Archive for the ‘Pagan News’ Category

News & Submissions 10/22/2009

Thursday, October 22nd, 2009

Fairfax teen may have died in Korean exorcism, police say
Someone pummeled and smothered 18-year-old Rayoung Kim in a bedroom of her home in a new suburban subdivision in Fairfax County. She fell unconscious and later died. Read full story from WashingtonPost.com

The unholy trinity: The three rebel sculptors that shocked the art world with their pagan forms
If you find yourself being troubled on the doorstep by a god-botherer, try playing the pagan card. You may find it’s effective in its off-putting-ness. The modern missionary is used to dealing with monotheism and atheism and versions of these things. But polytheism is trickier. Someone who seems to believe in a variety of divinities is rather hard to pin down for a conversion. Read full story from independant.com

Neigbors concerned that Wiccan is sex offender
SHELTON — A Greenfield Drive man’s plans to hold a Wiccan autumn celebration at his home last month never materialized, but his neighbors are still concerned about the intended use of the home he is building after learning that he is listed on the state’s Sex Offender Registry. Read full story from ConnPost.com

News & Submissions 10/19/2009

Monday, October 19th, 2009

Dead Man Mistaken for Halloween Decor
LOS ANGELES (Oct. 17) — Residents of a Southern California apartment complex say they saw a lifeless body slumped on a neighbor’s patio, but didn’t call police because they thought it was part of a Halloween display. Read full story from news.aol.com

Sex fiend Robin Fletcher a high risk
The egomaniac sex offender is no longer behind bars but can’t roam free thanks to a strict court order aimed at protecting the community. Read full story from heraldsun.com.au

Essex County Chronicles: Early inhabitants lived in fear of Mammy Redd, Old Luce
As Salem’s Haunted Happenings celebration cranks into full gear, the city’s streets are often filled with visitors dressed and made up as evil old crones, the likes of whom once terrified the residents of local communities. Read full story from salemnews.com

Speak Your Piece: Selling Indian Spirituality
The recent tragic deaths of two people inside a sweat lodge at Angel Valley near Sedona, Arizona, (a third participant died on Saturday) compelled me finally to write something about an issue that has long haunted me: the expropriation of American Indian culture and ritual by New Age entrepreneurs. Read full story from dailywonder.com

Witches, Ghosts and Hauntings..Oh My!
Pauline Bartel is an accomplished author, President and Chief Creative Officer of Bartel Communications, Inc., an award winning a corporate communications firm. She is a teacher, a sought after keynote speaker, and self proclaimed psychic. Read full story from troyrecord.com

What the Hex is going on in Canberra?
If you happened to be in Canberra for the weekend but limited yourself to the usual tourist circuit, you missed out on quite the exorcism. Danny Nalliah, the head of Catch the Fire ministries – convinced that Canberra witches’ covens had cursed our federal government with blood sacrifices on Mount Ainslie – gathered some 50 Christians to the North Canberra mountain to drive Beelzebub out. Read full story from WAtoday.com.au

Churches involved in torture, murder of thousands of African children denounced as witches
The idea of witchcraft is hardly new, but it has taken on new life recently partly because of a rapid growth in evangelical Christianity. Read full story from latimes.com

News & Submissions 10/17/2009

Saturday, October 17th, 2009

Happy Diwali
A very happy Diwali to all my Hindu and IndoPagan readers. Diwali, the festival of lights, is a major Indian holiday representing a spiritual new year, and a triumph of good over evil. Read full story from The Wild Hunt

The Spiritual Journey
Man is a religious animal, the only religious animal, and he has many religions at his disposal. He is the only animal that loves his neighbor as himself and is tempted to cut his throat if his theology differs. He has spilled vast quantities of blood across the globe while trying to bring heaven to his fellow man. Read full story from areawidenews.com

Church claims Halloween trick or treaters ‘side with the Devil’
For many children it is simply the time of the year to don fancy dress in the home or charming the neighbours out of a few sweets. Read full story from dailymail.co.uk

President Obama Celebrates Hindu Holiday
America’s minority religions certainly are getting a nice reception at the White House these days, with the latest celebration — the Hindu holiday of Diwali — taking place this afternoon in the East Room. Known as the Hindu “festival of lights,” it begins Saturday. Read full story from washingtontimes.com

The ‘Trick’ in the Treat
I grew up in a day when Halloween was little more than pumpkins, fall festivals, hayrides, and dressing up as a pirate or a farmer to go trick-or-treating. That is what it held for my now post-Halloween-age children as well. As a result, I’ve had a built-in resistance to those Christians who bash October 31st as a pagan festival that followers of Christ have no business supporting, much less engaging. Read full story from KPXQ1360.com

Paganism more than witchcraft, pentacles
When thinking of religion, we often only consider Christianity, Judaism and Islam. Read full story from redandblack.com

News & Submissions 10/13/2009

Tuesday, October 13th, 2009

Beliefs Matter: When Richard Dawkins and I Agree
We believe that all religions are basically  the same- at least the one that we read was. They all believe in love and goodness. They only differ on matters of creation, sin, heaven, hell, God, and salvation. Steven Turner, “Creed” Read full story from stltoday.com

