Subject: RE: Folk artists who are pagan
From:
GUEST,Susan Urban
Date: 26 Apr 05 - 04:29 PM
I define myself these days as a Unitarian Universalist Humano-Pagan.
And yes, I believe, from The Charge of the Goddess, that "all acts of love and pleasure are her rituals," although I prefer to think of the divine as masculine, feminine and/or neither as it manifests itself in all of its different aspects. A friend of mine came up with a term for this that I feel comfortable with - "The Great Whatever."
And I also define my activity as a folk artist as "Literary Songwriter," meaning that I write songs in the older folk tradition of looking out at the world, rather than only inside myself, for the stories and situations in my songs (if you don't get it, think of Harry Chapin, Steve Goodman, Malvina Reynolds, Tom Paxton). Many of my songs are what I would consider Pagan, that is, they speak of the oneness of all and the importance of our connection with the natural world and each other.
I often conduct music-based services for Unitarian Univeralist churches that focus on Pagan holidays, such as Winter and Summer Solstice, Spring and Autumnal Equinox, Lammas and Imbolc - although I have many other musical UU services, two of which are on the Beatles and Janis Joplin. And there are a number of wonderful musicians who work with me on these services, such as Sandy Andina, Phil Cooper, Kate Early, Karen Mooney, Kathryn & Caitlin Morski, and Ingrid Frances Stark. Some of these folks would define themselves as Pagan, some as just having Pagan leanings, but they sure wouldn't participate in the services if they didn't have those leanings.
So yes, as a young man I met taking tickets in the Kansas City Airport who happened to be wearing a Pentagram, "we are everywhere."
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sj
