Latest news with #paganism
Yahoo
30-06-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Your Zodiac Sign as a High Priestess, According to Astrologers
Your Zodiac Sign as a High Priestess, According to Astrologers originally appeared on Parade. Have you ever felt called to be a spiritual leader? You may have been called an 'old soul' as a child. People have always been drawn to you, because you knew something before it happened. Given your psychic capabilities and spiritual presence, you could be a high priestess. Keep reading to see what kind of high priestess you would be, based on your zodiac sign. High priestesses, or oracles, are individuals who possess spiritual and intuitive knowledge. Usually, a high priestess is a channel for the divine. Spirits, deities, and more conspire with high priestesses to pass along messages. A high priestess is a special person highly respected for their intelligence and psychic abilities. You may think high priestesses are a thing of the past, but high priestesses are still alive and well today. High priestesses are found in spiritual practices rather than your typical organized religion. For example, you may not see a high priestess in the catholic church, but you will likely see a high priestess in a closed spiritual practice. Folk practitioners, pagans, and more still utilize high priestesses in their spiritual communities. Nowadays, high priestesses are consulted on various spiritual questions and matters. High priestesses may provide insight, predictions, remedies, and more to those in their community. Some may specialize in a particular craft or subject, which can align with their zodiac sign. Keep reading, and look for your Sun, Moon, and Rising signs. Nobody else can come close to your leadership skills and capabilities, Aries. As the High Priestess of War, you know exactly how to handle conflict of any kind. Your intuition is more instinctual. Following your first gut reaction often leads to the best results, especially if you are navigating high-stress situations. People may seek you out for intuitive strategies that align with their specific problems and arguments. You always know the opponent's weaknesses, and therefore, you know how to attack. Guide your people to peace by aiding them with your sacred knowledge of war, aggression, and rage. Blessings follow you wherever you go, Taurus. Everything you touch turns to gold, as the High Priestess of Fortune. You innately understand what is valuable. Of course, this directly relates to financial abundance and wealth. You have an eye for lucrative opportunities, security, stability, and material assets. Your community will likely seek your guidance on important financial decisions and possibilities. They trust your divine knowledge, because you know how to turn a dime into a dollar. Likewise, you also know when to stay away from financially disastrous situations. Use your skills to lead your people to prosperity and growth. READ: Your Soul Karmic Path, Based on Zodiac Sign Praise the arts, Gemini. As the High Priestess of the Muses, there's nothing more sacred than upholding knowledge. You intuitively understand that artistic mediums are invaluable. Literature, poetry, art, and more from the Muses hold a wealth of knowledge. Only you can truly divine what each text means. While others may enjoy these mediums, you know how to read between the lines to glean more information. Your community may come to you when they are seeking guidance from music, myths, and other written texts. Share what the Muses have taught you to enrich your community's culture and deepen their knowledge. Your luminosity is unparalleled, Cancer. Nobody else has a special relationship with the ocean like you do, which is why you're the High Priestess of the Tides. As a lunar-ruled water sign, you're attuned to the ebb and flow between the cosmos and the tides. You have a unique relationship with this magnetic force of nature, so your psychic skills are often exceptionally powerful around new and full moons. Others come to you when they're seeking emotional healing and fulfillment. As the High Priestess of the Tides, guide your people to honor the intuitive and sentimental energy of the ocean's relationship with the moon. Be a creative force of nature, Leo. Your channeling is one of a kind, making you the High Priestess of Creation. No matter what you touch, think, or do, you have the immense potential to make something nobody has ever seen or thought of before. Downloads from Spirit will inspire you to bring new life into this world. People will seek you out when they're unsure of their talents and ideas. You know what will not only survive but thrive when one's creativity is actualized. Inspire your community to be confident in their imagination as their High Priestess of Creation. Uphold the woodlands and all the spirits that reside within them, Virgo. The trees, flowers, grass, and more speak to you, as the High Priestess of the Forest. You know all of the spirits of your land, making you a unique oracle. No other oracle is so attuned to every minute movement and energy as you are. Your community will likely seek guidance when they need assistance with communal matters, agriculture, and paying respects to their land by giving offerings. Help your people understand how important the forest is by teaching them to honor the land they live on. Love is sacred, Libra. Your Venusian energy