Posts Tagged ‘wiccan’

News & Submissions 9/18/2012

Tuesday, September 18th, 2012

Pagan Pride 2012:

Pagan Pride festival dispels myths
Amanda Hyde admits it was the spells and rituals that drew her to paganism as a rebellious teenager. But more than a decade later, that shock value has long subsided.

“There are a lot of misconceptions,” she laughed.

For 10 years now, Hyde has organized Pagan Pride Day in Hamilton as a chance to celebrate their beliefs and give outsiders a glimpse into their lifestyle to dispel the myths.

“A lot of people think of pagan people as fringe folk. But you come here and you meet teachers, police officers, government workers…” she said of the volunteer-run event. Read full story from metronews.ca

UConn students display Pagan pride on Fairfield Way
The first Pagan Pride Day took place on Fairfield Way Saturday afternoon in order to educate students about the Pagan beliefs and make the community aware of their presence on campus.

Sponsored by the Pagan Organization of Diverse Spirituality (PODS) they manage to attract a few people in and out of the event who were curious enough to learn more about the different religions that were represented. Each stand had their own unique religion that branches off from the Pagan religion. The beliefs ranged from Troth to Witchcraft and Wiccan and each stand handed out information on them. Read full story from dailcampus.com

Arts & Entertainment:

Why Witches Will Replace Hollywood’s Obsession With Zombies & Vampires
Maybe you’ve noticed something in Hollywood when it comes to action and horror movies; they jump on the popularity of a trend faster than you walked out of Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked. We’ve already been treated to a debacle of 80s cartoon remakes, with Transformers, G.I. Joe, The Smurfs, and a new Ninja Turtles reboot headed our way, courtesy of Michael Bay. But Hollywood, faithful as you’d expect to deliver what the people want, goes beyond that.

When a zombie movie is released to major success, a multitude of zombie films randomly appear to be thrust into screens everywhere. After Danny Boyle’s 2002 feature 28 Days Later, we were treated with Resident Evil, House of the Dead, Dawn of the Dead, Dawn of the Living Dead, Resident Evil: Apocalypse, Shaun of the Dead, Land of the Dead, Diary of the Dead, Zombieland…you get the point. The fact is, we saw a whole lot more big budget zombie flicks after the success of one, and it’s not just a case of the undead. Read full story from whatculture.com

News:

Pagans practice, live in hiding in Wyo.
LARAMIE, Wyo. – - Becca Haskins has “the best job in the world,” she says, working in a lab at a Powder River Basin coal mine.

For that, she thanks her faith – paganism.

Before Haskins got the job, she performed a spell with candles. Then everything fell into place.

Haskins is 22, lives in Gillette and applies her faith as a “solitary practitioner,” meaning she is not affiliated with a group.

Among pagans, Wyoming is a state of solitary practitioners, the result of low population, wide spaces between cities and towns and dozens of pagan sects. The exception is Laramie, which has the Wolf Tree Kindred. Read full story from standard.net

Man ‘used witchcraft to traffic children’ for prostitution
An alleged people trafficker cut the chest of a vulnerable 14-year-old girl with a razor during a series of “juju” witchcraft rituals aimed at terrifying young recruits into silence before selling them into prostitution across Europe, a court heard yesterday.

Osezua Osolase recruited and raped impoverished young Nigerian orphans and forced them to undergo West African rituals in which hair, nails and blood were removed to “cast a spell” over them and ensure their obedience, Canterbury Crown Court was told. Read full story from indpendent.co.uk

Witchcraft at Fourah Bay
Two boys of No. 3 Foster Street, at the Fourah Bay community, East of the capital on Thursday, September 13th openly confessed of practicing wizardry, after being conjured by a witch doctor called, Umaru Kamara, a native of Yoni Bana Chiefdom.

The eldest of the confessors named Osman Njai and his cousin, Amidu Savage, 13 and 12 years old respectively, confessed to a mammoth crowd of family members and relatives including journalists and people of that community that they were responsible for the multiple mishaps facing their family relatives in the spirit realm. Read full story from sierraexpressmedia.com

Media:

Witch claims discrimination at local doctor’s office (Source: kplctv.com)

KPLC 7 News, Lake Charles, Louisiana

Rosh Hashanah: Science vs Religion (Source: YouTube - Tr3Bel0cita)

Blogspot:

  • PaganDad – Review of Pagan Parenting in the NICU – An Ebook
  • Patti Wiginton – Mabon Countdown: Honoring the Dark Mother

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!

Lisa

News & Submissions 9/06/2012

Thursday, September 6th, 2012

Arts & Entertainment:

Trailer: Jeremy Renner, Gemma Arterton Hunt Down Witches in ‘Hansel and Gretel’
Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters has been kicking around for a while now. With the summer movie season officially over, we get our first look at the re-imagined take starring Jeremy Renner and Gemma Arterton in the title roles. Read full story from fandango.com

News:

Woman Killed and Burned in Colombia over Suspected Witchcraft
A woman suspected of practicing witchcraft was murdered and her body burned over the weekend in the Colombian town of Santa Barbara.María Berenice Martínez’s naked body was found inside her house with blows to the skull, her hair ripped out and burn marks, according to Colombian press reports. The killers had tied the door shut with a rope so she couldn’t escape.

