#paganism — Public Fediverse posts

Ancient word of the day: Hedgehog

The ancient word for today is hedgehog Erinaceus europaeus. In the Middle Ages, writers didn’t make reference to hedgehogs, but to urchins. This term for the spiky diminuitive animal is still favoured in some English dialects. We still have the lingering remnants of this etymology in the form of sea urchin, which is literally a sea hedgehog.

The word urchin came to England with the Norman invasion and was derived from the Latin word ericius. Before the Norman conquest, the animal was known by the Anglo-Saxon name Igl.

Other names

Furze-pig – Devon

Hotchi-witchi – Romani

Hodmedods – Norfolk

Ouriço cacheiro – crafty pig
or porco espinho’ – spiky pig in Portuguese

”Thorns shall grow in their palaces, nettles & thistles in their strongholds … there shall the hedgehog build, dig, be there at home and bring forth his young ones.” Taverner’s Isiah 34, 1539.

The hedgehog was a symbol of Christian humility

The Speculum sapientiae, or Mirror of Wisdom is an ancient tale of beasts in Latin. In one tale, a passing goat sees its reflection in a pond and declares himself very handsome indeed. A hedgehog trundles along afterwards and reproaches the goat telling him that profound humility, not vain boasting are what makes animals truly noble.

Read more: The British Library Digitised Manusripts

Content Catnip

#christianity #paganism #Wiccan #astrology #religion

#christianity #paganism #Wiccan #astrology #religion

#christianity #paganism #Wiccan #astrology #religion

#christianity #paganism #Wiccan #astrology #religion

#christianity #paganism #Wiccan #astrology #religion

#TheHeirsLair #OneTakeMan #InOneTake #Review #BookReview #ARCReview #StarTrek #SidMeier #Pirates #Piracy #GoldenAgeOfPiracy #RepublicOfPirates #Gateway #GatewayEpisodes #AlternateHistory #History #RomanHistory #RomanEmpire #Christianity #Paganism #WorstToBest #Quiz #Politics

Olivia and I were driving back from Trumansburg to celebrate summer bounty last week and I saw this flower universe in front of Indian Creek Farm

#photo #photography #Lughnasadh #lugh #flower #trumanburg #bloomscrolling #zinnia #indiancreek #paganism

Blessed Lughnasadh! Or Lammas if you prefer.

May your harvest be bountiful and the fruits of it sweet!

There's a fuller explanation of the mini altar I set up in the image alt text. Pan isn't strictly part of this, I know, but it felt right to include him so we rolled with the vibe.

#paganism #pagan #lammas #lughnasadh #altar

Happy Lughnasadh, everyone! 🌟🍞🌻🌞

#Lughnasadh #pagan #HappyLughnasadh #neopagan #paganism

Happy #Lughnasadh everyone! While not something I harvested, today seems appropriate to share this picture I took with #mosstodon and #mushtodon.

#Lughnasa #Lúnasa #paganism #NeoPaganism #harvest #nature #fungi

Happy #Lughnasadh everyone! While not something I harvested, today seems appropriate to share this picture I took with #mosstodon and #mushtodon.

#Lughnasa #Lúnasa #paganism #NeoPaganism #harvest #nature #fungi

Happy #Lughnasadh everyone! While not something I harvested, today seems appropriate to share this picture I took with #mosstodon and #mushtodon.

#Lughnasa #Lúnasa #paganism #NeoPaganism #harvest #nature #fungi

Happy #Lughnasadh everyone! While not something I harvested, today seems appropriate to share this picture I took with #mosstodon and #mushtodon.

#Lughnasa #Lúnasa #paganism #NeoPaganism #harvest #nature #fungi

Happy #Lughnasadh everyone! While not something I harvested, today seems appropriate to share this picture I took with #mosstodon and #mushtodon.

#Lughnasa #Lúnasa #paganism #NeoPaganism #harvest #nature #fungi

Battle of The Beanfield

There are certain moments in modern British history that seem to sit just beyond the edge of official memory. Events that everybody vaguely remembers, yet somehow never quite make it into the comfortable national story we tell ourselves.

The Battle of Orgreave is one. The miners’ strike is another. The poll tax riots. Hillsborough. Brixton. They linger in photographs, old television footage and the memories of those who were there, carrying the uncomfortable reminder that Britain is not always as civilised, measured and orderly as it likes to imagine itself to be.

The Battle of the Beanfield belongs firmly in that category.

