The Official newWitch Blog

The April 14 edition of the Columbia, Missouri Tribune has an interesting and sympathetic piece about Ozark Avalon, a Wiccan Church and nature preserve located in central Missouri, and their annual Triple Goddess Gathering.

Here is a sample quote from Rose Wise, High Priestess of Ozark Avalon:

As Wiccans, we see the goddess as being both within ourselves and around us in nature. Each woman is a goddess and part of the larger goddess that is reflected in the natural order.

Annie Nelson’s article is refreshingly free of snarky comments and silly sensationalism;  she didn’t feel the need to explain that Wiccans don’t worship the Devil or make snide comments about Charmed and Sabrina.  Congratulations to Ms. Nelson and to the Columbia Tribune for treating our religion seriously: here’s hoping that many more journalists follow your lead.

Every April 5, millions of Chinese people celebrate Qingming (”Clear and Bright”) Festival by tending the graves of their ancestors. Paper money and paper coins are left behind as an offering. Those who wish to ensure that their ancestors are especially prosperous can leave them replica bicycles, watches, sewing machines or even laptop computers. A mock Mercedes can be had for 4,000 yuan ($520) while a gazebo-sized imitation house goes for 30,000 yuan ($3,900).

Now some particularly devoted descendants are looking after their ancestors’ … other needs. A brisk trade has developed in paper Viagra(tm) and condoms, as well as paper female figurines.  Some say this is in poor taste: I suspect my ancestors would approve most heartily.

According to legend, Aphrodite was born from the sea foam off the coast of Cyprus.   And if recent archaeological findings are to be believed, Cyprus also gave birth to the perfume industry.  At a sprawling archaeological site on a hillside overlooking the Mediterranean at Pyrgos-Mavroraki, 55 miles south-west of Nicosia, archaelogists have unearthed 4,000 year old alabaster vials named after Greek goddesses and containing fragrances distilled from pine, coriander, cinnamon, parsley, bergamot, bitter almonds and laurel.

The perfumery formed part of a site dating from 2000BC which included a copper smelting works, a winery and an olive press that provided the base ingredient for the fragrances. Fragments of enormous storage jars capable of holding 500 litres of olive oi (the  base of these perfumes) were also discovered, suggesting the scope of this operation.  As Maria Rosa Belgiorno, lead archaeologist at the site said.

We were astonished at how big the place was … Perfumes must have been produced on an industrial scale. No wonder the island got its reputation for possessing the skills of Aphrodite.

Police in Orlando, Florida arrested 21-year old Eric Montanez, a member of the charity group Food Not Bombs, for violating a law which prohibits feeding large groups of homeless people in the city center.  According to the arrest affidavit, Montanez served “30 unidentified persons food from a large pot utilizing a ladle.” A vial of the stew was also collected as evidence.

The cities of Las Vegas, Dallas, Fort Myers, Fla., Gainesville, Fla., Wilmington, N.C., Atlanta, and Santa Monica, Calif., have passed similar laws restricting or outright prohibiting the feeding of the homeless.  Other cities, including Miami, are considering similar anti-feeding measures.  Says Maria Foscarinis, executive director of the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty, NLCHP, a non-profit in Washington, D.C.

We’ve seen cities going beyond punishing homeless people to punishing those trying to help them, even though it’s clear that not enough resources are being dedicated to helping the homeless or the hungry

A 2006 report on 67 cities by her group and the National Coalition for the Homeless, a nonpartisan, non-profit network, found an 18 percent increase since 2002 in laws prohibiting aggressive panhandling; a 12 percent jump in laws outlawing “passive” begging; a 14 percent rise in laws defining sitting or lying in public places as criminal acts.

Perhaps those Orlando residents who consider themselves Christian should, on this Good Friday, remember what Jesus is quoted as saying in Matthew 25:41-45

41 Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you accursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.

42 For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink,

43 a stranger and you gave me no welcome, naked and you gave me no clothing, ill and in prison, and you did not care for me.’

44 Then they will answer and say, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or ill or in prison, and not minister to your needs?’

45 He will answer them, ‘Amen, I say to you, what you did not do for one of these least ones, you did not do for me.’

We will be following this story and will provide information on how you can donate to Mr. Montanez’s defense fund and work to help the homeless and hungry in your community. 

For quite some time, archaeologists have speculated that the story of Atlantis was inspired by a massive volcanic eruption on Santorini, an island located approximately 125 miles (200km) from modern-day Greece.   New research suggests that blast was even bigger than previously supposed - and that its devastating effects were felt hundreds of miles away in Egypt.

