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Donald Hudson Frew III | |
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Personal | |
Born | |
Religion | Wicca |
Spouse | Anna Korn |
Parent(s) | James E. Frew, Rose Marie Frew |
Church | Coven Trismegiston, Berkeley, California |
Senior posting | |
Post | Trustee, Global Council of the United Religions Initiative; Board Member, Interfaith Center at the Presidio; National Interfaith Representative, Covenant of the Goddess |
Donald Hudson 'Don' Frew is a figure in American Wicca, the Covenant of the Goddess, national and global interfaith dialogue, and Pagan studies.
He is a National Interfaith Representative for the Covenant of the Goddess. [1] He has been representing Wicca ("the Craft") in interfaith work since 1985 and has served on the Executive Committee of the Berkeley Area Interfaith Council, on the board of directors of the Interfaith Center at the Presidio, [2] in the Assembly of the World's Religious & Spiritual Leaders at of the Parliament of the World's Religions, [3] and on the Global Council of the United Religions Initiative. [4] He is the founder & Director of the Lost & Endangered Religions Project, [5] focused on preserving and restoring the religious traditions of marginal communities. Frew has broached regular cooperation with law enforcement agencies and skeptics organizations, confronting the "Satanic Panic" of the 1990s.
Frew's interest in Wicca began at age 12 in a group mentored by nearby Witch Lilith St. John. [6] In 1983 Frew was initiated into Coven Firestar, a NROOGD (New Reformed Order of the Golden Dawn) coven and later into a Gardnerian coven (Tobar Bhride) in 1985. He is an Elder in both the NROOGD and Gardnerian Traditions of Neopagan witchcraft or Wicca. He is High Priest of a Gardnerian coven in Berkeley, California – Coven Trismegiston – with his wife Anna Korn.
Frew's covens have been members in the Covenant of the Goddess (or "CoG", the world's largest religious organization for Witches), and in 1985 he was elected CoG's second Public Information Officer. [7] He has, since then, served nine terms on CoG's National Board. [8] Frew's work as Public Information Officer for CoG led him into communication and collaboration with parts of society traditionally in tension with the Craft community: law enforcement, conservative Evangelical Christianity, and the then-nascent interfaith movement.
Frew and his wife wrote a revision of the Gardnerian Book of Shadows, annotating the basic text to multiple books of shadows from different parts of the US and UK to Gardner's and Valiente's book of shadows, and to many other historic documents.
Since 1985 Frew has worked with San Francisco police Inspector Sandi Gallant as a consultant on the occult, [9] growing over the years to collaboration with law enforcement agencies around the country. Frew served as an occult expert / consultant on the McMartin Preschool Trial, the Leonard Lake serial killings, and the Matamoros murders, among others.
In 1986, with his college friend Shawn Carlson, Frew proposed that the Committee for the Scientific Examination of Religion (CSER) investigate the rising and widespread claims of "Satanic Ritual Abuse" or "SRA." A two-year investigation followed, by members of CSER, Robert Hicks of the Justice Department, and Ken Lanning of the FBI, with Frew, Carlson, and others. [10] The results were published in as "Satanism in America: How the Devil Got Much More than his Due". [11] This report, finding no evidence of organized criminal activity by Satanist groups, turned the tide of law enforcement opinion against claims of widespread criminal activity by Satanic cults. [12]
In 1986, Frew approached and began a dialogue with the Spiritual Counterfeits Project, [13] a Berkeley-based Evangelical Christian research organization focused against cults and the occult. [9] Frew and SCP founder Brooks Alexander organized a ground-breaking series of ten four-hour dialogues on topics of interest to both Christians and Witches, between members of the SCP and members of the Covenant of the Goddess. Frew and Alexander have remained friends and advocates for dialogue between Witches and Christians. Frew contributed to Alexander's book Witchcraft Goes Mainstream [14] in 2004.
To pursue the belief that interfaith groups need to communicate even with the most conservative elements of Christianity and Islam, Frew also reached out to and developed a working relationship with Lee Penn, [15] the most vocal detractor of the United Religions Initiative and author of False Dawn: The United Religions Initiative, Globalism, and the Quest for a One-World Religion. [16] Frew is one of the most often cited sources in Penn's book.
