Posts Tagged ‘witchcraft’

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News & Submissions 12/08/2010

Wednesday, December 8th, 2010

The Cancun “Green Dragon” Freak Out!
Remember how I mentioned the invocation of the Mayan goddess Ixchel at the opening of the U.N. Climate Change Conference in Cancun, Mexico? At the time I noted that it would most likely confirm the greatest fears of those conservative Christians who see environmentalism as a stalking horse for Pagan religion, a “Green Dragon” that must be opposed. Read full story from wildhunt.org

Pagan prisoners and press prejudices
The Metro‘s news room yesterday must have echoed to the sound of the bottom of barrels being scraped, as the paper chose to put a story about the rights of Pagan prisoners on today’s front page (7 December).

Pagan prisoners are to be allowed four religious festivals off work each year, in a similar way to Jewish, Muslim or Christian prisoners. This is a welcome recognition of the right to freedom of religion. Many offenders have abused others’ freedom, but a civilised society responds by upholding human rights for all, not denying them. Read full story from ekklesia.com

Two maids jailed, to be lashed for sorcery
A Saudi court gave heavy jail sentences to two Indonesian housemaids and ordered them lashed 700 times with a whip on charges of practising witchcraft to extort money from their employers, a local daily reported on Monday.

The two maids, aged 33 and 25 years, had used clothes and other personal items to cast a spell on the man and his family in Riyadh since they started working for him nearly three years ago, ‘Alyoum’ newspaper said.

The court in the Saudi capital was told that the two maids used their magic skills to control the family’s life and drain their employer’s financial resources. Read full story from emirates247.com

Retreating Mountain Glaciers Pose Freshwater Shortage
Norway said yesterday it will spend $12 million to expand monitoring of Himalayan glaciers and help the region’s communities adapt to climate change.

The Hindu Kush-Himalayas Climate Impact Adaptation Assessment Programme will run for five years, carried out by Norway’s Centre for International Climate and Environmental Research, the U.N. Environment Programme and the Katmandu, Nepal-based International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development.

“The overarching theme is people plagued by either too much or too little water in these regions,” said Bjorn Brede Hansen, deputy director-general of the Section for Environment and Sustainable Development within Norway’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. “This is really the framework for everything — agriculture, livelihoods … [the role of] women.” Read full story from scientificamerican.com

Embattled N.Y. imam launches initiative to bridge discord
New York (CNN) — The controversial head of a Muslim congregation in New York announced the launch of a “multinational, multifaith movement” meant to improve understanding and build trust between “people of all cultures and faith traditions,” according to a statement released Tuesday.

Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, the public face of a recent political firestorm surrounding the construction of an Islamic center in Lower Manhattan, is now spearheading what he calls the Cordoba Movement.

The initiative is meant to broaden his groups’ work in promoting religious tolerance and “expand learning among Muslims, Jews, Christians and people of all faiths,” the statement said.

“We must retake the discourse among religions and cultures from the hands of the extremists around the world who benefit from hatred and violence,” Rauf said in the statement. “We must stop this downward spiral of hatred, mistrust and misunderstanding if our world is to have a peaceful future.” Read full story from cnn.com

Divine dispatches: a religion roundup
Don’t know about divine dispatches but I could certainly do with some divine inspiration. Maybe it will bite me on the bum while I’m writing this. Am suffering from a terrible bout of existential angst.

✤ Retailers in Japan have pulled a Nazi costume from their stores following a complaint from a US-based Jewish group. The Simon Wiesenthal Centre wrote a letter asking the Don Quixote discount chain to remove the uniforms “replete with swastikas” from its shelves. Rabbi Abraham Cooper said: “I note also your corporate guidelines which states in part, ‘Besides following the law as a member of the corporate citizen, we believe taking social responsibility is true compliance … We do not accept any unreasonable requests from antisocial sources’.” The outfits consisted of a black jacket with a red swastika armband in a package featuring an illustration that resembled Adolf Hitler, while also carrying the phrase “Heil Hitler” in Japanese characters. The outfit cost £38 and was available in at least two stores in Tokyo.

The company making the product said it had never received a complaint in seven years. “This was meant purely as a joke, as something that would easily be recognisable. If we have complaints we will certainly stop sales,” said a spokesman for Aico. Read full story from guardian.co.uk

Sufi’s mark annual ritual in Egypt (source cnn)

Skeptic Michael Shermer on Atheism, Happiness, and the Free Market(source ReasonTV)

Christians Hire Stalker-Truck for Atheist Bus Ads (source AtheistMediaBlog)

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News & Submissions 12/04/2010

Saturday, December 4th, 2010

A season for everyone
ST. GEORGE – Christmas may dominate the holiday schedule, but December is a special and spiritual month for many local residents, regardless of their religious beliefs.

Cedar City resident Melanie Cottam is clear evidence of that.

