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Salon Life: “Recently someone forwarded me an invitation to a cheeky Inauguration Day event called ‘Shave the Date.’ As organizer Kristen Chase explains on her Web site, ‘Show your love for your country, and as you watch our new president take his oath and feel your satin undies against your smooth nether region, you can take pride in knowing you’ve rid your world of bush once and for all.’

Now, you’ll be hard-pressed to find anyone more eager than me to offer Junior a hearty farewell to wherever ex-president frat boys go. And the event is, indeed, a lovely act of unity. But I won’t be participating in this brilliant call to action. See, it ignores one thing: W. may be leaving the White House, but when it comes to our most private places, bush is back.”

(Via Salon.)

Coconut Grove witch runs shop, leads coven

Central Miami - MiamiHerald.com: “Once a novice working psychic hot lines in Kendall, Richardson these days has a long list of faithful clients. Among them is Hilda Collins, a Spanish language instructor.

”Every time she reads my cards, she hits it on the nose,” Collins said. “She just radiates harmony. Whatever is troubling you, she makes it go away.”

As a little girl attending Baptist services in Chatsworth, Ga., Richardson said she was fascinated by the occult, bedazzled by TV sitcoms I Dream of Jeannie and Bewitched.

”Something inside my heart and soul screamed for something more,” Richardson said.

She moved to Miami in 1976 and got an accounting/business degree from Miami Dade College. But it wasn’t until 1989, while on vacation in California, that she found what she was searching for. It came in the form of a book titled The Truth about Witchcraft, which she bought for $4.95.”

(Via Miami Herald.)

Paganism not a cult

News - General: Paganism not a cult, say Donna Vos: “One of the most prominent pagans in South Africa, she holds a biblical diploma from the Bible Institute in Kalk Bay and a masters in theology from Unisa. Her qualifications and her focus on HIV and Aids, the problem of Satanism among the youth and drugs and sex among young people got her the job.

But Vos said soon she was being ‘persecuted’ for her beliefs. ‘I was pariah of the state, they were calling me a Satanist.’

She said a colonel, even after reading her book Dancing under the African Sun, labelled paganism a ‘cult’ and told Vos they couldn’t ‘unleash you on 8 000 men’.

‘It was so shocking that even after reading my book which explains that paganism is nature-based and describes our beliefs, he still had this attitude.’”

(Via IOL.)

Seeking unemployed witches in Sweden

Seeking unemployed witches in Sweden | IceNews - Daily News: “During the current economic downturn, finally some positive employment news is coming out of Sweden: Haxriket i Norden, a company based in Ahus, is looking to hire 20 witches to staff its phones and internet website. The company specialises in fortunes, predictions and other advice at a price of just USD 2.45 per minute.

The Local newspaper reports that qualified candidates for the position must be experienced in ‘contact with the other side, runes, tarots, crystals, herbs, rituals, exorcism, meditation, personal coaching, and more.’ Interested witches must also have a fixed telephone line and Internet connection, but can enjoy the advantages of working from home.

Haxriket’s massive hiring wave is the result of an internal shakeup in the company in which several formerly-employed witches had to be terminated for violating telemarketing ethics that were put into place in 1994 by Sweden’s Trade Ethical Council for Telemarketing. What they did was not mentioned.”

(Via IceNews.is.)

Struggling to organize witches to celebrate Halloween

By Lee Ann Kinkade - Slate Magazine: “In a grove near you, pagans are gathering to celebrate Samhein, the night when the veil between the living and the dead, between this world and others, is thin. We will wear cloaks and have ritual daggers, called athemes, at our waists. The prerequisite silver jewelry will gleam in the firelight. Natural fabrics flow as freely as the mead. There will be an unfortunate excess of tie-dyed material. In other words, we will look most like your picture of witches.

