Influencing the Dominant Paradigm

Posted on December 30, 2007 by Isaac Bonewits

This morning on the CBS Sunday Morning show, they ended with a retrospective of all the famous people who died in 2007. They ended with Robert Goulet singing “Never would I leave you” (from Camelot) while saying things implying that the Mighty Dead would still be with us in the future. Then they ended the sequence, the show, and their broadcast year with these words on the screen: “Hail and Farewell”.

For non-Wiccan readers, “Hail and farewell” are the words with which Orthodox Wiccans (and others) end their rituals. Yes, the phrase is old (going back to Latin) but it is almost never heard except in Wiccan (and possibly Masonic) rituals today.

We’re not having any effect on the dominant paradigm at all, oh no…

Posted in Current Events, Political/Cultural | Comments Off on Influencing the Dominant Paradigm

The evolution of Neopagan.net

Posted on December 30, 2007 by Isaac Bonewits

(Moved from comments) It looks like Noira has made a good start on the revamp of our website! What do our other readers think?

I’ll check with our service provider (Pagan owned and Pagan run Drak.net), but we use only a fraction of the stream capacity we could. I like the idea of incorporating a YouTube channel. Perhaps we could combine this with a one-to-one chat program we can use for lectures and readings?

We’re thinking of changing the title of the site to “Isaac and Phaedra Bonewits’s Cyberhenge” or maybe just “The Cyberhenge.”

Thanks so much for starting this project, Noira!

Other folks, what would you like to see at Neopagan.net?

Posted in Feedback Loop, Neopagan.Net changes, Tech/Geek | Comments Off on The evolution of Neopagan.net

We’re #1!!!

Posted on December 29, 2007 by Isaac Bonewits

At 2:00 pm EST on Saturday December 29th, 2007 Bonewits’s Essential Guide to Druidism was the number one book in sales at Amazon.com for the category of Druidism! Meanwhile, Neopagan Rites: A Guide to Creating Public Rituals that Work was at #10 in the Paganism list (#43 in books on magic), The Pagan Man was at #13 in Paganism, and Real Energy was at #99 in energy-healing books.

Yes, we know that the numbers change hourly, but we’re still thrilled to have a #1 bestseller at Amazon, even if it is in an obscure category. Oddly enough, Real Magic is sometimes listed as one of the top 100 books in alchemy! Perhaps if more people suggested “magic” as a tag, RM would be listed in that category.

Alas, these book sales numbers won’t improve our current wretched financial situation for a couple of years, as it takes time for royalties to accumulate. However, good sales of these titles will make it easier for us to publish new ones in the future, and will encourage our current publishers to keep titles like Bonewits’s Essential Guide to Witchcraft and Wicca in print (there’s some danger of it going OOP unless people snap up the used ones for sale at Amazon and the new ones in stores).

[Update: 24 hours later, BEGD was still on top as #1 in Druidism, #2 in Tribal and Ethnic, and #3 in Celtic books—whoo hoo!]

So our thanks to everyone whose been buying our books! And now, a Stephen Colbert moment:

We’re #1!!!

Posted in Druidic/Celtic, Pagan Stuff, Products | 2 Comments

Happy Hannakwayulmas!

Posted on December 24, 2007 by Isaac Bonewits

We’re back online again, thanks to some generous donations from the community and some serious budget-chopping. I’ve done some minor edits on the website and more will come in the next couple of weeks. I’ll be making a section of the website to promote my services as a unique wedding officiant and custom rites-of-passage performer, another to incorporate live webcasting of tarot readings and magical seminars and chats (just as soon as I figure out what software to use on my Mac that will work with clients’ PCs), and a complete makeover of Neopagan.net has been offered by Noira, our Czech Druid! Let us know what you need, Noira, and we’ll get it to you.

In the meantime, as I often talk about during the winter months, now is a good time to encourage those around you to donate to the support of Pagan Elders and Seniors. Speaking gigs have been drying up as Pagan festivals cut the number of people they bring in to their events, previously Pagan-friendly publishers are reducing the book contracts they sign (since they think the “Pagan fad” is over for now), and the economy is as bad for Pagan Elders as it is for everyone else, so odds are your favorite writers, speakers, and community organizers are feeling the pinch. Come on! Do you really need that diamond-studded platinum wand or that complete set of 100 goddesses carved in jade?

Posted in Feedback Loop, Neopagan.Net, Personal Happenings | 3 Comments