Tag: Paganism

In the basement, officers find candles, Larry’s ritual knife, stained with DNA from one of the girls, a symbol of Baphomet, representing Satan and believed to have occult power, bells and an amulet with an inverted pentagram — all items used in rituals described in “The Satanic Bible.”

Larry tells police he has a spell notebook in his and Marla’s bedroom closet. The notebook contains drawings from the book “Pagan Ways,” references found in the occult fiction book “Necronomicom” and page numbers corresponding to “The Satanic Bible,” including one specific spell.

Paganism is alive and well in America, according to author and National Public Radio correspondent Margot Adler.

Adler, a priestess of the Gardnerian Wiccan tradition, wrote “Drawing Down the Moon: Witches, Druids, Goddess-Worshippers, and Other Pagans in America Today.” The book, first published in 1979, was one of the first publications to document the history and modern practices of various Earth-based religions.

Defying police presence and a thunderous downpour, dozens of Greek pagans huddled near the Parthenon in Athens on Sunday, holding a protest prayer for a museum being built at the foot of the sacred site.

The ceremony, attended by scores of curious onlookers, was performed amid the ruins of the 2,500-year-old Parthenon. The ancient Greek religion was outlawed by the Roman empire in the fourth century.

A small group of pagans pledged Thursday to hold a protest prayer among the ruined Acropolis temples, more than 1,500 years after Christians stamped out worship of the ancient Greek gods.

Peppa’s Athens-based group, Ellinais, is campaigning to revive ancient religion and has defied Culture Ministry bans to hold prayers at several ancient temples.

The ruling has been announced as part of a prisons policy that requires Pagan prisoners to have the same rights as prisoners of other religions. The new rules were drawn up with the help of the Pagan Federation, which advised the prison service on what equipment its members needed.

Supporters and critics of pagan weddings often describe the ceremonies as beautiful, mystical, bizarre and even evil, all descriptions Kemper has heard. But, according to some experts, there is one word they can no longer use: uncommon.