Posts Tagged ‘Goddess’

News & Submissions – 8/8/2013

Thursday, August 8th, 2013

Entertainment:

Coven Season Three: ‘American Horror Story’
Details About ‘Coven’ Season Three: ‘American Horror Story’

Ryan Murphy revealed the set up for the next installment of “American Horror Story” during a Friday night event for Emmy voters. Coven will be a massive witch-off: Salem versus voodoo.

“The witches of Salem, the smart ones, got out very early and they were none of the ones who were burned,” Murphy explained. “They all gravitated toward New Orleans, where they now live, and every generation has a great witch who has the most powers of them all, and that’s called the Supreme. Ms. Jessica Lange is the Supreme.” Read full story – au.ibtimes.com

Books:

Out of the Broom Closet, into the Rave: ‘Pop Pagans: Paganism and Popular Music’
Paganism and popular music share a love of physicality. Rooting this scholarly anthology not in beliefs constructed by modern society referring to nature, but arising rather from earth’s own manifestations by cultural contexts, co-editor Donna Weston introduces 13 contributions to the study of Pagans and music now. (The capitalization is significant: convention prefers a “P” for modern followers and a “p” for pre-Christian adherents.) Read full story – popmatters.com

News:

Witchcraft-accused force-fed human excreta
PARSA, AUG 07 – A single woman in Bishrampur-1 in the district was allegedly thrashed and force-fed human excreta on the charge of practising witchcraft , police said.

According to police, Devmati Chaurasiya, Lalchuni Chaurasiya and the latter’s son Manjaya, who beat 65-year-old Saraswoti Devi Chaurasiya on Tuesday evening, are arrested for necessary investigation.

However, local resident Bijaya Chaurasiya, who was also reportedly involved in the incident, is at large. Read full story – ekantipur.com

My Mother the Witch
what if your mother were a witch? Do you think she would have done things a bit differently from other mothers? Based on my experience, you would be right…

My mother Maggie, as she likes to be called, has referred to herself as a witch for a couple of decades now — at least since she was in her early 70s. That was around the time she started adding 8,000 years to the date: She would date her letters to me 9989 instead of 1989 and 9992 instead of 1992, to signal that she was reckoning time from the estimated beginning of Goddess worship. Nowadays, at 92 years young, she talks about the Goddess often, keeps an altar with a Goddess statue from Malta, and regularly wears a large pentacle around her neck. Read full storyhuffingtonpost.com

Slippery Spells: Gay-Inclusive Curriculum Leads To Witchcraft Says South Carolina Teacher
A South Carolina teacher is making the rounds on the anti-gay circuit for his wild claims about homosexuality in the classroom. Last week the infamous Fox News contributor and American Family Association radio host Sandy Rios — who last week compared the love two gay men feel to the “love” kidnapper and rapist Ariel Castro felt for the women he kept captive as slaves in his home — talked with Ira Thomas, a South Carolina teacher.

Thomas told Rios that a gay-inclusive curriculum is harmful to children, and said “it’s like teaching people about how to use crack.” Read full story -thenewcivilrightsmovement.com

Mother told she can’t pray on grounds of Concord High School
CONCORD, N.H. —A mother has been told she can no longer pray on the grounds of Concord High School.

During the school year, Lizarda Urena, the mother of two students, prayed out loud on the steps of the school as students walked in.

Urena said she had a calling in 2011 to fight school violence with prayer, so she started praying on the steps of the auditorium between 7 and 7:15 a.m. as students filtered in. Read full story - wcvb.com

Woman charged in Globe crash threatened voodoo hex, police say
BOSTON —A police report says an Everett woman accused of being drunk when her car rammed a newspaper delivery truck on a Boston highway, sending it plummeting 40 feet to the ramp below, threatened to put a voodoo hex on the arresting officer.

Police say 25-year-old Vivencia Bellegarde struck the Boston Globe truck on Interstate 93 at about 3:15 a.m. Monday. The driver, Paul Healy Jr. of Brockton, was listed in fair condition at a hospital on Tuesday. Read full story - wcvb.com

Paranormal:

Couple says app lets the iPhone communicate with ghosts
INDIANAPOLIS STAR – Those thumps and bumps in the night, or the item that mysteriously falls from a shelf, are more than coincidence and may be signs the spirit world is trying to communicate. At least that’s what a Greenwood, Ind., couple is banking on.