Though her Cedar City home is adorned with wreaths, candles and even a decorated tree, Cottam said she doesn’t focus her celebrations on Christmas each winter. As a pagan, she and her family observe a different December celebration. Read full story from thespectrum.com

Celebrating the solstice
With the changing seasons, another page is turned in the book of time.

It’s the “when” that we think of — seasons past, what’s to come.

But in astronomical terms, as Mr. Steele notes in his wonderful poem, the seasons also fall under the “where” category.

Where our Earth is tilted determines the seasons. At winter solstice, which this year occurs on the evening of Dec. 21, the axis of our planet is tilted the farthest away from the sun. Read full story from thechronicleharold.ca

Misconceptions about voodoo abound
It’s common for people familiar with Haiti to joke that 90 percent of the country’s inhabitants are practicing Catholics, 10 percent practice a Protestant faith and 100 percent practice voodoo.

But the truth is that “voodoo is a very important part of Haitian life. Americans often just dismiss it as superstition or witchcraft,” said University of Kentucky history professor Jeremy Popkin, who teaches a class called “Haiti in the Modern World.” “It is a religion with deep roots in the African beliefs that were brought by slaves” to the Caribbean nation.

Popkin’s class, which includes a section on the religion, grew out of interest in the country that followed the devastating earthquake in January. Popkin, who wrote a book about the 13-year-long Haitian revolution, said his class was formed in response to a talk about the country held on campus after the earthquake. Read full story from kentucky.com

Wooden cross work of vandals at Alaska store
SOLDOTNA, Alaska – A store owner says a wooden cross wrapped to the store sign in Soldotna was an unwelcome act of vandalism that goes against her pagan and spiritual beliefs.

Rondell Gonzalez arrived Thursday at her store, the Pye’ Wackets on the Kenai Spur Highway, and found a makeshift cross about 7 feet tall attached to her business sign with plastic food wrap, the Peninsula Clarion reported. Read full story from adn.com

UFO enthusiasts want to build memorial to ‘fallen aliens’ in Ukraine
In Ukraine, UFO enthusiasts want to build a memorial to “fallen aliens” who have died during their alleged Earthly encounters, the Russia-based news channel RT tells us. Read full story from usatoday.com

WikiLeaks to publish files on aliens, UFOs
LONDON: WikiLeaks will publish more secret US diplomatic files relating to aliens and unidentified flying objects (UFOs), said the founder of the whistleblower website Julian Assange and claimed his life was at risk after the recent expose.

Assange revealed he would publish classified US files about aliens and UFOs.

According to the Daily Mail, none had so far satisfied the twin publishing criteria for WikiLeaks: that the documents are original and not self-authored. Read full story from indiatimes.com

Follow up: Does this answer the question of the ghost child?
After examining bobdezon’s modified photo above it all becomes quite clear….At least to me. Of course there are hard core believers out there that will never be convinced but it’s awfully hard to deny. Bea and Red are right in that it’s getting more and more difficult to pass an authentic picture. Sometimes technology can be a bad thing but it’s not going to stop anytime soon. However something tells me that if there ever was an authentic picture to come along there would be something about it that would indicate authenticity. Of course that’s just my opinion but we have to hold out some sort of hope. Read full story from ghosttheory.com

Ancient Mega-Lake Found in Egyptian Desert
The hyper-arid deserts of western Egypt were once home to a lush mega-lake fed by the Nile River’s earliest annual floods.

Fossil fish and space shuttle radar images have defined the bed and drainage channels of the long lost lake, which at times was larger than Lake Michigan, stretching as far as 250 miles west of the Nile in southwestern Egypt.

The discovery pushes back the origin of the “Gift of the Nile” floods to more than a quarter million years ago and paints a drastically different picture of Egypt’s environment than is seen today. It also explains the longstanding puzzle of the fossilized fish found in the desert — fish that are of the same kinds that live in today’s Nile River. Read full story from discovery.com

Atheist Ad Campaigns Are All the Rage
Atheists have been trying to get out their message, from city bus ads to the recent controversial billboard displayed at the Lincoln Tunnel which prompted a counter-billboard from the Catholic League. The latest: Co-opting rich billionaires into the act. Recently, the Illini Secular Student Alliance (ISSA), at the University of Illinois, launched a bus ad campaign to set the record straight when it comes to the charitable atheists of our world. Read full story from gothamist.com

Cancun talks start with a call to the gods
With United Nations climate negotiators facing an uphill battle to advance their goal of reducing emissions linked to global warming, it’s no surprise that the woman steering the talks appealed to a Mayan goddess Monday.

Christiana Figueres, executive secretary of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, invoked the ancient jaguar goddess Ixchel in her opening statement to delegates gathered in Cancun, Mexico, noting that Ixchel was not only goddess of the moon, but also “the goddess of reason, creativity and weaving. May she inspire you — because today, you are gathered in Cancun to weave together the elements of a solid response to climate change, using both reason and creativity as your tools.” Read full story from washingtonpost.com

Feature: Belief in witchcraft and the effects on human rights
Belief in witchcraft, which dehumanises the vulnerable in society, survives in modern technologically developed cultures and remains a potent factor in most illiterate societies.

