Posts Tagged ‘Yule’

Wassail Recipe

Friday, December 21st, 2012

Wassail

I make this every year and everyone loves it. There may have been a bit too much Brandy in it a couple years back, my Aunt’s first sip came straight out of her nose. LOL! Anyways, I’m looking forward to making it again this year, it makes the house smell yummy. If you get a chance to make it, let me know how it turns out.

Happy Yule!

Dead Soldiers

Cook Time: 2-4 hours
Ingredients:
  • Approxamitely 12 bottles of Woodchuck Hard Cider (1 gallon)
  • 2 C. cranberry juice
  • 1/2 C honey
  • 1/2 C sugar
  • 2 oranges
  • Whole cloves
  • 1 apple, peeled and diced
  • Allspice
  • Ginger
  • Nutmeg
  • 3 cinnamon sticks (or 3 Tbs. ground cinnamon)
  • 1/2 C – 1 C brandy (optional)
Preparation:

Set your crockpot to low, pour in apple cider, cranberry juice, honey and sugar, mix carefully. While it heats up, stir so the honey and sugar dissolve. Stud the oranges with the cloves, and place in the pot. Add the diced apple, allspice, ginger and nutmeg to taste — a couple of tablespoons of each is plenty. Snap the cinnamon sticks in half and add.

Cover and simmer 2 – 4 hours on low heat. About half an hour prior to serving, add the brandy, if desired.

Tip: For people with cinnamon allergies, add an extra 1 1/2 tbsp of both allspice and nutmeg! (Thanks to Natalie Pagan!)

Enjoy! Have a great weekend!

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 10/4/2011

Tuesday, October 4th, 2011

Arts & Entertainment:

Harry Potter tour hopes to cast spell on UK Muggles
As all good students of the Harry Potter saga know well, Muggles are not usually allowed at Hogwarts school of witchcraft of wizardry. However, a new exhibition will soon give those not gifted with magical powers the chance to see some of the famous Potter film sets, such as the Great Hall and Dumbledore’s office, for themselves. Read full story from guardian.co.uk

The enchantments of witch fiction
Being a witch or wizard in the Potterverse, or in many other magical landscapes, is an exciting and desirable state – special, talented, glamorously outside the norm.  But there are also contexts in children’s literature, particularly in historical fiction, fantasy or the bleed-space between genres, in which a little magic – or just the suspicion of it – is a dangerous thing.  To be accused of witchcraft, whether truthfully, maliciously or both, may cause characters to be shunned or tormented by their communities, interrogated by frightening figures of authority, or even put to death if their luck runs finally out. Read full story from guardian.co.uk

Environment:

30 Million Plastic Bags Collected by School Kids to Save a Species
They’re like little troll dolls with tails. These super cute and super tiny animals are Cotton-Top Tamarins, found only in Columbia, and they’re about to disappear from the wild. But clever strategies for saving the forest in which they live have been devised by Proyecto Tití, from collecting plastic bags polluting the forest and turning them into marketable products to finding new sources of cooking fuel that spares trees. Read full story from treehugger.com

News:

‘Witch’ hunt continues in Rajasthan
Bhilwara (Rajasthan): A 60-year-old woman in Rajasthan’s Bhilwara says she was branded a witch, tortured and banished from her village, police said on Tuesday.

The incident took place in Fuliakhurd village in Bhilwara district, some 250 km from state capital Jaipur, and a case has been registered against four villagers. Police say an inquiry has been ordered.

“A group of people broke open the door of my house on Monday and started beating me. They held me by my hair and dragged me, saying I was a ‘dayan’ (witch). Then they ordered me to leave the village immediately,” the woman said in her complaint.

“They ostracised her and claimed that she was a ‘dayan’ (witch) and possessed an evil spirit,” a senior police officer said. Read full story from india.com

Religion:

Strange YouTube video claims Irish college hosts Satanic church – VIDEO
Here’s a strange one to start the week with.

According to Irish third level website StudentNews.ie, University College Cork — better known for recently accumulating such accolades as a five star quality rating from QS, and the Sunday Times Irish University of the Year — is in fact also playing host to a satanic religious institution on its main campus.