Ghost hunters Roger Pingleton and Jill Beitz, founders of StreamSide Software, have developed an iPhone app they say gives the dead a voice.

In developing the Spirit Story Box app (99 cents to download at the Apple app store; there is no Android version), Pingleton said his goal was to improve on other paranormal apps for the iPhone. Read full story – KSDK.com

Blogspot:

Thanks for stopping by!

Lisa

News & Submissions 1/10/2012

Tuesday, January 10th, 2012

Arts & Entertainment:

Warner Bros. to adapt ‘Discovery of Witches’
David Auburn is looking for witches and vampires and has come on to adapt Deborah Harkness’ “A Discovery of Witches” for Warner Bros. and producers Denise Di Novi and Allison Greenspan.

Studio acquired the property last summer. Story centers on a reluctant witch and a 1,500-year-old vampire. The witch — a direct descendant of the first woman executed in the Salem Witch trials — accidentally unlocks an enchanted manuscript and finds herself in a race to prevent an interspecies war.

David Auburn is looking for witches and vampires and has come on to adapt Deborah Harkness’ “A Discovery of Witches” for Warner Bros. and producers Denise Di Novi and Allison Greenspan.Studio acquired the property last summer. Story centers on a reluctant witch and a 1,500-year-old vampire. The witch — a direct descendant of the first woman executed in the Salem Witch trials — accidentally unlocks an enchanted manuscript and finds herself in a race to prevent an interspecies war. Read full story from varitey.com

Racing the Rez Documentary Reaches KickStarter Goal!
On New Year’s Eve we posted a story about the incredible documentary Racing the Rez, which was $11,215 shy of of the $15,000 at the time.  A scant nine days later, director Brian Truglio and his team have reached their goal.  There are still three days of fundraising left for the film team to help build up their outreach program.  We reached out to Brian to see how he was feeling, and what comes next.  Here was his response:

The money, of course is, important, and the reason the KickStarter campaign exists, but I’m most blown away by all the support and excitement around the project.  The running community is really something special and unique.  Having Christopher McDougall‘s support means the world to me, it’s unbelievable that a writer and runner who is one of my heroes is supporting Racing the Rez.” Read full story from indiancounrytodaymedianetwork.com

Health:

How Yoga Can Wreck Your Body
On a cold Saturday in early 2009, Glenn Black, a yoga teacher of nearly four decades, whose devoted clientele includes a number of celebrities and prominent gurus, was giving a master class at Sankalpah Yoga in Manhattan. Black is, in many ways, a classic yogi: he studied in Pune, India, at the institute founded by the legendary B. K. S. Iyengar, and spent years in solitude and meditation. He now lives in Rhinebeck, N.Y., and often teaches at the nearby Omega Institute, a New Age emporium spread over nearly 200 acres of woods and gardens. He is known for his rigor and his down-to-earth style. But this was not why I sought him out: Black, I’d been told, was the person to speak with if you wanted to know not about the virtues of yoga but rather about the damage it could do. Many of his regular clients came to him for bodywork or rehabilitation following yoga injuries. This was the situation I found myself in. In my 30s, I had somehow managed to rupture a disk in my lower back and found I could prevent bouts of pain with a selection of yoga postures and abdominal exercises. Then, in 2007, while doing the extended-side-angle pose, a posture hailed as a cure for many diseases, my back gave way. With it went my belief, naïve in retrospect, that yoga was a source only of healing and never harm. Read full story from nytimes.com

News:

Muslim group’s anti-gay leaflet was hate crime, court told
A group of Muslim men publicly distributed a leaflet calling for gay people to be given the death sentence, a court has heard.The pamphlet was entitled The Death Penalty? and showed an image of a mannequin hanging from a noose. It said sodomy was a sin that led to hell, that it used to be punished by hanging, and that people practising and allowing homosexuality would suffer, the court was told.

Five men – Ihjaz Ali, 42, Mehboob Hussain, 45, Umar Javed, 38, Razwan Javed, 27, and Kabir Ahmed, 28, all of Derby – are alleged to have handed out the document outside and near the Jamia mosque in in the city in July 2010, and to have put it through people’s letterboxes in the neighbourhood.

