Top stories of the week in Paganism and Shinto:
- France: Roman temple thought to be dedicated to Mars could actually have been used to worship many gods
- Mysterious fire guts popular ‘hidden’ Shinto shrine in Japan’s Ibaraki Prefecture
- US: Bill offers absolution, not exoneration for victims of Connecticut witch trials
Pagan News
UK: Prison seeks Pagan chaplains for ‘forward thinking’ faith team
Metro
Prison chaplains reflecting the changing nature of religion in Britain are being sought by a privately run jail…
Canada: Convicted killer requests Wiccan priestess
Vancouver Is Awesome
A B.C. two-spirited person repeatedly denied parole after a 1986 murder conviction has asked B.C. Supreme Court for a Wiccan priestess to be part of their file review…
UK: Crawick Multiverse summer solstice celebrations expanded
BBC
Summer solstice celebrations at a former coal mine in southern Scotland have been expanded…
Canada: ‘Coven’ documentary – An exploration of witchcraft and women finding their power
Yahoo! News
“I want to give voices to people who normally don’t have voices. That’s kind of my mission to myself,” filmmaker Rama Rau said…
From Kali to Mary to neopagan goddesses, religions revere motherhood in sometimes unexpected ways
Religion Unplugged
Many religions include goddess-centered traditions that embrace many forms of the divine feminine as central to their belief systems…
Religious diets and food taboos of ancient pagans
The Wild Hunt
When one looks at the history of pagan religions, it can be quite clear that, while not as pronounced as in other religions such as Judaism, Islam and Hinduism, there are still very clear guidelines on what food is considered appropriate or inappropriate to eat…
Shinto News
Mysterious fire guts popular ‘hidden’ Shinto shrine in Japan’s Ibaraki Prefecture
The Mainichi
A popular “hidden” Shinto shrine was destroyed by fire in the very early hours of May 7…
Sou Fujimoto temporary hall for the Dazaifu Tenmangu Shrine features ‘floating forest’
Wallpaper
A new Sou Fujimoto temporary hall for the Dazaifu Tenmangu Shrine in Japan is revealed, completed with an elevated, lush green roof…
Japanese shrine architecture informs 2m26’s zero-impact chicken coop in Japan
designboom
Amid the mountainous landscape of Kyoto City, 2m26 has perched a small chicken coop that reinterprets traditional Japanese shrine architecture…
Hidden cave in Japan said to be ‘entrance to hell’ after explorers who went inside died
Mirror
The Ahun Ru Paro cave system sits at the base of Mt Otokoyama in Japan’s Hokkaido region – and was given its name by the local Ainu people after the mysterious death of someone who went inside…
Why do cats hold such mythic power in Japan?
The New York Times*
A journey through a country where felines are revered, adored and sometimes seen as actual demons…
The trees of Tokyo: a tour through the city’s living legends
Metropolis
Trees and nature are central to Shintoism—once a tree reaches its 100th birthday, it can be inhabited by kodama…
Other News
France: Roman temple thought to be dedicated to Mars could actually have been used to worship many gods
The Conversation
It was the discovery of a fine bronze statuette of Mars that suggested the temple may have been a shrine to the god. But the site also had clay figurines of Venus and the mother goddesses, leading to uncertainty about which deity was worshipped there…
Ancient Egyptian figurines depicting Osiris found in Poland
Heritage Daily
Archaeologists have discovered two ancient Egyptian bronze figurines depicting Osiris during excavations in the village of Kluczkowice in Opole Lubelskie county, Poland…
Vatican experts uncovering gilded glory of Hercules statue struck by lightning
AP
Scaffolding in a niche of the Vatican Museums’ Round Hall conceal from view the work of restorers who are removing centuries of grime from the largest known bronze statue of the ancient world: the gilded Hercules Mastai Righetti…
Mummified dogs in ancient Egypt: Were they pets, sacrifices or wolves?
Haaretz
Identifying the species or breeds of long-dead canines before the era of fashionable disfigurement in dogs can be difficult. Now a new technique finds some answers in the Saqqara necropolis of Egypt…
We want win-win solution on Elgin Marbles, says Greek PM
The Times*
The Greek prime minister has ruled out a loan of the Elgin Marbles and repeated calls for a “win-win” solution to the ownership dispute…
Calypso, from myth to music
The New European
How a simple linguistic mistake linked a nymph from Greek mythology to the music genre that originated in the Caribbean…
‘Witch Hunts’ Past & Present
US: Bill offers absolution, not exoneration for victims of Connecticut witch trials
My Record Journal
The state House of Representatives on Wednesday offered absolution, though pointedly not exoneration, to the nine women and two men hanged for ‘witchcraft’ in 17th-century Connecticut, a dark and overlooked chapter of its colonial history…
UK: Women killed under witchcraft laws remembered at Kirkcaldy conference
The National*
A two-day programme of events has been organised as part of efforts to better remember those killed after being accused of witchcraft…
Ghana: Two persons accused of ‘witchcraft’ lynched
Graphic Online
Two persons have reportedly been lynched at Zakpalsi, a farming community in the Mion District in the Northern Region over ‘witchcraft’ accusations…
India: Witch-hunting survivors fight battle to restore ‘Garima’ in Jharkhand
Deccan Herald
An official said that the number of witch-hunting survivors in Gumla stand at a whopping 476, while a campaign to prevent such incidents has covered 265 villages in the district…
India struggles to eradicate an old scourge: witch hunting
The New York Times*
Once driven largely by superstition, the brutal practice is now often simply a tool to oppress women, in many cases violently…
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