Pagan Tama
Top stories in Paganism and Shinto over the past two weeks:
- Pagan Tama author interviewed by local London magazine
- Pagans celebrate Winter Solstice at sacred sites worldwide
- National Guard ousts two members of ‘hate group’ Asatru Folk Assembly
Read more below…
Pagan News
Pagan Tama author interviewed by local London magazine
SW Londoner
Author of the Pagan Tama blog, aka Megan Manson, has been interviewed about Paganism in SW Londoner…
National Guard Ousts Two Members of Neo-Pagan ‘Hate Group’ Asatru Folk Assembly
Daily Beast
The Army National Guard has booted two Georgia men who were unmasked as members of a neo-pagan sect that has been labeled a hate group…
Paganism in the 2020s – What to Expect in the Next Decade
Patheos Pagan: John Beckett
Ten years is too broad a time frame for divination to be much use (one year is pushing it), and I’m not an astrologer who can read what’s written in the stars. But I am someone who pays attention and who meditates on what he sees…
The New Incarnation of PaganSpace
The Wild Hunt
The Pagan social networking site, Pagan Space, has relaunched…
2019 Hornie Awards
Patheos Pagan: Jason Mankey
And now strike up the band and prepare for the red carpet, it’s the 2019 Hornie Awards…
Five Witches to Watch in 2020
Patheos Pagan: Devin Hunter
I thought I would share the witches I am looking forward to following the most in the coming year…
From podcasts to meetups, contemporary witches cast a spell on modern religion
CBC
Growing number of people practising ancient paganism in the modern world…
Little Big Things: The 30‑Year‑Old Wiccan Priestess
The Swaddle
In January 2017, Bhosle lost her father to a sudden accident. 45 days later, she found out her partner of three years had been cheating on her. She had given up on life and was contemplating suicide when she received an invite to attend the opening of a friend’s new Wiccan shop…
A disturbing trend in published books marketed toward Pagans
The Wild Hunt
A recent tweet by author Thorn Mooney caught the attention of TWH staff…
Yule Coverage
Thousands celebrate Winter Solstice at Stonehenge as crowds hug the stones on shortest day of the year
Herald Planet
Hundreds gathered at Stonehenge this morning to welcome the winter solstice, as the sun rose for the shortest day in the year…
Winter Solstice at Newgrange caught on camera
Irish Central
It was lights on at Newgrange for the Winter Solstice as what’s possibly the oldest clock in the world, is captured in a spectacular new light…
Druids hold Winter Solstice ceremony in Portsmouth to mark shortest day of the year
Porthsmouth.co.uk
To mark the shortest day of the year and the return of the sun, a group of Druids held a Winter Solstice ceremony…
White witches welcome winter to Chorlton’s Beech Road
About Manchester
White witches welcomed winter to Beech Road in Chorlton with a traditional community blessing at sunset on the shortest day of the year…
Colourful pagans celebrate winter solstice at Hetty Pegler’s Tump
Stroud News & Journal
Pagans gathered at Hetty Pegler’s Tump (Uley Long Barrow) on one of the darkest days of the year to celebrate the coming of the winter solstice…
Thousands of tourists witness sun alignment on Karnak temple
Egypt Independent
Thousands of tourists and the governor of Luxor on Sunday witnessed a sun alignment at the Temple of Amun-Ra in Karnak, an annual phenomenon that announces the start of winter in ancient Egypt…
Monuments old and new built for the Solstice
The Wild Hunt
Many structures of the ancient world were designed to capture and reflect the position of the sun on the Winter Solstice in the Northern Hemisphere, and Summer Solstice in the Southern Hemisphere…
Franciscans defend card linking Christianity with paganism
Patheos Nonreligious: The Freethinker
When Franciscans International, a human rights group formed by various Franciscan orders, distributed a festive greetings card that depicted the naked Andean earth-goddess “Pachamama” alongside the “Blessed Virgin Mary”, rumblings of discontent were bound to follow….
