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!
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
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
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
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.
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
‘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
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
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
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