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 Radio1 - The Body
Provided By: Achriel
Composer: Castalia
Title: The Lady's Song
Radio2 - The Mind
Radio3 - The Soul
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I have plenty of talent and vision. I just don't care.
-- Anon
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· Using Witchvox – a walkthrough
(Sep 02, 2009)
· Nutritionist Stephen Heuer Arrested in FDA Raid
(Jan 19, 2009)
· Spelling it like it isn't
(Aug 09, 2008)
· Funding the pagans
(Mar 08, 2008)
· Giuliani gets Robertson Endorsement
(Nov 12, 2007)
· The Dangers Of Feminism
(Aug 30, 2007)
· The secrets behind crazy airfare prices
(Aug 27, 2007)
· Petition To Rename Stretch Of 401 'Highway Of Heroes'
(Aug 24, 2007)
· Mummified Toronto child a newborn boy
(Jul 27, 2007)
· Quick Summer Meals without all the heat!
(Jul 18, 2007)
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Finding American Mystics
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Posted by: Copperwoman on Thursday, March 11, 2010 - 05:00 PM
13 Reads
by Jason Pitzl-Waters
The Tribeca Film Festival, one of the most prominent independent film festivals in the world, has announced the twelve entries in their World Documentary Feature Competition for 2010, one of which prominently features modern Pagans. That film is “American Mystic”, directed and co-produced by Alex Mar of Empire 8 Productions.The Pagan priestess in question is Morpheus Ravenna, who, along with her husband Shannon, operates the Stone City Pagan Sanctuary in California’s Diablo Range, just outside the San Francisco Bay Area.
“Set against a vivid backdrop of American rural landscapes, Alex Mar’s meditative documentary artfully weaves together the stories of three young Americans exploring alternative religion: a pagan priestess in California mining country, a Spiritualist in upstate New York, and a Native American father and sundancer in South Dakota, all yearning for fulfilling spirituality in disparate but often strikingly similar ways.”
Read the complete article: Wild Hunt
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A History of Anglo-Saxon Wedding Customs
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Posted by: Makarios on Thursday, March 11, 2010 - 04:00 PM
15 Reads
By Arden Ranger
Something old,
Something new,
Something borrowed,
something blue
and a sixpence for her shoe.
<snip> Stag Parties
The Stag or Bachelor party had its beginnings with the ancient Spartans. Spartan soldiers would hold a great feast for their comrades who were about to be married the night before the wedding. There he would bid goodbye to his bachelorhood and swear unending allegiance to his comrades in arms. Knowing ancient history, I have to believe that these gatherings, like the ones that every modern bride fears, involved more than a little sex. For to the ancient Greeks, only a man could truly enjoy sex. Women were not capable of the higher emotions involved and were only for providing heirs.
Engagements
The modern engagement is rooted in the Medieval customs of publishing the banns and handfasting. The handfasting ceremony usually took place when the couple was very young, often many years before the actual wedding. It was this ceremony, not the wedding, that produced the exchange of vows which are now part of the Anglican wedding ceremony (where the couple vows to marry and be faithful). This was also time for bride price and dowry to be exchanged. The ceremony was sealed with a drink and a kiss. (Wet bargains were considered more binding than dry ones; if the kiss did not take place, and the parties later decided to back out, they both had to return any betrothal gifts. If the kiss did take place the man had to return all but the woman only half). This custom of keeping engagment gifts, specifically the ring, was recently shot down in the Kansas Supreme Court’s decision in the case of Parrish vs Heiman. The judge declared that an engagement ring was a conditional gift, the condition being the wedding. Therefore, the woman had to return the ring even though it was the man who had broken off the engagement. In the 1300s the Archbishop of Canterbury decreed that all weddings should be preceded by the reading of the banns for three consecutive Lord’s days (holidays). Banns are a public declaration of a couples intent to wed, like today’s engagement announcement that is published in the newspaper.
