Day of the Dead honors ancestors
Día de los Muertos, meaning Day of the Dead, is celebrated on November first within the Hispanic cultures around the world. Originating in Mexico, this annual ritual dates back some 3,000 years in history. The rituals are about honoring and communicating with one’s dead ancestors, and was practiced among the Zapotec, Mixtec, Olmec, Maya, P’urhepecha, Totonac and Mexica societies. Read full story from The Examiner
Why the witches like to fly high
PICTURE the scene: it’s midnight on All Hallow’s Eve, the Witching Hour is upon you and flying above you are silhouetted figures with pointed hats, riding broomsticks, each with a black cat sat behind them. Their shrieking and cackles pierce the night sky. Read full story from theolivepress.com
Halloween: A User’s Guide
Halloween is no Hallmark Holiday. While it may have evolved into a kitschy festival of hard candy and plastic masks, its roots are actually thousands of years old and every bit as dark and sinister as we like to pretend. Read full story from piquenewsmagazine.com
From Samhain to Halloween in 2,000 years
Halloween today may seem — to some — like a played-out, secular commercial endeavour, used by candy companies and dollar stores to senselessly whore their cheap products to consumers, but the holiday also has deep religious historic roots, which Danzig hints at in the classic Misfits tune celebrating All Hallow’s Eve. Personally, I’ve always loved Halloween: the candy, the costumes, the pranks and the ghoulishly gothic atmosphere of graveyards and dark streets in autumn. Read full story from themanitobin.com
Founder of The Last Mask Center for Shamanic Healing Christina Pratt talks with Dr. Gina Ogden
Teacher, author, and founder of The Last Mask Center for Shamanic Healing Christina Pratt talks with Founder of The Last Mask Center for Shamanic Healing Christina Pratt talks with Dr. Gina Ogden about her groundbreaking healing work integrating sexuality and spirituality by using shamanic practices. Read full story from bignews.biz
Halloween’s magic
With Halloween around the corner, it is hard not to miss the green-skinned, warted witch who has been immortalized in popular culture by the Wicked Witch of the West from “The Wizard of Oz.” For those Broadway musical buffs our society has created an even more modern version, Elphaba from “Wicked.” Though sometimes we might not want to take the time to realize it, underneath all of the corporate packaging that goes into advertising Halloween, there lie remnants of ancient practices that honor and celebrate life’s less spoken of aspects. Read full story from Campus Times
Trick Or Treat
Spirit of Halloween explained, defended Pagans don’t believe in the devil, evil or hell Read full story from blog.syracuse.com
Wiccan, not wicked
Deborah Snavely cackled wildly when asked if she had a flying broom. For Snavely, a British traditional Wiccan priestess for 13 years, witchcraft is no matter of Hollywood hocus-pocus — it’s a reality. Read full story from dailyemerald.com
The witches and witchcraft in Wells and Arundel
Wells minister Rev. George Burroughs was hanged as a witch during the Salem delirium of 1692. A century later, widow Elizabeth Smith of Arundel was accused of witchcraft at the York County Court of Common Pleas and Sessions in Biddeford. Read seacoastonline.com
Witchcraft merchants in Tampa: It’s all good
On a rainy day in August, Kelley Sattley sat in the atrium of her apartment complex, waiting for the rain to stop so she could get to her car. She felt depressed and anxious about a pending divorce. An old woman she had never seen before sat down next to her and told her everything would be okay. Read full story from tampabay.com
New local network welcomes witches, pagans and others
While staunch Roman Catholic parents were teaching her about that church, she said, some maternal aunts were secretly grooming her to be the family’s next strega — Italian for female witch. It made for an interesting childhood — with memorable Sunday services Read full story from post-gazette.com
Tags: Days of the Dead, Halloween, Samhain, Shamanism, Wicca, Witch
