By Lizbeth Diaz In secret meetings that draw on elements of Haitian Voodoo, Cuban Santeria and Mexican witchcraft, priests are slaughtering chickens on full moon nights on beaches, smearing police with the blood and using prayers to evoke spirits to guard them as drug cartels battle over smuggling routes into California. Other police in the city of Tijuana, across the border from San Diego, tattoo their bodies with Voodoo symbols, believing they can repel bullets. "Sometimes a man needs another type of faith," said former Tijuana policeman Marcos, who left the city force a year ago after surviving a drug gang attack. "I was saved when they killed two of my mates. I know why I didn't die."

By Joseph Laycock Last month, Virginia lawmaker Mark Cole, a Fredericksburg Republican, sponsored a bill in the House of Delegates to prohibit the involuntary implantation of microchips into human beings. “My understanding—I’m not a theologian—but there’s a prophecy in the Bible that says you’ll have to receive a mark, or you can neither buy nor sell things in end times,” said Cole. “Some people think these computer chips might be that mark.” In spite of some ridicule, Cole’s bill passed the Virginia House of Delegates by an overwhelming 88-9 majority—because, as his fellow Republican David B. Albo opined, “The fact that some people who support it are a little wacky doesn’t make it a bad idea.”

By Ana The Green Man has become one of the iconic figures of the neo-pagan movement. No; I would go further -he has become the iconic figure; he has been ever since the 1930s when he had that name bestowed on him. Rather ironic, really, for the simple reason that he has nothing at all to do with traditional paganism. The Green man, rather, is a Christian symbol, a personification of evil, not of benevolence and fecundity. No sooner had the latest issue of History Today landed through my post box with its usual reassuring and heavy thump than my attention was drawn to the lead article, Ballad of the Green Man by Richard Hayman, an excellent overview of the genealogy of a myth. It the whole thing fascinates me on a number of levels; but most particularly, and most immediately, in the way that history becomes myth and myth history, one feeding of the other in and endless cycle of reinforcement. Here we have 'tradition', here we have Olde England, where the Green Man walks hand-in-hand with Robin Hood, another figure of the wild woods, closely accompanied by the Queen of the May or the Lord of Misrule. I think it's time to get back to basics. The Green Man, as Hayman says, first made his appearance in the eleventh century, a face sprouting foliage from his mouth, to be found in church carvings and decorations. He was part of a Medieval iconography which disappeared with the Reformation only to make a reappearance during the nineteenth century Gothic revival. Modern interpretat

Reviewed by Dawn “Belladonna” Thomas I have been interested in global warming so when a friend recommended this book I thought I would check it out. The book is written in a way that it is possible to see what earth would happen if global warming is not contained. It shows what changes will occur by a degree at a time. There is a tipping point that we all should be concerned with. If we cannot make the changes necessary before this point is reached, there may be no stopping global warming. The book begins at one degree. I was amazed to read the changes and losses that the earth has already suffered and we are not even at the one degree mark yet. The first loss is an amphibian in Costa Rica’s Monteverde’s Cloud Forest known as a golden toad. This toad could only be found in this area and the last time that anyone has seen one was May 15, 1989. That is an eye opening fact that with depleted natural resources nature is suffering. Another change noted is the condition of the world’s coral reefs. As the waters get warmer the algae that lives in the coral dies off. When the algae die off the coral then dies off since it doesn’t get the sugar the algae produced that it needs to survive. At the second degree the number of monsoons will decrease in China. This will cause less water to flow into the rivers. There is a reference to a heat wave in Europe occurring in 2003. In this event there were 22,000 to 35,000 people thought to have died. The number of heatstroke victims in Pari

By Soror ZSD23 Neopagans maintain the idea that more antique folk and pre-Christian cultures had a spiritual life that revolved around seasonal agrarian and cyclical astronomical changes. From this, the modern Wheel of the Year was formulated. Names—mostly of Celtic, Welsh, and Teutonic origins—were given to important dates of the Neopagan year: the winter and summer solstices (Yule and Litha, respectively), spring and fall equinoxes (Eostara and Mabon, respectively) and cross-quarter days marking late fall, early spring, late spring, and early fall (Samhain, Imbolc, Beltaine, and Lammas, respectively). It should be remembered that, in earlier times, clans and cultures had their own unique names and traditions for Spring festivals. For Neopagans (a growing tradition that has its roots in the 19th century occult revival), the Spring, like the Fall, are marked by a series of observances that celebrate the return of the light and the growth season. We call them Imbolc, Eostara, and Beltaine. Imbolc (or Olmec), a Celtic festival that falls on or about February 1 in the Northern hemisphere, commemorates the first glimmers of light after the Winter Solstice. In its own place and time, it commemorated the anticipation of new life in newly lactating and birthing livestock and also the majesty of the Celtic Great Goddess Brigid (traditionally pronounced “breed” and meaning “flaming arrow”). Being a solar deity, she personified new light and life. Like in corresponding early Spr

By boudiccaandarta March 20th in the Norse Tradition is the day of the goddess Idhunna who is the personification of the light half of the year. Also known as Idhunn, Iduna or Idun (Germanic), She is a Nordic-Icelandic goddess. The consort of Bragi (the Poet God), she was widely worshiped during the Viking period (700 AD) and earlier until the Christianization around 1100 AD. Some historians say that She is strongly connected to the Norse Tree of Life, the Axis Mundi, Yggdrasil. On this day, She brings joy to humankind by appearing in the form of a sparrow. Her name means “the Renewer” because she is a goddess of healing. Associated with the Viking Runes Eihwaz and Gyfu (the gift), She bestows the gift of rejuvenation and holistic balance. As the Keeper of the Golden Apples of Immortality, Idhunna is the bearer and guardian of the magickal fruit of Aesir (the principle group of gods of the Norse pantheon). This is the fruit of life and eternal youth for the gods of Asgard, supplying them with immortality. Because of this role, she is known as the “Goddess of Eternal Renewal” and the “Goddess of Youth”. As you can imagine, Idhunna and her apples were in high demand.

