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Order, Justice and Peace Shall Rule

 I've chosen this month of elections, Thanksgiving and change of the seasons to share this article that was written in 2012 and part of an anthology. Order and justice are being tested continually and the peace that we desire is elusive as we move through the eternal cycles of change and time's demands. The Horae are reminders that we are part of a larger cycle of Cosmic order....

A video game takes inspiration from Greek mythology, but in a rather untraditional manner. Todd Lockwood talks about drawing for fantasy literature. And the complexities of faith within the TV show Preacher are examined. It's Airy Monday, our weekly segment on news about magic and religion in popular culture! All this and more for the Pagan News Beagle!

I recently read about honoring Pan at this time of the year and it really resonated with me.  I am not only Hellenic but also a mountain dweller so this fits within my path so nicely, I'm surprised I haven't stumbled across this idea before.  So below I offer a prayer to the Great Lord Pan, who is not dead, only harder to recognize in the madness of the modern world.

Pagans lament some of the "witchy" fashions in vogue in October. Heathens make a strangely secular comeback in Norway. And the problematic aspects of the famous Europa myth are considered. It's Watery Wednesday, our weekly take on news about the Pagan community. All this and more for the Pagan News Beagle!

I don't normally forward you on to my personal blog, but I wanted to get a post in before vacation.  As per usual, there is more to do than there is time...

The next divinity on the atheist's list is Kronos.  A while back I wrote a story about him.  I really don't think I can top this one, at this time.  May he be remembered and honored.  

We like to think of the gods as having always existed, time out of mind. In one sense they are timeless, of course, but in another sense they are closely linked to the cultures and societies of specific eras. It’s important to know when each deity ‘showed up’ and in what culture they did so, in order to understand which versions of the myths are the original ones and which are later alterations.

That’s right, later cultures came along and changed the earlier versions of myths, in most cases because they were taking over a society and wanted to downplay or even demonize its deities in favor of their own. You may be familiar with the way the writers of the Old Testament (the Hebrew Bible) depicted Asherah, Ba’al and other Middle Eastern deities as evil demons. You may also have heard about the ways the medieval Christian church condemned the European Pagan gods as evil spirits in the cases where they couldn’t manage to transform them into local saints. Well, these kinds of propaganda weren’t invented by the Judeo-Christian world; they’ve been going on as long as there have been people and pantheons.

Happy Monday, today's Airy Monday News Beagle features archaelogical news of interest to Pagans & their allies: an Iron Age chariot; history of Aphrodite; South Indian mother goddess; more at Amphipolis; ancient Canaanite temple.

This "once in a lifetime" discovery unearthed of an Iron Age hoard that archaeologists believe was buried as part of an ancient (Pagan) religious ritual.