Pagan Tama
Top stories of the week in Paganism and Shinto:
- Beltane celebrations return worldwide following pandemic
- Zeus temple uncovered in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula
- Japan firm develops AI system to catch shrine donation thieves
Read more below…
*=Registration may be required.
Beltane Coverage
The return of Beltane Bashes in the UK
The Wild Hunt
The world of U.K. Paganism is now getting back into the swing of its seasonal festivals after the COVID-19 pandemic…
Czechia: Witches Night in Prague returns
Expats.cz
For the first time in three years, large public festivities will take place for Witches Night, traditionally on April 30. The holiday with pagan roots sees kids dress up in witch costumes and roast sausages while adults enjoy music and entertainment around the fire…
UK: Welcoming the return of summer with fire, flair and theatre
Herald Scotland*
The Beltane Fire Festival has grown and mutated over the years, but its core rituals and traditions remain intact…
What is May Day? When the 2022 bank holiday falls and meaning and tradition behind the date
iNews*
The most famous May Day celebrations, observed both across Europe and North America, include maypole dancing and the crowning of the Queen of May…
New Zealand: Celebrating witches’ new year in the Kaipara
RNZ
In the Southern Hemisphere, 30 April marks the pagan festival of Samhain, sometimes known as witches’ New Year’s Eve. In Wicca, a modern pagan religion followed by witches, it’s the night when they say the veil between the living and the dead is thinnest…
Pagan News
“No space for our religion” – Russian Pagans speak out about the invasion of Ukraine
The Wild Hunt
TWH has spoken with Russian Pagans to hear about their experience of the conflict and the situation for Pagans and other minority groups in Russia…
US: Tiger King’s Joe Exotic engaged to witchcraft-practicing man he met in prison
PopCrush
Exotic describes his fiancé as an old soul. “John talks like he is from 400 years ago,” he writes. What’s more, he is allegedly a practitioner of witchcraft…
US: Pantheistic Yale Divinity School student leads pagan Earth Day celebration
The College Fix
A self-described pantheistic Yale Divinity School student organized and led a celebration of the Earth on Friday, in honor of Earth Day…
Mother Earth and fairy queens: the pagan goddesses Christianity has failed to stamp out
The Telegraph*
With Britain on the brink of a pagan revival, read Ronald Hutton’s new book Queens of the Wild to learn what it’s all about…
Pagans in the marketplace of religions
Patheos Pagan (John Beckett)
We Pagans are part of this marketplace whether we want to be or not…
Canada: Critics decry the cultural appropriation of Indigenous plant medicines and smudging
Capital Current
Interest in new-age spirituality has been soaring in recent years — especially interest in Indigenous practices such as spiritual cleansing through smudging…
Wicca and modern witchcraft: a history
History Extra
Wicca is a specific religious belief system that firmly has its roots in 1940s England. Claire Slack reveals how a new magical movement flourished in the 20th century…
Shinto News
Japan firm develops AI system to catch shrine donation thieves
The Japan Times*
A Japanese security firm has developed a system using artificial intelligence to detect thefts of cash contributions from shrines’ donation boxes and notify parishioners of incidents in real time…
Priestly structures
Mimusubi
Since the end of the war, when jinja ceased to be run by the government, they have been religious corporations…
Other News
Zeus temple uncovered in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula
Neos Kosmos
Egypt’s Tourism and Antiquities Ministry this week announced the archaeological discovery of a Zeus-inspired temple at Tell el-Farma archaeological site in the northwestern part of the Sinai Peninsula…
Gaza farmer finds 4,500-year-old statue of Canaanite goddess
BBC
A stone statue of an ancient goddess of beauty, love and war has been found in the Gaza Strip…
Phoenician ‘harbour’ in Sicily revealed to be religious site aligned with stars
The Guardian
Research upturns theory that pool in ancient city of Motya was used by military and underlines Phoenician connection to astronomy…
UK: Stonehenge ‘built on land inhabited by deer and wild boar’
BBC
Red deer, elk and wild boar would have roamed the Stonehenge area 4,000 years before the stones were constructed, according to new research…
UK: Gnomus, the giant puppet, entertains visitors at Stonehenge
BBC
Visitors to Stonehenge are being treated to an insight into the ancient site by a giant puppet, called Gnomus, who has tales of when it was built…
Ireland: Ancient Celtic rock art inspires modern exhibition
The Irish News
Rock art – man-made markings from a prehistoric age, which remain preserved in parts of Ireland – are the inspiration behind a new exhibition by Co Antrim artist Seanna O Boyle-Irvine…
‘Witch Hunts’ Past & Present
UK: Glasgow petition launched to erect memorial to ‘Witches of Pollok’
Glasgow Live
The petition called on the council to erect a memorial to the five women and one man from Pollokshaws and Polloktoun who were sentenced to death for ‘witchcraft’ in 1677…
South Africa: 20-year sentence for KZN woman for murdering neighbour suspected of ‘witchcraft’
The Witness
A 23-year-old woman was jailed for 20 years on Tuesday for contributing to the brutal killing of a neighbour who was accused of being responsible for her father’s death allegedly through ‘witchcraft’…
8 popular misconceptions about the history of witchcraft in Europe
History Extra
Most people’s knowledge of ‘witches’ stems from popular horror tropes involving warty-faced women stirring cauldrons, or innocent young girls being drowned in ponds. But how much of this is based on pure mythology?…
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In