It remains widespread in some communities, where witch doctors are believed to wield great power in tribal societies.

In some cases, witchcraft offers an easy explanation to why one person is successful and another is not. Read full story from myjoyonline.com

Research shows spiritual beliefs preserve rainforests
A recent study suggests that indigenous cultural beliefs such as shamanism help to preserve rainforests and their wildlife.

The report is the result of a large body of data collected by scientists along with indigenous Wapishana and Makushi Indians of Guyana who were trained to conduct wildlife population counts. Read full story from survivalinternational.org

David Silverman vs. Fox News Panel (source Fox News)

President Obama’s Hanukkah Celebration (source cnn)

Jay Leno spoofs the Belief Blog (source cnn)

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News & Submissions 11/20/2010

Saturday, November 20th, 2010

2010 Wild Hunt Winter Pledge Drive, Nov 15-21
Since it started in 2004, the Wild Hunt has become a vital news source for modern Pagans, and a crucial resource for those outside the Pagan movement who want to explore the issues that are important to us.

The Wild Hunt doesn’t simply alert you to the interesting (or infuriating) stories of the day, but adds analysis, context, and unique features. Read full story from wildhunt.com

Battle Over Public Christmas Displays Begins Again
And so it starts. Cities are again battling over whether to allow religious Christmas displays in public squares during the “winter holidays.”

Freedom from religion groups start lawsuits over Christmas, disagreements by school boards occur over whether children can sing songs about Christ in holiday programs. It happens every year. Read full story from yahoo

Pyramidal Tombs at Syrian Forgotten Cities
Damascus- Dead cities were built on low height mountains in the provinces of Aleppo, Idleb and Hama governorates and called by the archeologists as “The Desolate Cities, or the Forgotten Cities”, Tishreen daily said Saturday.

The daily added that those cities are distinguished by unique characteristics, attracted the attention of a number of archeologists and international organizations including the UNESCO which works now on preparing a file to register those archeological sites on the World Heritage List. Read full story from dp-news.com

Thanksgiving: A Holiday For Believers and Non-Believers
SALT LAKE CITY (RNS) Ken Guthrie and his partner will be at his aunt’s house for Thanksgiving, sharing a table with his grandmother, siblings and cousins — a veritable holiday crowd.

But when it comes time to express thanks, Guthrie, a board member of Salt Lake City Pagan Pride, will not be speaking to the Christian God his relatives might address.

“I’m thanking, first, the universe for allowing me to be alive. I’m thanking my family for being with me, and I give thanks to the turkey that gave its life, the plants on our table, to the Earth itself for being abundant.” Read full story from huffingtonpost.com

Frankly, the future is all too predictable
Today I am going to write about psychic powers, but you knew that already, didn’t you? Because according to a recent “study”, humans have the ability to predict the future. Which means that even when you were reading about William and Kate, and all the while you were taking in the wise words of Simon Heffer, you were well aware that you were moments away from a piece about extra-sensory perception. That, or this article has been flagged up in the previous pages.

Anyway, Professor Daryl Bem of Cornell University in New York carried out nine different experiments involving more than 1,000 volunteers, all but one of which appeared to indicate that people have psychic powers. In one of his experiments, students were told to memorise various words. Astonishingly, they tended to recall the ones they would later be asked to type. Cue the Twilight music, please. Read full story from telegraph.co.uk

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News & Submissions 11/18/2010

Thursday, November 18th, 2010

Pastor to N.J. church leaders: Thou shalt not Facebook
NEPTUNE, N.J. — Thou shalt not commit adultery. And thou also shalt not use Facebook.

That’s the edict from a New Jersey pastor who feels the two often go together.

The Rev. Cedric Miller said 20 couples among the 1,100 members of his Living Word Christian Fellowship Church have run into marital trouble over the last six months after a spouse connected with an ex-flame over Facebook. Read full story from lansingstatejournal.com

Fairy DogParents? A Magic Wand for Hard-Luck Families
Jenney Hemboldt was distraught. She had lost her job, had a young child at home and her 11-year-old dog Sable (below, right) wasn’t eating and was very ill. Unemployed, broke and teary, she feared her only choice was to surrender the family’s German Shepherd mix to a dog shelter through the Massachusetts Society for the Prevent of Cruelty to Animals, so that Sable could get the surgery he needed.

Instead, in a stroke of serendipity, she learned of Fairy DogParents, a nonprofit that could intervene, providing the near-fairytale help that would keep Sable with the family that adored her. And just when she needed a little magic, Marlo Manning, the organization’s founder, stepped in with a vet that would do the surgery at a reduced cost and and an offer of dog food so that Sable could remain with the Hemboldts. Read full story from tonic.com

Britain’s Spiritual Inversion
Last month, the Charity Commission recognized druidism as an official religion. Druids in Britain, of which there are about 10,000, can now claim tax exemptions and have access to other valuable “rights.” For instance, druids in prison may now take twigs, or magic wands, into their cells, and can request time off work to worship the sun.

