Fire in the head, Spirit in the heart
I had originally intended this as just a short response to fellow blogger Edward Smith’s comment on my Imbolc posting. But that would not allow me to share the lovely images, which so well illustrate our common point. Read full story from stltoday.com
Turkish girl, 16, buried alive for talking to boys
Turkish police have recovered the body of a 16-year-old girl they say was buried alive by relatives in an “honour” killing carried out as punishment for talking to boys. Read full story from guardian.co.uk
Energy Medicine Practitioner Dawn Stranges to Speak
Integrative medical researcher and consultant Dawn Stranges will share her ideas about “energy medicine” during two lectures of the SUNY Cortland’s Spring 2010 “Wellness Wednesday series, on Feb. 10 and Feb. 17. Read full story from cortland.edu
Advocates of pagan church near Bowdon blame prejudice for BOC permit denial
Appearing at the Carroll County Board of Commissioners meeting Tuesday night, a number of residents spoke in favor of a conditional-use permit for a church near Bowdon, claiming the Planning and Zoning Board’s past recommendation of denial stemmed from unconstitutional prejudice. Read full story from times-georgian.com
94. Dr. Jeffrey Long’s Near-Death Experience Research a “Game Changer” for Science
Science has studied the near-death experience for more than 20 years. Most research has concluded NDEs are real and unexplainable, but scientists have been slow to accept consciousness beyond death. A new scientific study by Jeffrey Long, M. D. may change that. The research compiled in his new book, Evidence of the Afterlife, represents the largest, most comprehensive study of near-death experience and according to the study’s author is, “a real game-changer” Read full story from skeptiko.com
Prosecutors: Informant in artifacts case is clean
SALT LAKE CITY – The undercover operative in a federal bust of artifact trading collected around $7,500 a month for secretly recording transactions with collectors and sellers across the Southwest for more than two years, new court papers say. Read full story from indiancountrytoday.com
Christian Serbia maintains its faith in folklore
While Serbia is a deeply religious nation, it also happens to be steeped in superstition. The BBC’s Mark Lowen finds that folklore and tales of medieval military glory are part of daily life for many Serbians. Read full story from bbc.co.uk
Spooky Encounters with the Ghost of Catherine’s Hill
Some of you who have driven the Black’s Woods Road in Downeast Maine between Franklin and Cherryfield, may have heard about the legend of Catherine’s Hill. Read full story from wabi.tv
Course explores wicca religion
The Temple of the Green Cauldron is offering Introduction to Wicca, running Wednesdays from Feb. 17 to March 14 at the Harewood Activity Centre, 195 Fourth St. Read full story from bclocalnews.com
Campaign finance ruling impacts tribes
WASHINGTON – Many tribes already have trouble getting their voices heard in the American political system. A controversial Supreme Court campaign finance ruling may amplify the problem, according to political observers. Read full story from indiancountrytoday.com
March of the pagans, from the Bible belt to Hollywood
I had a friend, an ardent Pentecostalist – “shouters”, those hillbillies called themselves – whose trailer featured by way of cultural uplift only the Bible and a big TV set permanently tuned to the Christian Broadcasting Network, on which Pat Robertson used to denounce New Age paganism on an hourly basis. Read full story from theirfirstpost.co.uk
Libya: Stop Blocking Independent Web Sites
(New York) – Libya’s moves in late January, 2010, to block access to at least seven independent and opposition Libyan web sites based abroad and to YouTube is a disturbing step awayfrom press freedom, Human Rights Watch said today. The government should restore web site access immediately, Human Rights Watch said. Read full story from hrw.org
Cat predicts 50 deaths in RI nursing home
Dr David Dosa, a geriatrician and assistant professor at Brown University, said that five years of records showed Oscar rarely erring, sometimes proving medical staff at the New England nursing home wrong in their predictions over which patients were close to death. Read full story from telegraph.co.uk
US Baptists ‘knew taking children out of Haiti was wrong’
Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive said some of the children have parents who are alive. The government is attempting to locate them. He says a judicial system needs to determine whether the Americans were acting in good faith – as they claim – or are child traffickers. Read full story from independent.co.uk
Not so smart after all
New Age is a spiritual movement that combines astrology, folk religion, Buddhism, Hinduism, paganism, physics, psychology and more. Though it can incorporate elements of mainstream Western religions (Christianity, Judaism), New Age rejects their dogma. Important to many followers is the Harmonic Convergence, a planet alignment tied to the Mayan calendar, last occurring in 1987. Read full story from theleafchronicle.com
Flock Is Now a Fight Team in Some Ministries
Mr. Renken’s ministry is one of a small but growing number of evangelical churches that have embraced mixed martial arts — a sport with a reputation for violence and blood that combines kickboxing, wrestling and other fighting styles — to reach and convert young men, whose church attendance has been persistently low. Mixed martial arts events have drawn millions of television viewers, and one was the top pay-per-view event in 2009. Read full story from nytimes.com
Voodoo Dialogue
In the wreckage of the earthquake, in that heavily Christian-Voodoo nation surely some whispered Psalms, words born in Hebrew, now shared, a crying from “out of the depths.” It is an island punished by nature but not God forsaken. Many Haitians believe that even before the rescuers arrived, God was with the mourners on the mattresses in the dirt, and on the pieces of cardboard that pass for mattresses. Read full story from thejewishweek.com
Why Detox?
