Thyme is a perennial shrub, and a member of the mint family. With over a hundred varieties, the most common being garden and lemon Thyme.
The Greeks used Thyme “to make a burnt offering.” In the Middle Ages, Europeans placed it under pillows to promote sleep and ward off nightmares. Women would also give the leaves to knights to bring courage. Thyme was also placed on coffins and burned as incense during funerals to send one into the next life.
Planet: Venus (Beauty, Fidelity, Friendships, Good Fortune, Love, Money, youth)
Magical and Ritual Uses:
To stop nightmares or have prophetic dreams: Place beneath your pillow, or burn on charcoal and take in the aroma. (it is also great for meditation)
For Money: Plant THYME in the garden. Fold a dollar bill around THYME leaves, then fold again to make a packet, tie it up, and bury it on a full moon at the middle of a crossroads.
Growing various types of THYME: Encourages the devas to be lively.
To see Fairies: Carry in an amulet or sachet.
Money-Protection: Combine THYME, MINT, and BAYBERRY.
For purification: Burn prior to a ritual to cleanse the area. In spring, make a cleansing bath composed of MARJORAM and THYME to ensure all the sorrows and ills of the past are removed.
THYME is also carried and smelled to give courage and energy.
For good health: Thyme is burned or worn in an amulet. It is excellent in healing spells.
It is also used to communicate with friends and relatives who have passed. THYME can be most useful on SAMHAIN.
Entertainment
The Conjuring 2: Movie Review Between the fantastic talent of and chemistry between Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga, and the vision of James Wan, The Conjuring 2 demonstrates incredible potential for the emerging franchise. Real full story – cinemablend.com
News
First shamanism museum opens in Seoul South Korea’s first shamanism museum, located at Geumseongdang Shrine, opened its doors in Eunpyeong-gu, northwestern Seoul last week.
The shrine, close in style to the traditional Korean house, or hanok, was founded to appease the spirit of Prince Geumseong (1426-1457), who was ordered a lethal dose of poison upon charges of trying to reinstate the deposed King Danjong. Read full story - asiaone.com
Last year, the Commission released a review of the Act, after an increase in the number of false accusations of sorcery were slammed by human rights groups.
But it’s making headlines again as six people accused of sorcery or witchcraft were killed in West Sepik Province by people who had taken the law into their own hands. Read full story from radioaustralia.net.au
Magic Mushrooms Could Treat Depression
After a psychedelic trip on magic mushrooms, people often describe the experience as mind-expanding, consciousness altering, emotionally insightful and even spiritually transcendent. Now, scientists have peered into the brains of people tripping on psilocybin — the active ingredient in mushrooms — and their results revealed a few surprises.
Instead of opening lines of communication between sensory-oriented regions of the brain, psilocybin appears to shut down activity in two key areas of the brain that regulate our sense of self and integrate our sense of awareness with our sense of the present. Read full story from discovery.com
Now an archaeological dig hopes to find out just what happened to a granite cross which vanished 60 years ago.
Legend has it that a Catholic priest ordered it to be removed from the front of St Patrick’s Church in Wicklow town because of its explicit carvings.
Other rumours say local residents had complained it attracted fairies.
Some residents, though, believe the cross may have been buried in the church grounds by Fr Matthew Blake, now deceased, because he disliked the carvings of nude women on it. Read full story from independent.ie
Paranormal:
UFO spotted in Devon
Gary McDermott snapped the glowing red object, with bright flashing lights, after stopping his car to photograph a low-flying helicopter in Plymouth.
The disc-shaped UFO flashed across the sky – just as he was taking the picture – before it disappeared into the night at 9pm on Sunday.
Mr McDermott, who was working night shifts on the city’s famous Royal Albert Bridge, said: “I just couldn’t believe what I had just seen.
“It must have been a UFO – and I cannot believe I am saying that because I don’t believe in them usually. I am always sceptical.
“But this was definitely not a normal aircraft. It was red, the shape they say UFO aircraft is, and had two bright lights coming out of it. Read full story from telegraph.co.uk
The father of two was visiting a friend who was having surgery in the Archway Road hospital when he was told by nurses of “a strange presence” in the 19th Century arches deep underground.
