PAGANA — FOUR SCARCE ORIGINAL ISSUESPAGAN / OCCULT / WITCHCRAFT SPECIAL INTEREST GROUP OF AMERICAN MENSAWHOLE NOS. 31, 32, 33 & 531986–1990WITCHCRAFT • WICCA • MAGICK • GODDESS SPIRITUALITY • LGBTQ+ PAGANISM • FEMINISM • OCCULT UNDERGROUND
An unusually substantial group of four original issues of Pagana, the newsletter of the Pagan/Occult/Witchcraft Special Interest Group of American Mensa, generally known as POWSIG.
The group includes an especially desirable three-issue consecutive run from 1986 — Whole Nos. 31, 32 and 33 — together with the much later Whole No. 53, dating from approximately 1990.
Pagana was not a conventional commercial occult magazine. It functioned as a working communications organ for a dispersed network of Pagan, Wiccan, magical, Goddess-oriented, Druidic and alternative-religion practitioners and researchers, combining serious essays with ritual material, book reviews, correspondence, advertisements, classifieds, organizational notices, cartoons, humor, artwork and contact information.
Taken together, these four issues form a particularly vivid primary-source record of the American Neo-Pagan community before the Internet, when practitioners found one another through postal addresses, telephone numbers, photocopied newsletters, small-press journals, festivals and special-interest groups.
THE FOUR ISSUESWHOLE NO. 31
Vol. VI, No. 5
All Fools’ Day, 1986
With a wonderfully homemade cover cartoon showing a ritual invocation of Hecate and the caption:
“I’ll bet that’s the last time we invoke Hecate when there’s LITE BEER in the chalice.”
The issue is filled with articles, correspondence, cartoons, reviews, organizational news, classifieds, Pagan contacts and discussions of ritual and magical practice.
The juxtaposition of serious religious discussion with self-aware countercultural humor is characteristic of Pagana and gives the publication much of its documentary value.
WHOLE NO. 32
Vol. VI, No. 6
Beltane, 1986
Cover illustration by Polly Pitkin Ryan, depicting fantastic figures emerging from the branches of a tree beneath celestial forms.
The issue contains extensive editorial and organizational material, correspondence, discussion of Pagan practice and community life, reviews, networking notices and announcements.
The masthead identifies Pagana as the newsletter of the Pagan/Occult/Witchcraft Special Interest Group of Mensa and names Valerie Voigt as editor.
WHOLE NO. 33
Vol. VI, No. 7
Litha, 1986
Cover drawing copyright 1986 by Robin Goodfellow, showing a Pagan ritual scene.
Particularly rich in articles and commentary relating to magical practice, consciousness, ritual, occult literature, Pagan organizations and the growing American Neo-Pagan community.
The issue also contains substantial listings of groups, publications, events and contacts, documenting the infrastructure by which Pagan practitioners located one another in the 1980s.
WHOLE NO. 53
circa 1990
A later issue with an especially primitive and appealing hand-drawn cover incorporating sun, stars, pentagram, chalice and ritual figure.
Its contents include Pagan commentary, organizational notices, advertisements, humor, feminist material, LGBTQ+ material and extensive contact information for covens, publications, magical organizations and Pagan groups.
The later date of this number makes it a useful chronological complement to the consecutive 1986 run.
Whole No. 53 is also of particular bibliographical interest because major published archival sequences of Pagana are incomplete in this portion of the run, illustrating the erratic survival of the original newsletter.
A PRIMARY SOURCE FOR AMERICAN NEO-PAGANISM
Pagana began publication around 1980 and was issued several times annually.
Its sponsoring organization, the Pagan/Occult/Witchcraft Special Interest Group of American Mensa, connected members and associates interested in a remarkably broad spectrum of subjects, including:
- Witchcraft and Wicca
- Ceremonial and practical magic
- Goddess religion
- Feminist and practice
- Pagan theology
- Ecology and Nature religion
- Alternative religious movements
- Gay and lesbian Pagan communities
Unlike later commercial Pagan publications, Pagana preserves the texture of the movement at the grassroots level.
Its pages show not only what practitioners believed, but how they communicated, organized, recruited, debated, advertised, found teachers, located covens, exchanged books and formed communities.
FEMINIST AND GODDESS SPIRITUALITY
Women’s spirituality is a recurring subject throughout these issues.
Among the material photographed is “Bringing Back the Menstrual Hut,” by John Malina, a discussion of menstruation, ritual and female sacred space.
Other material concerns Goddess spirituality, women’s ritual, magical polarity, sexuality, feminism and changing gender roles within contemporary Witchcraft.
This places the group firmly within the broader cultural history of the Goddess movement and feminist Witchcraft of the 1980s.
LGBTQ+ PAGAN HISTORY
The issues also preserve important evidence of gay and lesbian participation in the Pagan and occult communities.
Advertisements, organizational notices and correspondence include references to explicitly gay or lesbian spiritual groups, networking organizations and special-interest circles.
