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News & Submissions 2/2/2010

Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010

“Thirteen Moons on A Turtles Back” And “Punxsutawney Who?”
The term actually comes from the number of plates on the shell of a snapping turtle.  The Native Americans used it as a way of keeping track of the moons in a year.  I know you are thinking, “Aren’t there twelve moons in a year?”  That is true if there were not occasionally two full moons in one month approximately every 2.5 years.  I am sure you have head of ‘Once in a Blue Moon’. Read full story from findlayliving.com

Haiti earthquake: voodoo high priest claims aid monopolised by Christians
Max Beauvoir, Haiti’s “supreme master” of voodoo, alleged his faith’s opponents had deliberately prevented much-needed help from reaching followers of the religion, which blends the traditional beliefs of West African slaves with Roman Catholicism. Read full story from telegraph.co.uk

Rape victim receives 101 lashes for becoming pregnant
The girl’s father was also fined and warned the family would be branded outcasts from their village if he did not pay. Read full story from telegraph.co.uk

Essay contest encourages Native youth to explore their heritage
WASHINGTON – The Holland & Knight Charitable Foundation recently announced the call for essays in its fifth annual Young Native Writers’ Essay Contest. The national writing contest focuses on the richness of Native American life and history, and challenges youth to speak out on issues important to their tribal communities. Read full story from indiancountrytoday.com

Academy chapel to add outdoor circle to worship areas
1/26/2010 - U.S. AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. – The Air Force Academy chapel will add a worship area for followers of Earth-centered religions during a dedication ceremony, which is tentatively scheduled to be held at the circle March 10. Read full story from usafa.af.mil

Are spirits lurking around the grounds at the county museum?
LAWRENCE – Could there be paranormal activity at the Van Buren County Museum?
That was a question posed to the Southern Michigan ParaNormals: Paranormal Investigators, (SMP) who spoke last Wednesday, Jan. 20, to members of the Van Buren Historical Society.
The Paranormal Society spent the night of Oct. 5, 2009, at the Van Buren County Museum, located between Hartford and Lawrence on Red Arrow Highway, in search of “spirit” activity. Read full story from zwire.com

Haiti’s homeless haunted by werewolf fears
By night, mythical creatures are said to prowl the camps, snatching and murdering children. Many Haitians are convinced that people possessed by evil spirits turn into wolves after dark, a version of the werewolf legend.These “loups-garoux”, or “wolf-men”, are thought to be preying on defenceless people sleeping in the open. Read full story from ft.com

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News & Submissions 1/30/2010

Saturday, January 30th, 2010

Brace yourself for St Brigid
She’s our female patron saint yet St Patrick gets all the parades, but with her name coming back into favour maybe it’s time for St Brigid to shine, writes FIONA McCANN Read full story from irishtimes.com

Is The First Amendment for Monotheists Only?
A case coming before the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals could end up having major legal ramifications for all religious minorities in the United States. Wiccan chaplain Patrick McCollum has been fighting for years to overturn the State of California’s “five faiths policy”, which limits the hiring of paid chaplains to Protestant, Catholic, Jewish, Muslim, and Native American adherents. While McCollum has suffered setbacks in his quest, with a California federal district court ruling in early 2009 that he had no standing to bring his suit, he recently gained support on appeal from several civil and religious rights groups who argue that his case should be heard. Read full story from wildhunt.org

Prayer before N.C. meetings ruled unconstitutional
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — Using prayer to open a North Carolina county board of commissioners meeting violates the First Amendment, a federal judge ruled yesterday, adopting recommendations made earlier by a magistrate judge. Read full story from firstammendmentcenter.com

Groundhog Day has fallen far from our hearty Teutonic roots
Next week, we mark the occasion when, hundreds of years ago, our European ancestors emerged from their thatch-roofed homes, chilled to the bone from the winter’s cold, and prayed to whatever pagan gods they held dear that a sacred animal would herald the return of spring. Read full story from thedailytimes.com

Lifetree Cafe to highlight Wicca, Pagans at event
“People are intrigued with Wicca and witchcraft,” said Craig Cable, Lifetree Cafe representative. “But there’s a lot of misinformation floating around. We’ll hear from people who know the facts – and discover what the appeal is of Wicca and Paganism. Might you have a witch living next door? We’ll find out.” Read full story from coloradoan.com

New Yorkers, Keep Yoga Protected with a 2-Minute Call
Yoga is soothing for the mind, body and soul–so too is it sustainable when it comes to low-carbon exercise. No high-tech gear, gadgets or electricity required.