By Jason Pitzl-Waters As Lebanese citizen, and former television host, Ali Hussain Sibat gets closer to seeing his death sentence for “sorcery” in Saudi Arabia carried out, human rights group Amnesty International joins the chorus of voices calling for King Abdullah to grant him clemency and save his life. “Amnesty International has called on the King of Saudi Arabia to halt the execution of a Lebanese national, whose death sentence for charges relating to “sorcery” was upheld by a court last week. If the higher courts reject his appeal, ‘Ali Hussain Sibat, a former television presenter for a Lebanese satellite TV station, who gave advice and predictions about the future, could be executed at any time.” Amnesty International joins Human Rights Watch in calling for Sibat’s release as he sees his final appeals for mercy to Saudi Arabia’s judicial system fall on deaf ears.

By Juniper If you are never late for work, yet never on time at an Open Circle? If you always try to keep your promises, but feel justified in not showing up to help out at Pagan Pride Day like you said you would? If you will go out of your way to buy that expensive latte at your favorite coffee shop, but never make an appearance at the local Pagan Coffee Meet & Greet? If you donate to the food bank through work every year at Christmas, but somehow never remember to bring a can of beans when the local Pagan clergy are collecting for that same food bank or for Pagans going through hard times?

By Rebecca He is the God of all Craftsmen, particularly those who work in metals, a sometimes God of Fire and Volcanoes. He also was an exiled child who became a disgruntled and disfigured adult. Then he went on to construct the most important items in all of creation. When you talk about overcoming handicaps to achieve great things, look no further then Hephaestus. Some stories say this Greek deity is the child of Zeus and Hera, other stories explain that Hephaestus was conceived by Hera alone, without you know, having known anyone (wink, wink). One telling of his life’s tale explains that Hephaestus stood up for his mother Hera when she was fighting with Zeus, and thusly Zeus expelled him from Olympus. Quite forcefully in fact, he literally tossed him out and Hephaestus fell for nine days. When he landed it caused him to become crippled and disfigured. Another version says that Hephaestus was born crippled and that Hera was so repulsed by her newborn son that she discarded him, which also involved him doing some falling from Mount Olympus. No matter how it happened, Hephaestus is always shown as unattractive and misshapen, lame and hunched over his anvil. He walks with the aid of a stick because of his physical ailments, which are sometimes played up to such an extreme that his feet are actually back to front! An interesting note here is that some people mention that Hephaestus’s physical appearance could be a caused by low levels of arsenic poisoning. This is interesting

By Rowan Henbane, whose botanical name is Hyoscyamus niger, is a member of the Solanaceae order of plants which includes such innocuous members as the humble potato and tomato but also highly poisonous and notorious ones such as belladonna, mandrake and the daturas. It is one of the legendary "witch" plants, renowned in folklore for its claimed magickal qualities and it features in many of the recipes for witches' flying ointments which have been preserved in the records of the witch trials in an various other sources. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the plant makes its appearance in the English language as henne-belle, a form which is recorded as early as 1000 ce in the writings both of Æfric and subsequently in a number of early English medical manuscripts of the 11th century. It seems likely that this form derived at least in part from the bell-shape of the plant's flowers. The more familiar (and modern) form henbane was first recorded in the mid 13th century. The -bane part refers to an archaic Old English word for death, so the name as a whole refers to a belief that poultry, most notably hens, were particularly vulnerable to the effects of eating its seeds. The same idea is found in the name wolfsbane, one of the common traditional names for aconite (aconitum napellus), which was not only sacred in Greek myth to Hecate and therefore to Cerberus, the three-headed hound who guarded the gates of the underworld, but also refers to the one-time use of the pl

By BadWitch If the ancient Greeks had invented [Anti-social behavior orders], they probably would have slapped a few on the maenads. Maenads were female followers of Dionysus, god of wine and ecstasy in ancient Greece, and their name means "raving ones". They liked to get drunk, hold wild parties out on the hills and fields and weren't averse to getting into fights - particularly with any men trying to sneak into these largely women-only events. I wasn't actually one of them - I'm not quite that old - but I did play the part of a maenad in a school play back when I was a teenager.

By Rowan Pendragon Freya is a Goddess who comes to us from the Northern traditions and is commonly honored in the Norse traditions of Paganism, such as Asatru, as well as being a popular Goddess in Wicca. Popular as she is, there isn’t much historical information about Freya that is completely solid and much of what we know, or think we know, about her comes from myth and legend. The Prose Edda, considered one of the most important documentations of Norse mythology, was written in the 1200’s by a name named Snorri Sturlson. While this document gives a very important look at the culture of the Norse people, it’s important to know that Sturlson was a Christian writing about a culture and form of worship that had ended several hundred years prior, so it’s only natural that his writing would be colored by his own beliefs and experiences. This is important to keep in mind since it’s information like this, written by Christians and those outside of the Viking Age that created most of the history and myth which can sometimes attribute to the way that deity may be portrayed in the writings, especially one with many sexually charged aspects as Freya. Within the Norse pantheon the deities are grouped into two groups, the Vanir and the the Aesir. The Gods and Goddesses of the Vanir are connected with the earth; the are deities that are associated with fertility in all aspects of the people and animals of earth, they have the ability to see into the future and are connected to a

