**Toronto’s one-stop Occult Shop**The next time you’re satisfying a serious ice-cream craving at Dutch Dreams on Vaughan Road, wander a little bit north and you’ll find a large, white building containing an inconspicuous store framed by clouded windows. The red, weather-beaten, wooden sign hanging above the entrance reads, “The Occult Shop,” and despite its humble facade, the store serves as a gathering place for a range of spiritual subcultures in Toronto.
**PantheaCon 2011: Pan-pagan convention returns to San Jose on February 18**PantheaCon, an interfaith pagan convention that brings together thousands of people from across the United States, will be happening in San Jose, CA this coming President’s Day weekend.
The convention’s dates are Feb 18-21 and will be held at the DoubleTree Hotel. As usual for PantheaCon, they will be taking up the entirety of the hotel’s function space.
The theme for this year’s gathering is “Walking the Talk.” People who submitted presentations for the event were encouraged to focus on the meaning of that phrase for pagans in modern times. Read full story from examiner.com
Demand for uranium threatens Grand Canyon biodiversity
The natural beauty and unique species of the Grand Canyon are “in the crosshairs” because of renewed interest in the region’s uranium reserves. That is the warning from critics of the mines, ahead of the release of a government report on Friday on the potential impact of fresh mining.
Mining has been banned within the Grand Canyon national park since President Roosevelt declared it a national monument in 1908. But since 2003, foreign companies have submitted 2,215 claims to prospect on the edge of the canyon.
**On Evolution, Biology Teachers Stray From Lesson Plan**Teaching creationism in public schools has consistently been ruled unconstitutional in federal courts, but according to a national surveyof more than 900 public high school biology teachers, it continues to flourish in the nation’s classrooms.
Researchers found that only 28 percent of biology teachers consistently follow the recommendations of the National Research Council to describe straightforwardly the evidence for evolution and explain the ways in which it is a unifying theme in all of biology. At the other extreme, 13 percent explicitly advocate creationism, and spend at least an hour of class time presenting it in a positive light.
How to convert witches to Catholicism
Witches can and should be converted to Catholicism, according to a robust new booklet from the Catholic Truth Society that portrays spell-casting as spiritually empty, exhausting and immoral. Instead of “seeking to change God’s mind or violently alter his plans through circle-casting”, it says, Wiccans should be encouraged to surrender this often frightening burden and accept the love of Christ.
In other words, come to Mass, leaving your broomstick at the door.
“I’d sit with the men, the women of God, There by the lake of beer, We’d be drinking good health forever, And every drop would be a prayer.” – Saint Brigid’s Prayer
International Pagan Coming Out Day - May 2
Coming out to someone is a decision only you can make and it’s a decision best made when you are ready to do so. IPCOD encourages Pagans who are ready to come on out!
There are benefits, personally and for our religious community as a whole, as more Pagans come out. Some of these benefits include the reduction of anxiety caused by living a double life and creating a climate of greater acceptance for all Pagans. Read full story from pagancomingoutday.com
Hub City Hogwarts? Magic classes on offer
MONCTON - Witchcraft class: for many, the term calls to mind a bunch of little wand-toting English kids running around yelling ‘Expelliarmus!’
Okay, so there’s no Hub City Hogwarts concealed in a secret dimension off St. George Street. But wannabe witches and warlocks are, in fact, lining up for local classes in witchcraft and wizardry.
The instructor is Tony Raven, a 36-year-old Moncton business owner and practicing witch for 20-plus years. The aim? Training credulous New Brunswickers in the basics of magic.
Freshwater officially fired
On January 10, 2011, the Mount Vernon City Schools Board of Education voted 4-1 to terminate the employment of John Freshwater. A middle school science teacher in Mount Vernon, Ohio, Freshwater was accused of inappropriate religious activity in the classroom — including displaying posters with the Ten Commandments and Bible verses, branding crosses on the arms of his students with a high-voltage electrical device, and teaching creationism. After a local family sued Freshwater and the district in 2008, the board voted to begin proceedings to terminate his employment in the district. Finally, after administrative hearings that proceeded sporadically over two years, the referee presiding over the hearings issued his recommendation that the board terminate his employment with the district. Read full story from ncse.com
Truth about Darkey kelly, burned as a ‘witch’ 250 years ago … but who was really a serial killer
A MACABRE anniversary this week marked the gruesome public execution of a Dublin woman whose reputation in the city’s folk memory has just been debunked.
For generations, Darkey Kelly was regarded as a woman who was burned at the stake for witchcraft after she accused the notorious Sheriff of Dublin Simon Luttrell of fathering her baby.