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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