Many are concerned that this decision will crack the door open for Britain’s growing number of witches, warlocks and wizards to seek legitimacy from the Charity Commission.

According to the Pagan Federation, which defends and promotes the interests of witches, druids and other “followers of polytheistic or pantheistic nature-worshiping” groups, there are now 300,000 pagans in Britain. Pagans are in every strata of society too, as one pagan recently admitted: We are “civil servants, teachers, housewives, accountants, university lecturers, farmers, bakers, child-minders, historians … sailors, gardeners, call-center workers, office cleaners and dancers and shop workers.” Read full story from thetrumpet.com

First American in Europe ‘was native woman kidnapped by Vikings and hauled back to Iceland 1,000 years ago’
A native woman kidnapped by the Vikings may have been the first American to arrive in Europe around 1,000 years ago, according to a startling new study.

The discovery of a gene found in just 80 Icelanders links them with early Americans who may have been brought back to Iceland by Viking raiders.

The discovery means that the female slave was in Europe five centuries before Christopher Columbus first paraded American Indians through the streets in Spain after his epic voyage of discovery in 1492.

The genes that the woman left behind have now been discovered in the DNA of just our distinct family lines. Read full story from dailymail.co.uk

Most Americans say Obama’s religious beliefs different than their own
A majority of Americans say that President Barack Obama’s religious beliefs are either somewhat different or very different than their own, a poll on religion and the recent elections found.

The poll report, by the Public Religion Research Institute, identified Obama’s religion “dilemma,” as the institute called it, as one of three significant emerging religious issues to watch toward the 2012 election cycle. Read full story from cnn.com

Consulate works to restore Dia de los Muertos
n many small towns in Mexico, the main export isn’t the local chocolate, coffee or peppers, but labor.

An event Wednesday evening in Yuba City marked a concept to change that trade deficit, while celebrating both small business and a traditional Mexican observance.

Marta Sol, of the Chiapas state in Mexico, beamed as she used a modern coffeemaker to incorporate Chiapas coffee beans and chocolate to make hot beverages — leavened with spirits — to toast deceased loved ones. Read full story from orland-press-register.com

U.S. religious freedom report faults China, among others
Religious freedom remains under threat in China, especially for followers of the Dalai Lama and Muslims in the west of the country, the U.S. State Department said Wednesday in a major report.

China harassed members of religions Beijing does not recognize, and disbarred, harassed and imprisoned lawyers who tried to defend them, the State Department said. Read full story from cnn.com

At 92, Dallas woman is the Johnny Appleseed of herbs
Lane Furneaux doesn’t waste time. “I’m 92 ½ years old, you know.”

It was decades ago that she earned the unofficial title of Dallas’ pioneering herb advocate, and she has not let her cause lapse. She’s adamant that the knowledge she has accumulated must live on after her. Furneaux (pronounced fur-NO) feels the need urgently now to educate the public about herbs: their fragrance, their flavor, their symbolism; how they grow, where and why; to pass the language of herbs on to the next generation. Read full story from dallasnews.com

Science of Winter (Source National Geographic)

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News & Submissions 11/16/2010

Tuesday, November 16th, 2010

Schrader: A visit to a local witches’ coven
Two years ago, while driving in the eastern part of DeKalb, I was intrigued to see the car ahead of me with bumper stickers that read: “I’m Pagan and I Vote” and “No war was ever fought over witchcraft.” The driver parked at a residence, so I noted the location and returned sometime later to inquire about the strange slogans.

The woman who answered the door explained she was a modern-day witch and belonged to a coven of witches in northern Illinois. I swallowed hard and said I would get back to her and maybe do a column on witchcraft someday. Read full story from daily-chronicle.com

Author wants to rebrand Muslims from terrorists to environmentalists
Ibrahim Abdul-Matin is a second generation American Muslim, radio personality and a policy advisor in New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s Office of Long-Term Planning and Sustainability.

In his new book, Green Deen: What Islam Teaches About Protecting the Planet, he challenges Muslims and non-Muslims to be stewards of the earth. He hopes the book will help rebrand  Muslims from terrorists to environmentalists. Read full story from cnn.com

Making the promise real: ACLU looks at justice in Indian country
PORTLAND, Ore. – The American Civil Liberties Union put a face on justice in Indian country Oct. 29 at its first Northwest Civil Liberties Conference in the Pacific Northwest. Judges, attorneys, professors and nonprofit leaders came together to discuss important current civil liberties and civil rights issues affecting their communities. Read full story from indiancountrytoday.com

Court OKs Law Allowing ‘God’ Pledge In Schools
BOSTON — The constitutionality of a New Hampshire law that requires schools to authorize a time each day for students to voluntarily recite the Pledge of Allegiance has been upheld by a federal appeals court that found the oath’s reference to God doesn’t violate students’ rights. Read full story from thebostonchannel.com

Chinese mine project threatens to destroy major 7th Century Afghan Buddhist site
Kabul, Nov 16 (ANI): Archaeologists in Afghanistan have warned that they are racing against time to rescue a major 7th Century religious site unearthed along the famous Silk Road from a Chinese company that is eager to develop the world’s second-biggest unexploited copper mine, which lies beneath the ruins at the site. Read full story from oneindia.in

The Hajj (Source National Geographic)

Lost Mummies of New Guinea (Source National Geographic)

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News & Submissions 11/15/2010

Monday, November 15th, 2010

On trial: Faith, delusion or excuse for crime?
He’s a self-proclaimed prophet who called his bed an altar.

