Pagan & Shinto News: Patheos Pagan Writers Nominated For The Witchies Awards

Top stories in Paganism and Shinto this week:

Patheos Pagan writers nominated for The Witchies awards
Canada: Local political party appoint Pagan as interim leader
‘Sensational’ find of Pagan temple remains in Norway

Pagan News

Patheos Pagan writers nominated for The Witchies
Patheos Pagan: Pagan Voices
The Witchies are a new series of awards honoring excellence in Witchcraft across a broad spectrum of categories. We are delighted to see that a whole bunch of Patheos Pagan writers were nominated in various categories…

Canada: Local political party appoint Pagan as interim leader
Regina Leader Post
The Saskatchewan Liberals announced a new interim leader on Monday, just a day before the expected launch of a provincial election campaign. Robert Rudachyk said the Asatru values of family, community and working together inform his consensus-based approach to governance…

Goddess Temple – the second of its kind in UK – opens in Redditch
Redditch Standard
Redditch Goddess Temple – only the second of its kind in the UK – was officially opened by Borough and County Councillor Andrew Fry on Wednesday…

Ireland: Dubliner Darragh brings ‘flame of fertility’ on mythical voyage
Dublin Gazette
Whilst visiting a Norse pagan site, Darragh Carroll had a dream, which was later interpreted for him by a Viking druid, and he was told to carry a fire from Norway all the way to the Hill of Uisneach, which is considered the Sacred Centre of Ireland, a flame to repair the imbalance in his native land.

US: Pagan sex offenders sue over religious restrictions during pandemic
KSTP.com
More than a dozen men in Minnesota’s Sex Offender Program are suing the state’s human services department, alleging the agency has banned the practice of religious gatherings for more than six months in the wake of COVID-19. Several clients cite other practices outside of the mainstream religions, such as Wiccan and Asatru…

Lockdown Halloween will help me reconnect with the spirit of the festival
Patheos Pagan: Katie Gerrard
Almost daily my eight-year-old asks me what we’re going to do for Halloween this year…

31 Things To Do Between Now and Samhain
Patheos Pagan: Lisa Wagoner
Below is a list of 31 things you can do between now and Samhain. They are little things to boost your spirit, and many you may already do…

Shinto News

“Tsukimi”: The Japanese tradition of autumn moon viewing
Nippon.com
Tsukimi means nothing more than “looking at the moon.” But the Japanese custom of holding special moon-viewing parties, in autumn in particular, dates back over a thousand years…

Mid-Autumn festival across Asia
The Daily Campus
Soon we will begin to welcome the fall holidays in America. In this week’s column we will look at a holiday that is celebrated across Asia…

What to eat while gazing at the moon for mid-autumn festival
Thrillist
Though it may be referred to as Tsukimi in Japan and Chuseok in Korea, one commonality across all the countries throughout East Asia and Southeast Asia that celebrate Mid-Autumn Festival is the joy of gathering around the table for food…

Shinto shrine recreated in Animal Crossing: New Horizons
Happy Gamer
Kanda Shrine doesn’t want visitors to miss out on the Summer event, so they recreated it in the game…

North Korea criticizes Abe’s visit to war-linked Yasukuni Shrine
The Japan Times
North Korea on Wednesday criticized former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe for his visit earlier this month to the war-linked Yasukuni Shrine, saying the move was a “manifestation of recklessness inciting Japan to re-invasion.”…

The unsuccessful WWII plot to fight the Japanese with radioactive foxes
Smithsonian Magazine
Operation Fantasia, he pitched the organization in 1943, would destroy Japanese morale by exposing soldiers and civilians to a Shinto portent of doom: kitsune, fox-shaped spirits with magical abilities…

Other News

Sensational find of Pagan temple remains in Norway
Life in Norway
Archaeologists in Norway were stunned to find traces of a pagan temple, likely to date from the Viking Age. Never before has such a discovery been made in Norway…

