News: Remembering Historic Witch Trials

Here are a few news stories from the past couple of days about commemorations of historic witch trials:

Pendle witch camp and folklore festival, aimed to coincide with the 400th anniversary of the Pendle witch trials, is being billed as the “biggest and most accessible yet”. You can read the full story on The Citizen website: http://www.burnleycitizen.co.uk/news/9498485.Pendle_Witch_Camp_and_Folklore_Festival_set_to_be__biggest_and_most_accessible_yet_/

Local historians hunt copies of out-of-print book containing tales of witch trials. You can read the full story on the Bo'ness Journal website: http://www.bonessjournal.co.uk/community/hunt_on_for_old_witch_trial_book_1_2082047

Norway gets two memorials to the 91 victims of a famous witch trial in 1621: You can read the full story on the Wall Street Journal website: http://blogs.wsj.com/ideas-market/2012/01/27/a-cross-cultural-monument-to-victims-of-witch-trials/?mod=google_news_blog.

News: London Stone to be Moved

Developers want to move The London Stone, an ancient stone that, according to legend, protects the City of London from doom. English Heritage, the Victorian Society, the Ancient Monument Society and many others who are interested in the folklore, traditions and superstitions of London, are opposed to the plans.

You can read accounts of the news story at these sites:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2091093/London-Stone-Fury-developers-plan-legendary-rock-historic-site.html
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/between-the-covers-the-london-stone-the-costa-prize-and-salman-rushdie-6296077.html

Previous related post:
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2009/10/ancient-stone-heart-of-london.html

TV: Atlantis and Fairies

There are a couple of things on television this weekend that could appeal to those interested in the unexplained.

Atlantis: The Evidence - a Timewatch Special is being shown on BBC4 tonight (Saturday) at 8pm. In the documentary, historian Bettany Hughes looks at the historical evidence for Atlantis. This was first shown on BBC2 and is very good.

Fairy Tale: A True Story is on Channel 5 tomorrow (Sunday) at 4.05pm. This is a period drama based on a true story. In 1917 two young girls claimed to have seen and photographed fairies - which became known as the Cottingley Fairies. The film originally came out in 1997 and gets four stars in the Radio Times. However, if you miss it, you could always buy the DVD through Amazon or rent it on Lovefilm.

Recent related post:
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2012/01/review-fairies-magical-beings.html

Pagan events for Imbolc in London and the UK

Here are some of the pagan events in London over the time of Imbolc - and some rituals in other parts of the UK to celebrate the first stirrings of spring.

Friday, 27 January; Demonstration of the Art of Palmistry and Tarot by Avril Price and Robin Lown and Reena Kumarasingham at The College of Psychic Studies, 16 Queensberry Place, London SW7 2EB. Time: 7pm - 8.30pm. Cost: £8/12. Advance booking essential. Tel: 020 75893292.
http://www.collegeofpsychicstudies.co.uk/index.html

Friday, 27 January; The Geometry of Creation. Talk by Milena Ivovic based on her book Memento 13: Remembering the Self Through the Geometry of God's Loveat Research into Lost Knowledge Organisation (Rilko). Venue: Theosophical Society, 50 Gloucester Place, W1U 8EA. Admission £7 non-members, £5 members. Doors open 6.45pm, lecture at 7.15pm.
http://www.rilko.net/EZ/rilko/rilko/home.php

Friday, 27 January; The Story of Rebecca West and The Art of Crafts. Two plays about the witch craze of the 1640s. Venue: Colchester Castle Museum, Castle Park, Colchester, Essex, CO1 1TJ. Time: 6pm. Tickets: £5. To book, call 01206 282940 or visit Hollytrees Museum, Colchester. http://www.cimuseums.org.uk

Saturday 28 January; Free and Open Gorsedd of Caer Abiri Imbolc Rite at Avebury Sun Circle, in Avebury, Wiltshire (pictured). Open druidic style ceremony to celebrate the first stirrings of spring. Meet at the Red Lion Pub, Avebury, around noon for rite at around 1.30pm, ending around 3pm. Bring bread, cakes and drink to share, bring poetry to read.

Sunday 29 January; Mysteries of Imbolc: Intensive Day Course on Symbolism, Folklore and Magic with Suzanne Corbie. The one-day course aims to teach the customs associated with the pagan festival of Imbolc and culminates with a ceremony. Location: Treadwells, 33 Store Street, Bloomsbury, London WC1E 7BS. Price: £35 (£20 deposit, balance due on the day). Time: 11am to 6pm. Advance booking essential. Tel: 0207 419 8507 or email: info@treadwells-london.com http://www.treadwells-london.com/

Sunday 29 January; London's Chinese New Year festival to celebrate the start of the Year of the Dragon. Festivities start at 10am with New Year’s parade through Chinatown, Shaftsbury Avenue, Charing Cross Road and Rupert Street, ending at Trafalgar Square at 12pm for the official opening ceremony. Activities will continue with music, performances, a dragon dance and a lion dance until 6pm. This is a free, public event so just turn up and have fun. http://www.chinatownlondon.org/

Monday, 30 January; Dark Tantra Tarot. Talk by Mark Ramsden, former editor of Fetish Times, at pagan forum Secret Chiefs. Venue: Devereux public house, 20 Devereux Court, off Essex Street, London WC2R 3JJ. Meet from 7.30pm, event starts at 8.30pm. Admission £2. http://secretchiefslondon.wordpress.com/

Tuesday 31 January; Chertsey Pagan Moot. All welcome to this social event, which takes place on the last Tuesday of every month. Venue: The Golden Grove Pub, Ruxbury Road, St Annes Hill, Chertsey. Time: 8pm-10pm. email: sian_ap_pysgotwr@yahoo.co.uk.