Frew has worked to obtain recognition of Pagan and Indigenous peoples as members of interfaith councils. As a Wiccan, Frew joined the Berkeley Area Interfaith Council (BAIC) in 1985, and was elected to its executive committee in 1986. In 1987 he was appointed Executive Secretary, becoming the first Witch to serve as an officer on the board of a local interfaith council in the United States. [9] BAIC was a member of the North American Interfaith Network [17] (NAIN), an association of interfaith councils of Canada and the US, and during Frew's term the Covenant of the Goddess became the first Pagan organization listed in NAIN's Directory.
Through Frew's efforts, in 1992 the Covenant of the Goddess became one of four Neopagan organizations to co-sponsor the 1993 Parliament of the World's Religions, [18] where over 8000 international attendees attended over 900 programs in the course of nine days. Frew was one of four Neopagans selected to give a "Major Presentation" [19] titled "Pagans in Interfaith Dialogue" [20] By the end of the nine days, the academics attending the Parliament were saying "In 1893, America was introduced to the Buddhists and Hindus; in 1993, we met the Neopagans." One media person described the Parliament as "the coming-out party for the Neopagans." [19]
In 1995 both the United Nations and the Berkeley Area Interfaith Council celebrated their 50th anniversaries. Frew and other interfaith organizers in Berkeley created the "Celebrating the Spirit" [21] conference, an official UN50 event that continued discussions concerning the "Global Ethic" document that had been signed at the Assembly at the 1993 Parliament.
Frew has continued to represent CoG at all of the subsequent Parliaments—Cape Town 1999, Barcelona 2004, Melbourne 2009—and be active in key events. In 1997 Frew became one of only three [22] Pagan representatives in the Parliament's "Assembly of the World's Religious and Spiritual Leaders". [23]
At the 1999 Parliament in Cape Town, South Africa: • Frew presented on Wicca. [24]
• He accepted invitation by Dr. Gerald O. Barney, [25] author of the Global 2000 Report, to be part of a panel of religious leaders addressing his "Millennium Questions" asking representatives of different faiths to respond to the crises of the age. [26]
• As part of the Parliament, Frew created the Lost & Endangered Religions Project [27] and (LERP), an interfaith nonprofit service organization that works with marginalized religious communities to preserve religious traditions in danger of being lost forever., [28] [29] at LERP was one of five "Gifts of Service" created at this Parliament's Assembly selected to be presented to the Dalai Lama.
At the 2004 Parliament of the World's Religions in Barcelona, Spain, Frew presented on the ongoing work of the Lost & Endangered Religions Project and on the Interfaith Sacred Space Design Competition (see below), coordinated an exhibit of designs from the Competition, participated in the Parliament Assembly (working specifically on access to clean water), and assisted with programming put on by the United Religions Initiative.
Frew again presented on the Lost & Endangered Religions Project and on the United Religions Initiative at the 2009 Parliament of the World's Religions in Melbourne, Australia. [30] He also facilitated a panel of Australian Pagans [31] and was interviewed by Patheos.com. [32] [33]
In 1998 and 1999, Frew represented CoG (with Deborah Ann Light) at the Global Summits held at Stanford University to create the Charter for a new interfaith organization – the United Religions Initiative. In 2000 he attended its charter signing ceremony in Pittsburgh PA. In 2002 he was elected to the URI's first Global Council [34] (Board of Trustees), becoming the first Neopagan to serve on the board of a global interfaith organization. The United Religions Initiative has grown to be the largest grassroots interfaith organization on Earth, involving over 2.5 million people involved in over 650 Cooperation Circles in 86 countries [35] and Frew has stayed closely involved. He was appointed an At-Large trustee in both the second and third terms of the URI's Global Council, and a Continuing Trustee in its fourth term.