Among the material are notices for groups such as the Gay Men’s Spiritual Network, together with other contacts aimed at queer Pagan practitioners.
One page also contains material relating to a proposed New Rabellians SIG, further illustrating the overlapping networks of sexuality, alternative religion and special-interest organizing during the period.
For collectors or researchers, this gives the lot relevance beyond occult history alone, extending into:
LGBTQ+ history • feminist history • alternative religion • underground publishing • social movements • zine culture
PRE-INTERNET PAGAN NETWORKING
Some of the most historically valuable material is found in the advertisements, directories and classifieds.
The issues contain extensive listings for:
- covens
- Pagan study groups
- Druid organizations
- Goddess circles
- gay and lesbian spiritual groups
- magical training organizations
- occult contacts
- small Pagan publishers
- alternative religious journals
- correspondence groups
- ritual and craft organizations
A page headed “Pagan Happenings” is essentially a directory of the movement as it existed at the time, preserving addresses and notices for groups scattered throughout the United States and Canada.
Another substantial section lists periodicals and newsletters devoted to Witchcraft, Druidry, Goddess religion, feminist spirituality, ceremonial magic, Pagan activism and related subjects.
Today many of these organizations and publications are poorly documented or entirely vanished.
SMALL-PRESS OCCULT PUBLISHING
The advertisements and review sections offer a revealing survey of the small occult press of the period.
They preserve references to obscure newsletters, specialist journals, magical organizations and local Pagan networks that rarely survive outside institutional collections.
This makes the issues especially appealing not only to collectors of Witchcraft and Paganism, but also to those interested in underground press history and ephemeral publishing.
The physical production itself is characteristic of the medium: inexpensive paper, typewritten and photocopied or duplicator-produced text, hand-drawn artwork and stapled construction.
These were working newsletters intended for circulation among a small community, not luxury publications intended for preservation.
HUMOR, ARTWORK AND COUNTERCULTURE
Throughout the issues, serious discussions sit alongside cartoons, jokes, reader contributions and improvised artwork.
Examples include:
- the Hecate / Lite Beer cover
- humorous ritual commentary
- occult cartoons
- Pagan satire
- intentionally crude hand-drawn covers
- playful classified advertisements
- a wonderfully period “Campus Crusade for Cthulhu” advertisement
- reader drawings and cartoons throughout
This mixture of scholarship, spirituality and irreverence is a major part of the publication’s character.
VALERIE VOIGT
During this period Pagana was edited by Valerie Voigt, a longstanding organizer and researcher within the American Pagan community.
Voigt served for many years as coordinator of Mensa’s Pagan/Occult/Witchcraft SIG and became associated with Pagan scholarship, teaching and organizational activity, particularly on the West Coast.
Her editorial presence gives these issues additional interest as documents of the increasingly organized American Neo-Pagan movement of the 1980s.
INSTITUTIONAL SIGNIFICANCE AND SCARCITY
Pagana has been preserved within scholarly collections devoted to modern occultism, alternative religion and Neo-Pagan history.
Institutional holdings are nevertheless fragmentary, which is typical of small-circulation religious newsletters of this period.
The important archival collection Nontraditional American Religions: Western Esotericism from Witchcraft to the New Age, associated with the J. Gordon Melton / Institute for the Study of American Religion collection, records a substantial but incomplete run of Pagana.
Other research collections likewise preserve only scattered issues.
The consecutive Nos. 31–33 offered here are therefore particularly attractive as a coherent surviving group, while No. 53 extends the lot into the later history of the publication.
Original physical issues appear very scarce in the antiquarian and collector market, particularly in multi-issue groups.
This should not be confused with a later reprint or reproduction.
PRODUCTION
Original stapled newsletters, approximately letter-size format, printed or photocopied on inexpensive paper.
Illustrated throughout with:
- original ornaments
- classified notices
- organizational listings
A quintessential example of American underground religious publishing of the 1980s.
CONDITION
Good to Very Good overall for fragile, ephemeral small-press newsletters approximately forty years old.
The issues show expected age toning, handling, light edge and corner wear, occasional small stains, scattered creases and minor signs of use.
The paper remains generally sound and readable.
Stapled bindings remain intact.
Several issues have been kept in protective sleeves.
No attempt has been made to clean, flatten or cosmetically alter them.
Please examine all photographs carefully, as they form an important part of the condition description.
COLLECTING INTEREST
A strong group for collections devoted religious history
Goddess spirituality
Feminist spirituality
LGBTQ+ religious history
Mensa ephemera
Underground zines
Alternative publishing
1980s social history
The combination of three consecutive 1986 issues and a substantially later Whole No. 53 gives the group a coherence and chronological breadth rarely encountered in isolated examples.
Four original issues offered together as one lot.
Related Items:
PAGANA 1986-90 Witchcraft Wicca Mensa POWSIG Zine Lot 4 Pagan Occult Rare
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