After killing Martinez, the murderers took her hair and some photos to the patio and set them on fire as her six dogs barked at them.

Police suspect two men of committing the crime, though Martinez’s sister—also named María—says more people may have known about the plot. Read full story from foxnews.com

As autumn starts to draw in, thoughts turn to the pagans of our ancient past
The nights are growing longer and on many trees the leaves are slowly turning from green to gold, heralding the arrival of autumn. We seem to have missed out on the season of summer this year and crops of fruit and grain are poor at a time when they should be in abundance. Good hay is virtually unobtainable but the wrapped round bale has allowed us to at least salvage a fodder crop of some sort. The summer we have just endured reminded me of a passage in David Thomson’s book Woodbrook, when he wrote of helping to make hay in a wet season in Roscommon in the 1930s. Read full story from independent.ie

Federal safety minister hexes job posting for prison witch in B.C.
VANCOUVER — Public Safety Minister Vic Toews appears less concerned about the quality of spells cast from behind bars than he is about a backlash from taxpayers, cancelling a Corrections Canada tender for a priest to nurture the spiritual needs of witches in prison.

Earlier this week, the federal prison agency put out a request for a proposal for a Wiccan chaplain in British Columbia who would provide about 17 hours of service a month, about an hour less service than the department says it needs for the Jewish faith. Read full story from vancouversun.com

Paranormal:

‘Paranormal Activity’ producer branches out into haunted houses
In the underground dressing room of a dilapidated theater in downtown Los Angeles, a Hollywood art director is telling a chilling tale.”It was closing night in the 1930s, and the owner’s wife desperately wanted to be the magician’s assistant,” said Thom Spence, a burly man with two earrings, long sideburns, a mustache and a soul patch. “But after Magi the Mysterious put her in the vanishing box, she never came back.”

In less than a month that story will come to life at the 88-year-old Variety Arts Theatre under the direction of film producer Jason Blum — not as a play, movie or TV show, but as a haunted house. Read full story from latimes.com

‘Ghost Hunters’ production crewmembers miss Grant Wilson
Members of the production crew for “Ghost Hunters” expressed their feelings about Grant Wilson’s departure from the show via Twitter after the debut of the first show without him on Sept. 5.

Hagar, the camerawoman for Amy Bruni and Adam Berry, made an unexpected appearance on the show last night after being attacked and scratched by an invisible entity – but this didn’t go unnoticed by Grant Wilson.

Grant contacted Hagar this morning via Twitter to congratulate her on her appearance on “Ghost Hunters” after receiving a tweet from her telling him how much he was missed. Read full story from examiner.com

Media:

Britain’s religious clash with secular society (Source: YouTube - Al Jazeera English)

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!

Lisa

News & Submissions 9/4/2012

Tuesday, September 4th, 2012

Arts & Entertainment:

New movie in production based on Rose Hall’s ‘White Witch’ legend
Albany pagans looking for future films related to witchcraft and the occult will definitely have some entertainment to look forward to next year. According to an article appearing in the “Jamaica Observer,” a new thriller film called, “The Rebellion: The Legend of the White Witch of Rose Hall,” is slated for production and release in 2013. The movie will be produced by Raquel Roxanne, directed by Rodrigo Retamoza III, and written by Nadine Barnett Cosby. The film will be based on the famed and haunted history at the Rose Hall Great House in Montego Bay, Jamaica. Read full story from examiner.com

The Sims 3 Supernatural Review: Witches, Fairies, Werewolves And Magic
With vampires, bots, imaginary friends and other strange beings brought into our Sims 3 communities thanks to previously released expansion packs for EA’s game, it’s hard to imagine things getting any weirder around the neighborhood. And then comes Supernatural, an expansion pack that unleashes a few new types of beings into the world, giving the player new ways to play the game, and new powers for their Sims to use and abuse at their discretion.

The following review contains spoilers, details and screenshots from the Sims 3: Supernatural expansion pack. It is based on game-play with a Macbook Pro with OS X Mountain Lion. This game is an expansion pack and requires the base game in order to play. Read full story from cinemablend.com

Education:

Aliens, witchcraft and zombie philosophers: 8 unconventional courses at University of Michigan
University of Michigan sparked a national debate nine years ago when the school offered a course titled “How to be Gay.”Last year, Michigan State University raised eyebrows when it offered a course called “Surviving the Coming Zombie Apocalypse.”

This fall, U-M doesn’t seem to be offering courses quite as controversial or off-the-wall as those two, but the school definitely has a few oddballs sprinkled in its course packet.

