Clipmarks | wiccantexan's 'pagan' clips

Irish Town Honors His Goatness

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 02:01:15 GMT

clipped by: wiccantexan

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

Ministry battles paganism in Ecuador

Thu, 29 May 2008 03:58:08 GMT

clipped by: wiccantexan

Clip Source: www.mnnonline.org

E3 Partners is sending three times as many short-term mission teams to Ecuador as it sent last year, in the face of rising paganism and socialism in Latin America.

Many suspect that the “doctors” and “teachers” Cuba is sending to Ecuador and other nations are advocates of Santeria, an Afro-Cuban form of paganism. Bolivian president Evo Morales, who is also socialist, wants to spread his country’s tribal animism. Under these circumstances, syncretism and socialistic animism could easily spread through the continent, especially in the Andes Mountains.

Syncretism already abounds in Ecuador. Although 90% of Ecuadorians call themselves Roman Catholic, most of them combine Catholic beliefs with indigenous beliefs. Sometimes their veneration of Catholic saints resembles the traditional local worship of pagan deities.

Tags: religion, belief, pagan, santeria, catholic

Bob Barr wins Libertarian presidential nod

Mon, 26 May 2008 00:27:00 GMT

clipped by: wiccantexan
clipper's remarks: This is the fellow who tried to actively put forth legislation in 1999 to ban Wicca from military bases.

Clip Source: politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com

(CNN) — Former Republican Rep. Bob Barr is now the Libertarian Party's presidential nominee — and a potential headache for John McCain, as he reaches out to conservative voters who might otherwise vote for the GOP nominee in November.

The former Georgia congressman — who left the Republican Party two years ago, citing differences over fiscal policy and concerns over civil liberties — was nominated on the sixth ballot at the party’s convention in Denver. The vote on the sixth ballot was 324 for Barr, and 276 for Mary Ruwart, the last remaining candidate out of 14 originally seeking the Libertarian nomination.

Tags: politics, pagan, wicca, libertarian

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

Vandals Damage Stonehenge With Hammer

Fri, 23 May 2008 04:49:31 GMT

clipped by: wiccantexan

Clip Source: www.foxnews.com

LONDON — Two men attacked the ancient monument of Stonehenge with a hammer and chipped off a piece of stone the size of a large coin, a conservation group said Thursday.

Two men hacked the piece from the Heel Stone — the central megalith at the ancient site — last week, English Heritage spokeswoman Debbie Holden said. They were spotted by security guards but escaped by jumping over a fence and driving off.

Wiltshire police are investigating the incident at the UNESCO World Heritage Site located 90 miles (145 kilometers) west of London.

"The damage is very, very slight because security guards spotted them straight away, but the whole thing is still upsetting," said Holden. "This kind of thing has not happened for decades."
The mysterious Stonehenge site is one of Britain's best known and least understood landmarks.

Tags: history, pagan, religion, belief, stonehenge, england

Greece Sued Over Sectarian Prayer

Wed, 14 May 2008 01:19:46 GMT

clipped by: wiccantexan
clipper's remarks: Note: Greece here is a town in the United States, not the country.

Clip Source: www.democratandchronicle.com

In just a few seconds' time during the April Town Board meeting, Jennifer Zarpentine made Greece history.

Zarpentine, a Wiccan, delivered the first-ever pagan prayer to open a meeting of the Greece Town Board.

Her hands raised to the sky, she called upon Greek deities Athena and Apollo to "help the board make the right informed decisions for the benefit and greater good of the community."

Greece is embroiled in a legal battle over the prayers delivered before the meetings. In March, national church-state watchdog group Americans United for Separation of Church and State, filed suit against the town in state Supreme Court.

their

The suit claims the practice of allowing explicitly religious prayers — regardless of the religion — during the public meetings is a violation of the U.S. Constitution.

