January 2012
Goodbye 2011! Happy new year, everyone!
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Your Stars for 2012 (Deb's Sunny Place)
Another new year – and what a bunch of interesting energy around us all! This promises to be the start of a long stretch of time where we can all expect major changes that will help to free us from our individual and collective fears. New and exciting ways of experiencing life (depending on your own birth details) are likely now.
For those of you that know your Rising Sign (also known as...
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A Roman New Year (Cultus Deorum Romanorum)
These are some suggestions for having a Roman New Year:
Clean your lararium on New Year’s Eve, so that it is ready for the new year. Decorate it with flowers.
Make offerings to your Lares and to Juno, but first to Janus.
Whatever your livelihood, make a token start of it on New Year’s Day. Students take up a book and read for a few moments. Carpenters tap a nail. Whatever your...
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Missoula Woman Facing Assault Charges Wants Trial...
MISSOULA, Mont. — A Missoula woman facing assault and disorderly conduct charges wants her trial date vacated.
Last August, NBC Montana told you when Aaron Kristen Danno allegedly sent an envelope full of wiccan drawings and table salt to the Direct TV supervisor who fired her.Danno told deputies it was intended as a prank. But Hazmat teams weren’t laughing when they showed up...
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Politics, Views and the Gods (Daughters of Eve)
This is not a political blog. This blog is meant to be a mesh of two worlds that are really one in the hearts and minds of African American Pagans. The dynamics of Blacks in America often have been political and we could argue that even the classifications of race itself is a political statement. How do you separate the issues of a race from the very politics that have been used to...
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Plants for a Strong Immune System (The Herb...
Your immune system is amazing. When exposed to something that could potentially be harmful, it kicks into action, providing a defense against infectious organisms and other invaders. Your strong immune system’s specialized cells, proteins, tissues, and organs constantly keep track of what is in your body and respond when needed.
• Plants for a Strong Immune System: Everyday Immune Soup
Your...
December 2011
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Criticizing Wicca: God and Goddess (Camels With...
According to several Wiccan texts, the Wiccan ultimate deity manifests itself in two forms, the male god and the female goddess.
The first way to think about the god and goddess is realistic. This is theological realism: the god and goddess are both real things. They exist. A Wiccan who thinks like this is ontologically committed to the god and the goddess. Wiccan theological realism says...
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Official slams psychic's dam prediction (Bangkok...
The Mineral Resources Department director-general has urged Thais not to panic about a psychic’s prediction that the Bhumibol Dam in Tak’s Sam Ngao district will burst on New Year’s Eve.
The prediction was made 37 years ago by “Pla Bu”, a psychic, who said before he died the dam would collapse around 10 pm on Dec 31. If it occurs, downstream provinces...
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Why is Saturn/Cronus in Saturnalia? (Letters from...
At this time of year, when the popular press runs articles on Christmas customs, a few rhetorical bases are always touched. The Christmas tree is a “Pagan survival,” that sort of thing. And that Christmas bears some relationship to the Roman celebration of Saturnalia.
At Religion Nerd, Louis A. Ruprecht, Jr., goes more deeply into the origins of Saturnalia in a post titled, “A Further Note...
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A tribute to ordinary goddesses (Half Moon Bay...
Since 1990, Tammy Trejo has caught the palpable, personal essences of infants, families and adults in portraits that are like fine-art paintings in her Coastside Photography studio in Half Moon Bay.
She does the same, plus a blend of spirituality and antiquity, in her coffee table book “Infinite Goddess.” In portraits of scores of women taken in Mexico, Costa Rica, Arizona, the...
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Our year-long exploration of religions ends with...
Kyrie, my 13-year-old, was confused. We were visiting Meg Barnhouse, the new minister at the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Austin. She had just told us that one of their most active member groups is the Yew Grove Pagan Interfaith. So, Kyrie asked, “I know you all come from Christianity. So, do you all celebrate Christmas?”
“Yes! We have what we call Sources,”...
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Ecocide is Earth Religion (First Things)
I keep my eye on the “Rights of Nature”/Ecocide Movement, which seeks to inhibit human flourishing by stifling most major wealth creating activities derived from development and exploiting resources. The more I observe, the more I am convinced that this approach arises out of deep ecology-style thinking, and amounts to a neo earth religion. It is also a threat to human prosperity and...
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Top Ten Pagan Stories of 2011 (Part One) (The Wild...
As we reach the close of 2011, it is time to stop for a moment and take stock of the previous year. When you look at (and for) news stories regarding modern Paganism (and related topics) every day of the year, you can sometimes lose focus on the larger picture. So it can be a helpful thing to look at the broad strokes, the bigger themes, the events and developments that will have lasting...
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From "Talking with the Spirits" - Mad Wisdom...
I learned early on to listen to my inner voice, and not the cacophony of foolishness that is conventional “wisdom.” I recognized that the experience some call “psychosis” was for me an attempt at spiritual transformation, and I sought out wise teachers who could help me. I was fortunate to find this help within Tibetan Buddhism, where the lamas taught me the spiritual...
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A Basic Orisha List – II – Yoruban Orishas (The...
Oggum – the Orisha of forge and iron, Oggum works for the benefit of all humanity. Protector and patron of soldiers and all caretakers, he is very passionate and protective of those who worship him. Oggum teaches self-sacrifice and restraint to those who need it. Colours: green and black. Offerings: oggum loves grilled and smoked meat and fish. Alcohol should be offered n very small...
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An Atheistic Critique of Wicca (Letter from...
