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Paganism is on the rise—here’s where to discover its traditions

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TikTok—specifically #witchtok—is fueling interest in this spiritual movement. Here’s how to immerse yourself in full moon rituals, spellcasting, and more. By Christine Macintyre for National Geographic A woman presses a staff to her forehead during the autumn equinox at Stonehenge, in the United Kingdom, while a crowd gathers to watch the sunrise. PHOTOGRAPH BY ALICE ZOO, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC Centuries ago, Wiccans traveled windy moors to worship the Horned God. Ancient Egyptians crossed deserts to invoke the protection of Isis. Druids journeyed to a forest clearing to perform rituals under the moon. But over time, such deities faded into myth; the rituals went underground. Recently, however, a resurgence of interest in Pagan practices—crystals and tarot cards, astrology, and herbal magic—has brought Paganism from the fringes back to the center of pop culture, or at least to the top of your TikTok feed. At least 1.5 million people in the United States identify as Pagans—up from 134,000 ...
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Review - The Autopsy of Jane Doe (2016) - 10 Out of 10 Brooms (Spoiler Free)

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  You know a film has really got under your skin when you have to turn it off and switch it to a kid's movie as a brain cleanser. If I had seen it in the theater, I would have left to take a break. It is one of the most effective horror films I have ever watched. Autopsy begins with a simple story: an out-of-place corpse has been found at the scene of a routine domestic murder and pathologists Tony (Brian Cox) and his son Austin (Emile Hirsch) are told to explain the cause of death by the sheriff before the morning. Easy. As they work, more questions add up. The Jane Doe has brutal internal injuries but no signs of external damage. It’s safe to say that things escalate, but to explain further would be to ruin the surprises to come. Writers Ian B. Goldberg and Richard Naing keep the audience guessing throughout. Amazon - Blu Ray Ad André Øvredal’s direction is magnificent. There are horror tropes like jump scares and flickering lights, but they are used sparingly and very effectivel...
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Scary Saturday Night - Alice in Wonderland (1903)

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  Alice in Wonderland is a 1903 British silent fantasy film directed by Cecil Hepworth and Percy Stow. Only one copy of the original film is known to exist and was thought to be lost for years. The British Film Institute (BFI) partially restored the movie and its original film tinting and released it in 2010. According to BFI, the original film ran about 12 minutes; the restoration runs 9 minutes and 35 seconds. At the beginning of the restoration, it states that this is the first movie adaptation of Lewis Carroll's 1865 children's book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. It was filmed mostly at Port Meadow in Oxford. The film is memorable for its use of special effects, including Alice's shrinking in the Hall of Many Doors, and in her large size, stuck inside the White Rabbit's home and reaching for help through a window. Super cleepy and the effects are fantastic! Starring: May Clark Cecil M. Hepworth Mrs. Cecil Hepworth Norman Whitten
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Review - Hellraiser (2022) 6 out of 10 Brooms

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  I will state just for general disclosure that I absolutely detest the original Hellraiser Saga. Anything outside of the Cenobites and Pinhead and I just didn't like the tone, nor the bland nature. Honestly, the scariest part of the first movie, for me the best one, was always that nasty mattress Julia, Claire Higgins, wanted to have sex on. Ewwww... Amazon Link - The Hellbound Heart by Clive Barker I came into Hulu's reboot rather incredulously. Like the original, the actors are well cast. Jamie Clayton is an excellent choice for the Priest, or Pinhead. I will watch anything with Goran Visnjic ( Practical Magic .) David Bruckner, director of The Ritual and most of the V/H/S series is at the top of his game. Odessa A'Zion (Riley) and Hiam Abbass acting talents make up for a script that is somewhat lacking. Replacing the lustful forbidden desire, is a rather clunky allegory about addition. The puzzle box is Riley's new vice. It is not subtle, it is blunt. Luckily, O...
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Disney Channel star's church urged her to quit Wizards of Waverly Place because ‘it’s witchcraft’

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Jennifer Stone, who played Harper on the hit Disney Channel series 'Wizards of Waverly Place', claims she was urged to quit the show by her church because "it was witchcraft" By Kirsty Card for The Daily Star A Disney Channel star left fans stunned after she claims her church urged her to quit her role on Wizards of Waverly Place because it "was witchcraft". Jennifer Stone delighted fans with wildly creative outfits as her character Harper Finkle, who was best friends with Selena Gomez's character Alex Russo. The character was known for her dresses - including one made from felt tip pens - and her bubbly personality. But the show could have been very different had the red-haired actress turned down her role like she was urged to by her "southern Baptist church". In an episode of the Wizards of Waverly Podcast, Selena Gomez claimed she knew some kids "weren't allowed to watch us because it was wizardry". However, Jennifer, who star...
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Anita Pallenberg: The witch who changed The Rolling Stones forever

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Alamy By Tom Taylor for Far Out Magazine Amid the tired debate of The Beatles or The Rolling Stones, the glaring oversight is how different the two bands were. There is no place for a sentiment like “all you need is love” in the Stones’ oeuvre, just as the ‘Fab Four’ would have no cause to court the devil. Largely, this darkness in the ‘Paint it Black’ boys’ discography comes down to one woman.  “At the centre, like a phoenix on her nest of flames,” Marianne Faithful writes, “[was] the wicked Anita. She was the most incredible woman I’d met in my life. Dazzling, beautiful, hypnotic and unsettling. Her smile—those carnivorous teeth! —obliterated everything. Other women evaporated around her.” This was the enigmatic Anita Pallenberg and when she met The Rolling Stones backstage in Munich in 1965, she changed the band forever.  Parachute Women: Marianne Faithfull, Marsha Hunt, Bianca Jagger, Anita Pallenberg, and the Women Behind the Rolling Stones – Release Date: July 11, 2023 “...
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Witch lit: how modern writers are reinventing the witch

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Witch lit: how modern writers are reinventing the witch theconversation.com/ Now on Amazon From the fairy tales read to us as children to the costumes every Halloween, the figure of the witch has been with most of us for our entire lives. Unkempt and warty, the witch of our childhood was generally a repulsive creature flying on a broomstick beside her toad or black cat. Yet recent years have marked a reinvention of this ancient character, giving her a modern twist in a new subgenre of literature that some are calling “witch lit”. The novels that have been categorised as belonging to this new subgenre often take inspiration from historical events such as the witch trials of the medieval and early modern periods. A.K. Blakemore’s award-winning novel The Manningtree Witches (2021), for example, is set in the town of Manningtree in 1643 just as Matthew Hopkins begins his hunt against witches. Jenni Fagan’s short novel Hex: Darkland Tales (2022) revolves, in part, around the story of Geilli...
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