Pagan Tama
Top stories in Paganism and Shinto this week:
- Pagans react to new abortion bans
- Japan uses turtle divination for emperor enthronement rites
- Disaster-hit Fukushima shrines eye consolidation as key to survival
Read more below…
Pagan News
Pagans react to new abortion bans
The Wild Hunt
The Pagan response has largely been one of outrage….
Hail to the Goddesses of Women, Choice and Power: Spell for Reproductive Freedom
Patheos Pagan: Cyndi Brannen
This is a call for witches to do battle with those who use women as a means for political gain…
Hey Gents – Let’s Talk About Abortion
Patheos Pagan: Gwion Raven
Speak up gents. You might not realise it but this is your fight too…
Pagans say witches had ‘no hand in lamb slaughter’
Cornwall Live
Pagan group say beheadings of two lambs in three days is antisocial cruelty and nothing to do with witchcraft…
Why Saturday’s Rare ‘Blue Moon’ Will Be One Of The Biggest And Best Full Moons Of The Year
Forbes
If you enjoy looking at our satellite for any reason, there is one very special occasion each lunar month and that’s the momentary appearance of the full moon on the horizon…
Spells, divination and astral travel: Meet the modern day witch
Express & Star
Stephen Appleby has spent years honing his craft as a modern-day witch, and is keen to shed some of the stereotypes that accompany his tradition…
Shinto News
Japan uses turtle divination for emperor enthronement rites
Mail Online
Japanese palace officials used an ancient turtle-shell divination Monday to choose sites to harvest sacred rice to be used in an upcoming harvest ritual – the most important one new Emperor Naruhito will perform after enthronement…
Yuki region and Suki region
Mimusubi
Yesterday, one of the first rituals of the Daijōsai, the most important Shinto ceremony in the accession of a new Tennō, was performed in the Imperial Palace…
Shinto divination
Green Shinto
In fossilised cases such as Shinto, where shamanistic possession is retained in symbolic form only, omikuji fortune telling at shrines is arranged according to set formula based on Daoism…
Disaster-hit Fukushima shrines eye consolidation as key to survival
The Mainichi
A plan has been forged to establish a new shrine in Fukushima Prefecture as a substitute for the many others that were damaged or made inaccessible by the 2011 quake-tsunami disaster and nuclear crisis, local authorities said Wednesday…
Unruly crowds cause Asakusa shrine to call off festival stamp
The Asahi Shimbun
Tokyo’s Asakusajinja shrine, appalled at chaotic scenes when visitors couldn’t obtain a special stamp denoting the new imperial era, canceled plans to hand out a similar offering at the bustling Asakusa Sanja Matsuri festival that kicks off May 17…
Kanda matsuri’s ‘mikoshi’ shrine parade heralds summer’s arrival
The Asahi Shimbun
Droves of spectators turned out for a parade of “mikoshi” portable shrines under a blue sky near Kanda Myojin shrine on May 12 in Tokyo’s Chiyoda Ward…
First Aoi Festival of Reiwa era held in Kyoto
NHK World
Scores of people wearing traditional costumes paraded Wednesday through the center of Kyoto during the annual Aoi Matsuri, one of the three main festivals of Japan’s ancient capital…
Aoi Festival Saio
Green Shinto
The Aoi Festival, sponsored by the World Heritage shrines of Shimogamo and Kamigamo, is Kyoto’s oldest…
Kyoto’s famous Gion Festival celebrates its 1150th anniversary with…crowdfunding?
SoraNews24
You have the chance to contribute to this festival’s 1,150th anniversary…
Tokyo’s shitamachi summer festivals get underway in historic style
Kyodo News
Taito City, the heart of Edo-era shitamachi culture in Tokyo, hosts some of the Japanese capital’s largest and most celebrated traditional summer festivals and events, but it’s a matsuri with a much more local flavor that signals their impending arrival…
Tōken Ranbu Fans Raise US$726,500 for Sword Restoration Crowdfund
Anime News Network
Ishikirimaru is considered a sacred blade and it is currently housed at the Ishikiri Tsurugiya Shinto shrine in Higashiosaka, Osaka. The crowdfund seeks to restore the sword and properly dedicate it within the main shrine’s inner sanctum as part of the change over from the Heisei period…
Explore Kyoto tourist site Fushimi Inari Taisha shrine with Unreal Engine 4
SoraNews24
Now there’s another way to soak up the atmosphere of a crowd-free visit to Fushimi Inari Taisha, and it can be done from the comfort of your very own home…
Hundreds gather under rain to celebrate Japanese arts, culture at Santa Rosa’s Matsuri Festival
Press Democrat
It was the first time the festival has had a Shinto priest hold a spiritual ritual, and organizers said it was a meaningful way to mark the festival’s 10th anniversary…
Other News
Osaka welcomes UNESCO support for burial mounds as World Heritage Site
The Japan Times
Osakans on Tuesday welcomed a UNESCO advisory panel’s recommendation to add two clusters of ancient burial mounds in the prefecture to the World Cultural Heritage List…
National Audit Office questions value of Stonehenge tunnel
The Guardian
Report by watchdog casts doubt on Highways England figures for £2bn project…
Columns excavated at Pagan center Lagina in western Turkey
Daily Sabah
Excavations are continuing to restore more than 20 ancient columns at the 3,000-year-old Lagina Sanctuary, dubbed as the center of Paganism, located in western Muğla province’s Yatağan district…
NASA Names Moon Mission After Greek Goddess Artemis
Greek Reporter
NASA’s new mission to the moon — which aims to put the first woman on the lunar surface by 2024 — has been named Artemis, after the ancient Greek goddess who was the daughter of Zeus and Leto…
Recalling America’s Last Witchcraft Trial
Patheos Buddhist: James Ford
On this day, May 14th, 1878. that the last trial on a charge of witchcraft was initiated in an American court…
Women accused of Witchcraft freed in Saudi Arabia
The Wild Hunt
Two Indonesian women who were sentenced to death in Saudi Arabia for Witchcraft have been freed after being acquitted…
India: Nine arrested for assault on elderly couple accusing them of practising witchcraft
Sentinel Assam
The couple belonging to Dagaon village under Boko police station were accused of practising witchcraft…
Malawi: Angry Mob Torch Woman’s Property, Accusing Her of Witchcraft
All Africa
An angry mob recently set ablaze a woman’s two houses and other property who the mob suspected of being a witch in Ntchisi District…
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