The unconventional offerings include courses that explore whether aliens really exist, whether Robin Hood was real and what famous thinkers would be saying and doing if they were alive today. Read full story from annarbor.com

Lifestyle:

Beyond the surreal
A career Wicca, Ipsita Roy Chakraverti is on a mission to dispel myths surrounding witchcraft and save the lives of women victimised by superstitionFor Ipsita Roy Chakraverti, the world of the paranormal and metaphysical is not some make-believe hocus pocus, or the stuff that scripts sensational television drama. It is her life’s work. A popular Wicca, or witch in lay terms, she not only administers Wiccan ways of healing, but has also made it her mission to travel to remote villages across India, especially where innocent women are declared witches and then murdered, to dispel myths about “witchcraft”. Read full story from thehindu.com

News:

Ghana witch camps: Widows’ lives in exile
When misfortune hits a village, there is a tendency in some countries to suspect a “witch” of casting a spell. In Ghana, outspoken or eccentric women may also be accused of witchcraft – and forced to live out their days together in witch camps.A rusty motorbike speeds across the vast dry savannah of Ghana’s impoverished northern region, leaving a cloud of reddish dust in its wake. Arriving at a small group of round thatched huts, the young motorcyclist helps his old mother to dismount to begin her new life in exile.

Frail 82-year-old Samata Abdulai has arrived at the village of Kukuo, one of Ghana’s six witch camps, where women accused of witchcraft seek refuge from beating, torture or lynching. Read full story from standardmedia.co.ke

Witch hunts targeted by grassroots women’s groups
EAST LANSING, Mich. — Witch hunts are common and sometimes deadly in the tea plantations of Jalpaiguri, India. But a surprising source – small groups of women who meet through a government loan program – has achieved some success in preventing the longstanding practice, a Michigan State University sociologist found.Soma Chaudhuri spent seven months studying witch hunts in her native India and discovered that the economic self-help groups have made it part of their agenda to defend their fellow plantation workers against the hunts.

“It’s a grassroots movement and it’s helping provide a voice to women who wouldn’t otherwise have one,” said Chaudhuri, assistant professor of sociology and criminal justice. “I can see the potential for this developing into a social movement, but it’s not going to happen in a day because an entire culture needs to be changed.”  Read full story from news.msu.edu

Media:

Christians take discrimination cases to Europe’s top court (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!

Lisa

News & Submissions 3/29/2012

Thursday, March 29th, 2012

Environment & Science:

Fossils foot bones hint at mystery walker
Scientists have obtained a fascinating new insight into the evolution of humans and our ability to walk.

It comes from the fossilised bones of a foot that were discovered in Ethiopia and dated to be 3.4 million years old.

The researchers say they do not have enough remains to identify the species of hominin, or human ancestor, from which the right foot came.

But they tell Nature journal that just the shape of the bones shows the creature could walk upright at times. Read full story from bbc.co.uk

Climate Change Poses Disaster Risk for Most of the Planet
Climate change is bringing more droughts, heat waves and powerful rainstorms, shifts that will require governments to change how they cope with natural disasters to protect human lives and the world economy, a new U.N. report says.

The 592-page analysis by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, released yesterday, also makes clear the uneven toll extracted by extreme weather, because its effects can be magnified by a lack of resources to plan for disasters and cope with their aftermath. Read full story from scientificamerican.com

News:

NYC Schools Want To Ban ‘Loaded Words’ From Tests
New York (CNN) — Divorce. Dinosaurs, Birthdays. Religion. Halloween. Christmas. Television. These are a few of the 50-plus words and references the New York City Department of Education is hoping to ban from the city’s standardized tests.

The banned word list was made public — and attracted considerable criticism — when the city’s education department recently released this year’s “request for proposal” The request for proposal is sent to test publishers around the country trying to get the job of revamping math and English tests for the City of New York.

New York (CNN) — Divorce. Dinosaurs, Birthdays. Religion. Halloween. Christmas. Television. These are a few of the 50-plus words and references the New York City Department of Education is hoping to ban from the city’s standardized tests.The banned word list was made public — and attracted considerable criticism — when the city’s education department recently released this year’s “request for proposal” The request for proposal is sent to test publishers around the country trying to get the job of revamping math and English tests for the City of New York. Read full story from ktvz.com

Suspects: Alleged sexual assault part of religion
MARIETTA – A Marietta couple was arrested Tuesday night for allegedly sexually assaulting a teenage family member, acts they say occurred due to their religious beliefs.

Arrested were Daniel R. Hess, 45, and his live-in girlfriend, Lacey K. Day, 30, of 728 Mount Tom Road, Marietta. The couple was charged with third-degree sexual battery after allegedly assaulting a 15-year-old girl on three occasions beginning in late 2010.

“We’ve been conducting the investigation for about the last two weeks. It came to our attention through another public service agency within the county,” said Washington County Sheriff Larry Mincks. Read full story from newsandssentinel.com

Mysterious Stone Monolith Likely an Ancient Astronomical Calendar
A mysterious stone monolith jutting from the ground near Manchester, England probably served as a crude seasonal calendar for Stone Age farmers.

The moss-covered monolith has three faces and appears to be roughly 4,000 years old, based on dating of other relics sprinkled about the site, which is called Gardom’s Edge.