The Neopagan Temptation
In this book Professor Philip G. Davis, a Canadian academic, proves with compelling scholarship that the present-day “goddess” cults have no detectable linkage with any ancient pagan beliefs. Apart from being anti-Christian anyway, they have no association with even the traditions and dignity of classical paganism. Read full story from spectator.org

A day for examining the unusual
WILKES-BARRE – Standing near Martz Pavilion in Kirby Park, Jay Fink lit afire two pieces of poi fruit attached to tethers and began spinning them through the air to the beat of music. Read full story from timesleader.com

Wicca and Witchapalooza! By Paul Dale Roberts
Did you ever wonder how much of Wicca can be traced to the Celts? Wicca is a religion based on ancient northern European Pagan beliefs in a fertility Goddess and her consort a horned God. The religion is a modern creation and some of its sources pre-date the Christian era by many centuries. Read full story from sacramentpress.com

Anti-LDS message left in vandalism at five churches
Vandals threw rocks tied with antagonistic notes at five LDS Church meetinghouses overnight Saturday in South Jordan and Riverton. Read full story from sltrib.com

City Woman: Who is the goddess?
Wife, mother, daughter, friend, colleague… today’s woman fulfils a variety of roles every day. Read full story from getbracknell.co.uk

Halloween protest planned
A CHURCH leader has branded Halloween as ‘the worst thing we ever imported from the United States’ and says the event has become ‘beyond a joke’. Read full story from thewestonmercury.co.uk

News & Submissions 10/10/2009

Saturday, October 10th, 2009

The fantasy and folklore of All Hallows
Halloween had its beginnings in an ancient, pre-Christian Celtic festival of the dead. The Celtic peoples, who were once found all over Europe, divided the year by four major holidays. According to their calendar, the year began on a day corresponding to November 1st on our present calendar. Read full story from KMPH.com

Angel Valley Resort Sweat Lodge Incident: 2 Die, 19 Overcome at Arizona Retreat
PHOENIX — A sauna-like sweat lodge at an Arizona resort meant to provide spiritual cleansing became the scene of a police investigation Friday when more than a dozen people became ill during a two-hour session and two later died. Read full story from The Huffington Post

St Damien: The leper priest of Molokai
Tomorrow, Pope Benedict XVI will be canonising Fr Damien de Veuster, known everywhere as the Leper Priest of Molokai. Read full story from timesofmalta.com

Allegations of witchcraft causing panic at Kissy Low Cost Housing Estate
Some residents of the Low-cost Housing Estate at Kissy at the past weekend alleged that witchcraft is being practiced in their community. Read full story from Awoko.org

Spirituality group shares bond of womanhood
Some of the recent meetings have centered around learning about Reiki; watching a video about Jizo, a Buddhist figure, and then making Jizo peace panels out of muslin; making bundles of lavender and fall leaves to hang above a door after learning about Earth-centered religions; having angel readings by a local practitioner; meditation; learning about the origins of May Day and making May Day baskets; visiting a Sand Tray therapist; learning about labyrinths; experiencing a traditional Seder meal; and watching “The Secret.” Read full story from standard.net

News & Submissions 10/8/2009

Thursday, October 8th, 2009

Religion Largely Absent in Argument About Cross
WASHINGTON — A Supreme Court argument on Wednesday about the fate of a cross in a remote part of the Mojave National Preserve in southeastern California largely avoided the most interesting question in the case: whether the First Amendment’s ban on government establishment of religion is violated by the display of a cross as a war memorial. Read full story from The New York Times

Festival honor’s earth-based faith
SAVANNAH, Ga. — For hundreds, maybe thousands of years, forms of paganism reigned over human spirituality. Read full story from ledger-enquirer.com

Homa, Soma and Sacred Plants (drugs)
Since the dawn of time man has asked himself about his origins and the existence of God. While all the major religions of the world are currently monotheistic and have no belief in the spiritual realm, the ancient religions and their customs have now become less popular. The whole question of religious drugs is looked at from a different angle. Read full story from iranian.com

The Religious Roots of Halloween
It’s October, and Halloween is coming up! All around town, the celebrations are beginning, and festive displays are present in every self respecting retail store. Halloween is a fascinating mixture of several religious influences, and a secular desire to party, which have blended to create the modern U.S. holiday we celebrate today. Read full story from the Examiner

B.C. town plans to erect its own Stonehenge
Barriere’s version would be a scaled-down model of the real 100-metre-wide Druidic temple that has stood on the Salisbury Plain for about 4,500 years. Read full story from vancouversun.com

NASA Moon “Bombings” Tomorrow: Sky Show, Water Expected
With its “bombing” of the moon early tomorrow, NASA’s LCROSS mission may beat a telltale signature of water out of a shadowy crater—and all you may need to see it is a good backyard telescope. Read full story from nationalgeographic.com

Religion requires moral absolutes
The Augusta Chronicle’s Oct. 3 Faith section article on the Wiccan belief system (“Proud to be pagans”) merely revealed what many postmodern religions are made of, and compels a response. Read full story from Augustachronicle.com