Posts Tagged ‘Fortune tellers’

News & Submissions 3/21/2011

Monday, March 21st, 2011

Eastpointe fortune tellers to tell all … about themselves
Psychics or fortune tellers who want to predict the future in Eastpointe will first have to share their past with police under conditions spelled out in a new city ordinance.

The Eastpointe City Council recently finalized a fortune telling ordinance that requires anyone who works in the city as a medium, clairvoyant, mind reader or similar craft to obtain a license and provide any information on past criminal convictions.

Councilwoman Veronica Klinefelt said the new regulations were largely in response to newspaper articles detailing how people — in particular, seniors — were being financially victimized by unscrupulous psychics.

“We were concerned about certain individuals who say ‘You have a bad aura, for $1,000 I can remove it.’ We want them to post their charges up front to make sure they are legitimate,” she said. Read full story from macombdaily.com

Minorities feel rising tide of bigotry
DISTRUST of Muslims and hostility towards homosexuals and pagans remain widespread in Australia, a new Australian Human Rights Commission report to be published today says.

The biggest snapshot of Australian attitudes about religion in more than a decade, the report also suggests rising political involvement by religious groups, tension between religious and secularist groups and great wariness about rights legislation.

The report, Freedom of Religion and Belief in 21st Century Australia, reveals a vastly more complex religious landscape than 1998, when the last similar survey was done.

The research involved community consultations with 274 religious and secularist groups, and with governments, human rights groups, ethnic and city councils, plus more than 2000 public submissions. Read full story from smh.com

Centuries old Nepal banishment ritual endangers girls and women
The centuries old practice of chhaupadi in Nepal can cause prolonged depression in girls and women. In extreme cases it can also cause death.

Chhaupadi pratha, or ritual practice, places Nepali women and girls in a limbo of isolation. In history it is a practice that has been largely accepted. The word chhaupadi, translates in the Achham local Raute dialect as ‘chhau’ which means menstruation and ‘padi’ – woman.

Today the ritual of banishment surrounding chhaupadi still affects girls and women on all levels of Nepali society.

This dangerous practice also isolates woman during and after childbirth as they are banished for up to eleven days away from family members, causing critical danger and increasing complications that can, and do, lead to maternal and child mortality due to the possibility of excessive bleeding and asepsis following labour. Read full sotry from womennewsnetwork.net

‘Myth Makers’ tells a historical tale about the Cherokee Tribe
Isaac Smoke could neither read nor write but when he heard the white man’s creation story, he closed his eyes and stuck out his tongue.

“Paper talks,” the medicine man hissed. He had other uses for the Indian newspaper that cost all of $2.50 a year.

Above is an excerpt from the book “The Myth Makers” by author J. Houston-Emerson.

The Fort Smith Museum of History held a reading and book signing with Judith Houston-Emerson on Saturday (Mar. 19). Guests arrived early and mingled before Emerson discussed her family heritage and her book.

After discussing her Cherokee heritage, Emerson read from her book, which is a work of historical fiction but based on facts. The book took Emerson more than four years to write and publish. She has already started to work on the sequel.

“The Myth Makers” starts in the early 1800s and ends in 1838 with the arrival of her ancestors in Tahlequah. It deals with witchcraft, missionaries, and white intrusion of every kind. Emerson weaves a historical tale about her Cherokee forbearers, their lives and belief systems and the wondrous world of mythic animals before their removal. Read full story from thecitywire.com

Do You Believe in Vampires, Witch’s and Ghosts?
Vampires and Witch’s have been around forever, including ghosts. I met a ghost once and she was murdered and she talked to me. I solved the murder case, found her mother walking one day and spoke to her softly and asked the mother of the deceased daughter, if she was the mother, name withheld, and she told me yes, that indeed she was.

