Pagan & Shinto News: ‘Floating’ Shinto shrine gate restored

Top stories of the week in Paganism and Shinto:

• Japan: ‘Floating’ Shinto shrine gate restored
• West Japan shrine’s sacred object moved in ceremony attended by Princess Kako
• UK: Woman sparks fury for saying she wants to keep Pagan daughter off school for Halloween

Read more below…

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Samhain coverage

UK: Woman sparks fury for saying she wants to keep Pagan daughter off school for Halloween
Mirror
The woman wanted some advice on whether or not she could keep her 14-year-old Pagan daughter off school for Halloween because she said she wanted the day off to ‘celebrate’…

UK: Samhuinn Fire Festival ushers in Celtic new year
BBC
The annual Samhuinn Fire Festival has welcomed in the Celtic new year with a spectacular display in Edinburgh’s Holyrood Park…

US: In Spokane, Pagan blackout ritual observes the darkness of winter
Spokane Favs
Over one dozen pagans gathered in Spokane Valley on Sunday afternoon to practice a Blackout Ritual hosted by Spokane Magickal Moot, a community of Spokane Wiccans and pagans…

US: Phoenix-based witches celebrate their spiritual new year
AZ Central
As October draws to an end, the veil between the living and the dead is thinning, Jesse Serpa and Kaitlyn Stone calmly announce in between their preparations to honor departed loved ones…

UK: Samhaim Fair at Taunton’s Wellsprings Centre
Somerset County Gazette
A Pagan and spiritual fair was held in Wellsprings Leisure Centre, in Taunton, on Sunday (October 30)…

Malaysia: Religious police raid LGBT Halloween party
DW
Authorities detained 20 Muslim attendees at the Halloween event in Kuala Lumpur. The country’s strict religious rules only apply to Muslim Malays…

UK: Police called over ‘un-Christian’ Hallowe’en display
The Telegraph*
Annual charity display may be forced to close for good after a single complaint was made…

UK: The weird and wonderful Scottish traditions of Samhain
The Scotsman*
From masks made from scraped out sheep’s heads to raging bonfires and games to foretell a future spouse, this was how how Halloween was traditionally celebrated in Scotland…

Keeping peace with ghosts
World Religion News
The harvest season is closing and winter is coming. Festivals celebrate the fruits of the reaping and rituals are held to ward off the coming of spirits who come with the darkness of winter…

Pagan News

UK: Scottish Pagans threatened after false links to ‘child satanic abuse’ case
The Times*
Scotland’s Pagans are facing threats and discrimination after their religion was linked with a court case alleging that a Satanic child sex ring was operating in Glasgow, a representative body claims…

US: A Wiccan church in Coventry was denied a zoning permit. Then the ACLU got involved.
The Providence Journal
In what the the American Civil Liberties Union of Rhode Island calls “a victory for religious freedom,” the Town of Coventry has granted a zoning permit to a small Wiccan church in the rural village of Greene…

WitchTok: The witchcraft videos with billions of views
BBC
Videos with the hashtag WitchTok have amassed more than 30 billion views, and has made it easier for would-be witches to learn about it…

UK: Cash-savvy witch says she has been flooded with requests from strangers on how to perform witchcraft on a budget amid the cost-of-living crisis
Mail Online
A thrifty witch has revealed that the magical world hasn’t gone untouched by the cost-of-living crisis…

UK: Plymouth Market gets a touch of magic as druid and shaman selling spells moves in
Plymouth Live
Paul is a shaman, druid, and pagan who practices traditional Celtic folk magic…

US: Casting a dispel about modern witches
Maryland Today
Terps in Campus Club explore contemporary Paganism and Witchcraft…

Why paganism and witchcraft are making a comeback
NBC
On a recent trip to Salem, Massachusetts, I overheard the same question: Is magic really real? For me, the answer is yes…

How witches went from folklore to feminist icons
NBC26
Witches aren’t just Halloween icons; they’ve become an icon of feminist empowerment too…

Ley lines: The UK’s mysterious ancient pathways
BBC
Invisible, mystical ‘energy lines’ are believed by some to criss-cross England…

Shinto News

‘Floating’ Shinto shrine gate restored
The Asahi Shimbun
The famed “floating” torii gate of Itsukushimajinja shrine, a World Heritage site under repair, was revealed for the first time in about three and a half years…

West Japan shrine’s sacred object moved in ceremony attended by Princess Kako
The Mainichi
The object of worship at a shrine in this ancient Japanese capital was returned from a temporary structure to the main hall on the night of Oct. 28 in a ceremony attended by Princess Kako…

Full-scale festival with huge floats begins in Japan’s Saga Pref. for 1st time in 3 yrs
The Mainichi
The full-scale Karatsu Kunchi festival kicked off here on the night of Nov. 2 for the first time in three years, with 14 imposing floats lighting up this southwest Japan city as an opener to the three-day event…

Anime is packed with spirituality and gaining popularity among Gen Z
Religion News Service
Anime, filled with Japanese spirituality, is part of a massive boom in the popularity of East Asian media…

The significance of the sun and the moon in anime
Game Rant
Attributed to Shintoism, the sun and the moon, Amaterasu, and Tsukiyomi, heavily influence anime in ways unimaginable…

Other News

‘Massive’ ancient Roman temple found beneath church in Croatia using laser technology
Tri-City Herald
An ancient Roman structure has just been discovered in a small Croatian town using georadar technology…

UK: National Trust members to vote on A303 tunnel near Stonehenge
BBC
National Trust members are set to vote on whether they support plans for a new tunnel near Stonehenge…

Enheduanna: The world’s first named author
BBC
A little-known Mesopotamian poet and priestess, Enheduanna, is the subject of a new exhibition in New York…

Witchy romcoms are flying onto bookshelves: Here’s what they reveal about women and power
WBUR
Witches have always been a staple of the fantasy genre, but in the last two years they’ve spelled over into romance novels — making contemporary romance just a little bit more magical…

I’m a skeptic but this crystal-infused perfume unlocked my inner witch
Stylecaster
Yasmin Sewell is on a mission to reignite that emotional self-guidance. Through her unisex fragrance brand Vyrao (pronounced vi-ray-oh, from the Latin word vireo meaning “to sprout”), she’s the first to fuse perfume and energy healing in this scent-mindfulness hybrid…

Spiritual but not religious Americans are finding new ways of pursuing meaning
The Conversation
According to a recent Pew Center report, American Christianity remains in a nearly three-decade decline…

‘Witch hunts’ past and present

India: Woman burnt alive at home for ‘witchcraft’
Hindustan Times
A woman belonging to the Scheduled Caste community was burnt alive at her home after locals declared her a ‘witch’ in Gaya district of Bihar on Saturday evening…

India: No respite to ‘witchcraft’-related violence in Odisha: 22 cases regd in Ganjam alone in 4 yrs
Prameya News
About 22 FIRs have been registered under the Odisha Prevention of Witch Hunting Act, 2013 in the Ganjam district alone in Odisha in the last four years…

Ghana: Inside real-life, modern-day ‘witch camps’ that see elderly women left to die
Daily Star
A horrific cultural phenomenon sees women ousted from their communities and left to die after being accused of practicing ‘witchcraft’. And often it is used as a weapon..

UK: Colchester Castle’s tribute to those accused of witchcraft
BBC
An exhibition has paid tribute to 700 people who were accused of witchcraft in Essex in the 1500s and 1600s…