The Witches Digest

A witch has been hired by a Lithuanian debt collector in a move to encourage those failing to make their payments to stump up the cash.

According to Metro, the credit crunch has taken its toll on those owing money in the eastern European country.

A company spokesman said: “Our new employee will help them to understand the situation, reconsider what is right and wrong and act accordingly.”

The witch in question, Vilija Lobaciuviene, describes herself as ‘Lithuania’s leading witch’ and is renowned for providing services as predicting the future and casting spells.

Technorati Tags: leading witch, pagan news, witch, witchcraft

The Oxford Dictionary of English describes a witch-hunt as “a search for and subsequent prosecution of a supposed witch”, or “a campaign directed against a person or group holding unorthodox or unpopular views”.

Historically, the term describes the investigative procedures used during witch-hunts of the Middle Ages up until the early Colonial period, when investigators were hunting for “witches”.

It was believed that witches were blasphemers who worshipped Satan. The first major witch-hunt occurred in Switzerland in 1427.

The persecution of witches reached its height between 1580 and 1660, when witch trials became almost universal throughout Western Europe.

Many witch trials were provoked by village quarrels among neighbours.

About 80% of all accused witches were women, who had fewer legal rights.

Modern day “witch-hunts” include the McCarthyist search for communists in the USA during the Cold War in 1953, though this was discredited partly by being compared to the Salem Witch trials of 1692, when 150 people in Massachusetts were accused of witchcraft, and 14 women and five men were hanged.

Another defendant, who refused to enter a plea, was crushed to death.

Voodoo priests in Benin offered sacrifices and prayers to gods and ancestors to seek an end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and to other wars in Africa and elsewhere in the world.

The small West African state sandwiched between Togo and Nigeria is the home of the ancient Voodoo religion, which was later carried by slaves to the Americas where it survives in different forms in countries like Brazil, Haiti and Cuba.

Addressing devotees at Abomey, 145 km (90 miles) north of Cotonou, voodoo high priest Dah Aligbonon referred to the conflict in Gaza during ceremonies to celebrate Benin’s national voodoo day, a festival which draws hundreds of foreign visitors.

“All wars, which we deplore, have their origin for the most part in religious misunderstandings,” said Dah Aligbonon.

After sacrificing a cock, spilling its blood on the ground in honour of deities and ancestors, the high priest invoked their aid to end conflict in Gaza, in Somalia, in Democratic Republic of Congo and “everywhere where peace is under threat.”

“If there is no tolerance, religious hatred will spawn what is happening today in Palestine, where dozens of infants and innocents are paying for the intolerance of their parents,” he added, speaking after traditional chants and dancing.

He called for a dialogue between religions in the world.

The voodoo priests, through the casting of cowrie shells, also consulted an oracle, which made a prediction for the year.

The prediction urged Benin, and the wider world, to abandon hate, pride and jealousy and embrace unity, peace and tolerance.

In capitals across Africa, thousands of protesters have taken to the streets in recent days to demand an end to Israel’s 15-day-old offensive in the Gaza Strip, during which 830 Palestinians and 13 Israelis are reported to have died.

A UFO has apparently torn a 60ft blade off a wind turbine after residents noticed “strange lights” in the sky.

Some residents believe the damage to the 290ft-turbine at Conisholme in Lincolnshire could have been caused by a UFO.

A motorist at the scene also described seeing a UFO fly towards the structure.

A spokeswoman for the wind turbine company, Ecotricity, said: “We’re conducting a thorough investigation into what happened. This kind of thing has never happened to us before.”

The missing blade was found on the ground beneath the turbine, but the spokeswoman could not speculate on the cause of the damage.

She added: “An engineer has been on the site since it happened, early on Sunday morning, and is carrying out a sort of forensic investigation.”

Turkey farmer Robert Palmer, 66, said he saw a bright white light with an orange edge as he drove close to the turbine on Sunday morning.

He said: “I would be very interested to find out what it was. If we are being looked at by other people, by other planets, it would be interesting to find out why they have chosen this part of the country.