Read the complete article: Handfasting Info
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Easter, Ostara and Passover: It Must Be Spring
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Posted by: Copperwoman on Thursday, March 11, 2010 - 03:00 PM
13 Reads
by Penelope Friday
Spring has sprung, and religious festivals abound. Penelope Friday explores the similarities between Easter, Ostara and Passover. Hello! I’m the Easter bunny. Oh wait, no – I’m the Ostara hare. What in God’s name am I talking about? Well, there’s a question…
You know, the two festivals have an awful lot in common. It’s important to point out that most of the myths surrounding the (possibly non-existent) goddess Ostara/Eostre are mostly bunkum. Nevertheless, the Pagan idea of a Spring festival, celebrating the planting of seeds which will grow into new life has a lot of similarity with Lent and Easter. Lent is a period of spiritual renewal; Ostara a time to plant new seeds, which may be literal or spiritual in nature. Lent is followed by Easter: the death and resurrection of Jesus; Ostara has also a new life/rebirth theme.
Read the complete article: t5m Collective
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Reflections on the existence of CHI
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Posted by: Copperwoman on Thursday, March 11, 2010 - 01:00 PM
20 Reads
by Gus diZerega
A couple of days ago I came across two Youtube videos of Qigong masters using chi to perform extraordinary feats. One, in which I have enormous confidence, is from China, and was linked to by a man I worked with for many years while doing a lot of healing work, Larry Wong. The other was next to it in YouTube, and showed an American with (possibly) even more impressive powers, if they are real. Real or not, when he and his students attempted to perform similar workings on others, they failed. The Fox News team took their failure as evidence chi did not really exist. Having worked with it for over 20 years, and been knocked out of a room by it, I beg to differ. But what, then, did the Fox News team really demonstrate?
We have two interesting phenomena to investigate:
1. People who work with chi have long-term personal experience that it is genuine and very powerful.
2. People who do not work with chi very often or at all find they do not feel it, even when "masters" use it on them. For them it either does not exist, or is very weak, and the strong effects seem staged or deluded.
Read the complete article: A Pagans Blog on Beliefnet
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Round in a Circle
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Posted by: Makarios on Thursday, March 11, 2010 - 12:00 PM
21 Reads
By PostalPagan
One of the most difficult concepts for me to understand when I was new to Wicca was the casting of a circle. Most religions have a designated place, usually a building, set aside for worship, but we have the ability to create our own. Some books tell you to cast a circle and how to do it, but do not always explain how to move the necessary energy. Some Wiccans don’t cast a circle and still have meaningful rituals and effective magick. Like many other elements of our practice, there are aspects that are standard and those that reflect personal tastes and spiritual path. Let’s put aside any confusion and look at what a circle is, how it is set up and taken down and what it does.
A circle is a magickal space created by the witch or coven in which ritual takes place. By this act, we are effectively erecting our own sanctuary and taking it down when we are finished. We start fresh every time, yet as with other workings, there is a residual energy left which can enhance future workings. A circle is more properly a sphere or bubble. When created, it touches the ground or floor in a circle but the web of its energy arcs above us like a dome. It is also a place where we can meet the gods and goddesses and other magickal beings. It is said to be a place out of space and time. By that, I do not mean that it is some kind of fourth dimension, but it is a place where we leave our worries and mundane life at the door, instead concentrating on our spiritual life and being at ease. It is a sort of transparent curtain; marking off a place for ritual, but not cutting us off from the world. The physical process of creating the circle shifts our mood into our working so that we mentally and emotionally put behind the day to day routine and stress, giving us a break and enabling us to better focus on what we are doing in the circle.
Read the complete article: Pagan Pages
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By Chalice and Blade: The Great Rite (part 1)
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Posted by: Makarios on Thursday, March 11, 2010 - 10:00 AM
32 Reads
By Rowan Pendragon
<snip> One of the rituals that once took center stage in many Wiccan traditions has today become a somewhat misunderstood and even forgotten practice, especially among many neo-Wiccans and solitary practitioners. While many may go through the motions of The Great Rite it is far more than just a blessing before cakes and ale in ritual; it is the sacred act of celebrating the union of the Goddess and God, the union of the creative polarities, and the celebration of divine creation itself. It is a key to understanding some of the great Mysteries of this path.