He wore robes, grew his beard long and penned a rambling manifesto.

He said he received revelations and was destined to take 49 wives.

And he is on federal trial for kidnapping Elizabeth Smart, now 23, and moving her across state lines for sex. Read full story from cnn.com

Saudi Arabian court rejects ‘sorcery’ death sentence
Amnesty International has welcomed a decision by the Saudi Arabian Supreme Court this week not to ratify the death sentence on a Lebanese man convicted of “sorcery”.

The court in the capital Riyadh said that the death sentence for ‘Ali Hussain Sibat was inappropriate because there was no proof that others were harmed as a result of his actions.

The court ordered that the case be retried in the original lower court in Madina with a view to considering commutation of his death sentence and deportation to Lebanon at the end of his sentence. Read full story from amnestyusa.org

How modern day witch trials are destroying rural Africa
Sixteen-year-old Sapavi was sitting in her English class at the Assemblies of God primary school in Ghana, following a lesson she can no longer remember, when she felt something or someone knock her on the head.

The concrete room’s tiny windows meant the airless space stayed relatively dark. It was crowded with low desks and bench seats filled with lanky Ghanaian students wearing uniforms of blue skirts or pants and short-sleeved white blouses. When Sapavi turned to see who was annoying her, what she saw was the ghostly apparition of an old woman holding a long knife and a bowl made from a dried gourd. Read full story from nypost.com

Expert insists end of world is not nigh
DESPITE WHAT you might have heard, the world is not set to end on December 21st, 2012. There are no asteroids to worry about, nor astronomical alignments nor changes in the Sun that will destroy Earth, according to one of Ireland’s top astrophysicists. Read full story from irishtimes.com

Roman Ruins Show Modern Sea Level Rise Didn’t Start Until Industrial Revolution
Over the weekend the New York Times ran an article on sea level rise, which for the seasoned TreeHugger reader may not add tons new to the discussion (Climate Progress has some analysis of it and gives it mostly a thumbs up, rare for mainstream media reporting on climate), but check it out if you need a refresher course. But what caught my eye was a really interesting companion article, highlighting research on Roman seaside ruins which indicate that for the past two millennia or so that sea levels have been comparatively steady, and that the level of increase we witness today really started with industrialization. Read full story from treehugger.com

Rainforests, wildlife preserved by indigenous spiritual beliefs
New research within the native Wapishana and Makushi communities of Guyana suggests that indigenous cultural beliefs such as shamanism help preserve tropical forests and wildlife.

The analysis, published in the September 2010 Journal of Latin American Geography, draws from a massive data set that tracks wildlife populations, hunting kill sites, and spiritually significant features of the landscape within a 48,000-square-kilometer area in southern Guyana. The authors recruited the hunters themselves to record much of the data. Read full story from mongabay.com

The ‘Wee Good Folk’ – what are they?
A remarkable amount of confusion surrounds the subject of fairies, so let’s take a closer look.

What are we to make of these winged, ephemeral creatures that inhabit the hidden regions of the human psyche and the overgrown forests where our ancestors once worshipped their mysterious Old Gods? It is easy to see why a strange mystical state, enveloping fairies has arisen when we examine the various (at first seemingly contradictory) factors attached to these splendid beings.

For the sake of simplicity I shall hereby explore the preeminent working strands of thought-process connected to Fairy Lore.

FAIRIES FROM THE OLD GODS AND AS A SUPPRESSION OF NATIVE CULTURAL PAGAN BELIEF Read full story from ufodigest.com

Lead in reusable grocery bags prompts call for federal inquiry
Lead found in some reusable grocery bags is raising concerns that the toxin could pose environmental or health concerns to consumers.

Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., is asking for a federal investigation into the reusable bags following a series by The Tampa Tribune. The newspaper found lead in bags purchased at Winn-Dixie, Publix, Sweetbay, Walmart and Target. Read full story from usatoday.com

Maya pyramids pose acoustic riddle
Crumbled ruins of pyramids litter Central America’s jungles, trees growing from their tumbled staircase blocks.