They are accused of stirring up hatred on the grounds of sexual orientation, in the first prosecution of its kind since legislation came into force in March 2010. They deny the charges. Read full story from guardian.co.uk

Sister weeps at ‘witch’ death trial
A young woman broke down in court as she recalled events which led to her teenage brother being tortured to death in east London for being a “witch”.Kelly Bamu, 21, wept as she came face-to-face with her sister Magalie, and her partner Eric Bikubi, both 28, who are accused of killing Kristy, 15.

He was found drowned in a bath at the couple’s flat in Forest Gate on Christmas Day 2010 after being tortured when he was accused of witchcraft by Magalie and Bikubi. The couple deny murder and assaulting Kelly and a younger sister, who were also accused of influencing another child of the family with witchcraft.

The prosecution says Kristy and his two brothers and two sisters were beaten and terrorised for four days. The Old Bailey was told Kristy was tortured with “an armoury of weapons” and had 101 injuries before being placed in the bath of water where he “begged to die”. Read full story from google.com

Media:

Christians Have the Right to Bully Gay Kids (Source: YouTube – OnKneesforjesus4)

Blogspot:

Feel free to leave comments regarding the articles posted.

If you’re interested in guest blogging or would like to submit an article or event, contact me at pagansworld.org@gmail.com.

Thanks for stopping by! Well wishes to you all, have a great day!

Lisa

News & Submissions 8/30/2011

Tuesday, August 30th, 2011

Arts & Entertainment:

New Creepier ‘Apollo 18′ Trailer (Source: Screen Junkies)

Events:

Discover Cherokee Nation at 59th Holiday
TAHLEQUAH, Okla. — The 59th Cherokee National Holiday, Sept. 2–4 in Tahlequah, Okla., offers visitors a chance to enjoy activities that are sure to please the entire family. Events such as the powwow and the downtown parade are perennial favorites. But there are other enticing events Holiday guests may not be as familiar with waiting to be discovered. Come learn a few phrases in the Cherokee language or take a tour of some of Oklahoma’s most historic structures. Or just kick back, relax and listen to some favorite sounds.

Eclectic Burning Man festival celebrates 25th anniversary
SANTA FE, New Mexico — Starting on Monday tens of thousands of people will descend on a great expanse of Nevada desert to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Burning Man, a gathering of free spirits, artists, entrepreneurs — and anyone else who managed to get a ticket.

News:

Psychic uses court as medium to fight Alexandria’s ban on fortunetelling
Rachel Adams wants to use the talent she believes she was born to share.

Adams, a mother of two who recently moved to Alexandria with her husband, has opened a fortunetelling business on Jackson Street Extension, Readings by Faith, where she hopes to use her psychic, fortunetelling and Tarot card-reading abilities.

There’s just one problem. Fortunetelling is forbidden in the city’s code of ordinances. Read full story from thetowntalk.com

Witch Hunting in Assam – Capital of Black magic to national shame
The history of witch hunting dates back to several hundred years. During the period of 14th to 17th century, persecution of witches had led to the torture and murder of thousands of innocent women and men, even children. Jeanne d’Arc (Joan of Arc) was burned alive at the stake for heresy at the age of 19 on May 30, 1431. It was believed that she was called to save France from England by supernatural voices when she was just 16. Her victories were legendary, but eventually she was captured and executed. That was history, but the sad part is that such practices still prevail in the world, – in different names, customs and beliefs. Whether it is Joan of Arc from history chapters or Hermione from a Hollywood blockbuster series Harry Potter, people still secretly believe in such practices,- some call it Voodoo, some call it witchcraft and some calls it Black magic. Read full story from timesofassam.com

Polygamist Leader Warren Jeffs Has Pneumonia, Is Not In Coma
Jailed polygamist leader Warren Jeffs is suffering from pneumonia and is not in a medically-induced coma, as has been widely reported, a source familiar with Jeffs’ condition tells NPR.