“The stone is a singular, very striking feature in contrast to the landscape,” said astronomer Daniel Brown of Nottingham Trent University in the UK. “It’s definitely not a Space Odyssey alien relic. It’s far more mundane and tricky.”Read full story from wired.com

Religion:

How religion has been used to promote slavery
(CNN) – Which revered religious figure – Moses, Jesus, or the Prophet Muhammad – spoke out boldly and unambiguously against slavery?

Answer: None of them.

One of these men owned slaves, another created laws to regulate – but not ban  - slavery. The third’s chief spokesman even ordered slaves to obey their masters, religious scholars say.

Most modern people of faith see slavery as a great evil. Though the three great Western religions – Judaism, Christianity and Islam – disagree on many matters, most of their contemporary followers condemn slavery.

Yet there was a time when Jews, Christians and Muslims routinely cited the words and deeds of their founders to justify human bondage, scholars say.

At times, religion was deployed more to promote the spread of slavery than to prevent it. Read full story from cnn.com

Media:

Police Probe Animal Sacrifice (Source: NBC Connecticut)

View more videos at: http://nbcconnecticut.com.

Giant Solar Tornado Caught in NASA Video (Source: National Geographic)



Sean Faircloth & Richard Dawkins address the American Atheists Convention Source: YouTube – RichardDawkinsdotnet)

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 1/19/2012

Thursday, January 19th, 2012

Religion:

Pagan mom challenges Bible giveaway at North Carolina school
WEAVERVILLE, N.C. –  A pagan mother’s challenge to the distribution of donated Bibles at a local school has prompted the Buncombe County Board of Education to reevaluate its policies regarding religious texts.

Ginger Strivelli, who practices Witchcraft, a form of Paganism, said she was upset when her 12-year-old son [who did not wish to be photographed for this article] came home from North Windy Ridge intermediate school with a Bible.

The Gideons International had delivered several boxes of the sacred books to the school office. The staff allowed interested students to stop by and pick them up. Read full story from foxnews.com

More about Pendulum dowsing
We look at this anicent method, which was used by the Romans, Greeks and also by Nostradamus to predict the future Melissa D’costa

The practice of pendulum dowsing is not a new phenomenon and dates back to the anicent Romans and Greeks who used it to predict the future. It is said that ‘scrying’ (another word for dowsing or divination) was a common practice during that time and was even used by Nostradamus. Read full story from indiatimes.com

Finding spirituality through shamanism
In this fast-paced world, many seek deeper peace through spirituality, meditation and religious devotion. For some, a course on shamanism offered by the anthropology department can expand spiritual knowledge. Bonnie Glass-Coffin, an anthropology professor, teaches such courses, including cultural anthropology, spirit and health, and shamanism.

Glass-Coffin said a survey was taken by the Higher Education Research Institute (HERI) in 2004 in which freshmen from public and private institutions were asked if they were religious or spiritual and if they considered this aspect to be a significant part of their lives. Read full story from usustatesman.com

Media:

Why’s religion so big in American politics? (Source: CNN)

Infrared Image Shows Helix Nebula in Fresh Light
The nearby Helix nebula just received the piercing infrared gaze of a giant telescope in Chile, and the resulting image reveals cold gas normally hidden among warmer star-lit material.

Helix’s central star once resembled the Sun, but its outer layers of gas and dust sloughed off. The resulting planetary nebula, located some 700 light-years from Earth, is what telescopes now see. Read full story from wired.com

Is this the ghost of Princess Diana or an optical illusion? (Source: YouTube – ITN News)

Blogspot:

News & Submissions 1/3/2012

Tuesday, January 3rd, 2012

Headlines:

DC Pagan Community Center Launch (Source: FireFlyAcadamy)

Environment:

Moss Has Cloned Itself for 50,000 Years, Study Says
A moss spreading throughout the Hawaiian Islands (map) appears to be an ancient clone that has copied itself for some 50,000 years—and may be one of the oldest multicellular organisms on Earth, a new study suggests.

The peat moss Sphagnum palustre is found throughout the Northern Hemisphere, but the moss living in Hawaii appears to reproduce only through cloning, without the need for sex or production of spores. Read full story from nationalgeographic.com

News:

ACLU sues library for blocking Wiccan websites
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Eastern Missouri sued a local public library on Tuesday for allegedly blocking websites related to Wicca, a modern pagan religion.

Anaka Hunter of Salem, Mo., said she tried to access websites about Wicca, Native American religions and astrology for her own research, but the library’s filtering software blocked the sites.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Eastern Missouri sued a local public library on Tuesday for allegedly blocking websites related to Wicca, a modern pagan religion.

According to the ACLU, the software labeled the sites as “occult” and “criminal.”  Read full story from thehill.com

Happy Gay Year
In a piece of shameless propaganda, two female sailors were photographed kissing on a dock in front of a U.S. Navy Ship. The headlines read, “Two women share historic kiss at US Navy ship’s return. For the first time since the repeal of ‘don’t ask, don’t tell,’ a same sex couple takes part in a traditional public embrace. A Navy tradition caught up with the repeal of the US military’s ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ rule on Wednesday when two women sailors became the first to share the coveted ‘first kiss’ on the pier after one of them returned from 80 days at sea.”