6 Winter Solstice Celebrations From Around the World
AccuWeather
If you’re looking to add a day of celebration to your calendar this winter season, take a look at these 6 solstice celebrations from around the world and the history behind them…
A look at pagan roots of some beloved traditions
Englewood Herald
Although pagans are unfortunately sidelined or joked about, we have them to thank for many of the traditions we enjoy today…
Shinto News
Hatsuhinode: Where to see the first sunrise of the decade
The Japan Times
Ready yourselves: not just for the first sunrise of a new decade, but the first sunrise of the new year. For the significance of the rising sun has a long history in Japan…
Purifying decorations welcome the new year
The Japan Times
In the last days of the old year, homes, offices and shops are festooned with rope garlands and kadomatsu — standing arrangements of pine, bamboo and apricot blossoms — to welcome the god of the new year…
Pop culture complex including Shinto shrine to open near Tokyo in 2020
The Asahi Shimbun
A sprawling complex featuring a massive manga library, accommodations and a museum will open in Tokorozawa, Saitama Prefecture, next year to promote Japan’s pop culture trends worldwide…
Japan PM Takeshita heeded warning to avoid Yasukuni before 1988 China trip
The Japan Times
In August 1988, the Japanese ambassador to China urged Prime Minister Noboru Takeshita not to visit the war-linked Yasukuni Shrine, months before his trip to the country, declassified diplomatic records showed Wednesday…
TripAdvisor Japan announces the country’s 10 favorite shrines and temples
Japan Today
If you want to see the cream of the crop, though, you have to ask the locals, and that’s precisely what the Japanese branch of travel website TripAdvisor did with their yearly aggregate of Japan’s favorite spiritual spots…
Hawaii: Nuuanu Shinto shrine offers good luck blessing for new year
KITV
Daijingu Temple in Nu’uanu is getting ready for a traditional Shinto good luck blessing to usher in the new year; it’s one of the largest celebrations of its kind on the island…
Saitama Shinto festival highlights flexibility of spirituality in Japan
The Japan Times
As fireworks light up the winter night, scores of men, women and teenagers crying “washoi, washoi” haul the last of six towering, lantern-covered floats up a small hill and into the town center, the culminating moment of a Shinto festival that has evolved from a harvest thanksgiving into a once-a-year meeting between two local gods…
‘You idiot’: Cursing festival gets underway at shrine in eastern Japan
The Mainichi
People began cursing and scrambling for offerings at Atago Shrine in the Ibaraki Prefecture city of Kasama, northeast of Tokyo, as the shrine’s “cursing festival” kicked off on Dec. 15…
Bringing luck takes practice, rookie shrine maidens learn
The Asahi Shimbun
In preparation for the Toka-Ebisu Festival in January, apprentice shrine maidens here are busy learning the ropes so they can bring luck and prosperity–their job requirement–to visitors…
The Reiwa Daijosai: Pomp, circumstance and litigation
The Japan Times
On Oct. 21, a group of Japanese Christians denounced the succession ceremony and the Daijosai on the grounds it violated the constitutional separation of religion and government, and prohibitions on state funding of religious activities…
Presenter James May injured carrying enormous phallus during ‘riotous party’ at Japan’s Penis Festival
The Metro
James May ended up getting wounded carrying an enormous phallus at Japan’s Penis Festival filming his new Amazon Prime Video series, Our Man in Japan…
What is Shinto? Six Different Paradigms
Green Shinto
In a paper delivered at the University of Oslo, Aike Rots considered the vexing question of defining Shinto and came up with six different concepts…
Pokémon: 10 Character Designs Based On Japanese Yokai
The Gamer
Shinto is an animist religion, meaning that at its base, everything is alive in some way or another. Trees have inhabiting spirits, or rather are spirits, as do rocks, rivers, and caves. Playing Pokémon, it’s fairly easy to see how this could play into the character designs….
