Pagan & Shinto News: Couple Spared Immediate Jail For Unauthorised ‘Pagan Burial’

Top stories of the week in Paganism and Shinto:

UK: Couple spared immediate jail sentences for unauthorised ‘pagan burial’
UK: ‘Gaia hypothesis’ ecologist James Lovelock dies
Kyoto’s famed historical re-enactment parade to be held

Pagan News

UK: Couple spared immediate jail sentences for unauthorised ‘pagan burial’

The National Wales
A ‘loving’ daughter and her partner have avoided going to prison for the unathorised ‘pagan burial’ of her father near his home…

Witch books hold power
Publishers Weekly
The number of books on witchcraft has been on the rise for the past several years, but mind-body-spirit publishers now offer an eclectic mix of authors who draw magic from a range of sources—from ancient times to modern trends, and from distant lands and to backyard herb gardens…

UK: Celebrate Celtic festival of Lughnasadh with weekend of events at Navan Fort
Armagh i
Celebrate the Celtic festival of Lughnasadh with weekend of dedicated events at Navan Fort, on the outskirts of Armagh…

From hunger to harvest – the history of the ancient Celtic festival Lughnasa
Irish Central
Examining the ancient Celtic festival of Lughnasa, marking the start of the harvest season, the end of months of deprivation, and what has now become Ireland’s August Bank Holiday weekend…

Shinto News

Kyoto’s famed historical re-enactment parade to be held
The Asahi Shimbun
The “Jidai Matsuri” (Festival of the Ages), with its iconic history-themed costume parade, will be held here in all its glory for the first time in three years, organizers announced…

China: Cities cancel summer Japanese festivals over recent controversies
Global Times
At least seven cities across the country have canceled the Japanese festivals known as Matsuri. Some recent incidents such as a woman detained in Nanjing for enshrining Japanese war criminals at a local temple and the public debate about people’s reaction to the death of former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe have made some Japanese-related elements sensational amid deteriorating China-Japan relations…

Citizens group sends over 50,000 signatures to Japan’s LDP over anti-LGBTQ booklet connected with Shinto group
The Mainichi
The booklet was circulated in June at a meeting of a group of Diet members affiliated with the Shinto Association of Spiritual Leadership, to which many LDP lawmakers belong…

US: Shinto Shrine of Shusse Inari’s Natsu Matsuri Aug. 14
The Rafu Shimpo
Shinto Shrine of Shusse Inari in America will present Natsu Matsuri on Sunday, Aug. 14, at the Nova Vita Foundation Summer Festival at Tanaka Farms, 5380¾ University Dr., Irvine…

UK: Top harpist to play piece inspired by Shinto mythology at Welsh festival
Nation.Cymru
The piece tells the story of Amaterasu who is the goddess of light in the Japanese Shinto religion…

Shinzo Abe’s assassin and Japan’s complicated spirituality
The New Yorker
Japan regularly appears on lists of the least religious countries. Yet there are more Shinto shrines on the islands of Japan than there are convenience stores, and special occasions such as the New Year bring out large portions of the population to celebrate at holy spots…

The Gion Matsuri: Legend of Somin Shorai
Japan Forward
Seen during the Gion Matsuri, many Kyotoites to this day still paste such charms outside their doors, proclaiming that they are descendants of Somin Shorai…

Japan’s kami and their influence in anime, explained
CBR
Japanese mythology influences a majority of anime and manga. Here’s a breakdown of “kami” and their influence in anime…

Other News

UK: Remembering Dr. James Lovelock
The Wild Hunt
Dr. James Ephraim Lovelock, the influential futurist, chemist, and maverick British ecologist who proposed the Gaia hypothesis has died on his 103rd birthday “surrounded by his family.”…

Roman coin depicting Zodiac symbol discovered off Israel’s coast
Smithsonian Magazine
One side of the coin features an image of Luna, the Roman goddess of the moon, and an image of the zodiac sign for Cancer…

Iraq: Rain shrine in honour of water goddess found in lost city
Newsweek
Arain shrine linked to a water goddess has been found in an ancient mountain fortress that archaeologists believe could be the long-lost city of Natuonia…

Spain: Menorca’s ‘houses of the dead’ reveal these ancient secrets
National Geographic
Long before the Roman Empire, Talayotic people left their mark in wondrous stone structures on the Spanish island…

‘Witch hunts’ past and present

Competition launched for memorial to accused ‘witches’
The Dirt
Buildner, which bills itself as the world’s largest organiser of architecture competitions and has awarded more than $1 million in prizes, has launched a new global ideas competition for a memorial to people unjustly persecuted as witches throughout history…

Ghana: ActionaAid join organisations to demand for law to criminalise tagging people as ‘witches’
All Africa
ActionAid Ghana yesterday joined other Civil Society Organisations to press for law to criminalise the tagging of people as ‘witches’…

Papua New Guinea: Four women tortured to death after being accused of ‘witchcraft’
Geo News
Nine women who were accused of using ‘witchcraft’ to murder a popular businessman were brutally tortured in Enga province, in the highlands of Papua New Guinea, reported Asia News. Four of the women passed away due to injuries and others are in critica
l condition…

Nigeria: NGO rescues 1-year-old boy thrown into the bush by father for ‘alleged witchcraft’
Standard Observers
Child’s Right And Rehabilitation Network has rescued one-year-old boy thrown into the bush by his father for allegedly being a ‘witch’…

India: Woman stabbed to death on suspicion of practicing ‘witchcraft’; 3 held
Northeast Today
A tribal woman was killed in Kokrajhar district of Assam, on the suspicion that she practiced ‘witchcraft’…

India: Accused of ‘witchcraft’, man missing after being thrown into river
Deccan Herald
A man was abducted and thrown into a river in Nagpur allegedly by three persons who suspected he was ‘indulging in black magic’, a police official said…

Malawi’s struggle with deadly ‘witchcraft’ violence
Channels TV
Since 2019, mobs have killed at least 75 people suspected of ‘dark magic’, the Centre for Human Rights and Rehabilitation says…

The gendered accusation of ‘witchcraft’: Why only women?
Feminism India
This oppression regulates a system of women being submissive individuals and men possessing the strength to do anything…