Lore: According to legend, Orchis was the son a Satyr and nymph. During a celebration for Bacchanalians he attempted to rape a priestess. Eventually, he was put to death by Bacchanalians. His father prayed to the Gods to give pity on him. Orchis was then given eternal life as this root, which led to the belief that Orchid roots provide a practitioner with the lusty sexuality of the satyr.
Magical and Ritual Uses:
The tuber can be dried and carved into an amulet or talisman for love and romance.
The powdered root is considered to be an aphrodisiac.
Orchids are ideal for Handfastings.
The gift of an orchid puts romantic energy in motion. (It’s been used in the feast or cup for the Great Rite to embody the deities for fertility)
News:
Elderly relatives accused of being WITCHES by their children so they can burn them alive and claim their inheritance
Juma Kalume Musunye’s six grandchildren beat her until she fell to the ground crying, and then doused her in petrol, claiming she had used witchcraft to paralyse their mother’s hands.
‘They wanted to kill me,’ said the 65-year-old widow who lives on Kenya’s coast, where the Mijikenda people traditionally blame witches for illness and misfortune. Read more: dailymail.co.uk
Celebrate the magic of Samhain in Salem.
Thanks for stopping by,
Lisa
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References:
Llewellyn’s Magical Almanac
Llewellyn’s 2016 Moon Sign Book: Conseious Living by the cycles of the moon
Catherine Yronwode: Hoodoo Herb and Root Magic
Paul Beyerl: A Compendium of Herbal Magick
Scott Cunningham: Cunningham’s Encyclopedia of magical herbs
Lore: Jasmine is associated with the feminine and maternal aspect of the Divine Universe. It was held as a sacred herb of Diana of Ephesus, Quan Yin, and the Virgin Mary. Jasmine corresponds well with the High Priestess and the four nine cards in the Tarot.
Magical and Ritual Uses:
For Love: Dried Jasmine flowers are added to sachets, charms and incense to attract a spiritual love.
For Money: The flowers will bring wealth and money if carried, burned or worn. It’s beautiful aroma is soothing and helps to lift spirits. Dreaming of Jasmine is said to foretell good fortune and good news for lovers.
For prophetic dreams: Burnin the bedroom.
For Creativity: Store Jasmine and Quartz crystals together to promote new and creative ideas.
Use in rituals when you wish to conjure the feminine properties of the Moon.
Jasmine is excellent to burn during meditation.
Dress and burn a candle with the oil for Psychic protection and health to one’s aura.
News:
Branded witches and cursed by spirits, Kenyan widows ousted from land NAIROBI, June 23 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Juma Kalume Musunye’s six grandchildren beat her until she fell to the ground crying, and then doused her in petrol, claiming she had used witchcraft to paralyse their mother’s hands.
“They wanted to kill me,” said the 65-year-old widow who lives on Kenya’s coast, where the Mijikenda people traditionally blame witches for illness and misfortune.
“My son told them I had bewitched his wife.”
Hearing her screams, Musunye’s neighbours rushed out and rescued her.
“I am really bitter,” she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation ahead of International Widows’ Day on Thursday.
“I am old, my health is not good and my children do not care about me.”
Musunye was speaking by phone from Kaya Godoma, a centre set up in 2008 to care for elderly people ousted by their relatives. Read full story – dailymail.co.uk
Portsmouth medium jailed as a witch for ‘predicting’ sinking of battleship
My recent picture of HMS Barham leaving Portsmouth Harbour in the 1930s reminded Calum Kennedy of the unusual connection between the battleship, Portsmouth and witchcraft.
He recalls that in November 1941 Helen Duncan, a Scottish spiritual medium, held a séance at the Master Temple Psychic Centre, a room above Homers drug store at 301 Copnor Road, Copnor. During the séance Duncan indicated that HMS Barham had been sunk. Read full story – portsmouth.co.uk
Thanks for stopping by,
Lisa
References:
Llewellyn’s Magical Almanac
Llewellyn’s 2016 Moon Sign Book: Conseious Living by the cycles of the moon
Catherine Yronwode: Hoodoo Herb and Root Magic
Paul Beyerl: A Compendium of Herbal Magick
Scott Cunningham: Cunningham’s Encyclopedia of magical herbs
Lore: Cinnamon was burned to purify temples in ancient China. It also promotes health, vigor and libido.
