Pagan Tama
Top stories in Paganism and Shinto this week:
- UK: Stonehenge sarsen stones origin mystery solved
- Japan: Shrine famed for 123 gates opens after 4-month virus closure
- Australia: Self-proclaimed ‘Pagan high priestess’ leads campaign against mask-wearing
Read more below…
Pagan News
Australia: Self-proclaimed ‘Pagan high priestess’ leads campaign against mask-wearing
Mail Online
Elizabeth ‘Lizzy’ Rose is a self proclaimed high priestess witch who performs exorcisms for a living…
UK: TV actress Samantha Giles credits pagan love spell with finding her husband
The List
Former ‘Emmerdale’ star Samantha Giles credits a pagan love spell with bringing husband Sean Pritchard into her life…
Lammas coverage
A local 2020 Lughnasadh
Patheos Pagan: Lisa Jade
Lughnasadh is only days away for those who celebrate on this coming weekend, and a little more than a week from the Sun reaching the midpoint of Leo on August 6th. If there was ever a time of year that I adore more, I have yet to find it…
Why no one loves Lammas (& Lughnasadh)
Patheos Pagan: Jason Mankey
It’s Lammas time, and I see lots of posts on social media about bread and harvests, but there’s always a bit of a disconnect for many of us…
Lughnasadh – A Solitary Ritual
Patheos Pagan: John Beckett
Whatever the reason, many Pagans will be celebrating Lughnasadh by themselves…
Shinto News
Shrine famed for 123 gates facing the Sea of Japan opens after 4-month virus closure
The Mainichi
A shrine famed for its 123 beautifully arranged and vivid-red torii gates facing the Sea of Japan will reopen from Aug. 1, after a four-month closure due to the new coronavirus pandemic…
Noh performance to be streamed live from Nishinomiya Shrine
Kyodo News
Motonori Umewaka, a master of the Kanze-style of Japanese theatrical art Noh, will perform the play ‘Hagoromo’ along with other performers this summer at Nishinomiya Shrine in western Japan, with the performance set to be streamed live to audiences in all its mysterious beauty…
Shinto priestess in US producing videos on Shinto prayer
Green Shinto
Up now on youtube is a ten minute video by Hasegawa Izumi, head priest of the Shusse Inari Shrine in America, in which she gives a reading of the Oharae no kotoba…
Opinion
Memories of Hagia Sophia in better times
Patheos Pagan: John Beckett
“When any religion claims ownership of a World Heritage Site that is significant to many people from different religions, it makes the world a little smaller and a little poorer.”
Summerland review: Gemma Arterton’s wartime evacuation drama has a sensual pagan heart
The Telegraph
The summerland of the title isn’t the balmy Kent coast but the pagan afterlife…
Other News
UK: Stonehenge sarsen stones origin mystery solved
BBC
The origin of the giant sarsen stones at Stonehenge has finally been discovered with the help of a missing piece of the site which was returned after 60 years…
Egypt: Statues of ancient goddesses and Pharaoh Ramses II discovered
Fox News
Egypt’s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities announced the discovery in a Facebook post, noting that statues of the goddesses Hathor, Sekhmet and the god Ptah were uncovered…
US: Northern California Esselen tribe regains ancestral land after 250 years
The Guardian
Two-hundred and fifty years after they were stripped of their ancestral homeland, the Esselen tribe of northern California is landless no more…
Meet the African goddess at the center of Beyoncé’s Black Is King
Vox
The divine imagery in Beyoncé’s new visual album goes all the way back to Lemonade…
Modern ‘witchhunt’ victims
Believe it or not, modern day witchhunts still a thing
Patheos Pagan: Gwyn
There are people who believe “witches” are “servants of the devil.” And Trump’s recently touted Houston doctor comes from a place where being accused of “witchcraft” is a death sentence…
The “witch camps” of Ghana
The Wild Hunt
The number of people murdered in “witch-hunts” continues to rise in developing nations, drawing the global attention of human rights groups…
The dangers of the “DemonSpermDoctor”
The Wild Hunt
“Besides the potential for spreading COVID misinformation, the comments can have serious consequences for women and the elderly at risk of being accused as “witches”.”
South Africa: Three Eastern Cape women killed after witchcraft accusation
Dispatch Live
Three women in Embihli village in Sterkspruit were shot dead on Wednesday and a fourth is in hospital in a critical condition, allegedly after being accused of witchcraft…
India: Woman killed by neighbour over “witchcraft” suspicion
Outlook India
A 35-year-old man in Maharashtra”s Thane district allegedly killed his woman neighbour over suspicion that she practised “witchcraft”, police said on Thursday…
I confessed to being a “witch” to save my life
Ghana Web
One of the 17 women who was subjected to severe torture by the spiritualist at Kafaba, Hajia Felina, for allegedly being a “witch”, has narrated her ordeal…
Attack and lynching of alleged ‘witches’ must stop
Ghana Web
“It is abhorrent for human beings to subject a fellow human being to such cruelty on a mere suspicion of witchcraft in this time and age.”
Akua Denteh: Last ‘Witch’ To Be Murdered In Ghana?
Sahara Reporters
Like Akua Denteh, victims of ‘witchcraft’ allegations are usually elderly women who live in remote villages. They do not know where the police stations are located or cannot afford to go and lodge complaints even if they do…
India: Covid fears fuel witch-hunt
Times of India
In Andhra Pradesh, every year 12 to 16 people are killed on a suspicion of practising ‘witchcraft’…
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