7 May 2024

Twelve years ago, I published Bull of Heaven, the biography of Eddie Buczynski, a gay man from New York City who was influential in the early days of contemporary Paganism in the U.S.

Bull of Heaven wasn’t just Eddie’s biography, but also the biography of the New York occult community up to the end of Eddie’s life due to AIDS in 1989. The 1960s-1970s was an exciting time in The Big Apple. The gay community was finding its feet and feeling (and sowing) its oats after untold generations of societal trauma. The spiritual scene exploded with a diverse array of practices and beliefs, fueled by a constant influx of new people from across the world who flocked to the largest media market in the country. This wonderland was unknowingly on the cusp of a blowback from the forces of religious & political conservatism that swept the nation in the 1980s. And it was in the midst of this tempest that there arose a spiritual group catering specifically to the needs of queer men.

Join me, Matthew Sawicki, and Thumper Forge as we explore the fascinating life of Eddie Buczynski in The Starry Minos, the Season 2 kickoff episode of Heather Freeman’s Magic in the United States, a podcast hosted by PRX Radio.

— Να εχεις μια ωραια μερα. —