Armed with his camera and accompanied by a curious Whittington administrator, he descended down to the basement to investigate the paranormal tales. Read full story from london24.com
Pictures: Oldest Dinosaur Nests Found in South Africa
The oldest known dinosaur nests have been found at the same South African park where scientists previously unearthed the oldest known dinosaur embryo (pictured), a new study says.
Paleontologists recently found ten nests—each containing up to 34 tightly clustered eggs—in a nearly vertical cliff in Golden Gate Highlands National Park. Both the nests and the previously discovered embryo date back 190 million years. Read full story from nationalgeographic.com
Media:
The Rise and Fall of the ‘C’ word (Celts)
Currently, the term ‘Celtic’, and its variations, is alternatively loved of loathed by archaeologists, historians, the general public and the media. Why is this? What has happened to the way the word is defined that causes disparity? How did this word mean previously rational archaeologists such as John Collis, Simon James and the Megaws spentd years arguing about the use of ‘Celtic’ as an archaeoligical term? Read full story from heritagedaily.com
Three covens, with up to 13 witches in each one, regularly meet either behind closed doors or outside at night.
Witch and Doyle’s Psychic Emporium owner Robert Doyle, 35, dabbles in what were once considered the dark arts. He said: “I have taken part in different rituals. In one, we welcome the four elements – earth, air, fire and water. Sometimes we meet in people’s homes and sometimes on the beach.”
Robert explained that witchcraft is deeply rooted in paganism. He added: “One ritual is called the rites of cake and ale where we say goodbye to winter and hello to summer. We pass cake and ale in a clockwise direction saying, ‘May you never hunger or thirst.’”
Witch Wendy Starr, 54, who co-owns a psychic shop called Magik in Ramsgate with Serena Lowman, 58, has started her own gathering of pagans called Magik Cafe. She said: “We had our first night last week and we had 30 people come along. I started it because I wanted to bring together the pagan community and give them somewhere to go when they meet up.” Read full story from thisiskent.co.uk
The Origins of Monothiesm in Hindu Dharma
The dialogue which Raja Ram Mohun Roy had started in the third decade of the nineteenth century stopped abruptly with the passing away of Mahatma Gandhi in January 1948. The Hindu leadership or what passed for it in post-independence India was neither equipped for nor interested in the battle for men’s minds. It believed in ‘organising’ the Hindus without bothering about what they carried inside their heads. It neither knew nor cared to know what Hinduism stood for. Its history of India began with the advent of the Islamic invaders. The spiritual traditions, ways of worship, scriptures and thought systems of pre-Islamic India were beyond its mental horizon.
The Christian missions, as we have seen, had never had it so good. Unchallenged ideologically, they broke out of the tight corner in which Mahatma Gandhi had put them and resumed the monologue which had characterised them in the pre-dialogue period. A number of mission strategies were dressed up as ‘theologies in the Indian context’. The core of the Christian dogma remained intact, namely, that Jesus Christ was the only saviour. The language of presenting the dogma, however, underwent what looked like a radical change to the unwary Hindus, particularly those in search of a ‘synthesis of all faiths’.
In the days of old, the missions had denounced Hinduism as devil-worship and made it their business to save the Hindus from the everlasting fire of hell. Now they abandoned that straight-forward stance. In the new language that was adopted, Hinduism was made a beneficiary of the Cosmic Revelation that had preceded Jehovah’s Covenant with Moses. Hinduism was also credited with an unceasing quest for the ‘True One God’. The business of the missions was to direct that quest towards Christ who was ‘hidden in Hinduism’ and thereby make them co-sharers in the final Covenant which Jesus had scaled with his blood. That was the Theology of Fulfilment. A number of learned treatises were turned out on the subject. The labour invested was perhaps praise-worthy. The purpose, however, was deliberately dishonest. Read full story from chakranews.com
International Women’s Day reminds us why feminism must not lose its bite
This is International Women’s Day and it is a great moment to take the temperature of the women’s movement in the UK. For quite a while it’s been clear that the long-predicted demise of feminism has not happened; on the contrary, over the last few years there have been sparks of new life that have surprised many observers.
You can map those sparks in the growth of grassroots events, such as the Million Women Rise march, launched three years ago, and the Feminism in London conference, whose thousand cheering delegates surprised me with their numbers and energy last year.
