Pagan

Syracuse University’s newest chaplain is pagan priestess Mary Hudson
Hudson earlier this month became the 11th chaplain on the Hendricks staff, taking her place among representatives of more mainstream faiths like Episcopalianism, Roman Catholicism and Buddhism. Read full story from blog.syracuse.com

Pow wow marketing 101
If these events are well-attended, dancers feel a greater sense of appreciation, tribal members feel honored and vendors stand to make more profit. If these events have a low turnout the collective self-esteem of the tribe may suffer, vendors may have difficulty making ends meet and the outside public cannot benefit from the richness of learning about American Indian culture. Read full story from indiancountrytoday.com

Satan worshipers possible suspects in Simon slaying
UTICA —The last hours of Kimberly Simon’s life in 1985 were likely spent with a group of young men who worshiped the devil, tortured cats, used hallucinogenic drugs and sexually abused women, according to investigators who have been probing her homicide for the past 16 months. Read full story from uticaod.com

Court ruling says Amish farmers exempt from livestock registration rules
NEILLSVILLE, Wis (WSAU) A central Wisconsin judge says an Amish farmer does not have to register his livestock premise with the state, as required by a five-year-old law. Emanuel Miller Junior of Loyal said the law violates his religious beliefs. And in a ruling yesterday, Clark County Circuit Judge Jon Counsell said the state failed to prove that its need to protect food safety and animal health could not be achieved by adopting something less restrictive. Read full story from wsau.com

The New Paganism
As many commentators and “global warming skeptics” have observed, climate science has metamorphosed into a religion—or, more accurately, a cult in religious dress. It has its high priests (Al Gore, David Suzuki, James Hansen, Rajendra Pachauri), its sacred texts such as computer models whose inconsistencies and disparities are blithely ignored by the myriads of true believers, its prevailing orthodoxies that cannot safely be questioned or violated, and its Second Ecumenical Council of the Global Warming Vatican (after Kyoto), known as the Copenhagen Climate Conference. Carbon taxes resemble the traffic in Indulgences during the Medieval era as energy sinners buy absolution from a profiteering clergy. A divinity called Gaia now receives the prayers and invocations of a vast sodality of devout worshippers. The new religion is here, a resurgent faith, as George Will writes, “in man-made global warming [which] is now a tissue of assertions impervious to evidence.” Read full story from frontpagemag.com

Occult funeral for drug addict killed in ritual
A pagan rocker died at his drug-den farmhouse after a witchcraft ritual went nightmarishly wrong. Read full story from belfasttelegraph.co.uk

National Women’s History Project’s 30th anniversary brings new emphasis on women in history
Used to be, a woman had to wield a sharp instrument to get any respect in history class. Until the late 1970s, those who got the most ink in school textbooks were Betsy Ross, the widowed upholsterer who is said to have sewn the first American flag in 1776, and Carrie Nation, the hatchet-wielding, Bible-thumping temperance activist who broke up saloons in the early 1900s. Read full story from nj.com

Double, double fun and bubbles
Nobody’s getting burned at the stake. No one’s flying around the Benicia Clocktower on a broom. And there won’t likely be a curse cast on anyone questioning the admission charge. Read full story from timesheraldonline.com

Witches brew up a ball at Benicia Clocktower
“The Witches’ Ball is basically a celebration. They’re traditionally held around Halloween, but we decided it’d be much more fun to have a springtime Witches’ Ball,” said JoHanna White, president of sponsoring organization the Pagan Alliance. Read full story from timesheraldonline.com

Modern-day world lost spiritual orientation and sank in “high-tech paganism,” Kusturica believes
“High-tech pagans have invaded the world today. This paganism doesn’t do any good to a human-being. A person today lives under permanent technological control… However, the main difference of modern people is that they lost spiritual orientation. Uniqueness of a human being as God’s image in leveled down in the world today,” the film director said in his interview published by the NG-Religii paper in association with the Spas TV channel. Read full story from interfax-religion.com

Pagan Festivals and much merriment
Pantheacon 2010 was a hot spot for Pagan activities last weekend. We both were amazed at all Pagan wares for sale. It seemed like there was a lot more really beautiful occult supplies and jewels this year.  The costumes and fine clothing were stunning as usual. Always surprising how creative the Pagan culture is. Read full story from examiner.com

Christian Right’s attack on rights
Recently, WallBuilders, Inc., whose founder David Barton has been a guest on Fox’s “Huckabee,” among other venues, filed an amicus brief in a case in the Ninth Circuit. The brief argues that the religion protections of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution should be limited to Christians or, at most, monotheists because, in the founding era, the word “religion” meant only Christianity or, at most, monotheism. Barton’s history is all wrong. Read full story from washingtonpost.com

First Pagan Chaplain Appointed at Syracuse University
This is the first new chaplain since the appointments of the Buddhist and the historically black church chaplains and the 11th chaplain at Hendricks. As a chaplain, Hudson will work at Hendricks two days a week, sponsor community outreaches and be apart of the Chaplains Council. Read full story from virtueonline.org

Mary Daly changed my life
When I heard that Mary Daly had died in early January, I wrote on my Facebook page that she had changed my life. The ferocious theologian was among those writers responsible for the unraveling of my Presbyterian Christianity. I find myself hesitating to write about her, knowing that it means approaching the thick tangle of culture, gender, anger, and God. In that place, scorpions patrol and guard, tails lifted and ready to strike at a misstep in thought, feeling, or choice of words. As the witches say, “Where there’s fear there’s power,” so here I go. Read full story from uuworld.org

Bewitching plans for 400th anniversary of Pendle witch trials
A YEAR-long programme of events is being proposed to mark the 400th anniversary of the trial and execution of the Pendle witches. Read full story from lancashiretelegraph.co.uk

Scientologists in Haiti: A Firsthand Account
We’ve spoken to someone who traveled to Haiti on a Scientology plane — and witnessed firsthand the ineptitude, quackery and irresponsibility of the church’s minions in a disaster zone. Here’s his account. Read full story from gawker.com

Pagan Spirit Gathering 2010:“Spirals of Spirit and Light”
The Pagan Spirit Gathering (PSG) is one of America’s oldest and largest Nature Spirituality festivals. Since its inception in 1980, PSG has been bringing together hundreds of people from throughout the United States, plus other countries, to create community, celebrate Summer Solstice, and commune with Nature in a sacred environment. Sponsored by Circle Sanctuary, PSG is open to long-time practitioners as well as newcomers of a wide range of Nature religion traditions, including Wiccan, Contemporary Pagan, Druidic, Heathen, Celtic, Baltic, Greco-Roman, Isian, Shamanic, Hermetic, Animistic, Egyptian, Native American, Afro-Carribean, Taoist, Pantheistic, Ecofeminist, and Nature Mystic. PSG is an opportunity for personal renewal, networking, education, and cultural enrichment. Get more details at circlesanctuary.org