Tuesday 31 January; Out of Body Experiences and the Benefits of Controlling them. Lecture by Patricia Sousa at The College of Psychic Studies, 16 Queensberry Place, London SW7 2EB. Time: 7pm - 8.30pm. Cost: £5/8. Advance booking essential. Tel: 020 7589 3292. http://www.collegeofpsychicstudies.co.uk/index.html

Wednesday 1 February; First Stirrings Festival at Chalice Well World Peace Garden, in Glastonbury. Gather at noon at the well head for a meditation on the lawn at 12.30. This is a free event, although normal admission prices to the garden apply from noon. For more details, visit the website http://www.chalicewell.org.uk/

Wednesday 1 February; Atlantis Bookshops Presents (formerly The Moot with No Name) An Evening With The Old Dowser. Talk on dowsing at Devereux public house, 20 Devereux Court, off Essex Street, London WC2R 3JJ. Meet from 7.30pm, event starts at 8pm. Admission £5. Visit http://www.theatlantisbookshopevents.com/

Thursday 2 February; Pagan Federation London Imbolc Open Ritual to honour the Goddess Bride. Venue: Conway Hall, Red Lion Square, Holborn, London. Doors open 7.30pm. Ritual starts at 8pm, feasting and social 9pm-10pm. Entrance: PF members/conc £5. All others £6. Please bring seasonal/home-made food and drinks to share at the feast after the ritual. For more information, visit the PFL website at http://www.pflondon.org/index.html

Thursday 2 February; An Evening of Serendipity and Calamity. Folk singer Nigel Of Bermondsey and storyteller Vanessa Woolf will be exploring the collection of folklorist Edward Lovett through words and music at The Cuming Museum, 151 Walworth Road, London SE17 1RY. Time: 6pm to 8pm. This free event is part of National Storytelling Week.
http://www.southwark.gov.uk/info/200162/the_cuming_museum

Thursday 2 February; Glastonbury: A Magical Site through the Twentieth Century. Talk by Dr Liz Williams at Treadwells, 33 Store Street, Bloomsbury, London WC1E 7BS. Time: 7.15pm for 7.30pm start. Tickets £7. Reserve a place by emailing info@treadwells-london.com http://www.treadwells-london.com/

Friday 3 February; Healing all Life. Lecture by Elizabeth Whiter at The College of Psychic Studies, 16 Queensberry Place, London SW7 2EB. Time: 7pm - 9pm. Cost: £10/15. Advance booking essential. Tel: 020 7589 3292.
http://www.collegeofpsychicstudies.co.uk/index.html

Saturday 4 February; Marsden Imbolc Fire Festival. Famous annual event in Marsden, West Yorskshire. It usually features a procession, a fire 'circus', drama and music. The free event starts at noon and goes on until midnight. Meet at Marsden Information Point, 20-26 Peel Street, Marsden, Kirklees, HD7 6BW. For more details, call 01484 845595 or visit
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=28897413498

Saturday 4 February; Outdoor Imbolc Ritual with Hern’s Tribe in woods in Croydon. For more details call 077689 41373 or visit http://www.hern-tribe.org/

Tuesday 7 February; Tribe of Avalon Imbolc Ceremony. Venue: Atlantis Bookshop, 49a Museum Street, London. Time: 7pm - 9pm. Cost - £5 to help cover room hire cost, bring a snack or drink to share. For more details visit http://www.tribeofavalon.co.uk/

Related posts:
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2011/01/spell-for-springtime-wishes.html
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2008/01/imbolc-celebrating-start-of-spring.html
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2010/01/imbolc-moon-of-inspiration.html

Dating site uses Mayan calendar to boost business

Marital Affair, an adult dating site, has issued a press release suggesting that if the world is going to end on 21 December  2012, as some people are predicting, then people might want to spend the year before the apocalypse having more sex.

The press release states:

The Mayan Calendar tells us the end of the world will be December 21st 2012 and should this be true, it poses a lot people a small dilemma. What haven’t I done, what will I do with the time I have left and finally and of course, most importantly, have I had sufficient sex in my lifetime? Most people will answer this question with a resounding, hesitation free “no”. Ricky Gervais uses the classic, yet slightly optimistic chestnut of ‘The world is going to end’ in the film, The Invention of Lying in order to gain his wicked way with a believing blonde. The end of the world has power, especially when it comes to getting more sex.