The Great Rite is related to the hieros gamos, Greek for “holy marriage” and is such also known by the name The Sacred Marriage. Hierogamy is the union of a Goddess and God in ritual, specifically through a symbolic act, often one that takes place with two representative elements such as a male enacting the role of the God and a female enacting the role of Goddess. In Wicca these roles are often held by the High Priest and High Priestess though in circles and covens where there is no traditional hierarchy any male or female member who is deemed to be spiritually fit for such an act may perform the rite. In some Traditional Wiccan covens, such as those practicing the British traditions, the act of participating in The Great Rite for the first time can be part of the Third Degree initiation as it is seen as being an introduction into the great Mystery of creation and the Mystery of birth and even death.
Read the complete article: Within the Sacred Mists
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Satan worshipers suspects in slaying
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Posted by: Copperwoman on Thursday, March 11, 2010 - 09:00 AM
33 Reads
By ROCCO LaDUCA
Kimberly Simon, 16, of Marcy, was raped and murdered in 1985. Steven P. Barnes, also of Marcy, then 22, was convicted for the crimes. His 1989 conviction was tossed out after appeals by the Innocence Project based on DNA evidence.
The last hours of Kimberly Simon’s life in 1985 were likely spent with a group of young men who worshiped the devil, tortured cats, used hallucinogenic drugs and sexually abused women, according to investigators who have been probing her homicide for the past 16 months. “They built quite a reputation for themselves,” District Attorney’s Office Investigator Richard Ferrucci said of the Satan worshipers. “To the people they were close with, they did not try to hide the fact that they were involved in this sort of stuff. It was sort of a shock value, and they really enjoyed putting that out there for people to know about.”Witness accounts have placed Simon in the company of these Satan worshipers during the night of Sept. 18, 1985, at a popular hangout spot for youths along the Sauquoit Creek in New York Mills called “Three Bears,” Ferrucci said.
Read the complete article: Mohawk Valley Observer Dispatch
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Magic and Patron/Matron Deities
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Posted by: Makarios on Thursday, March 11, 2010 - 08:00 AM
40 Reads
By Jess
Folks new to Heathenry today, particularly if they are coming from Wicca or another Neo-Pagan faith, usually tend to ask two questions when it comes to being Heathen in the modern day:
- Is it necessary to (or, How can I) learn galdr and/or seiðr?
- How do I know who my patron/matron deity is?
These are questions that I have encountered frequently in my own conversations with new Heathens and/or people interested in Heathenry, and the answers to both are simple.
- Knowledge of galdr and/or seiðr is not necessary to be Heathen.
- You are not required to have a patron/matron deity.
Some people can get very frustrated with new folks asking these kinds of questions, but the simple fact is that they originate within the context of Wicca and Wiccan-derived Pagan beliefs, where adherents are generally encouraged to find a patron/matron deity, and where the study of magical practises and concepts is a backbone of education and training. Although I have been told that they exist, I have not personally encountered a Wiccan who did not do magic, and most Neo-Pagans I have met have a definite patron/matron deity.
Read the complete article: The Sane Heathen
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Paganism! Paganism! Paganism!
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Posted by: Copperwoman on Wednesday, March 10, 2010 - 05:00 PM
54 Reads
by Jason Pitzl-Waters
It’s time for the Pagan hysteria watch, where we spotlight some stories and editorials that get a wee bit over-excited in their rhetoric. Let’s start with an obvious source, conservatives defining environmental activism, and agreement with the scientific consensus concerning climate change, as a “new paganism”.
Yes, it must be a “religion”, because “more and more evidence is surfacing against global warming claims”, even though the majority of that “evidence” has been overblown and distorted in the media, and the scientific community is being increasingly bullied by activists and politicians for not changing their position on global warming. Maybe they want to prove it’s a religion by producing martyrs? In any case, while times are tough for Al Gore (a “high priest” of the “new paganism”), our current President doesn’t escape accusations that he’s involving us all in paganism!