The Honan Chapel, known to students as the on-campus chapel, and also a popular wedding venue for those a little past their college-going years, boasts eerie satantic imagery according to this video from YouTube. Read full story from irishcentral.com

Attacks on Buddhists in Southern Region of Thailand
Bangkok, Thailand (CHAKRA)—In the southern region of the Narathiwat province, three consecutive bomb explosions killed four Malaysians as well as a Thai volunteer that was working in a tourist area. Concern has risen for the area, especially because officials believe that the targets of such blasts are foreign tourists. The specific targets of the blasts were a hotel and a Chinese-Thai cultural center, which were both partly damaged. These spoils have reminded the government of the ethnic minority problems that exist in the south. Read full story from chakranews.com

Samhain:

Samhain — Nature’s Holy Day for Managing Seasonal Affective Disorder
In the Northern Hemisphere, neopagans celebrate Samhain as the last harvest, the point at which the day has shortened and winter is setting in. Some modern pagans consider it the “witch’s new year,” though in other traditions, Samhain marked only the end of the year. The beginning of the year, the “new year,” came with the promise of light’s return at Yule, several weeks later. The span between the two stellar points was considered untime — a sacred experience outside our usual observation of time and space. Thus, an understanding of cyclic “Dead Time,” or “Dark Time,” entered our consciousness. Read full story from huffingtonpost.com

Media:

Dalai Lama scraps trip to South Africa; Tutu lashes out (Source: CNN)

Blogspot:

  • Capital Witch – Starhawk and Pagan Cluster to Occupy Freedom Plaza
  • Daughters of Eve – Lost in Translation… or maybe not
  • Patheos – Don’t Worry, Wicca Isn’t A Real Religion (A Rant)
  • The Wild Hunt – Virginia Court Says Divination Not A Religious Practice

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 12/19/2010

Sunday, December 19th, 2010

Fact and fiction of Paganism
THE cult film The Wicker Man has a lot to answer for. It featured a naked Britt Ekland tempting virgin cop Edward Woodward on a remote Scottish island before he is burned alive as a sacrifice to appease their Pagan Gods because of a crop failure – a bit different from your average Christian harvest festival. Now there are calls for Paganism to be put on the school curriculum. Should we be worried? Mike Kelly reports

THERE are many misconceptions about Paganism. The most obvious one is that it is somehow related to devil worship or satanism.

One of the reasons for this is an item of jewellery Pagans wear as a symbol of their beliefs – most commonly a pentacle or pentagram, a five-pointed star in a circle. For them it represents perfect balance and wisdom. Read full story from sundaysun.co.uk

Katy Guest: We wish you a merry Solstice. Or whatever…
The next time two smartly dressed young people knock at your door, keep you chatting as if they’re casing the joint and then ask you whether you really understand the true meaning of Christmas, try this: invite them in, brew up some hot mead, and explain to them patiently about a time 2,000 years ago when early Christians went in search of an arbitrary date on which to celebrate an event of middling theological importance in their fledgling religion.

Sitting around a festive Yule tree (redolent of the Norse god Ullr), decorated in tiny, glittering symbols of the end of darkness and the return to light, watch their little faces light up as you share seasonal offerings of meat and sprouts, in communion with the seasonal generosity of nature. Soon they will understand the true meaning of the Winter Solstice. Read full story from independent.co.uk

Four in 10 Americans Believe in Strict Creationism
PRINCETON, NJ — Four in 10 Americans, slightly fewer today than in years past, believe God created humans in their present form about 10,000 years ago. Thirty-eight percent believe God guided a process by which humans developed over millions of years from less advanced life forms, while 16%, up slightly from years past, believe humans developed over millions of years, without God’s involvement. Read full story from gallup.com

Rendlesham Forest UFO mystery still leaves questions
Thirty years after claims that UFOs had been spotted in Rendlesham Forest, experts and enthusiasts still can’t agree on what happened.

Mysterious craft and lights around the airbases of Woodbridge and Bentwaters in Suffolk were reported around Christmas 1980.

BBC Suffolk’s Mark Murphy presented a special 30th anniversary radio show from the forest in December 2010.

Mr Murphy promoted his favourite theory, but questions remained. Read full story from bbc.co.uk

Bones found on island might be Amelia Earhart’s
NORMAN, Okla. – The three bone fragments turned up on a deserted South Pacific island that lay along the course Amelia Earhart was following when she vanished. Nearby were several tantalizing artifacts: some old makeup, some glass bottles and shells that had been cut open.

Now scientists at the University of Oklahoma hope to extract DNA from the tiny bone chips in tests that could prove Earhart died as a castaway after failing in her 1937 quest to become the first woman to fly around the world.

