Top stories of the week in Paganism and Shinto:
- Japan: 1,800-year-old mask likely used in farm festivals found in Osaka
- US: New accreditation organisation for Wicca launched
- ‘Arabian Stonehenge’ — a 2,000-year-old mysterious monument — unearthed in Oman desert
Beltane Coverage
UK: When is May Day in 2023 and what festivals can I attend?
Countryfile
Whether you fancy being at the largest Morris gathering in the world or watching drumming, fire displays and fantastic fairy costumes, here’s what’s on this May Day bank holiday in 2023…
UK: 17 pictures of Edinburgh’s Beltane fire festival through the years as people celebrate the arrival of summer
Edinburgh Evening News
Edinburgh’s Calton Hill blazes with flaming torches, fire sculptures and bonfires…
UK: The Witch Elm Markets are back for Beltane!
Express & Star
Celebrate Beltane this April with the Witch Elm Markets in the Mander Centre, Wolverhampton…
UK: The Pagan roots of May Day
Sky History
Whether joining your local community for a Maypole dance on the local green or finally getting around to that long-overdue DIY project, there’s no right or wrong way to observe the May Day bank holiday…
Beltane is about more than fire and fertility
Atlas Obscura
The ancient “Celtic” start of summer is rooted in animal husbandry—and it’s not on May 1…
May Day traditions: from Gaelic Beltane to flowers and plants
Great British Life
Martin Maudsley explores the month of May, through the changing patterns of nature to its celebrations, poetry and folklore…
Other Pagan News
US: New accreditation organisation for Wicca launched
The Wild Hunt
The Aquarian Tabernacle Church (ATC) is creating a new accrediting organization called the Accreditation Program of Wicca (APW) with the aim of “creating a network of recognized Wiccan Training Programs known for high standards.”…
Dawn of the new pagans: ‘Everybody’s welcome – as long as you keep your clothes on!’
The Guardian
From the Green Man on King Charles’s coronation invitation to celebrations selling out across the UK, more and more people identify as pagan, or at least pagan-curious. What lies behind its growing appeal?…
Brits becoming Wicker Man-style witches and shamans to cope with modern life stresses
Daily Star
Life can be hard, with stress and challenges around every corner. For some people, the best way to cope with these is to go back to basics and return to the world of paganism…
Canada: Meet the millennial witch whose ancestors died at Salem
Toronto Life
Laura Hokstad, whose exploration of the occult is featured in the new documentary Coven, talks #WitchTok, whether her forebears communed with the devil and reclaiming her powers in the modern era…
US: Hecates Realm offers unique items in West Lafayette
Coshocton Tribune
An interest in spiritualism and earth-based products has led a mother and daughter to open a unique new store in West Lafayette…
Australia: Witch-tok star Joy Thompson-Daley offers tips for motorists amid Mercury retrograde
Perth Now
Superstitious motorists have been urged to “charm, enchant and energise” before embarking on a journey due to Mercury being in retrograde…
UK: ‘I quit job as nail technician to become a full time witch – I’m making thousands’
Daily Star
Jessica Caldwell, 29, packed in her job after she experienced a “spiritual awakening”. Now she’s a full time witch and she uses her powers to help others…
New heavy music for Pagan hearts
The Wild Hunt
For modern Pagans – especially practitioners of Ásatrú and Heathenry – the options for heavy music that somehow connects to their spiritual worldview has often tended towards black metal, death metal, Pagan metal, and Viking metal…
22 best full moon rituals for healing, love, self-care, manifestation, and more
Women’s Health
Harnessing the power of the moon is easier than you think…
Connect to your spiritual self using the magic of fragrance
Nylon
Choosing a perfume with intention might do more than you think…
Rise of the low-key rich witch
Town & Country
By the pricking of her thumbs, something wickedly expensive this way comes. How hocus-pocus went haute…
Shinto News
1,800-year-old mask likely used in farm festivals found in Osaka
The Asahi Shimbun
An almost perfectly preserved wooden mask from around the early third century that likely featured in important farming festivals was uncovered at an archaeological site in Osaka Prefecture…
Aichi man arrested for failing to steal very large donation box from Shinto shrine
SoraNews24
At about 3 p.m. in the afternoon of 20 April, the suspect was spotted attempting to pick up a Nishio shrine’s box…
US: How one of the country’s largest Shinto shrines ended up in tiny Granite Falls
The Seattle Times
The spellbinding Tsubaki Grand Shrine of America is hidden away, on 25 acres snuggled in the cedar-thick forests of Snohomish County just outside the town of Granite Falls…
Beautifully off the beaten path in Nara with the Shimo no Negimichi shrine trail
SoraNews24
Almost everyone who visits Nara goes to Kasuga Shrine, but hardly anyone gets there like this…
Exploring Japanese folklore and mythology in Jujutsu Kaisen and its cultural context in today’s world
Spiel Times
Jujutsu Kaisen is a popular manga and anime series by Gege Akutami. It has captivated audiences worldwide with its intriguing storyline that draws upon the rich cultural context of Japanese folklore and mythology…
Other News
‘Arabian Stonehenge’ — a 2,000-year-old mysterious monument — unearthed in Oman desert
AOL
Artifacts recently uncovered in Oman — including ancient tools, Neolithic tombs and a mysterious monument dubbed “Arabian Stonehenge” — shed light on early human migration in the region…
Buddha statue found in Egypt points to ancient India links
France24
A statue of Buddha has been discovered in Egypt’s ancient seaport of Berenice on the Red Sea, shedding light on trade ties with India under the Roman empire…
US: Bird Creek Farms responds to ‘witchcraft’ sculpture concerns
Huron Daily Tribune
There’s a new addition at Bird Creek Farms — “The Deity,” a resin, foam, and fiberglass sculpture with a ram’s head. Some have expressed concern that it harkens too much to paganism and witchcraft to be harmless…
Bolivia: Raw materials, or sacred beings? Lithium extraction puts two worldviews into tension
The Conversation
A rapid escalation of lithium extraction in the Bolivian Andes represents a looming clash between two fundamentally different views of nature: modern industrial society’s and that of the Indigenous communities who call the region home.
Spiritual sex predators: why it’s common to see sex abuse in faith
YourTango
Spirituality has been twisted into something it’s not…
‘Witch Hunts’ Past & Present
Nigeria: Shock as Benue youths bury two elders alive over alleged witchcraft
Daily Post
Youths in Ikyve community in Konshisha Local Government Area of Benue State have reportedly buried two persons alive for allegedly ‘practising witchcraft’….
New hope for ‘witchcraft’-accused Congolese youth with autism
Macau Business
A school in the Republic of Congo has become a refuge for children with autism, which is heavily stigmatised in the country, where many believe that those with the disability are ‘witches’…
Malawi: Five arrested for employing ‘witch finder’
Malawi24
Police in Mzuzu have arrested five people at Mchengautuba location within Mzuzu City for allegedly employing a ‘witch finder’ and charging a person with ‘witchcraft’…
Hunting for witches – then and now
DW
A feature on the history of witch hunts…
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