Read the complete article: Wild Hunt
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Westward Dharma, by Charles Prebish & Martin Baumann
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Posted by: Makarios on Wednesday, March 10, 2010 - 04:00 PM
48 Reads
Reviewed by Fionnchú
Buddhism beyond Asia's explored by 22 scholars in this 2002 collection. It focuses on the transformation, since the later 19c, of the Buddha's teachings into Western, and cross-cultural, and analytical transformations that try to retrieve a purer, primitive, or truer original teaching. Thomas Tweed sums up these evolving trends: "If modernist Buddhists have de-mythologized and rationalized traditional Buddhism one may say that post-modernist Buddhist practitioners secularize and psychologize modernist Buddhism." (60)
Tweed distinguishes a "migrant religion trajectory" from a "missionary-driven transmission," in turn separate from a "demand-driven transmission" as the three methods of current transfer. (62-3) He notes how the 'foreign' religion might have deliberately been fetched from abroad by sympathizers and initial converts. In the case of Buddhism, texts in Asian languages were transmitted and published, Buddhist ideas and practices were adopted, and Asian teachers were invited to lecture." (52) Westerners rely on Eastern exchange, as transport, globalization, and immigration thicken the ties rather than allow the crude models of Orientalist domination or imperial manifestation to control the emergence of a dharma-practice adapted not only to secular First World settings, but contemporary capitalist and countercultural markets all over Asia, Brazil, Oceania, and North America.
Read the complete article: Blogtrotter
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Teen to wed schoolgirl in pagan ceremony
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Posted by: Copperwoman on Wednesday, March 10, 2010 - 03:00 PM
57 Reads
 Using a simple length of rope, Alex Stewart-Pole and Jenni Birch will become partners for “a year and a day” through the ancient ritual. A handfasting can then be renewed for the same or a longer period. Aside from the lashing of hands, the couple will jump over a fire, chant and recite vows.
A design student at the Metropolitan South Institute of TAFE’s Mt Gravatt campus, Mr Stewart-Pole, 19, said: “We’re planning to one day go to Northampton in England, which is like the pagan capital of the world, to do our ‘10 years and a day handfasting.” Holland Park High School student Jenni, 16, said of the handfasting: “We’ll just see how it goes.” Jenni’s mother and pagan high priestess Sue Birch, of Lawnton, will perform the ceremony.
Paganism takes in a range of spiritual beliefs including Druidism, Wicca and modern witchcraft, and is based on the worship of nature and its cycle of birth, growth, death and renewal.
Read the complete article: Southern Star
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The origins of religion: evolved adaptation or by-product?
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Posted by: Makarios on Wednesday, March 10, 2010 - 02:00 PM
56 Reads
By Ilkka Pyysiäinen and Marc Hauser
Considerable debate has surrounded the question of the origins and evolution of religion. One proposal views religion as an adaptation for cooperation, whereas an alternative proposal views religion as a by-product of evolved, non-religious, cognitive functions. We critically evaluate each approach, explore the link between religion and morality in particular, and argue that recent empirical work in moral psychology provides stronger support for the by-product approach. Specifically, despite differences in religious background, individuals show no difference in the pattern of their moral judgments for unfamiliar moral scenarios. These findings suggest that religion evolved from pre-existing cognitive functions, but that it may then have been subject to selection, creating an adaptively designed system for solving the problem of cooperation.
Adaptation or by-product?
Religious beliefs are ubiquitous across cultures and time, and understanding the origins and evolution of religion is a question that has attracted significant attention and debate. Some scholars claim that religion evolved as an adaptation to solve the problem of cooperation among genetically unrelated others. Others propose that religion emerged as a by-product of pre-existing cognitive capacities, but then, through both biological and cultural evolution, might have evolved into a system that is well-designed to solve problems of cooperation. Here, we review these alternative proposals, and then introduce a moral psychological perspective that, we argue, provides novel insight into this debate. Specifically, recent work in moral psychology supports the view that religion evolved as a cognitive by-product of pre-existing capacities that evolved for non-religious functions.
Read the complete article: Trends in Cognitive Sciences
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Violet
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Posted by: Makarios on Wednesday, March 10, 2010 - 12:00 PM
55 Reads
By Mary DAlba
Violet (Viola odorata) is also known as Blue Violet, Sweet Violet, English Violet, Common Violet or Garden Violet. Its origins are Europe and Asia but can also be found in North America and Australasia. In India, it is known as Banafsa and is used to help with tonsillitis and sore or tender throats.
