The Medical Power of Ritual
Harvard researcher Ted Kaptchuk trained for five years in traditional Chinese medicine, but then became one of the leading researchers into the placebo effect. In his hands, the fact that patients with some kinds of illnesses get better with dummy pills is a gateway into the ways that other aspects of medicine, including the capacity of doctors to generate feelings of hope, are overlooked in our technology-obsessed health care system.
Total lunar eclipse on December 20 or 21, depending on time zone
There is a lunar eclipse on the night of December 20 or 21 – depending on your time zone. See below for the date in your location. This December solstice eclipse is also the northernmost total lunar eclipse for several centuries.
There won’t be a total lunar eclipse this far north on the sky’s dome until December 21, 2485.
Fact and fiction of Paganism
THE cult film The Wicker Man has a lot to answer for. It featured a naked Britt Ekland tempting virgin cop Edward Woodward on a remote Scottish island before he is burned alive as a sacrifice to appease their Pagan Gods because of a crop failure – a bit different from your average Christian harvest festival. Now there are calls for Paganism to be put on the school curriculum. Should we be worried? Mike Kelly reports
Celebrating paganism with a winter solstice
A solstice is the celebration of the sun’s rebirth. Every year, Sudbury’s pagan community celebrates a summer and winter solstice, noting the longest and shortest days of the year.
Kristan Cannon-Nixon, one of five organizers who helps run both annual events, said its a way for pagans of all denominations to celebrate their beliefs together, and celebrate the shifting of seasons as it’s happening.
Quick Notes: Ghanaian Witch-Burning, The Power, and Polyamory
Will a Ghanaian Witch-Burning Turn the Tide? Last week a 72-year-old woman in Ghana was accused of being a witch, tortured, doused with kerosene, and lit on fire. This is nothing new; the United Nations and various NGOs have been talking about the global epidemic of witch-killings and witch-hunts for some time now. But will this latest gruesome case spark a change in Ghana? It could just be an illusion created by international press attention, but there seems to be widespread revulsion and outcry over this case, and even those forced to live in “witch camps” are agitating for justice. Read full story wildhunt.org
Candle rituals a symbolic form of prayer, a way to ask for change
In Wicca, and other pagan (nature-based) and mystical belief systems, burning candles is one of the simplest forms of magic. Not the “hocus-pocus, pull-a-rabbit-out-of-a-hat” variety of magic, but rather focusing and directing mental energies to manifest a change in the physical world. Read full story from winnipegfreepress.com
“Jesus is the ONLY reason for the season” Billboard
I saw a billboard here in San Diego (on University in Hillcrest), which reads “Jesus is the ONLY reason for the season,” apparantly sponsored by two businessmen. To paraphrase Jeff Dunham’s Achmed the Dead Terrorist: “Don’t say Merry Christmas, it only irritates the other infidels.”. That is a very profound statement. Read full story from sandiegoreader.com