We went to her home, and good thang I had my tarot card with me in my large sized purse made of wooden handle and straw, that look tattered and old, as bought it at a yard sale long time ago, way before the birth of my two sons, whom are into wiccan religion and magick such as I am. They used to attend church but decided my religon of Wiccan is much better to grasph the concept of. Now back to my true story. I dealt the cards and amazed at what I saw in the cards. I felt a strong presence too, and then I told the mother of the deceased woman, the names of the murderers and told her to write the wicked ones names down on a pad of paper. So she did accordingly, to my instructions. She did not hesitate to telephone the police about all this and two days later they found the evidence in his closet and he was arrested for the murder. Now this is a true tale, not fiction at all.

I have found lost things, items so to speak for many folks. I used to own and operate my own Witchy sites, and no longer do as is quite costly. I do accept reqeusts from friends to cast magical spells for them as well as strangers, that write me and desire a spell to be granted. I do invoke the spirit guides as they help me with psychic powers and spell craft.Read full story from modernghana.com

News & Submissions 1/6/2011

Thursday, January 6th, 2011

Discovery, Catholic Church behind exorcism series
(EW.com) — Discovery Channel is teaming with the Vatican for an unprecedented new series hunting the deadliest catch of all: Demons.

“The Exorcist Files” will recreate stories of real-life hauntings and demonic possession, based on cases investigated by the Catholic Church. The project includes access into the Vatican’s case files, as well as interviews with the organization’s top exorcists — religious experts who are rarely seen on television.

“The Vatican is an extraordinarily hard place to get access to, but we explained we’re not going to try to tell people what to think,” says Discovery president and GM Clark Bunting. Read full story from cnn.com

Bhutan offers rare glimpse inside historic temples
(CNN) — The isolated kingdom of Bhutan has opened its doors to a team of art experts in order to preserve its Buddhist history.

Working for the first time in collaboration with Bhutan’s Department of Culture, conservators from The Courtauld Institute of Art in England have spent the last three years documenting some of the reclusive kingdom’s most precious wall paintings.

According to Lisa Shekede, leader of the project, the wall paintings date from around the 17th century and are some of the best surviving works in the region.

The team visited over 200 temples — sometimes trekking for an entire day to reach remote monasteries — and documented around 50 paintings in detail. Read full story from cnn.com

Romanian Witches Use Spells to Protest New Taxes
(AP) MOGOSOIA, Romania – Everyone curses the tax man, but Romanian witches angry about having to pay up for the first time are planning to use cat excrement and dead dogs to cast spells on the president and government.

Also among Romania’s newest taxpayers are fortune tellers — but they probably should have seen it coming.

Superstitions are no laughing matter in Romania — the land of the medieval ruler who inspired the “Dracula” tale — and have been part of its culture for centuries. President Traian Basescu and his aides have been known to wear purple on certain days, supposedly to ward off evil. Read full story from cbsnews.com

Egyptian police fear repeat of new year’s bombing in Alexandria
Egyptian authorities put up a heavy security cordon today around the main Coptic cathedral in Cairo hours before Christmas Eve mass, using bomb-sniffing dogs, metal detectors and officers to thwart another attack like the New Year’s suicide bombing at a church in Alexandria that killed 21 people.

Al-Qaida in Iraq had threatened Christians in Iraq and Egypt in the weeks leading up to the holidays, while militant websites have allegedlyposted online lists of churches in Egypt to target.

Egypt’s Coptic Christian minority, which makes up 10% of the 80 million population, celebrates Christmas tomorrow. Some have said they will avoid Christmas Eve services. Read full story from guardian.co.uk

Psychic’ predicted lottery syndicate win
A GROUP of work colleagues have scooped £1m on the lottery, after a ‘psychic’ co-worker predicted a win.

The syndicate of 15 workers from West London Training in Aldershot are sharing the prize, which was won on the EuroMillions Millionaire Raffle on Christmas Eve.

Each is £66,666.66 better off thanks to catering manager Ocean Kinge, whose predictions they would win spurred them to start the syndicate. Read full story from gethampshire.co.uk

Mass Animal Deaths Leading To End Times Panic
What started with reports of unusual blackbird deaths in the southern United States earlier this week has now snowballed into multiple reports of mass bird and fish deaths from around the globe, prompting some to theorize that they may be signs of the end times.