Magical and Ritual Uses:
For Love: Add to oils, powders, and mojo bags.
Cleansing Incense: Mix with Frankincense, Myrrh, Camphor, and Sandalwood, burn every day for 14 days to purify your home. The insencse can also be used to smudge the body or gifts received from unknown parties or the dead.
To Draw money: Place three Cinnamon sticks with Fast Luck oil in a green bag, add Nutmeg with money drawing oils. Place in an amulet for good fortune
When burned as an Incense: Aids in healing, concentration, high spiritual vibrations, stimulates psychic powers, and enhances protective vibrations.
News
Summer solstice events and pagan sites around Britain
The summer solstice festival continues until June 21 on the campsite set closest to Stonehenge, and visitors can enjoy free access to the sacred site to celebrate the summer solstice from tonight at 7pm until 8am tomorrow (sunrise will be at 4.45am). Offerings include various food stands, a real ale bar and cider festival, as well as fire twisters and musical entertainment by night. Read full story – telegraph.co.uk
On the Summer Solstice, it’s not just neo-pagans like me who should be reconnecting with the natural world We have a deep and undeniable relationship with nature – from the fact that our bodies naturally wake up when they see sunlight, to our tendency and need to live beside water, to the spooky fact that the menstrual cycle is the same length as the lunar month. Read full story – independent.co.uk
French woman accused of murdering daughter on beach blames witchcraft
A French woman who left her baby daughter to drown on a beach blamed “witchcraft” when she went on trial for murder on Monday.
Fabienne Kabou, 39, who was described as having “remarkable intelligence … but subject to irrational beliefs”, travelled to Berck-sur-Mer with her only child, Adélaïde, in November 2013. Read full story - theguardian
Thanks for stopping by,
Lisa
References:
Llewellyn’s Magical Almanac
Llewellyn’s 2016 Moon Sign Book: Conseious Living by the cycles of the moon
Catherine Yronwode: Hoodoo Herb and Root Magic
Paul Beyerl: A Compendium of Herbal Magick
Scott Cunningham: Cunningham’s Encyclopedia of magical herbs
Ryan Murphy revealed the set up for the next installment of “American Horror Story” during a Friday night event for Emmy voters. Coven will be a massive witch-off: Salem versus voodoo.
“The witches of Salem, the smart ones, got out very early and they were none of the ones who were burned,” Murphy explained. “They all gravitated toward New Orleans, where they now live, and every generation has a great witch who has the most powers of them all, and that’s called the Supreme. Ms. Jessica Lange is the Supreme.” Read full story – au.ibtimes.com
Books:
Out of the Broom Closet, into the Rave: ‘Pop Pagans: Paganism and Popular Music’ Paganism and popular music share a love of physicality. Rooting this scholarly anthology not in beliefs constructed by modern society referring to nature, but arising rather from earth’s own manifestations by cultural contexts, co-editor Donna Weston introduces 13 contributions to the study of Pagans and music now. (The capitalization is significant: convention prefers a “P” for modern followers and a “p” for pre-Christian adherents.) Read full story – popmatters.com
News:
Witchcraft-accused force-fed human excreta PARSA, AUG 07 – A single woman in Bishrampur-1 in the district was allegedly thrashed and force-fed human excreta on the charge of practising witchcraft , police said.
According to police, Devmati Chaurasiya, Lalchuni Chaurasiya and the latter’s son Manjaya, who beat 65-year-old Saraswoti Devi Chaurasiya on Tuesday evening, are arrested for necessary investigation.
However, local resident Bijaya Chaurasiya, who was also reportedly involved in the incident, is at large. Read full story – ekantipur.com
My Mother the Witch what if your mother were a witch? Do you think she would have done things a bit differently from other mothers? Based on my experience, you would be right…
My mother Maggie, as she likes to be called, has referred to herself as a witch for a couple of decades now — at least since she was in her early 70s. That was around the time she started adding 8,000 years to the date: She would date her letters to me 9989 instead of 1989 and 9992 instead of 1992, to signal that she was reckoning time from the estimated beginning of Goddess worship. Nowadays, at 92 years young, she talks about the Goddess often, keeps an altar with a Goddess statue from Malta, and regularly wears a large pentacle around her neck. Read full story – huffingtonpost.com
Slippery Spells: Gay-Inclusive Curriculum Leads To Witchcraft Says South Carolina Teacher A South Carolina teacher is making the rounds on the anti-gay circuit for his wild claims about homosexuality in the classroom. Last week the infamous Fox News contributor and American Family Association radio host Sandy Rios — who last week compared the love two gay men feel to the “love” kidnapper and rapist Ariel Castro felt for the women he kept captive as slaves in his home — talked with Ira Thomas, a South Carolina teacher.