This picture leaves out an important detail, and I don’t mean the whole human-sacrifice-and-stealing-Christian-babies thing. Planning a ritual, whether it’s for Halloween or any other holiday, is a conflict-filled battle. It’s like trying to herd jack rabbits on horseback. Those who practice witchcraft tend to be strident nonconformists, and the very nature of paganism, which has no unifying body or text, means that we have no obligation to believe the same thing or listen to anything beyond the dictates of our own consciences to unite in perfect accord. Often we flow together, achieving unity in which we are transported beyond ourselves, connected with the earth we love and the energy we feel from it.”

(Via Slate.)

Are Witches Real?

Are Witches Real?: “Aleister Crowley was an English witch. He reveled in his description as ‘the wickedest man in the world.’ He was a shameless self publicist, a fraud and a charlatan, but he was also an educated, intelligent and willful diabolist.

He was indeed very wicked and was definitely involved in just about every kind of vile perversion, drug addiction and occult religious practice imaginable. He died in Hastings, on the south coast of England, in 1947.

In 1982 I moved to Bexhill-on-Sea, a town one step along the coast from Hastings. I was newly ordained as an Anglican priest and was heading to my first parish. Living just around the corner from the ancient parish church was a coven of witches whose leader claimed to be the successor of Aleister Crowley. The ‘witches’ were well-known in the town. They lived in a kind of hippie commune, and their leader — a lecherous man in his 50s — frequented all the bars and pubs. Rumors abounded about their drug use, sexual immorality, corruption of young people and dark, occult practices.”

(Via NCRegister.)

Stone Age man took drugs, say scientists - Telegraph

Stone Age man took drugs, say scientists - Telegraph: “Scientists believe that the drug being used was cohoba, a hallucinogen made from the beans of a mimosa species. Drugs such as cannabis were not found in the Caribbean then.

Opiates can be obtained from species such as poppies, while fungi, which was widespread, may also have been used.

Archeologists have suggested that humans were extracting mind-expanding drugs from mescal beans and peyote cacti as far back as 5,000 years ago, but have not found direct evidence that this is true.

They consider that drugs were being used to induce spiritual or trance-like states by people who had religious beliefs.”

(Via Telegraph.)

First Church of Wicca schedules Halloween party

First Church of Wicca schedules Halloween party - Duxbury, MA - Wicked Local Duxbury: “he First Church of Wicca will host its annual Halloween party from 4 p.m. to the witching hour Sunday, Oct. 25, at The Hovey’s, 539 Summer St., Duxbury.

Activities include a traditional Samhain Ritual for anyone who would like to observe or participate at 6 p.m., followed by an authentic fest of the dead. Bring a dish and drinks to share and wear costumes. First Church of Wicca members are asked to wear all black and their church belts and capes.”

(Via WickedLocal.)

British Paganism Alive and Well

British Paganism Alive and Well: “lad in floor-length white robes, members of The Druid Order of London marched up Primrose Hill in London’s west side to participate in the pagan celebration of the Autumn Equinox on September 22. It is the only time during the year in which there are equal amounts of daylight and dark.

Originally founded in Oxford in 1245, the group dates its first official ceremony to 1717, when the Order was established at one of the highest points in the city, Primrose Hill. Since then, it has established several other annual seasonal celebrations in and around London, including the Spring Equinox Ceremony at Tower Hill and the Summer Solstice at Stonehenge.”

(Via RealTruth.)

Witches, Fine… But Does Sarah Palin Believe in Religious Tolerance?

Evan Derkacz: “So the important take-away here is not that Sarah Palin worships with loony exorcists, but that this ambitious woman has accepted the spiritual direction and leadership of a religious group that is conducting what you could call a ’soft inquisition’–if you’re not with us, you’d better get with us or we’ll run you out of town. It’s paranoid. It’s cruel. It’s based on an apocalyptic mythology that seems to lead its adherents to wish the worst for their neighbors.

And in some strange backward reverso-rhetorical deconstructionist logic, when we read ‘witch-hunter’ over and over in connection with Sarah Palin we begin to think of her as the hunted witch. And, while we don’t generally approve of the persecution of odd women, we begin to become attached to this association: Palin-Witch. But we must resist. It is a distraction.”

(Via HuffPo.)