The Witches Digest

Experts are studying the first Mayan hieroglyphic script dealing with the life of a high priest, his blood sacrifices and acts of penance, Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) said.

The text consists of 260 glyphs carved into a series of seashell earrings and manta ray stingers found inside a burial urn.

The urn, which also contained the remains of an important Maya priest, wrapped in bright red cloth, was uncovered during excavations 11 years ago in Comalcalco, in southeastern Tabasco state, the institute said in a statement.

“It is the longest Maya hieroglyphic script ever found to date in Tabasco” and the first relating a high priest, instead of a Maya ruler and his wives, INAH said.

The text covers 14 years in the life of a Maya priest who lived in the eighth century A.D. It includes references to blood sacrifices and acts of penance preceding the spring solstice.

Maya priests used manta ray stingers to pierce their earlobes, tongue, forehead, penis and other parts of the anatomy, in painful, bloodletting sacrifices to induce a hallucinogenic state in which they believed they could talk to their gods, INAH said.

One of the glyphs refers to the equivalent modern date of January 31, 771.

The Maya dynasties flourished between 426 and 820 AD throughout much of Central America and south eastern Mexico. They excelled in architecture, astrology, mathematics and in keeping several, extremely accurate calendars.

The case of a Toronto woman accused of fraud has shed light on a section of the Canadian criminal code that carries a hint of the Dark Ages: posing as a witch.

Vishwantee Persaud allegedly defrauded a Toronto lawyer of tens of thousands of dollars by telling him she was the embodiment of the spirit of his deceased sister, come back to help him in business. Ms. Persaud now faces charges under a rarely used section of the criminal code for pretending to practise witchcraft.

“She said she came from a long line of witches and could do tarot-card readings,” says Detective Constable Corey Jones, who investigated the case. “It was through this that she cemented [the lawyer's] trust,” setting the stage for the fraud to follow, which, according to Det. Constable Jones, included claiming fictitious expenses such as law-school tuition and cancer treatments.

Det. Constable Jones says it’s rare to charge someone under Section 365, but the circumstances of this case fit.

“It’s a historical quirk,” says Alan Young, a professor at Osgoode Hall Law School. Some sections of the Canadian criminal code reflect offences that were more prevalent centuries ago. When the code was enacted in 1892, witchcraft per se was no longer a punishable offence, he says, but lawmakers wanted to ensure witchcraft wasn’t used as a cover for fraud.

Section 365 states that any one who fraudulently pretends to exercise or to use any kind of witchcraft, sorcery, or enchantment or who “undertakes, for a consideration, to tell fortunes … is guilty of an offence punishable on summary conviction.”

“It’s not really about occult activity,” Prof. Young says. “It’s about defrauding people.”

The lawyer met Ms. Persaud, who claimed to be in law school, in early 2009 and started to mentor her. According to Det. Constable Jones, he probably gave Ms. Persaud more than $100,000 over the year.

Det. Constable Jones says the scheme came to a head when Ms. Persaud said they were going to make money hosting and providing security for certain celebrities at the Toronto International Film Festival. “That’s where everything fell apart because of course no Hollywood celebrities showed up,” he says.

In fact, he points out, this kind of offence could lead to a simple charge of fraud, which carries longer jail terms and stiffer fines. As it stands, a conviction of pretending to practise witchcraft carries a maximum sentence of six months in jail and/or a $2,000 fine.

“There are probably more cases than we know of,” Det. Constable Jones says. He says victims are sometimes embarrassed to report such frauds to police.

Ms. Persaud remains in custody and also faces fraud charges relating to this and other cases. She is scheduled to appear in court on Dec. 24.

Pointy hats, black cats and broomsticks – Marcus Katz has heard it all before. The 43-year-old from Keswick is a witch… and he’s not ashamed to admit it.

Instead it is a celebration of nature, which is what drives him and his coven of 13 to perform rituals in the Lake District.

Marcus joined his first coven at the age of 18. He now runs Keswick’s Far Away Centre where he teaches witchcraft and tarot.

He is also High Priest of the Coven of the Seasons, which was formed four years ago. His wife, Brina, is sometimes the coven’s High Priestess, although other female members can also take on that role.

The Coven of the Seasons has members all over the country who come together in Cumbria several times a year.

There are four men, nine women, and no naked rituals. Says Marcus: “It’s too cold for that in Cumbria!”

Marcus Katz

“I’ve been interested in witchcraft since I was 13. Witchcraft is a pagan, nature-based religion. I believe it’s an authentic western spiritual practice.