Thomas told Rios that a gay-inclusive curriculum is harmful to children, and said “it’s like teaching people about how to use crack.” Read full story -thenewcivilrightsmovement.com
During the school year, Lizarda Urena, the mother of two students, prayed out loud on the steps of the school as students walked in.
Urena said she had a calling in 2011 to fight school violence with prayer, so she started praying on the steps of the auditorium between 7 and 7:15 a.m. as students filtered in. Read full story -wcvb.com
Woman charged in Globe crash threatened voodoo hex, police say BOSTON —A police report says an Everett woman accused of being drunk when her car rammed a newspaper delivery truck on a Boston highway, sending it plummeting 40 feet to the ramp below, threatened to put a voodoo hex on the arresting officer.
Police say 25-year-old Vivencia Bellegarde struck the Boston Globe truck on Interstate 93 at about 3:15 a.m. Monday. The driver, Paul Healy Jr. of Brockton, was listed in fair condition at a hospital on Tuesday. Read full story -wcvb.com
Paranormal:
Couple says app lets the iPhone communicate with ghosts INDIANAPOLIS STAR – Those thumps and bumps in the night, or the item that mysteriously falls from a shelf, are more than coincidence and may be signs the spirit world is trying to communicate. At least that’s what a Greenwood, Ind., couple is banking on.
Ghost hunters Roger Pingleton and Jill Beitz, founders of StreamSide Software, have developed an iPhone app they say gives the dead a voice.
In developing the Spirit Story Box app (99 cents to download at the Apple app store; there is no Android version), Pingleton said his goal was to improve on other paranormal apps for the iPhone. Read full story – KSDK.com
The Bedfordshire pair, who cannot be named in order to protect the identity of their two daughters, say they have been persecuted for their beliefs and claim social services accused them of ‘devil worship’.
They are due to appear in court for the custody of the children in September after they were taken into foster care around 18 months ago. Read full story bedfordshire-news.co.uk
Mbozi man killed, wife injured over witchcraft THREE people, including an old man who was butchered by unidentified people on suspicion of witchcraft at Lumbila Village, Mbozi District in Mbeya Region, died in spearate incidents over the weekend.
Mbeya Regional Police Commander (RPC), Diwani Athumani, said that the old man, Msawile Halinga (70) was stabbed to deathe by unidentified people, saying the suspects also wounded his wife Esther Mgala Mgala (60). “The deceased’s wife was taken to Mbozi District Hospital for medical treatment after she sustained multiple wounds on her body,” said the RFC. Read full story dailynews.co.tz
His victims have been the elderly or people suspected of practising sorcery and police said he killed them “after being paid”. They added that he about to wipe out a family when he was nabbed.
But it is not clear why the suspect has been held without charge since July 18 or if police have sought court permission to continue holding him. Read full story from StandardDigital
Mysterious pentagram etched into remote Kazakhstan field explained A mysterious pentagram discovered by satellites etched into a remote corner of northern Kazakhstan, baffling and mystifying viewers around the world has been explained — and it couldn’t be further from the Gates of Hell.
The massive 1,200 feet in diameter pentagram just 12 miles west of the city of Lisakovsk has been identified as the remnants of a former Soviet-era summer camp whose grounds are said to have never been completed. Read full story nydailynews.com
Paranormal:
Ghostly reputation makes house a tough sale WILKES-BARRE – For sale: Two-story single family home on South Welles Street, complete with washer, dryer, kitchen appliances – and ghosts.
Stacey Evans and her husband, Matt, are trying to sell her mother’s house, but they’re afraid its long-standing reputation as haunted might hinder the sale.
Enter investigators from nonprofit, Luzerne County based Deadline Paranormal to find out for sure.
On Sunday evening the house at 46 S. Welles St. swarmed with human activity as investigators placed cameras, recorders and assorted other electronic devices throughout both floors and the basement in order to check for paranormal activity. Read full story citizensvoice.com
Pagan Pride festival dispels myths
Amanda Hyde admits it was the spells and rituals that drew her to paganism as a rebellious teenager. But more than a decade later, that shock value has long subsided.