“It’s a rich agricultural part of the country and we have got a concentration of turbines here which may have fascinated them. You just don’t know, do you?

“I am not counting it out that it was a UFO. There are things out there that you cannot explain.

“I would have thought that if it was a UFO, it would have been more sophisticated than to drive in to the turbine. It’s fascinating.”

He added: “I saw a white light. It seemed to be above or in the direction of the wind turbine.

“My wife said it was like the North Star but then it should have been behind us and the light was too low. I don’t know what it was. Whether it was a large plane, but it didn’t seem to be moving.

“I have also heard that there was something structurally wrong (with the turbine). If it was frozen and there was a defect, the blade could have shattered.”

About 800 buses bearing the slogan “There’s probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life” set off on Britain’s roads Tuesday in an atheist campaign responding to a set of Christian ads. The campaign, which will also see slogans plastered across London’s subway system, was paid for by more than 140,000 pounds (200,000 dollars, 150,000 euros) in public donations, the British Humanist Association said.

It was the brainchild of comedy writer Ariane Sherine, 28, who objected to the Christian adverts on some London buses that carried an Internet address warning that people who rejected God would spend eternity in “torment in hell”. She sought five-pound donations towards a “reassuring” counter-advertisement and won support from the BHA and atheist campaigner Professor Richard Dawkins. “You wait ages for an atheist bus, then 800 come along at once. I hope they’ll brighten people’s days and make them smile on their way to work,” Sherine said as the buses were launched across Britain on Tuesday.

She added: “I am very glad that we live in a country where people have the freedom to believe in whatever they want.” From next Monday, quotations from Albert Einstein — “I do not believe in a personal God and have never denied this but have expressed it clearly” — and others will also be displayed on advertising hoardings in the London subway.

A SCHOOL has come under fire for allowing Jehovah’s Witnesses to tell pupils why they choose not to celebrate Christmas.

Leaders at Kirkby’s Westvale primary said the talk was just part of its commitment to promote tolerance among all faiths, which is clearly stated to parents in its official brochure.

The row surrounds a 30-minute religious education lesson at the Melverley Road school.

Parents were invited in to discuss why they were Jehovah’s Witnesses and what their faith entails.

This included the fact the religion does not celebrate Christmas – believing it and Easter are based on, or largely influenced by, paganism.

The school hoped the visit would mean students would be more understanding as to why the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ children were “being excused from coming in for Christmas nativity”.

A builder scared off a potential robber by running at him dressed as the Norse god Thor. The terrified intruder leapt from a first floor window to escape Torvald Alexander, who was dressed as the Norse god of thunder in a red cape and silver helmet and breastplate. Mr Alexander had just returned from a New Year’s Eve fancy dress party when he discovered the man in his home in Inverleith, Edinburgh. He said he acted instinctively to chase the intruder away, and believed his costume may have added impact.

Pagan religion welcomes the first cemetery for worshippers of the old Norse gods The first official pagan cemetery in more than 1,000 years has been established in a public graveyard corner in Odense, Funen.

While not officially opening until 7 February, members of Denmark’s recognized pagan community Forn Sidr have welcomed the move that will create space for 80 graves.

Forn Sidr has more than 600 members nationwide and follows the concept of ásatrú, or worship of the old Norse gods such as Odin and Thor. It was first recognized as a religious community by the Danish ministry of ecclesiastical affairs in 2003.

The 800sqm cemetery is located at the council-owned Assitens Graveyard and features an 18-metre long stone in the form of a Viking ship. Encircling the grassy area are a number of standing stones, to which a plaque can be fixed to commemorate the dead, as no headstones will be used.

The vice-president of Forn Sidr, Søren Fisker, said that members would hold their own private religious ceremony to mark the opening of the cemetery in February. He added that not all asatruars can be buried in the Odense plot.

‘The facility should be seen as a pilot project that may act as a groundbreaker for similar projects elsewhere in the country where there is a desire for a heathen cemetery,’ said Fisker.

There is already another pagan cemetery being planned for the Århus area.

Three Christian graves that already exist at the site will remain, as the descendants have all given their blessing to the new venture.