News of the Past

News Catagories

Long ago News

Funding WiccanWeb

Grandmothers Were Crucial for Human Evolution

By Joseph Stromberg

For years, anthropologists and evolutionary biologists have struggled to explain the existence of menopause, a life stage that humans do not share with our primate relatives. Why would it be beneficial for females to stop being able to have children with decades still left to live?

According to a study published today . . . → Read More: Grandmothers Were Crucial for Human Evolution

Halloween Customs in the Celtic World

By Bettina Arnold

Night of the spirits; Feast of the Dead; New Year’s Eve; the year’s turning; Calends of winter; Summer’s End; one of the “joints of the year”; beginning of the barren time; day of divination; festival of the harvest; doorway into the new year; Mischief Night; Punky Night; Samhain; Nos Calan gaeaf; All . . . → Read More: Halloween Customs in the Celtic World

Celtic Devotional: Daily Prayers and Blessings, by Caitlin Matthews

Reviewed by Cristina Eisenberg

[Snip] This book breaks the year into the Celtic quarters, with a different set of prayers keyed to each quarter. Daily morning and evening prayers and invocations/spiritual questions guide the practitioner across the seasons of the year. This book has guided me during times of joy and times of great difficulty . . . → Read More: Celtic Devotional: Daily Prayers and Blessings, by Caitlin Matthews

Pagan Traces in Medieval and Early Modern European Witch-beliefs

By Gelsomina Helen Castaldi

Abstract: The aim of this research is to explore how pre-Christian beliefs, cults and popular traditions may have indirectly survived in early modern and medieval European witch-beliefs. It will be attempted to show how witch-beliefs and medieval/early modern popular imagination may have reflected (through the filter of Christian demonology and by . . . → Read More: Pagan Traces in Medieval and Early Modern European Witch-beliefs

Three Simple Rules

By Salena

Respect. Silence. Research.

These are ideals anyone who wants deific involvement needs to cultivate. If you don’t have them, don’t even bother. You’ll ultimately be hit hard for hubris, you’ll only fill your head with inane sock puppetry, and you will make mistakes in what you feel is your study or work. Let’s . . . → Read More: Three Simple Rules