Forty years on, it remains one of the most controversial policing operations in modern British history. More than 1,300 police officers confronted a convoy of around 600 New Age Travellers attempting to reach Stonehenge on 1 June 1985. By the end of the day, dozens of people had been injured, hundreds had been arrested and an entire way of life had effectively been marked for destruction.

What happened in that Hampshire beanfield has never been the subject of a full public inquiry. Yet for many people who witnessed the decline of Britain’s traditional industries during the Thatcher years, the images remain painfully familiar.

I grew up in Yorkshire through the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. I watched pit villages hollow out. I watched steelworks close. I watched communities that had existed for generations suddenly find themselves described as obstacles to progress. There was a language that emerged during those years. Certain groups became “the problem”. Miners. Trade unionists. Travellers. Alternative communities. Anyone who stood outside the increasingly rigid idea of what Britain was supposed to become.

That is one reason the Battle of the Beanfield still matters.

To understand the confrontation itself, we first need to understand the strange, colourful and often misunderstood world that produced it.

The Stonehenge Free Festival began in 1974. It emerged from the wider countercultural movements of the late 1960s and early 1970s, combining music, environmentalism, spiritual exploration, political activism and communal living. Over the following decade it grew steadily, becoming one of the largest free gatherings in Britain. By the early 1980s thousands of people travelled to Stonehenge each summer to celebrate the solstice. The festival attracted an eclectic mix of punks, bikers, druids, musicians, environmental campaigners, anarchists, hippies and families living on the road.

The people who became known as the Peace Convoy were not a single organisation. They were a loose collection of travellers, festival-goers and alternative communities who spent much of the year moving between free festivals, protest camps and temporary settlements. Some were escaping unemployment. Some rejected consumer culture. Others simply wanted a different way of living. Many travelled in converted buses, coaches, ambulances and vans that doubled as homes.

To their supporters they represented freedom, creativity and resistance to conformity.

To their critics they represented disorder.

By 1984 tensions were reaching breaking point. The Stonehenge festival had become enormous. Estimates suggested attendance reached around 100,000 people. Concerns were raised about damage to the archaeological landscape, litter, unauthorised trading and open drug use. English Heritage, which had recently taken over management of the site, came under increasing pressure to act. Local authorities and police forces were equally determined that the gathering should not continue in its existing form. A High Court injunction was obtained to prevent the 1985 festival from taking place. The state had drawn a line.

On the morning of 1 June 1985, the Peace Convoy left Savernake Forest and began moving towards Stonehenge. Around 140 vehicles carried approximately 600 people. Many were families. Children were travelling alongside adults who had spent years living on the road. They knew there would be police opposition. Few appear to have anticipated what was waiting for them.

Police had prepared extensively.

The miners’ strike had ended only months earlier. During that bitter industrial conflict police forces had developed new methods of coordination, rapid deployment and large-scale public order operations. Senior officers later openly acknowledged that lessons learned during the strike had informed preparations for dealing with the travellers.

A four-mile exclusion zone had been established around Stonehenge. Roadblocks were prepared. Officers from multiple forces were assembled. Some estimates place police numbers at around 1,300. Others suggest even higher figures by the end of the operation.

The convoy encountered its first major roadblock near Shipton Bellinger, several miles from Stonehenge. According to police accounts, some traveller vehicles attempted to push through the blockade and rammed police vehicles. Travellers and independent witnesses tell a very different story. They describe a convoy seeking negotiation before finding itself trapped and surrounded.

Whatever happened during those first moments, the situation rapidly escalated.As vehicles attempted to leave the road and move into adjacent fields, police began smashing windows and making arrests. The convoy became scattered across farmland. Families were separated. Children became lost in the confusion. What followed would become one of the most infamous confrontations in modern British policing.

Television footage remains difficult to watch even now.

Officers in riot gear strike vehicle windows with truncheons. People are dragged from buses and vans. Terrified children can be seen inside shattered vehicles. Journalists and witnesses described police hitting men and women indiscriminately. Several accounts alleged pregnant women and individuals carrying babies were assaulted during the operation. Numerous vehicles that functioned as homes were systematically damaged.

The Earl of Cardigan, whose family owned Savernake Forest and who had followed the convoy on a motorcycle, later provided testimony that proved deeply damaging to official police narratives. He described officers rushing vehicles with drawn truncheons, shouting at occupants and creating scenes of intimidation and violence that contradicted many early police claims.

Journalists present that day reported similar concerns.

