Pagan & Shinto News: National Trust accused of Stonehenge tunnel betrayal

Top stories in Paganism and Shinto for September 23rd-30th:

• National Trust accused of Stonehenge tunnel betrayal
• Accusing someone of witchcraft becomes a crime in India
• Mid-autumn moon festival celebrated in Japan and across East Asia

Pagan News

Now Damien Echols Will Teach You the Secrets of Magick
The New York Times
After almost two decades on death row, this member of the West Memphis Three is touring America, teaching the rituals that set him free…

Ancient order of druids take to London’s Primrose Hill to mark the autumn equinox
Daily Mail
A procession of druids celebrated the autumn equinox today with a service to mark the arrival of the harvest…

Samhuinn Halloween festival to be staged on Edinburgh’s Calton Hill
Edinburgh Evening News
A huge Halloween celebration is to be staged on Edinburgh’s Calton Hill for the first time by the organisers of the Beltane Fire Festival…

Nashville Pagan Pride Day 2018 Returns to Two Rivers Park
Out & About Nashville
Several local Pagan groups will have booths on Community Row with more information about their specific practices…

Pagan Music Awards honor artists, public service
The Wild Hunt
A hammered dulcimer and flute duo from Crete, an operatic-trained rock singer, and a singer/guitarist/keyboardist who calls his music “folk with fire” won honors at the Second Annual Pagan Music Awards…

Mid-Mo Pagan Pride Day brings pagan community together
Missourian
Colorful tapestries hung in tents and beads glittered in the sun as people set up tents and booths for the Mid-Missouri Pagan Pride Day festival on Sunday…

Harvest Moon in photos: Images show majestic beauty of annual full moon event
Express
Breathtaking photographs have surfaced of this year’s Harvest Moon, as it lit up night skies across the world on Monday, with its incandescent yellow hue in an annual celestial event…

The ‘moon illusion’ that tricks the brain
The Times
The harvest moon is simply the first full moon after the autumn equinox, which came on Sunday. Something unusual occurs for several nights in a row around the equinox, because the moon rises at about the same time as sunset — and that makes the moon look like a big pumpkin…

Modern witch Semra Haksever says her magic spells bagged her an all-expenses paid holiday to Bali
The Mirror
Semra Haksever, who has recently released a book of spells made from every day ingredients, claimed her magical powers helped her to win a holiday to go away…

Shinto News

Mid-Autumn Festival: What is it and how is it celebrated?
The Independent
Celebrations for mid-autumn take place across East Asia, in countries including China, Taiwan, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Malaysia, Vietnam and the Philippines…

Nashville’s Cheekwood Estate and Gardens holds annual Japanese Moon Viewing Celebration
MTSU Sidelines
The Japanese Moon Viewing Celebration, called “Otsukimi” in Japan, is a festival held every year to commemorate the autumn harvest moon…

Elaborate throne for Japan’s next emperor arrives in Tokyo
The Tribune
The current structure was built for his great-grandfather Taisho’s coronation in 1915 and was also used for his grandfather Hirohito, who was revered as the god of Shinto until the end of World War II, which Japan fought in his name…

Japan: the sumo lifting event with a prize for making babies cry
Euronews
A “crying sumo” contest for babies was held at a shrine in Kanuma City, north of Tokyo, on Sunday…

Philosophy and Religion in Animation: Miyazaki’s Films Convey the Need for Protecting Nature
Stampede
A repeating theme among these two films convey the philosophy of one of Japan’s oldest religions. Shinto, meaning “the way of the Gods,” is a religion that focuses on the never-ending divine connection between humans, spirits and the natural world…

Other News

National Trust accused of Stonehenge tunnel betrayal
The Times
The National Trust has been accused of misleading members over the damage that the proposed tunnel near Stonehenge could wreak on the monument…

Accusing someone of witchcraft is now a crime in India
Al Jazeera
The government of Assam in northeast India has passed a law making it a crime to accuse someone of being a witch…

