The Wild Hunt (https://wildhunt.org/tag/russia/page/3)
The recent case of three Chechens accused of Witchcraft and humiliated on television may reflect an increasing scrutiny and persecution of folk magic practitioners, healers, and other occult practitioners.
Our Spotlight on Traditions explores the varied traditions of Pagan, Heathen and polytheistic practice. In this installment just after Lughnasadh and the Day of Perun (the thunder god) on August 2, we look back at the summer season in the Slavic faiths.
Pagan Perspectives
A Note from the Editors Regarding Loki in the White House
December 2nd, 2018
Dear Readers of The Wild Hunt:
Since the publication of Loki in the White House, the column has been discussed at length across the Pagan internet. To say that its portrayal of Loki, and its comparison of Loki to Donald Trump, has been regarded as controversial would be an understatement. The Lokean community in particular has strongly criticized the column, with many feeling that it was tantamount to a call for Heathens to cut ties with Lokeans altogether. (A group of Lokeans sent a letter to The Wild Hunt calling for amendments or a retraction to the column; that letter can be read here.)
At The Wild Hunt, we are proud to have writers from many different backgrounds represented in our roster of regular columnists, including multiple writers of color, writers from outside the Anglosphere, and writers of queer identities – not to mention writers from many different approaches to Paganism. We see our commentary section as a place for these voices to have the freedom to analyze, critique, and debate issues of interest to Pagans in deep and challenging ways.
As some Pagans and Heathens attempt to revive ancient or indigenous religions they often rely on the work of historians, primary texts and archaeologists. For this reason, when something new pops up that challenges long held academic ideas on cultural or religious practice, we pay attention. Here are some of the new(er) finds making waves in archaeological circles. The Shigir idol
YEKATERINGBURG, Russia — In 1894, gold prospectors near Yekaterinburg, 880 miles east of Moscow, found a carved wooden statue 16 feet, 4.8 inches (5 meters) long. Images of human faces, human hands, and zig zag cover the statue; t also had a human head at its top.
There are lots of articles and essays of interest to modern Pagans and Heathens out there, more than our team can write about in depth in any given week. Therefore, the Wild Hunt must unleash the hounds in order to round them all up.
For those readers following the Dakota pipeline story, the Standing Rock Sioux were handed their first legal victory June 14. Judge James Boasberg “said that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers failed to perform an adequate study of the pipeline’s environmental consequences when it first approved its construction.” However, that is not the end of the struggle. The court did not stop construction altogether, but rather paused it until a proper study was done and could be evaluated.