“There are a lot of misconceptions,” she laughed.
For 10 years now, Hyde has organized Pagan Pride Day in Hamilton as a chance to celebrate their beliefs and give outsiders a glimpse into their lifestyle to dispel the myths.
“A lot of people think of pagan people as fringe folk. But you come here and you meet teachers, police officers, government workers…” she said of the volunteer-run event. Read full story from metronews.ca
UConn students display Pagan pride on Fairfield Way
The first Pagan Pride Day took place on Fairfield Way Saturday afternoon in order to educate students about the Pagan beliefs and make the community aware of their presence on campus.
Sponsored by the Pagan Organization of Diverse Spirituality (PODS) they manage to attract a few people in and out of the event who were curious enough to learn more about the different religions that were represented. Each stand had their own unique religion that branches off from the Pagan religion. The beliefs ranged from Troth to Witchcraft and Wiccan and each stand handed out information on them. Read full story from dailcampus.com
Arts & Entertainment:
Why Witches Will Replace Hollywood’s Obsession With Zombies & Vampires
Maybe you’ve noticed something in Hollywood when it comes to action and horror movies; they jump on the popularity of a trend faster than you walked out of Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked. We’ve already been treated to a debacle of 80s cartoon remakes, with Transformers, G.I. Joe, The Smurfs, and a new Ninja Turtles reboot headed our way, courtesy of Michael Bay. But Hollywood, faithful as you’d expect to deliver what the people want, goes beyond that.
When a zombie movie is released to major success, a multitude of zombie films randomly appear to be thrust into screens everywhere. After Danny Boyle’s 2002 feature 28 Days Later, we were treated with Resident Evil, House of the Dead, Dawn of the Dead, Dawn of the Living Dead, Resident Evil: Apocalypse, Shaun of the Dead, Land of the Dead, Diary of the Dead, Zombieland…you get the point. The fact is, we saw a whole lot more big budget zombie flicks after the success of one, and it’s not just a case of the undead. Read full story from whatculture.com
News:
Pagans practice, live in hiding in Wyo.
LARAMIE, Wyo. – - Becca Haskins has “the best job in the world,” she says, working in a lab at a Powder River Basin coal mine.
For that, she thanks her faith – paganism.
Before Haskins got the job, she performed a spell with candles. Then everything fell into place.
Haskins is 22, lives in Gillette and applies her faith as a “solitary practitioner,” meaning she is not affiliated with a group.
Among pagans, Wyoming is a state of solitary practitioners, the result of low population, wide spaces between cities and towns and dozens of pagan sects. The exception is Laramie, which has the Wolf Tree Kindred. Read full story from standard.net
Man ‘used witchcraft to traffic children’ for prostitution An alleged people trafficker cut the chest of a vulnerable 14-year-old girl with a razor during a series of “juju” witchcraft rituals aimed at terrifying young recruits into silence before selling them into prostitution across Europe, a court heard yesterday.
Osezua Osolase recruited and raped impoverished young Nigerian orphans and forced them to undergo West African rituals in which hair, nails and blood were removed to “cast a spell” over them and ensure their obedience, Canterbury Crown Court was told. Read full story from indpendent.co.uk
Witchcraft at Fourah Bay
Two boys of No. 3 Foster Street, at the Fourah Bay community, East of the capital on Thursday, September 13th openly confessed of practicing wizardry, after being conjured by a witch doctor called, Umaru Kamara, a native of Yoni Bana Chiefdom.
The eldest of the confessors named Osman Njai and his cousin, Amidu Savage, 13 and 12 years old respectively, confessed to a mammoth crowd of family members and relatives including journalists and people of that community that they were responsible for the multiple mishaps facing their family relatives in the spirit realm. Read full story from sierraexpressmedia.com
Woman Killed and Burned in Colombia over Suspected Witchcraft
A woman suspected of practicing witchcraft was murdered and her body burned over the weekend in the Colombian town of Santa Barbara.María Berenice Martínez’s naked body was found inside her house with blows to the skull, her hair ripped out and burn marks, according to Colombian press reports. The killers had tied the door shut with a rope so she couldn’t escape.
After killing Martinez, the murderers took her hair and some photos to the patio and set them on fire as her six dogs barked at them.
