A Pagan Republican?

In New York, there is a pagan running for office that is a Republican. He has the support of the local GOP and criticism of his religion by local liberal media seems to have only generated more support for him.

The article is here. The article also talks about discrimination against pagans in the workplace and the smear attempts that certain Christian organizations attempt especially around Samhain/Halloween.

And the site for the candidate's Theodish faith is here. I haven't dug into the site yet so I can't give any opinions regarding this type of northern heathenism. Maybe someone that knows more about the Norse faiths can comment?

Viking hoard in the news

I came across this news story about a Viking hoard from England.

This paragraph caught my eye:
"A coin featuring St Peter but also the hammer of Thor. It's evidence that worshippers of Thor were being encouraged to Christianise their allegiance by switching the Scandanavian god for Peter."

BBC includes Pagan on their Interfaith Calendar

Somehow I don't see Fox News doing something like this, where the BBC has included pagan holidays on their interfaith calendar.

Then again, we're the country that has museums featuring cave-men riding dinosaurs.


(okay... I'm not positive Creationist museums have exhibits featuring cavemen riding dinosaurs, but would it surprise you?)

Summer solstice

Here's an article with some pics of summer solstice celebrations. While of course the Stonehenge ones were expected (stupid economy keeping me from doing cool stuff like that), the surprising ones were the Russian neo-pagans. There are a lot of them at the celebration shown.

Check out the article here.

Links to Celtic Classics

I found a couple of other links to share.

The first is the Tain Bo Cualnge (Cattle Raid of Cooley). It has a 1914 translation alongside an Irish transcription. The pronunciation guide and listing of names may be of interest to some people.

The second is a site that has a summary of the Mabinogion. I will caveat this by saying I haven't perused the rest of the Timeless Myths site, so I can't vouch for other content.

Cannibalistic Druids?

A National Geographic special on the Druids says that there is evidence to support some of the Roman claims regarding the Celts, namely that they practiced wide-scale human sacrifice and religious cannibalism.

Check out the article here.


Oddly enough I stumbled across this article via an rpg blog that was talking about how most games potray their "Celtic" cultures as tree-hugging elves.