Why the ancient Maya abandoned these towering temples remains one of the big riddles of archaeology. But there is one other question: Why build them in the first place? Read full story from usatoday.com

Adventurer’s photos capture a bygone Mecca (Source cnn.com)

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News & Submissions 11/12/2010

Friday, November 12th, 2010

Astrological Gardening: Voodoo or Cool?
Personally, I think it’s very cool! Astrology has played an important role in gardening since our ancestors first began planting seeds in the soil to grow food, medicinal herbs and flowers. In ancient times the sun, moon and stars were critical because they were constants in our ancestors’ lives. Today we have the internet, iPhones and cable TV to remind us that the astounding celestial world outside is still spinning on schedule! Some gardeners and farmers may scoff at the idea of planting by the moon signs and phases while many others claim the natural rhythms of the universe helps to make their crops more prolific. These gardeners found that crops fared better when planted at certain times of the moon’s phase. My feeling is why not play around with it and see what happens? Take a small section of your garden and do a test run of planting crops according to the cyclical movement of the planets. (I wish I could tell you that I have tried planting by the moon but, sigh… I am just a fickle, impatient and impulsive gardener from New York City so I have not.) Read full story from huffingtonpost.com

Rubin Museum: Sacred Symbols Across Two Cultures
A museum is not the best place to view religious art. To get the full import of images with profound religious meaning you need music, chanting, incense, no buzz from the outside world. Museums by their very nature can’t reproduce the ambiance of a monastery or a cathedral, but they can gather materials you might never have the chance to see elsewhere. The Rubin Museum’s new show Embodying the Holy presents two distinct religious traditions, Eastern Orthodox and Tibetan Buddhist, in the most reverential manner possible in a museum in the heart of New York City. Read full story from luxist.com

Pagans are on the march – but are they harmless eccentrics or a dangerous cult?
Dressed in long, hooded cloaks, the women stand in a circle around an iron cauldron.

The chief witch sweeps her broom around the coven, making their circle a sacred space.

A candle is lit, incense is burnt, and spells are mixed in the cauldron.

These are the witches of Weymouth, the latest foot soldiers in the march of paganism in Britain. And this ceremony marks the festival of Samhain — the turning of the year from light to dark. Read full story from dailymail.co.uk

Hindus welcome inclusion of Paganism in UK’s Lincolnshire County schools
Nevada (US), Nov 11 : Hindus have welcomed the reports of Lincolnshire County Council in United Kingdom (UK) allowing its schools to teach Paganism to students along with six other world religions.

Welcoming the inclusion of Paganism, prominent Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada (USA) today, said that all religions were different ways to relate to the Divine, different responses to the Reality and were a positive sign of God’s generosity. Read full story from newkerala.com

OFFBEAT: Williamsburg, not just Salem, has its share of witch trials and folklore
DATELINE – - Colonial Williamsburg – - Philip Potempa is writing while traveling in Virginia this week.

While a student at Valparaiso University from 1988 to 1992, one of the history courses I truly enjoyed was HIST 316, The Great Witchcraft Delusion, taught with great zeal by Professor Marian Rubchak. Read full story from nwi.com

Earthen Mounds All that Remain of Ancient American Civilization (Source voanews.com)

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News & Submissions 11/08/2010

Monday, November 8th, 2010

EU drug law will shut me down, says herbalist
A PRACTITIONER in traditional Chinese medicine says she will be forced out of business by a change in the law which will take effect next year.

New European Union regulations are set to stop anyone other than fully-licensed medical practitioners importing and prescribing hundreds of herbs, roots and tinctures. Read full story from oxfordmail.co.uk

Faith Groups Split on Resolution to N.Y. Islamic Center Debate
WASHINGTON, D.C. — American faith communities are split on the best way to resolve the disagreement regarding the Islamic center proposed to be built in New York City near the location of the Sept. 11 attacks. Muslims, Jews, other non-Christians and non-religious Americans are more likely to favor retaining the current location as originally conceived, or transforming the center into an interfaith institution. The majority of Catholics, Mormons, and, to a lesser degree, Protestants, believe the center should find another location. Read full story from gallup.com

A witch trial victim’s family reunion
SALEM — Kathleen Kent took the stories shared by her mother and grandfather and wove them into “The Heretic’s Daughter,” a novel based on her relative Martha Carrier, who was hanged as a witch in Salem in 1692.

Little did Kent know that her writing would bring together more than 250 of Carrier’s descendents, who gathered in Salem this weekend. Read full story from gloucestertimes.com

The Witching Hour at BMAG
Featuring photography, painting, sculpture, printmaking, film, animation and installation, The Witching Hour is an exhibition that explores darkness and dark things in the work of over 20 artists from, or based in, Birmingham and the West Midlands.

Supposedly the time of night when strange things happen, the witching hour is associated with the supernatural, witchcraft and folklore, represented in the exhibition in the form of baroque skeletons, macabre fighting insects, shadowy figures, ghoulish faces and ritualistic paraphernalia. Read full story from birminghamnewsroom.com

Abolish all witches camps
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Action Aid International, Madam Joana Kerr, has called for the immediate abolition of witches camps and witchcraft accusations against women and young girls, which is considered an acceptable cultural practice by the people of the Northern Region of Ghana.