“It is difficult to get past the old ‘pointy hats’ idea of witchcraft. A lot of witches don’t mind that because they prefer to be treated as outsiders. But our members are very much involved in their community.

“We look for people who are enthusiastic. We don’t want to convert people or anything. We tend to attract professional people. A lot of nurses, doctors and teachers. Our members come from as far as Wales, Leicester and London.

“We offer a very open, authentic and down-to-earth approach. We don’t consider it any stranger than people joining a pigeon-racing club, which is something I find bizarre!

“Generally 80 per cent of witches are female. I think there’s a stereotypical reason that women are seen as closer to the lunar cycles. And perhaps more psychic than men.

“Witchcraft has been revived since the 1950s and it has grown very rapidly in popularity. People are looking for more engagement in the natural world. A lot of the ecological crises have supported that. Witchcraft is the spiritual side of the political debate.

“We celebrate a number of the eight seasonal festivals, indoors and outside. We wear dark robes indoors and white outdoors.

“We do use Castlerigg stone circle but mainly when it’s quiet. We don’t particularly like the party atmosphere at the summer solstice. It’s a bit like performing high mass in a rave club.

“There are usually 13 in a coven. It’s a very good number to get into a nine-foot circle, which is the traditional space.

“Recently we performed a ritual which involved copper coins. We were at Grizedale Forest and we walked past a log which had hundreds of copper coins embedded in it. We stood there with our coins in our pockets and just looked at each other.

“People see that sort of strange coincidence as a manifestation of magic in everyday life. I believe everyone has had magical experiences.

“I enjoy it most when a ritual comes together, when people recognise a magical event is happening. It’s very difficult to explain that.

“A lot of people believe that witchcraft helps them engage with life in a more positive manner. Healing is a part of witchcraft. We have a number of therapists and doctors so we prefer to recommend all options.”

Janine Ashton

Janine, 30, is an administrator in Manchester. She has a deep interest in tarot and believes she is psychic.

“Witchcraft is derived from paganism. The church was always against it because it was challenging their religion. So they put a bad slant on it. We’re just celebrating the changing of the seasons. At Beltane [a festival marking the coming of summer] last year we all dressed up in white clothes and we had a May Queen and a Maypole. And we made special cakes.

“If you want something to happen, you can change things. Recently we went down to London to help promote the new TV series Eastwick. They asked us to do tarot and we also did a spell called a sigil.

“You write the thing that you want on a piece of paper, everybody chants, and you throw the piece of paper in the middle. Your wish is supposed to come true in the next few weeks.

“It sounds a bit like hocus-pocus but if people have enough will, things can happen. A few of them have come back and said their wish did come true.

“Mine definitely has. Mine was to do with work. I wanted to become a bit more focused.

“I try to incorporate as much as possible in my daily life but it’s very different from my nine-to-five life.

“The coven is like a family. Charlotte is like a sister to me. We went down to Stonehenge for the summer solstice. There were lots of druids dancing around the stones. It was just a really good atmosphere.

“My family are really open-minded. They’re not into the same kinds of things but they are interested. I explain that it’s positive, not dark magic. Whatever that is.

“It’s changed my life. Before I met these people I felt lost. When you feel different from other people it can make you miserable. You don’t fit in.

“Now I’ve found a place. Developing my spiritual side has made such a difference. Negative people have gone away. There’s no room for them in my life.”

Tali Goodwin

Tali, 40, lives in Keswick. Her partner, Lyn, is an astrologer and she became interested in tarot through him.

“I have been part of the coven for a year and it has changed my view of witchcraft. There are a lot of misconceptions but there’s nothing creepy about it.

“Witchcraft has made me recognise what actually matters in life. That you need to be more aware of the cycles of nature. Concerns about the environment have made it seem more relevant.”

Charlotte Venkratraman

Charlotte, 29, lives in Leicester and works in mental health. As a child she was taught tarot by her grandmother. She became interested in witchcraft two years ago after studying tarot at the Far Away Centre.

“Marcus is quite bookish. Everything’s based on references and old books.

“Rituals can be very simple. You start off by purifying the ground with salt water then you consecrate it with incense or with a candle.

“At Halloween the light is dying so we think of important people that have died and celebrate their achievements.

“You can use rituals in a physical way, perhaps by getting rid of hang-ups by writing them down and burning the paper.

“I don’t know if there are groups of people trying to do bad things with witchcraft. I suppose there might be.

“But the dark things are the things that are inside you. The horrible thoughts that people try to hide.