According to the source, the 55-year-old leader of the nation’s largest polygamist group was sedated, pharmacologically paralyzed and placed on a ventilator as part of his treatment for pneumonia. The source spoke on the condition of anonymity due to federal medical privacy laws that do not permit disclosure of medical treatment without permission of the patient or family. Read full story from npr.org

In Libya: ‘Biggest Fear’ Is Gadhafi Disappearing, Continuing To Fight
The news that ousted Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi’s wife and three of his children have fled to Algeria underscores “the biggest fear” for many Libyans, NPR’s Lourdes Garcia-Navarro reports from Tripoli — that Gadhafi will elude capture and that his forces will continue to battle for weeks, months or perhaps years. Read full story from npr.org

Religion:

Christian wants atheist registry
Florida pastor, Michael Stahl has suggested that an organization and website be created that would keep track of known atheists. The website would list by city and state all atheists with their photos and some personal information such as place of business. It would not include a physical address which seems to contradict one of the main purposes of the site.

Pastor Mike compares atheists to “convicted sex offenders , ex-convicts , terrorist cells , hate groups like the KKK , skinheads , radical Islamists , etc..”  He claims that the purpose of this organization/website called, “The Christian National Registry of Atheists” is to inform the public of known atheists so that they can be proselytize to and their businesses can be boycotted. Read full story from examiner.com

Muslim festival brings rare joy for some this year, but not all cheer
(CNN) — For Christians, the wild celebrations of Mardi Gras come before the solemnity of Lent, a last chance to celebrate before the abstinence marking the 40 days to Good Friday and Easter.

Muslims do it the other way around. First comes the month of daytime fasting during Ramadan, then the eruption of joy called Eid al-Fitr, marked with gift-giving, new clothes, donations to the poor, feasting and festivities.

But as the sighting of a crescent moon officially marked the beginning of Eid on Tuesday, feelings are decidedly mixed for many Muslims. Read full story  from cnn.com

Media:

TRENDING: Bachmann points to ‘great sense of humor’ after God joke (Source: CNN)
(CNN) – Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann defended her recent comments about natural disasters in Washington, D.C. serving as messages from God, saying she was joking.

Texas pastor opens drive-in church (Source: CNN)

Blogspot:

Feel free to leave comments regarding the articles posted.

If you’re interested in guest blogging or would like to submit an article or event, contact me at pagansworld.org@gmail.com.

Thanks for stopping by! Well wishes to you all, have a great day!

Lisa

Week in Review

Saturday, February 26th, 2011

In case you missed anything, here are highlights from this past week. I hope everyone is having a good weekend!

Highlights!

Who Are We? By Stacy Evans

We can be anyone we want to be, more so because Wicca can encompass anything. We are everyone. We are kind and loving. We can be mean, because we are only human. We are not better than anyone else, but we are equal to everyone else.

This isn’t about rights, it’s about respect. We need to find a way for people to respect us, regardless of those who try to bring us down. And maybe, we can even look to Christianity for examples. Is this our arena, and are the Christians our lions? Perhaps. Not all of them certainly. Obviously, however, some of them fall under this category. We are in a young religion, and we are being forged in the fires. Will we break, or come out stronger? Read more…

Hump Day Herbs – Calamus

Botanical Name: Acorus Calamus

Folk Names: Gladden, Myrtle Flag, Myrtle Grass, Myrtle Sedge, Lubigan, Sweet Cane, Sweet Flag, Sweet Grass, Sweet Root, Sweet Rush, Sweet Sedge

Calamus are perennial flowering plants from the Acorus family. Native to to North America and northern and eastern Asia. The leaves grow between 0.7 and 1.7 cm wide, with average of 1 cm, and the flower is between 3 and 4 mm.

The Penobscot people would cut the root and hang it throughout the house to cure illness. When traveling, they would take a piece of the root, and chew to ward off sickness. To cure a runny nose, The Potawatomi people would powder the dried root and put up their nose. The Teton-Dakota warriors believed it prevented excitement and fear when facing their enemy, they would chew it to a paste and rub it on their face. Read more …

Links:

Videos:

Thanks for stopping by! Well wishes to you all and have a great day!

Lisa

News & Submissions 2/22/2011

Tuesday, February 22nd, 2011

New Zealand earthquake strikes Christchurch, killing at least 65 people
At least 65 people have died and more than 100 are missing after a powerful earthquake struck the southern New Zealand city of Christchurch, collapsing buildings, burying vehicles under debris and sending rescuers scrambling to help people trapped under rubble.

The 6.3-magnitude quake struck the country’s second largest city on a busy weekday afternoon.

The mayor of Christchurch, Bob Parker, has declared a state of emergency and ordered people to evacuate the city centre. “Make no mistake this is going to be a very black day for this shaken city,” he said.