Using techniques previously used by oil companies to locate petroleum deposits,  a team of Greek and American researchers found that the Santorini archipelago was ringed with volcanic deposits averaging 100 feet (30 meters) thick and extending about 19 miles (30 kilometers) in all directions.  This suggests that the Santorini eruption involved approximately 60 cubic kilometers of magma - or six times the amount released during the devastating Krakatoa eruption of 1883!

To give some idea of the sheer size of this event, Egyptian archaeologists have unearthed traces of solidified lava on the northern coast of Sinai that date to around 1500 B.C.  The archaeological team, led by Mohamed Abdel Maqsoud of Egypt’s Supreme Council for Antiquities, found houses, military structures, and tombs encased in ash, along with fragments of pumice, near the ancient Egyptian fortress of Tharo,  near where the Nile Delta meets the Sinai peninsula.

The Santorini eruption would have massive tsunamis: the much smaller Krakatoa eruption caused 100 ft. (30m) high waves.   These would have carried with them “overwater flows,” scalding debris composed of pumice, hot ash, and superheated gases.   The Minoans, a seafaring people living on nearby Crete, would have been caught unawares by the blast: famine and disease would soon claim many of those fortunate enough to survive the initial shockwave.   

According to Haraldur Sigurdsson, a volcanologist at the University of Rhode Island, this event inspired not only the legends of Atlantis but also a passage in Hesiod’s Theogony describing an epic battle between giants and Greek gods that took place out at sea.   Written some 800 years after the Santorini eruption, Sigurdsson believes Hesiod was inspired by folklore based on survivor accounts.

He uses all the terminology one would use in describing an eruption.  The people who lived close enough to see that it was a volcano were all killed. [The rest] could only describe it in supernatural terms.

Bahucharaji, the patron deity of eunuchs in India’s Gujarat province, has a new devotee: a  transgendered Englishwoman named Pamela.  While residing in London, Pamela encountered a few Gujaratis who told her about Bahucharaji.  Intrigued, she went to the Internet and later had Bahucharaji’s image tattooed on her arm.

Today Pamela (also called “Prema” by Hindu devotees) resides in Bahucharaji’s temple in Becharaji, a town in northern Gujarat.  Clad in a saffron sari, she grants blessings to pilgrims, attends ceremonies and has become a strict vegetarian.  While she has inspired a bit of professional jealousy among some of the other eunuchs residing in the temple, the pilgrims accept her with no qualms.

Indiasnews has a fascinating article on Pamela: let’s hope she gets her visa renewed and is able to continue her work in the service of her goddess.

Just received from Kerri-Leigh Grady:

This November, five witches in San Diego will cast one of the most powerful spells we know. Team Witch Way to the Cure will take part in the Breast Cancer 3 Day Walk, to benefit Susan G Komen for the Cure and the National Philanthropic Trust. Each step of the 60 miles we’ll walk will be taken with the intent to find a cure for this horrible disease.

They are taking donations here:  we encourage our readers to offer their support!

While it may not be the greatest television show of all time, the original Star Trek was certainly one of the most influential.  And now James Doohan (better known as Commander Scott, the faithful engineer of the Starship Enterprise)  will be going to the Final Frontier.   Doohan will be following in the footsteps of Gene Roddenberry, whose ashes were sent into orbit in 1997.

By all accounts, Doohan was a kind and gracious man who was happy to chat with fans.   He drew our attention to the stars; it is only fitting that they should be his final destination as he takes his place among the honored ancestors.

Not long after posting, yr. editor was informed that the original article was an April Fool’s joke.  (Silly me for not looking at the calendar!)

Apologies to our readers, and here’s hoping that Phil Brucato and Isaac Bonewits can get a refund at their local garden supply store.

(Kudos to Livejournal user vgnwitch for bringing this to my attention!)

Michael Ford, a 55-year old furniture restorer and gardener, has always enjoyed making teas and infusions with the herbs he grows on his Berkshire allotment. But when he tried an infusion made with winter-flowering heather, he got an unexpected surprise. In his own words

The effect was almost immediate. I had to stay in my potting shed for an hour or so before I could decently walk down the street.

He brought this to the attention of scientists at Edinburgh’s Royal Botanical Gardens, who discovered that winter-flowering heathers (Erica spp.) contain a chemical analogue of Viagra. When this hit the news, Britannia’s garden centres were soon mobbed with men looking for a little extra starch in their underwear. Says an official representative of Wyevale Garden Centres, a chain with 106 stores in the UK

At first, it was just a trickle of inquiries, but now stores are virtually being besieged each weekend. We have had men buying dozens of the plants and, at one store in Croydon, there were men old enough to know better fighting over the last remaining trays.

Before too long we can expect spam for “CHEEP \/\/in+3r F10w3ring H3@+h3r!!!!”