You can also map them in the increasing readiness of influential organisations and individuals, from the UN to Judi Dench, to be associated with what might once have been seen as stridently feminist rhetoric. To see the grassroots and the establishment coming together is to witness a movement with a great legacy taking on new energy.
International Women’s Day has not, historically, been a huge deal in the UK. It kicked off in 1911 in more idealistic and embattled times, when women all over the western world were seeking basic political and employment rights. With its roots in the international socialist movement, it is perhaps unsurprising that we hear it has more of a profile in China and Russia than in Britain. Read full story from telegraph.co.uk
International Women’s Day: how rapidly things change
A century ago International Women’s Day was associated with peace, and women’s and girls’ sweated labour – which votes for women were to deal with. Not a celebration, but a mobilisation. And because it was born among factory workers, it had class, real class. Later it came to celebrate women’s autonomy, but changed its class base and lost its edge. This centenary must mark a new beginning.
We live in revolutionary times. We don’t need to be in North Africa or the Middle East to be infected by the hope of change. Enough to witness on TV the woman who, veiled in black from head to foot, led chants in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, routing sexism and Islamophobia in one unexpected blow. She and the millions moving together have shaken us from our provincialism, and shown us how rapidly things can change. Women in Egypt have called for a million women to occupy Tahrir Square today. Who would have predicted that a month ago?
Feminism has tended to narrow its concerns to what is unquestionably about women: abortion, childcare, rape, prostitution, pay equity. But that can separate us from a wider and deeper women’s movement. In Bahrain, for example, women lead the struggle for “jobs, housing, clean water, peace and justice” – as well as every demand we share. Read full story from telegraph.co.uk
Museum of Natural History Lecture Explores Ancient Animal Remains Burial Cave In Israel The Connecticut State Museum of Natural History presents “Feasting with the Dead on the Eve of Agriculture: Ancient Animal Remains from a Burial Cave in Israel,” a lecture by Dr. Natalie Munro from the Department of Anthropology at UConn. The lecture will be held in the Biology/Physics Building, Room 130, UConn Storrs Campus, on Sunday, March 20, 3 p.m.
Zooarchaeological evidence from a small burial cave in Israel reveals evidence that prehistoric funerary feasts and shamanism were practiced as early as 12,000 years ago, at the very beginning of human transition from hunter-gatherer to agriculturalist. The site of Hilazon Tachtit in Israel, where Dr. Munro has conducted her research for several years, contains a variety of unusual deposits of animal associated with funeral practices. Read full story from courant.com
Stone Age walkers cause a stir
WALKERS clad in Stone Age costumes attracted plenty of modern-day interest as they made their way from Avebury to the Ancient Technology Centre in Dorset.
The fur-wearing wanderers were recreating a Walk of the Ancients which took them via Stonehenge, Old Sarum and the city centre.
On the way they visited St Michael’s School in Figheldean and met children and parents at Larkhill to answer questions about Stone Age life. Read full story from salsburyjournal.co.uk
‘Goddess Temple’ planned at Wellsprings
ASHLAND — Nearly 20 local women plan to open an Ashland Goddess Temple dedicated to the “sacred feminine” in a dome at Jackson Wellsprings north of town.
The temple, founded by Graell Corsini and 18 others, will open under a full moon on the spring equinox, the women say.
It will enshrine the great goddess mother of ancient times, working in equal partnership with the “sacred masculine” God to “celebrate the divinity in everything,” Corsini said.
The women say the goddess path honors and supports all faiths, includes both genders and provides a space for ceremonies of the solstice and equinox, weddings, births, dance, music, meditation, counseling, classes in sacred subjects and alternative healing using reiki, cranial-sacral therapy and other modalities. Read full story from mailtribune.com
Mummified head is skull of Henri IV, say historians
A gash above the lip, a beauty spot and a pierced ear were among key features that helped identify the well-preserved head as that of the “Gallant Green” king, stabbed to death by a Catholic fundamentalist in 1610.
Jean-Pierre Babelon, France’s leading Henri IV scholar told The Daily Telegraph he and the other experts were “99 per cent sure” of their findings.
He will be alongside the 19-man team of international experts when it details its historic discovery in Paris’ Grand Palais after two years of painstaking research.
