Ok; hows about this idea for pagan activisim:

[lildreamer316]

I'm not sure how it is referred to, but I first learned about the organized resistance to Hitler's invasion of England by various pagan groups in the novel "Lammas Night" by Katherine Kurtz. I did not realize this had actually happened until a few years later when I saw it hinted to elsewhere. Does anyone have any practical knowlege of this and do you think it will be applicable soon? I would guess if this were true the network of groups to participate would already be in place, but it never hurts for us to organize a bit. Ideas? Opinions? Just thought it might be good to get a discussion going.....

[LiberalEsto]

1. I think Gardener wrote about it

or maybe it was Doreen Valiente. They all sent the same thought: "You cannot cross the water" so that Hitler would not invade Great Britain. I remember reading that it was extremely physically exhausting for the participants, and am not sure whether a couple of folks actually died from the strain. It was ages ago when I read about it.

[Name removed]

2. Deleted message

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[lildreamer316]

3. Ok;

I'm open to that to. Just thought I'd throw it out there to see what happened. I'm a practical Pagan:silly:

[trotsky]

4. Thank you for the historical facts, onager.

As we get further removed from events, a lot of details can get lost and we quickly forget lessons learned. Magic and superstition starts creeping in.

[stellanoir]

5. Well

I received the following shortly after 9/11. . .

"During World War II, a psychic named Tudor Pole was an adviser to Winston Churchill. Tudor suggested to Churchill that he urge the British people to hold Britain in their thoughts every evening at 9:00 P.M. for one minute. This became known as the "silent minute." Whether this collective effort helped protect Britain from invasion will never be known. All we know is that the island was never conquered. And incidentally, after the war, papers were found in Nazi records noting that Britain had a "secret weapon" connected to Big Ben, but they were never able to identify the nature of that weapon."

I included that quotation in an e-mail I sent out in 9/01 that ended up all over the place and said that I was going to start doing it for America at noontime Eastern Time 'cause that time suited my then schedule but figured anytime would do.

Within a week or so of sending, you can imagine my surprise to hear Marianne Williamson recommending the very same time for a collective protective meditation on Oprah. It was too bizarre but kind of cool. I've since fallen out of the habit but I may start again soon.

[onager]

6. Sorry, but not true. Not even CLOSE!

The "silent minute" was created to remember the war dead, not for any psychic reasons to protect Britain. And it didn't originate with Churchill.

If it had originated in WWII, we'd have to note that it was something of a bust. Over 30,000 Londoners were killed just in the blitz of 1940-41:

The concept of Remembrance Silence is a traditional token of respect for the dead. It is most famously associated with the Two Minutes' Silence observed each year at 11 a.m. on 11 November — Armistice Day — a tradition inaugurated by King George V in 1919 to commemorate the first anniversary of the end of hostilities on the Western Front.

The widespread observance of a ceremony of silence at 9 p.m. in New Zealand actually dates from the Second World War and the story of its origin is a remarkable one. It begins not during the Second World War, however, but the First World War.

In early December 1917, in the mountains around Jerusalem, two British Army officers were discussing the war and its probable aftermath on the eve of a battle. One of them, in a premonition of his death, requested his fellow officer to remember him and the millions of others who would die during the War: "Lend us a moment of it every day and through your silence is greater than you know".

The following day the speaker, as he had foretold, was killed. His companion, Major W. Tudor Pole, never forgot his comrade’s last request and at the outbreak of the Second World War campaigned tirelessly to implement a daily observance of silent prayer.

http://www.rsa.org.nz/remem/rsa_hist_ceremony.html

BTW, the name was Wellesley Tudor-Pole....though on several pSykiK sites, I found it given as "Wesley." Figures.

[beam me up scottie]

7. Wow, Onager.

Man, if I had had just ONE history teacher that ever packed that much humanity and poetry into any of their fact-driven lessons, I would probably have made it my life's work.

You rock.

[stellanoir]

8. fascinating.. .thanks for the clarification

Still collective minute long group meditations and visualizations could never hurt.

[Hekate]

9. Read: The Magical Battle of Britain by Dion Fortune

"The Magical Battle of Britain" by Dion Fortune; intro and commentary by Gareth Knight; Golden Gates Press (UK) 1993; (c) The Society of the Inner Light.

Her group appears to have used weekly group meditations and guided visualizations; their physically scattered members co-ordinated times with those at the headquarters in London.

In any case, I see no evidence that this particular group was engaged in any crystals-and-windchimes public activities, especially as they were (and still are) a "Mystery School in the Western Esoteric Tradition." I think you had have been a member to have known what they were doing. The above book came about when archival material was released some 50 years after the War.

As for expressions by Wiccans and Neo-pagans, strange as it seems today, Britain's Anti-Witchcraft Laws were still on the books until 1951, so they would have been officially against the law. There were, however, practicing Druids (who I think got re-started sometime in the 1800s) and other mystery traditions. The Druids wore white robes.

It's a pretty safe bet that public prayers for protection were taking place in Christian churches all over the UK. It is not at all surprising that those on alternate paths would vigorously petition the higher powers in their own ways, given that Hitler's armies were rolling over Europe and his air force was bombing the hell out of London.

I wish I actually knew more about this subject, but I'm more interested just now in what American pagans are doing about Bush. I have urged my friends to support the Interfaith Coalition, because of threats to our freedom of religion. I know of the Lady Liberty League, founded by pagans and devoted to defending our civil liberties. I joined the Bill of Rights Defense Committee, a broadly based citizen's group, and testified against the USA-PATRIOT Act before my City Council. I participate in politics as a Democrat, but I pray to the Goddess as a pagan -- and anything my sisters or brothers care to cook up by way of rituals to expel this evil from our land is fine by me.

One letter to the editor, one vote, one protestor with a picket sign, one prayer or ritual won't turn the tide by themselves. But all of us working together --

Hekate

[lildreamer316]

10. Yes; I was under the impression

that these were not public gatherings at all; just a very underground coordination of groups/covens etc.
Again; just throwing it out there for stimulation of ideas. Thanks....

[Is It Fascism Yet]

11. The witches on the Isle of Mann worked the weather to stop Hitler from

crossing the English Channel from occupied France. They kept the Channel storming. Hitler did bomb England, but that is only knocking on the door, he was never able to actually invade England, to his great dismay, and it was because he was never able to get his troops across the Channel by boat from France. I do not know if this information is printed anywhere or not, I got it as verbal tradition from initiates.