Egypt discovers 2,500-year-old statuette of god Nefertum
CGTN Africa
An Egyptian archeological mission unearthed on Thursday a carved statuette of ancient Egyptian god Nefertum at Saqqara necropolis of Giza province near the capital Cairo, said the Egyptian ministry of tourism and antiquities in a statement…

Cyprus: Ancient Pagan mosaic criticises Christianity
Heritage Daily
Dr. Marek T. Olszewski from the Faculty of Archaeology of the University of Warsaw believes that the mosaic was probably inspired by Neoplatonists, a philosophical and religious movement in the 3rd and 4th centuries AD, which had many followers among the then elite who criticised followers of the new religion…

Critically-acclaimed video game allows players to explore Greek mythology
Greek Reporter
A new video game called “Hades“ thrusts players into the world of ancient Greek mythology through fast-paced gameplay, an engaging plot, and unbelievable design elements…

Egypt unveils coffins buried 2,500 years years ago
Yahoo! News
Archaeologists in Egypt said Saturday they had found 59 well-preserved and sealed wooden coffins over recent weeks that were buried more than 2,500 years ago…

Breathtaking discovery of Australian cave art shows nature and humans in harmony
Science Alert
The expansive outdoor gallery, which stretches over 130 kilometres (80 or so miles), contains 572 individual pieces, each of which puts a strong emphasis on the natural world and humanity’s place within it…

Zoroastrians make a comeback in northern Iraq, but still face stigma
Reuters
Spreading as far as India, Zoroastrianism was the official religion of three Persian dynasties until the 7th Century CE. It rapidly declined with the rise of Islam and all but disappeared in Iraq…

Stevie Nicks eyeing Harry Styles for Rhiannon mini-series
Hollywood.com
The Fleetwood Mac frontwoman has had hopes of making a movie about the Celtic deity Rhiannon ever since a fan sent her four novels on the folklore following the release of her 1975 classic hit, Rhiannon…

UK: Equality law gaps ‘leading to unnecessary religious discrimination against religious minorities’
Evening Express
Discrimination against the non-religious and members of religious minorities remains lawful across much of public life in Britain a decade on from the Equality Act, the National Secular Society (NSS) said…

Missionaries threaten the Indigenous communities of Brazil
The Wild Hunt
Early in the pandemic, the National Indian Foundation of Brazil ordered all civilians out of all Indigenous areas. Only essential workers, like health care workers, could stay. On July 7, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro granted an exception to that order. Under that exception, Christian missionaries could enter Indigenous areas…

How Mulan‘s Xianniang complicates the concept of the witch
SyFy Wire
Portrayed as a witch with many powers, Xianniang is a drastic departure from the smack-talking tiny dragon sidekick Mushu or any other more less-than-realistic elements of the animated Mulan…

World famous witches through the course of history
Daily Hawker
Let’s take a look at some of the most famous witches through history…

‘Witch Hunts’ Past & Present

India: Two killed and cremated in Assam for ‘practising witchcraft’
The Hindu
The police in central Assam’s Karbi Anglong district have arrested nine people, including three women, for killing two persons for allegedly ‘practising witchcraft’…

Pendle witch trials are the centre point for new Amazon Prime series
Lancashire Telegraph
The infamous story of the Pendle Witches has lead paranormal hunters to the area for years, but now a team has filmed at Pendle Hill for a new series on Prime video…

Portraits of Scottish witches revealed
Edinburgh Evening News
The faces of six women tried and executed for witchcraft in a Scottish town have been brought to life once again in a series of portraits…

Ireland’s last witch trial, over 300 years ago, condemned 8 innocent women
Irish Central
Documents reveal a situation, described as something from “The Exorcist”, where demonic possession took over and women who were marginalized, poor, and perceived to have some kind of sway were accused…

What really made Salem the Witch City
Boston Globe
The Peabody Essex is, of course, located in the heart of the witchcraft capital of the world, here in Salem. For years, the museum has left Salem’s biggest claim to fame to the kitsch museums and tchotchke shops that make up a significant chunk of Salem’s economy…