Clipmarks | wiccantexan's 'pagan' clips

British Paganism Alive and Well

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 04:49:02 GMT

clipped by: wiccantexan

Clad in floor-length white robes, members of The Druid Order of London marched up Primrose Hill in London’s west side to participate in the pagan celebration of the Autumn Equinox on September 22. It is the only time during the year in which there are equal amounts of daylight and dark.

Laughing and smiling, members of the Order and even a mother toting a child, ascended the hill, forming a circle at the top while conducting pagan rituals and singing. The celebration drew dozens of people who were fascinated by England’s pagan past. The ceremony was followed by a picnic in a nearby park.

Originally founded in Oxford in 1245, the group dates its first official ceremony to 1717, when the Order was established at one of the highest points in the city, Primrose Hill.

According to the website for the British Council of British Druid Orders, the group considers itself “part of the process of the rekindling, in the 21st century, of an ancient national nature religion.”

Tags: britain, pagan, druid, ritual

Wiccans Sneak Past Church Security Wearing Abercrombie and Fitch!

Mon, 29 Sep 2008 23:31:24 GMT

clipped by: wiccantexan

Clip Source: www.landoverbaptist.org

Several hours after the coven of Wiccans had slipped past church security, carefully disguised in the latest fall fashions from Abercrombie and Fitch, blood curdling screams were heard from the top floor of the Landover Baptist Nursing Home on Gallows Hill.

"We normally step up security efforts during the Season of the Witch or as Wiccans secretly call it - Our Master Satan's Birthday," says Pastor, Deacon Fred. "They try sneak onto our Godly church campus, into our church services, and now our nursing homes

I have no doubt they were trying to levitate and transport the body of Jerry Gardner because he is directly related to one of the founders of Wicca - Gerald Gardner. Well, you fat bunch of crazy Wiccans! Mr. Gardner is a Christian now! And he is under the protection of his brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus! So just, shoo!"

Pastor Deacon Fred told parishioners on Sunday that Wiccan hunting permits will be handed out during the first week in October

Tags: onion, satire, wicca, christian, pagan, church

Of Faith And Family

Mon, 29 Sep 2008 05:39:46 GMT

clipped by: wiccantexan

Clip Source: www.canada.com

Here's a tolerance tester: can a pagan be a good parent? School teacher? Babysitter?

Wicca and other pagan faiths are something your kids are supposed to grow out of before they become parents themselves, yet the numbers suggest otherwise: The number of Canadian pagans jumped from 5,500 in 1991 to 21,085 in 2001. This month, there have been Pagan Pride Days across North America, including Toronto and Hamilton.

The Canadian correctional system, and the defence department, recognizes pagans and Wiccans as distinct religious groups entitled to practise their faith. Pagan parents have websites and self-help guides, like the rest of us, even scout groups called Spiral Scout groups. The Wicca Church of Canada has its code of beliefs here.

Tags: pagan, family, faith, wicca

Angry Wiccan Digs Up The Identity Behind Scam Site Fastspells.com

Sun, 21 Sep 2008 03:44:03 GMT

clipped by: wiccantexan

Clip Source: consumerist.com

Fastspells.com is a ridiculous website loaded with sexy young lady "Wiccans" who, for anywhere from $40 to $265, will "find you love, give you an abortion, cure your cancer, grant you immortality, and change your sex organs."

Trae at TRHOnline.com was annoyed by their expensive and unrealistic promises, and the more he looked into the domain registrations, the more suspicious he became.

Trae eventually managed to dig up a potential cuplrit behind the site, and he pretended to be a broken-hearted teenager with poor judgement (and spelling) to see what he could find out. What he found was someone named Brittney Reynolds, a member of the pro-anorexia movement and someone with possible connections to an earlier scam on MySpace called the "themilliondollarpiggybank."

So why did Trae feel the need to get so sleuthy? Because Fastspells.com was running ads on his site, and he didn't like the idea of a fake-Wicca site trying to prey upon his readers.

Tags: wicca, pagan, website, scam, advertising, internet

Viking Age Triggered By Shortage Of Wives?

Thu, 18 Sep 2008 01:24:25 GMT

clipped by: wiccantexan

Clip Source: dsc.discovery.com

During the Viking Age from the late eighth to the mid-eleventh centuries, Scandinavians tore across Europe attacking, robbing and terrorizing locals. According to a new study, the young warriors were driven to seek their fortunes to better their chances of finding wives.

The odd twist to the story, said researcher James Barrett, is that it was the selective killing of female newborns that led to a shortage of Scandinavian women in the first place, resulting later in intense competition over eligible women.

"Selective female infanticide was recorded as part of pagan Scandinavian practice in later medieval sources, such as the Icelandic sagas,"

Although it's believed many cultures throughout world history have practiced female infanticide, said Barrett, he admits that "it is difficult to identify in the archaeological record," so the claim "must remain a hypothesis."

The study is published in the current issue of Antiquity.

