Pagan News

“Thirteen Moons on A Turtles Back” And “Punxsutawney Who?”
The term actually comes from the number of plates on the shell of a snapping turtle.  The Native Americans used it as a way of keeping track of the moons in a year.  I know you are thinking, “Aren’t there twelve moons in a year?”  That is true if there were not occasionally two full moons in one month approximately every 2.5 years.  I am sure you have head of ‘Once in a Blue Moon’. Read full story from findlayliving.com

Brace yourself for St Brigid
She’s our female patron saint yet St Patrick gets all the parades, but with her name coming back into favour maybe it’s time for St Brigid to shine, writes FIONA McCANN Read full story from irishtimes.com

**Is The First Amendment for Monotheists Only?**A case coming before the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals could end up having major legal ramifications for all religious minorities in the United States. Wiccan chaplain Patrick McCollum has been fighting for years to overturn the State of California’s “five faiths policy”, which limits the hiring of paid chaplains to Protestant, Catholic, Jewish, Muslim, and Native American adherents. While McCollum has suffered setbacks in his quest, with a California federal district court ruling in early 2009 that he had no standing to bring his suit, he recently gained support on appeal from several civil and religious rights groups who argue that his case should be heard. Read full story from wildhunt.org

Mystery as century-old Swiss watch discovered in ancient tomb sealed for 400 years
Archaeologists are stumped after finding a 100-year-old Swiss watch in an ancient tomb that was sealed more than 400 years ago.

They believed they were the first to visit the Ming dynasty grave in Shangsi, southern China, since its occupant’s funeral. Read more from dialymail.co.uk

Capricology: Television, Tech, and the Sacred
Television’s latest contribution to the cultural intersection of science and religion — with bonus themes to include: the body, artificial intelligence, paganism, original sin, immigration, and race. Join Diane Winston, Anthea Butler, Salman Hameed and Henry Jenkins every week as they delve into deep exegesis of Caprica. Read full story from religondispatches.org

Pagan Events and Festivals
Pagan events you’ll want to save the date for are the festivals that are coming up. Read full story from examiner.com

Paganist protests as health visitor tells her to move items
A follower of paganism claims a health visitor told her she should put her religious items away because of the effect they could be having on her son. Read full story from portsmouth.co.uk

Religious Imperialism
We’re all aware of the stupid things about Haiti that Pat Robertson said recently, but just to recap:

Voodoo Brings Solace To Grieving Haitians
Erol Josue lost more than two dozen friends and extended family in Haiti’s devastating earthquake. The Voodoo priest, who lives in New York, says he has spent the past week saying traditional Voodoo prayers. Read full story from wbur.org

What is an Atheist?
When defining something it often helps to define what it is not. Because of the many misconceptions (to be polite) about atheists, let’s start that way. An atheist is not an amoral or an immoral person, not licentious, and not un-patriotic. An atheist is your neighbor, practicing his/her constitutional right to hold his or her own freedom of thought. Read full story from madisoncountycourier.com

Widow raped for practising witchcraft
The accused persons suspected the victim practised witchcraft and “killed” a six-month-old baby by her “black magic” at Gangti village under Goradih block in neighbouring Bhagalpur district. Read full story from indiatimes.com

The Myth of “Voodoo”: A Caribbean American Response to Representations of Haiti
At a time when increasing numbers of informed audiences in both scholarly and popular circles have begun to recognize African religious cultures and the rich contributions they have made to African diaspora civilizations, Pat Robertson has made another dubious contribution to America’s fascination with the ‘problem of Haiti.’Read full story from religiondispatches.org

Human sacrifices ‘on the rise in Uganda’ as witch doctors admit to rituals
One man said he had clients who had captured children and taken their blood and body parts to his shrine, while another confessed to killing at least 70 people including his own son. Read full story from telegraph.co.uk

Man Attempts to Kill Mother Over Witchcraft
A 27 year old man is being held by the police in Lagos for attempting to kill his mother on December 30, 2009 over alleged witchcraft which he claimed had retarded the progress of the family. Read full story from allafrica.com

It’s Witchcraft! Promises Fascinating Talk
A forthcoming lecture at the Manx Museum by Professor Ronald Hutton will shed light on the Isle of Man’s historical relationship with witchcraft. Read full story from isleofman.com

Native-owned company seeks donations for Crow Creek tipi
SEATTLE – When Gary E. LaPointe, Rosebud Sioux and a military veteran, heard the Crow Creek Sioux in South Dakota were fighting to hold onto 7,100 acres of land that had been seized by the IRS to pay a purported tax bill, his first thought was that the tribe must set up a tipi on the site. Read full story from indiancountrytoday.com

US Marines with strange lights and whispers in the night
The Marines found the bone as they scraped a shallow trench. Long, dry and unmistakably once part of a human leg, it was followed by others. They reburied most of them but also found bodies. Three of the graves were close together; in another was a skeleton still wearing a pair of glasses. The Marines covered the grave and told their successors to stay away from it. Read full story timesonline.co.uk

Ancient Miwok harvested salt
United States Geological Service researchers James Moore and Michael Diggles have located a site halfway between Yosemite and Tahoe where 369 circular basins were once used to distill salt which was then traded for food and other items by the Miwok. Carved in glaciated granitic bedrock in a canyon on the west slope of the northern Sierra Nevada, the salt-collecting depressions are a meter-and-a-half across – much bigger than those found in the more plentiful acorn grinding rocks, according to Diggles, and nearly one meter deep. Read full story from indiancountrytoday.com