1,300-Year-Old Egyptian ‘Love Spell’ Has Finally Been Deciphered
Science Alert
An ancient Egyptian text more than 1,300 years old, which would originally have been used as a magic spell, has finally been deciphered – and it seems like love was the goal…

Ancient Egypt: Huge Building With Adjoining Religious Ritual Room Discovered In Giza
NewsWeek
The ruins of a massive ancient building has been uncovered by archaeologists in Egypt. Measuring more than 50 ft by 47 ft, the structure was likely part of a residential area, the country’s Ministry of Antiquities announced Tuesday…

Smuggled Artifact From Karnak Temple Returned to Egyptian Embassy
Egyptian Streets
A limestone artifact which was stolen from Karnak Temple’s open air museum in Luxor has been handed over to the Egyptian Embassy in London…

Record turnout for ice cold Autumn Equinox skinny dip in North Sea
ITV
More than 600 people stripped naked to welcome the Autumn Equinox in the cold waters of the North Sea…

Hillwalkers pay homage to hero of Celtic myth with modern-day cairn
The Times
Groups of hillwalkers have recreated a mythic feat by moving a granite boulder up the side of the Glenasmole Valley in south Dublin in honour of an ancient legend…

Satanic Temple reopens international headquarters in Salem
WHEC
The Satanic Temple is reopening its international headquarters in Salem, Massachusetts, in time for the Halloween season…

Get Ready For Halloween With Unobscured, The New Podcast On The Salem Witch Trials
Refinery29
Unobscured promises to “clean the foggy window” surrounding the mysterious trials of 1693, during which twenty people were executed…

Round Lake native makes feature film about southwest Minnesota ‘witch’
Duluth News Tribune
Growing up in the southwestern Minnesota town of Round Lake, Nathan Wilson was always aware of the legend of Mary Jane Terwilliger, known as the “Witch of Loon Lake.”…

Mount Ontake: Four years after its deadly eruption
The Japan Times
At 3,067 meters tall, Mount Ontake is the 14th-highest mountain in Japan, and the second-highest volcano after Mount Fuji. Its awesome mass straddles the border of Gifu and Nagano prefectures around 100 kilometers northeast of Nagoya, and it has long been regarded as one of the country’s most sacred mountains…

Does Western Philosophy Have Egyptian Roots?
Philosophy Now
Peter Flegel highlights possible connections between early Greek philosophy and the ideas of the New Kingdom of Ancient Egypt…

Mwense Headman Stoned to Death on Witchcraft Allegations
Zambia Reports
A 66 year old village headman in Mwense District has been murdered on suspicion that he was practicing witchcraft…

Two Women Killed on Suspicion of Practising Witchcraft in Odisha
News 18
Two tribal women on Sunday were hacked to death and another woman was injured in Mayurbhanj district allegedly by a man who suspected them of practising ‘black magic’, the police said…

Cops rescue suspected witch from lynch mob in Mwingi, Kenya
The Star
Police in Mwingi rescued an elderly man, suspected of being a witch, from a lynch mob on Sunday…

Advice From Witches: 11 Wickedly Wise Witch Quotes
Signature
The following witch quotes present certain views of life, death, and the natural world that might otherwise elude non-magical folk…

13 Books About Witches That’ll Completely Change The Way You Think About Witchcraft
Bustle
The term “witch,” despite its current position as a pop culture phenomenon, has a deep, power, often painful history in the United States. Check out these books that’ll completely change the way you think about witchcraft…

18 of the best witchy books to read this fall
SyFy
This list is by no means exhaustive, but it’s hopefully wide-ranging enough to help you find something to suit your tastes, regardless of which witch you are deep inside…

Newly Discovered Neon Fish Species Is Named After Greek Goddess of Love
Smithsonian
A new species of neon fish discovered in the ocean’s twilight zone—a foreboding region of darkness found 200 to 500 feet below the water’s sunlit surface—has entranced scientists to such an extent that they’ve dubbed it Tosanoides aphrodite in honor of the Greek goddess of love and beauty…