Tags: history, viking, women, marriage, culture, pagan

Nigerians flock back to their deserted gods

Sun, 14 Sep 2008 04:21:00 GMT

clipped by: wiccantexan

Clip Source: en.afrik.com

It appears the western and eastern gods no longer appeal to some Nigerian natives of the Yoruba tribe as the annual Osogbo festival of the river-goddess Osun has had increasing participation by the year.

With fasting and prayers not seeming to bring prosperity, healing and blessings amongst the citizens of an economically crawling country ravaged by corruption and mismanagement, some people have given up on the wait for a heaven promised after death, to seek the earthly blessings of the once charitable river goddess.

The goddess, despite being abandoned by her people when foreign gods were enforced on them could have been more than happy to receive back her lost flocks.

It is rather Ironic that the priestess of the goddess is someone whose people had come between the goddess and her people in the past. The 94-year-old Austrian who has lived in Osogbo for 58 years and has become a high priestess of Osun was glad to see the natives scuttle back to their original deity.

Tags: goddess, pagan, religion, belief

People misunderstand what paganism is about

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 00:35:58 GMT

clipped by: wiccantexan

Clip Source: www.canada.com

It takes a lot to surprise me when it comes to human nature, but last night I met a woman in her 60s at a coffee shop who warned the people at our table about a 'devil' that was going to be at Departure Bay today.

At first I thought she was joking but she said no, she was serious there was going to be a group of devil worshippers gathering there today. She said groups from all the churches were gathering to protest. I asked her if it was the Pagan Pride festival and when she said yes' I said, 'well, my daughter is Wicca and I'm proud of her."

She had nothing to say to that. I really thought that self-righteous people like her had disappeared in the era when witches were being burned.

It's religious fanatics like her who cause destruction in this world because of the fervour of the their beliefs.

I had one daughter become a Catholic and one daughter become Wicca and I'm proud of both of them for making choices that were right for them (I'm Anglican).

Tags: pagan, witch, witchcraft, church, wicca, religion, belief

Pagans pray to Athena to protect Acropolis

Mon, 01 Sep 2008 05:00:32 GMT

clipped by: wiccantexan

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

In what organizers said was the first such ceremony performed amid the Acropolis ruins in Athens since the ancient Greek religion was outlawed in the fourth century, dozens of Greek pagans huddled near the Parthenon in a downpour Sunday to worship in protest of the new museum being built at the foot of the site. They gathered before the temple’s east wing and prayed to Athena, goddess of wisdom and patron of Athens, to protect the Parthenon from further destruction.

The Greek Culture Ministry forbids ceremonies of any sort at archaeological sites, but the small band of pagan revivalists entered the Acropolis’s heavily guarded grounds as tourists and then persuaded guards to allow the 15-minute rite. It was organized by Ellinais, an Athens group that recently won a court battle for state recognition of the ancient religion.

Tags: pagan, greece, history, culture, belief, religion

Bob Barr recants his position on Wicca in the military?

Thu, 31 Jul 2008 03:44:08 GMT

clipped by: wiccantexan

Clip Source: www.independentpoliticalreport.com

Ed Brayton (Dispatches from the Culture Wars) asked Barr if he would now, as Libertarian candidate, repudiate his 1999 attempt to prohibit the practice of Wicca, a neo-Pagan religion, on military bases. Barr said that he has changed his mind, citing “reports” that the practice of Wicca was causing problems that are apparently not an issue now.

I did ask him for any specific problems that were reported to him back in 1999 by these military leaders, but he said he didn’t want to get into specifics. I’m sure that’s because there are no specific incidents and those military leaders who complained to him did so out of bigotry, or because the problems it caused were really caused by bigotry against Wiccans. He likened it to his stance on Don’t Ask Don’t Tell for gays, which he previously supported but now that it’s clear that allowing gays to serve doesn’t really cause any problems with unit cohesion and good order, he thinks it should be repealed and they should be allowed to serve openly.

Tags: politics, wicca, pagan, military, bob barr

Pagans prepare for preschool

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 04:19:13 GMT

clipped by: wiccantexan

Clip Source: www.dailytidings.com

Ashland's Rowan Tree Pagan Ministries may literally put the magic back in childhood this fall.

Rowan Tree Director of Children's Programs Selyna Faola'n plans to offer Rowan Academy, a preschool and kindergarten program for children ages 3 to 5, starting Sept. 22.

Rowan Tree Pagan Ministries is an organization that offers programs and resources for the Southern Oregon pagan community. The group received its nonprofit certificate this week.

She designed her Rowan Academy curriculum to emphasize the general basics of reading, writing and arithmetic. Her classes will also include age-appropriate lessons in natural cycles, the planets and the elements.

Other children's programs include the Magic Wheel and the Senesha School of Magic. Faola'n described the year-round Magic Wheel as similar to Sunday school. The Magic Wheel program takes place at holidays and full moon celebrations, and provides children with arts and crafts activities while their parents participate in rituals.

Tags: pagan, children, school, nonprofit, nature

Jews, Pagans Lived And Worshipped Together

Thu, 14 Aug 2008 03:02:37 GMT

clipped by: wiccantexan

Clip Source: www.cbsnews.com

An Israeli scientist says a Roman temple unearthed in the center of an ancient Jewish city in northern Israel shows pagans and Jews lived and worshipped together.