Police suspect two men of committing the crime, though Martinez’s sister—also named María—says more people may have known about the plot. Read full story from foxnews.com
As autumn starts to draw in, thoughts turn to the pagans of our ancient past
The nights are growing longer and on many trees the leaves are slowly turning from green to gold, heralding the arrival of autumn. We seem to have missed out on the season of summer this year and crops of fruit and grain are poor at a time when they should be in abundance. Good hay is virtually unobtainable but the wrapped round bale has allowed us to at least salvage a fodder crop of some sort. The summer we have just endured reminded me of a passage in David Thomson’s book Woodbrook, when he wrote of helping to make hay in a wet season in Roscommon in the 1930s. Read full story from independent.ie
Federal safety minister hexes job posting for prison witch in B.C. VANCOUVER — Public Safety Minister Vic Toews appears less concerned about the quality of spells cast from behind bars than he is about a backlash from taxpayers, cancelling a Corrections Canada tender for a priest to nurture the spiritual needs of witches in prison.
Earlier this week, the federal prison agency put out a request for a proposal for a Wiccan chaplain in British Columbia who would provide about 17 hours of service a month, about an hour less service than the department says it needs for the Jewish faith. Read full story from vancouversun.com
Paranormal:
‘Paranormal Activity’ producer branches out into haunted houses
In the underground dressing room of a dilapidated theater in downtown Los Angeles, a Hollywood art director is telling a chilling tale.”It was closing night in the 1930s, and the owner’s wife desperately wanted to be the magician’s assistant,” said Thom Spence, a burly man with two earrings, long sideburns, a mustache and a soul patch. “But after Magi the Mysterious put her in the vanishing box, she never came back.”
In less than a month that story will come to life at the 88-year-old Variety Arts Theatre under the direction of film producer Jason Blum — not as a play, movie or TV show, but as a haunted house. Read full story from latimes.com
Hagar, the camerawoman for Amy Bruni and Adam Berry, made an unexpected appearance on the show last night after being attacked and scratched by an invisible entity – but this didn’t go unnoticed by Grant Wilson.
Grant contacted Hagar this morning via Twitter to congratulate her on her appearance on “Ghost Hunters” after receiving a tweet from her telling him how much he was missed. Read full story from examiner.com
New movie in production based on Rose Hall’s ‘White Witch’ legend
Albany pagans looking for future films related to witchcraft and the occult will definitely have some entertainment to look forward to next year. According to an article appearing in the “Jamaica Observer,” a new thriller film called, “The Rebellion: The Legend of the White Witch of Rose Hall,” is slated for production and release in 2013. The movie will be produced by Raquel Roxanne, directed by Rodrigo Retamoza III, and written by Nadine Barnett Cosby. The film will be based on the famed and haunted history at the Rose Hall Great House in Montego Bay, Jamaica. Read full story from examiner.com
The Sims 3 Supernatural Review: Witches, Fairies, Werewolves And Magic
With vampires, bots, imaginary friends and other strange beings brought into our Sims 3 communities thanks to previously released expansion packs for EA’s game, it’s hard to imagine things getting any weirder around the neighborhood. And then comes Supernatural, an expansion pack that unleashes a few new types of beings into the world, giving the player new ways to play the game, and new powers for their Sims to use and abuse at their discretion.
The following review contains spoilers, details and screenshots from the Sims 3: Supernatural expansion pack. It is based on game-play with a Macbook Pro with OS X Mountain Lion. This game is an expansion pack and requires the base game in order to play. Read full story from cinemablend.com
This fall, U-M doesn’t seem to be offering courses quite as controversial or off-the-wall as those two, but the school definitely has a few oddballs sprinkled in its course packet.
The unconventional offerings include courses that explore whether aliens really exist, whether Robin Hood was real and what famous thinkers would be saying and doing if they were alive today. Read full story from annarbor.com
Lifestyle:
Beyond the surreal A career Wicca, Ipsita Roy Chakraverti is on a mission to dispel myths surrounding witchcraft and save the lives of women victimised by superstitionFor Ipsita Roy Chakraverti, the world of the paranormal and metaphysical is not some make-believe hocus pocus, or the stuff that scripts sensational television drama. It is her life’s work. A popular Wicca, or witch in lay terms, she not only administers Wiccan ways of healing, but has also made it her mission to travel to remote villages across India, especially where innocent women are declared witches and then murdered, to dispel myths about “witchcraft”. Read full story from thehindu.com
News:
Ghana witch camps: Widows’ lives in exile
When misfortune hits a village, there is a tendency in some countries to suspect a “witch” of casting a spell. In Ghana, outspoken or eccentric women may also be accused of witchcraft – and forced to live out their days together in witch camps.A rusty motorbike speeds across the vast dry savannah of Ghana’s impoverished northern region, leaving a cloud of reddish dust in its wake. Arriving at a small group of round thatched huts, the young motorcyclist helps his old mother to dismount to begin her new life in exile.