Shouldn’t such a good, green thing be accessible to its students and teachers? I certainly think so. The state of New York seems to differ. They’re threatening to make being a yoga instructor or studio owner challenging with lengthy forms, tests and licensure procedures, in addition to expensive license renewals. Read full story from treehugger.com

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News & Submissions 1/26/2010

Tuesday, January 26th, 2010

Mystery as century-old Swiss watch discovered in ancient tomb sealed for 400 years
Archaeologists are stumped after finding a 100-year-old Swiss watch in an ancient tomb that was sealed more than 400 years ago.

They believed they were the first to visit the Ming dynasty grave in Shangsi, southern China, since its occupant’s funeral. Read more from dialymail.co.uk

Capricology: Television, Tech, and the Sacred
Television’s latest contribution to the cultural intersection of science and religion — with bonus themes to include: the body, artificial intelligence, paganism, original sin, immigration, and race. Join Diane Winston, Anthea Butler, Salman Hameed and Henry Jenkins every week as they delve into deep exegesis of Caprica. Read full story from religondispatches.org

Christian school puts financial faith in death
Richard Incandela came to Heritage Christian Schools as a smooth talker selling a creepy product.

In return for recruiting school staff and student relatives to sign up for life insurance policies, naming Heritage as beneficiary, the school was told in 2004 it could reap millions of dollars when the insured people died. The death benefits were meant to help build an endowment and lower tuition to entice more students at a time when enrollment was plummeting. Read full story from jsonline.com

Ghost hunters seek isle’s specters
Members of Southern Paranormal Investigations, equipped with an array of gadgets, went ghost hunting Saturday night in the J.D. Rogers building, 2021 The Strand, which houses Bistro Le Croy.  Read full story from galvestondailynews.com

Austria’s traditional ‘Mullerlauf’ wards off winter demons
Innsbruck, Austria – Austria’s western state of Tyrol is home to the pre-Christian tradition known as the Mullerlauf when men and boys don scary masks with crooked noses and bushy beards to conduct a procession to the sound of rattles and jingle bells in the cold month of February. The Mullerlauf takes place every year in one of the Tyrollean villages of Muehlau, Arzl, Rum, Thaur or Absam close to Innsbruck. These communities are collectively known as the Martha villages and are regarded as the true home of this spectacle that takes place on the eve of Lent. Read full story from earthtimes.org

Pagan Car Protection Charm
As a modern domestic witch a large amount of time can be spent in your car.  There are multiple spells for automobiles: everything from protecting your car from having issues in the snow to quick prayers to get a better parking spot.  Protection spells for your car can be elaborate rituals invoking gods and goddesses, burning herbs and casting circles. There is, however, a very simple charm that you can create to invite a protective spirit to your car, much like inviting a domestic deity into your home. Read full story from examiner.com

Using religious language to fight global warming
If the case for tackling climate change is backed by science, why do so many green campaigners rely on the language of religion? Read full story from news.bbc.co.uk

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News & Submissions 1/25/2010

Monday, January 25th, 2010

Pagan Events and Festivals
Pagan events you’ll want to save the date for are the festivals that are coming up. Read full story from examiner.com

Paganist protests as health visitor tells her to move items
A follower of paganism claims a health visitor told her she should put her religious items away because of the effect they could be having on her son. Read full story from portsmouth.co.uk

Religious Imperialism
We’re all aware of the stupid things about Haiti that Pat Robertson said recently, but just to recap:

And, you know, Kristi, something happened a long time ago in Haiti, and people might not want to talk about it. They were under the heel of the French. You know, Napoleon III and whatever. And they got together and swore a pact to the devil. They said, “We will serve you if you will get us free from the French.”

This is bad theology and bad history combined. To state that suffering is caused by sin ignores the message of Job as well as the Suffering Servant motif of Isaiah. But the notion that Haitian revolutionaries entered into a pact with the devil is apparently an old one. It may be worth looking at the history in order to get some idea of what’s going on. Read full story from unreasonablefaith.com

Mary Daly wouldn’t have wanted to rest in peace
It was tough work being radical feminist trailblazer Mary Daly, but somebody had to do it. We need rare individuals like her, who provide the kind of incisive criticism that forces us to think outside the lines, to raise the questions that propel imagination in new, unsettling, revolutionary directions, and shake up our customary ways of thinking and of being. In the ancient world, these socially and religiously disruptive figures were called prophets. They were inspired seers, visionaries. In contemporary theological circles, the term “prophetic” continues to refer to those progressive thinkers whose seemingly crazy utterances serve to bring us to our collective senses. Mary Daly’s was just such a voice. Read full story from usatoday.com

