Pagan

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

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

Human sacrifices ‘on the rise in Uganda’ as witch doctors admit to rituals
One man said he had clients who had captured children and taken their blood and body parts to his shrine, while another confessed to killing at least 70 people including his own son. Read full story from telegraph.co.uk

Man Attempts to Kill Mother Over Witchcraft
A 27 year old man is being held by the police in Lagos for attempting to kill his mother on December 30, 2009 over alleged witchcraft which he claimed had retarded the progress of the family. Read full story from allafrica.com

It’s Witchcraft! Promises Fascinating Talk
A forthcoming lecture at the Manx Museum by Professor Ronald Hutton will shed light on the Isle of Man’s historical relationship with witchcraft. Read full story from isleofman.com

Native-owned company seeks donations for Crow Creek tipi
SEATTLE – When Gary E. LaPointe, Rosebud Sioux and a military veteran, heard the Crow Creek Sioux in South Dakota were fighting to hold onto 7,100 acres of land that had been seized by the IRS to pay a purported tax bill, his first thought was that the tribe must set up a tipi on the site. Read full story from indiancountrytoday.com

US Marines with strange lights and whispers in the night
The Marines found the bone as they scraped a shallow trench. Long, dry and unmistakably once part of a human leg, it was followed by others. They reburied most of them but also found bodies. Three of the graves were close together; in another was a skeleton still wearing a pair of glasses. The Marines covered the grave and told their successors to stay away from it. Read full story timesonline.co.uk

I would like to wish everyone a Happy New Year. For all your dreams and goals that were not complete in 2009, I wish for you to find them true in the New Year!  In love and Light, Blessings to all!

For last year’s words belong to last year’s language and next year’s words await another voice. And to make an end is to make a beginning. - T. S. Eliot

Paganism, Christianity, Wicca, Muslim, Protestant, Jewish and Catholic are all terms that we’re intimately familiar with. Each term represents a group of people with like minded beliefs on God, religion, and to a certain extent, how individuals should regard and live their life. In theory, and according to the books of each denomination, the faithful should be the kindest, most tolerant, devoted, and accepting philanthropist in the world. Sadly, this is not how things usually work out. History has shown us that in the early days Christians used every trick in the bag to turn the old world Pagans to Christianity by leveraging terror tactics not unlike those used by the Muslim extremists since 9/11. Following the establishment of Christianity as THE religion for Roman Europe, no less than 12 Crusades were documented between 1095 and 1234 where Christians, Jews, and Muslims were pitted against each other under the guise of religious cleansing. Believe what you will, though, it seems that this was really just a simple ploy to expand the reach of the Roman Empire and the authority of the Pope himself. Let’s not forget one of the most significant and well documented example of ethnic and religious cleansing, Hitler and the Nazi regime in Germany (followed by most of Europe) where the movement accounted for more than 12 million deaths (before World War 2) of which over 6 million were of Jewish faith.

Ancient Miwok harvested salt
United States Geological Service researchers James Moore and Michael Diggles have located a site halfway between Yosemite and Tahoe where 369 circular basins were once used to distill salt which was then traded for food and other items by the Miwok. Carved in glaciated granitic bedrock in a canyon on the west slope of the northern Sierra Nevada, the salt-collecting depressions are a meter-and-a-half across – much bigger than those found in the more plentiful acorn grinding rocks, according to Diggles, and nearly one meter deep. Read full story from indiancountrytoday.com

Kenyan witch-hunt targets elders
Dozens of villagers in the Kenyan district of Kisii are falling prey to superstitious groups accusing them of witchcraft. Read full story from aljeezra.net

Despite the sceptics, there is real truth in the story of Christmas
There are enough question marks over the Christmas story for dogmatic sceptics to have a field day at this time of year, but the core historical realities are not easily swept away. Read full story from smh.com.au

Group helps women find empowerment through nature, goddesses
The holiday triumvirate of Christmas, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa dominate December, leaving the winter solstice — which occurred Monday — as just another day to cross off the calendar. Read full story from contracostatimes.com

NEPAL:  Witch Tag Only on Dalits, Minorities
KATHMANDU, Dec 23 (IPS) - Just 40 kms away from the capital Kathmandu, in Thasingtole, Lalitpur District, Kalli Kumari B.K., 46, a local Dalit woman, was mercilessly beaten up. She was accused of being a ‘witch’, imprisoned in a shed and forced to eat her own excreta. Read full story from ipsnews.net