Having served eight years in the Navy myself, I immediately asked: what Navy tradition is that? The Navy I served in never did any such thing.

American servicemen and women are not just being asked to tolerate this behavior, but are being subjected to “sensitivity training” where they are required to embrace homosexuality or abandon their careers. Meanwhile, homosexuals, transsexuals, and other perverts are being recruited in an effort to drive Christians from service. This abomination has been extended to the rest of government with executive order #13583, directing that homosexuals be given preference for government jobs and contracts. Read full story from rigthsidenews.com

Paranormal:

Reports of “strange lights” & “UFOs” flood in as 2012 hysteria arrives
On a daily basis WeatherWatch.co.nz receives around a handful of eyewitness reports of meteors and other lights in the sky, from nations all over the world.  Some busy days we might get 10 eyewitness reports.  However in the past 24 hours we’ve had almost 80 reports and they are still flooding in at about 10 an hour.

From New Zealand’s Otago Peninsula, to Cape Town, Venezuela to the UK, Australia to North America those ringing in the New Year have seen flashing lights, “floating orbs” and “UFOS”.

WeatherWatch.co.nz weather analyst Philip Duncan puts the dramatic increase in sightings down to a few things.  “Many people around the world have been outside celebrating the New Year.  In the US, where most of the sightings came from, conditions were fairly mild and dry in many areas – so more people were outside to see things.  Finally, it’s 2012, the year the world is supposed to end according to the Mayans and it seems many are already worrying “.Read full story from WeatherWatch.co.nz

Science:

Twin Moon Probes Start New Year by Entering Lunar Orbit
A pair of NASA spacecraft are ringing in the new year in grand style, with both now successfully circling the moon after journeying through space for more than three months.

The Grail-B probe entered lunar orbit today (Jan. 1) after firing its main engine at 5:05 p.m. EST (2205 GMT) in a 40-minute-long orbital-insertion burn, NASA officials said. It joins its twin spacecraft, Grail-A, which arrived at the moon yesterday evening (Dec. 31) after completing a similar maneuver.

The two probes are on a mission to study Earth’s nearest neighbor from crust to core. After gradually circling down to super-low orbits, the pair will zip around the moon in tandem, working together to map the lunar gravity field in unprecedented detail, researchers said. Read full story from scientificamerican.com

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 12/8/2011

Thursday, December 8th, 2011

Arts & Entertainment:

Retrospective: BBC’s ‘A Ghost Story For Christmas’
Britain’s adoption of Halloween as a season for all things ghoulish is a relatively recent phenomena, gathering momentum by minute gradations, but still is somewhat fleeting compared to the glorious renditions accorded to that season by our friends in the U. S. of A. This has little to do with any discontent at larkish shenanigans generally, nor prudishness at a festival so rooted in things Pagan, naught a scintilla with disinterest in all things macabrely malignant. It has simply to do with the fact that for Brits, Christmas – with its long, dark nights – has long been established as the time for fear and it’s been that way multos annos. In terms of what we would today consider popular culture, the man most directly responsible for this unlikely paradigm is a chap known in his own lifetime, affectionately, as ‘Boz’. Mr. Charles Dickens, like many a Victorian, was obsessed with the supernatural. As editor of ‘All the Year Round’, one of Victoriana’s most popular ’zines, he published not only his own unheimlich offerings, but a plethora of others by some of the best in the genre. The most important of these, by far, was Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu. But the techniques Le Fanu pioneered – the slow escalation of narrative, the meticulous use of suggestion, the excessive under-statement, the well-used psychological underpinnings, the almost obsessive use of folklore would prove far less important in his own lifetime than they were to become to his most renowned protégé – M.R. James, who always placed Le Fanu “absolutely in the first rank as a writer of ghost stories”. Read full story from brutalashell.com

Astrology:

Saturday’s Lunar Eclipse Will Include ‘Impossible’ Sight
This year’s second total lunar eclipse on Saturday (Dec. 10) will offer a rare chance to see a strange celestial sight traditionally thought impossible.

Ringside seats for the lunar eclipse can be found in Alaska, Hawaii, northwestern Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and central and eastern Asia. Over the contiguous United States and Canada, the eastern zones will see either only the initial penumbral stages before moonset, or nothing at all.

Over the central regions of the United States, the moon will set as it becomes progressively immersed in the Earth’s umbral shadow. The Rocky Mountain states and the prairie provinces will see the moon set in total eclipse, while out west the moon will start to emerge from the shadow as it sets. Read full story from space.com

News:

‘Witch’s cottage’ unearthed near Pendle Hill, Lancashire
Engineers have said they were “stunned” to unearth a 17th Century cottage, complete with a cat skeleton, during a construction project in Lancashire.

The cottage was discovered near Lower Black Moss reservoir in the village of Barley, in the shadow of Pendle Hill.

Archaeologists brought in by United Utilities to survey the area found the building under a grass mound.

