Alternative Faiths
As witchcraft becomes a multibillion-dollar business, practitioners’ connection to the natural world is changing
By Helen A. Berger — July 26, 2023
(The Conversation) — Practitioners of Pagan religions no longer need to go into a forest to find an object for their altars. Commercialization has meant that sacred objects are available online.
In Brooklyn, Rastafarians celebrate Emperor Haile Selassie I’s 131st Birthday
By Fiona André — July 24, 2023
NEW YORK (RNS) — July 23 marks the 131st anniversary of the birth of Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie, whom the Rasta faith considers the incarnation of God.
Casper ter Kuile sees America’s religious decline as an opportunity
By Benjamin Spratt and Joshua Stanton — July 19, 2023
(RNS) — Casper ter Kuile’s spiritual entrepreneurship has compelled him to seek ways people can find belonging and community outside traditional houses of worship.
Drugs and religion have been a potent combination for millennia, from cannabis at ancient funerary sites to psychedelic retreats today
By Gary Laderman — July 17, 2023
(The Conversation) — A scholar of religion who is writing a book on sacred drugs explains how today’s ‘psychedelic renaissance’ reflects a millennia-long history of using intoxicants to seek insight and connection.
The Bhagavad Gita, the bomb and the dharma of Robert Oppenheimer
By Syama Allard — July 12, 2023
(RNS) — How did the atomic physicist’s fascination with the Gita influence his feelings about the making of the bomb?
New museum remembers Scotland’s dark era of witch hysteria
By Sukhada Tatke — July 10, 2023
EDINBURGH, Scotland (RNS) — Just off of Royal Mile in Old Town Edinburgh, in a 17th-century stone building on Chalmers Close, is a new museum that, though dedicated to a part of history most Scots might like to forget, raises questions making headlines in the country today.
Summertime spirits: Village of Lily Dale reopens for believers and doubters alike
By Fiona André — July 3, 2023
(RNS) — The 140-year-old village, a mecca for spiritualism and mediumship, will draw regulars and curious first-timers to cross paths after a hiatus of three years.
Can Wicca’s two equal deities, once celebrated as revolutionary, make room for nonbinary believers?
By Heather Greene — June 29, 2023
(RNS) — A balanced but gendered theology has lately presented problems for Wiccans proud of the religion’s progressive framework.
NYC will add Diwali as a public school holiday. But there’s a catch this year
By Associated Press — June 27, 2023
NEW YORK (AP) — The push for official recognition of Diwali comes as South Asians have gained numbers and clout in New York and nationally.
The first woman to head Unitarian Universalists ends term full of historic turns
By Kathryn Post — June 21, 2023
(RNS) — President Susan Frederick-Gray has led the denomination throughout a pandemic, insurrection, racial reckoning and the fall of Roe v. Wade.
‘The Wicker Man,’ the classic horror film and pagan must-see, gets new life at 50
By Heather Greene — June 21, 2023
(RNS) — In anticipation of its 50th anniversary, the landmark film’s ‘director’s cut’ was released Wednesday in time for the solstice, a major pagan holiday.
Why this year’s summer solstice matters so much for a new religious movement mired in controversy
By Simranjit Khalsa — June 14, 2023
(The Conversation) — 3HO was founded in 1969, and SDI followed five years later. What are they, and what is the significance of the 2023 summer solstice for their followers?
Lionized for his Jan. 6 antics, Jake Angeli finds his spiritual beliefs a harder sell
By Jack Jenkins — June 2, 2023
(RNS) — The 'QAnon shaman' remains invested in his spiritual beliefs but so far has had no takers for his post-incarceration religious and political consultancy business.
From Taylor Swift’s tour to statehouses, witches are blamed for climate of fear
By Heather Greene — June 1, 2023
(RNS) — One historian sees a replay of 17th century moral panics in today’s increasing social media attacks on witches, saying, ‘It is getting weird.’
White Lotus Day celebrates the ‘founding mother of occult in America,’ Helena Petrovna Blavatsky
By Marina Alexandrova — May 8, 2023
(The Conversation) — Theosophy and its founders had an outsize impact on Americans’ ideas about spirituality and Asian religions.
