Clipmarks | wiccantexan's 'pagan' clips

University gets attention for pagan recognition

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 04:28:23 GMT

clipped by: wiccantexan
clipper's remarks: "House, while not a pagan himself, said it is essential for his friends who share these beliefs to get the same respect as followers of other faiths."

Clip Source: media.www.marshallparthenon.com

Marshall University's recognition of Paganism has garnered media attention on a national level and abroad.

Paganism is a religious movement that consists of many different religions such as Wicca, the mystical traditions of Kabbalism, Native American shamanistic traditions and religions from the African Diaspora like Voodoo. Last year, Marshall recognized pagan holidays as a reason for excused absences, producing a great deal of interest.

"I conducted a search a few weeks after the articles hit and found that while there was some small negative response, the overwhelming response was very positive from people of all religions and none," said Marty Laubach, professor of sociology and faculty advisor to the Marshall University Pagan Association said. "The story was picked up internationally. It was seen as an example of American openness and religious pluralism."

"I think it's kind of strange, all the attention it's gotten,"

Tags: university, pagan, religion, belief, wicca, holiday

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

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

Why Wicca Is Not Celtic v.3.2

Thu, 21 Aug 2008 23:34:51 GMT

clipped by: wiccantexan

Clip Source: www.clannada.org

The following is by no means an indictment of the religion called Wicca. Wicca is indeed a valid and powerful path for those who truthfully walk it and understand it. However, there is a body of people who believe that Wicca is the descendant of the religious ways of the Gaelic or other Celtic peoples (or 'Celts' as a general nomenclature). This simply is not the case.

The following is a brief comparison of the Wiccan religion and Celtic religion. The purpose of this exercise is to dispel the notion that Wicca is Celtic, or derived from Celtic religion.

The people who make the statement that Wicca is Celtic are usually of two sorts. These are the new people who either for their own reasons truly believe this to be the case, or they have fallen prey to some unscrupulous teacher who uses the allure of things "Celtic" to draw in new students or ensure profits.

In both cases the problem is exacerbated by the fact that solid information is not easily accessible to the general public.

Tags: wicca, pagan, celtic, religion

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

Religion continues to be part of Olympics

Sat, 16 Aug 2008 00:00:10 GMT

clipped by: wiccantexan
clipper's remarks: "Since then, religion - for good or ill - has continued to touch the modern Olympics movement. "

Clip Source: www.sltrib.com

Religion has been an integral part of the Olympics since athletes met in a stadium southwest of Athens to honor Zeus.

In ancient Greece, there was no such thing as "secular athletics," said David Romano, senior research scientist at the University of Pennsylvania's Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. "Feats of prowess and agility were meant to please Zeus, who picked the most worthy athlete to be the victor."

Eventually, it was competition that put an end to Olympic Games in A.D. 393 after more than 1,000 years: Christianity vs. paganism.

The games were the most "conspicuous and popular aspect at pagan festivals, attracting tens of thousands of people," Romano said this week, "so Holy Roman Emperor Theodosius abolished them."

It took another 15 centuries for the Olympic ideals to resurface.

In 1894, a Frenchman named Baron Pierre de Coubertin resurrected the Olympic Games, complete with symbolic fire, music, and pageantry that echoed its ancient past.

Tags: olympics, religion, history

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

Memories of the Old Europe: Ancient Religions and Practices

Sat, 02 Aug 2008 20:41:20 GMT

clipped by: wiccantexan

Clip Source: www.pr-inside.com

While we were passing a junction, the driver told, he wanted to visit a deity, because he had made a vow some time back and turned the vehicle towards a more isolated passage. Though he was Catholic by religion his faith in deity worship is not strange in Sri

Lanka. Ancient nature worship and Hindu traditions are deeply rooted in the daily life of many people.

Steffani, a German Praktikum (Internship) student and Romy were watching intently what was happening in that small temple of deity worship. But the deity and nature worship is not strange to Europe. Before Christianity was introduced into Europe, there were deities and also everywhere a variety of Pagan religious practices.

Pagan practices were only abolished when the Pagan temples were demolished by the later emperors of the Roman Empire and others in the Europe. Germanic Pagan religion played its own part in ancient Germany.

Tags: pagan, religion, belief, germany, europe

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

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

Irish Town Honors His Goatness

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 02:01:15 GMT

clipped by: wiccantexan

Clip Source: www.spiegel.de

In the town of Killorglin in County Kerry, the reins of power are handed to a wild billy goat once a year. It's an opportunity for the people to let out their inner beast -- and for tourists to party the night away, writes reader Desmond F. Kelly.

The crowning of a king has always been cause for celebration. In the small town of Killorglin in the south-west corner of Ireland, it still is -- with a hitch. The king in question is a goat.

"King Puck" is one of the last regents of Ireland, though his reign is a short one -- from August 10 to 12 every year. Nevertheless, the small Irish town of Killorglin (about 100 km. from Cork) has been crowing King Puck since (officially) 1610. The goat-fawning fair is one of the oldest of Ireland's traditional rural celebrations -- and one of its better known.

Tags: festival, ireland, goat, animals, tradition, pagan

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

Nepal's "living Goddess" in limbo

Sat, 07 Jun 2008 21:20:35 GMT

clipped by: wiccantexan

Clip Source: in.reuters.com

Nepal's religious authorities picked the country's next "living goddess" or Kumari in a centuries-old tradition on Friday, priests and officials said, but the question now is who will appoint her as a deity.

Traditionally, the head priest of the now-deposed King Gyanendra appointed the "living goddess" but with the abolition of Nepal's monarchy on May 29, that position no longer exists.

"We have requested the government for directives as to who should appoint Kumari now," said Semanta Raj Chapagain, chief of the state-run Trust Corporation overseeing cultural affairs.

Religious authorities in the ancient temple town of Bhaktapur, on Friday selected a six-year-old child, Shreeya, to replace her predecessor Sajani Shakya, who retired earlier this year, after being worshipped by devout Hindus and Buddhists for nine years as the Kumari of Bhaktapur, which is near Kathmandu.

Tags: india, nepal, goddess, pagan, deity, religion, belief, government

Pagan tomb under St. Peter's Basilica reopened

Thu, 29 May 2008 04:01:16 GMT

clipped by: wiccantexan

Clip Source: www.cnn.com

The Vatican unveiled the largest and most luxurious of the pagan tombs in the necropolis under St. Peter's Basilica on Tuesday after nearly a year of restoration work.

A family of former slaves built the Valeri Mausoleum during the second half of the second century, when Emperor Marcus Aurelius ruled. It is one of 22 pagan tombs in the grottoes under the basilica.

Emperor Constantine, a convert to Christianity, had the pagan burial grounds covered up in the fourth century so the basilica could be built over the site holding St. Peter's tomb.

The tomb tells the history of the family, particularly in bas reliefs, of a girl and a boy from the Caius Valerius Herma family. The children died young, possibly from plague. Such stuccoed objects as a quill pen and a skein of yarn tell the tale of daily life in the Valeri family. Reliefs of major gods and other pagan figures attest to their strong religious belief.

Tags: pagan, christian, vatican, tomb, history, ancient, god, religion, belief