When your time is cut short, people propel themselves into a frenzy of must do’s before I die. Sky Diving maybe a primary choice, god knows why, as this only increases the odds of the death knell chiming a littler sooner; some opt for seeing The Great Barrier Reef or hitting Vegas where they’ll spend their life’s savings trying to pull off a gamblers dream, but most, if they are honest, will bring sex into the equation. It’s like in the final hours of our inevitable death; our instincts allow us to think of nothing, but creating more life. 

Marital Affair is an adult dating site, offers people, both married and single, the doorway to uncomplicated encounters with other members. Averaging 700 new members a day the site has seen a substantial increase, some 40% in fact, in people joining over the previous week to over a 1000 new members a day. This incredible spike is very interesting as the spike coincides with the recent run of articles in the press about the alleged closure of planet earth. To add further evidence that people are joining on the back of the looming Armageddon, member profiles have been found with humorous yet catchy one liners such as “I’m going out with a bang” and “free till December 21st”.

Paul Graham the founder of Marital Affair says, “We can’t put the huge surge in membership down to anything else, January is typically very busy for us, but numbers are very, very high, particularly over the last week. Maybe this rise in numbers is down to people wanting to fulfil their fantasies before it’s too late. If we do have a whole host of people opting for 10 months of fantastic sex and the world doesn’t end, I’d say they’ve had a pretty good time preparing for it.”

Adult Dating site Marital Affair is a UK-based extramarital and infidelity service founded in 2006 and is now available through desktop and mobile.Visit  http://www.maritalaffair.co.uk/

News: Campaign to pardon Pendle witches

A brewery has launched a campaign to get the Pendle witches pardoned. You can read the full story on the Burnley Citizen website: http://www.burnleycitizen.co.uk/news/pendle/9488752.Burnley_based_brewery_Moorhouses_launches_official_campaign_to_pardon_the_Pendle_Witches/

Previous related posts
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2011/12/news-pendle-witchs-cottage-discovered.html
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2011/08/news-kids-excavate-pendle-witch-site.html
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2010/07/history-of-pendle-witches-their-magic.html
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2010/05/witch-way-now-for-pendle-pub-walk.html
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2010/02/calls-to-mark-anniversary-of-pendle.html

Review: Fairies & Magical Beings

Fairy lore is one of my favourite subjects and I can rarely resist adding to my collection of books on fairies if I see one that interests me. When I was in a bookshop looking for a gift for a pagan friend, back before Yule, I saw A Complete Guide To Fairies And Magical Beingsby Cassandra Eason. I ended up getting two copies - one for them and one for me.

I'm a big fan of Cassandra Eason, having read a few of her books - my favourite being Cassandra Eason's Complete Book of Natural Magick- and having heard her talk at Witchfest. She is a very knowledgeable witch and her practical, down-to-earth brand of spellcraft makes a lot of sense to me. Cassandra originally published A Complete Guide To Fairies And Magical Beings back in 2000, but an new edition by Piatkus came out a few months ago - that was the one I picked up.

Fairies can be different things to different people. They vary from culture to culture throughout the world and views of what they are like have changed through history. Cassandra's book looks at all of these things - from modern depictions of fairies back to the way our ancient ancestors saw them. This includes evidence for their existence such as photographs and written accounts as well as fiction, fairy tales and folklore.

There are also many different opinions as to what fairies might be. To some people they are nature spirits or elemental entities, to others they are angels or ancient pagan gods while some people view them as beings from another dimension that sometimes overlaps with our own. Cassandra's book discusses each of these points of view evenly and in some depth.

A chapter on the darker side of fairies looks at tales of abduction, changelings, fierce fairy creatures and malevolent fairies and explains that in history fairies were often seen as troublesome and dangerous.

What I particularly like about this book is that as well as being very informative, each chapter ends with a practical exercise to connect with the world of fairies. Exercises include things like spending time in nature and attempting to sense the spirits that dwell there, visualising a fairy story in order to gain personal insights and walking a ley line to discover fairy sites along the way.

At the end there is an A-Z of fairy beings, a list of suggested reading and addresses of useful shops and organisations.

I would certainly recommend A Complete Guide to Fairies and Magical Beings as a good introduction to fairy lore and fairy magic and I've very glad I treated myself to buying a copy.

Other books on fairies in the Bad Witch's Bookcase:
Charles Perrault: The Complete Fairy Tales
Enchanted: The Faerie and Fantasy Art of Linda Ravenscroft 
The Faeries Oracle
The Book of Faery Magic
A Faerie Treasury
Walking the Faery Pathway

Links and related posts:
http://www.piatkusbooks.net/
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2008/11/cassandra-eason-on-spontaneous-magick.html
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2008/10/how-to-find-fairies.html
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2009/03/david-boyle-on-fairy-superstitions-at.html
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2010/05/forget-me-nots-and-crocks-of-gold.html
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2009/02/fairytale-tarot.html
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2008/10/do-you-believe-in-fairies.html
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2008/11/cassandra-eason-on-spontaneous-magick.html