Reviewed by John Rimmer In reviewing other books in this series, and a similar collection from History Press, my colleague Peter Rogerson has pointed out that ghosts, hauntings and the paranormal are now as much a part of local nostalgia and the heritage industry as they are of psychical research, an impression which is reinforced by this current crop of titles. The most substantial collection from a researcher's point of view is Darren Ritson's, although the title is slightly misleading, as the book deals mostly with the author's home area, the North-East, with comparatively little on the western half of Brigantia (which Ritson has dealt with in another book). The controversial South Shields poltergeist case is summarised, with the author taking the opportunity to get in a little retaliation to some of his critics, who may or may not include Magonia! This book has much more hands-on investiagtion than the other titles reviewed here, via Ritson's group, Ghosts and Hauntings Overnight Surveilance Team (G.H.O.S.T.S. - best acronym since Jim Moseley's Saucer and Unexplained Celestial Events Research Society - S.A.U.C.E.R.S!) An account of an investigation of a haunting at a Miners' Welfare Institute in South Yorkshire, and the description of the almost superfluous haunting of the Blackpool Pleasure Beach's ghost-train, shows perhaps the way the ghost-story is moving: from the castles and abbeys, decayed relics of a vanished aristocracy, to the Miners' Institutes and closed-d

By Louise Bunn with Fritz Muntean and Kara Cunningham Today’s Pagans revere the Earth and all its creatures, seeing all life as interconnected, and striving to attune ourselves to the cycles of nature. Pagan practices are rooted in a belief in immanence – the concept of divinity residing within. The many contemporary Pagans who have found a home in the Unitarian community are grounding our work in the rational structure, the intellectual balance, and the humanist core values that have descended to us from the Enlightenment. We’re working to develop a religiosity that is entirely compatible with, and complementary to, modern Unitarian rationality. The new curriculum represents contemporary Paganism as: •A thoroughly contemporary and well-tested approach to Mystery. •A performative, lively way of attending to the rhythms, wisdom, and demands of Nature. •A way of using the richness of myth and ritual to build religious community.

By Rob Henderson My views on the role of Pagan clergy have definitely changed since I started down this path twenty years ago. (Egads, that means that next year it will officially have lasted for half of my life.) Back in my early twenties, when I heard the phrase "every Pagan is their own priest", I thought it was totally cool and revolutionary and stuff. Fight the power! Given how old I am now, I guess a slightly more conservative attitude was inevitable, and if anything I'm a little surprised how much of a "fight the power" kind of guy I still am. But on the clergy thing, I've completely changed. Now I see that "everyone is their own priest" thing as elitist claptrap. Sure, every Pagan *can* act as their own priest, I'm definitely not claiming to have any special relationship with the gods in general, and certainly not with someone else's household gods. I'm definitely a "Protestant Pagan" in that sense. But spending this much time as a Pagan, and as a Senior Druid, and as a Dedicant Clergyperson in ADF, I know all too well that not everyone *wants* to be their own Priest. And further - and here's the bit I know will get some people out there angry with me - not everyone is *good* at it either. Many people through the years have asked me for help creating personal household rituals or ideas for their altars, and I'm not about to tell them to figure it all out for themselves. Nor the folks without the experience or self-confidence to do their own ritual or magical work. Y

And Why They Are Important to Heathenry By Swain Wodening Both orthopraxy and orthodoxy are important to Heathenry, but in different ways. Orthodoxy can be defined as the standard beliefs of a religion. It comes from Greek orthodoxos “rigid/straight thinking.” Orthopraxy on the other hand can be defined as “rigid/straight action/activity.” Orthodoxy concerns beliefs while orthopraxy concerns practice. Last post I identified some areas where Heathenry was orthodoxic or orthopraxic in practice. However, it is not as simple as that. Heathenry by its nature is not orthodox. Beliefs vary a great deal between groups, nay, between individuals. There is no set dogma. The only areas where one might be able to say there is a standard of belief is a belief in Wyrd and the concepts of innangards and utangards. Even then, interpretations of these concepts varies a great deal so that there cannot be truly said to be a real orthodox practice. There is a better argument for orthopraxy. There is a standard of practice of Heathenry throughout their religions. I say religions, because I am not sure Heathenry can be identified as a single religion. That would imply too much commonality. Still, in my last post, I noted that faining and symbel contain the same elements from group to group, that the thews are roughly the same, and that frith and grith are practiced much the same. Even then there are differences. As my lord Brian Smith put it of a liberal Asatruar attending a Theodish blót, “The

By Frater Barrabbas Well now that the blogs are all in a tizzy over Goetic evocation and demons in particular, I have decided to state a few of my own opinions on the matter. Over the past few months I have learned a lesson from adherents of the Left Hand Path, that it’s all too easy to judge a group of spirits by their class, even though like human personalities, they are actually unique individuals, and really need to be judged as such. To say that all Goetic demons are of a certain nature is to make a generality that is at best, inaccurate, at worst, a kind of prejudice. I admit that I have fallen into this trap, because magicians tend to categorize classes of spirits in order to place them into a greater context. However, all models and systems of categorization are heuristic devices that help one to understand what actually is a diverse and very loosely organized body of spiritual entities. Knowing a spirit’s alignment and determining its place within a spiritual hierarchy and class is an important tool for understanding and identifying that spirit, but its true identification can only occur when one has actually either invoked or evoked that spirit through some kind of magickal operation. This means that the old grimoires can’t be completely trusted in regards to how they describe and qualify specific demonic entities. I am not going to name any names from the individual authors of these blogs, of course, since everyone who is commenting on this thread are experienced