translates to being the High Priestess of the Lovers. It's no surprise if you are a popular oracle. People far and wide will seek you out for romantic guidance. They may ask who their one true love is, if someone is coming back, and other questions relating to their marital destiny. Your gentle temperament gives you the perfect personality for this job. You innately understand how important finding a romantic connection is for so many, which is why you are fated to lead your community in romantic matters and affairs. OTHER: 3 Birth Months That Are Empath Souls, According to Experts May you heal and serve those who need it most, Scorpio. Other zodiac signs have more light-hearted oracle duties and responsibilities compared to you. As the High Priestess of the Broken, you assist those who have been through the worst of the worst. You intuitively empathize with personal turbulence, trauma, taboos, and more. Most would crumble, but not you. Being the High Priestess of the Broken suggests you were once broken yourself, and you know how to come back stronger than ever. Guide those going through the dark night of the soul back to resilience, perseverance, and wholeness with your all-knowingness. Aid those who search high and low, Sagittarius. Your all-seeing third eye intuits from every corner of this world, ordaining you as the High Priestess of the Explorers. Travelers from across the globe will seek you for your divine wisdom. You somehow know everything going on at any time anywhere, giving you a bird's eye perspective of worldly events. People will likely consult you on where to travel, when to go away, and what to expect on their trip. Thankfully, your spiritual gifts can help so many people enjoy and make the most of their adventures. What goes around comes around, Capricorn. As a Saturn-ruled sign, you have been ordained as the High Priestess of Karma. You're attuned to the universe's divine order of giving and taking. Nobody else understands that every action has a reaction quite like you do. You don't necessarily order karma but rather interpret it. Others will come to you to better understand why something did or didn't happen in their lives, since you can divine what kind of karma was bestowed. You have been tasked with the special mission of helping your community understand their karmic lessons. Only you are aligned with other galactic entities, Aquarius. Being the High Priestess of the Esoteric means you work with alien energies. You may intuitively know alien languages that no one else can speak. Weird signs, symbols, and more will find you. Unlike others, you're not afraid of esoteric energy. You might even welcome it since this might feel more natural than human languages and interactions. Only a small number of people may come to you. It's more likely that you serve other communities from other planets. Regardless, you are the bridge between our world and the cosmos. Dreams have immense power, Pisces. Spirit's voice is clearest when you're asleep, which is why you have been dubbed the High Priestess of Dreams. You likely spend most of your time sleeping or in a sleepy state. Nobody might ever see you fully alert. Most of your premonitions might be spoken when you're asleep, so you will have to enlist the help of scribes. People may even come to you after you have appeared in their dreams. They may see it as a sign that you know something. Either way, log your dreams since each one will have a special message. Your Zodiac Sign as a High Priestess, According to Astrologers first appeared on Parade on Jun 28, 2025 This story was originally reported by Parade on Jun 28, 2025, where it first appeared.
The Herald
27-06-2025
- General
- The Herald
Which god will wash away the sin of America's attack on Iran
Modernity is a hot mess right now, so it's possible that after the hustle of Moon Day you're taking things easy on Tiw's Day and might only read this on Odin's Day, or perhaps Thor's Day, before you reach Frigg's Day and then relax on Saturn's Day and Sun Day. But whenever you do read it, try to spare a thought for poor old Tiw and Frigg, once A-listers among the Germanic gods but now, without even a walk-on in a Marvel movie, relegated to being little more than the answers to pub quizzes. They're not alone, of course: there's a whole pantheon of divine has-beens, gods who were revered and beseeched by our ancestors but who are now little more than historical footnotes. Consider Baal, once the go-to god of the Canaanites on all matters climatic and agricultural, a being so powerful that his name meant 'Lord'. But things change, and as soon as the early Israelites decided monotheism was more of a vibe and retired all their gods except Yahweh, the one in charge of war and weather, Baal was kicked to the heavenly curb. It also didn't help that he was still being worshipped by the Philistines next door, and before you could say 'Holy rebranding!' the beloved deity formerly known as Lord had become Baal-zebub and then Beelzebub, one of the princes of hell. Over the weekend as I watched the pagan US president take a moment away from worshipping Mammon and himself to ask Yahweh to bless the US, Israel and the Middle East (because apparently Israel isn't in the Middle East), I was reminded of how transient our gods really are, perhaps because so many of their followers are prone to changing their entire set of beliefs when it suits their earthly interests.