Violet originated from Io, one of Zeus’s many romantic interests. Zeus’s wife Hera found out about Zeus and Io and, in a jealous rage, changed her into a heifer. Zeus, having pity on her, changed her into the beautiful violet. Violet is known to bring wonderful results when used in rituals with just women.
It is said if you collect Violet at the beginning of Spring, your dearest wish will come true. It is also burned during the Spring Equinox as a sign of Spring. Violet is also known to bring change in luck and fortune and can be used in ritual or magick to do so.
Read the complete article: Pagan Pages
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Barking up the wrong sacred tree
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Posted by: Copperwoman on Wednesday, March 10, 2010 - 11:00 AM
70 Reads
By Rick Koster
I think we have some pagans living in our part of town. Several, actually - and not all in one big, leafy communal house, either. They're sprinkled about the neighborhood like elf-dust.
Which is fine.
Pagans on the whole are a fairly interesting if occasionally goofy set of folks - whereas I'm just sour-tempered and my car is ugly and smashed into the backyard fence at a comical angle on a bed of empty beer cans. By comparison, "occasionally goofy" isn't a bad thing at all. Most of the "goofy" part comes via the names the pagans adopt to replace their given names.
"Chuck" and "Donna" and "Todd," for example, might well have become, in their new pagan guises, "Stormlight," "Ravenwidow" and, well, "Todd," who wanted to change his name to "Celtic Dragon-Lord" but his wife had just given him a box of thank-you cards embossed with "Todd" and so "Celtic Dragon Lord" will have to wait until the cards are used up.
Read the complete article: The Day News
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Regionalism
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Posted by: Makarios on Wednesday, March 10, 2010 - 10:00 AM
48 Reads
By Swain Wodening
There has been a lot of talk this past year about regionalism. This is nothing new and has been a topic for most of my Heathen life (which is now in its 23rd year). On the surface it sounds well and good. Organize regional gatherings, form a regional thing, and all will be dandy. Folks will communicate, get together, and do things together. The problem is without a guiding national organization it rarely works out that way. I can name several regional organizations that went the way of the buffalo. All organized with the best of intentions. The Great Plains Ring operated in the Midwest for a couple of years before going belly up, as did the Texas Asatru League, and the Indiana Asatru Council, once one of the most active regional organizations has not seen activity in years. The same can be said of regional lists. The Central States Heathen list was once very active, and even hosted a couple of gatherings. It is now lucky to see twenty posts a month. Regionalism, at least up to now has not worked with a very few exceptions.
I have a theory why and it centers on diversity. With a national organization, all the individuals, kindreds, and fellowships generally share a common interest and common goals. Like attracts like. But with a regional organization, the only common denominator is that of proximity. And more is needed than mere physical proximity for an organization to work. That is why in say, a small area like Dallas-Fort Worth you see more than four fellowships. Beliefs, how rituals are done, customs and traditions, and esp. personalities differ from group to group and do not always mix well. An individual regional group is therefore almost doomed from the start.
Read the complete article: Swain Wodenings Blog
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Priestess tomb unearthed on Crete
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Posted by: Copperwoman on Wednesday, March 10, 2010 - 09:00 AM
51 Reads
 By Dan Vergano
An unearthed tomb on Crete reveals a dynasty of priestesses reigned on the isle during the "Dark Ages" of ancient Greece. In an Archaeology magazine report, writer Eti Bonn-Muller details the results from last summer's excavation of a tomb at Orthi Petra at Eleutherna on Crete, where a team found the burials of a high priestess of Zeus and three acolytes this summer.
"People then may have considered them sorceresses, or intermediaries with the gods," Bonn-Muller says. Led by archaeologist Nicholas Stampolidis, the team dates the four burials to 2,700 years ago. Earlier digs had discovered the remains of other women, buried together in large "pithos" jars from 2,800 to 2,600 years ago. All of the women appear related, based on distinctive features of their teeth, the team reports. "What's really remarkable is the find shows these women were a dynasty that lasted at least 200 years in this location," Bonn-Muller says.
Read the complete article: USA Today
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