According to her, the practice was not only outmoded and dehumanising, but also offered opportunities to vindictive persons in the affected societies to torture, harass, humiliate, and violate the fundamental human rights of the suspected witches. Read full story from modernghana.com

Business ‘brooming’ at new witchcraft shop
Self-proclaimed “wiccan” Julie Bliss has opened a witchcraft store in Darwin’s northern suburbs.

Ms Bliss said business was brooming because Darwin had a thriving wiccan community. Read full story from ntnews.com.au

Navajo health may improve with ozone curbs
FARMINGTON, N.M. – Tribal and conservation groups applauded an Environmental Protection Agency proposal that could improve the health of Navajo people and reduce by 80 percent a power plant-induced haze that has clouded the Grand Canyon and Mesa Verde National Parks and other scenic southwestern venues. Read full story from indiancountrytoday.com

The magic of the mummies
“I am the Sata-snake, long of years, who sleeps and is reborn each day. I am the Sata-snake, dwelling in the limits of the earth. I sleep and am reborn, renewed and rejuvenated each day.”

This is a translation of a spell (right) from the Egyptian Book of the Dead, on display at the British Museum, which enables the speaker to change into a snake. It may not read like a spell – eye of bat, skin of toad – but it was expected to have a magical effect and to be recited by a mummy – the dead person in the tomb. Read full story from guardian.co.uk

Are dreams trying to tell us something
The woman lies asleep next to her husband in a lovely house in the Scottish countryside.

She is a film maker. She has made several award-winning documentaries about science. Her three children are abed. She is dreaming. Suddenly, she wakes up, feeling very scared. In her dreams, her horse, George, has spoken to her. He has told her that he is dying. Trembling, she ventures outside in the dark night. George is lying on the ground. He is dead.

The woman, normally rational and sceptical, tries to put the horse dream out of her mind. Some nights later, an even more shocking dream crashes into her life. In it, her ex-partner tells her that she will die before her 49th birthday. He is sorry to bring this news. She is 48 years old. In a few months she will become seriously ill. Read full story from heraldscotland.com

Green Festival November 2010: Why The Green Festival Still Matters
This weekend, San Francisco held the biannual Green Festival, the nation’s largest green consumer living event. Thousands of people flocked to the Concourse Exhibition Center, spilling out onto the sidewalks, to see over 300 exhibitors and hear over 125 speakers. There have been many green festivals this Autumn, two examples are West Coast Green and Bioneers. Many of these green festivals shared the same exhibitors: Sungevity, Earth Island Institute, Presidio School of Management, to name a few. So what makes Green Festival unique, and why does having yet another green conference matter? Green Festival stood out to me for its sheer number of attendees, its festive atmosphere, and its rallying call to action after the sobering November 2010 election results. Read full story from treehugger.com

‘More ghosts’ after earthquake
The “sheer strength and power” of the September 4 earthquake has more than doubled the number of reported supernatural events in Canterbury, a paranormal investigator says.

Christchurch Paranormal Investigators founder Anton Heyrick said his team had received an “interesting influx” of phone calls and emails after the 7.1-magnitude earthquake, with more than double the usual number of inquiries. Read full story from stuff.co.nz

National UnFriend Day Announcement Featuring William Shatner (source cbsnews.com)

Homeless church fights to hang on (source cnn.com)

Gay Christians: WWJD? (source cnn.com)

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News & Submissions 11/04/2010

Thursday, November 4th, 2010

Faith in America; The Transformation of Religion
From the gods of ancient Greece to Catholicism, religious beliefs have been very influential in the progression of civilizations. In the modern day, however, it seems as though religion is now very different in terms of people practicing it, and how people are beginning to leave the religion in which they were raised. The morals of religion are, unfortunately, also being left behind as well as more people abandon religion altogether.

The world has many different religions. Christianity, Judaism, and Islam are major faiths that have believers across the globe. In the United States, religion is still a major part of the country’s make-up. Politics surrounding issues such as abortion and gay marriage are directly influenced by teachings of the Church and other religions. However, recent studies show that Americans in the 21st century are now changing the way they recog­nize religion in their lives. Read full story from theskylineview.com

An introduction into the world of Wicca
Massage therapist Star Kenney of Overland Park, Kan., is a witch. She practices the pagan religion of Wicca or witchcraft.

An introduction into the world of Wicca

This conversation took place at the Black Dog Cafe in Lenexa, Kan. Read full story from kansascity.com

Consulate works to restore Dia de los Muertos
In many small towns in Mexico, the main export isn’t the local chocolate, coffee or peppers, but labor.

An event Wednesday evening in Yuba City marked a concept to change that trade deficit, while celebrating both small business and a traditional Mexican observance.

