Pagan & Shinto News: Senior Druid Criticises Decision To Call Off Stonehenge Summer Solstice

Pagan News

UK: Druid Arthur Pendragon criticises decision to call off Stonehenge Summer Solstice

This Is Wiltshire
A senior druid has spoken out against the latest lockdown news that in-person Summer Solstice celebrations at Stonehenge have been called off…

Five solstice sites that aren’t Stonehenge
Sapiens
Across time and around the world, many ancient monuments were built as calendars to track the sun’s journey…

Witches celebrate the summer solstice with cakes, mead — and salsa
Religion News Service
For many Pagans, spirituality is tied to nature, and eating local seasonal foods connects them to the earth and with a specific time and place…

‘Am I the worst thing a person can be?’: Witches fight media bias
The Washington Post*
The Rev. Selena Fox, executive director of Lady Liberty League, a pagan religious freedom and civil rights organization, said, “To use the word witch in connection with crime reporting is a mistake unless the reporter is truly going to do an in-depth analysis of the person’s background…

Shinto News

Colorfully decorated horses march to shrine in place of twice-canceled north Japan parade
The Mainichi
With this northeast Japan prefecture’s traditional horse parade canceled for the second year running due to the coronavirus pandemic, a smaller event was held in its place this year, with two colorfully decorated horses and their two foals visiting a shrine where the parade would have started…

Giant Buddhist goddess in Japan gets face mask to pray for end of COVID-19
Reuters
Workers scaled a giant statue of a Buddhist goddess in Japan on Tuesday to place a custom-made mask on her face, an act meant to be a prayer for the end of the coronavirus pandemic…

Buto Manju: The holiest doughnut in Japan
SoraNews24
A centuries-old sweet so sacred it’s still used as an offering at one of the country’s holiest shrines…

Other News

Archaeologists have discovered ancient Bronze Age homes at Germany’s ‘Stonehenge’
Artnet News
Central Europe’s largest-known settlement has been discovered at Ringheiligtum Pömmelte…

Cyprus: Greek ‘neo-muralist’ draws on mythology to depict pandemic
The Straits Times
An Athenian “neo-muralist” is blending Greek mythology and Byzantine iconography with graffiti and street art to depict how the coronavirus pandemic has forced people the world over to put down roots…

UK: Expert has ‘absolutely no doubt’ why Stonehenge was built after new find
Daily Caller
Professor Mike Parker Pearson from University College London uncovered a natural phenomenon that he believes helps explain the history of Stonehenge in Wiltshire, England…

‘Witch Hunts’ Past & Present

India: Three women branded as ‘witches’, forced to drink urine
She The People
Three women in Bihar’s Purnea were reportedly made targets of a witch-hunt and horrifically, forced to ingest human urine…

India: Muslim woman branded as ‘witch’, brutally thrashed
Times Now News
In a shocking incident of crime related to superstition, a Muslim woman was allegedly branded as a witch and brutally thrashed by some people in Bhajneri village in Bundi district of Rajasthan…