“My sister thinks I’m mad but my mum is okay. My grandma was a witch and people saw her as eccentric.

“Since joining Marcus’s group I’ve learned to be more myself. I’m more authentic, I’m not trying to be somebody else anymore. You learn about what you can do and what’s important to you. And you try to live that life rather than what other people think you should do.”

Original Link: http://www.newsandstar.co.uk/features/people/witchcraft_is_no_stranger_than_pigeon_racing_1_646799?referrerPath=home

The first holiday season after a loved one’s death can be among the hardest experiences for his or her survivors — burdensome and isolating while others celebrate in good cheer.But to remain quiet during grieving can lead to more problems, and community memorial events planned for this week aim to bring the bereaved out of their silence and into the support of families who may share their experience.
The annual Celebration of Light, to be held tonight in Oakland and Saturday in San Mateo, is an event open to the public and aimed at celebrating the memories of those who died this year, organizer Chris Taich of Pathways Home Health & Hospice said.

“To have a tradition that focuses on the light of their loved ones that died is important to bring forward in this season,” Taich said. “It really is more common that people are afraid to talk about them, their passed loved ones, and spoil the mood.”

“In the first year — not that grief is over after that — but the first year is a really intense year of everything being the first: first birthday, first holidays, first everything,” Taiche said. “We want to be able to walk that journey with them.”

The ceremonies are relatively simple and aimed to appeal to those of all faith traditions, Taich said. Attendees during the ceremony’s most important sequence walk to the front of the room, light a candle and speak aloud the name of their loved one.

“That’s one of the most difficult experiences for the bereaved: They feel like their loved one will be forgotten,” Taich said. “So in fear they avoid bringing up their names. But I think that compounds the grief, makes it more difficult for them to cope.”
Kari Totah, 42, attended the ceremony in San Mateo last year after her father’s death.

“It was a wonderful experience,” Totah said. “They had a gentleman there with a very powerful poem. … It was really intense, a husband who had lost his wife. He went through all the stages that they went through during her dying process. It pinpointed so many things I think all of us had gone through: hearing someone we love had not much longer to live, the hospital experience, with ‘do not resuscitate,’ dealing with different medical providers. It was very, very powerful and it evoked a lot of emotion from everyone in the room.”
Allowing strong emotions to flow is a crucial part of the grieving process, Taich said.

“Unfortunately, grief is one of those things that if you don’t let it in, it seeps in anyway and harms your life in other ways,” Taich said. “Closing off one emotion bottles up a lot of emotions. If you shut down your capacity to grieve, you may also be shutting down your ability to really love, and really care.

“We just don’t like those bad feelings,” she added. “We have an illusion that somehow we’re supposed to be happy all the time. And I don’t know anybody who is. Especially in grief and loss, we should allow ourselves to feel grief and sadness.”

The event is cathartic and healing not just for grieving families, but also for the hospice staff that hosts the event, said the Rev. Diana Brady, Pathways spiritual care director.

“Being caregivers doesn’t mean we are without the need for comfort ourselves in the midst of loss, and remembering people is a part of that,” Brady said.
“One thing I also love is that the ceremony is about light, a symbol you see within almost every faith tradition in the world,” she added.

“In the Christian faith, of course, there is the light of God: ‘Let there be light,’ and the light of Christ. In Judaism, it’s more representative light, like Hanukkah, more a symbol of God’s faithfulness than associated with a particular person. ”

“Within Buddhism, light isn’t connected with a person, but light represents the light of Buddha’s teachings. In Hinduism, light is associated with God’s infinite light, and Allah is referred to as the light of the heavens and the earth. Neopaganism can use candles or light to represent gods and goddesses. In Confucianism, Taoism, Sikhism, light equals life. Wicca uses light in rituals. In Zoroastrianism, it’s a symbol of goodness. In Kwanzaa, we use light in symbols for hope and courage. Light is a powerful symbol of hope and warmth to us just as human beings and we bring our meaning to it.”

In the end, Taich said, grief can hopefully be turned into something positive.

“One of the gifts that can come out of grief — and it’s hard to look at grief’s gifts early on — comes when they’re forced to live their life without this person,” Taich said. “There is a huge hole they don’t know how to fill and they won’t know how to fill. They’re forced to create a new life. In doing that, they’re forced to make discoveries about themselves. Often, they will some find some opportunity for growth, and even for transformation.”

Original Article: http://www.insidebayarea.com/sanmateocountytimes/localnews/ci_13905220