“There’s no guarantee,” said Ric Gillespie, director of the International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery, a group of aviation enthusiasts in Delaware that found the pieces of bone this year while on an expedition to Nikumaroro Island, about 1,800 miles south of Hawaii. Read full story from yahoo.com

Crowds expected to gather to witness magical winter solstice light ceremony at Newgrange
Despite the weather, it’s expected that like last year, crowds will gather to witness the winter solstice light ceremony on December 21. Last year the World Heritage site in Newgrange drew a large audience.

The 5,000-year-old Stone Age tomb is older than the pyramids, and over 32,000 people worldwide applied to witness last year’s magnificent winter solstice.

The tomb’s chamber lights up when the sun rises on a winter solstice morning. It is the only time of the year when the tomb lights up with natural sunlight. Read full story from irishcentral.com

Christmas wrapped up in many cultures
I grew up singing in Greek and English Silent Night and Deck the Halls With Boughs of Holly, but why we are decking the “halls” at all? Each year at this time (December), we take the time to decorate our homes during the festive holiday season, hanging baubles on the Christmas tree and placing holly and ivy around the house. But how many of us stop to wonder why we participate in such traditions?

There are countless myths and legends as to why we place a pine tree in our home and hang wreaths on our doors during the winter holiday season.

The festivities of Christmas originate in the fourth century, when Pope Julius I declared that Dec. 25 would be the celebration of Christ’s birth. This can be seen as an attempt to Christianise Pagan rituals during the darkest days of the year and, as such, much of the folklore surrounding Christmas decoration originates from Pagan tradition. Read full story from thestarpress.com

Santa has little connection with Jesus
What connection does Santa Claus have with Christ?What is the real meaning of mistletoe, the holly wreath and orbs on trees?Was Jesus really born on December 25?

Christmas no matter the origin is the most important commercial season of the year. Without the centuries old tradition of exchanging gifts the national economy would be dealt a terrible blow.

Thousands of businesses would go bankrupt. You would be astonished to discover the real truth about the most of all Christian holidays. Anyone can discover the real truth about the pagan origins of Christmas simply by looking up the word and all its accouterments and symbols in the major encyclopedias and history books with the Internet it’s even easier. Read full story from godanriver.com

what can we do now? You and I and all living things
Freeport, Ill. — This is the time of the winter solstice when all people north of the equator experience the shortest days of the year. From earliest times, the turning point to longer days has been a time for celebrations – something that all people around the world have in common.

People have more in common with each other than celebrations. David Suzuki, a highly acclaimed geneticist, in his book, “The Sacred Balance: Rediscovering Our Place in Nature” explains that it is a scientifically supported fact that each of us is quite literally air, water, soil and sunlight. We have fundamental elements of life in common with other people and with all living things on our planet. And it is a web of living things that maintains these fundamental elements of life. Read full story from journalstandard.com

Sam Harris: Can Science Determine Human Values? (source FORA.tv)


BBC Newsnight – ‘Clash of Civilizations?’ (source BBC)

News & Submissions 12/16/2010

Thursday, December 16th, 2010

Celebrating paganism with a winter solstice
A solstice is the celebration of the sun’s rebirth. Every year, Sudbury’s pagan community celebrates a summer and winter solstice, noting the longest and shortest days of the year.

Kristan Cannon-Nixon, one of five organizers who helps run both annual events, said its a way for pagans of all denominations to celebrate their beliefs together, and celebrate the shifting of seasons as it’s happening.

She said it’s “absolutely beautiful” that people who hold varying beliefs can get along at one celebration. Read full story from northernlife.ca

Black Plants and Twilight Zones: New Evidence Prompts Rethinking of Extraterrestrial Life
Astronomers have long searched for a planet that could harbor life outside our solar system. When reports came in earlier this fall of the not too hot, not too cold exoplanet Gliese 581g, it was like the answer to a dream. “If it’s confirmed, I think it’s definitely the planet we’ve been waiting for, for a long time,” says Rory Barnes, an astrobiologist at the University of Washington who wasn’t involved in the research.

The wait may continue for a while. Soon after University of California, Santa Cruz, astronomer Steven Vogt and his collaborators reported the “Goldilocks” exoplanet, a rival Swiss group said it could not find evidence for Gliese 581g in its own data set. Confirming the new find, based on 11 years of subtle and indirect telescope-based measurements, could require several more years. Read full story from scientificamerican.com

Why haven’t we found aliens yet?
The question of whether or not we are alone in the galaxy is one that has fascinated everyone from mathematicians to conspiracy theorists.

But, if extra-terrestrial life forms are abundant in the Universe – as some people believe – why have they not been in contact?

