Author: Sue Gyford

Source: Scotsman

http://news.scotsman.com/scotland/Festival-fights-fire-with-fire.6266950.jp

A feast of flames, flesh and fertility came to Calton Hill with the annual Beltane Fire Festival.
Organisers estimated that 11,000 people flocked to the hill for the pagan-inspired celebration last night, watching 350 performers in costumes and body paint dance and drum the hours away.

As night fell...

Author: Mirko Petricevic

Source: The Record

http://news.therecord.com/Life/faith/article/704679

Like many Waterloo Region residents, Tiffany Lazic plans to be knuckle-deep in soil today.

But unlike many of the green thumbs grooming their gardens, Lazic will be tilling the land with holiness on her mind.

“I’ll be … honouring the spark of life that is really starting to kindle in the ground,” Lazic said.

...

Author: Rosa Belerique

Source: Daily Titan

http://www.dailytitan.com/2010/04/04/pagan-club-gaias-titans-brings-religious-diversity-to-campus/

“An it harm none, do as you will,” is the golden rule of the Wiccan faith, said Hayley Arrington, 25, anthropology major and founder of Gaia’s Titans, the on-campus Wiccan/Pagan club.

Paganism and Wicca are both Earth-based religions,...

Author: Lance Benzel

Source: Colorado Springs Gazette

http://www.gazette.com/articles/academy-96589-air-force.html

Air Force Academy officials said today they may never know who left a large wooden cross at the campus’ recently constructed Earth-centered worship circle – or why.

Investigators closed their probe into the Jan. 17 incident a little more than a month after it began, saying they exhausted efforts to find...

Author: Carole Terrell

Source: Citizen-Times

http://www.citizen-times.com/article/20100319/LIVING/303190029

After making it through the harsh winter, people in Western North Carolina are looking forward to the warm sun of spring. Some are preparing to celebrate the season's change with an ecumenical ritual.

Saturday officially marks the first day of spring, being the day of the spring equinox.

Members of Mother Grove...

Author: Kris Bradley

Source: Boston Examiner

http://www.examiner.com/x-26373-Domestic-Witchery-Examiner~y2010m3d17-New-Jersey-State-Board-of-Education-approves-PaganWiccan-holidays-for-the-20102011-school-year

This morning, the New Jersey Board of Education voted to approve their list of religious holidays permitting pupil absence from...

Author: Lanz Christian Bañes

Source: Vallejo Times Herald

http://www.timesheraldonline.com/news/ci_14628847

For Gared Nickas, good fortune is in the cards -- literally.

"She told me this one can fill up," said the 7 year old from Sonoma as he pointed to a mini Tarot card with a single large cup.

The good tidings were hard earned, as Gared was one of a dozen or so children scrambling to find them hidden in plastic eggs Saturday at the...

Author: Mary Garrigan

Source: Rapid City Journal

http://www.rapidcityjournal.com/lifestyles/article_a891c09c-29ae-11df-b729-001cc4c002e0.html

If the only thing you know about the Asatru religion is that a convicted killer lost his legal bid for a plastic sword so he could practice it at the South Dakota State Penitentiary, then Harold Chant has an invitation for you.

Chant, of Rapid City, is hosting...

Author: Rich Freedman

Source: Vallejo Times Herald

http://www.timesheraldonline.com/ci_14518130

Nobody's getting burned at the stake. No one's flying around the Benicia Clocktower on a broom. And there won't likely be a curse cast on anyone questioning the admission charge.

Dispelling myths is one purpose of Saturday's 2nd Annual Witches' Ball sponsored by The Pagan Alliance.

"It would be easier to put on Pagan events in Berkeley or San...

Author: Lee Rood

Source: The Des Moines Register

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20100304/NEWS/3040352/Teacher-suspended-for-denying-Wiccan-altar

A Guthrie Center teacher this week received a five-day unpaid suspension for insubordination for not allowing a student to build a Wiccan altar in his shop class - discipline he said he still doesn't agree with.

Dale Halferty, who...

Author: Rebecca Kheel

Source: The Daily Orange

http://media.www.dailyorange.com/media/storage/paper522/news/2010/02/25/News/Paganism.Met.With.Mixed.Feelings.At.Su-3879317.shtml

When Mary Hudson helped form Student Pagan Information Relations and Learning nine years ago, she remembers, passersby would snicker and stare as the group performed rituals on the Quad. She said...

Author: Paisley Dodds

Source: MSNBC

Wire Service: AP

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35541950/ns/world_news-haiti_earthquake/

Angry crowds in a seaside slum attacked a group of Voodoo practitioners Tuesday, pelting them with rocks and halting a ceremony meant to honor victims of last month's deadly earthquake.

Voodooists gathered in Cite Soleil where thousands of quake survivors live in tents and...

Author: Jane Walshe

Source: Irish Central

http://www.irishcentral.com/news/Pagan-weddings-now-allowed-in-Ireland-84903247.html

Pagan weddings, in many cases performed by a recognized druid, will now be allowed in Ireland.

Following a five-year campaign the Irish state has now recognized the right of the Pagan Federation Ireland to perform weddings.

Couples will now be able to be legally married...

Author: Dan Elliott

Source: Denver Post

Wire Service: AP

http://www.denverpost.com/headlines/ci_14437567

A religious-liberty advocate said Friday that Air Force Academy officials have convinced him they're serious about investigating a possible case of religious harassment, easing his earlier doubts.

Mikey Weinstein, president of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, expressed skepticism earlier this month...

Author: Staff Writer

Source: Beliefnet/Religion News Service

http://blog.beliefnet.com/news/2010/02/wiccan-chaplain-battles-for-st.php

A volunteer Wiccan chaplain is headed to a federal appeals court in an attempt to get California to hire prison clergy outside five religious categories.

Supported by interfaith scholars and church-state separationists, the Rev. Patrick McCollum argues that the state policy has the "...