In the early 17th century, a condemned witch goes to the gallows, saying under her breath an incantation of the Old Religion. Only the incantation invokes the Virgin Mary, Ave, Regina Caelorum, and the old religion is Roman Catholicism, made virtually synonymous with treason during the reigns of Edward VI, Elizabeth I, and James I [...]
Jason Pitzl-Waters recently mentioned a new moral panic in Ukraine that includes laws against psychics and divination. Gambling and artistic depictions of nudity are also affected. The Pagan connection to the latter? Igor Gaidai, a Ukrainian photographer whose compositions claim to invoke pre-Christian times, is the reporter’s example of who the crackdown is affecting, as [...]
Following Saudi Arabia’s recent threat to execute Lebanese radio personality Ali Sabat for “sorcery,” the progressive government of Bahrain now plans to make sorcery and witchcraft criminal offenses, evidently part of a new Arab Muslim attack on the psychic arts. People found guilty of sorcery and witchcraft would face unspecified jail terms and undetermined fines [...]
Blogger Gus diZerega polled his readers on “The Ten Worst Movies Depicting Witches and Other Pagans.” Readers differed on The Craft: “As a movie, I don’t think it was too bad. But their portrayal of witches as goth teenage girls with (somewhat severe) psychological problems just rubs me the wrong way.” But another suggested, “The [...]
During the 1980s, real people went to real prisons on the strength of children’s fantasies. Many of these were people who operated preschools and had devoted their lives to child care. The 1987-90 McMartin Preschool trial, described as the most expensive criminal trial in American history, produced no convictions–but you can imagine the effect on [...]
A group of Pagan Studies scholars started Friday at the big John Waterhouse exhibit at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. It offered the largest selection of his paintings ever, plus sketches, drawings, and letters. When the docent suggested that “The Magic Circle” was not really about religion, she was quickly corrected. Poor, well-meaning, volunteer [...]
Glancing back at Oberon Zell’s sporadic blog, I see mention of the “Azkatraz” Harry Potter convention in San Francisco last July. (Scroll down to the “Escape from Azkatraz” subhead in Aug. 1, 2009 entry.) The Zells took a vendor space for their Mythic Images business of New Age, Pagan, and Goddess-oriented images, etc. But it [...]
The popular image of the sexually alluring witch goes back to Circe at least, was notable in the early modern period in the work of artists such as Hans Baldung, and got a big boost from Jules Michelet. It keeps popping up today. Sometimes it is lightly disguised, as in the Craigslist posting blogged about [...]
A British newspaper posts a slideshow of tryouts to be the “Wookey Hole Witch,” an event that came to the attention of the American Pagan blogosphere earlier this month. Watch it if you dare.
It’s a common argument among Pagans–Witches in particular–when conversing with monotheists to say something like, “What you call prayer, we call spells,” or words to that effect. No doubt we think ours are better. No one is testing them, but there have been a number of studies attempting to quantify the effects of “intercessory prayer,” [...]