By Kris Bradley This morning, the New Jersey Board of Education voted to approve their list of religious holidays permitting pupil absence from school for the 2010-2011 school year. Included for the first time on this list are the eight Pagan/Wiccan holidays, or sabbats. This marks the first time any state has approved Pagan holidays to a state calendar, and will set a precedence for other districts and states across the country. This story starts with a mother sending in a note to get her daughter excused from school for Yule, 2009. Rev. Elena Ottinger's daughter attends Pennsville High School in the Salem County School District, located in Pennsville, NJ. Brianna Ottinger had recently finished her "Year and a Day", a traditional time of study for many Wiccan initiates. Rev. Ottinger, who has a doctorate in metaphysics, wrote a note to her daughter's school, letting them know that she would be taking Yule off from school to celebrate. When Brianna came home that day, it was with the list of approved religious holidays for NJ schools and a note from the vice principal that stated while they would give Brianna an excused absence, it would not be an excused absence based on a religious holiday.

Jenna Lyle The Labour Government plans to replace the 700-year-old House of Lords with a wholly elected second chamber that will call time on the automatic presence of Church of England bishops. Justice Secretary Jack Straw is expected to propose the establishment of a 300-seat second chamber similar to the US Senate, in which legislators will be elected by the public similar. In details leaked to The Sunday Telegraph, members of the new chamber would have to be UK residents and could face a “recall ballot” if their competency was in question. A new ICM poll commissioned by the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust out today found that 74 per cent of the population, including 70 per cent of those who described themselves as Christians, agree it is wrong that some Church of England bishops are given an automatic seat in the House of Lords. [Emphasis added]

By Siegfried Goodfellow Mind and heart are one. Odr is a single word encompassing all the inspired mind may gather. It is where feelings and thought come together and share. Their feast, that juice fermented, is inspiration and wisdom found. Our lore therefore is one with heart and mind. The wordloc mind of Western scholars will never penetrate the fullness of lore. Their analyses may be helpful, their takings-apart interesting, their external comparisons even insightful. But lore is not the letter. Lore is what happens when odr meets the letter. What blossoms therefrom is lore. This is not the same thing as wild fancy. It is not immature imagination gone bizarre. It is the meeting of mind and heart with letter and leaf, world and soul in close communion, finding their words, sifting their meanings.

Reviewed by Fionnchú Efficiently told, often convincingly argued, this surveys the late medieval and Spanish secret police, courts, and prisons where "heretical depravity" could lead to execution, a life sentence, ostracization, or exile and destitution. Kirsch extends the parallels with Stalinist, Nazi, and contemporary applications of authoritarian suppression of what an authority deems thought-crime. He strives throughout to alert us to the parallels that for nearly seven hundred years have perpetuated the crushing of what "heresy" means in its Greek derivation: "choice." That this choice lies within the individual dissenter infuriates the forces seeking monotheism, and/or conformity of expressed opinion. Kirsch cites Kafka's "The Trial": "You can't defend yourself against this court, all you can do is confess." The show-trials and the torture were applied to not only punish resistance, but to exact the ultimate humiliation-- to reduce the accused to admit accomplices, among his or her family and loved ones.

By Peter Laarman Yes, friends: an American culture that says it really, really cares about its children needs to pay close attention now. We already overcategorize these same children; we overstimulate them and then we overmedicate them in so many disturbing ways. But now we are about to cross a whole new boundary, because researchers have learned that tiny tots are actually able to make “consumer choices” much earlier than was ever before thought possible: they are neurologically ready to shop ’til they drop even at the tender age of three. According to the new study, jointly conducted by researchers at the University of Michigan and the University of Wisconsin, “children use brand cues to determine what food products will be exciting or which toys will be the most enjoyable, and values associated with items (like food choices) are formed as young as three years old.” As well: “The most commonly recognized brand was McDonald’s, followed closely by other brands of fast food, soda, and toys.”

By Uncle Thor Some years ago, I read a delightful book entitled “The Hobbit.” The story revolved around a tiny fellow known as a Hobbit. He had gone on a quest. In the story, he encountered a ferocious dragon named Smaug. This Dragon guarded a hoard of treasure in his underground lair. The hobbit took a piece of that treasure, and it sent the dragon into a frenzy Smaug is not alone. The tales of Fafnir and the dragon of Beowulf also deal with reptilian horrors which have hoards. These beasts guard their treasures with a jealousy unmatched by any mere mortal. The dragons are reminiscent of the Gnostic “Gospel of Thomas.” In one passage, the gospel reads: “They are like dogs guarding a manger. They let none pass to eat, and they do not eat themselves.” The dogs are like dragons. Dogs have no use for the fodder in a manger, and dragons cannot use treasure. Nonetheless, both guard their territory with ferocious intensity.

By Swain Wodening Many years ago, my brother made a case for orthodoxy in an article for Theod Magazine. The need is as great today as it was in the 90s. But just what is orthodox Heathen practice? To me it is all the things we have in common. But what do we have in common? I think I have identified a few things and I will present them here. First there are the rites. Faining or blot as it is more commonly called follows a basic outline of prayers, blessing, and giving. While other steps may be added, these three things seem to be common for Theodsmen, Asatruar, Odinists, and Irminists. I have never seen a faining deviate from that. This is for a reason, it is how our ancestors did it for it is drawn from the Heimskringla: It was an old custom, that when there was to be sacrifice all the bondes should come to the spot where the temple stood and bring with them all that they required while the festival of the sacrifice lasted. To this festival all the men brought ale with them; and all kinds of cattle, as well as horses, were slaughtered, and all the blood that came from them was called "hlaut", and the vessels in which it was collected were called hlaut-vessels. . . .

