Pagan & Shinto News: Asatru Priest Calls For Official Recognition of Religion in Israel

Pagan & Shinto News: Asatru Priest Calls For Official Recognition of Religion in Israel February 16, 2020

Top stories in Paganism and Shinto this week:

  • Israel: Asatru priest calls for state recognition of religion
  • Witches using cryptocurrency to maintain free expression
  • Japanese places of worship see numbers fall amid coronavirus fears

Read more below…

Left: Pixabay, illustrative purposes only. Centre: Pixabay. Right: Itsukushima Shrine, Pixabay.

Pagan News

Israel: Pagan priest Einar calls for recognition by State
ANSA Med
Einar, an Israeli Jew who is a pagan priest in the Asatru community, imagines a future in which the paganism of northern Europe is finally recognised as a legitimate religion in the Jewish State, so that its members are no longer forced to practice it on the fringes of society…

Witches using cryptocurrency to maintain free expression
Cryptoglobe
‘Cypherpunk’ witches are turning to bitcoin and cryptocurrency as a way to preserve and inspire interest in the rituals of witchcraft…

Israel: On New Year for trees, Jews and pagans go forest bathing to honor earthly roots
The Times of Israel
Wilderness Torah, a 13-year-old organization that celebrates Jewish tradition centered around agriculture and nature, joined forces with JeWitch Collective, a gathering of “Jews, pagans, and those who love them,” to honor trees at a time when fires and environmental devastation are destroying record numbers of them around the world…

Canada: Local Wiccan church congregation seeing growth
Campbell River Mirror
North Island woman named high priestess of Aquarian Tabernacle Church of Canada…

UK: Kentwell historical re-enactor enjoys success with micro-brewery’s pagan themed beers
Bury Free Press
A man who plays Luke Forrester, the Tudor brewer at Kentwell’s historical re enactment days, is also brewing and selling his own distinctive beers which reflect periods in the pagan calendar…

Harmony Nice the witch shows magic of social media
The Times
The Church of England and the Archbishop of Canterbury might be pleased with their 335,000 followers on social media — until they realise how many one pagan witch from Norfolk has…

Suspicious Witchy Authors: Community Reactions And My Final Thoughts
Patheos Pagan: Kelden
In the last few weeks, the Witch/Wiccan/Pagan internet world has blown up with a discussion regarding suspicious Witchy authors…

Facebook and Pagans: Four Problem Areas
The Wild Hunt
Many problems between Facebook and its users seem to occur in four basic areas. While none of the issues is unique to the Pagans, they do impact our community in various ways…

Pagans and the geofence
The Wild Hunt
Several recent stories of how geofencing has been used to target religious congregations may serve as a warning to Pagans concerned about how their smartphones could be selling information about their religious beliefs…

US: Why Witchcraft Is on the Rise
The Atlantic
Americans’ interest in spell-casting tends to wax as instability rises and trust in establishment ideas plummets…

US: Witchcraft goes mainstream, and becomes big business
Marketplace
What was once a crime punished by execution is now a well-established part of mainstream U.S. culture…

US: Magic, Witchcraft and Religion professor dedicated to the study of the unknown
The Sunflower
Among other things, Kreinath is known around campus for teaching a unique course, Magic, Witchcraft, and Religion…

Shinto News

Viral outbreak spooks Asian places of worship
Japan Today
In Japan, where Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines are tourist destinations, a sharp decline in the number of foreign visitors has been a palpable setback…

Prayers for snow in Northern Japan
The Jakarta Post
In mid-January, a ski resort in western Hyogo prefecture invited a Shinto priest to hold a ceremony to ask the gods for snow, as did the organizers of the Yamagata snow festival in northern Japan…

Japan Tourism Increase for Sacred Anime Sites
All About Japan
Kanda Myojin is one of Tokyo’s oldest and most powerful shrines. Anime fans have many good reasons to visit. Getting a stamp of a character from the anime movie Love Live! for example…

Other News

 

UK: Book giving rare insight into 17th Century witch trials up for auction
ITV
A rare book giving an insight into the witch trials of the 17th century in East Anglia is going up for auction this week…

UK: Wetherspoon to clean up decaying goddess statue in Aberdeen following complaints
The Press and Journal
A pub giant has promised to spruce up a “dilapidated” statue of a Roman goddess which sits atop an Aberdeen building…

Greece: ‘Curse tablets’ found in 2,500-year-old well
Fox News
Archaeologists have unearthed 30 tablets, each engraved with curses, at the bottom of an ancient well in Greece, according to a report…

#Broomchallenge: Eggs, equinox and misinformation
BBC News
It is the social media challenge taken up by thousands but the scientific claims behind it are nonsense…

France: Saint Brigid is now the most in vogue Saint in Paris
Irish Central
We don’t know if there were two Brigids, one a pagan fire goddess and the other a pioneer nun and Christian saint of the same name…

Ancient spells and charms for the hapless in love
The Conversation
The inhabitants of the Graeco-Roman world suffered the same heartaches and the same emotional highs and lows as we do today. While we are left with apps to swipe on, a greater belief in magic in this period provided interesting opportunities to find love…

Nigeria: Pastor flogs son to death over alleged witchcraft
Punch
A pastor, Amos Kosini and his wife are on the run after the self-acclaimed cleric allegedly flogged his son, Faithful, to death over allegation of witchcraft…


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