Finding faith: Pagans explore spirituality
In the broadest sense of the term, a pagan is anyone who worships in a religion other than Christianity, Judaism or Islam. This includes a variety of spiritual paths such as Wicca, Druidism, Neo-paganism and Norse religions. Most pagan faiths are based on beliefs, deities and symbols taken from ancient religions and most emphasize harmony with the Earth and its seasonal cycles. Read full story from carrollcountytimes.com

Vatican bank accused of laundering

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News & Submissions 1/21/2010

Thursday, January 21st, 2010

Voodoo Brings Solace To Grieving Haitians
Erol Josue lost more than two dozen friends and extended family in Haiti’s devastating earthquake. The Voodoo priest, who lives in New York, says he has spent the past week saying traditional Voodoo prayers. Read full story from wbur.org

What is an Atheist?
When defining something it often helps to define what it is not. Because of the many misconceptions (to be polite) about atheists, let’s start that way. An atheist is not an amoral or an immoral person, not licentious, and not un-patriotic. An atheist is your neighbor, practicing his/her constitutional right to hold his or her own freedom of thought. Read full story from madisoncountycourier.com

Lights, Action, Camera: Witch City TV is on the Air
The name of the local station will be Witch City TV, while our International Internet TV Station Network will continue to be Magick TV. We will combine a couple of different ideas, and do daily programming that is meaningful, purposeful, as well as entertaining and fun. Daily programming, and something that jumps beyond simply seeing people on Facebook, Myspace, Ning, and being available for real viewing and interaction in a way that we have come to enjoy, when you want, how you want. It is a very exciting dream Read full story from associatedcontent.com

Renee murder psychic probes spirit world kids
Joanne, who has penned a new book, Psychic Children about her work with youngsters, told the Highland News Group: “The wonderful array of psychic gifts and abilities that children possess include things like having imaginary friends, talking to spirit people and seeing angels. A psychic child can tell you things they could not possibly have known such as information that predicts the future, or even things that reveal the past. Read full story from highland-news.co.uk

Series to explore tough questions
Several diverse faiths will come together over the next month to debate where religion fits into some of the most contentious issues in our society. Read full story from martlet.ca

8 Ways Religious Groups Show Their Green Beliefs
When the pope says, “respect creation,” people are going to listen. And over the past few years, religious figures representing all faiths have been increasingly spreading the same message to the 85 percent of the world’s population that holds religious beliefs. From Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, the leader of the Eastern Orthodox Church, to the Akal Takht, the highest temporal authority in Sikhism, spiritual leaders have been telling their followers that protecting the environment is their moral and religious duty. Here are eight ways members of religious groups are paying heed. Read full story from treehugger.com

The mysterious production of blizzards
A town where the Weather Channel is treated with as much skepticism as a palm reader has little choice but to turn to superstition and charms. And the rituals surrounding the summoning of snow in this town are as eclectic as the residents themselves: some have been here for decades, others are as itinerant as the summer-phobes who bring them each season, and there are a few that — through their sheer insanity — lay bare a naked enthusiasm for these mountains. Read full story from telluridenews.com

Religious riots spread despite Nigerian troops
As street clashes broke out in Pankshin and Mangu, one report said 464 people had died in Jos, where the fighting between Christians and Muslims began on Sunday. “The figure sounds credible,” said local reporter Bashir Ibrahim Idris, “but it is impossible to verify due to the 24-hour curfew”. Read full story from independent.co.uk

The Big Question: Is Nigeria teetering on the brink of a major crisis?
Upto 265 people are reported to have died in the Nigerian city of Jos after fighting between Muslims and Christians. Calm has now been restored but only after a 24-hour curfew imposed by the government which has sent soldiers armed with machine guns to patrol the streets in pick-up trucks. But there are reports that the violence has now spread to Pankshin, 60 miles to the south-east. Read full story from independent.co.uk

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News & Submissions 1/20/2009

Wednesday, January 20th, 2010

Widow raped for practising witchcraft
The accused persons suspected the victim practised witchcraft and “killed” a six-month-old baby by her “black magic” at Gangti village under Goradih block in neighbouring Bhagalpur district. Read full story from indiatimes.com

The Myth of “Voodoo”: A Caribbean American Response to Representations of Haiti
At a time when increasing numbers of informed audiences in both scholarly and popular circles have begun to recognize African religious cultures and the rich contributions they have made to African diaspora civilizations, Pat Robertson has made another dubious contribution to America’s fascination with the ‘problem of Haiti.’Read full story from religiondispatches.org