Power and water was cut and hundreds of dazed, screaming and crying residents wandered through the streets as sirens blared throughout Christchurch in the aftermath of the quake, which was centred three miles from the city. The US Geological Survey said the tremor occurred at a depth of 2.5 miles. Read full story from guardian.co.uk

Burial ground of Bunyan, Defoe and Blake earns protected status
Bunhill Fields
, the London cemetery where some of the most radical figures in history lie quietly side by side in unhallowed ground, will today be declared a Grade I park by the government, with separate listings for scores of its monuments.

The cemetery, founded in the 1660s as a burial ground for nonconformists, radicals and dissenters, holds the remains of John Bunyan, author of The Pilgrim’s Progress, Daniel Defoe, who wrote Robinson Crusoe, and the poet and artist William Blake, among thousands of others.

In the 19th century, when it had already become a place of pilgrimage for nonconformists and radical reformers, the poet Robert Southey called it the Campo Santo (holy ground) of the dissenters. By the time it was finally declared full and closed in 1853, at least 120,000 people had been interred in the four acres. Read full story from guardian.co.uk

Planet could be ‘unrecognizable’ by 2050, experts say
WASHINGTON (AFP) – A growing, more affluent population competing for ever scarcer resources could make for an “unrecognizable” world by 2050, researchers warned at a major US science conference Sunday.

The United Nations has predicted the global population will reach seven billion this year, and climb to nine billion by 2050, “with almost all of the growth occurring in poor countries, particularly Africa and South Asia,” said John Bongaarts of the non-profit Population Council.

To feed all those mouths, “we will need to produce as much food in the next 40 years as we have in the last 8,000,” said Jason Clay of the World Wildlife Fund at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Read full story from yahoo.com

‘Yoga’ – Another Serious Acid Test For Naga Christians?
I have come across the word ‘Yoga’ for many years but it didn’t register or make any impression on me until  21st Feb. 2011 when I glance through an article, ‘Yoga for healthy living’ in a local daily written by Imtila Sangtam.  She introduced herself as being born into Baptist background whose grandfather and grandmother were the first convert to Christianity from Kubza village on 25-01-1914 and whose father died while in service as a lay evangelist.  She also quoted from Bible- Luke 2:14, ‘Glory to God in the highest’, to support her belief and acknowledges God as the one who brought her to this beautiful world. .After reading the writer’s article, which she wrote in support of her work in promoting Yoga as a harmless exercise, I started questioning myself,  If Yoga is harmless, what harm would there be for a Christian to practice Christian Astrology? Christian Goddess Worship? Christian Animist? Christian New Age? Christian Shamanism? Christian Reincarnation? Christian Tai Chi? Christian Wicca? Christian Witchcraft? Christian Hinduism? Christian Islam? or Christian Zen Buddhism? My intent in writing this article is not to attack anybody, religion or the writer whose purpose I believe is of good intention but to let every reader examine the other angle point of view.

Firstly, I want to cite the definition from Webster’s on “yoga.” It says it’s “a Hindu theistic philosophy teaching the suppression of all activity of body, mind, and will in order that the self may realize its distinction from them and attain liberation.”  Read full story from morungexpress.com

The Theological Dilemma of Medieval Neuroscience
To casual observers the history of science goes something like this: Greek philosophers introduced the world to rational, naturalistic ways of thinking which freed us from superstition and myth. Sadly, the Roman Empire crumbled, Christianity replaced paganism, religious dogma replaced rationalism, and progress stagnated until about the 16th century when the foundations of science began taking shape. Of course, the real story is more complicated (interested readers should see David Lindberg’s The Beginnings of Western Science). At the risk of disorienting casual observers, I am going to explore one of those interesting complications: Medieval neuroscience.

