The Wild Hunt (https://wildhunt.org/tag/japan)
The Shinto Hadaka Matsuri, translated as the “Naked Festival,” begins in early February. This year, some changes will take place at various Shinto shrines, and one celebration will begin allowing women to participate for the first time in 1,250 years.
Scientists have detected one of the most powerful cosmic rays ever observed. Named after the Japanese sun goddess Amaterasu, the particle rivals the famous “Oh-My-God” particle observed in 1991 – and appears to come from a blank area of the sky.
In her “twenty-five-ish” years in the Pagan community, Irene Glasse has been a part of Pagan communities as far apart as Maryland and Okinawa. Now, as president of the Frederick CUUPS chapter, Glasse tackles building community in the pandemic era.
KOBE, Japan — Eriko Kawanishi first came to Glastonbury as a graduate student, working on Western paganism for her thesis. Impressing the locals with her understanding, her courage in coming alone to a small English town on the other side of the planet, and her good humour, Eriko soon became an integral part of the Glastonbury community and has taken her knowledge of the UK Pagan scene back to her home country of Japan. Eriko is a researcher at Kyoto University and will be teaching at Konan Women’s University in Kobe as a part-time lecturer beginning September 2017. She said that Western Paganism isn’t studied widely in Asia, and although Shinto, for instance, shares some common themes with Pagan paths such as Druidry, there is currently little formal exchange between the two. As the work of academics like Eriko expands, however, a more in-depth understanding of the spiritual analogies between the cultures is likely to develop.
There are lots of articles and essays of interest to modern Pagans and Heathens out there, sometimes more than our team can write about in-depth in any given week. So The Wild Hunt must unleash the hounds in order to round them all up.
News Update… Convicted killer Charles Jaynes, who has been serving a life-sentence for the murder and molestation of a ten-year-old boy, lost his three-year-battle to change his name. As reported in 2012, Jaynes petitioned to adopt a new name to coincide with his conversion to Wicca. The new name, Manasseh Invictus Auric Thutmose V, was reportedly was given to him by “God.”