Pagan & Shinto News: Metal Detectorist Unearths ‘Witch Bottle’

Top stories of the week in Paganism and Shinto:

UK: Metal detectorist unearths ‘witch bottle’ containing hair, urine and human tooth
Japan: Mount Fuji opens to climbers for summer after closure amid virus
Finland: Ancient shaman snake staff dug up after 4,400 years

Pagan News

UK: Metal detectorist unearths ‘witch bottle’ containing hair, urine and human tooth
Daily Star
A 19th-century “witch bottle” containing hair, urine and a human tooth has been unearthed by a metal detectorist…

UK: Former Redditch Mayor’s book ‘Wicca and Spells Made Simple’ makes top 100
Redditch Standard
Joseph Baker has been practising Wicca for more than 20 years and decided to write ‘Wicca and Spells Made Simple’ to help give people a glimpse into how easy it is…

US: Mainers’ connection with nature is fueling an increased interest in witchcraft
Bangor Daily News
In Maine, self-described witches have long been practicing their craft. But a rise in popularity on social media has created a chance to be more open about the practices that are important to their spirituality…

US: Tiffany Boggins of WitchLab on modern witchcraft
Columbus Monthly
The owner of the Franklinton store for occult items, oddities and antiques views her business as a place for teaching and seeking…

Shinto News

Mount Fuji opens to climbers for summer after closure amid virus
The Japan Times
Mount Fuji reopened Thursday to climbers for the summer season after being closed last year due to the coronavirus pandemic…

“Goshuin” Shinto shrine stamp created for Kumamoto recovery from rain disaster
Jiji Press
A new “goshuin” stamp has been created for a Shinto shrine in the city of Hitoyoshi in Kumamoto Prefecture with a wish for the early reconstruction of areas in the southwestern Japan prefecture hit by a deadly rain disaster a year ago…

Saitama man arrested after Shinto shrine posts footage of theft from offering box on Twitter
Tokyo Reporter
Saitama Prefectural Police have arrested a 64-year-old man over the alleged theft of cash from a shrine in Chichibu City, reports TV Asahi…

Voice actress removed from China-developed mobile games after visit to controversial Shinto shrine
Bounding Into Comics
Voice actress Ai Kayano has been completely removed from the Chinese servers for two separate China-developed mobile games, Shanghai Manjuu and Xiamen Yongshi’s Azur Lane and Hypergryph’s Arknights, after the games’ respective player bases within the East Asian country took offense to her February visitation of the controversial Yasukuni Shrine memorial…

Old Japanese records uncover plague-warding folklore creature with sinister visage
The Mainichi
Japanese folklore creature Amabie, said to ward off plagues, has caused a sensation during the coronavirus pandemic. But in the shadow of the popular “yokai” creature’s resurgence, research continues into historical records of “Kitai no doji,” another plague-fighting folklore creature characterized by sharp fangs and glowering eyes…

Other News

Finland: Ancient shaman staff shaped like a viper and ‘used to cast mystical spells’ dug up after 4,400 years
The Sun
A remarkably well-preserved 4,400-year-old carving of a snake has been unearthed in Finland…

UK: Green activists launch legal challenge against Stonehenge Tunnel road overhaul
The Telegraph*
Transport Action Network has accused ministers of breaking the law by failing to consider the environmental impact of the infrastructure work, which is a key plank of the Government’s levelling up agenda and includes a long-planned tunnel at Stonehenge…

UK: Stonehenge and Giza Pyramids enigma ‘solved’ by carpet-fitter from Wales
Wales Online
History buff Steven Tasker has recreated a machine that he believes was used thousands of years ago to build the structures…

UK: Architect’s concept that Stonehenge was base for Neolithic temple brought to life
Mail Online
Landscape architect Sarah Ewbank believes Stonehenge once had thatched roof…

UK: Roman sarcophagus with two skeleton discovered buried pagan-style in Bath, England
Mail Online
A Roman-era sarcophagus was discovered in the British city of Bath, with two separate skeletons inside…

Italy: 3,000-year-old infinity pool used for religious rituals
The Jerusalem Post
Archaeologists believe a 3,000-year-old “infinity pool” in the north Italy municipality of Noceto was used to perform religious rituals…

Turkey: Hittite carving may reveal insights into their religion and cosmology
The Wild Hunt
New research on a cut-rock relief reveals how ancient Hittite religion may have incorporated their view of the cosmos into their spiritual and ritual practices…

US: Woman defies tinder date after he tells her not to dress like a ‘goth witch’
Newsweek
In a TikTok she posted on her account on Wednesday, @meganelizabeth1016 revealed she had matched with a boy, Trevor, on the popular app Tinder. Before their date, however, Trevor “randomly” messaged her with a weird and, some commenters thought, obnoxious request: “please look pretty and don’t show up looking like a goth witch or something. I dont [sic] like that.”

Ancient Egyptian antiquities exhibit at Paris Louvres Museum reopens
Africa News
As per an announcement on Thursday, the Louvre museum in Paris, France reopened its first topical space of three rooms of the Department of Egyptian Antiquities — including the mastaba (i.e. tomb) of Akhetep and the restored statue of the dog of Asyut…

Pagan burial rituals of ancient Russia
Russia Beyond
From ancient times, different peoples living on Russian territory practiced a wide variety of burial rites…

‘Witch Hunts’ Past & Present

India: Couple hacked to death in Aurangabad for ‘practising witchcraft’, 3 held
Hindustan Times
Three accused persons were arrested for murdering an elderly couple on Wednesday for allegedly practising ‘witchcraft’ at a remote village under Madanpur police station area in Aurangabad district, police said…

India: Elderly tribal woman beheaded over ‘witchcraft’ suspicion in Odisha
The Tribune
An elderly tribal woman has been beheaded allegedly over suspicion of practicing ‘witchcraft’ in Odisha’s Mayurbhanj district, police said on Sunday…

India: Elderly couple assaulted on suspicion of ‘sorcery’
The Hindu
Some elders of SC Colony in Madhira town enforced their bizarre diktat by forcing an old man to pull out the teeth of his wife on Monday, suspecting the duo of practising ‘sorcery’…

Zambia: Elderly woman in Kitwe beaten on suspicion of being a ‘witch’
The Independent Observer
A mob in Kitwe has beaten an elderly woman to death for suspecting her to be a ‘witch’…

Nigeria: Two arrested for killing palace maid accused of ‘witchcraft’
Punch
The Kano State Police Command on Wednesday arrested two men over the alleged killing of the Emir of Kano’s palace maid accused of ‘witchcraft’…

UK: Scottish witch trials story A Kind Of Spark wins Waterstones Children’s Book Prize
iNews
Neurodivergent writer Elle McNicoll has been named winner of the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize 2021 for her debut novel A Kind Of Spark…

My witch-hunt history, and America’s: A personal journey to 1692
Salon
Revisiting America’s first witch hunt — and discovering how much of it was a family affair. My family, that is…