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Green Country Pagans celebrate Yule amid state leaders’ criticism of beliefs

Gabriel Rider of the Bartlesville Area Pagans unwraps a present during a gift exchange game
Zach Boblitt / KWGS News
Gabriel Rider of the Bartlesville Area Pagans unwraps a present during a gift exchange game

Children giggle while bouncing on the knees of their parents; crockpots steam with the scent of homemade food. There’s an ugly sweater contest and a table overflowing with presents. It seems like a typical Christmas party, but this gathering includes an homage to an ancient Norse god.

“We do a Dirty Odin — which is a variation of the white elephant slash dirty Santa thing — here at the Bartlesville Public Library,” Gabriel Rider said.

Rider is a member of the Bartlesville Area Pagans. The group celebrates Yule, a winter festival marking the return of the sun and rebirth of light after the darkest day of the year, the Winter Solstice.

Pagans have many different beliefs. Rider believes in Norse traditions with an emphasis on gods like Odin and Thor. Others are witches focused on crystals or domestic magic. Some are Christo-Pagans, combining Christianity with Paganism. The different Pagan pathways can make it all a bit confusing.

Co-Founder of the Bartlesville Area Pagans Michelle Larkin explained what the term Pagan means.

“Pagan is an umbrella term, and it covers all of the non-Abrahamic belief systems,” Larkin said.

The Abrahamic belief systems include Christianity, Judaism and Islam. Larkin also said that although they have some beliefs about nature in common with Buddhism and Hinduism, they generally don’t follow those religions either.

The Bartlesville Area Pagans have met for more than a decade, building community despite their different belief systems.

Artemisian Faerie High Priestess Amy Hardy-McAdams is from Bartlesville originally. Hardy-McAdams focuses her beliefs on goddesses and the divine power of femininity. She said despite having different ideas, the Pagan community works together.

“Even if we recognize right off the bat that we don’t agree 100 percent, or we have differing views on how we practice, we’re still kindred, still some kind of family, because we’re Pagan and not just that, but Pagan in a red state like Oklahoma,” said Hardy-McAdams.

The Pagan community’s strength was tested last month when multiple state leaders attacked Paganism.

It started after Hardy-McAdams did a Pagan invocation at a November Tulsa City Council meeting.

“As a priestess of the Goddess I invoke the Gorgoneia, champions of equality and sacred rage,” Hardy-McAdams said during the invocation. “I call to Medusa, monstrous hero of the oppressed and abused.”

Medusa is a figure from Greek mythology. She’s a symbol of feminine strength fighting injustice. Her hair is made of snakes. That concerns some Christians who conflate Paganism with Satanism, two completely different religions.

State Superintendent Ryan Walters used social media to call out the prayer as Satanic, saying Pagans shouldn’t make invocations at Tulsa City Council meetings in the future.

“Satanic prayers are welcome in Hell but not in Oklahoma,” Walters said on X. “Satanism is not a religion. Tulsa should immediately move to ensure this never happens again and the person who allowed it should be held accountable.”

This type of rhetoric towards Pagans has been used since the Spanish Inquisition, Hardy-McAdams said, even though in her experience Paganism does not oppress Christians.

“Something else existing that you disagree with does not infringe upon your religious rights,” Hardy-McAdams said. “You requiring other people to live according to your religion’s rules is infringing on someone’s religious rights.”

Like many Pagans, Hardy-McAdams’ family doesn’t follow Paganism. Her husband is a Allist which means he believes that all faiths have some merit. Hardy-McAdams kids are atheists and her brother is Catholic. That didn’t stop her family from participating in a Pagan spell with her a few years ago.

"Everyone writes wishes for the coming year, and you roll them up and wedge them into the pinecone. Then everyone together throws the pinecone into your fire at home, and it releases your spell, blesses your home and sends your wishes out to manifest,” Hardy-McAdams said. “That was really fun, getting to share a little bit of my practice with family. Everyone participated and no one got weird."

Hardy-McAdams brother’s Catholicism mirrors her mother Diane Dixon’s faith.

Dixon was inducted into the teacher’s hall of fame in Bartlesville. Dixon died, but her memory lives on with her name written on benches outside of the Bartlesville Public Library. It’s the same library where the Bartlesville Area Pagans have met for more than a decade now.

One of the newest members to the library group is Apollo Williams.

“To me, Paganism is I can accept everyone with forgiveness and love in my heart, but also at the same time with reason,” Williams said.

Williams’ mom is a Pagan, but didn’t talk about her beliefs until Williams was 14. Now 16, Williams chose to be Pagan, but she doesn’t want to push her beliefs onto anyone.

“I don’t want to force people into religion,” Williams said. “I’ve had to deal with it with other people and it’s really difficult to get confused and try to find your path with other voices around you.”

Many Pagan pathways converged at the Bartlesville Public Library to celebrate Yule, to accept others for who they are, and to get some presents.

Zach Boblitt is a news reporter and Morning Edition host for KWGS. He is originally from Taylorville, Illinois. No, that's not near Chicago. He received his bachelor's degree from the University of Illinois Springfield and his master's from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism. Yes, that is near Chicago. He is a fan of baseball, stand-up comedy and sarcasm.