Frail 82-year-old Samata Abdulai has arrived at the village of Kukuo, one of Ghana’s six witch camps, where women accused of witchcraft seek refuge from beating, torture or lynching. Read full story from standardmedia.co.ke
Witch hunts targeted by grassroots women’s groups
EAST LANSING, Mich. — Witch hunts are common and sometimes deadly in the tea plantations of Jalpaiguri, India. But a surprising source – small groups of women who meet through a government loan program – has achieved some success in preventing the longstanding practice, a Michigan State University sociologist found.Soma Chaudhuri spent seven months studying witch hunts in her native India and discovered that the economic self-help groups have made it part of their agenda to defend their fellow plantation workers against the hunts.
“It’s a grassroots movement and it’s helping provide a voice to women who wouldn’t otherwise have one,” said Chaudhuri, assistant professor of sociology and criminal justice. “I can see the potential for this developing into a social movement, but it’s not going to happen in a day because an entire culture needs to be changed.” Read full story from news.msu.edu
Medieval ‘Vampire’ Skull Found
The remains of a medieval “vampire” have been discovered among the corpses of 16th century plague victims in Venice, according to an Italian archaeologist who led the dig.
The body of the woman was found in a mass grave on the Venetian island of Lazzaretto Nuovo. Suspecting that she might be a vampire, a common folk belief at the time, gravediggers shoved a rock into her skull to prevent her from chewing through her shroud and infecting others with the plague, said anthropologist Matteo Borrini of the University of Florence.
In the absence of medical science, vampires were just one of many possible contemporary explanations for the spread of the Venetian plague in 1576, which ran rampant through the city and ultimately killed up to 50,000 people, some officials estimate. Read full story from livescience.com
White witch’s calls for pier archive footage
A WHITE witch is hoping to make a DVD charting memories of Hastings Pier in a bid to help campaigners battling to bring about its restoration.
Kevin Carlyon, of Dane Road, St Leonards, well-known for offering Tarot card readings to residents, has branched out to copying old video films onto DVD, and discovered a lot of footage of the Victorian attraction, some dating back to the 1930s.
He hopes to create a DVD that can be sold in order to raise funds for the Hastings Pier and White Rock Trust (HPWRT).
The pier was devastated by fire in October 2010.
Mr Carlyon said: “I don’t sit and watch people’s films through but as my computer is next to the recorders I do catch bits and there seems to be a fascinating amount of footage of Hastings Pier in its heyday. The earliest that I’ve seen is old cine film transferred to VHS which must come from the 1930s. Read full story from hastingsobserver.co.uk
The result is this great list of 27 books that range from introductory to scholarly in nature and cover the entire gamut of Pagan religions — Witchcraft, Wicca, Shamanism, Asatru, Druidism, Egyptian and Hellenic.
These books grapple with issues of sexuality, tell personal stories of faith, and provide information on the various Pagan religious rites. HuffPost Religion hopes that this list will be equally valuable for those who identify as Pagans, as well as those who are interested in Paganism, both academically and as a spiritual pursuit. Read full story from huffingtonpost.com
Radical Faerie Camp
went to BC Radical Faerie Camp as a reporter seeking to capture Faerie culture, but Faerie culture captured me.
The low-profile Faeries have undergone a resurgence in Vancouver in the last three years, reviving once-dormant weekly coffee events downtown and adding another in East Vancouver. The group held its first BC Faerie Camp last year; I attended the second camp with 72 Faeries on Victoria Day weekend. I was transfixed and transformed, forging genuine bonds with other queer men, a wonderful respite from attitude-filled, frigid Vancouver.