From Doctor Who to Superman, ET to Marvin the Martian, fiction has regularly brought aliens to Earth as friends or enemies but, as yet, no-one has proved they have ever seen an alien apart from on film or TV. Read full story from bbc.co.uk

EcoAlert: Ancient 2-8 Million Year-Old Forest Discovered in Canada’s Arctic
Ohio State University researchers and their colleagues have discovered the remains of the northermost  forest buried by a landslide that lived on the island two to eight million years ago, when the Arctic was cooling. The remains could offer clues to how today’s Arctic will respond to global warming.

The Ohio State team believe the trees — and exquisitely preserved – will help them predict how today’s Arctic will respond to global warming. They also believe that many more such forests could emerge across North America as Arctic ice continues to melt. As the wood is exposed and begins to rot, it could release significant amounts of methane and carbon dioxide into the atmosphere -and actually aggravate global warming. Read full story from dailygalaxy.com

Lunar eclipse and solstice to overlap
This year’s winter solstice -an event that will occur Tuesday -will coincide with a full lunar eclipse in a union that hasn’t been seen in 456 years.

The reappearance of the celestial eccentricity holds special significance for spiritualities that tap into the energy of the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year and a time that is associated with the rebirth of the sun.

“It’s a ritual of transformation from darkness into light,” says Nicole Cooper, a high priestess at Toronto’s Wiccan Church of Canada. “It’s the idea that when things seem really bleak, (it) is often our biggest opportunity for personal transformation. Read full story from montrealgazette.com

’Tis our season
Some stores no longer put up a tree because they say it represents Christmas and not the whole “holiday season” in general. However this is not completely true, contrary to popular belief. The use of tree and lights began way before the birth of Jesus. Not in any way desecrating Christmas, I’m just shining a candle light on the subject.

The origin of the Christmas tree and lighting up our houses are ancient traditions that date back to more than 4,000 years in Egypt with palm branches celebrating the 12 months of the sun with a 12-day festival during the winter solstice. Evergreens, mistletoe, holly and ivy are the few plants alive during the cold winter months and are ancient symbols of eternal life which gave our ancestors hope for the coming months. Read full story from northjersey.com

Column: Local Mars Hill Church pastor Mark Driscoll bashes yoga and ‘Easternism’
Last fall, Dr. Albert Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, received national attention for an article he posted on his website arguing that Christians should not practice yoga. His argument was that yoga is rooted in the religions of Hinduism and Buddhism. Therefore, he believes that practicing yoga is corrupting to people that consider themselves Christians.

I guess you can lump yoga together with religion. However, most people just show up for their one-hour class at the local health club and then go back to their busy lives when it’s over. It is not necessary to debate the merits of Christianity versus another religion because commercialized American ‘yoga’ has hardly any religious significance. Making yoga into the enemy of Christianity is silly and paranoid. Read full story from nwasianweekly.com

Statue ‘Cemetery’ Found Near Egyptian Tomb
Two statuary fragments recently uncovered at the mortuary temple of Amenhotep III in Luxor. On the left is the head of the baboon god, Hapi, and on the right are the legs of another red granite statue. (Photo: SCA)

Egyptian archaeologists believe they have found a type of cemetery of broken and damaged ancient statues near the northern side of the funerary temple of King Tut’s grandfather on the west bank of the Nile in Luxor.

A team excavating the site, which has recently yielded many statues, has unearthed two red granite statue fragments.

One is part of a larger statue of Amenhotep III, believed to be the grandfather of King Tutankhamun, and features two legs. The other is a 2.73-meter (9-foot) high head of the god Hapi. Read full story from discovery.com

A Winter’s Tale: Afghans Take Pride In Turning Away Occupiers
Afghans have a winter tradition that goes back centuries — they put hot coals in a pot under a table and put a quilt over that. It’s called a sandali. Everyone sticks their feet under the blanket and the freezing temperatures don’t seem so bad — as long as you don’t leave the table. Stories help pass the time

“We’d sit around the sandali and my grandfather told stories while we ate raisins and dried mulberries.” says Sayed Mushtaba Frotan, a 54-year-old former guerrilla fighter. Read full story from npr.org

Fish Thought to Be Extinct for 70 Years Rediscovered
In 1940, a hydroelectric dam was constructed in northern Akita Prefecture, Japan. The project, it was known at the time, would destroy the only native habitat of the black kokanee salmon by making the waters too acidic for the fish to survive. Still, developers went ahead with their plans.

A concession was made to protect the species: 100,000 eggs were transported to nearby Lake Saiko. Unfortunately, the transplanted eggs did not hatch and the species quickly became extinct. At least, that’s what was thought.