Telegraph
12-06-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
Why Christianity might face the same fate as Paganism
In the spring of 2023, the Royal Household issued invitations to the Coronation of Charles III and Camilla featuring an unexpected crowned head – that of the Green Man. Had the King, Supreme Governor of the Church of England, embraced paganism? The folklorist Francis Young dispelled the chatter, explaining in The Spectator that the Green Man was just 'a personification of the natural world' – and that, as a coherent figure, he had been invented in 1939 by Lady Raglan, one of Young's less scrupulous predecessors in the field. Young knows everything about everything you never quite knew you wanted to know. And in Silence of the Gods, his impressive new history of the end of European paganism, he does so while conveying a dizzying level of doubt as to whether anything of interest is knowable with any certainty at all. Who exactly, for instance, were those 'pagans' against whom Henry of Bolingbroke, the future Henry IV of England, mounted crusades in the Lithuania of the 1390s? How did the legend of the werewolf come to be especially entwined with the folk customs of what was to become present-day Latvia? Having drawn one's attention to such tantalising questions, Young, a scholar immune to the temptations of flowered but delusive byways, at times refuses to answer them neatly. Silence of the Gods treats lesser discussed regions of Europe – the Baltic world, the Volga-Ural, Lapland/Sapmi, Finland and, in a more clement aside, the Canaries – over their long, transitional and little-documented Early Modern years. We're taken from the Christian-conversion processes initiated in the late 14th century to residual and local rituals that, in a handful of cases, by way of the potent crucible of 19th-century nationalism, have trickled into living memory. Young makes an irrefutable case that Lithuania, in particular, ought to be a great deal more studied and considered, whether by scholars, general readers or even contemporary policymakers. For, of all the voices that surface within Young's lightly technical, fundamentally clear prose, I was most struck by that of the Polish lawyer Paweł Włodkowic, who in 1414 established the juridical principle, uniquely advanced in its day, that pagans should not be massacred simply for being pagans. 'It is an error,' wrote Włodkowic, 'completely intolerable, that Christians should gather there to do war against the infidels solely because they are infidels, or because it is said that their goal is the spreading of the Christian Faith, for under the colour of piety impieties are committed.' Upon this rock was founded the political and ecumenical miracle that was the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, as well as, Young persuasively adds, 'the modern world of human rights and international law'. Yet of this brilliant moral jurist's personal character or individual life, we hear nothing. The same goes for the whole extensive galère of Grand Dukes, Jesuit or Lutheran missionaries, 'pagan' rebels, antiquaries, witch hunters and Romantic nationalist litterateurs upon whose evidence Young draws. Such restraint is hardly incompatible with this book's paradoxical quest. Young traces 'the urge to personify' within religious traditions who have left scarce traces of those personalised details. The names and portfolios of Pagan deities here seem to be linguistic corruptions of Christian saints, or Classical parallels misapplied by the Christian scholars recording 'pagan' practices. Such austerity demands a high level of readerly commitment. But it delivers, by the end of this concisely expressed, conceptually meaty book, a substantial reward. The argument at which Young arrives is both consistent and plausible; that the 'pagan' religions of Europe, faced with Christianity's aggressive expansion, entered a third, 'creolised' state. New ideas grew out of, or alongside, Christianity, without being convincingly Christian – an active, 'creative response' to the new, confessional faith's incursion. In an epilogue that reads as startlingly topical, Young proceeds to the next logical query – in the face of dominant European secularism, are we now beholding a 'creolised' transformation of Christianity in turn? (You only need to look to a doctrinally vague 'surf church' in Porto, Portugal, for proof.) Young again displays his knack for identifying a haunting question, without committing to a definitive or simplistic answer. But he does leave one parting insurance policy – 'human religiosity is full of surprises' – which allows room for the recent and intriguing speculation that Gen Z might be warming towards Christianity after all.