ITN footage captured scenes that shocked many viewers. Photographer Alan Lodge later described the event as an ambush rather than a battle. Others argued the very name “Battle of the Beanfield” created a misleading impression of two evenly matched sides. One side possessed riot shields, command structures, communications systems and overwhelming numerical superiority. The other consisted largely of civilians living in vehicles.

By the end of the operation, 537 people had been arrested. It remains one of the largest mass arrests of civilians in modern British history. Most of the charges eventually collapsed or were dismissed.

That fact alone raises uncomfortable questions.

If hundreds of supposedly dangerous lawbreakers had been lawfully apprehended while carrying out serious criminal acts, one might expect hundreds of successful prosecutions to follow. Instead, much of the legal case simply evaporated.

Years later, travellers successfully pursued civil actions against Wiltshire Police. Damages were awarded for wrongful arrest, false imprisonment and property damage. One police sergeant was convicted of actual bodily harm arising from the events of that day.

Yet despite these outcomes, there has never been a full public inquiry.

Perhaps that is because the Battle of the Beanfield was about more than Stonehenge.

Looking back now, it feels impossible to separate it from the wider atmosphere of Britain in the mid-1980s. This was a country being transformed at extraordinary speed. Traditional industries were disappearing. Unemployment was soaring in many regions. Entire communities were fighting for survival. Alternative lifestyles increasingly found themselves portrayed as threats to public order rather than expressions of individual freedom.

For many people in mining and industrial areas, there is a recognisable pattern.

First comes the language.

A group is described as troublesome, outdated or undesirable.

Then comes the media narrative.

Then comes the justification.

Then comes the force.

That does not mean every traveller was a saint, any more than every miner was. Human beings are messy. Large gatherings bring problems. Some attendees at the Stonehenge festivals undoubtedly caused damage. Some individuals within the traveller movement undoubtedly committed crimes. A serious historical assessment has to acknowledge that reality. The archaeological concerns surrounding Stonehenge were genuine. Local residents had legitimate complaints. Authorities were entitled to seek solutions.

But none of that explains the scale of what happened on 1 June 1985.

The images of smashed homes, frightened children and riot police advancing across fields continue to disturb because they seem wildly disproportionate. They suggest a state determined not merely to enforce an injunction but to send a message.

And the message was received.

The traveller movement never fully recovered.

Legislation introduced during the following years increasingly restricted nomadic lifestyles and unauthorised gatherings. The Public Order Act 1986 and later the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 created new powers that made life significantly harder for travellers, free festivals and eventually the emerging rave culture.

In many ways the Beanfield became a blueprint. The same language used against travellers would later be applied to ravers, squatters, protesters and environmental activists. Alternative communities were increasingly framed not as citizens exercising freedoms but as public order problems requiring management.

Yet the legacy of the Beanfield refuses to disappear.

Songs were written about it. The Levellers turned it into a folk-punk anthem that introduced a new generation to the story. Hawkwind referenced it. Writers, filmmakers and activists kept returning to it. Every summer solstice the memory resurfaces among those who remember what happened.

Perhaps that is because the Battle of the Beanfield sits at the crossroads of so many larger questions.

Who gets to occupy public space?

Who decides what constitutes a legitimate way of living?

How much power should the state possess when dealing with communities that reject mainstream norms?

And perhaps most importantly of all, what happens when governments begin to see certain groups not as citizens but as enemies?

Forty years later those questions feel remarkably current.

The travellers who set out for Stonehenge in 1985 were not trying to overthrow the government. They were trying to reach a festival. They were trying to celebrate a solstice. They were trying, in their own eccentric and imperfect way, to live differently.

Many paid a heavy price for that.

For those of us who grew up watching pits close, furnaces go cold and communities written off as inconvenient relics of the past, the Beanfield feels like part of the same story. Different people. Different landscape. Different politics perhaps. But the same underlying lesson.

When power decides a group no longer belongs, it rarely begins with dialogue.

It begins with exclusion.

Then comes the roadblock.

Further Reading

Andy Worthington, The Battle of the Beanfield

Christopher Chippindale, Stoned Henge: Events and Issues at the Summer Solstice, 1985

Emma Hallett, BBC News, Summer Solstice: How the Stonehenge Battles Faded

Tony Thompson, The Observer, Twenty Years After, Mystery Still Clouds Battle of the Beanfield

English Heritage, Stonehenge 1977–85: A Dig in Time and a Confrontation

Copyright © Mysterious Times 2026. All rights reserved. This article may not be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form without prior written permission from Mysterious Times, except in the case of brief quotations used for review, criticism or scholarly reference.