Ethical consumers less likely to be kind and more likely to steal, study finds By Kate Connolly When Al Gore was caught running up huge energy bills at home at the same time as lecturing on the need to save electricity, it turns out that he was only reverting to "green" type. According to a study, when people feel they have been morally virtuous by saving the planet through their purchases of organic baby food, for example, it leads to the "licensing [of] selfish and morally questionable behaviour", otherwise known as "moral balancing" or "compensatory ethics". Do Green Products Make Us Better People is published in the latest edition of the journal Psychological Science. Its authors, Canadian psychologists Nina Mazar and Chen-Bo Zhong, argue that people who wear what they call the "halo of green consumerism" are less likely to be kind to others, and more likely to cheat and steal. "Virtuous acts can license subsequent asocial and unethical behaviours," they write. The pair found that those in their study who bought green products appeared less willing to share with others a set amount of money than those who bought conventional products. When the green consumers were given the chance to boost their money by cheating on a computer game and then given the opportunity to lie about it – in other words, steal – they did, while the conventional consumers did not. Later, in an honour system in which participants were asked to take money from an envelope to pay themselves their

By Siegfried Goodfellow Things are not always as they seem. They say humility is foreign to heathenism. Bullshit. Humility is the very heart of heathenism, the ground from which we brag. It is Rome that is arrogant, in its imperial and its religious forms. It is Rome which constructs a great chain of being with human beings at the top, little lower than the angels. We are heathen. We are of the earth. We humble our humanity before weeds, trees, rivers, stones. Teachers reside there. Great elfin beings of shine and marvel tend these flocks. There is grandeur in a simple field of corn and grass. The wind blows, and we know Odin's thoughts wander about the earth. We are beings of the heart. Our hearts are not debased by bowing before the humble things of this earth. We are trees transformed. We are bread and meal and milk drawn up through earthen flesh into bone and blood bodies spiralling with stars in our heads. God is mad, wild, uncanny. Enchantment lies deep in the heart of things. This is how it belongs. This is how it should be.

By Rowan Pendragon We’ve talked a little about magickal timing over the last handful of blogs and it’s one of those aspects of magickal work that can either be extremely simplistic or can get horribly complicated. Some people work just with the phases of the moon, others work down to the planetary hour that is most approperiate for their work. Learning to work with magickal timing can take years but it’s simple enough to start out with the small stuff. If you’ve been working with magick for even just a handful of months you know the power of working with the cycles of the moon. Let’s expand on that a bit and look at working with the moon when it is in specific zodiac signs. Most of the Pagan or magickally themed wall or desk calendars, like the Llewellyn Witches’ Calendar, will tell you what phase the moon is in, astrologically speaking, on a daily basis. It does this by placing the symbol of the phase next to the little moon icon, along with the time that the moon enters this sign. Having a calendar that shows these little icons can help you to know at a glance what sign the moon is in on a specific day helping to make planning certain spells or rituals quite easy.

By Brendan Myers A friend of mine down in London Ontario, who is the branch manager of a paralegal company, recently drew my attention to section 365 of the Criminal Code of Canada. This is the section which deals with the practice of witchcraft. It reads as follows: 365. Every one who fraudulently (a) pretends to exercise or to use any kind of witchcraft, sorcery, enchantment or conjuration, (b) undertakes, for a consideration, to tell fortunes, or (c) pretends from his skill in or knowledge of an occult or crafty science to discover where or in what manner anything that is supposed to have been stolen or lost may be found, is guilty of an offence punishable on summary conviction. R.S., c. C-34, s. 323. It's been in the news recently due to the case of Vishwantee Persaud, a woman charged with witchcraft after bilking a Toronto lawyer of more than ten thousand dollars by posing as the embodiment of his dead sister.

Reviewed by Anne Hill I have had the distinct pleasure over the past few months of immersing myself in some wise and erudite books on dreams. Here, rising to the top of the pile, are two books that I consider essential to the serious study of dreams in history and practice. The first is by Dr. Kelly Bulkeley, former president of the International Association for the Study of Dreams, visiting scholar at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, and author of many worthy books on dreams. Dreaming in the World’s Religions: A Comparative History (2008, New York University Press) is a book that finally answers the basic question: how did people in ancient cultures view dreams? I call this a basic question, because anyone who spends a significant amount of time working with their dreams inevitably wonders how it was done in the past. In your religion, in other religions; by your ancestors, by other people’s ancestors. Dreams call us to understand our place in the world, and Kelly’s book answers the call because it addresses the problem with both comprehensive scholarship and also a deep love and appreciation for dreams.

By Lupa [T]here is inherent racism in a lot of non-indigenous shamanic practices and trends. Not overt racism, but racism nonetheless. A few examples: –White people traveling to far-off lands for the sole purpose of having shamanic “experiences” with “genuine tribal elders”. In many cases, these experiences are completely removed from the reality of their cultures of origin. This is especially pernicious in cases where participants are blind to the fact that members of that culture may be living in poverty, may be subjected to egregious human rights violations at the hands of governments and corporations, may experience daily racism (to include violence) from other residents who don’t go away when the seminar is over, and otherwise are not the mystical, quasi-Atlantean purveyors of super-secret wisdom. –Core shamans claiming that core shamanism is culturally and racially neutral. There is no such thing as “culturally neutral”. Core shamanism was developed within a particular Western mindset, and its parameters and emphases reflect that.

