A march in London yesterday demonstrated the enduring popularity of polytheistic faiths. But adherents continue to come up against ignorance and distrust

A Parish councillor and practising pagan suffered a “gruesome” death after telling his lover that he had decided to marry another woman, a court was told yesterday.

VANCOUVER -- A British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal says a full hearing should be held into a complaint from a pagan who practices a form of sadism and masochism after he was denied a chauffeur's permit by the city's police department.

Mainstreaming of beliefs includes a scouting club

Prison chiefs have hired a pagan priest to give spiritual advice to three inmates serving life sentences.

Pagan priests will be allowed to use wine and wands during ceremonies in jails under instructions issued to every prison governor.

I became acquainted with the custom of gathering at the full moon when I lived in Taiwan and trekked with friends to a mountaintop outside Taipei for a moonlight picnic to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival. Chinese all over the world celebrate the October festival, buying moon-shaped pastries stamped with special designs and going outdoors after dark to bask in the brightest, roundest moon of the year and think of loved ones who are deceased or far away.

About 21,000 revellers gathered at Stonehenge in Wiltshire overnight to mark the summer solstice.

Organized religion can be roadblock to faith, some say

In the distance, the Acropolis is bathed in the white light of the full moon as the chorus, with arms aloft, chants the name of Zeus into the night. Not an unusual sight in Athens, you might think, only they are not actors, this is not a theatre and there is no tragedy.

Selena Fox is one of the leaders of Circle Sanctuary, 200 acres in southwestern Wisconsin, which is both a nature preserve and a nature spirituality center.

Myths and misconceptions: pagan ceremony a celebration of spirit, sharing of information

The Sunday Herald (Scotland), July 6, 2003

The Sydney Morning Herald, June 30, 2003

The Scotsman (Scotland), June 30, 2003
http://www.thescotsman.co.uk/uk.cfm?id=712452003
TOBY MCDONALD

An exorcist yesterday called for a ‘crusade from the pulpits’ against the growing power of the occult.

Father Jim McManus said paganism and witchcraft were intertwined with evil and needed to be stamped out.

The 62-year-old priest - the only Catholic clergyman to perform the service of "deliverance" regularly - said devil worship could only lead to tragedy.

The profile of paganism will get a boost next month with two festivals and an academic conference on the subject are held north of the Border.

On Saturday, Scotland’s largest ever festival to celebrate followers of Wicca will be held in Glasgow, and next week Glasgow University is hosting a two-day conference to discuss the significance of the film The Wicker Man and the rise of the occult.

It coincides with the Wicker Man Festival in Galloway, which will culminate with the burning of a giant pagan wicker man, as in the film.

The Pagan Federation alone claims over 2,000 devotees in Scotland - rising by 20 per cent in the past six months.

Fr McManus said: "Witchcraft has as its basis an evil source - devil worship. In the end it only cons its devotees, it does them no good at all.

"People just stumble into this by accident. They are fascinated by it, it hooks them and then ruins their lives."

Fr McManus, who is a monk in the monastery of St Mary’s in Perthshire, added: "If people are looking for a sense of purpose and fulfilment in life, they are not going to find it at the end of that road."

In the west of Scotland alone, membership of the Pagan Federation has boomed by a fifth to around 500 this year. About half its members are witches.

The 1973 film The Wicker Man - starring Edward Woodward as a god-fearing police sergeant who is burned to death by pagans, shot in Galloway - has built up a cult following.

Now Glasgow University has launched the first academic conference, under the title Rituals, Readings and Reactions.

Dr Benjamin Franks, a philosophy lecturer who is organising the conference, said: "The organisers are not promoting one theological view over another. We are no more encouraging paganism than a conference on Steven Spielberg’s Amistad would be promoting slavery."

Promoters of the Wicker Man Festival, at Dundrennan near Kirkcudbright, last night denied they were promoting paganism. This year it expects to sell 8,000 tickets over three days. It promises an alternative festival with attractions including extra-terrestrial artwork and a standing stone pyramid.

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