Minnesota Wiccans and neopagans are stepping into the limelight as they push for inclusion of the pentacle on military tombstones.

Long before Elysia Gallo identified herself as a neopagan, she felt drawn to mystical, magical things. (more…)

To begin Women’s History Month, professor Mary Jo Neitz spoke about feminism and spirituality Thursday at Ellis Auditorium.

Women’s Center adviser Beth Pickens said Women’s History Month is important. (more…)

When many think of Paganism, it’s easy to jump straight to magic spells, tarot cards and other sorts of hocus pocus.

For Simon L. Delott, a junior double major in secondary education and philosophy and religion, being a Pagan is more of a religious experience. (more…)

Murphysboro, IL - By the end of class, Denise Livingston of Carterville knew exactly what kind of house her instructor lived in simply by touching his pen.

Livingston and about seven others met with “Coyote” Chris Sutton of Godrey last week at New Ages Other Worlds bookstore to enhance their psychic abilities. (more…)

The pentagram that hangs from a chain around Kate Dunning’s neck elicits raised eyebrows from many people who catch a glimpse of it. The emblem of a star enclosed in a circle symbolizes that she practices witchcraft.

Don’t expect to find any pointy witch hats or steaming cauldrons tucked away in her dorm room closet, however. Dunning, a junior English and French major, is like any other UB student, she just happens to be Wiccan. (more…)

Britain’s image as the home of sensible and practical types takes a knock today, with the publication of data showing just how many of us think we are wizards, time-travellers or able to divine water. Norse and Celtic influences moving down the centuries have led almost 10% of people in some areas to believe they can teleport their neighbours as well as read minds, crystal balls and tarot cards.

The scale of a return to an island of ley lines and Merlin comes to light in a survey of psychic organisations backed by polling and research into cases of supposed witches, enchanters and close encounters of the third kind that have made the media, scientific and alternative journals in the past 100 years. Published by the SciFi TV channel to mark a drama series on the subject, the project was supervised by the Rev Lionel Fanthorpe, an Anglican priest who chairs numerous bodies concerned with unidentified flying objects and “anomalous phenomena”. (more…)

The night wind pushes Don Larsen’s green robe against his lanky frame. A circle of torches lights his face.

“The old gods are standing near!” calls a retired Army intelligence officer.

“To watch the turning of the year!” replies the wife of a soldier wounded in Iraq.

“What night is this?” calls a former fighter pilot.

“It is the night of Imbolc,” responds Larsen, a former Army chaplain.

Of the 16 self-described witches who have gathered on this Texas plain to celebrate a late-winter pagan festival with dancing, chanting, chili and beer, all but two are current or former military personnel. Each has a story. None can compete with Larsen’s. (more…)

Sioux Falls, SD - An inmate serving life in prison for a torture murder that sent two co-defendants to death row wants a federal judge to approve a toy sword and other items and privileges for the practice of an ancient European religion.

Darrell Hoadley, of Lead, who was convicted of murder for his part in the 2000 slaying of Chester Allan Poage near Spearfish, filed the handwritten complaint in U.S. District Court. He lists himself in court documents as counsel elder of the Asatru religious group. (more…)

Judge Elena Simionescu was accused of being a witch and of creating an atmosphere of conflict during her term as a president of the court in Vatra Dornei, a small town in eastern Romania.

She was alleged to have performed rituals involving splashing water, mud and “other liquids”, as well as salt and pepper, on fellow judges’ desks in what some saw as an attempt to bewitch them. The case raises unsettling questions about the outlook of some within the judicial system of one of the newest members of the European Union. (more…)

Iowa - The cramped used bookstore off Main Street in Cedar Falls is not just home to shelves of old novels and magazines (and probably a mass gathering of rats behind the walls), but also to Ishtar’s Tarot Reading.

The man who runs the store is not actually called Ishtar, but I guess Bob just doesn’t sound as otherworldly and mythical. (more…)