Pagan & Shinto News: Emperor Performs Ritual To Report Abdication To Shinto Gods

Top stories in Paganism and Shinto this week:

Emperor performs ritual to report abdication to Shinto gods
Pagans react to Notre Dame fire
Irish city’s year as European Capital of Culture year delayed to reflect ancient Pagan calendar

Pagan News

Pagans react to Notre Dame fire
The Wild Hunt
The devastation of watching the iconic structure that sits at the heart of Paris was reflected in the thoughts of many within the Pagan community as they commented on social media…

Galway 2020 pushed back to February to reflect pagan Ireland
Irish Times
Arthur Lappin, appointed as chair of the Galway 2020 board at the start of this year, said the launch would allow its programme to tie in with Ireland’s ancient, pre-Christian calendar…

Pagans highlight inequalities in UK crematoria
The Times
In response to a government consultation, Pagans have said that they struggle to hold ceremonies in crematoria because most are unable to rearrange their fixed, pew-style seating into a circle, while many cannot perform outdoor ceremonies, They also said that crematorium staff knew little about paganism and one said they often made an “incorrect association with Satanism”…

Angus farm field to be transformed into Pagan worship site after planning application approved at Monikie
The Courier
The land on the edge of Monikie, just north of Dundee, could be used for eight seasonal festivals on the Pagan calendar…

Key figure in UK climate change protests is Pagan scientist
Mail Online
Neopagan Gail Bradbrook is of the directors of Compassionate Revolution, which has organised and partly financed the protests…

Unique Buckland Museum of Witchcraft and Magick to celebrate re-opening in Cleveland
Cleveland.com
Since March, this building at 2155 Broadview Road has been home to Cleveland’s unique Buckland Museum of Witchcraft and Magick. It was previously located on West 14th Street in Tremont…

Members of religion inspired by local Pagan beliefs let baby son starve to death
The Mirror
The police raided Vlasovs’ apartment and found the literature of ‘Zvenyaschie Kedry’ (Jingling Cedars), a religious movement influenced by old local Pagan beliefs…

Beltane events and happenings in the UK
The Wild Hunt
May Day is important across the UK for all manner of reasons: political, festive, and pagan…

Appalachian State University Pagan Student Association holds 17th annual Faerie Fest
The Appalachian
Organized by the App State Pagan Student Association, Faerie Fest is an event meant to educate the App State community about Paganism and ancient Celtics…

Witches are back, casting a spell over pop culture when we need them most
SyFy Wire
Unlike vampires, werewolves, and fairies, witches have real-life counterparts, both self-identified and – in the past, at least – unjustly accused…

Wicca helps SMA sufferer deal with the disease
SMA News Today
“’m not going to say Wicca has brought benefits. But finding something that I believe in has helped me to deal with my frustration with SMA….”

New Faces New Places: A handmade focus that covers all your magickal needs
The Province
A lifetime love of witchcraft and the metaphysical world has brought Saskatoon a shop with unique products that will interest even the most skeptical minds…

Paroldo: The magical Italian village that ‘witches’ call home
Koam News Now
Shaman women believed to possess healing powers…

Malvern Well Dressing and Water Festival to return this May
Malvern Gazette
Thr Malvern Well Dressing and Water Festival celebrates Malvern’s history, from its iconic spring water and Victorian Water Cure to the area’s ancient Pagan traditions…

Easter: eggs, hares, lamb and the return of warmth and sunshine – a Christian festival that feels pagan
The Conversation
The first mention of Eostre is in the eighth century, in The Venerable Bede’s frustratingly cryptic account of the native Anglo-Saxon calendar in De Temporum Ratione (On the Reckoning of Time)…

How do Thelemites and Witches celebrate Easter?
Patheos Pagan: Brandy Williams
Thelemites and Witches generally define ourselves as non-Christian so we wouldn’t normally think about celebrating Easter. But the Gnostic Mass and the Witchcraft circle are both eucharistic rituals which directly relate to the mysteries of Easter and Passover…

Shinto News

Emperor performs ritual to report abdication to Shinto gods
Japan Today
Emperor Akihito prayed at a Japanese shrine Thursday in a ritual to report his upcoming abdication to the Shinto gods…

Abe sends offering to controversial shrine for Japanese war dead
Straits Times
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe sent a ritual offering to the controversial Yasukuni Shrine for the war dead yesterday but held off from visiting what Japan’s neighbours view as a symbol of the country’s former militarism…

‘Sword girls’ help obscure Kyoto shrine procure restoration funds
The Asahi Shimbun
A tweet that legendary swords featured in the popular video game were forged at a humble shrine here has set off a stampede by so-called sword girls…

Spring ritual at World Heritage shrine
NHK World
A Shinto shrine designated as a UNESCO World Heritage site has held an annual event to thank nature for its blessings…

Traditional horseback archery held in Kamakura
NHK World
Horseback archery dating back centuries has been performed at a Shinto shrine in the ancient Japanese capital of Kamakura, south of Tokyo…