The 12th and 13th centuries witnessed a flourishing of natural philosophy in Christian Europe. While creation, the cosmos, miracles and the nature of God were uppermost on the agenda, medieval natural philosophy also included the biological basis of the human mind. The major brain theory of the time was called the theory of the “inner (or interior) senses,” the roots of which ran back to Aristotle (see Simon Kemp’s book Cognitive Psychology in the Middle Ages, chapter 4). In his De Anima, Aristotle identified a number of intellectual functions including sensation, imagination and memory. Originally, Aristotle located these functions in the heart, but the renowned Roman physician Galen relocated them to the brain. Physicians after Galen (precisely who is unclear) put these function specifically in the ventricles of the brain given that the ventricles were highly interconnected via nerve fibers to sensory and motor systems throughout the body. Animal spirits flowing from the ventricles through the nerve fibers could then account for the direction of thought and action throughout the body. Read full story from huffingtonpost.com

On the edge of history
Carleton University will award an honorary doctorate to Aung San Suu Kyi in absentia on Tuesday. I would like to share, in honour of the moment, a personal memory of my own visit to Burma (now Myanmar). This visit inspired a book of poems I wrote and attempted to send to Aung San Suu Kyi, to whom I dedicated the book. Her husband notified me that there was no means to deliver the book to her but that he thought she would have appreciated it as she was teaching herself French to pass the time in her house arrest.

Pagan, the plain stretching out along the Irrawaddy River, dotted with hundreds of ancient temples, captured my imagination. In my mind’s eye I could see the temples, shimmering in a mist of heat. I could imagine richly detailed carvings and ponder the mystery repeated in so many sites around the world. What causes humankind to create great works of art and architecture in one century and then abandon them abruptly to live amidst their ruins for centuries to come? Is it, as in Jared Diamond’s book, Collapse, because of over population and eco-failure? If so, why do remaining citizens not continue the traditions? Why are the noble arts lost? Read full story from ottawacitizen.com

Pilots, boaters adjust to shift in magnetic north
Magnetic north, the point at the top of the Earth that determines compass headings, is shifting its position at a rate of about 40 miles per year. In geologic terms, it’s racing from the Arctic Ocean near Canada toward Russia.

As a result, everyone who uses a compass, even as a backup to modern GPS navigation systems, needs to be aware of the shift, make adjustments or obtain updated charts to ensure they get where they intend to go, authorities say. That includes pilots, boaters and even hikers.

“You could end up a few miles off or a couple hundred miles off, depending how far you’re going,” said Matthew Brock, a technician with Lauderdale Speedometer and Compass, a Fort Lauderdale company that repairs compasses. Read full story from sunsentinel.com

Death Toll From Quake In New Zealand May Top 200 (source npr)
At least 65 people are reported to have died in the powerful earthquake that rocked Christchurch, New Zealand, earlier today.

Burial ground of Bunyan, Defoe and Blake earns protected status

News & Submissions 10/26/2010

Friday, March 26th, 2010

Millions around the globe set to observe ‘Earth Hour 2010′
Millions of homes around the world are geared up to observe the ‘Earth Hour 2010′ on Saturday, March 27, 8:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. in order to conserve energy and pay attention towards global warming. Read full story from themoneytimes.com

Albuquerque police and media take steps to learn about Wiccan religion after stabbing
30 year old Angela Stanford has been accused of stabbing a man to death on March 22 in Albuquerque, New Mexico.  Claiming self-defense, the woman told police that she had taken the man into the woods near a hiking trail to perform what she claims was a Wiccan ritual for spring.  Sanford says when the man sexually assaulted her, she stabbed him with a “Wiccan dagger” to save herself.  Early news reports and statements from police showed a lack of understanding by the media and police force of the Wiccan religion. Read full story from examiner.com

Spirituality and reincarnation through Wiccan eyes
What is “spirituality?” It’s a great marketing tool for preachers and writers, but it doesn’t have much real meaning for nearly anybody today. The problem is that we don’t understand the relationship between the finite part of ourselves the part that lives and dies and our eternal part. Read full story from statesman.com

The Episcopal Church, Wiccans, and the Divine Feminine
In this holiest of Christian seasons, on the evening before Passion Sunday, the Cathedral of All Souls Episcopal Church in Asheville, N.C., hosted an event in its parish hall for an organization called The Mother Grove Goddess Temple. The purpose of the event? To celebrate the spring equinox of course. Wait, you say, that’s not Christian, that’s pagan. But there’s more. According to Mother Grove’s website, its mission “is to create and maintain a permanent sanctuary where people of all faith traditions may openly and safely celebrate the Divine Feminine.” According to Byron Ballard, a Wiccan priestess and a member of the temple, Mother Grove “isn’t a Wiccan group, though some of us are Wiccans.” Just in case you were wondering, Ballard goes on to explain that “Wiccans may also refer to themselves as witches.” Read full story from worldmag.com

Witchcraft exists everywhere – even in you
Witchcraft, argues Malcolm Gaskill, PhD, a researcher in early modern history at the University of East Anglia (UEA), leading expert and author in witchcraft, is not a thing of the past or something that only exists in developing nations Read full story from independent.co.uk

Judge: Wiccan inmates have no right to sweat lodges, raw meat
CARSON CITY — A federal judge has ruled that prison inmates have no right to sweat lodges and raw meat to practice the Wiccan religion.

