Pagan Tama
Top stories in Paganism and Shinto this week:
- 2,000-year-old ‘Cernunnos’ figurine discovered in UK
- Couple detained after newspaper set on fire at Yasukuni Shrine
- World Druid Survey launched
Read more below…
Pagan News
Coast Range Druid
A major survey project by Larisa A. White, M.S.Ed., Ph.D. of Quercus Academy in Central California late was announced last month. The survey project intends to gather data on how modern Druidry has evolved and how practices have shifted around the world…
Buckland Gallery of Witchcraft & Magick moving to new location in Old Brooklyn
Cleveland.com
A little bit of magic will be coming to Cleveland’s Old Brooklyn neighborhood when the Buckland Gallery of Witchcraft & Magick opens its new shop there in February 2019…
Pagans react to the Conference of the Parties
The Wild Hunt
Many Pagans have been observing COP24 and have noted both the apparent inconsistency of political will as well as the positive insights emerging from the conference that appear to foster a hopeful conclusion…
Tuatha Dea Daughter accepted to Prestigious Summit
The Wild Hunt
Every year the Ambassador Leadership Summits organizes four summits. Three of them emphasize leadership, one at UCLA, another at Harvard Law, and another at Yale. This year a young Pagan leader and future physician, Sarah Faith has been nominated by her algebra teacher, Ms. Watson, to be eligible to attend…
How 4 Witches & Wiccans Define Their Faith For Themselves
Refinery 29
Jason Mankey, Laura Tempest Zakroff, Deborah Blake, and Thorn Mooney tell their personal stories…
The Return of Paganism
The New York Times
Is the combination of intellectual pantheism and a this-world-focused civil religion enough to declare the rebirth of paganism as a faith unto itself, rather than just a cultural tendency within a still-Christian order?…
Douthat’s post-Christian future, a response
The Wild Hunt
Yesterday, columnist Ross Douthat wrote The Return of Paganism for the New York Times. As the essay’s subtitle commented, “Maybe there actually is a genuinely post-Christian future for America.”…
Winter solstice 2018: Why are days so short this time of year and why do we celebrate the longest night?
The Independent
Druids still gather at Stonehenge on Salisbury Plain to mark the occasion to this day, pagan revellers meeting at dawn to observe the morning sun rising over the ancient circle’s Heel Stone…
Witches at Christmas: Meet the women who celebrate with spells
Metro
Far from standing over a cauldron, the modern witch looks pretty normal – commuting to work, drinks with friends and a nine to five job. And even some of their festive celebrations are pretty similar to the well-known Christmas traditions…
‘Why we should stop using the term religious ‘nones’’
Religion News Service
Not all of the market’s attendees – indeed not all “Make Your Own Magic’s” buyers – might identify themselves as practitioners of magic, or members of some neopagan faith, such as Wicca. Some may have been politically motivated; in the age of Trump, occult imagery, like the aesthetic of “witch feminism,” has become increasingly associated with those who #Resist. Some may have just plain liked the stalls’ vaguely punk ethos of transgression…
Article in Conservative Women criticises the ‘dangers’ of witchcraft and Wicca
Conservative Women
Christian writer says modern witchcraft has “a very dark side” and that people should “be worried” about the rising popularity of witchcraft…
Parenting the Divine: Evoking Santa, Adapting Santa Claus Traditions for Pagan households
Patheos Pagan: The Agora
One of the most persistent issues, and for some parents and caregivers most aggravating, is how to deal with Santa Claus…
Shinto News
Couple detained after newspaper set on fire at Yasukuni Shrine
Japan Today
A newspaper was set on fire on Wednesday on the premises of the war-linked Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo and police detained a foreign couple in connection with the case, police and firefighters said…
Japanese group sues over emperor’s enthronement funding
Mail Online
More than 200 Japanese citizens, including members of Christian groups and Buddhist monks, sued the government Monday over its plan to use taxpayer money for ceremonies next year to mark the new emperor’s enthronement…