By Seth Borenstein In a surprising discovery about where higher life can thrive, scientists for the first time found a shrimp-like creature and a jellyfish frolicking beneath a massive Antarctic ice sheet. Six hundred feet (183 metres) below the ice where no light shines, scientists had figured nothing much more than a few microbes could exist. That is why a team from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration was surprised when they lowered a video camera to get the first long look at the underbelly of an ice sheet in Antarctica. A curious shrimp-like creature came swimming by and then parked itself on the camera's cable. Scientists also pulled up a tentacle they believe came from a foot-long jellyfish.

By Seth Borenstein In a surprising discovery about where higher life can thrive, scientists for the first time found a shrimp-like creature and a jellyfish frolicking beneath a massive Antarctic ice sheet. Six hundred feet (183 metres) below the ice where no light shines, scientists had figured nothing much more than a few microbes could exist. That is why a team from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration was surprised when they lowered a video camera to get the first long look at the underbelly of an ice sheet in Antarctica. A curious shrimp-like creature came swimming by and then parked itself on the camera's cable. Scientists also pulled up a tentacle they believe came from a foot-long jellyfish.

Who killed John Lennon? Mark David Chapman, a psychotic, pulled the trigger, assassinating the musician/peace activist in December 1980. So who killed Lennon, the person or the brain? That's the kind of question neuroscientists, lawyers and judges are wrestling with today, says Michael Gazzaniga professor of psychology at the University of California, Santa Barbara and head of the SAGE Center for the Study of Mind. He's leading a project examining brain studies and the law -- the norms of society that are the basis of our rules. Gazzaniga "What is the brain for? It's there to make decisions," he said at a seminar on neuroscience and morality, sponsored by Templeton-Cambridge Journalism Fellowships in Science and Religion where I'm attending lectures and scooping up sources this weekend.

By Jess I felt that this was a good topic to blog about, given some discussions I've been taking part in recently. Asatru, Theodish Geleafa, and all the other forms of Heathenry which exist today have members whose political leanings range from the very liberal to the very conservative. You have folks who are very much into environmentalism, committed vegans/vegetarians, pro-gun, pro-life, pro-choice, Republican, Democrat, Independent, Green, Libertarian, you name it. There is a wide spectrum. Add to this the fact that you have some Heathens who do galdr/seidhr/spae/utiseta/etc., some who don't; some who focus more on the Gods, and some who don't and focus more on landvaettir and ancestors; some who see the various forms of Heathenry as indigenous faiths that are exclusive in terms of who can/can't be Heathen, and some who believe that Heathenry in any form should be open to all, and you have a melting pot of views and ideas. I could go on, but I think the point is obvious: there are as many different viewpoints on political, cultural, and environmental issues as there are Heathens. Becoming Heathen does not make you a Republican, Democrat, environmentalist, etc. That's like saying that all Neo-Pagans are card-carrying members of PETA and liberal pacifists - which is most definitely not the case.

By Fire Lyte Project Pagan Enough is my movement to raise awareness in the pagan community about our treatment of one another in public, online, one-on-one, and any other time we are faced with talking to, about, or meeting with other pagans. It has become quite obvious over the past few years that the pagan community likes to talk the big game of being tolerant and inclusive of all peoples, but seems to lack that tolerance when the person in question dresses or is attractive or is otherwise garbed in a cloak of 'mainstream.' This intolerance seems to be derived from a standpoint that we, as the pagan community, believe we are ridiculed or ostracized by the mainstream, thus people that look mainstream must be our enemy. Project Pagan Enough seeks to say that - no matter your beliefs, practices, looks, or loves - you are pagan enough. We can argue theology back and forth all day long and disagree with one another's fluff-factor until the cows come home, but it is high time that we stop denigrating one another's level of being pagan. Paganism does not have a set definition, and there is definitely not a dress code or music-loving requirement. If you listen to Lady Gaga right alongside Kellianna, you are still pagan enough. If you don't mind wearing Abercrombie & Fitch, Prada, or other name brand, mainstream clothing to the local pagan festival, you are still pagan enough.

By Sarah It took me four years to realize that as a wand maker and writer, I have never written a piece on wands before. I would like to start with a disambiguation as there is much modern fakelore out there about wands; wands were not invented by Gerald Gardner, they were not invented by new agers, nor are they a modern ritual tool. Staves, (referring to wooden staffs, wands, and other rods) are a very ancient magical tool stemming from our Animistic ancestors stretching further back than the stone age. As wood does not preserve well over millennia, researchers must look to documented historical uses of wooden staves, similar ritual tools made of metal, bone or stone in later ages as well as the use of wooden staves by untouched animistic tribes in the last two centuries. Do such examples exist? Indeed they do –in spades and spanning across cultures and continents. Introduction I have met many neoPagans and traditional witches alike who use staves but really have no idea what their history and purpose is or how to use them in magic. I hope to remedy that in this article with my research and own experience as a ritual tool maker and tree worshipper. My god is the World Tree and he has been hung upon it both willingly and unwillingly throughout myths bringing back the mystical knowledge of trees; of their medicine as well as staves, runes, and charms carved from their wood. Each year he cuts himself down with his sharp axe in sacrifice so that each year the tree, represen