There are no rules, but Faerie rituals turn tradition on its head. Instead of applause, for example, Faeries hiss. Nobody leads Radical Faeries or defines its mission. Read full story from xtra.ca
Christian Author Tells How God Took Her Back From Witchcraft
A feeling of being abandoned by God and a curiosity about the pagan religion of Wicca led her to a 10-year life immersed in witchcraft, says a first-time Christian author. S.A. (Seleah Ally) Tower said she wants to share her story in order for others to learn how she escaped a very dark period in her life.
Tower told The Christian Post that her book, Taken from the Night – A Witches Encounter with God, is meant to tell her spiritual journey from first being a doubtful Christian, then to a witch, and later to a born-again believer in Jesus as authentically as possible. She wants the book and her testimony to help others who have experienced the same struggles in the spiritual realm. Read full story from christianpost.com
Taking the Taboo out of Wicca Jamie Dana was only in eighth grade when his life was shaken by the tragic loss of an infant child within his family. Unable to find an answer or explanation that made sense to him, he began a spiritual journey that led him to Wicca. Now the High Priest hopes to share his knowledge with others in Northeastern Pennsylvania.
According to Dana, Wicca is an earth-based religion that is both dualistic, meaning there are two equals, and polar, meaning everything has an opposite such as light and dark and life and death.
“We believe everything is connected to a divine essence and that everything has a soul or spirit, and anything that is put out affects that divine essence which affects you,” he explained. Read full story from theweekender.com
US should return stolen land to Indian tribes, says United Nations
A United Nations investigator probing discrimination against Native Americans has called on the US government to return some of the land stolen from Indian tribes as a step toward combatting continuing and systemic racial discrimination.
James Anaya, the UN special rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples, said no member of the US Congress would meet him as he investigated the part played by the government in the considerable difficulties faced by Indian tribes.
Anaya said that in nearly two weeks of visiting Indian reservations, indigenous communities in Alaska and Hawaii, and Native Americans now living in cities, he encountered people who suffered a history of dispossession of their lands and resources, the breakdown of their societies and “numerous instances of outright brutality, all grounded on racial discrimination”. Read full story from guardian.co.uk
Why shouldn’t paganism have a place in RE lessons?
Last month it was suggested that Cornish schools should study paganism in religious education. This modest proposal provoked a splenetic and histrionic reaction from Cristina Odone, in the Daily Telegraph. She seems to be under the impression that the schools’ new remit is to “teach witchcraft and druidry”. For an exciting moment, I had a vision of Hogwarts’ latest Ofsted inspection proving inspirational to Cornish educational authorities, with parents in Truro and Penzance being sent appropriate memos for their children’s latest classes (“Please supply: cauldron x 1, athame x 1, candles x 4. Child must bring own goat.”)
“How long,” Odone asks, working herself up to a tirade which one can only hope is tongue-in-cheek, “before the end of term is marked by a black mass, with only health and safety preventing a human sacrifice?” Read full story from guardian.co.uk
Paranormal:
Ghost Box Paranormal Tool Reveals Compelling Ghost Evidence
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS — There’s a paranormal tool that’s been used by ghost hunters for the past couple years, known as the ghost box. A paranormal investigator from Massachusetts has used the ghost box in his own home, and shared a video that reveals some compelling paranormal evidence, with possible proof that ghosts may actually exist.
Phillip Brunelle has been interested in the paranormal since his youth, and recently he founded ATF Paranormal Investigations and shares ghost videos and paranormal evidence on his YouTube channel, Mass Most Haunted. Read full story from technorati.com
‘Alien Abduction’ Research Suggests Episodes Are Actually Lucid Dreams
Hundreds of thousands or millions of Americans believe they have been abducted by aliens. In a typical case, an abductee recounts lying in bed one night when an eerie feeling overcomes him, and alien beings appear out of nowhere. The extraterrestrials transport him to a spacecraft and subject him to a battery of physical and psychological tests. After what seems like hours, he is returned to his bedroom unharmed, and finds that the whole ordeal transpired in minutes.
Abductees think their traumatic experiences were real. However, most psychologists think abductions are lucid dreams or hallucinations, triggered by an awareness of other people’s similar experiences. One recent experiment, in which participants trained in lucid dreaming techniques were able to dream up vivid alien encounters, supports this hypothesis. But if each perceived abduction is just the latest in a series of hallucinations, what was it that triggered that first dream or delusion? How was the alien abduction story born? Read full story from huffingtonpost.com
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