Hebrew University professor Zeev Weiss said Monday the 2nd century temple was found during excavations at Sepphoris, or Tzippori in Hebrew.

The city, the capital of Galilee, was a refuge for Jews who fled Jerusalem after the Romans pillaged the city and destroyed the Jewish temple in A.D. 70.

Weiss says the find sheds light on life during those times. "It shows that pagans who were a minority prayed in the center of the city and lived in harmony with the Jewish majority," he says.

He says a church was built on top of the temple in the 5th century.

Tags: pagan, jewish, jews, religion, belief, history

Woman injured by sword in Wiccan ceremony

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 01:47:23 GMT

clipped by: wiccantexan

Clip Source: www.jconline.com

A woman accidentally stabbed herself in the foot with a 3-foot-long sword while performing a Wiccan good luck ritual at a central Indiana cemetery.

Katherine Gunther, 36, of Lebanon, pierced her left foot with the sword while performing the rite at Oak Hill Cemetery, police said.

Gunther said she was performing the ceremony to give thanks for a recent run of good luck. The ceremony involves the use of candles, incense and driving swords into the ground during the full moon.

Gunther said was aiming to put the sword in the ground, but hit her foot instead.

"It wasn't the first time I performed the ritual, but it was the first time I put a sword through my foot," she said.

No charges were filed, police said. The Wiccans were warned that being in the cemetery in the city about 20 miles northwest of Indianapolis after posted visiting hours constitutes trespassing.

Tags: religion, wicca, pagan, humor, ceremony, ritual

Pagan Symbols On Fence Must Go, City Insists

Sat, 14 Jun 2008 00:49:43 GMT

clipped by: wiccantexan
clipper's remarks: If it looks like graffiti, depicted like graffiti - it's graffiti. What an idiot.

Clip Source: www.desmoinesregister.com

A Des Moines couple say city officials have attacked their pagan religion and their civil rights after a complaint from a neighbor led to a notice to remove symbols that had been painted on the fence. Officials said the symbols are graffiti and must be removed.

"Those are religious symbols; they're not mean or obnoxious in any way," said Ryle MacPebbles who lives in the 2000 block of Southeast Sixth Street. "I just don't like them telling me my religion isn't anything.

"When they start making it personal with my religion, I'm sorry, we'll take it to court," said MacPebbles, a member of the American Pagan Church.

The MacPebbleses said a city inspector approved the fence earlier this year.

"When he said the fence is OK, he said the fence is constructed correctly," said Ben Bishop, neighborhood inspections administrator. "Our position is this was graffiti and it was inappropriate."

Tags: pagan, religion, belief, legal, civil rights, city, neighborhood

Pagan Woman Accuses Shelter of Discrimination

Sat, 14 Jun 2008 00:24:22 GMT

clipped by: wiccantexan
clipper's remarks: If they accept federal funds, they cannot discriminate. This is from an article about the opening of the center:

"A grant from Access to Recovery-Idaho, a federally funded program that makes money available to traditional and faith-based recovery programs, is helping to pay the utilities at the house and for the administration."

Clip Source: www.kidk.com

A young lady seeking help from a faith-based temporary housing program in Idaho Falls is on the streets tonight, looking for shelter.

I spoke with Rachel "Raven" Litzau this afternoon after she was kicked out of the Ruth House. She tells me the organization is discriminating against her because of her beliefs.

Litzau came to the Ruth House two weeks ago with her 17-month-old son. She was trying to get away from her abusive husband and get back on her feet.

The Ruth House is a non-denominational christian housing center. They say they will accept anyone, but Litzau is pagan. And she tells me that quickly became a problem.

"It was along the lines of, 'Oh, well we've had a lot of complaints about this,' and then suddenly it was like she saw my ring for the first time, and said, 'Oh, and that's got to go that's satanic and your jewelry has to go,' and I said, 'I'm sorry I can't do that. It was really insulting because there's a big difference between satanism and paganism," says Litzau.

Tags: pagan, woman, religion, belief, faith

The Portrayal Of Paganism In The Media

Sun, 25 May 2008 04:43:18 GMT

clipped by: wiccantexan

Clip Source: www.informativepost.com

Hi. I'm a Pagan. Yes, you heard me right. What image jumps into your head right now? Is it a person dressed all in black, with large pentacles, dragons and ankhs hanging around their necks? Did you picture me as a hippie who can't seem to escape the Swinging 60s?

Guess what? I'm a normal person. I wear jeans and t-shirts, I have a 9-5 job, and I'm studying to achieve my high school diploma at a mature-age level.

The media has done a fantastic job at portraying Pagans (including Wiccans and Witches) as these ugly women with long fingernails, warts and green skin, tall pointy hats and all dressed in black. Look at the popular film, 'The Craft' - it's portrayal of young witches, all in black, with supernatural powers. What about 'The Wicker Man'? Makes us all out to be lovers of sacrifice, huh?

In all actuality, we're normal people, and my personal mission (as I've come to discover) is to break down this stereotype of modern Pagans. So let's start with the basics...

Tags: pagan, faith, religion, media, wicca, witchcraft, witch