10th Annual NYC Pagan Pride Harvest Festival Brings Pagans and Witches Out of the ‘Broom Closet’

Sept. 7, 2010 - PRLog -- Celebrate the Autumn Equinox at the New York City Pagan Pride Day festival on Saturday, September 25th, 2010 from 11am-5pm, next to Castle Clinton in Battery Park. All ages are welcome at the free event, which will include live entertainment, merchants, adult and children workshops, speakers, a harvest ritual and information on Pagan spiritual practices.  

Featured at this 10th anniversary event will be Jason Miller, author of Protection and Reversal Magic, a Witches Defense Manual, and The Sorcerer’s Secrets, Strategies in Practical Magic. Miller has dedicated his life to studying and practicing magic and Witchcraft in its many forms. He has studied Hoodoo in New  Orleans, Witchcraft  in Europe, and tantra in Nepal. Miller is a member of the Chthonic Ouranian Temple, the Ordo Templi Orientis and the Sangreal Sodality, as well as an initiated Tantrika in the Nyingma and Bon lineages of Tibet.  

In his address to NYC Pagan Pride, Jason will speak about: the need for making material prosperity part of the spiritual path; the difference between true Financial Sorcery and simple Money Magic; and concrete examples of how people have used magic and spiritual approaches to make a better world for themselves and for others.  

Miller will join the company of Pagan luminaries who have served as presenters over the past decade such as NPR’s Margot Adler; Huffington Post’s Mamma Donna Henes; nationally-profiled author Phyllis Curott, the President Emerita of the Covenant of the Goddess, the oldest international Wiccan religious organization; and recently deceased author Isaac Bonewits, the founder and Archdruid of Ar nDraiocht Fein –A Druid Fellowship, whose passing was profiled on NPR’s All Things Considered.  

Attendees are asked to share the harvest by bringing a non-perishable food item for humans or pets to benefit City Harvest, the world's first food rescue organization, dedicated to feeding the New York City's hungry men, women, and children, and Eve's Sanctuary, an independent, no-kill, non-profit, all volunteer, animal rescue organization. Eve's Sanctuary volunteers will be on hand hosting a public pet adoption during the festival.  

New York City Pagan Pride is affiliated with the Pagan Pride Project, a global organization whose mission is to eliminate prejudice and discrimination against Pagan religions and to foster pride in Pagan identity through education, activism, charity and community.  

Last year 21,523 attended the 115 Pagan Pride Day events held in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Italy, Portugal, and Brazil. Together, they collected $5,554 and donated 12,993 pounds of food for local food banks, over 200 pounds of animal food for local no-kill shelters as well as uncounted numbers of goods for Pagan Soldiers and Pagans in need. More than 125 events are scheduled for this year.  

The September 25th celebration will center on observing the Autumn Equinox, a time of thanksgiving in many Pagan traditions. The charity drive is a way to give thanks for the abundance of the year, and share it with the community. The ceremony will celebrate the diversity of the Pagan community and its ties to the interfaith community. Participants are encouraged to bring percussion instruments for drumming.  

Modern Paganism, or Neo-Paganism, is a rapidly growing religious movement based on combinations of ancient polytheism, modern eco-spirituality, and reverence for the Divine as both masculine and feminine. Some common traditions found under this umbrella include Wicca, Witchcraft, Asatru, and Druidry. Pagans are found in all walks of life from professionals to homemakers, and hold ethical standards that emphasize respect for nature, humanity, and oneself.  

For more information about the event or about Pagan religions, contact:
New York Pagan Pride Project at nycppp@gmail.com, 212-561-0491,
http://nyc-ppp.org/, NY-PPP, Inc., P O Box 350 068, Brooklyn, NY 11235.

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We are affiliated with the Pagan Pride Project, a global organization whose mission is to eliminate prejudice and discrimination against Pagan religions and to foster pride in Pagan identity through activism, charity and community.