Now, a new discovery suggests that a small population of kokanee salmon may have survived. Read full story from treehugger.com

Change is afoot for 800-year-old whirling dance (source cnn)

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 12/18/2009

Friday, December 18th, 2009

‘I cast spells and it works’
According to Pagans, the early Christian church hijacked December 25 to celebrate the birth of Jesus. Read full story from lep.co.uk

Fla. appeals court reinstates challenge to prison religious aid
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — A humanist group can go ahead with its challenge against the Florida prison system’s use of two faith-based organizations to provide substance-abuse programs for inmates, a state appellate court has ruled. Read full story from firstamendmentcenter.com

Magick and Ritual
Even for the secular minded, Magick and Ritual can still have meaning and significance. Although astrology and other esoteric disciplines are often lumped into the category of religion ” and are instantly rejected by secular minded, scholars, scientists and religious critics, Magick and ritual can only enhance one`s life. This article will explain how Magick and ritual should be seen as “in the least “a social science, and not as pseudo-science “. Read full story from thesop.org

Christmas 2009: Oh Come All Ye Faithless
The main war on Christmas – we’ll call it the conventional war – has been well-documented, and it goes on, with victories and defeats for both sides. In Loudoun County, Va. on Dec. 1, the Board of Supervisors reversed a ban on religious holiday displays on the courthouse lawn. (The one supervisor who voted “no” said, “I am concerned that this motion would turn the courthouse grounds into a public circus.”) Meanwhile, in Arizona, public school children remain unable to use Christmas themes when decorating ornaments for the Capitol Christmas tree. Read full story from charlotteconservative.com

Created and embellished
Everyone knows America’s Christmas traditions: A decorated tree at home. Stockings hung from the mantle. Santa Claus coming down the chimney Christmas Eve. Special music and programs at church. Read full story from decaturdaily.com

Stepfather confesses to witchcraft against boy (2)
The stepfather of a 2-year-old boy claimed he pushed 42 “blessed” sewing needles deep into the toddler because his lover told him to while in a trance, saying it would keep the couple together, according to police. Read full story from sowetan.co.za

‘Prophet’ found guilty of stalking
NORRISTOWN — A self-proclaimed prophet who spouted biblical passages to rail against a Lower Pottsgrove couple showed no emotion as a jury determined her conduct caused emotional distress for the couple. Read full story from thereporteronline.com

News & Submissions 12/14/2009

Monday, December 14th, 2009

Army still threatens sacred site
FORT SILL, Okla. – The Comanche Nation and the U.S. Army have been battling over a proposed training/service center for the Fort Sill complex that was to be built on Medicine Bluff, a sacred site of not just the Comanche, but also the Kiowas, the Wichitas and the Apaches. Read full story from Indiancountrytoday.com

Witchy Moon Magickal Pagan Superstore Partners with Circle Santuary to Deliver Yuletide Care Packages to Pagan Troops
WitchyMoon Magickal Pagan Superstore today announced that is supporting Circle Sanctuary’s “Operation Circle Care” program to collect Yule gifts for Pagan soldiers stationed overseas. As part of this sponsorship, WitchyMoon will be selling care packages on its web site, which can be sent to Pagan service members abroad. WitchyMoon will be offering a 25% discount on all care package items. Read full story from pr.com

Rahm Emanuel Lights National Menorah At White House
WASHINGTON — White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel lit the National Menorah in celebration of Hanukkah. Read full story from huffingtonpost.com

Winter Solstice celebrations: a.k.a. Christmas, Saturnalia, Yule, the Long Night, etc.
Religious folk worldwide observe many seasonal days of celebration during the month of December. Most are religious holy days, and are linked in some way to the winter solstice in the Northern Hemisphere. On that day, due to the earth’s tilt on its axis, the daytime hours are at a minimum in the Northern hemisphere, and night time is at a maximum. (In the southern hemisphere, the summer solstice is celebrated in December, when the night time is at a minimum and the daytime is at a maximum. We will assume that the reader lives in the Northern hemisphere for the rest of this essay.) Read full story from religioustolerance.org

Polar Bear in the Square in London and Copenhagen
This life-sized ice sculpture of a polar bear is sitting in London’s Trafalgar Square for the next week. Melting. By the end of its stay, probably all that will be left will be a bronze skeleton and a pool of water. Read full story from treehugger.com