Daily Mail
31-05-2025
- General
- Daily Mail
Practising witch has spell of trouble as she is 'thrown off druid training course after member accused her of being transphobic'
A practising with has been left horrified after she claims she was thrown off a druid training course after being accused of transphobia when she spoke up about single-sex spaces. Angela Howard, a second-generation witch whose mother was a high-priestess who ran a coven in the 1980s, turned to the religion hoping to find 'spiritual healing' in 2020 from the faith - even training to become a bard, a division focusing on storytelling, poetry and performance. So she was horrified when she was banned from areas of the faith after speaking up about her experiences when a pagan group said trans women being women 'is not up for debate'. The furious post, made after the Supreme Court ruling that trans women are not legally women, cited their 'unequivocal' support for trans people and belief that 'trans women are women, trans men are men and all non-binary genders are valid'. In a post titled 'Statement of Support for Trans People from the Pagan Federation' they said that their values were 'rooted in respect for the divine', adding that 'the gods and spirits we work with' tell them that identity is part of their spiritual path. And devoted druids were left horrified as the hard-line group banned or blocked anyone who raised an objection. In a comment, they said: 'We are banning people who are being hateful and/or bigoted (4 so far).' She told The Times she raised the issue - citing her own experiences - that there were times when women needed separate facilities, such as changing rooms, women's refuges and prisons. The furious post, made after the Supreme Court ruling that trans women are not legally women, cited their 'unequivocal' support for trans people and belief that 'trans women are women, trans men are men and all non-binary genders are valid' In a comment still visible beneath the group's post, a member said Ms Howard and another woman were 'bigoted TERFs that need banning'. Responding, The Pagan Federation said: 'They have been banned.' Shortly after sharing the statement, the group confirmed that they had banned four members 'so far' for making comments they deemed to be 'intolerance, bigotry or hatred' and that they were 'acting as fast as we can'. Ms Howard was also banned from the British Druid Order's private Facebook group after criticising an article where the Supreme Court decision was proclaimed to be a 'victory for bigotry'. She claimed that following the incident she had been banned from her online account with the British Druid Order, where she was accessing course materials so she could carry out her bardic training. In a written complaint to the BDO, she said, as reported by The Times: 'It is profoundly ironic that within modern paganism and druidry (movements that should be committed to liberation, healing and truth) we are witnessing a kind of spiritual witch-hunt against those who speak up for the rights, safety and dignity of women and girls.' The unanimous Supreme Court ruling last month found that 'woman' and 'man' refer to biological women and men and that 'the concept of sex is binary'. Following the ruling the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has issued new guidance stating unequivocally that in workplaces and places open to the public 'trans women (biological men) should not be permitted to use the women's facilities'. Under the Pagan Federation's post, commenters vented their fury at the drastic policies. Shortly after sharing the statement, the group confirmed that they had banned four members 'so far' for making comments they deemed to be 'intolerance, bigotry or hatred' and that they were 'acting as fast as we can' In a comment still visible beneath the group's post, a member said Ms Howard and another woman were 'bigoted TERFs that need banning'. Responding, The Pagan Federation said: 'They have been banned' She claimed that following the incident she had been banned from her online account with the British Druid Order, where she was accessing course materials so she could carry out her bardic training One said: 'I am sorry to hear this attitude of 'this is not up for debate' regarding one of the most delicate and contentious issues our society faces right now.' They added: 'PF has made it clear in the comments that it expects members who don't toe its line to leave. It is therefore with a heavy heart that I have decided I will not renew my membership this year. 'I cannot in good conscience remain a member of an organisation that will not tolerate different views on political issues which have little to do with Paganism.' Responding, another called the statement 'threatening', saying 'I don't think paganism has anything to do with sex or self identifying'. They said: 'For shame PF you are hurting a section of your members. Of course trans people have rights, of course gays have rights, of course individuals have rights to live as they wish as long as it harms none but that includes women too, the abused, the fearful, the lost and scared. 'You are now causing division in the PF where there was none by your threatening statement.' But others were delighted with the group's stance, praising them as they continued to ban members. One said: 'You're doing a solid job. Every time I finish writing a reply to some of these anti-trans types and click post, you've already removed the post I'm replying to. It's a very pleasant kind of frustration. Keep on beating me to it.' The Pagan Federation, responding to The Times, said that they have a robust complaints procedure to ensure fairness and accountability across the Pagan Federation's activities. They have a policy of not commenting on complaints 'to ensure the fairness of the process and to protect all parties involved'.
New York Times
15-05-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
Ancient Romans, Pagans … and Trump?
To the Editor: Re 'How to Survive the Trump Years With Your Spirit Intact,' by David Brooks (column, May 2): Mr. Brooks's column draws a stark moral contrast between 'paganism' and the Judeo-Christian tradition, equating the former with cruelty, narcissism and authoritarianism. While his critique of dehumanizing political forces is timely and important, his framing of 'paganism' as a wholesale moral failure is both historically reductive and spiritually unfair. Many ancient and modern pagan traditions, far from glorifying domination, emphasize reverence for nature, communal rituals, humility and the interdependence of all life. To equate all paganism with conquest and egoism is to overlook the diversity of worldviews that fall outside the Abrahamic fold, including Indigenous and animist traditions that have long honored compassion, stewardship and balance. Mr. Brooks's binary framing reflects a broader problem in our culture: the tendency to reduce complex moral landscapes into us versus them narratives. In an era marked by polarization, we should resist the pull of rigid moral opposites and cultivate a greater respect for moral plurality. The challenges of our time — environmental degradation, social fragmentation, rising authoritarianism — require not just a return to any one tradition, but also a deeper engagement with diverse sources of wisdom. Compassion, humility and justice are not the sole inheritance of any one faith.
