Paganism

Review: The English Magic Tarot

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TWH – English Magic Tarot is a deck devised by magician and comic book artist Rex Van Ryn, painter Steve Dooley and Pagan writer and musician Andy Letcher. With a foreword by Chosen Chief of the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids Philip Carr Gomm, the new deck deftly entwines all aspects of English Magic. As Philip Carr-Gomm states: “With this deck and book, you have the chance to explore the world of English magic directly, engaging with its peculiar charms and eccentricities. And with what excellent guides!”

Drawing on High Magical Traditions represented by organizations such as Order of the Golden Dawn and embodied by the likes of Aleister Crowley, Dion Fortune and Austin Osman Spare, the deck is replete with Hermetic symbolism. It also acknowledges the low magic path of the cunning folk and how the tarot has been used in that tradition.

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Ban on a Morris Dance tradition splits opinion in England

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SHROPSHIRE, England — A row has erupted after the organisers of the Shrewsbury Folk Festival (SFF) decided to ban morris dancers from wearing blackface at this year’s event. The annual festival is one of the biggest of its kind in England, and it celebrates folk music and traditions from across the UK and farther afield. A morris dancing contingent is customary. However, this year’s costuming tradition must be changed due to the ban precipitated by an equality campaign group, Fairness and Racial Equality in Shropshire (FRESh). Festival director Sandra Sutrees said, “After last year’s festival, the event was accused of racial harassment and threatened with legal action by FRESh, following performances by morris sides wearing full-face black make-up in the town centre.” In a statement, the organisers of SFF further stressed, “The festival finds itself caught between two sides of this opposing argument and believe that this is a national issue that should not be focused solely on SFF.”

Morris is a traditional English dance, others of which include sword and clog dancing. Some Morris sides, especially what is known as border morris, (so called as it is a dancing style that originates from the Welsh border counties of Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Shropshire) paint their faces black.

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King Arthur fights ‘pay to pray’ move at Stonehenge

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King Arthur Uther Pendragon has been fighting for the rights of British Pagans since the 1980s, and his main battleground has been Stonehenge. His main foe? English Heritage, the charity that manages the ancient monument in the county of Wiltshire. Arthur shot to prominence when he led a campaign to remove an exclusion zone around the inner circle of the monument, so that the solstices and equinoxes could be celebrated properly there. His fight took him all the way to the European Court of Human Rights, and English Heritage finally dropped the exclusion zone for the quarter days in 2000.

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The headdresses of Star Carr

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NORTH YORKSHIRE, England — Researchers have completed the first scientific study on the techniques used to create the oldest shamanic or ritual headdresses discovered in Europe. The red deer skull and antler artefacts were unearthed at Star Carr in North Yorkshire, England, and date to some 11,000 years ago in the Mesolithic era. When the site was discovered in the 1940s it yielded the largest haul of ritual items from the period ever found in Europe, and it is considered the most important area for Mesolithic study on the continent. Now, 24 headdresses have been analysed under a five-year project led by the University of York. Twenty-one of them were from the original trove and three were discovered by the team during fresh excavations at Star Carr. The University of York’s Professor Nicky Milner, co-director of excavations at Star Carr, said, “These headdresses are incredibly rare finds in the archaeological record.”  She added, “This is the only site in Britain where they are found and there are only a few other headdresses known from Germany.

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Goddess House open in Glastonbury

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GLASTONBURY, England  – The Glastonbury Goddess Temple has opened the doors on its latest offering to the public: The Goddess House. This facility is a spiritual and educational place of healing, dedicated to promoting Goddess awareness.The Goddess Temple organization and its affiliated ventures support the vision of Motherworld, a society that places Mother Earth, mothers and the values of mothering – love, care and support for each other – at society’s centre rather than at its periphery. The Goddess House is located in the market town of Glastonbury, Somerset, England on Magdalene Street, directly across from the historic ruins of Glastonbury Abbey. The house itself is a large and impressive Georgian building complete with treatment rooms, workshop space and other group-use rooms. The Goddess House offers a large menu of natural healing options, provided by therapists and other professionals, including several types of massage, spiritual consults, counseling, yoga, tarot and meditation training. The original Goddess Temple space, located in the Glastonbury Experience Courtyard, at 2-4 High Street, was opened on Imbolc 2002. The following year, the space was recognized officially as a Place of Worship, and is believed to be the first such place to receive official recognition like this in the UK for 1500 years.