Tha an Bealltainn a' tighinn gu crìch — Beltane is reaching its end, the wheel leaning toward Midsummer. The bees keep a calendar older than empires. A carpenter bee on the wisteria does not care about the policy paper in another tab. This is what the Druids meant: the land prays without us. Today's full Gathering:
https://twp.ai/9OVuiw
#Beltane #Druid #Paganism #WheelOfTheYear #EarthBased #Gaelic #Midsummer #SeasonalLiving #Mysticism #Animism

Apologetics: Flippin’ Fatwa Friday – The Bible vs. The Quran: Surah al-Baqarah Verses 156-158.

Last time on Flippin’ Fatwa Friday, we covered three issues, talking about good works, the Ka’ba, and jihad. Today, we’re sort-of back to talking about the Ka’ba, though we’ll more specifically be looking at another big part of the Hajj. Let’s take a look at this:

156. Who, when a calamity befalls them, say, ‘Surely, we belong to Allah and to him, of course, we return (and in his will is our peace).’ 157. It is they upon whom descend the benedictions from their Lord and his mercy, and it is they who are guided aright. 158. The Safa and Marwah (- the two eminences near Ka’ba) are certainly (two) of the symbols of Allah, so he who is on Pilgrimage to the house or performs ‘Umrah (- a visit to Ka’ba), there is no blame on him to perform Tawaf (- to run between) the two (eminences), and he who remains thoroughly dutiful and chooses to do good deeds spontaneously, the surely (he will find) Allah is Appreciative and rewards ever good deed done. Surely, Allah is All-Knowing.

I’ve already talked about the pagan origins of the Ka’ba and the Black Stone, but one of the things I sadly forgot to mention was how the Hajj also includes running between two small hills, the Safa and Marwa, seven times. This verse is the only time where this practice is mentioned, and it isn’t really elaborated on in the Quran.

The pagan origins of this practice aren’t something that can only be found through spending hours flipping through history books or scrolling on Google. It’s readily admitted in the hadiths that this practice stems from Arabian pagans. For example, Sahih Bukhari 4496 says:

Narrated `Asim bin Sulaiman:
I asked Anas bin Malik about Safa and Marwa. Anas replied, “We used to consider (i.e. going around) them a custom of the Pre-islamic period of Ignorance, so when Islam came, we gave up going around them. Then Allah revealed: “Verily, Safa and Marwa (i.e. two mountains at Mecca) are among the Symbols of Allah. So it is not harmful of those who perform the Hajj of the House (of Allah) or perform the Umra to ambulate (Tawaf) between them.” 

Stange how pagan customs were never absorbed into Judaism or Christianity by God. Why would Allah make a pagan custom something that is mandatory in Islam?

The reason for this has much to do with what I’ve mentioned in previous posts about the Hajj. It was all to gain a following. Muhammad knew that these customs were important to the people groups he knew. It wasn’t something they would give up easily. Thus, he simply absorbed them into Islam to make it more palatable for them.

Until next time,

M.J.

7.9: Writing (and Doing!) Magical Activism Through Solarpunk Fiction With BrightFlame

In this episode, Ariel talks with BrightFlame: witch, workshop leader, co-founder of the Center for Sustainable Design at Columbia University, and author of solarpunk witchcraft short stories and now a new novel, called The Working. They discuss what solarpunk witchcraft looks like and how, though witchcraft’s manipulation of energy on the astral plane is extremely important, magic is only one half of the equation: the other is activism - actually getting out there and doing the thing, whether it’s attending a protest, contributing to a potluck to strengthen community bonds, or making something with a specific intent in mind.

https://youtu.be/z6Q563DpBb8

#solarpunk #podcast #SolarpunkPresentsPodcast #episode #SeasonSeven #MagicalActivism #SolarpunkWitchcraft #Witchcraft #SolarpunkFiction #Intention #Paganism #Spirituality #SolarpunkSpirituality @BrightFlame #TheWorking

🧘 Исцеляющие Звуки Славян: Ритуальная Музыка, Древние Инструменты + Binaural Beats 🧘

Погрузитесь в мир древней славянской магии с этим уникальным Chill Mix! ✨

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VoAKPNM4_Js

#здоровье #продуктивность #фокус #учеба #медитация #славянскийритуал #futuregarage #chillstep #ambientmusic #binauralbeats #soundscape #relaxation #study #coding #SlavicRitual #paganism #shamanicMusic #музыкадляконцентрации #музыкадляработы #здоровьеифокус #meditationmusic #focusmusic #productivityboost