By Rowan Pendragon We talk about ritual tools quite a bit, especially when we’re getting started with magick and ritual. Everyone is looking for the perfect wand or athame, but the most important of all ritual items is something that we all possess already and which costs no money at all, but certainly needs some polishing and preparation before we can really put it to use. Our mind’s eye. It’s arguably the most important of all tools a Witch has because without it, the true power behind our work may not be harnessed. And let’s face it, no wand in the world can make up for the lack of ability to ground, focus and visualize our intent and send energy to our goal. When you’re just getting started you hear a lot in books about the mind’s eye. You’ll see a lot of phrases like “Visualize your desire in your mind’s eye” or “See the elements in your mind’s eye”. A lot of people get a little confused, unsure of what and where the information that the mind’s eye calls on is going to come from. In the simplest of terms, the mind’s eye is your imagination. When we work in meditation, trying to envision something coming to us, or something happening to us, we are working to “see” with “eye” in our mind (aka the mind’s eye). For some people it can help to have almost a physical place to focus on when doing this; if you’re one of those people imagine that the there is a large movie screen or white board in your mind right around where your third eye is located. When you’re eyes

By Peg Aloi Try this sometime with your children or a young niece, nephew or cousin: on the day of the Vernal or Autumnal Equinox, just a few moments before the exact moment of the equinox, go outside with a raw egg. Find a reasonably level place on the sidewalk or driveway. For a few moments just before and just after the equinox, you can balance the egg upright (wider end down) by simply setting it down on the ground. No kidding! It will stand up all by itself. Kids love this, and most adults are amazed and delighted, too. This little "trick" brings together two of the most potent aspects of this holiday: the balancing of the earth's gravity midway between the extremes of light and dark at Winter and Summer Solstice; and the symbolism of the egg. The egg is one of the most notable symbols of Easter, but, as someone who was raised Catholic and who was never told exactly why we colored eggs at Easter, or why there was a bunny who delivered candy to us, or why it was traditional to buy new clothes to wear for church on Easter Sunday, I always wondered about this holiday. As with many of the seemingly unrelated secular symbols and traditions of Christmas (what do evergreen trees, mistletoe, reindeer and lights have to do with the birth of Christ? You might wanna read "You Call It Christmas, We Call It Yule" for an exploration of these connections), Easter too has adapted many ancient pagan symbols and customs in its observance. Easter gets its name from the Teutonic goddess

Researchers at the University of Calgary say they have discovered the unique genes that allow the opium poppy to make compounds used to produce such drugs as codeine and morphine. Isolating the genes means these painkillers could be made synthetically, in a lab, the researchers say in a report published Sunday in the journal Nature Chemical Biology. The discovery could also open the door to controlling the production of compounds in the plant. The poppy has, for thousands of years, been the source of opiate-based painkillers, but pinpointing just how the plant produces something that soothes our aches and pains has been a mystery — until now, says researcher Jillian Hagel. "That day we realized that the needle in the haystack, so to speak, we'd found it, that was definitely something we'd been looking forward to," she says.

Reviewed by Eygló Svala Arnarsdóttir Icelandic Folk Legends – Tales of Apparitions, Outlaws and Things Unseen is a collection of Icelandic folktales translated by one of Iceland’s most widely read bloggers, Alda Sigmundsdóttir of the Iceland Weather Report, first published by Bjartur in 1997 and republished in 2007. The small and handy book includes the translation of 12 folk stories, both stories that practically every Icelander knows by heart, like The Deacon of Myrká Church and Thorgeir’s Bull, as well as lesser known stories like The Vanished Bride and The Hidden Man and the Girl. The collection includes a little bit of everything: ghosts, trolls, wizards and witches, outlaws, hidden people (elves), monsters and even Satan. As such the book provides a good overview of the different categories of Icelandic folk legends.

Reviewed by Fionnchú My son asked if one could survive only on meat. Contrarily, I looked up this history of vegetarianism to find out. Orthodoxy and conformity long allied with the herding & consumption of animals. To those in control, those refusing to eat flesh posed a social and moral threat. Not eating meat equalled rebellion against the state, the faith, and the norm. Spencer starts with early hominids and ends with fast food. He roams necessarily widely, if focusing most modern attention to the British take on vegetarianism. Egypt, Greece, Rome, China, and India all earn ancient testimony for a long-lived counter-cultural tradition. While Middle Eastern and Mediterranean cultures appear to have come down harder on what become known as "Pythagorean" practices, the Hindus seem to have had a more balanced approach. A "dharma-sutra" ca. 600 BCE counselled: "In eating flesh, in drinking intoxicating liquors and in carnal intercourse there is no sin, for such enjoyments are natural, but absention from them produces great reward." (qtd. 76)

By Louis A. Ruprecht While Jerome David (J.D.) Salinger died more than a month ago, on January 27, it is still difficult for me to talk about him in the past tense. I expect that his books have something to do with that—the way they play with time. Yet as the accolades multiplied in the days after his demise, one thing that struck me was the almost telephoto-focus on a single novel, his 1951 classic, The Catcher in the Rye. And the most important thing to observe about The Catcher in the Rye, is that it is the only non-explicitly religious book Salinger, a restless religious seeker, ever wrote. There is no question but that this book has become an almost inescapable part of the implicit New American canon; scarcely a ninth or tenth grader in the land hasn’t been forced to read it. I was assigned the book in the snowy winter months of my freshman year in high school and I had the supreme good fortune of being taught the book by a very serious, and highly imaginative, scholar of American literature. He did not let the class neglect the crucial detail, revealed near the book’s end, that our stalwart narrator has been confined to a sanitorium, and may not be quite the trustworthy reporter he would have us believe him to be.

