You: It would be a violation of xenia for me to be stricken down for simply existing and asking for hospitality

Stranger: Greeks were still barbaric until the 3rd/4th century

Stranger: Romans held onto some barbaric views allowing pederasty too

You: Incidentally, a massive violation of xenia was the cause of the Trojan war

Stranger: anything but normal male/female relations that can potentially produce offspring

Stranger: is evil

Stranger: and by the way there is no such thing as rape in marriage

Stranger: the woman belongs to the an in a state of marriage, sans abuse or beating

Stranger: my tribe believes strongly in this principle

Stranger: we raise our girls and our members to reject these post-christian ideas

Stranger: post-christian ideas like the individual who wants to divorce is more important than the collective of the married couple

You: Despite the fact that the Romans permitted divorce?

Stranger: but it was greatly limited

Stranger: also the early julian emperors heavily encouraged popular fertility

Stranger: high fecundity is a primary value of my group

Stranger: we see that christianity largely took over due to high fecundity

Stranger: it's up to us to trust in the Dei (Gods)

Stranger: and produce many, many offspring

Stranger: we need to carry forward the classical spirit

Stranger: and none of that included equality for women, foreign scum or perverts

Stranger: sorry but you are just tolerated as long as you lay down and shut up

Stranger: people like you make me deeply sick

Stranger: if your values are post 1800 then you really deserve to be flogged

Stranger: we need strong, primary, ancient values

You: Interesting idea of 'foreign'

Stranger: yes

Stranger: foreigners are 2nd class in any society

Stranger: that's only right

You: Who is a foreigner?

Stranger: non-Americans

Stranger: those who speak no English

You: Anyone can learn English

Stranger: yes

Stranger: they can assimilate

Stranger: but too any foreigners coming in too quickly can dilute a culture

Stranger: look at what happened to Dacia, you ignorant cumbucket

Stranger: educate yourself!

You: What are you afraid of losing?

Stranger: I'm not going down your rabbit hole, cocksucker

Stranger: you know very well why people naturally oppose foreign incursion

Stranger: the same reason the Gauls resisted Rome

You: I'm afraid I can't really agree.

Stranger: these basic universally applicable concepts are easily understood

Stranger: sorry, but you are just stupid or dishonest

Stranger: more likely the latter

You: Ah, not everyone who shares your opinions is stupid and uneducated, I see.

Stranger: they are though

Stranger: everyone outside my faith is stupid or uneducated

Stranger: if a smart person is educated properly, they will see it

Stranger: we have the supreme culture

Stranger: the knowledge

Stranger: the whole legacy of greece, rome and the west is ours

You: Is my father a foreigner?

Stranger: the gods chose us to bring back their holy epire

Stranger: he might be

Stranger: empire*

You: He's an immigrant. He's lived here for over fifty years

You: Speaks English, barely remembers his mother tongue

Stranger: where did he come from?

You: He shed blood for this country

You: Italy

You: He also isn't a US citizen

Stranger: well he is welcoe here especially as a son of the Romans

You: Is he a foreigner?

Stranger: not anymore

Stranger: but he should really study platonism, the pantheon, the classics, etc

Stranger: we need to bring the world kicking and screaming into a neopagan future

Stranger: monotheism out

Stranger: but a fresh off the boat disrespectful entitled foreigner needs to be slaughtered or beaten

Stranger: like the Romans slaughtered Celts

Stranger: we honor that

Stranger: the celts who sacked Rome are fine to kill

Stranger: they have no right to live as foreign invader scu

Stranger: m

You: And the people who come here seeking asylum?

Stranger: fuck that

You: Like my maternal family?

Stranger: if you don't benefit us economically, fuck off

Stranger: oh is your mother jewish?

You: Yes

Stranger: so surprised!

Stranger: not

Stranger: jews are a filthy people who brought the world monotheism

Stranger: that was the original evil action that made them cursed

You: I hope you rot for the rest of eternity in Tartarus. Shame on you for twisting the mos, and for twisting history to suit your hateful wishes. May the gods of the infernal realm make it so.