Pagan Tama
Top stories of the week in Paganism and Shinto:
- Australia: Occult club registration rejected after complaint it may summon Satan to University of Adelaide
- US: Last of the Salem ‘witches’ pardoned 329 years after she was convicted of witchcraft
- Japan: Sanja Matsuri festival with 3 ‘mikoshi’ returns to Asakusa area
Read more below…
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Pagan News
Australia: Occult club registration rejected after complaint it may summon Satan to University of Adelaide
ABC News
A club for pagans, witches and Satanists says its affiliation with the Adelaide University Union has been rejected because of a complaint its members may summon the devil onto campus…
UK: Colchester Museums renew appeal to fund witchcraft exhibition
Daily Gazette
The appeal was launched by Colchester Museums last month to raise £15,000 for an exhibition called Wicked Spirits – Witchcraft and Magic at Colchester Castle. But despite being open to donations for more than three weeks, Art Fund – which is the national charity for art – has managed to raise only £3,400 of its £15,000 target…
US: Painting once thought to portray Marie Laveau sells for nearly $1 million
The Wild Hunt
A portrait of a Creole woman commonly believed to be the famous Louisiana Voodoo Queen Marie Laveau was sold at auction last week to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (VMFA) for $984,000, in what may be a record price for a Louisiana portrait…
US: New exhibit coming to Buckland Museum of Witchcraft and Magick explores Spiritualism during the pandemic
Clevescene
The Buckland has just announced that it’s once again teamed up with Taggart for MEDIATRIX: New Work by Shannon Taggart, an exhibit featuring 25 photographs capturing spiritualist phenomena during the Covid-19 pandemic…
Vladimir Putin voodoo doll goes on sale in Kyiv with noose, pins and coffin
Metro
The Putin doll is packed into a coffin, accompanied by a noose and pins with the Ukrainian flag on them…
US: The ‘sonnenrad’ used in shooters’ manifestos: a spiritual symbol of hate
The Conversation
Just before the supermarket shooting that killed 10 people on May 14, 2022 in Buffalo, New York, the suspected terrorist posted a manifesto online. The top is adorned with a “sonnenrad,” or “black sun,” an old Nordic symbol…
Shinto News
Sanja Matsuri festival with 3 ‘mikoshi’ returns to Asakusa area
The Asahi Shimbun
The huge Sanja Matsuri festival featuring three portable “mikoshi” shrines returned on May 22 for the first time in three years to crowded streets in Tokyo’s Asakusa district and with some anti-virus restrictions applied…
As Japan reopens to tourists, why does Kanda Shrine suddenly need guards and surveillance cameras?
South China Morning Post
A rise in thefts from collection boxes, and worryingly the stealing of religious statues and ancient artefacts has forced shrines to implement security measures…
Fluffy owl chick at east Japan shrine draws bird-watching shutterbugs
The Mainichi
A cuddly owl chick at a shrine in this east Japan town is attracting photography enthusiasts…
Other News
Egypt: Gorgeous paintings of ancient Egyptian goddesses revealed under layers of bird poop
Live Science
Archaeologists have discovered 46 stunning depictions of goddesses from ancient Egypt, which were previously buried under layers of soot and bird poop. Artists created the detailed and colorful frescoes on the ceiling of a temple nearly 2,200 years ago…
Religion in Roman Britain: spreading the word of the gods
History Extra
The Romans were only too happy to share their pantheon of deities with the native Britons – and learn a little themselves, too…
Dionysus, Greek god of wine and revelry, was more than just a ‘party god’
National Geographic
Dionysus could bring holy ecstasy to his followers and cruel revenge to his foes. Associated with rebirth, he shaped religious practices across the Mediterranean until the dawn of Christianity…
‘Witch Hunts’ Past & Present
US: Last of the Salem ‘witches’ pardoned 329 years after she was convicted of witchcraft
National Post
Eighth graders took up the cause of Elizabeth Johnson, the last accused ‘witch’ of the Salem witch trials…
India: Tribal man accused of ‘witchcraft’, kills self after being made to eat excreta
The New Indian Express
A 67-year-old tribal man killed himself on Thursday after he, and five others, were forced to consume human excreta following a verdict issued by a kangaroo court in West Bengal for allegedly ‘practicing witchcraft’…
US: NY man said he killed his sister over ‘her witchcraft’
Daily Beast
A New York man charged with stabbing his 67-year-old sister to death with a bayonet and an awl told police he did it because he was “done with her witchcraft,” according to court documents…
Africa: Group salutes Church of Scotland for reconsidering ‘witchcraft’ laws
Sahara Reporters
Advocacy for Alleged Witches says it received the news with much excitement and hope for the future of its campaign to end witch-hunting in Africa…
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