U.S. District Judge Philip Pro rejected the civil rights suit of Scott Fletcher, who claimed the federal law on religious rights of prisoners required the prison to provide such things. Read full story from lasvegassun.com

The Easter Bunny Must Die
Among the peeves I keep as pets, chief is my loathing of the Easter Bunny.  There are many reasons to hate the Bunny.  I will get into why in particular the Bunny, but first to some other pressing business. Read full story from ncregister.com

Police Work With Wicca Community After Stabbing
A self-proclaimed Wicca practitioner and murder suspect faced a judge Wednesday as police try to learn more about the woman’s practices. Read full story from koat.com

Religious groups fear ‘witch-hunt’
RELIGIOUS groups fear the Equal Opportunity Bill debated in State Parliament yesterday will launch a witch-hunt against them and schools, forcing some to secularise or disband. Read full story from theage.com

30 days of advocacy against Witch-hunts in Africa
The words witch and witchcraft are used predominantly as an accusation throughout Africa, either to describe a number of clearly defined traditional religious practices that do not self-define as witchcraft, as well as a number of variable urban legends perpetuated by religious leaders, churches and traditional healers, or to identify women, children and men who are not actual Witches. Read full story from therichmarksentinel.com

News & Submissions 3/19/2010

Friday, March 19th, 2010

TV presenter gets death sentence for ‘sorcery’
(CNN) — Amnesty International is calling on Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah to stop the execution of a Lebanese man sentenced to death for “sorcery.” Read full story from cnn.com

Asheville Mother Grove Goddess Temple to celebrate spring equinox
ASHEVILLE — After making it through the harsh winter, people in Western North Carolina are looking forward to the warm sun of spring. Some are preparing to celebrate the season’s change with an ecumenical ritual. Read full story from citezen-times.com

Towards gaining unique insights
It includes middle-roaders who say science and religion are two sides of the same coin since they both spring from human minds, while tacitly maintaining an eternal edge always separates the sides. And it includes those scientists who see some sort of deep mysterious beauty in the cosmos but remain atheists and religious mystics who shun dogma but retain a personal faith. REad full story from economictimes.com

Checklist: Spring is here, so pet your hares
All you pagan moonchildren will likely be petting your sacred hares this weekend when the vernal equinox rolls in from Spokane on Saturday. Read full story from wenacheeworld.com

Celebrating Spring: The Vernal Egguinox
Since the earliest times, the egg has been humanity’s obvious and essential symbol for the significant atmosphere of the vernal season: birth, fertility, growth, eternity. The purely primal power, which comes from the handling of eggs at the equinox, has been a principle influence on many popular spring ritual practices throughout time and across culture. Read full story from huffingtonpost.com

California first to create position for Native American vets
SACRAMENTO, Calif. – On March 3, Roger Brautigan, director of the California Department of Veteran Affairs (CalVet), swore in Pedro “Pete” Molina, Pascua Yaqui, as the nation’s first assistant secretary for Native American Veterans Affairs. This position was created by the state to oversee the administration of services to Native American veterans in California, which boasts the largest population of American Indian veterans in the country. Read full story from indiancountrytoday.com

News & Submissions 12/23/2009

Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009

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

Former vampire candidate for governor jailed, vows to run again
File this under the category of bizarre news. A man known as “The Impaler” who ran as a fringe candidate for governor in 2006 is in legal trouble once again. Read full story from postbulletin.com

Christmas is not the only celebration in December
Decorated trees, church celebrations and packed shopping centers make it hard to miss the fact that Christmas season is here. With more than 2 billion of the world’s estimated 6.69 billion people calling themselves Christian, Christmas — the time believers celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ — is one of the most recognizable events of the year. Read full story from greenbaypressgazette.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