Detoxes and cleanses are all the rage in the world of wellness. If you know someone who religiously practices yoga, gets acupuncture, or reads up on nutrition, chances are, they’ve done the Master Cleanse or some such other fad cleanse at least once. Read full story from examiner.com
Comanche Nation blasted by ice
LAWTON, Okla. – In the aftermath of a brutal ice storm Jan. 28, the Comanche Nation went into full emergency management system mode and opened a command center to field response operations, officials said. Read full story from indiancountrytoday.com
The Irish calendar – staying grounded with the 8 seasonal holidays
Some cultures call the Equinox and Solstice the start of the season. The Irish start the seasons between them with cross-quarter holidays–Imbolc, Bealtine, Lughnasadh, Samhain–and think of the equinoxes and solstices as the zenith of the seasons. Read full story from irishcentral.com
Cotton Mather & the Salem Witch Trials
“If they do good, it is only that they may do hurt.” So preached the Reverend Cotton Mather in 1689, three years before the horrific hysteria that was the Salem Witch Trials, in a sermon entitled “A Discourse in Witchcraft,” which was then printed and circulated as part of a larger collection, Mather’s Memorable Providences Relating to Witchcraft and Possession. Although Mather was speaking of witches in that line, asserting that there were no such thing as “good” witches, he would have done well to apply the line to himself; Mather succeeded in causing more harm, albeit unintentionally, for his community with his discourse, despite the seemingly honorable intention of alerting the Boston townspeople to the dangers of witchcraft. In his attempt to educate the people of Boston about the evils of magic, Cotton Mather, through his discourse, inadvertently assisted in fueling the hysteria that caused the Salem Witch Trials by creating an environment of unease and distrust among townspeople. Read full story from australia.to
“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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
Army still threatens sacred site FORT SILL, Okla. – The Comanche Nation and the U.S. Army have been battling over a proposed training/service center for the Fort Sill complex that was to be built on Medicine Bluff, a sacred site of not just the Comanche, but also the Kiowas, the Wichitas and the Apaches. Read full story from Indiancountrytoday.com
Witchy Moon Magickal Pagan Superstore Partners with Circle Santuary to Deliver Yuletide Care Packages to Pagan Troops
WitchyMoon Magickal Pagan Superstore today announced that is supporting Circle Sanctuary’s “Operation Circle Care” program to collect Yule gifts for Pagan soldiers stationed overseas. As part of this sponsorship, WitchyMoon will be selling care packages on its web site, which can be sent to Pagan service members abroad. WitchyMoon will be offering a 25% discount on all care package items. Read full story from pr.com
Winter Solstice celebrations: a.k.a. Christmas, Saturnalia, Yule, the Long Night, etc.
Religious folk worldwide observe many seasonal days of celebration during the month of December. Most are religious holy days, and are linked in some way to the winter solstice in the Northern Hemisphere. On that day, due to the earth’s tilt on its axis, the daytime hours are at a minimum in the Northern hemisphere, and night time is at a maximum. (In the southern hemisphere, the summer solstice is celebrated in December, when the night time is at a minimum and the daytime is at a maximum. We will assume that the reader lives in the Northern hemisphere for the rest of this essay.) Read full story from religioustolerance.org
Elemental altar for Pagan kids
Altars can be as simple or complex as their creator desires. For those just starting out in the Craft, whether children or adults, simple is generally a wise approach. Creating an elemental altar offers young Pagans an easy way to have personal sacred space. Read full story from examiner.com