Tags: religion, belief, legal, wicca, prayer

Pagan Weddings Attract More Than A Cult Following

Mon, 05 May 2008 05:08:08 GMT

clipped by: wiccantexan

Clip Source: www.modbee.com

Supporters and critics of pagan weddings -- like Kemper's -- often describe the ceremonies as beautiful, mystical, bizarre and even evil, all descriptions Kemper has heard. But, according to some experts, there is one word they can no longer use: uncommon.

A 2001 survey by the Graduate Center of the City University of New York found that the number of followers of Wicca, one of the many religions that fall beneath the pagan umbrella, increased from 8,000 in 1990 to 134,000 in 2001, making it the fastest-growing religion in America in terms of percentage increase.

Marty Laubach, a sociology professor at Marshall University, says the number of followers of pagan religions is even higher now, citing a 2008 U.S. Religious Landscape Survey that put the estimate at 1.2 million.

Tags: religion, marriage, pagan, mainstream, wedding, wicca

Are the Quakers Going Pagan?

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 04:16:17 GMT

clipped by: wiccantexan

Clip Source: www.christianitytoday.com

The liberal end of the Society of Friends has long had members who denied God's existence or Jesus' divinity. Now hundreds of pagans call Quakerism home.

Even after Olive found his way back to Jesus, he retained some elements of paganism. While he upholds the standard traditions of his local Quaker meeting hall, he privately incorporates pagan ritual into his prayer.

He's part of a small but growing movement of Quakers who also identify as pagan — a trend that may or may not exist in other Christian traditions, but certainly not in such an organized, public fashion.

In the last decade, this dual faith has sprung up around the country, including Quaker-pagan gatherings, seminars, an extensive presence on the Internet, and even explicitly Quaker-pagan congregations. There may be only several hundred Quaker pagans, but among American Quakers, their presence can be distinctly felt.

Tags: religion, belief, pagan, quaker, jesus, faith

'Breakthrough' At Stonehenge Dig

Sat, 12 Apr 2008 02:33:51 GMT

clipped by: wiccantexan

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

Archaeologists carrying out an excavation at Stonehenge say they have broken through to a layer that may finally explain why the site was built.

The team has reached sockets that once held bluestones - smaller stones, most now missing or uprooted, which formed the site's original structure.

The researchers believe that the bluestones could reveal that Stonehenge was once a place of healing.

The team now needs to extract organic material from these holes to date when the stones first arrived.

Professors Darvill and Wainwright say that finding out more about the history of the bluestones could be key to solving the mystery of why the 4,500-year-old landmark was erected.

Professor Geoffrey Wainwright said the site could have been a "Neolithic Lourdes".

Tags: england, history, pagan, stonehenge, healing, landmark

My first YouTube video

Thu, 10 Apr 2008 06:33:43 GMT

clipped by: wiccantexan
clipper's remarks: My first attempt at making a video using my digital camera. Somewhat grainy, but we have to play with iMovies to see how we can get the quality higher while still remaining within the upload limit.

Clip Source: www.youtube.com

[Video]

Tags: youtube, video, wicca, pagan

The Burning Times

Fri, 28 Mar 2008 00:39:37 GMT

clipped by: wiccantexan

Clip Source: wicca.timerift.net

or the More Persecuted than Thou Syndrome

The Burning Times is a term referring to the witch persecutions in Europe during the late medieval and renaissance periods. According to Wikipedia, it was first coined by feminist Mary Daly in 1978, who depicted the witch-hunts as a persecution against women. However, the "burning times," without captitalization, does, in fact, appear in Gardner's Witchcraft Today, which predates Daly by about 20 years. Whatever the origin, Wiccans and some other Pagans have certainly adopted the term, and today the phrase generally refers to the theory that Christian witch-hunters were, in fact, attempting to root out practitioners of older pagan religions.

Not only is the myth of the Burning Times false, it's disrespectful to the real victims of the witch-persecutions who were, at first, heretics and then were generally Christians unfortunate enough to be swept up in a hysteria that swept half a continent.

Tags: wicca, pagan, history, witch, witchcraft, religion, christian