Heather Greene
Heather Greene is an author at Religion News Service.
All Stories by Heather Greene
May Day’s pagan roots are alive and well in Beltane
By Heather Greene — May 1, 2023
(RNS) — One of the eight sabbats, or modern pagan holidays, Beltane is a celebration of community after the colder months and of the returning fertility of the land.
Pagan conferences return with more attendees, more magick after pandemic hiatus
By Heather Greene — April 19, 2023
(RNS) — ‘Everybody is here. There are lots of hugs. We are back.’
Rachel Pollack, tarot expert, trans activist and author, is dead at 77
By Heather Greene — April 17, 2023
(RNS) — Pollack said that in the single year of 1971 she discovered tarot, had her first story published, moved to Europe and came out as trans and a lesbian. 'My whole life changed in one year. It was an amazing year. A year of my life taking off,' she said.
Horror shows like ‘Mayfair Witches’ hire occult consultants to cast their spells
By Heather Greene — March 7, 2023
(RNS) — As witches and interest in Wicca became more common in the broader culture, occult consultants are finding more work on film and television sets.
‘Rosary beads? Yes. But crystals, no.’: Catholic school counselor loses her job
By Heather Greene — January 26, 2023
(RNS) — An employee who invited three Wiccan high priestesses to speak to marketing students did not believe that the crystals they handed out nor their religion would cause a stir.
Stability is not in the cards for 2023: Divinations reveal a year of transitions
By Heather Greene — January 6, 2023
(RNS) — Using tarot, astrology, runes and countless other divinatory methods, practitioners offer a reading on the pulse of the year to come.
A modern witch celebrates the cycle of life and death at the confluence of cultures
By Heather Greene — October 28, 2022
(RNS) — This time of year, a bruja, or witch, practices central Mexican Indigenous rituals and modern pagan ones, both honoring the Earth and “us as individuals as part of nature.” But the holidays of the Day of the Dead and Samhain are not the same.
No, they do not worship the devil, and other myths dispelled in new book on satanism
By Heather Greene — October 21, 2022
(RNS) — Satanism appeals to people who feel marginalized in some way, said La Carmina, whose "Little Book of Satanism" attempts to curb some of the misinformation on satanists and their organizations.
In ‘Hocus Pocus 2,’ Disney takes the panic out of witchcraft
By Heather Greene — October 5, 2022
(RNS) — Witches, and Americans, have come a long way since the days of satanic panic.
As pagans celebrate autumn equinox, some question why Mabon is its symbolic deity
By Heather Greene — September 22, 2022
(RNS) — While the Mabon, like the other seven sabbats on the Wheel, is informed by older agricultural practices, its name is not so old.
The most recognizable work at the Whitney Museum’s new modernism exhibit may be a tarot deck
By Heather Greene — September 8, 2022
(RNS) — Artist Pamela Colman-Smith dismissed it as ‘a big job for very little cash.’ Now the Rider-Waite-Smith tarot deck is her legacy — and has brought her renewed recognition.
Christian groups step up harassment of pagan festivals
By Heather Greene — August 22, 2022
(RNS) — American pagans and witches depend heavily on assemblies with names like Pagan Pride and Between the Worlds to share information and camaraderie.
Lúnasa, paganism’s August harvest holiday, becomes a moveable feast
By Heather Greene — August 1, 2022
(RNS) — A loose combination of Irish harvest customs, Lúnasa has been adapted to match the calendar around the world.
Georgia Guidestones, long treasured and feared, demolished after attack
By Heather Greene — July 7, 2022
(RNS) — ‘The stones would probably have survived a nuclear war,’ said a local historian, ‘but they could not survive Southern culture.’
How to make a thousand witches with one Supreme Court decision
By Heather Greene — June 6, 2022
(RNS) — Magic has always been, in lore and in life, a tool of the oppressed.
Page 1 of 4
