Without any doubt, what the world needs is another pagan magazine-not only the pagan world, but the world at large. There have been various attempts at such projects, the most notable being the fabled Green Egg, which finally folded for the second and last time as a print magazine due to overwhelming financial difficulties, and which has now been resurrected as an on-line e-zine. Although you have to subscribe to read the entire thing, you can read parts of the new Green Egg
However, this is not so much about what is probably a vain attempt to revive something whose best days are probably long gone, but about a new, fresh attempt at an endeavor that is stunning in the boldness of its sheer audacity-an attempt to go where few would seek to venture, into the seemingly endangered world of print journalism.
Thorn Magazine aspires to be the new Green Egg, and as it now can legitimately be viewed as past the embryonic and birth stages, and well on it's way to growing into a promising young venture, I would be remiss if I did not mention it in the context of this Imbolc Sabbat.
I don't buy for a minute that the print media is in danger of vanishing completely. There is something about the look feel of a newspaper or a magazine in your hands-whether it is a treasured collector's item that shows slight signs of again, or whether it has the freshness and scent of newly printed and delivered pages with all the vibracy of the colors that caress the senses-that will never be equalled or even approached by the process of sitting in a hunched position, rigidly bound by the natural boundaries imposed by a computer monitor.
Because of this, Thorn can grow and prosper over time, provided it receives the proper care and guidance. It certainly has great promise and potential. I have read a few sample articles and segments that are offered as samples on the on-line site.
There is a bit of something for everybody, from poetry to scholarly articles, magical theories, biographical sketches, historical ruminations-and as one might expect from a pagan magazine, a smattering of nonsense that I could do without. I have high hopes tht this journal can transcend what seems to be an obvious ploy geared towards the less sophisticated among the growing pagan community, whose numbers are legion.
By this I refer specifically to an article entitled Hanging With Thor. A sample of the article should suffice to make my point-
As I brought the beers out of the back room, I was not surprised to hear a familiar voice in the back of my mind, not unlike a clearing of the throat. I knew that it was Thor, making sure we remembered to fill His cup on the altar when we poured ours. What was surprising to me was our guest, who suddenly looked around and asked, “What was that?” Since our kids have all been brought up to listen for the voices of the gods, the whole family suppressed smiles at our non-pagan friend’s surprise. “That’s just Thor,” we reassured him.
There is more along those lines, including the assertion by one of the children as to having spotted a unicorn, which the author seems to think is not undue cause for concern, but rather is evidently something to be encouraged. I frankly have to wonder if the kid is having her jollies at the author's expense.
ALl that aside, this magazine does have the potential to transcend such obvious drivel, and hopefully as it grows, it will reach a level of maturity that will look at such absurd posturings as not conducive to reaching status as a respected and respectable bastion of journalistic responsibility.
And of course, as this is a pagan magazine, you can expect there to be a preponderance of concern over environmental issues, which might or might not be a good thing, depending on whether or not it is carried to an extreme. I seriously question the need to burden what should be a joyous occasion such as the observance of Yule with a fundamentalist, finger pointing and condescendingly environmentalist approach, as seems to be urged in an article, from the December issue, on Tips For Yule.
Don't get me wrong, encouragement of responsible behavior towards the environment and other matters are to be encouraged, of course, but at the same time, I sincerely hope that this magazine doesn't end up going down the same fundamentalist and dogmatic path that I for one am reasonably certain contributed to the demise of the aforementioned Green Egg. After all, we learn from the mistakes of others or we follow in the footsteps of their failures.
That being said, the seeds are certainly there for this magazine to blossom into something that could indeed be special, if it is given the proper care and guidance. I am encouraged by the focus towards real scholarship, for example, when it comes to such things as supposed matriarchal societies and the dubious as best theory of a Near Eastern Great Goddess who some seem to think answers for all manifestations of goddess worship, no matter how varied and widely spread.
To the great credit of many in the pagan community, including those who comprise the staff of this magazine, they do sincerely want to move us beyond such crap as the Burning Times cult of victimhood. Re-evaluating the Work of Marija Gimbutas
Christine by Hoff Kraemer is an example, and well worth your time for an evaluation of how the work of Miss Gimbutas may have been influenced by the necessity of adherence to Soviet orthodoxy, which interestingly enough seems to have been insistent on the belief in a pre-historical matriarchy.
The Ogham Alphabet: Hyperlinks of the Gods by Edwin Chapman is an interesting article that ponders the meaning behind an ancient Druid alphabet that might have been constructed as much as a code for secret communication as for magical purposes.
Walking the Broken Path by Jimmy Two-Hats is an interesting take on the importance in paganism of the practice of magic, and of doing it correctly-and for the right reasons. It touches on the difference between pagans who mostly view religion as a private matter as opposed to most other faiths who put their faith in the divine as the main if not sole impetus for change.
Kitchen Magic might appeal to those more interested in the specifics of a specialized form of magic.
Cherry Hill is an article about the establishment, in South Carolina of all places, of a theological school that offers degrees for those interested in pursuing a career in the pagan clergy.
I for one prefer coven settings, with all the privacy, mystique, and intimacy that entails, but for those who are interested in pursuing such a path, or merely learning about it, well, there it is.
There is more, but I will end this with the following passage about the life of Wilhelm Reich and his controversial theory of orgonomy-
Reich's credentials are impressive. While he was still a student, he was given membership in the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society, directly under Sigmund Freud. As a veteran, he was allowed to graduate from the University of Vienna's six year course in four years and did so with a degree in medicine and top honors. He did postgraduate work both at University Hospital in Vienna and at the Neurological and Psychiatric University Clinic and started a private practice at the same time. He was Director of the Seminar for Psychoanalytic Therapy at Psychoanalytic Polyclinic in Vienna for six years, publishing a distinguished book of psychology, Der Triobhafte Charakter, before the age of thirty. He became Vice-Director of the Polcyclinic in Vienna, publishing half a dozen more books before fleeing Hitler's takeover of Germany. Possibly, he fled fascism itself; possibly, he fled death threats and book-burning. As is characteristic of Reich's life, accounts vary.
His was clearly a distinguished career from an early age, and he had a very promising career ahead as a psychiatrist and psychotherapist. However, his path would take him elsewhere. During this time, Reich began what he viewed as his greatest success, indeed his life's work— research that would see him hounded from country to country, eventually jailed and, after his death, frequently reviled as a crackpot, madman, or fraud. That was his journey from adept young therapist to researcher in the literal energy of orgasm— as he called it, "orgonomy."
Reich of course may have been ahead of his time, or he might well have been a crackpot, but one thing is for certain-he was interesting, to say the least. Hopefully the publishers of Thorn will take that as a kind of road map to success. It doesn't so much matter whether or not you're or right or wrong, so long as you are willing to learn from your mistakes. In the meantime, if you follow your dreams, that is all that really matters. If the two previous statements sound contradictory, consider this-in almost every case, being right or wrong isn't a matter of the dream, it's a matter of the approach to fulfilling it.
If Thorn evolves into a magazine that is consistently fresh, inspiring, invigorating, and compelling, it will grow and prosper. If it falls into a rigid form of dogmatism and obligatory PC orthodoxy, especially if it offers little to no dialogue in the way of debate on given matters, they will suffer the fate of so many before them, including the legendary Green Egg. Their readership will dwindle until it too folds like all the rest.
For now, though I am sure there are many who will try to push them down that path, I am trying to be hopeful they will not heed such advice.