“When the term ‘dead fish’ became a top Google search Wednesday, soaring past the likes of Lindsay Lohan and leaving Justin Bieber in its scaly wake, it looked as if the end were near,” Jill Rosen of the Los Angeles Times reported on Thursday. “That’s what everyone was saying, anyway.”

“After millions of tiny fish went belly up in Chesapeake Bay this week, much of the populace immediately dismissed the official scientific explanation (the water was just too darn cold),” she added. “What made more sense, they reasoned? The approaching apocalypse. Of course.” Read full story from redorbit.com

What we Muslims can learn from converts
If Muslims have a bad reputation – and they do – converts to Islam have it even worse. Among their dreadful alumni are such characters as the “shoe bomber” Richard Reid, the 7 July bomber Germaine Lindsay, and Nicky Reilly who tried to blow up a restaurant in Bristol with a nail bomb. And Lauren Booth. Yet despite these poor recruiting sergeants and in spite of the overwhelmingly negative media depiction of Islam, the number of people converting to Islam seems to be rising.

A report this week suggested the number of converts had doubled in the past 10 years from about 60,000 in 2001 to up to 100,000 with around 5,200 people converting to Islam in the UK last year. These figures come with a health warning – they are estimates derived from extrapolations – but if we accept that increasing numbers of British men and women are turning to Islam, it does lead to questions of why: why are people voluntarily signing up to a faith that is, if you believe what you read, a cesspit of misogyny, violence and hate?

The growth in conversions in the past decade is partly a reflection of social and geopolitical changes in Britain and the world during the past 10 years. Prior to 11 September 2001 there was relatively little press attention given to Islam. Following the attacks there was an understandable rise in focus on the faith, which led non-Muslims to want to find out more about the religion that was now so often in the news. Read full story from guardian.co.uk

Mainstream Pakistan religious organisations applaud killing of Salmaan Taseer
The increasing radicalisation of Pakistani society was today laid bare when mainstream religious organisations applauded the murder of Salmaan Taseer, the governor of Punjab, earlier this week and his killer was showered with rose petals as he appeared in court.

Taseer was buried in his home town of Lahore. The 66-year-old was assassinated yesterday by Mumtaz Qadri, one of his police bodyguards, after he had campaigned for reform of the law on blasphemy.

Qadri appeared in court, unrepentant, where waiting lawyers threw handfuls of rose petals over him and others in the crowd slapped his back and kissed his cheek as he was led in and out amid heavy security. Read full story from guardian.co.uk

Ancient practice: Why I’m pagan
I am pagan. I make no excuses for this. I am not ashamed of my decision to follow a spiritual path that strays from the mainstream. I would be happy to explain my beliefs to anyone who is curious. However, I find that most are not willing to know my beliefs, as though the mere mention of a pagan ritual should send them scrambling to the nearest confessional to repent for the remotest ounce of curiosity for something so evil and fiendish. Why are pagans discouraged from celebrating our faith in the open?

Upon my decision to become pagan, I did my homework in the form of purchasing books, surfing the internet, and joining online groups with like-minded individuals. One common theme was clear: Informing those you know of your new religion choice should be viewed as if you were coming out of the closet. If you wouldn’t tell someone that you were gay, you probably shouldn’t tell them that you’re pagan. Read full story from newsreview.com

Core tradition returns to Herefordshire
ONE of Herefordshire’s strangest customs will return to an orchard near Hereford this evening (Thursday).

Families and cider drinkers have been invited to join a wassail in Tillington.

The ceremony dates to Pagan times and involves greeting an apple tree on the twelfth night to promote a good harvest.

Participants often sprinkle cider around a tree, hang toast from its branches and light fires nearby to ward-off evil spirits. Read full story from herefordtimes.com

BBC Newsnight: UK Homeopathy Update 2011 (source bbc)

Sanitation Dept. Gets Earful In Wake Of Cemetery Destruction (source cbs news)