Noticias de interés Wiccano en Latinoamérica y el Mundo

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Permalink Reply by Eblis on May 29, 2009 at 8:27am

Los siguientes recortes periodísticos son cortesía de Wiccangel, únicamente me he tomado la libertad de pegarlos también aquí.

¡Gracias y fantásticas noticias!

Permalink Reply by Eblis on July 4, 2009 at 9:35pm

India turns to Wiccan queen to save girls

Mon Jul 2, 2007 (Sé que es una noticia antigua, pero me impresionó mucho).

By Bappa Majumdar

KOLKATA, India, July 2 (Reuters) - India has enlisted the follower of a global pagan witchcraft movement to help curb the country's high female infanticide rate and end the neglect of the girl child, officials said on Monday.

Ipsita Roy Chakraverti, a Wiccan and social activist, has been nominated by the government's National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions (NCMEI) to head a panel tasked with improving the status of young girls, they said.

Around 10 million girls have been killed by their parents over the last 20 years, the government says, as female infanticide and foeticide, although illegal, are still prevalent with boys preferred to girls as breadwinners.

"This is a triumph for Wicca as the establishment was against Wiccans for years," Chakraverti said.

Wicca is primarily a Western movement of nature worship based on pre-Christian traditions and is recognised as an official religion in the United States.

Like many pagan religions, Wicca practises magic. Wicca witches believe that the human mind has the power to cause change in ways that are not fully understood by science.

In their rituals, as well as honouring their deities, witches also perform spells for healing and help people with problems.

MILES TO GO

The Wiccan campaign has made inroads into several rural pockets across India and has helped raise awareness against victimising young women and girls as witches.

Authorities expect that this influence could be expanded to promote the overall well-being of young girls.

Chakraverti, who studied the faith in Canada, is planning to institutionalise Wicca in India. She has set up a "Wiccan Brigade" to stop the persecution and killing of young girls and women on the pretext of their being witches.

"Ipsita is the right person for the task as she is widely travelled, does a lot of social work and feels pain for the downtrodden," NCMEI chief M.S.A. Siddiqui said from New Delhi.

"We are still far away from improving the status of the girl child and this committee will help us reach this goal and will not make any discrimination on the basis of religion and caste," Siddiqui, a retired judge, said.

Domestic violence and sexual abuse involving young girls is reported frequently in the country and a 2006 government survey found that 45 percent of girls were married before the legal marriageable age of 18.

India's adult female literacy rate was 47.8 percent, compared to the adult male rate of 73.4 percent in 2004.

The sex ratio in the country is still one of the world's lowest, with an average of 933 females recorded for every 1,000 males in the 2001 census.

"Education of girls even in big cities was dismal and census figures show that the population of the girl child was dropping," said Chakraverti, adding that tough laws and education of parents were needed to force change."

"Most cannot complete primary education".

Permalink Reply by Eblis on July 4, 2009 at 9:37pm

FACTBOX: Five facts about witches and Halloween

Mon Oct 29, 2007

(Reuters Life!) - The following are five facts about the witch religion of Wicca and Halloween, known as the Wiccan New Year of Samhain:

* The word "witchcraft" has three main connotations: the practice of magic or sorcery; the beliefs associated with the Western witch-hunts of the 14th to the 18th century; and varieties of the modern movement called Wicca.

* Wicca was first publicized in 1954 by a British civil servant named Gerald Gardner who said the religion dated to an old witch cult that existed in secret for hundreds of years, originating in the pre-Christian Paganism of Europe.

* Wicca is recognized as an official religion in the United States. It is a primarily Western movement of nature worship based on pre-Christian traditions.

* In the United States, there are between 250,000 and 500,000 followers of the Wiccan witch religion, which honors the "Elements of Nature" -- Earth, Air, Fire, Water, Spirit -- and their associated directions -- North, East, South, West, Center -- in "sacred circles" where rituals are held.

* The Wiccan New Year of Samhain is considered a precursor to modern Halloween. Today it coincides with Halloween on October 31. Historically, it was a Celtic festival held on November 1 where the world of the gods was believed to be made visible to mankind. Modern witches say it is a time of year when the "veil between the dead and the living is thin."

Sources: U.S. Wiccan group Circle Sanctuary, Encyclopedia Britannica

Permalink Reply by Eblis on July 4, 2009 at 9:38pm

Witches gather in U.S. to honor ancestors at Halloween

Mon Oct 29, 2007

By Jackie Frank

COLLEGE PARK, Md. (Reuters Life!) - There are no plans to fly on a broom across the full moon or send black cats scurrying through graveyards, but witches' covens will gather on Oct. 31 to honor and commune with beloved ancestors.

For while other Americans don costumes and go trick-or-treating, members of the pagan religion of Wicca will gather to celebrate the Wiccan New Year of Samhain, which is considered a precursor to modern Halloween.

"It is the most important holiday of the year, and some traditions believe it is the new year," said Dianne Piantedosi, a member of Wicca which is officially recognized as a religion in the United States and is estimated to have up to 500,000 followers.

"(At this time) the ground is holy and hallowed because that is where the ancestors reside. It is a special time of year," said Piantedosi in an interview at her store "Spark of Spirit" in this Washington, D.C. suburb.

On that evening, she will gather with her coven to remember and honor relatives, friends and pets who have "crossed over."

They will prepare a "dumb supper" with plates of the favorite food and drink of the deceased, display photos of those they want to remember, and burn candles.