Frew helped found many URI Cooperation Circles, including the Spirituality & the Earth CC [36] (S&ECC) which he coordinates. It has been hosting annual "People of the Earth", [37] conferences at the Interfaith Center at the Presidio since 2008; has arranged for English lessons, computer training, and video training for Latin American indigenous representatives involved in interfaith work, and maintains a website to assist with their networking efforts. [38] With the Expressing the URI in Music & the Arts CC (EURIMA) Frew helped create One World, Many Voices, [39] one of the first interfaith songbooks; the first Interfaith Sacred Space Design Competition resulting in 160 designs submitted from teams in 17 countries [40] and edited the final book, Sacred Spaces . [41] In 2000 Frew was appointed to the board of directors of the Interfaith Center at the Presidio [2] (ICP), becoming the first Neopagan to serve on the board of a regional interfaith organization. The ICP is a consortium of over a dozen interfaith councils, seminaries, and interfaith organizations in the San Francisco Bay Area that work together to maintain a permanent site for ongoing interfaith work in the Presidio's Main Base Chapel. [2]
Frew is a leading proponent arguing that modern Wicca stretches back to the paganism of Classical Antiquity. Frew finds a genuine antiquity to core cosmological concepts and liturgical elements in Gardnerian Craft. His work focuses on parallels between Gardnerian Wicca and the theurgy of the later Neoplatonists. [42] While the definitive text is in production, he has presented talks and papers on this subject in a number of Pagan venues, including:
Gardnerian Wicca, or Gardnerian witchcraft, is a tradition in the neopagan religion of Wicca, whose members can trace initiatory descent from Gerald Gardner. The tradition is itself named after Gardner (1884–1964), a British civil servant and amateur scholar of magic. The term "Gardnerian" was probably coined by the founder of Cochranian Witchcraft, Robert Cochrane in the 1950s or 60s, who himself left that tradition to found his own.
Wicca, also known as The Craft, is a modern neo-pagan syncretic religion. Scholars of religion categorize it as both a new religious movement and as part of occultist Western esotericism. It was developed in England during the first half of the 20th century and was introduced to the public in 1954 by Gerald Gardner, a retired British civil servant. Wicca draws upon a diverse set of ancient pagan and 20th-century hermetic motifs for its theological structure and ritual practices.
Alexandrian Wicca or Alexandrian Witchcraft is a tradition of the Neopagan religion of Wicca, founded by Alex Sanders who, with his wife Maxine Sanders, established the tradition in the United Kingdom in the 1960s. Alexandrian Wicca is similar in many ways to Gardnerian Wicca, and receives regular mention in books on Wicca as one of the religion's most widely recognized traditions.
Seax-Wica or better Seax Witchcraft is a tradition, or denomination, inspired by the neopagan religion of Wicca. Specifically the Seax Witchcraft is largely inspired by the iconography of the historical Anglo-Saxon paganism, though, unlike Theodism, it is not a reconstruction of the early mediaeval religion itself.
Drawing Down the Moon: Witches, Druids, Goddess-Worshippers, and Other Pagans in America Today is a sociological study of contemporary Paganism in the United States written by the American Wiccan and journalist Margot Adler. First published in 1979 by Viking Press, it was later republished in a revised and expanded edition by Beacon Press in 1986, with third and fourth revised editions being brought out by Penguin Books in 1996 and then 2006 respectively.
The Covenant of the Goddess (CoG) is a cross-traditional Wiccan group of solitary Wiccan practitioners and over one hundred affiliated covens. It was founded in 1975 in order to increase co-operation among witches and to secure for witches and covens the legal protection enjoyed by members of other religions. Member covens generally focus theology and ritual around the worship of the Goddess and the Old Gods, which is general practice within Wicca. The Covenant of the Goddess operates largely by consensus and maintains strict autonomy for all members.
A craft name, also referred to as a magical name, is a secondary religious name often adopted by practitioners of Wicca and other forms of Neopagan witchcraft or magic. Craft names may be adopted as a means of protecting one's privacy, as an expression of religious devotion, or as a part of an initiation ritual. It may also be used as a protective method, as it is believed by some that one's "true name" can be used to identify that person for the purpose of magical activities.
Phyllis Curott who goes under the craft name Aradia, is a Wiccan priestess, attorney, and author.
Aidan A. Kelly is an American academic, poet and influential figure in the Neopagan religion of Wicca. Having developed his own branch of the faith, the New Reformed Orthodox Order of the Golden Dawn, during the 1960s, he was also initiated into other traditions, including Gardnerianism and Feri, in subsequent decades. Alongside this, he was also an important figure in the creation of the Covenant of the Goddess, an organisation designed to protect the civil rights of members of the Wiccan community in the United States. He has also published academic work studying the early development of Gardnerian Wiccan liturgy, primarily through his controversial 1991 book Crafting the Art of Magic.