The experts, led by the renowned pathologist Philippe Charlier, used a “whole range of methods” to cross check their discovery. Read full story from telegraph.co.uk
Man in cemetery IDed
PICAYUNE — The man photographed naked in a local cemetery says he didn’t mean anything crazy by it, he was trying to capture pictures of spirits, or do orb photography.
The man, 47 year-old Robert T. Hurst, of 208 Mitchell St., said he was in the cemetery conducting his year-long hobby, orb photography, which is capturing circles of light at night, some of which appear to be faces. As for why he was naked the night he was caught by a game camera set up by cemetery staff, he said skin can be the best canvas for such photography. Read full story from picayuneitem.com
Archaeology: 8000 year-old Sun temple found in Bulgaria
The oldest temple of the Sun has been discovered in northwest Bulgaria, near the town of Vratsa, aged at more then 8000 years, the Bulgarian National Television (BNT) reported on December 15 2010. Read full story from sofiaecho.com
Pompeii skeletons reveal secrets of Roman family life
The remains of the Roman town of Pompeii destroyed by a volcanic eruption in AD79 continue to provide intriguing and unexpected insights into Roman life – from diet and health care to the gap between rich and poor.
The basement storeroom under a large agricultural depot in the little suburb of Oplontis was full of pomegranates. To many of the Pompeiians trying to find shelter from the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, it must have seemed strong and safe. Read full story from bbc.co.uk
Storm in Israel uncovers ancient statue Jerusalem (CNN) — A huge storm that collapsed part of a cliff on Israel’s central coast led to the discovery of a statue dating back to the Roman period, the Israel Antiquities Authority said Tuesday. Read full story from cnn.com
The Film That Brought Down Youtube in Indonesia
Geert Wilders, a Dutch parliamentarian leading the Party for Freedom in the Netherlands, caught the attention of the world when he released a short film on his views on Islam in 2008, titled Fitna. The 15 minute film juxtaposes several passages from the Q’uran with images of Islamic. Of course, the film was to be a controversial bombshell, so to speak. But the response that ensued was not merely limited to the expected hordes of Muslims chanting ‘Death to Wilders’ on the streets of Pakistan, Iran or Afghanistan. Read full story from ISSA
The campaign to take Indian lands led some Native people to seek answers and hope from spirital sources. In the winter of 1889, shortly after President Benjamin Harrison took office, a Paiute man named Wovoka, from the Walker River Indian Reservatio in Nevada, had a vision of being “taken up into the spirit world.” Wovoka later told enthnographer James Mooney that while in the spirit world he saw “God and the dead of his nation, happily alive in a beautiful land abundant with game.” When Wovoka returned from his experience, he told the Paitue people to “work hard, and to live in peace with the Whites and that eventually they would be reunited with the dead in a world without death or sickness or old age.” Read full story from nmai.si.edu
Celebrate the start of winter at Stonehenge
Astronomical calculator? Sacred burial ground? Landing spot for UFOs? Altar for human sacrifice? Whatever the wild theories about Stonehenge, it’s clear that the monument is an awe-inspiring work of vast antiquity, which comes into its own at the solstice celebrations. Read full story from hellomagazine.com
Spiritual festival in the cards
Ann Marie Beale, minister of Unity Center of Tulsa, demonstrates a tarot reading in her home. She will read the tarot cards during Saturday’s Spirit Fair at the Unity Center of Tulsa. Karen Shade / Tulsa World Read full story from Read full story from tulsaworld.com
‘The mass sacrifice of animals is barbaric’
Pramada Shah, president of the Animal Welfare Network Nepal and wife of the king’s nephew, explains what will happen during the Gadhimai Jatra festival on November 24-25, at which half a million animals and birds are expected to be sacrificed Read full story from gaurdianweekly.com
War on Christmas comes to Minnesota
The religious right’s annual “War on Christmas” is ramping up early this year, and at least one Minnesota-based company is on its hit list. For the past few years, the American Family Association has targeted retail corporations that use the word “holiday” instead of “Christmas” in their holiday marketing. On Thursday, the group said it’s a trend that began with the Nazis. Read full story from minnesotaindependent.com
Postal Service Cancels Letter To Santa Program
Starry-eyed children writing letters to the jolly man at the North Pole this holiday season very likely won’t get a response from Santa Claus or his helpers. Read full story from npr
