If you’ve been wondering what ever happened to the “hip”, young adult-centric Wiccan/Pagan magazine newWitch, you’re about to it go through a rebirth and come back to a newsstand near you. Its been a while since we’ve seen an issue of the magazine, something which I was only half surprised about. The magazine went from being a bi-monthly to quarterly publication sometime in 2007. The magazine that held the tag line “Not your mother’s broomstick” seemed to fly off the shelves in Pagan shops and back issues were selling really well. But it appeared that there was some internal changes with editorial staff that caused the changes at the time and then, slowly but surly the thing that many feared started to happen. No new issues were coming out. It seemed like the website never had current into on the publication and nothing new was coming out when it normally would have been expected (when they went quarterly the new issues were making it out around the solstice and equinox sabbats).
Well, fear no more. A sortof return from newWitch will be coming shortly (debut was set for August 1, 2009), however it will be called “Witches & Pagans” and the magazine will be a new publication which will merge the previous newWitch and PanGaia magazines into a single entity. PanGaia, also published by BBI Media, Inc. who used to put out newWitch, has been more of a catch all publication for the Pagan community. Where newWitch was much more focused on the Wiccan teen and twenty-something, PanGaia was more of a “something for everyone” magazine with articles ranging from political fueled pieces to interviews with a variety of Pagan leaders and figures from all different paths and traditions. PanGaia’s final issue, No. 50 featuring Carl Llewllyn Weschke of Llewllyn Publications, came out earlier this summer.
According to the BBI website, this is what you can expect if you’re a fan of PanGaia and you pick up an issue of the new Witches & Pagans:
“Explore Paganism more deeply with PanGaia! In-depth articles by scholars, theologians, Witches, Druids, Gaians and leaders of the Pagan community cover a wide range of topics to enrich our understanding of ancient and modern Pagan paths. Each issue centers on a particular theme such as “Pagans and the Land” or “Celtic Paganism”, supplemented by Pagan fiction, poetry, reviews, Toe-to-Toe (our forum for controversy and opinion) and our regular columnists including R. J. Stewart, Kevin Filan, Joanna Powell Colbert and many more. Each issue has 80 illustrated pages and a 4-color cover.”
The first issue will be “The Faery Issue” featuring an interview with musician S.J. Tucker and some look at Faerie beliefs and such. Here is the cover…
I have an issue on the way and will be giving it a full review once it arrives. In the meantime if you’ve already had the chance to pick up a copy let me know what you think of the new ‘zine! I’m hopeful that this is going to be a better balance than the two previous individual publications. I always liked newWitch but found it to be a little “light” on substance a lot of the time and PanGaia sometimes seemed to be lacking in the “fun” aspect. This could prove a nice balance!
Mood: hopeful 