Historians are now speculating that the well-preserved cottage could have belonged to one of the Pendle witches. Read full story from bbc.co.uk

Religion:

Psychology lecturer is also a practicing Wiccan
Laura Wildman-Hanlon, a practicing Wiccan, is not your Hollywood witch. She doesn’t wear a pointed hat or have green skin, and she certainly doesn’t turn men into frogs. This she says, is not at all what real Wicca and witchcraft are about.

“Wicca is a modern form of witchcraft,” said Wildman-Hanlon, office manager for the psychology department at the University of Massachusetts. “It’s more of a religious component. It is earth-based spirituality that acknowledges the divine in many forms.” Read full story from dailycollegian.com

Black, atheist and living in the South
(CNN) – Benjamin Burchall first realized how different his experience in the South was going to be while looking for something to watch on television on a Sunday night.

“I couldn’t find anything on television but religious programming,” says Burchall, 38, a former Christian minister and agricultural consultant who moved from Long Beach, California, to Atlanta for work, “And I thought, ‘Oh my God, where am I? Is this all that is on television here?’”

And he quickly found other differences from West Coast living.

“I was not used to meeting someone for the first time and having their first question be ‘what church do you go to?’”

Burchall’s proud response to such queries was, “None.” He is part of an increasingly visible minority – black atheists living in the Bible Belt. Read full story from cnn.com

Camp Pendleton Cross Does Not Honor Non-Christian Fallen Marines
The United States military is highly diverse. According to a 2010 analysis, many different Christian denominations are represented in the ranks, but some personnel are Humanist, Jewish, Muslim, Pagan or followers of other traditions. One survey found that as many as 25 percent cited no religious preference at all.

Thus, when a group of marines at Camp Pendleton erected a large cross on their California base as an unofficial memorial to soldiers wounded or killed in combat, they left out a lot of their comrades. A cross may honor Christian service personnel who died, but it doesn’t include those of other faiths and those who follow no spiritual path at all. Read full story from opposingviews.com

Study: Some atheists with children attend with religious services
Washington (CNN) – Nearly one in five atheist scientists with children involve their families with religious institutions, even if they personally do not agree with the institutions teachings, a recent study says.

The study, conducted by Rice University and the University at Buffalo, found that these scientists affiliate with churches for both social and personal reasons. Additionally, the scientists indicated a strong desire to prepare their children to make educated decisions about their personal religious preference. Read full story from cnn.com

Blogspot:

  • Pagan Culture – Witchy Books Reading Challenge 2012
  • Patti Wigington – Yule Countdown: Customs Around the World
  • The Wild Hunt – Oberon Zell and Kenny Klein Cut Ties With Revived American Council of Witches

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 8/11/2011

Thursday, August 11th, 2011

Arts & Entertainment:

Tattoos Come Alive in Canadian Indie Horror ‘Comforting Skin’ (VIDEO)
There have been a small handful of films made over the years about tattoos taking on a life of their own. I’ve always found these films to be conceptually interesting, since tattoos often carry deep meaning to the bearer, ones that are often tied to a persons sense of identity, but Comforting Skin appears to be the first film to execute on the idea solidly. Read full story from brutalashell.com

Holistic Health:

Traditional African Medicine: Herbalism, Spirituality and Treating HIV/AIDS
Throughout Africa, there are more traditional healers than trained medical practitioners, according to the book Healing Traditions: African Medicine, Cultural Exchange, and Competition in South Africa, 1820-1948. The traditional healers promote traditional African medicine, a form of holistic health that combines spiritual beliefs and herbalism to treat patients. Because traditional healers are so well-respected and trusted by their communities, many practitioners and followers of westernized medicine believe the healers can play an important role in treating deadly epidemics such as HIV/AIDS among Africans. Read full story from empowher.com

News:

1,000 alleged witches arrested, drugged
DAKAR, Senegal — Authorities in Gambia have rounded up about 1,000 people and forced them to drink hallucinogens in a witch-hunting campaign that is terrorizing the tiny West African nation, an international rights group said Wednesday.

Amnesty International called on the government of President Yahya Jammeh, who seized power in a 1994 coup and has claimed he can cure AIDS, to halt the campaign and bring those responsible to justice.

Gambian officials could not immediately be reached for comment and the government has issued no statements in reaction to the report.

Authorities began inviting “witch doctors,” who combat witches, to come from nearby Guinea soon after the death earlier this year of the president’s aunt. Jammeh “reportedly believes that witchcraft was used in her death,” the London-based rights group said. Read full story from msnbc.com

Photography:

Multicolored Auroras Sparked by Double Sun Blast
An auroral “flame” flickers over Tibbitt Lake in Canada’s Northwest Territories early on August 7. Throughout last weekend, auroras shimmered above northern countries as Earth’s atmosphere was hit by its strongest geomagnetic storm in years. See photos at nationalgeographic.com

Media:

The Moon Up Close, in HD
For the past two years, NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) has been orbiting the Moon, gathering data that will help astronauts prepare for long-duration expeditions to the lunar surface, and eventually push further into the “infinite frontier of space.” (Read more about the big picture plan here.)

