White Clay, Oglala Sioux Tribe, and My Synopsis

picture credited to Native News Networks

Late last night, a friend posted this video on her Facebook wall accompanied only with, "I am appalled." With that in mind I braced myself, but after watching I was more curious than appalled. The video is not high quality (which is understandable given the circumstance it was filmed.) I couldn't make out most of the words, or what was even going on, other than a confrontation between two men. I had no sense of the context for the footage beyond the title.

So I did some research into articles and learned about the incident...

Occult Store Scoring Guide

In response to my own posts about a local occult store, I am keep an on-going list of occult stores online and local. Similar to how the Human Rights Campaign has a buyer's guide with LGBTQ+ issues, I will keep an ongoing list of scores for occult stores (online, local, or both) based on criteria people look for when shopping.

The stores will be given a percent rating by taking the points earned and dividing that number by the points available. This is because certain occult stores will not be able to be evaluated on all the criteria given and should not be penalized for that (eg: an online store that is strictly items and not services.)

Example: If a store has all possibilities to earn points, the total will be: #/13. If they don't offer any services, then the total would be: #/10.

Here is the form for each store. I will post completed forms on a master lister on a separate page.

Store's Name:
URL: (if available)
Location: (if available)
Evaluated by: (name or online alias)
___ Staff:
     (+1) Friendly
     (+1) Knowledgeable
     (+1) Professional
___ Items:
     (+1) Religious variety
     (+1) Authenticity (eg: no cultural appropriative items.)
     (+1) Supports individual artisans and/or witches (eg: items are handmade opposed to factory made)
     (+1) Includes health warnings for herbs, spices, oils.
___ Services:
     (+1) Variety (eg: not just Wiccan.)
     (+1) Has community outreach and/or classes
     (+1) Promotes an educational atmosphere
___ General:
     (+1) Overall appealing atmosphere (or online readability)
     (+1) LGBTQ and gender identity positive
     (+1) Anti-racism
___% = Score (Points Accumulated/Total Possible Score)

Additional Comments:

If you want to evaluate an occult store you have shopped at, please either comment with this forum completed or email me at omahapaganphilosophy (at) gmail (dot) com. My only requirements to filling out this form is that you are not an employee or owner of the store (ie: if you own your own occult store, do not submit your own evaluation.)

If I missed anything in this evaluation form, let me know ASAP and I will amend it. If there are already forms submitted, they will also be edited to reflect changes in the form.

So, reader, do you have a store you wish to evaluate?

Critique: Next Millennium's Newsletter

taken from the newsletter email

I forgot to unsubscribe from the Next Millennium newsletter that is sent out via email once a month. On June 2nd I saw it in my email inbox and out of curiosity decided to peruse it. Who knows? Maybe they made a mention of my petition and/or boycott.

While they didn't, I found more troubling misinformation being spread. I am spending this email, as well as emailing the store back, with why certain parts of the email are very, very concerning. Even if you are not a customer at Next Millennium, these are still problems to look out for at any other occult store you may shop at.

Review of "An Abundance of Blessings" (and, to a lesser extent, "A Pagan Ritual Prayer Book")

An Abundance of Blessings by John O'Donohue

A fair amount of stress has entered my life within the past few weeks. Among the problems with my immediate local pagan community, there have been very upsetting posts on the Tumblr blogosphere, and as well as my own mental health management. While Next Millennium just provided two more examples as why I should continue to boycott them, I am going to step back from addressing the community and community circles (online or otherwise) to address a collection of blessings I picked up while shopping yesterday.