Other News
Fossilized Animal Bones Provide Insight Into Ancient Irish Ceremonial Site Associated With Pagans
IFL Science
An analysis of fossilized animal bones is revealing how early inhabitants of Ireland lived and gathered in mass congregations at one of the nation’s most iconic archaeological sites…
Statue of Goddess Diana appears in Rome canal
Wanted in Rome
A statue of Diana, the Roman goddess of the moon, wild animals and woodlands, has appeared overnight in the Canale dei Pescatori, below the junction of Via Mar dei Coralli and Viale dei Pescatori…
Seller is blessed by magic touch of ‘clan charmstone’
The Times
A rock crystal pendant has been sold at auction for nearly 90 times its estimate after experts identified it as a possible “magical” Scottish clan charmstone that might have been used centuries ago to try to counteract witchcraft…
Japan to boost protection of cultural properties after Okinawa and Paris blazes
The Japan Times
The culture agency decided Monday on a five-year plan to enhance the protection of cultural properties against fire, in the wake of blazes that destroyed Shuri Castle in Okinawa Prefecture and Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris earlier this year…
‘Psychic vampires’ want their home designated as a temple
The Chronicle
Michelle Belanger and her wife, Elyria Little, asked the Oberlin Planning Commission on Wednesday to treat their South Street residence just like it would a church or synagogue…
The Most Important Ancient Greek Archaeological Discoveries of 2019
Greek Reporter
2019 was another year of major archaeological discoveries, not only in Greece but across the Mediterranean basin, where the different phases of Greek antiquity left their indelible mark…
Greece’s Parthenon temple has had the wrong name for centuries, new research by archeologists claims
The Telegraph
The real Parthenon was in fact an ancient Greek treasury which contained offerings to the goddess Athena, according to the research by Utrecht University…
Cambridge researchers unearth witch trials in old court rolls
Cambridge Independent
Two centuries of Isle of Ely court records shine a light on the most serious crimes in the region’s past from theft and assault to murder and including witchcraft…
Mistletoe may contain a cure for some cancers, says expert
Irish Central
Trinity College biochemist believes the plant we associated with stealing kisses at Christmas kills tumor, with its “anti-cancer chemical”…
Sphinx statue uncovered in Egypt
The National
Archaeologists in Egypt’s central Minya governorate have uncovered a small statue of a royal sphinx…
Gold Pendant Depicting Ancient Egyptian Goddess Discovered in Greece
Cairo Scene
A team of American archaeologists from the University of Cincinnati unearthed two ancient tombs in the Southern Greek ancient city of Pylos, where they found various valuable artefacts and pieces of jewellery…
Jomon revival: Interest in Japan’s indigenous hunter-gatherers grows
The Japan Times
Modern reinterpretations of the wildly imaginative forms and designs seen in the era’s earthenware, tools and jewelry…
How talk of witches stirs emotions in Nigeria
BBC News
In our series of letters from African writers, Nigerian journalist and novelist Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani reports on the emotions that the topic of witchcraft stirs…
Ancient Greek Good Luck Charms for the New Year
Greek Reporter
Objects and practices which have been considered to attract good luck are part of ancient customs that have existed through the ages — and are seen especially often during New Year celebrations in Greece…
Witch hunt: ‘Warlocks’ cast out by black magic claims
The Telegraph
Sorcery accusations are common in Kenya. Officials are turning to superstition to end a surge in ‘witch-lynchings’ terrorising the elderly…
Nigeria: Father sets son, daughter ablaze over witchcraft
Daily Trust
The Plateau State Police Command says one Nyam Choji of Shen village of Jos South Local Government Area of the state, has set his son and daughter ablaze over allegation that they were practising witchcraft…
Malawi: Three killed over witchcraft allegations in Karonga
Malawi24
Villagers in Karonga have killed three elderly people over allegations that the three were practising witchcraft…
India: Man Beaten To Death On Suspicion Of Practising Witchcraft In Malkangiri
OdishaTV
Superstition can be fatal. It was yet again proved in Malkangiri where a man was allegedly murdered on suspicion of practising witchcraft by a kangaroo court set up by the villagers…
Ghana: 70-year-old woman accused of ‘witchcraft’ narrowly escapes mob attack
Joy Online
A 70-year-old woman was tied up, ready to be lynched by youth in Jentilpe on suspicions of witchcraft…
Women, children, disabled, mostly victims of torture; accused of witchcraft —WHIRN Director
Vanguard
A non-governmental organization, NGO, Witchcraft and Human Rights Information Network, WHRIN, is set to change the narrative by giving a voice to people accused of witchcraft…
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