Fox News: Cancer Patient ‘Cured By God’s Voice’ (Source: YouTube – AtheistMediaBlog)

Making The Shining
In 1980, Stanley Kubrick shot The Shining, the classic horror film based on Stephen King’s novel. During production, the director allowed his daughter Vivian, then 17 years old, to shoot a documentary called Making The Shining, which lets you spend 33 minutes being a fly on the wall. Read full story from openculture.com

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 8/9/2011

Tuesday, August 9th, 2011

Arts & Entertainment:

O’Death: “Bugs” Challenges Nick Cave For Most Disturbing Video
And loses, but keep in mind that Nick Cave, whose latest incarnation Grinderman is responsible for “Heathen Child”, has never really said for certain whether or not he is in fact a demon toying with our souls until he consumes them. So no, O’Death doesn’t beat the creepiest man in rock and roll with their music video for “Bugs,” but that doesn’t mean theirs doesn’t haunt your nightmares afterwards.

Our discovery of O’Death is part of an ongoing exchange program that Rocks Off utilizes with Mick Cullen of Subterranean Radio (live via Intertubes every Thursday from 10 p.m.-1 a.m. courtesy of WRLR FM in Round Rock, Ill.). We gave him Alyssa Rubich and the Folk Family Revival; he gave us Erland and the Carnival and O’Death. Read full story from houstenpress.com

Ten worst film remakes
Lionsgate Studios have announced they are working on a remake of 1980s classic Dirty Dancing. Here are some Hollywood remakes that failed to impress the critics: Read full story from telegraph.co.uk

Native American:

Droughts, water scarcity, fires, flooding, snowstorms are especially harsh for American Indians and Alaska Natives
North American Indian Tribes are especially harmed by climate change, as more ecological shifts and more frequent, more extreme weather events occur, a new study concludes. Because Tribes are heavily dependent on natural resources, severe weather events like droughts, floods, wildfires, and snowstorms make tribal communities particularly vulnerable and impact American Indians and Alaska Natives more than they impact the general population.

“Extreme weather events can be very destructive for Tribes, many of whom are already suffering from lack of resources to begin with,” said Dr. Amanda Staudt, scientist, National Wildlife Federation. “Heat waves and droughts can exacerbate plant and wildlife mortality, heighten the risk of wildfires and habitat loss, and compromise tribal lands.” Read full story from nwf.org

News:

London riots attract international coverage
The London riots made front pages across the world – in Europe, the United States, Asia and Australasia.

The images of blazing buildings in Tottenham and elsewhere around the capital appeared in scores of newspapers.

For once, the phrase wall-to-wall coverage was justified. It was the surprise international story for almost every major paper in capitals around the globe.

The New York Times carried a front page picture under the headline, “Riots continue to rattle Britain in worst unrest in two decades”. And its website updated the story, “Rioting widens in London and spreads elsewhere”.

The Washington Post ran a single column top on page 1, “London unrest escalates, spreads” turning to a full page inside. Its website ran an online gallery of pictures. Read full story from guardian.co.uk

Religion:

Army agrees to host concert for atheists on N.C. base
(RNS) A group of military atheists have won the backing of U.S. Army officials to hold a “Rock Beyond Belief” concert for nonbelievers at North Carolina’s Fort Bragg next year.

The victory came after several church-state separation watchdog groups complained last month to the Secretary of the Army that a Christian-themed concert held at the fort last September gave “selective benefits” to religious groups.

That concert, staged by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, received more than $50,000 in financial support from the base, according to records obtained by local atheists through the Freedom of Information Act. The nonreligious concert will receive the same funds and will be held at a similar venue at the base. Read full story from christiancentury.org

Buddhist wonks? No, Buddhist Geeks
Vincent Horn opened his eyes after a moment of meditation, scanned the room and smiled. About 150 other people were emerging from their own states of dead-silent, self-induced tranquillity. They shuffled a bit in their seats.

“Hello, Buddhist geeks!” Horn said from his perch onstage. “This is the most geeks I’ve seen in one place, I think, ever.”

His statement brought to mind a moment in the documentary “Woodstock,” when folk singer Arlo Guthrie takes in the crowd of several hundred thousand young people and cackles, “Lotta freaks!” But this was a very different time and place. Read full story from latimes.com

Media:

Vandalism Discovered at Pontiac’s Oak Hill Cemetery
PONTIAC, Mich. (WJBK) – Sam Wiscombe brought his daughters to Pontiac’s Oak Hill Cemetery. He wanted to use the historic burial grounds built back in the 1820s as an artistic backdrop for some pictures he was taking, but after looking through his lens he wasn’t happy.

“I just thought it was a shameful testament to our culture that we allow our ancestors to be in this state,” he said.