Elemental altar for Pagan kids
Altars can be as simple or complex as their creator desires.  For those just starting out in the Craft, whether children or adults, simple is generally a wise approach.  Creating an elemental altar offers young Pagans an easy way to have personal sacred space. Read full story from examiner.com

News & Submissions 12/12/2009

Saturday, December 12th, 2009

Candle rituals a symbolic form of prayer, a way to ask for change
In Wicca, and other pagan (nature-based) and mystical belief systems, burning candles is one of the simplest forms of magic. Not the “hocus-pocus, pull-a-rabbit-out-of-a-hat” variety of magic, but rather focusing and directing mental energies to manifest a change in the physical world. Read full story from winnipegfreepress.com

“Jesus is the ONLY reason for the season” Billboard
I saw a billboard here in San Diego (on University in Hillcrest), which reads “Jesus is the ONLY reason for the season,” apparantly sponsored by two businessmen. To paraphrase Jeff Dunham’s Achmed the Dead Terrorist: “Don’t say Merry Christmas, it only irritates the other infidels.”. That is a very profound statement. Read full story from sandiegoreader.com

Happy Holidays to you, Jay!
I’d like to know, what’s wrong with saying “Happy Holidays” and “Seasons Greetings” anyway?  Isn’t the Christmas spirit about being welcoming, loving and peaceful to all? Don’t you think when certain Religious Right groups make such a fuss over this every year, claiming there is some sort of “war on Christmas,” that they are the ones breaking that peace? Read full story from beliefnet.com

David Robson: The origins of the yule log
Yule logs are more associated with the Winter Solstice, the longest night of the year. Fires were burned to provide light, ward off evil spirits and provide warmth. Choosing the largest piece of wood lying around meant more heat and more light. Read full story from sj-r.com

University of Washington Professor: Mother Earth Wants to Kill You
If your image of Mother Earth is a loving, peaceful benevolent who wants to see her human offspring grow and prosper (I’m looking at you, Wiccans) you might not want to invite University of Washington paleontologist Peter Ward to your next moon dance. Read full story from seattleweekly.com

News & Submissions 11/28/2009

Saturday, November 28th, 2009

Welcome to Melbourne for the Parliament of the World’s Religions, December 3-9, 2009
On behalf of the spiritual ancestors and the traditional owners of Melbourne, I invite you to Melbourne in 2009, for the Parliament of the World’s Religions to share in the traditions, culture and spirit of Australia. Read full story from parliamentofreligions.org

Hidden Symbols of Thanksgiving
According to an article published on the Fox News website, there are five secrets of Thanksgiving and they are:
1- A secret society invented Thanksgiving.
2- There’s a secret connection between the Bible and Thanksgiving.
3- A manuscript lost for two centuries resurfaces with true Thanksgiving meanings.
4- Pilgrims preferred Thanksgiving to Christmas.
5- The Statue of Liberty holds Thanksgiving Day secrets.
Read full story from  examiner.com

Right-Wing Culture Warriors Warn of Atheist Attack on Thanksgiving!
Michael Tomasky notes that the annual “War on Christmas” has started early this holiday season. But that’s old hat — mainstream stuff that’s become just another part of the old holiday spirit among the Fox News set. Read full story from alternet.org

Christian church, Native American tribe reconcile
NEW YORK – Members of one of America’s oldest Protestant churches officially apologized Friday , for the first time , for massacring and displacing Native Americans 400 years ago. Read full story from philly.com

Let’s get it straight: Irish child abuse was perpetrated by the trendy, modern post-Vatican II Catholic Church
The Obama principle that a crisis is too good to waste is clearly being applied in the case of the clerical child abuse scandal in Ireland. A spin is being put on the shocking revelations in the report on abuse in the archdiocese of Dublin to implicate the “pre-Conciliar” Catholic Church in the wrongdoings of post-Vatican II pederasts. In the process, the name of a good man has been dragged into the cesspit, for political purposes. Read full story from telegraph.co.uk

O Christmas tree: Centuries-old tradition brings joy to the season
Decorating your home with an adorned tree or two during the holidays is a centuries-old tradition.Long before the ubiquitous ‘Christmas Tree’ was offered up in store windows, or tied to a cherished religious holiday, people decorated their homes with evergreen foliage during the bleak winter season as a reminder and symbol of life. Read full story from citizen-times.com

Have a Holly, Jolly Xmas Solstice!
OLYMPIA, Wash. — An atheist group has unveiled an anti-religion placard in the state Capitol, joining a Christian Nativity scene and “holiday tree” on display during December. Read full story from leatherpenquin.com