Pagans.net Blogs

Witches’ school plans convention

Salem, MA: “A group claiming to be the world’s largest online school for witchcraft will hold its annual international conference here next month.

The three-day conference, titled ‘Pagans Taking Global Action,’ is scheduled for April 17-19 at the Hawthorne Hotel. It will include a discussion of the Pagan economy, a handfastings (Pagan wedding) demonstration and a keynote address by Christian Day, a Salem witch.

‘Salem isn’t just a Wiccan city, it’s the Wiccan capital of the world,’ said Ed Hubbard, the CEO of the Rossville, Ill., Witch School International, which reports a membership of 200,000 people in 74 countries studying online.

The group also plans to vote on whether to relocate its headquarters to downtown Salem. The move would include the relocation of Magick TV, an Internet television station broadcast on YouTube. Hubbard said he envisions a downtown TV studio that could broadcast such programs as the Pagan Nightly News.”

(Via SalemNews.com.)

Living Paganism and Witchcraft: Meaning, Purpose, Identity and Integration

Llewellyn Journal - Living Paganism and Witchcraft: Meaning, Purpose, Identity and Integration: “I was 12 years old when I first discovered the world of Paganism and Witchcraft. I had been raised in a household that cherished and honored the mysterious and the spiritual, and though I lived an ocean away from my father, his mystical, animistic Balinese spirituality was ever-present in my life. I was that child who found solace in the tangled roots of trees and spoke to invisible beings in the garden. I knew, if not consciously, who and what I was and still am; this was crystallized for me in my adolescence when I dove head first into the Craft. I embraced its teachings and traditions; after all, they have been mine for as long as I can remember.”

(Via Llewellyn Journal.)

Cenk Uygur: The Silent Minority

Cenk Uygur: The Silent Minority: “A new comprehensive study by The Program on Public Values at Trinity College shows that this group is now a whopping 15% of the country. Mormons by comparison are a puny 1.4% of the population, and people can’t shut up about the Mormons. The Senate Majority Leader is a Mormon, one of the top Republican presidential candidates was Mormon and even HBO has a whole show devoted to them.

Even though the non-religious are more than ten times larger, other than Rep. Pete Stark (D-CA), not one member of Congress would even admit to being in the dreaded minority of non-believers. They are almost never accounted for in any political discussion of religion in the country. The devout view them as amoral at best and destined for eternal damnation at worst. Yet, this kind of abuse and scorn is widely accepted and expected.”

(Via The Huffington Post.)

Swan Feathers linked to Cornish Witches’ Fertility Rituals

SF Restaurant Examiner: “Jacqui Wood, a British archaeologist has been digging at the site at Saveock Water, where remains of what appears to be witchcraft rituals have just been discovered. Swan feathers, human hair, the remains of 57 unhatched eggs and nail clippings are among some of the offerings found in a 17th century stone-lined pit that could have been a ‘holy well.’ There was additional evidence that the well had been filled to hide what went on there.

     Pagan rituals had been all but wiped out in 17th Century Britain, but not in Cornwall. There such pagan ‘bird rituals’ appear to have continued and many were thought to be linked to fertility spells. It is possible that these offerings, such as the unhatched bird eggs were left and then nine months later, if there was a conception, the person would return to empty the pit.”

(Via Examiner.)

Witchcraft Growing Faster Than Religion’s Big Three

Your News Network: “While Jews, Muslims and Christians fight among themselves, one religion has darted in front of all the others to become the America’s fastest growing faith.
The religion of the witch trials becomes religion of the future with the membership exploding, according to experts. This is bringing consternation to believers in the Big Three of faith.

One expert claims that the number of Wiccan experts is doubling every 30 months. A recent book entitled ‘Generation Hex’ by author Marla Alupoaicei declares that it will be the third largest religion of faith by the year 2012. This explosion of membership in Wicca has come about because of social estrangement, loneliness and the need to belong according to Dillon Burroughs co-author of the book. Although the West Coast and Salem, Massachussets is experiencing the most rapid growth, groups can be found all over the country, including the South and Mountain states. “

(Via Digital Journal.)

The ‘witch-hunts’ of history

WalesOnline: “The Oxford Dictionary of English describes a witch-hunt as ‘a search for and subsequent prosecution of a supposed witch’, or ‘a campaign directed against a person or group holding unorthodox or unpopular views’.
Historically, the term describes the investigative procedures used during witch-hunts of the Middle Ages up until the early Colonial period, when investigators were hunting for ‘witches’.”

(Via Wales Online.)

Review: Salem witchcraft hysteria in Kathleen Kent’s ‘Heretic’s Daughter’

St. Petersburg Times: “For centuries, Americans have autopsied the notorious Salem witchcraft trials, in which the worst elements of the national psyche boiled up and overflowed. Sanctimonious Puritans played on community fears to bring down neighbors. Panic fueled by hysteria turned the society into an engine of destruction.

In The Crucible, Arthur Miller paralleled the Salem trials and the anti-Communist witch hunts of the McCarthy era. Now an eloquent first novelist approaches this shameful segment of the past from a personal angle. Kathleen Kent writes in the character of an ancestor: Sarah Carrier, jailed at 11 because hysterical neighbors thought she was a witch.”

(Via St. Petersburg Times.)

Atheists have started advertising - ‘There’s probably no God’

‘There’s probably no God’: “Atheists have started advertising. The most talked about ad campaign in England, now plastered across the outside of 800 British buses, declares: ‘There’s probably no God, so stop worrying and enjoy your life.’ The campaign opened last week with rousing speeches by Richard Dawkins and representatives of the British Humanist Association, after a less aggressive campaign (240 buses) in Washington, D.C. back in November. The American Humanists chose the interrogative rather than the declarative mode for their message: ‘Why believe in a god? Just be good for goodness’ sake.’ After the great success of Dawkins’ book The God Delusion and Hitchens’ God is Not Great, atheism is taking the next step and forming itself into an organized movement.”

(Via Financial Post.)

Mystery behind Pendle Witches’ trial in 1612 revealed

Pendle Today: “High on a hill in the wild and lawless area of Pendle, a secret meeting is held at Malkin Tower.

By the end of the year, most of those present have been sentenced to death at Lancaster Castle - hanged for the crime of witchcraft.

‘Sabbat’, a new play by Richard Shannon, attempts to unravel the mysteries behind one one of England’s most famous trials, that of the notorious Pendle Witches.”

(Via Pendle Today.)

New University » Hitting the Books: Witches and Wizards and Vampires, Oh My

Witches and Wizards and Vampires, Oh My: “They’re everywhere. No matter how hard we try to avoid them, we just can’t. ‘Twilight’ author Stephenie Meyer’s Edward Cullen and J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter are all over our Facebook walls, newsfeeds, quizzes, groups and bumper stickers. Especially those damn bumper stickers. As much as we hate seeing them when trying to find a witty or humorous bumper sticker to remind our friends of last night’s rendezvous, we can all honestly say that we recognize which characters an actor has played and which book-turned-movie they’re in.

This recognition of fictional characters is what the National Endowment for the Arts (NAE) would call an effect of ‘Reading on the Rise.’ In a 2008 study, the NAE found that for the first time in more than 25 years American adults are reading more literature. This increase in literary reading (referring to the reading of any novels, short stories, poems or plays in print or online) was particularly high among the young adults group (18 to 24-year-olds). So it’s no wonder why all that’s seen on women’s Facebook pages nowadays are fictional male characters and the 10 reasons why they’re superior to our mortal male friends.”

(Via New University.)