As this English teacher wandered through the grounds, he noticed mausoleums were literally crumbling with trash thrown inside.  There were toppled grave stones. Someone even drew the word “wiccan” and other profanities on marble monuments. Read full story from myfoxdetroit.com

Punk Rock Permaculture in Mexico City
It’s not just hippies going that like to go green. From green-living anarchist collectives to Punk Rock Permaculture’s reporting on disaster relief in Haiti, the notion of green living back-to-the-land lifestyles goes hand-in-hand with punk rock subcultures. Here’s a neat PBS report on the punk rock permaculture activists of Mexico City. Read full story from treehugger.com

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 7/28/11

Thursday, July 28th, 2011

Arts & Entertainment:

Scariest Movies
Over the history of cinema there have been many films that have been called the scariest movies. Many of these movies are horrific, gory and frightening on many different levels. Some people are scared by monsters while others are frightened by real life horrors, but all these movies scare people in many different ways. Read full story from screenjunkies.com

Native American:

Navajo Continues Life’s Work With AICF
Early this year W.K. Kellogg Foundation gave the American Indian College Fund (AICF) $5 million for the Wakanyeja “Sacred Little Ones” Early Childhood Development Initiative.

The program is funded for five years and is intended to:

  • improve young Native American students’ skill acquisition
  • prepare them for grades K-12 and post-secondary education
  • improve the quality of early childhood teachers in Native communities
  • bridge early childhood and K-3 education
  • integrate Native language and culture into early childhood curriculum
  • empower Native families and communities as change agents in education for their children

In March, AICF started looking for someone to administer the program, and they finally found someone who fits the bill. Read full story from indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com

News:

War Widow’s Truck Targeted By Vandals
SPARKS, NV – The wife of a Nevada National Guard soldier killed in Afghanistan woke Monday morning to find her husband’s truck vandalized.

Sadly, it was only the latest in a series of incidents which have marked Roberta Stewart’s life since her husband’s death.

The truck was to have been Sgt. Patrick Stewart’s coming home gift, a purchase he and Roberta, had planned together.

In 2005, he and Chief Warrant Officer John Flynn, both Nevada Army Guardsmen were killed when their Chinook helicopter was shot down in Afghanistan.

Monday morning, the truck he had wanted, the one she bought, now bearing new Gold Star license plates as a tribute to their sacrifice, was parked outside her Sparks apartment, it’s windshield smashed by a large brick. Read full story from kolotv.com

Paranormal:

Children of the paranormal
I have been doing paranormal research now for over 11 years now. I have written four books on the subject and dozens of articles. I have also been to dozens of places around the US in nearly 20 states. To this day, in spite of many attempts and visits to notoriously dangerous locations, I have never been attacked or injured by a ghost, spirit, demon, entity, evil energy, ifrit, jinn or anything similarly supernatural. I am starting to feel a bit left out. When is my hair going to be pulled? When am I going to be poked, kicked or prodded? When is my immortal soul going to be in danger? I mean, if you watch some of these shows on television you would think this sort of thing happens all the time. Well, at least once or twice a week and maybe more on “sweeps week” and Halloween. Read full story from examiner.com

Paranormal Activity Found At Terror Mansion
SAN ANTONIO — At Halloween, you pay your money and take a scary tour through Terror Mansion, a popular haunted house in San Antonio.

But now the house is the subject of a paranormal investigation after ghostly orbs and other phenomena were caught on camera.

Photos of Nancy Alanis’ dog, Jenny, taken at Terror Mansion the day before the dog died, gave the first clues of paranormal activity. Read full story from ksat.com

Religion:

Atheists pick the wrong ground to fight
It is so common that zealous individuals take actions that seem wholly against what they claim they stand for it is almost a cliche; those who object to abortion as murder commit murder to get their point across, the heinous mass killing in Norway was meant to “protect” traditional values, Republicans claim to be defending US soldiers while they cut their pay and strip them of benefits, and multiculturalists out to protect “free speech” want to ban objectionable words and phrases.  Neither left or right is free from this hypocrisy, and it continues to hamper public discourse and objective consideration of opposing viewpoints, and a group here in NYC that I agree with in principle has done something I wholly disagree with, attempting to force the removal of a “cross” at the Ground Zero memorial. Read full story from examiner.com

Media:

Montreal First Peoples’ Festival: Fun!
Montreal is North America’s festival city during the summer, and one of the most exciting is the First Peoples’ Festival. This year’s festival—the 21st annual event—takes place August 2–9.

The year’s theme is “And now, the world,” according to Andre Dudemaine, Innu, the co-founder and director of Land InSights, a nonprofit organization that organizes and sponsors the event.

“Artists from First Nations of the whole planet will come to meet their North American counterparts and showcase their works. It is an opportunity here on Native land to reaffirm messages of welcome and peace they left as sovereign peoples to all the world’s peoples,” Dudemaine says on the festival website. Read full story from indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com

Colbert on the Media’s Rush to Blame the Oslo Attacks on Muslim Jihadists
Just because Norway’s confessed murderer is a blond, blue-eyed, Norwegian-born, anti-Muslim crusader doesn’t mean he’s not a swarthy, ululating madman. (Source – ColbertNation.com)

Blogpost:

  • Inciting A Riot – The Super Witch’s Tarot+
  • Pantheon – Guest Post: Drew Jacob on Lúnasa with “The Family”

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