Pagan & Shinto News: Pagans Lose High Court Bid Over Stonehenge Convictions

Pagan News

UK: Pagans lose High Court bid over Stonehenge convictions

BBC
Three pagans who entered the Stonehenge circle to sing and charge their crystals, have lost a High court bid to have their convictions overturned…

UK: Plans submitted for crematorium inspired by pagan long barrows
In Your Area
Plans for a pagan-style long barrows crematorium near Bude have been submitted to Cornwall Council…

US: New Buckland Museum of Witchcraft and Magick exhibit demonstrates how art can heal
CleveScene
Stephen Romano has teamed up once again with the museum to present Transmutations: Witches, Healers and Oracles, an exhibit dedicated to the esoteric photographic works of Destiny Turner, Alexis Karl, Courtney Brooke, Lorena Torres Martell and Nahw Yg with words by renowned author Kristen J. Sollee…

US: Asatru Folk Assembly takes over small-town church from now-defunct congregation
Raw Story
After a century in Linden, North Carolina, Parkers Grove United Methodist Church held its final service several years ago and was sold in early 2020. But according to The Washington Post, the buyers belonged to the Asatru Folk Assembly, which is an obscure white supremacist group…

US: Finding the ‘Divine Feminine’: Celebrants come to greet spring, Ostara
Northwest Arkansas Democrat Gazette
A collaborative ritual celebrating Ostara, the spring equinox and “the balance of light and darkness in nature and within ourselves” is the centerpiece of this year’s Goddess Festival, set for March 20-21 in Fayetteville…

The fairy tale life of Wiccan doll artist, Anna Katharina
Patheos Pagan: Alura Rose
Today, I would like to introduce you to Anna Katharina. A Wiccan Art Doll Artist and Enthusiastic who has created her very own Fairy Tale Life. Here, Anna shares her journey, inspirations and what projects to keep an eye out for…

Witches say they want to ‘conjure a new America.’ Is TV helping them?
App.
A renewed interest in witchy matters began to bubble up in pop culture’s mainstream following Donald Trump’s defeat of Hilary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election, and only intensified with the rise of the #MeToo movement in the fall of 2017 as people began seeking and considering sources of power, Scott explained…

US: ‘The Witch is in’ at Tea and Tarot Wellness Boutique in Madison
New Haven Register
With soft music filling the air, candles flickering and a calm and soothing aura, Heather Wright welcomes visitors with a hot cup of tea…

21 ways to celebrate Spring Equinox
Patheos: Lisa Wagoner
We made it through (most of) winter, we survived a year of pandemic, we are battered and bruised, and still we are standing. Celebrate that most of all….

Shinto News

Tokyo parks are banning cherry blossom picnics this year
Time Out
Some sections of popular parks like Yoyogi and Hibiya will be cordoned off throughout the sakura season…

Cursed sites of Tokyo: A love shrine with 7 mysteries and a vengeful samurai ghost
SoraNews24
Did you know there are sites in and around Tokyo where people are forbidden to enter, lest they be spirited away by vengeful spirits and cursed forever?…

Japan’s forest healing concept comes to India
International Business Times
Taking inspiration from the contemporary concept of ‘forest medicine’ from Japan, a place where nature has long been celebrated, India, as well, has inaugurated its first forest healing centre, this week, at Kalika near Ranikhet, a hill station in Uttarakhand….

Other News

Egypt successfully repatriates smuggled artifact of goddess Bastet from Canada
Egypt Today
In line with the efforts made by Egypt’s diplomatic missions and the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities to repatriate Egyptian antiquities smuggled abroad, Ambassador Ahmed Abu Zaid, the Egyptian ambassador to Canada, received a bronze artifact of the Goddess Bastet belonging to the ancient Egyptian civilization…

Display of the Ancient Greek order of the universe revealed in Antikythera Mechanism
Heritage Daily
Researchers at UCL have solved a major piece of the puzzle that makes up the ancient Greek astronomical calculator known as the Antikythera Mechanism, a hand-powered mechanical device that was used to predict astronomical events…

Ireland: The return of the sheela na gig
The Guardian
Some say the explicit medieval carvings were fertility symbols; others that the figures were meant to ward off evil. Now a group of Irish feminists are bringing them back – as a reminder of women’s struggles…

UK: Celebrating International Women’s Day with Efa Lois’ Welsh witches
Nation Cymru
In her project Gwrachod Cymru (Welsh Witches), Efa Lois has so far documented 60 witches from across the nation…

US: During the pandemic, this San Diego artist discovered goddess power
The San Diego Union-Tribune
During the pandemic, Abssy began painting large portraits of ancient female deities from around the world…

Fact Check-Alternating tread stairs were not historically built to ward off witches
Reuters
Posts shared in early March 2021 claim that alternate-tread staircases are called “Witches Stairs,” allegedly built with the belief that “witches can’t climb up them.” This claim is false, as alternate-tread stairs are simply intended to save space, particularly in narrow homes…

‘Witch Hunts’ Past & Present

India: Jharkhand woman chopped into pieces over ‘witchcraft’ suspicion
India Today
A woman’s body was chopped into pieces and later buried on the bank of a river in Jharkhand’s Pakur for her alleged involvement in ‘witchcraft’…

India: Woman branded as ‘witch’, dragged out of home and punched by mob
Times Now News
A woman was allegedly branded as a witch, dragged out of her house and punched by a group of persons in the Jashpur district of Chhattisgarh…