Pagan Tama
Top stories of the week in Paganism and Shinto:
- UK: Stonehenge exhibition explores parallels with Japanese stone circles
- US: Psychic ‘killed by her longtime client who believed she was a witch who’d cursed him’
- US: Ancient Egyptian mummy forgotten in storage turns out to be sacred bird often sacrificed to Thoth
Read more below…
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Beltane Coverage
Pagans honour the Earth on May Day. But for many, nature is not enough.
Religion News Service
On Sunday (May 1), some localities put up a traditional Maypole, named a May Queen and made flower crowns. Many modern pagans also celebrated the height of spring…
May Day fever sweeps the UK as crowds enjoy traditional celebrations
Mail Online
Hastings has celebrated the traditional start of summer with a splash of green – as part of the Jack of the Green legend festival…
UK: Newbury druidess celebrates Beltane on Glastonbury Tor
Newbury Today
A druidess from Newbury has taken part in a colourful pagan ceremony to welcome the peak of spring…
UK: Beltain Festival celebrates the start of summer in beautiful surroundings
Hampshire Chronicle
Summer was welcomed in spectacular style on Saturday at Butser Ancient Farm, just south of Petersfield, at their annual Beltain Festival, back after two years of absence…
UK: Padstow’s ‘Obby ‘Oss festival returns after two years
BBC
A May Day celebration in Cornwall has returned after being cancelled because of Covid-19 for the past two years…
What happened to Ireland’s May bonfires?
The Irish Times*
Bonfire night is one of those occasions that brings different things to mind depending on where you’re coming from. But in Ireland it usually means one thing: the fires lit on May Eve, 30th April…
Witches revive spring fertility rite as they celebrate Walpurgis Night in Germany
The Times*
Before they commune with the Devil in orgiastic abandon to celebrate Walpurgis Night, witches in the Harz mountains of central Germany have to obtain a broomstick licence, or Hexenbesenführerschein…
Walpurgis Night: the pagan festival of bonfires, witches and Celtic folk music
Euronews
Walpurgis Night, also known as ‘Walpurgisnacht’ and ‘Night of the Witches’, is a pagan festival celebrated each year on 30 April…
Pagan News
UK: Council launches crowdfund to put on witchcraft exhibition
Daily Gazette Standard
Colchester Museums has launched a crowdfunding appeal in a bid to stage an exhibition on magic and witchcraft later this summer…
Russian state media claims to discover militarized Ukrainian witches
Vice
In a recent report from a village near Luhansk, Russian journalists claimed to discover the remnants of occult rituals in a building once used by Ukrainian soldiers…
Iceland: Ancient curse directed at controversial new age group
Reykjavik Grapevine
A bizarre story has unfolded in South Iceland over the weekend, involving an ancient medieval curse, a new age community, and a family caught in the middle…
UK: Witches festival to return to Coventry
CoventryLive
Channel your inner pagan with spells, runes and wand decorating at this family friendly event…
A sigil for reproductive rights
Patheos Pagan (Laura Tempest Zakroff)
The Sigil for Reproductive Rights is designed to aid in the protection of reproductive rights wherever they are under threat…
UK: ‘My life changed and my business took off after a tarot card reading’
Mirror
Jen Cownie and her friend Fiona Lensvelt have been tarot readers since 2016 when they took a course at occult bookshop Treadwell’s. They claim tarot can be for everybody…
To everyone who was called by a god five years ago
Patheos Pagan (John Beckett)
Lots of people were being called by lots of different Gods. I tried to help people figure out what that meant, understanding that each call was at least slightly different…
Shinto News
Yabusame horse archery ritual gallops ahead at Kyoto shrine for 1st time in 3 yrs
The Mainichi
The “yabusame” mounted archery ritual was held at a shrine here in Japan’s ancient capital on May 3 for the first time in three years…
How Shinto mythology impacts trek to Yomi
GameRant
The stylistic action-adventure game Trek to Yomi is releasing soon, and the inspiration it has taken from Japanese Shinto mythology is massive…
This new ‘IT amulet’ promises to keep your computer virus free
Wonderful Engineering
Do you believe that your computers are prone to the evil eye? If yes, then you have to use a very celebrated “computer function amulet” designed by a Shinto Shrine in Tokyo to protect your hardware from the malevolent gaze…
We visit a mysterious pagoda near Yomiuri Land, turns out to be an incredibly sacred spot
SoraNews24
Anyone who has ever been to the Tokyo amusement park Yomiuri Land might have spotted a white pagoda close by…
The history and meaning of Children’s Day in Japan
The Conversation
The purpose of Children’s Day is to “honour the character of children, emphasise their welfare and give thanks to mothers”…
Japan’s path to becoming a leader in Western science: an Asian perspective on science and other forms of knowledge
The Conversation
Importantly for New Zealand’s national conversation, in charting a path as emerging science leaders, Japan and other Asian countries have grappled with how modern science and traditional knowledge systems interact…
Other News
UK: Stonehenge exhibition explores parallels with Japanese stone circles
The Guardian
Objects never before seen outside Japan will be part of show on site’s similarities to Jōmon monuments…
US: Ancient Egyptian mummy forgotten in storage turns out to be sacred bird often sacrificed to Thoth
LiveScience
The bird may be an Ibis, often sacrificed by the ancient Egyptians to the god Thoth…
Tombs with death certificates in Greek discovered in Egypt
Greek Reporter
A total of 85 tombs with death certificates written in Greek letters were unearthed in the southern Egyptian province of Sohag, the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities said Wednesday…
Italy: Stolen Nostradamus manuscript is returned to library in Rome
The Guardian
An ancient manuscript by the French astrologer Michel de Nostredame, better known as Nostradamus, stolen from a library in Rome has been returned to the Italian capital…
Spells, charms, erotic dolls: Love magic in ancient Greece and Rome
Greek Reporter
The practice of magic with spells, charms, erotic dolls was widespread in ancient Greece and Rome. Although it was discouraged and sometimes even punished in antiquity, it thrived all the same…
Czechia: The Bohemian Druid whose bust became face of Celtic art
Radio Prague International
The head of Mšecké Žehrovice is one of the best known surviving pieces of Celtic art not just in the Czech Republic, but in the whole of Europe…
Why we turn to myths to untangle old problems
Literary Hub
Jennifer Saint on feminist retellings of ancient stories…
UK: ‘Our 5,000-year-old yew should be revered – not ignored’
BBC
Trees believed to pre-date the pyramids are in danger of being lost forever unless they are given special legal protections, campaigners have said…
‘Witch Hunts’ Past & Present
US: Murder victim was a psychic ‘killed by her longtime client who believed she was a witch who’d cursed him’
Mail Online
The man accused of fatally shooting the mother of an NYPD cop in Queens allegedly told police that she was his longtime psychic and that he killed her because he held her responsible for his recent string of bad luck, a police source has said…
UK: Woman ‘branded witch by faith leader and accused of giving mother cancer’ tells of ordeal
Sky News
A woman who says she was branded a ‘witch’ as a child and accused of giving her mother cancer fears the faith leader behind the claims is still operating in the UK today…
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