CMA’s Shinto show is a big, excellent, only-in-Cleveland experience
Cleveland.com
The exhibition, a 13-year labor of love organized by Sinead Vilbar, the museum’s curator of Japanese art, offers a panoramic view of a religious tradition central to Japanese culture, history and identity, but rarely explored with such lucidity and depth, especially outside Japan…

Japanese muscle man group offers to lend their strength to summer festivals
Japan Today
The group–spanning over 400 members throughout the country — is offering to help pull mikoshi palanquins during summer festival (matsuri)…

Ichikawa Kagura: Saving the dances of the gods
The Japan Times
Today, kagura is only practiced in small pockets throughout Japan, with local troupes keeping regionally specific variations alive…

Rock-solid guardians watch over Itoshima
The Japan News
The Meoto-iwa are more than 11 meters above the surface of the water. An about 8-meter-tall white torii gate stands at the edge of the water. I was in awe of this magnificent scene, like the gateway to a divine world…

Other News

Egypt opens restored goddess temple in Luxor’s Karnak complex
CGTN Africa
Ministry of Antiquities opened Opet Temple for the first time for visitors on Friday after its recent restoration at Karnak Temple Complex on the Nile River’s east bank in Upper Egypt’s monument-rich province of Luxor…

Ruined former home of Aleister Crowley up for sale
BBC News
The building – which was later owned by by musician Jimmy Page, of Led Zeppelin – is reported to be haunted or cursed…

Aphrodite emerges amid metro dig treasures in Greece
Stuff
The construction of a metro network beneath the Greek city of Thessaloniki has unearthed an extraordinary treasure trove of ancient artefacts, from gold wreaths and rings to statues of the goddess Aphrodite…

Stonehenge: DNA reveals origin of builders
BBC News
The ancestors of the people who built Stonehenge travelled west across the Mediterranean before reaching Britain, a study has shown…

Greek president brands British Museum a ‘murky prison’ for Elgin Marbles
The Telegraph
Prokopis Pavlopoulos said Greece was engaged in “a holy battle” for the return of the classical reliefs and figures, which were taken from the country by Lord Elgin in the early 19th century…

National Museum Jamaica Unveils Dolls Of Japan Exhibition
Jamaica Gleaner
Dolls have been a part of everyday Japanese life since ancient times, reflecting the customs and aspirations of its people…

Ancient Egyptian tomb unveiled as vivid colours survive 4,300 years
ITV
An incredibly well preserved 4,300-year-old tomb has been unveiled around 15.5 miles (25km) south of Cairo…

Talks on Imperial succession rules may be delayed until next fall or spring
The Japan Times
Officials don’t want heated discussion on enthroning women until after elections and transfer of throne are over, but public may not accept a year’s wait…

Anxious Times In Pakistan’s Pagan Valley
RFERL
The Kalash people, many of whom believe they are the descendants of the armies of Alexander the Great, have held on to their religious beliefs and colorful rituals for centuries, even as a sea of Islam has encircled them…

The history of the Notre Dame: From a Pagan Temple to Gothic Cathedral
OpIndia
It is known that a Gallo-Roman Temple dedicated to the God Jupiter stood at the same site before the advent of Christianity in France…

Chilling Adventures Of Sabrina: 5 Witch Traditions/Figures Based On Myth (5 That Are Completely Fictional)
Screen Rant
Though many of Sabrina’s magical elements are invented by the writers, several have roots in real mythology…

Goddess of Fire
The Atlantic
In the Hawaiian religion, Pele is the goddess of volcanoes, fire, and lightning…

The Fight to End “Witch-hunts” Continues
The Wild Hunt
The effects of being accused of practicing “witchcraft” can be devastating, even when it does not result in the death of the accused. Their lives are turned upside-down…

Witchcraft and human rights: global learnings and conversations
Devpolicy
The international conference Witchcraft and Human Rights: Past, Present, Future Perspectives, held at Lancaster University on 10-11 January 2019, brought together academics, practitioners and activists from around the world to present on various aspects of sorcery and witchcraft accusations and related efforts to curb accusations and other harmful practices…

Zimbabwe: Man Hammers Father To Death Over ‘Witchcraft’
ZimEye
Clive Jimmy of Bandayi village under Chief Chisunga in Mushumbi Pools allegedly killed his father with a hammer after he was told by a traditional healer that his father had bewitched him…

India: Kokrajhar man killed for ‘practising witchcraft’
Dover Daily News
In an incident of suspected witch-hunting, a 50-year-old farmer died after a mob thrashed him suspecting him of practising in lower Assam’s Kokrajhar district

Nigeria: Couple kills own son on suspicion of ‘witchcraft’
Premium Times
The victim was accused of witchcraft by the parents before he was killed, the Commissioner of Police in Akwa Ibom, Zaki Ahmed, told reporters Wednesday in Uyo…