Wicca’s Invitation
Pagan practices are meeting with an increasingly receptive audience in the Episcopal Church. Is it the consequence of an unmet need? Read full story from virtueonline.org

Happy Blessed Cyprian feast day!
Cyprian Tansihad three names. Iwene was the name given by his father at his birth in 1903, Michael was his baptismal name, and Cyprian his monastic name. Born into a pagan family, he was sent to a Catholic school where at the age of eight he was baptised. Read full story from indcatholicnews.com

Strong values and collaboration credited for tribes’ success
The Ecotrust Indigenous Leadership Award annually honors Western tribal, First Nation, and Alaska Native leaders who possess long-range vision, a sense of place in the growing global economy, sustainable societal values and integrated historical knowledge of the land’s marine and terrestrial ecosystems. Read full story from indiancountrytoday.com

‘The Vikings’: the bloody history of the Scandinavian warrior hordes
In the year 870, Ivar the Boneless of Denmark (his nickname also has been interpreted as “the Snake” or “the Detested”) captured the Anglo-Saxon King Edmund. Ivar, who had already made a name for himself by killing an earlier enemy via a gruesome method called the “blood-eagle,” demanded that Edmund share his kingdom. The story goes that when Edmund refused, Ivar tied him to a tree, had him scourged, let his men use the hapless king as target practice for their arrows, and finally had him beheaded, tossing the head away in the undergrowth. Read full story from seattletitimes.com

Regulating Native Practices and other Pagan News of Note
Top Story: While the final fate of New Age guru James Arthur Ray, who led a “sweat lodge” ceremony that ended up killing three people, remains an open question, others are working to put Ray, and others like him, out of business. Arizona state Sen. Albert Hale, a former president of the Navajo Nation, is sponsoring a bill that would allow the state to regulate any for-pay activity that claims to be a “traditional and authentic Native American practice.” Read full story from wildhunt.org

The Similarities Between Christianity and Paganism
My first encounter with paganism was in junior high, when a friend of mine confided in me that she was struggling with the choice between it and Christ. For her, we’ll call her Kari, magic was real. She could see auras, call on spirits, commune with the trees in her backyard and the fairies in the open land beyond. However, her family belonged to a Christian denomination, and the time for her confirmation was coming up fast. She would have to give up one or the other. “Why?” I asked, “Can’t you practice both?” Read full story from associatedcontent.com

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News & Submissions 1/7/2010

Thursday, January 7th, 2010

Human sacrifices ‘on the rise in Uganda’ as witch doctors admit to rituals
One man said he had clients who had captured children and taken their blood and body parts to his shrine, while another confessed to killing at least 70 people including his own son. Read full story from telegraph.co.uk

Man Attempts to Kill Mother Over Witchcraft
A 27 year old man is being held by the police in Lagos for attempting to kill his mother on December 30, 2009 over alleged witchcraft which he claimed had retarded the progress of the family. Read full story from allafrica.com

A brief history of snow
The early 20th-century Arctic explorer Vilhjalmur Stefansson relates a salutory technique used by the Inuit to deal with a blizzard, a common phenomenon in the Canadian north. When an Inuit becomes lost, he will make himself comfortable and conserve energy, perhaps building an igloo, perhaps sitting with his back to the wind, moving around only occasionally to keep himself from freezing, sleeping if possible. Then, when the storm has passed and he can see again, he will carry on to his destination. Read full story from gaurdian.co.uk

Death row inmates plead for second chance
Long-time death row inmate Ahmad lives in such constant fear of execution, he’s almost rotting away alive. “I’m suffering depression, sorrow and remorse. I can’t hear or see anymore, I’ve lost my strength and my teeth have fallen out.” Ahmad, which is not his real name, says he has learned from his actions and hopes the Lebanese authorities can show mercy by sparing him from the gallows. “I did what I did at a time of ignorance and I was misguided, but today I fear God and know my boundaries,” he said. Read full story from dailystar.com.lb

Winter powwow ready to build Native connections
Portland Community College and the Sylvania Campus Multicultural Center will celebrate Native American culture and ancestry in January. Read full story from beavartonvalleytimes.com

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News & Submissions 1/5/2010

Tuesday, January 5th, 2010

It’s Witchcraft! Promises Fascinating Talk
A forthcoming lecture at the Manx Museum by Professor Ronald Hutton will shed light on the Isle of Man’s historical relationship with witchcraft. Read full story from isleofman.com