Pi Day and Pi Approximation Day are two holidays held to celebrate the mathematical constant π (pi) (in the mm/dd date notation: 3/14); since 3, 1 and 4 are the first three digits of π. March 14 is also the birthday of Albert Einstein and the two events are sometimes celebrated together. Pi Approximation Day is observed on July 22, because of Archimedes' popular approximation of π being 22/7. However, this may be considered misleading, as all cited dates are "approximation days" (as π is an irrational number) and 22/7 is actually a closer approximation of π than 3.14 is. Typically, March 14 is more popular for countries using the month/day format (22/7 being an impossible date in this format), and the 22nd of July is more popular for countries using the day/month format (since 3/14 and 31/4 are impossible dates in this format).

Reviewed by Henry This book is essential reading for anyone interested in runes or indeed European cultural history. Macleod and Mees decline to adopt the recent fashion in academic circles for dismissing the idea that the runes had any kind of magical significance in this book, just as they refuse to pretend that different regions were hermetically sealed from one another. They steer a balanced path between emphasising the many mundane applications of the runes and their magical function, and indeed the book focuses on the latter, as may be inferred from the title. The authors document and interpret scores of inscriptions from amulets, artefacts, monuments, and written texts, bringing incredible breadth and depth of learning to the task. Their vibrant enthusiasm for the subject matter is infectious, and consequently the book is anything but dry or boring. Indeed, there are even moments of high humour, such as a hilarious passage that recounts some of the more ribald love magic charms of the runic era!

Songbirds in the US are getting smaller, and climate change is suspected as the cause. A study of almost half a million birds, belonging to over 100 species, shows that many are gradually becoming lighter and growing shorter wings. This shrinkage has occurred within just half a century, with the birds thought to be evolving into a smaller size in response to warmer temperatures. However, there is little evidence that the change is harmful to the birds. Details of the discovery are published in the journal Oikos.

By Mary Sharratt In 2002, I moved to East Lancashire in northern England—the rugged Pennine landscape that borders the West Yorkshire Dales. My study window looks out on Pendle Hill, famous throughout the world as the place where George Fox received the ecstatic vision that moved him to found the Quaker religion in 1652. But Pendle Hill is also steeped in its legends of the Lancashire Witches. Everywhere you go in the surrounding countryside, you see images of witches: on buses, pub signs, road signs, and bumper stickers. Visiting friends found this all quite unnerving. “Mary, why are there witches everywhere?” they’d ask me. In the beginning, I made the mistake of thinking that these witches belonged to the realm of fairy tale and folklore, but no. They were real people. The stark truth, when I took the time to learn it, would change me forever.

Fifty-one decapitated skeletons found in a burial pit in Dorset were those of Scandinavian Vikings, scientists say. Mystery has surrounded the identity of the group since they were discovered at Ridgeway Hill, near Weymouth, in June. Analysis of teeth from 10 of the men revealed they had grown up in countries with a colder climate than Britain's. Archaeologists from Oxford believe the men were probably executed by local Anglo Saxons in front of an audience sometime between AD 910 and AD 1030.

By Aaron LeClair Daylight saving time begins at 2 a.m. Sunday. Love it or hate it, daylight saving time probably isn’t going away anytime soon. Standard times in time zones across the United States and Canada were instituted in 1883 and officially established in 1918, mainly so railroad companies could deliver goods more efficiently, according to U.S. Navy’s Astronomical Applications Department. When you go to bed tonight, don’t forget to set your clock forward one hour in observance of daylight saving time, which begins at 2 a.m. Sunday.“I always forget to set the clock,” she said Friday. “I’m always … either an hour late or an hour early. The last time, I was an hour early for work.”

By Brian Merchant It's one of the (if not the) rarest flower in the world: the Middlemist's Red exists in only two known locations: a greenhouse in the UK, and a garden in New Zealand. Imported to Britain two hundred years ago from China, back when flowers where a luxury item, it has since been exterminated in its original homeland. And now the Middlemist is blooming again--nice looking flower, right? The flower is in bloom for the next couple of weeks, and will be the star attraction at the reopening of the Chiswick House, the BBC reports. The flower gets its name from the gardener John Middlemist, who first brought it back from China in 1804. That the Middlemist's Red survives today is conservation success story. "It's the importance of getting as many people as possible to ensure they stay with us on this Earth," Fiona Crumley, the head gardener at the Chiswick House told the BBC.

by Rod Dreher Franklin Evans passes along this post by Gus diZerega, who writes the Pagan blog on Beliefnet, in which Gus talks about how Pagans find themselves pulled in both directions in the culture war, between the forces of mainstream conservative religion and the secular liberal science-minded folks. Excerpt: On the one hand we have no choice but to push back on the attempts to demonize us, and entrench their demonization into the law, by many Evangelicals and conservative Christians. Whether in the schools or the prisons or the military, even a single victory to the haters will give them a precedent to push further because there are no logical limits to their creed hold over people until it has come to dominate all of society. It is fundamentally totalitarian in this respect. The Enlightenment brought this totalitarian urge under control. But... But on the other hand, the secular scientistic world view that sees religion as a atavistic holdover from an earlier time is simply wrong. It's not even close to the truth. I see modern secularism as itself deeply myopic, and when its internal implications have come to fruit, as they are doing today, tending in most of its forms towards nihilism and the worship of power. In this conclusion I find I am often at one with the conservative Christians who denounce us!