Marta Sol, of the Chiapas state in Mexico, beamed as she used a modern coffeemaker to incorporate Chiapas coffee beans and chocolate to make hot beverages — leavened with spirits — to toast deceased loved ones. Read full story from appeal-democrat.com

Beyond This Mortal Coil
“The traditional celebration of Dia de los Muertos started over 3500 [years] ago by the Aztecs, who practiced a month-long celebration that honored those who had died and welcomed their spirits back to Earth for a visit. During this ritual, they would often display skulls that they had collected as symbols of life, death, and rebirth.” (“Sugar Skulls: History & Significance of Dia de los Muertos [Day of the Dead]” By Karen L. Hudson, About.com.) Read full story from sandiegoreader.com

Atheists: Utah Trooper Crosses “Offensive & Unconstitutional”
I received an email today asking why American Atheists was “attacking” the Utah Highway Patrol Memorial. The email accused American Atheists of having an “issue with honoring fallen Utah peace officers.” It wanted to know why we could not just drive past it and see it as a MONUMENT (their use of caps). The writer then went on to say that it doesn’t matter if the peace officer is Christian, Jewish, Hindu, or atheist: they are just being honored. Read full story from opposingviews.com

My Take: Why I changed from ‘Faith’ to ‘Being’
Since I left print journalism to study theology two decades ago, I’ve thought a great deal about the limits and possibilities of words – especially when we try to navigate the spiritual territory of human life.

And when I started a public radio program on religion, ethics and meaning seven years ago, I was also quite aware that I was inviting people to put words around something as intimate as anything we try to talk about, and as ultimately ineffable. Read full story from cnn.com

Earth will take 100,000 years to recover from global warming say geologists
A conference organised by the Geological Society in London this week will bring together scientists from around the world to look at how the world coped with climate change in the past.

By studying rock sediments from millions of years ago geologists have been able to model how increases in greenhouse gases led to temperature change and extinction of species. Read full story from telegraph.co.uk

Bel Air leaves in place ban on fortune-telling (source abc2news.com)

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News & Submissions 11/03/2010

Wednesday, November 3rd, 2010

All Christians ‘targets,’ Iraqi militant group says
Baghdad, Iraq (CNN) — All Christians in the Middle East are now “legitimate targets,” al Qaeda in Iraq announced Wednesday, as the group’s deadline for Egypt’s Coptic church to release alleged Muslim female prisoners expired.

An audio message released Monday gave the church 48 hours to disclose the status of Muslim women it said are imprisoned in Coptic churches in Egypt. Read full story from cnn.com

Christian holiday celebrations are out of date
John Philips (Write Back, November 1) states that Christianity “cleverly sanitised” pagan festivals in spring and mid-winter into Easter and Christmas.

While these festivals may have been “sanitised”, it was not that “clever”. Many of the pagan rituals remain in these festivals, including the use of evergreen decorations, such as holly, ivy, mistletoe and pine trees. Read full story from belfasttelegraph.co.uk

5,000-year-old practice comes around again
Unlike a maze, which includes dead ends and tall walls that are meant to confuse, a labyrinth traces a single path that leads inexorably to the center. It has ancient roots in pagan pre-Christian beliefs, Celtic traditions, and even Wicca, and many consider it a spiritual journey to walk one. Read full story from philly.com

Chief Oshkosh controversy brings back painful memories
OSHKOSH, Wis. – The decision by the mayor of Oshkosh, Wis., to use the name and image of Chief Oshkosh to promote beer drinking in his tavern highlights long-standing cultural dissonances between Natives and non-Natives. Though less than one percent of the population of Oshkosh is Native American, its proximity to the Menominee Nation of Wisconsin has made the mayor’s promotion a focus of the ongoing controversy over how and by whom names and images of Native American leaders may be used. Read full story from indiancountrytoday.com

Mexicans Seek Charms, Potions To Ward Off Bad Luck
The Sonora Market near the center of Mexico City is a labyrinth of narrow alleyways that wind between overstuffed stalls where the air is thick with sage smoke. One entire section is known as the mercado de brujeria, or the “witchcraft market.”

In a country facing tough times, Mexicans come to the market to buy potions, herbs and charms that supposedly will bring good luck and protection. Read full story from minesotapublicradio.org

Journey Through the Afterlife: Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead – review
Statues are speaking at the British Museum. The dead are coming to life. The statue in front of me is a small painted wooden figure of the god Osiris, just over half a metre high, in a glass case in one of the first rooms of this engrossing exhibition. It is instantly striking, because of the bright green of its face and hands, but its verbal eloquence lies hidden inside. Read full story from guardian.co.uk

Carving a contemporary tribute to history
NIWOT, Colo. – Annual Nostalgia Days festivities in this community north of metro Denver recall the past for the area’s original descendants as well as for those whose 19th century ancestors settled here.

An eagle capture was depicted in a massive carving dedicated at the high point of a celebration for area residents and Northern Arapaho tribal members from the Wind River Reservation, in Wyoming. Noted Arapaho leader, Niwot (Left Hand), gave the town its name and brokered a temporary peace with white settlers in the gold rush era. Read full story from indiancountrytoday.com

Sacred Spaces: inside a Buddhist fire rite ceremony (source cnn.com)

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