"Then we sit down and we commune with them," she said. "They say this is the time of year that they would come and divine secrets to you and tell you what the year would hold in store for you."

Asked if she had communicated with those who have passed, she said simply: "I've gotten my messages, yes."

The depictions of a crone on a broomstick certainly don't apply to Piantedosi, 40, who has medium-length light brown hair and is dressed casually in tan pants and a white shirt.

"I don't have a pointy hat, but I do have a broom and I do have a caldron," she said, adding that the broom is used to sweep negativity away from the house and not to fly.

She has a caldron but she will make stew in a pot as it's easier on Samhain, which historically was the Celtic New Year's Eve, when the pagan year begins.


BELIEFS AND PREJUDICE

Piantedosi, who cautions she does not speak for all Wicca members, was raised Jewish and has been involved in the Wicca religion for about 12 years, opening her polytheistic religious store three years ago with husband Tanner Piantedosi.

Wicca, based on nature and spirit, is a new religion that was started in the 1950s out of several ancient traditions with Wiccans holding services called "ritual" in covens, ideally with 13 members, in homes or other locations.

The Wicca religion, predominantly involving women, is growing in the United States but slowly as they do not proselytize.

One reason is wariness of outsiders and the potential for discrimination or persecution, but as it becomes more familiar to people, she said these fears are starting to be dispelled.

Piantedosi's store sells religious books of all doctrines and some stones, seeds and oils used in magic spells, with the most popular linked to love and money.

But Wicca magick -- spelled with a k to differentiate it from magicians' tricks -- is to direct the energy around the earth to a specific positive purpose such as healing.

"Magick is about changing consciousness. It's about energy manipulation," she said. Wiccas are required to do no harm.

Samhain is one of eight major Wicca holidays and in recognition of the holiday, Piantedosi has set up an ancestor altar in the store with candles, a chalice, a ritual knife used to direct energy called an athame, and statues representing the god and goddess, male and female spirits.

No "eye of newt and toe of frog" are found in her store although bottles of red dragon's blood bubble bath are sold.

"But it's expensive because it's difficult to get the little guys to donate," she said with a smile.

Permalink Reply by Eblis on July 4, 2009 at 9:40pm

New interest dawns for Italy's old pagan roots

A Samhain ritual is seen in a file photo.

By Barbara Cornell

MILAN (Reuters Life!) - Milan will sweep aside its Roman and Papal heritage this weekend to celebrate Samhain, popularly regarded as the Celtic New Year, at a festival which highlights Italy's awakened interest in its pagan past.

The city's Sforzesco Castle will host crafts like weaving, coining money and making chain mail to a backdrop of music from Italy, Ireland, Scotland and Spain. More than 100,000 visitors are expected to come to see Celtic warriors clash in battle.

The focus is strictly cultural heritage, not religion, said Emanuela Magni, co-organizer of the event.

"It teaches how even with the passage of time, there are some concepts of the universe that have endured here," Magni said, noting that the Celtic holy tradition of Samhain was a precursor to holidays like All Saints Day and All Souls Day.

But as Italy uncovers its pre-Christian roots, it is also awakening pagan practice.

"Indeed something is afoot here quietly but determinedly, and it appears to be a movement," wrote American religious studies researcher Francesca Howell, in a paper published last month by the international journal of pagan studies, Pomegranate.

Italy has deep roots in witchcraft, or "stregoneria," Howell said in an interview. But its current pagan movement echoes earlier trends in the British Isles and America. Italy's pagans have coalesced around movements like feminism and environmentalism.

"It truly is a different cup of tea, or different cauldron of herbs, if you will," she said.

Melwyn, a 23-year-old Milanese secretary who gave only her Celtic name, fits the movement's demographics.

A Celtic re-enactor, she read about Wicca as a teenager and discovered practitioners at the Samhain festival four years ago.

"A lot of people are close to Wicca without knowing it, especially re-enactors" she said. "They believe in it but don't acknowledge it."

Organizers say numbers are elusive, but using sources like mailing lists, event registration and journal subscriptions, they place their ranks at between 2,000 and 10,000.

The founder of Milan's Circle of the Crossroads, Davide Marre, remembers when his group numbered "four cats," an expression for virtually nobody.

Six years later, he has 200 members, with conferences, study groups, a magazine, a book, even a monthly bar fest called the Witches' Café.

Given Italy's past, Marre said he is not surprised by the revival. "Italy is the land of the gods," he said.

Permalink Reply by LaMadduk on April 19, 2011 at 12:25pm

Saludos a todos. Mañana termina la Subasta Silenciosa para la Lustración de los
Ancestros en Texas. Tienen muchos items bonitos y a precios bastante razonables.
realmente depende de la suerte. Tienen envíos internacionales a precio muy
bueno. Y todo lo ganado, como simpre ayuda a este proyecto y a la Tradición.
http://correllian.com/silentauctionspring2011.htm

Yo estoy participando por 2 items. jiji
espero que se animen!!!

les pego el mensaje de la Rev Anna.


Bendiciones mágicas

lamadduk

Greetings All,

I just wanted to send out this reminder that the internet portion of the Silent
Auction will be ending soon.

The response has been great, yet we still have a number of awesome items that
have not received any bids yet.

There are many bargains available, so don't let them slip away.

Check out the auction at:

http://correllian.com/silentauctionspring2011.htm

This fund raising project benefits the Correllian Tradition and Lord Don.

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