Frederic Lamond was a prominent English Wiccan. He was an early member of the Gardnerian tradition having been initiated into the Bricket Wood coven in 1957. He became involved in a number of Pagan organisations, including the Fellowship of Isis, and participated in the interfaith movement. He wrote a number of books on the subject of Wiccan theology and history.
The history of Wicca documents the rise of the Neopagan religion of Wicca and related witchcraft-based Neopagan religions. Wicca originated in the early 20th century, when it developed amongst secretive covens in England who were basing their religious beliefs and practices upon what they read of the historical witch-cult in the works of such writers as Margaret Murray. It also is based on the beliefs from the magic that Gerald Gardner saw when he was in India. It was subsequently founded in the 1950s by Gardner, who claimed to have been initiated into the Craft – as Wicca is often known – by the New Forest coven in 1939. Gardner's form of Wicca, the Gardnerian tradition, was spread by both him and his followers like the High Priestesses Doreen Valiente, Patricia Crowther and Eleanor Bone into other parts of the British Isles, and also into other, predominantly English-speaking, countries across the world. In the 1960s, new figures arose in Britain who popularized their own forms of the religion, including Robert Cochrane, Sybil Leek and Alex Sanders, and organizations began to be formed to propagate it, such as the Witchcraft Research Association. It was during this decade that the faith was transported to the United States, where it was further adapted into new traditions such as Feri, 1734 and Dianic Wicca in the ensuing decades, and where organizations such as the Covenant of the Goddess were formed.
In the neopagan religion of Wicca a range of magical tools are used in ritual practice. Each of these tools has different uses and associations and are commonly used at an altar, inside a magic circle.
Modern paganism in the United States is represented by widely different movements and organizations. The largest modern pagan religious movement is Wicca, followed by Neodruidism. Both of these religions or spiritual paths were introduced during the 1950s and 1960s from Great Britain. Germanic Neopaganism and Kemetism appeared in the US in the early 1970s. Hellenic Neopaganism appeared in the 1990s.
Judy Harrow was an author, counselor, lecturer, and Wiccan priestess.
Contemporary paganism, including Wicca in various forms, Reclaiming (Neopaganism), and witchcraft, is a growing minority religious group in Australia. As in forms on Neopaganism elsewhere, some pagans work as solitary practitioners and others form groups such as covens. Covens may or not be hierarchical, depending on the tradition. Gardnerian and Alexandrian covens tend to be hierarchical, with coven led by a Priest and High Priestess. Reclaiming covens and working groups practise non-hierarchical modes of group dynamics, with group members co-creating rituals and events, although there may be 'facilitators' and other roles allotted at a given gathering.
Neopagan witchcraft, sometimes referred to as The Craft, is an umbrella term for some neo-pagan traditions that include the attempted practice of magic. These traditions began in the mid-20th century and were influenced by the witch-cult hypothesis, a now-rejected theory that persecuted witches in Europe had actually been followers of a surviving pagan religion. Traditions classed as neopagan witchcraft include Wicca and the various movements that describe themselves as "Traditional Witchcraft".
In Modern English, the term Wicca refers to Wicca, the religion of contemporary Pagan witchcraft. It is used within the Pagan community under competing definitions. One refers to the entirety of the Pagan Witchcraft movement, while the other refers explicitly to traditions included in what is now called British Traditional Wicca.
Never Again the Burning Times: Paganism Revisited is an anthropological study of the Wiccan and wider Pagan community in the United States. It was written by the American anthropologist Loretta Orion and published by Waveland Press in 1995.
Modern paganviews on LGBT people vary considerably among different paths, sects, and belief systems. LGBT individuals comprise a much larger percentage of the population in neopagan circles than larger, mainstream religious populations. There are some popular neopagan traditions which have beliefs often in conflict with the LGBT community, and there are also traditions accepting of, created by, or led by LGBT individuals. The majority of conflicts concern heteronormativity and cisnormativity.
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