Native-owned company seeks donations for Crow Creek tipi
SEATTLE – When Gary E. LaPointe, Rosebud Sioux and a military veteran, heard the Crow Creek Sioux in South Dakota were fighting to hold onto 7,100 acres of land that had been seized by the IRS to pay a purported tax bill, his first thought was that the tribe must set up a tipi on the site. Read full story from indiancountrytoday.com

Mary Daly, radical feminist theologian, dead at 81
Mary Daly, radical feminist theologian and a mother of modern feminist theology, died Jan. 3 at the age of 81. She was one of the most influential voices of the radical feminist movement through the later 20th century. Read full story from ncronline.org

Gory double killing – Gran and teenager burn to death
POLICE in Mtubatuba, northern Zululand, are appealing to locals to come forward with information that could lead to the arrest of the people behind the brutal slaying of a grandmother and her granddaughter. Read full story from sowetan.co.za

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News & Submissions 1/4/2010

Monday, January 4th, 2010

US Marines with strange lights and whispers in the night
The Marines found the bone as they scraped a shallow trench. Long, dry and unmistakably once part of a human leg, it was followed by others. They reburied most of them but also found bodies. Three of the graves were close together; in another was a skeleton still wearing a pair of glasses. The Marines covered the grave and told their successors to stay away from it. Read full story timesonline.co.uk

The Crooked Cross and the Cross: Nazism and Christianity
Yet: another slander Christians lay at Paganism’s doorstep is equating Nazism with a Pagan revival. Perhaps the best witness we can call to the stand against this claim is Hitler himself Read full story from newsjunkiepost.com

Top Ten Anti-Christian Attacks in 2009
VISTA, Calif., Jan. 4 /Christian Newswire/ — The Christian Anti-Defamation Commission (CADC) has released its list of the top ten incidents of anti-Christian defamation, bigotry and discrimination in the US from last year. The list was selected by the subscribers to CADC’s e-mail list and was selected from a list of twenty of CADC’s top stories from 2009. Read full story from christiannewswire.com

Religion and science can be partners
Ever since the eighteenth-century Enlightenment, which proclaimed the inexorable secularization of society, it has generally been assumed that the advance of scientific understanding would supersede religious authority based on unchallenged faith. Religion, presumably, belonged to the primitive past, while secular science and technology belonged to the mature future. Yet today we see the flourishing of both. Read full story from uuworld.org

God, why are they egging us on now?
BEFORE we have had a chance to get on the treadmill, pumped with well-meaning New Year’s resolutions and shaky with post-Christmas pot belly shame, supermarkets have stocked shelves with Easter eggs. Read full story from dailytelegraph.com.au

Apple growers in Somerset prepare for Wassail
Wassailing is an ancient pagan tradition held on Old Twelfth Night which falls on 17 January. Read full story from bbc.co.uk

IHCIA passes despite GOP abortion controversy
WASHINGTON – Republican abortion-based opposition to the Indian Health Care Improvement Act as part of the nation’s health care reform package couldn’t stop the bill from clearing Congress. Read full story from indiancountrytoday.com

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News & Submissions 12/29/2009

Monday, December 28th, 2009

Ancient Miwok harvested salt
United States Geological Service researchers James Moore and Michael Diggles have located a site halfway between Yosemite and Tahoe where 369 circular basins were once used to distill salt which was then traded for food and other items by the Miwok. Carved in glaciated granitic bedrock in a canyon on the west slope of the northern Sierra Nevada, the salt-collecting depressions are a meter-and-a-half across – much bigger than those found in the more plentiful acorn grinding rocks, according to Diggles, and nearly one meter deep. Read full story from indiancountrytoday.com

Evidence of animal sacrifice, Satanism found in Feltonville
Police are investigating a case of possible animal cruelty after the remains of 75 animals and a large altar composed of primate skulls were found today inside a house in the city’s Feltonville section. Read full story from philly.com

A stimulating year
WASHINGTON – After the national economic troubles of 2008, tribes knew going into 2009 there was likely going to be a federal stimulus. Indian leaders worked hard early on to be sure tribes would be included. And they were. Read full story from indiancountrytoday.com

Group aims to defend student religious freedom on campus
The 15-year-old Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Christian nonprofit is using a $9.2 million donation and its own matching funds for its University Project, which will send attorneys to defend students or student groups that feel they’ve been prevented from expressing socially conservative or religious views. Read full story from firstamendmentcenter.org

Blue moon to greet 2010
ROSMAN — The glittery ball in New York’s Times Square drops every New Year’s Eve. But this year it will be joined a second glowing orb in the sky: The last night of 2009 will boast December’s second full moon, otherwise known as a blue moon. Read full story from citizen-times.com

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