Pagan News

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

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

Avatar Is The Work Of The Devil, Says Idiot Pastor
Pastor and shit-stirer Mark Driscoll claims that Avatar is the devil’s work, aimed at promoting paganism and primitive lifestyles. Sounds like somebody just needs to make “Tsaheylu.” Of course, after watching the “Na’vi” on chatroulette, he’s got a point. Read full story from io9.com

Tribes need to prepare for inflationary future
NEW ORLEANS – American Indian tribes achieving unprecedented economic progress in the past decade now must brace themselves for future inflation, delegates attending a recent Native American finance conference were warned. Read full story from indiancountrytoday.com

March 17th Celebrate All Snakes Day!!! & Support your local and global pagens and the Return of the Snakes.
As the snakes remind us, remember to embrace the random and to ride the spiral ’till it ends as it may just go where no one’s been. Do this by being fully present as much as you can, and always remember to evolve responsibly and feed your will organic optimism. Read full story from evolver.net

St. Patrick’s Day: Did Patrick become Christian for the tax breaks?
We credit St. Patrick for bringing Christianity to Ireland and banishing the island’s snakes. But post-glacial Ireland never had snakes and the saint recognized on March 17 is actually a combination of two men, Patrick and Palladius, with the latter being the first to bring Christianity to the Celts. Read full story from csmonitor.com

Celebrating “Under God” Whether There is a God or Not
The Ninth Circuit did a good thing by upholding the propriety of reciting the words “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance. And before everyone starts screaming, let me explain both why I make that claim and why the upside for those who value religious freedom is actually far greater than immediately presumed. Read full story from huffingtonpost.com

Syracuse University’s newest chaplain is pagan priestess Mary Hudson
Hudson earlier this month became the 11th chaplain on the Hendricks staff, taking her place among representatives of more mainstream faiths like Episcopalianism, Roman Catholicism and Buddhism. Read full story from blog.syracuse.com

Pow wow marketing 101
If these events are well-attended, dancers feel a greater sense of appreciation, tribal members feel honored and vendors stand to make more profit. If these events have a low turnout the collective self-esteem of the tribe may suffer, vendors may have difficulty making ends meet and the outside public cannot benefit from the richness of learning about American Indian culture. Read full story from indiancountrytoday.com

Satan worshipers possible suspects in Simon slaying
UTICA —The last hours of Kimberly Simon’s life in 1985 were likely spent with a group of young men who worshiped the devil, tortured cats, used hallucinogenic drugs and sexually abused women, according to investigators who have been probing her homicide for the past 16 months. Read full story from uticaod.com

Court ruling says Amish farmers exempt from livestock registration rules
NEILLSVILLE, Wis (WSAU) A central Wisconsin judge says an Amish farmer does not have to register his livestock premise with the state, as required by a five-year-old law. Emanuel Miller Junior of Loyal said the law violates his religious beliefs. And in a ruling yesterday, Clark County Circuit Judge Jon Counsell said the state failed to prove that its need to protect food safety and animal health could not be achieved by adopting something less restrictive. Read full story from wsau.com

The New Paganism
As many commentators and “global warming skeptics” have observed, climate science has metamorphosed into a religion—or, more accurately, a cult in religious dress. It has its high priests (Al Gore, David Suzuki, James Hansen, Rajendra Pachauri), its sacred texts such as computer models whose inconsistencies and disparities are blithely ignored by the myriads of true believers, its prevailing orthodoxies that cannot safely be questioned or violated, and its Second Ecumenical Council of the Global Warming Vatican (after Kyoto), known as the Copenhagen Climate Conference. Carbon taxes resemble the traffic in Indulgences during the Medieval era as energy sinners buy absolution from a profiteering clergy. A divinity called Gaia now receives the prayers and invocations of a vast sodality of devout worshippers. The new religion is here, a resurgent faith, as George Will writes, “in man-made global warming [which] is now a tissue of assertions impervious to evidence.” Read full story from frontpagemag.com

Occult funeral for drug addict killed in ritual
A pagan rocker died at his drug-den farmhouse after a witchcraft ritual went nightmarishly wrong. Read full story from belfasttelegraph.co.uk

National Women’s History Project’s 30th anniversary brings new emphasis on women in history
Used to be, a woman had to wield a sharp instrument to get any respect in history class. Until the late 1970s, those who got the most ink in school textbooks were Betsy Ross, the widowed upholsterer who is said to have sewn the first American flag in 1776, and Carrie Nation, the hatchet-wielding, Bible-thumping temperance activist who broke up saloons in the early 1900s. Read full story from nj.com

Double, double fun and bubbles
Nobody’s getting burned at the stake. No one’s flying around the Benicia Clocktower on a broom. And there won’t likely be a curse cast on anyone questioning the admission charge. Read full story from timesheraldonline.com

Witches brew up a ball at Benicia Clocktower
“The Witches’ Ball is basically a celebration. They’re traditionally held around Halloween, but we decided it’d be much more fun to have a springtime Witches’ Ball,” said JoHanna White, president of sponsoring organization the Pagan Alliance. Read full story from timesheraldonline.com