Blogging atheist Eric Steinhart, writing at Daniel Fincke’s Camels with Hammers, turns his rhetorical guns on Wicca. He thinks that a “woo-free Wicca” might be tolerable.
There are a number of separate posts, and I have not read them all. But I get the impression that he is engaging with a very limited number of books, chosen more or less at random from the Llewellyn catalog, plus something by...
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2011’s Memorable Quotes: Good and Bad Part 1...
Every year Indian country is filled with leaders, politicians, broadcasters and talking heads provide memorable quotes for anyone listening to catch. Some ignorant, some out of touch, and some commendable. Indian Country Today Media Network has compiled a list of quotes that we will break down into three parts, Perceptions, Politics, and On The Past, the Present, the Future, that will be...
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“Help recreate every man as God and woman as Goddess…”
– Timothy Leary (via agri-om)
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Question of the day: What is your new year...
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The Power of The Winds (The Deepest Well)
I live in a very windy place. Wind storms are very common. Since living here, I’ve tried to find ways to know which direction the wind is coming from without going outside. I decided to study one tree from my window and predict the direction from looking at the way it reacts to the wind. Then I check the weather service online to see if I’m right. I’m getting pretty...
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Why are many Ghanaians in the Diaspora? (Ghana...
It is often said that now we live in a global village, and home is wherever you find solace and you can ply your trade to make ends meet. A cursory and perfunctory look at migrations around the world, will inform you that in the past, many Irish, English, Italians and Greeks emigrated in droves to the US. In my native Ghana, in the 50s, 60s and 70s, we could find many foreigners in our...
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Tarot Spread: Out with the Old, In with the New...
This tarot spread from the Gaian Tarot book is a potent one, based on the feedback I’ve received on it. Why not take some quiet time during this New Year’s weekend to do a reading for yourself? Share it in the comments, if you like. A Blessed New Year to you!
1. What do I leave behind in the Old Year?
2. What do I open up to in the New Year?
3. Key Opportunity of the New Year
4. Key...
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Michele Obama Wants to Be Reincarnated as Her Dog,...
When the First Lady dies, she wants to come back as Bo, the family’s Portuguese Water Dog.
Michelle Obama explained to ABC News’ Barbara Walters that “He’s got a great life. … He’s got it good.” The president declined to answer the question.
Bo does have it good. He’s got attendants, a loving family, and a magnificent house, he goes on great vacations, and the president picks up his poop. I...
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The “Persecution Complex” (Pantheon)
I’ve recently read, and commented on, a piece written by my Patheos.com Pagan Portal colleague K. C. Hulsman called “Christ is NOT the Reason for the Season.” While I would dispute a few of her details, on the whole it’s a good article, and apart from those details, it’s entirely factual to state that late December (the old date of Winter Solstice, in fact) being chosen as an arbitrary date for...
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So this Catholic woman and this Pagan Woman (The...
Katrina Fernandez is tired of ecumenism and puts it out there:
Ecumenism, or more specifically, tip toeing around the sensibilities of other religions. He finds it elitist a Catholic’s claim of belonging to the One True Church. I suppose this assertion goes against popular belief that all religions have equal measure and are deserving of equal respect.
To my dear friend religion is just...
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2011 Retrospective: June (Indian Country)
The Truth Lies Buried At Fort Laramie A visitor at Fort Laramie could take the complete historic tour and get little knowledge about the grim consequences of the wars the U.S. Army waged against the Northern Plains tribes. It’s time for the National Park Service to start telling the whole truth.
Pulling Together The many tribes of Oklahoma helped themselves and their neighbors when ...
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A Basic Orisha List – I – Yoruban Orishas (The...
To be honest, writing a list of all the Orishas is almost impossible. Every country has different lists, depending on the area of Nigeria where the slaves where taken, and on the culture they blended with. So, please understand that this is very basic list, as some writers speak of over 400 Orishas! This post will be separated into several parts, to be published on the next weeks, so stay...
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2011 Retrospective: May (Indian Country)
He Ain’t No Geronimo
The use of the code name “Geronimo” in the operation that killed Osama bin Laden shows that insensitivity won’t die. But that’s nothing new for Indian country, which rose up to angrily protest, pointing out that linking bin Laden to an Apache icon was a perversion of history.
A Voice for the Unheard
The United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, which was ...
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Pagans, Wiccans are, in fact, 'socially redeeming'...
We wish to respond to a letter to the editor in the Dec. 24 issue of the Asheville Citizen-Times, and especially to the assertion that Pagans “have no socially redeeming value.” Nothing could be further from the truth. We have known members of the Pagan and Wiccan groups here in Asheville for years. It has been our experience that they have been voices advocating for peace and justice in the...
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Mysteria Misc. Maxima: December 30th, 2011...
Mysteria Misc. Maxima is a weekly feature which brings together links on religion and esotericism from around the internet.
It’s almost 2012, do you know where your Mayan apocalypse is? Probably not because it’s totally not gonna happen, say experts. (Reuters)
The history of the King James Bible. (National Geographic)
Were there angels in the Greco-Roman era? (Tropaion)
Some fragments from...
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Fort Collins will celebrate International Hour for...
For the 26th year, Fort Collins residents will join with millions across the world early Saturday morning in celebrating the International Hour For Peace.
The event will be from 4:45 to 6:15 a.m. Saturday (noon Greenwich Mean Time) at the Blessed John XXIII University Center, 1220 University Ave.
The local celebration unites people of all beliefs from Christians to Atheists, American...
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