Pop Culture Pagans on The Juggler

Have any of you been reading The Juggler?  For those of you out of the loop, it's a member of the Pagan Newswire Collective and focuses on Pagans in pop culture - tv, movies, and books mostly.  I really dig the author's most recent post about some of the best Pagans on TV.  I loved that she included Lisa Simpson.  How many of you saw that episode last year where Lisa started to study Wicca?  It was probably one of the best portrayals of the religion on TV I've ever seen.  I highly recommend it if only for the significance of such an event.

I also like that Lucius Vorenus from "Rome" is on the list.  I haven't started the second season, but I was impressed with the very authentic portrayal of ancient Paganism.  There might have been some imperfections that Roman geeks could have spotted, but based on my growing understanding of authentic ancient magic and polytheism, it seems pretty spot on.  

I was also happy to see Tara from "Buffy the Vampire Slayer."  The show has a horrible understanding of what Paganism is.  It doesn't understand Wicca.  It's as if the creators read the first paragraph of a Wikipedia entry and decided to mash and mix that understanding with the standard Hollywood portrayal of traditional witchcraft.  As the Juggler says:

Why not Willow, you say?  Don’t get me wrong, I love Willow as I love all the characters on Buffy the Vampire Slayer.  But Willow, like a lot of television witches, was a caricature of a witch.  She was an imperfect, magical, supernatural and most of all fictional character.  Tara, from the moment we met her at UC Sunnydale’s student Pagan group, always struck me as much more organic. Sure, she is part of the same mythology but she just felt more down to earth, more real.  Though there is no evidence in the story, I can see Tara attending a Samhain ritual and honoring the Goddess and calling the quarters.

I totally agree!

( For My LJ Friends: http://adfcatprints.blogspot.com/ )