Pagan & Shinto News: UK Academics On A Hunt For ‘Witch Bottles’

Pagan & Shinto News: UK Academics On A Hunt For ‘Witch Bottles’ April 29, 2019

Top stories in Paganism and Shinto this week:

  • UK academics on a hunt for ‘witch bottles’
  • First museum dedicated to Japanese folklore monsters opens near Hiroshima
  • Japan to spend record ¥16.6 billion on coronation of new Emperor

Read more below…

Pagan News

UK academics on a hunt for ‘witch bottles’
Atlas Obscura
The three-year project, Bottles Concealed and Revealed, centers around the phenomenon of bottle magic, which gained notoriety through texts such as Astrological Practice of Physick, published in 1671. If you live in Britain, you might be able to help…

Highgate ‘vampire hunter’ dies half a century after supernatural panic gripped community
Ham & High
Sex magic, dead foxes, vampires and an Old Bailey trial – Highgate’s David Farrant, who died earlier this month, lived a colourful 73 years in and out of the headlines…

Iceland Ásatrú Society hold public reading of Icelandic Sagas
The Reykjavik Grapevine
If you ever wanted to hear a dramatic reading of the Icelandic Sagas, done by people who still honour the Norse gods, your time has arrived…

Summer Pagan Festivals 2019: A Guide
Patheos Pagan: Jason Mankey
Welcome to the sixth edition of Summer Pagan Festivals A Guide…

May Day may mean maypoles, beer or leis. But it’s still about spring
Los Angeles Times
Whether it’s welcoming the return of spring by dancing around a maypole or honoring workers across the globe, May Day means different things to different people…

Shinto News

Japan to Spend Record ¥16.6 Billion on Coronation of New Emperor
Nippon.com
A central part of the enthronement proceedings is the Daijōsai, a ritual where the new emperor offers newly harvested rice to his imperial ancestors and the gods of heaven and earth, and prays for the peace and prosperity of the nation and its people…

Japan’s New Era Transition: The Important Moments and Their Meaning
Japan Forward
Emperor Akihito and his wife Michiko on April 18 visited the most important shrine in Japan, Ise Jingu, to pay their respects…

The key ceremonies in Japan’s Imperial succession
The Japan Times
Emperor Akihito’s abdication on Tuesday, one of several ceremonies marking the transition to his heir, Crown Prince Naruhito, will be a brief, relatively simple and rare event…

Pine room and a secret jewel: Japan’s abdication rituals
Japan Today
Japan has waited more than two centuries for an emperor to abdicate, but the main ceremony to perform the ritual will take a mere 10 minutes…

Sword Linked to Emperor to Be Displayed in Kyoto Shinto shrine
Nippon.com
A short sword linked to the so-called amulet sword presented to the Imperial Family when Emperor Akihito was born will be displayed at a Shinto shrine in Yawata, Kyoto Prefecture, from Friday…

Japan emperor: The mysterious Imperial Treasures
BBC News
Both the abdication and accession will involve deeply symbolic Shinto ceremonies, and central to them will be three objects – a mirror, a sword and a gem – known as the Imperial Treasures or Regalia…

Sacred regalia and ascension
Green Shinto
Pagan symbols can be a powerful means of evoking belief systems, and in Japan’s case nothing rivals the three imperial regalia – the mirror, the sword and the magatama jewel…

Emperor reports abdication to his late father
The Japan News
The Emperor, dressed in a morning coat and carrying a silk hat in his hand, approached the mausoleum at an easy pace, offered a “tamagushi” Shinto offering and bowed deeply…

About 70 Japanese lawmakers visit Yasukuni Shrine
Nippon.com
A cross-party group of about 70 Japanese lawmakers on Tuesday visited the controversial Yasukuni Shrine to pay respects to the country’s war dead during its annual spring festival…

Kurayami Matsuri: A long night of darkness, a long night of revelry
Japan Times
Okunitama Shrine in the western Tokyo suburb of Fuchu sits at the end of a long, broad shopping street lined with towering zelkova trees…

What to see at the Brooklyn Cherry Blossom Festival
Brooklyn Daily Eagle
The Japanese Hill-and-Pond Garden is a piece of living history…

The Tenno at Jingu
Mimusubi
On the 18th of this month, the Tennō and Kōgō (the Emperor and Empress) visited Jingū at Isë, and paid their respects at the Gekū and Naikū…

Other News

First museum dedicated to Japanese folklore monsters opens near Hiroshima
Japan Times
Japan’s first museum of supernatural monsters opened Friday in Hiroshima Prefecture, allowing visitors to get immersed in a strange world of yokai through historical artifacts and interactive digital installations…

National Action trial: Accused’s Swastika shawl was ‘pagan’ item
BBC
A woman accused of being a neo-Nazi terrorist has told a court her Swastika-covered shawl was a “pagan religious” item…

Landlord recreates Stonehenge outside his pub as tourists can’t get close to the real landmark
The Sun
Daniel King, 33, is building a replica less than a third as tall as the 13ft original…

Renowned Connecticut Ghost Hunter to be laid to rest in haunted cemetery
i95
It seems only appropriate that one of Connecticut’s most haunted cemeteries awaits the recently deceased ghost hunter, Lorraine Warren…

Notre Dame fire heightens vigilance at Japan’s historical sites
The Japan News
The fire that destroyed the spire of France’s Notre Dame Cathedral last week has heightened vigilance among officials in charge of protecting historical buildings in Japan…

Ancient springs and pagan worship inspire musician
Radio NZ
These ancient springs in Bath, England are the birthplace of the cult of Sul-Minerva, where members worshiped both the Celtic Goddess Sulis and Roman Goddess Minerva. When Leonie Holmes visited the ancient site the pagan imaginings she experienced there eventually became her chamber work Aquae-Sulis…

Locals compete in Pie Scrambling and Bottle Kicking between two Leicestershire villages in Easter Monday tradition dating back 1,000 years
Mail Online
Residents in the villages of Hallaton and Medbourne went against each other in the traditional event, which some claim could have links to Pagan times 1,000 years ago…

Chinese city destroys thousands of shrines
The Wild Hunt
Local officials in the village of Baofeng in the Chinese city of Gaoyou, which is part of the Yangzhou prefecture within the Jiangsu province, have destroyed some 5,911 temples of a traditional folk religion…

Mummified remains of 35 ancient Egyptians found in Aswan
The Guardian
Artefacts including statues and masks were also in tomb dating from Greco-Roman period…

Fierce and Fanciful Creatures
The Wall Street Journal
For centuries, Japanese artists have turned to animals for inspiration…

After 10 years in Saudi prison, Indonesia maids on death row for ‘witchcraft’ released
Straits Times
Two Indonesian domestic workers sentenced to death for ‘practising witchcraft’ against their employers’ families in Saudi Arabia returned home on Wednesday (April 24) after their sentences were commuted, Indonesia’s Foreign Ministry said…

Zimbabwe: Family whips granny to death over ‘witchcraft’
Bulawayo24
Eight Chivi family members allegedly whipped their elderly relative for more than 10 hours with mulberry tree switches leading to his death after accusing him of ‘witchcraft’, police have confirmed…


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