UNESCO World Heritage site lets foreign visitors do Shinto rituals
The Asahi Shimbun
Foreign visitors had the rare chance to experience Shinto rituals at Kumano Hayatama Taisha shrine in one of Japan’s most sacred religious sites at an event held there for the first time…
Year-end clean-up at Japan’s World Heritage bridge
Euronews
The traditional ritual took place on Wednesday at the vermilion lacquered bridge that serves as the entrance to the Futarasan Shrine and other shrines and temples…
Other News
2,000-year-old “Cernunnos” figurine uncovered in Cambridgeshire
Mail Online
A 2000-year-old figurine depicting a Celtic fertility God has been uncovered in an old Roman settlement by archaeologists in farmland in Cambridgeshire…
Ancient statue of goddess Minerva discovered in margarine tub
The Guardian
A 2,000-year-old Roman statuette of a silver-eyed goddess Minerva that for more than a decade was kept in a plastic margarine tub is among a record number of treasure discoveries made by the nation’s army of metal detectorists…
Study suggests shamans acted as the first professional class in human society
Phys.org
The names may vary—medicine man, witch doctor, holy man, prophet—but the notion of the shaman, someone who uses trance to commune with the supernatural and effect real-world change, is one that crosses virtually all cultural boundaries…
One in 20 Brits have never heard of Stonehenge
The Sun
Brits are more likely to have seen the Eiffel Tower than Stonehenge, a study has found…
Was Stonehenge built by cow power? Study suggests Neolithic farmers had mastered animal traction
The Telegraph
Archaeologists at University College London have found that cattle were being used as engines to pull heavy loads as early as 6,000BC…
Rome’s Pantheon to remain free to visitors
Wanted In Rome
Italian culture ministry scraps plans to charge entry fee into Pantheon…
The Greek way of death
The Spectator
The Getty Villa’s new exhibition, Underworld: Imagining the Afterlife is all about ideas of what happened next if you died as an Ancient Greek…
How cinema’s new Aquaman draws on the mythology of ancient sea gods
The Conversation
Muscular, bearded and trident-wielding, Jason Momoa’s portrayal of the titular Aquaman in the forthcoming DC film draws on ancient Greek and Roman iconography…
Agents of Faith: an Exhibition
The Wild Hunt
Votive offerings are a universal phenomenon that help define sacred space…
A Native American tribe demands the return of its spiritual relative — an orca
Religious News Service
Whales are a staple in the waters off the Pacific Northwest. The local culture is so wrapped up in a whale identity that Seattle’s metro bus cards are called “orca” passes for the type of whale also known as killer…
What winter solstice rituals tell us about indigenous people
The Conversation
The winter solstice is the day of the year when the Northern Hemisphere has the fewest hours of sunlight and the Southern Hemisphere has the most. For indigenous peoples, it has been a time to honor their ancient sun deity…
Why the earliest sunset is not on winter solstice
The Times
Something curious happens today — it is the earliest sunset of the year…
The British Bake Off That’s Resurrecting a Forgotten Medieval Cake
Atlas Obscura
Competitors are baking soul cakes, a bygone Halloween treat…
Kenya: Baringo man kills neighbour on suspicion of witchcraft, surrenders to police
The Star
A man who reportedly killed his 82-year old neighbour on suspicion of witchcraft in Sibilo, Baringo North, surrendered to the police on Monday…
South Africa: Eastern Cape sisters burnt to death after being accused of witchcraft
News24
An Eastern Cape mayor on Thursday condemned an attack on two sisters who were killed after being accused of witchcraft…
What I Married A Witch, Bewitched and Bell, Book And Candle Say About Women Having it All
Syfy
Witch stories are often tied to teenage girls like Sabrina as a metaphor for puberty — but the movies and television show discussed below center on women in adulthood experiencing another kind of transition…
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