In March I checked off a bucket list item: moderating a panel with 3 phenomenal trans/nonbinary pagans at Paganicon! Our panel was called "Inclusion vs. Affirmation: Nonbinary, Genderqueer, and Transgender Identities in Our Communities" & the room was PACKED. I wish we'd had at least one more hour, because the conversation was so rich and there was such keen interest from the audience! Siri Vincent Plouff, Mhara Starling, and Cassandra Snow were AWESOME! #paganism #paganicon #WitchSky #PaganSky

We really need to stop calling obvious schizophrenia, manic delusions, and psychosis ‘unverified personal gnosis.’ A person whom I knew 15 years ago has persistent beliefs, regardless of facts, that they knew me in a past life and we made some pact to alter the future to save the world from Nazis. It’s insane, but everyone in the occult Discord is nodding their heads and validating it.

A delusion is a persistent belief regardless of facts. This person has dreams and hallucinations that they believe are gods, spirits, and telepathy. In these hallucinations and delusions, the spirits tell them who random strangers were in a past life. A lot of these delusions are obviously paranoid and inevitably roll into a conspiracy theory about Nazis. This is very terrifying. This means, based on a random occurrence with a person, they will create a parasocial narrative that manifests as them knowing this person.

Most schizophrenia delusions emerge from noise and thus have no actual information. You can uncover that it is a delusion by asking the person for details. For example, if they make a claim about remembering a past life in Egypt, you can do the equivalent of asking them who the President of the United States is now. I did that with this person. They were claiming to have known me and other people in a past life in Egypt 3000 years ago, so I looked up what was going on around that time. I asked them who the high priest was, who the pharaoh was, and what they remember happening around that time. All of it was wrong.

That caused most of that Discord to jump all over me and imply that it was fine because it was their personal gnosis. To be clear, this person is creating parasocial relationships and narratives based on delusional narratives that they are applying to random people they meet.

Phrasing things as they happened in a different reality or a past life is a way to avoid the falsification of and is a way to rationalize the delusion. Claiming that you knew a person in a past life is a way to justify the parasocial relationship. It is not unverified personal gnosis. It’s mental illness. There is nothing magical about mental illness. If I had a nickel for every time a schizophrenic occultist spun up a delusional narrative to justify an adversarial parasocial relationship with me, I’d be rich. This is a major problem.

#anarchism #anarchists #anarchy #animistic #Astral #astrological #Bipolar #BipolarDisorder #ceremonialMagic #ceremonialMagick #chaosMagic #chaosMagick #conspiracyTheories #conspiracyTheory #cult #cults #Discord #divination #DKMU #Egypt #fascism #gnosis #magic #magick #Nazi #Nazis #occult #occultism #occulture #pagan #paganism #paranormal #pastLife #pastLives #polytheism #psychic #psychosis #Reddit #reincarnation #schizophrenia #schizophrenic #spirits #spiritual #Spirituality #Theism #Thelema #thelemites #Threads #Twitter #UnverifiedPersonalGnosis #UPG #witch #witchcraft

#GaolNaofa is a TERF RadFem group, thankfully GN is more or less dead & has been for years.

However, their former leader Thomas James on Twitter is a Fascist MAGA these days, the least they can do is update this page and finally completely distance themselves from him instead of making themselves look worse.

#CelticPolytheism #MindHives #Pagan #Paganism #GaelicPolytheism #Polytheism #ReligiousGroups #CelticPagan #Neopagans
https://www.gaolnaofa.org/about/organisational-structure/

@MalignusCeles https://youtu.be/kEDZZin4_eM

#DawnOfTheMachineElves #chaosmagic #Discordianism #dkmu #Hexorian #SigilBomb #chaosmagick #magick #divination #tarot #tarotcards #occult #pagan #paganism #sigils #sigilmagick #ceremonialmagic #ceremonialmagick #occultism #occulture

Interest hashtags:

#ScienceFiction #Fantasy #WorldOfWarcraft #Polytheism #HellenicPolytheism #GreekPolytheism #Paganism #StarTrek #StarWars #DnD #ComputerProgramming #DoctorWho #TenthDoctor #MotherlandFortSalem #StrangerThings #TheSandman #Witchcraft #Magic #InitiatoryWicca #LGBTQIA #NonBinary #Trans #Transgender #Asexuality #Aromanticism #AroAce #ADHD #Neurodivergence #Disability