divert, wicca, coven, pagan, witchcraft, sorcery

 in anticipated Gaza invasion

BY NIDAL AL-MUGHRABI AND JONATHAN SAUL

Israel's generals will look to lessons learned from past ground offensives in 2008 and 2014.

Israel-Hamas conflict offers boon to Russia in Ukraine

BY NATALIA DROZDIAK AND COURTNEY MCBRIDE

Israel’s requests for U.S. military aid risk diverting weapons and focus from Ukraine while the rising price of oil bolsters Moscow’s economy.

LUANDA, Angola — Pope Benedict XVI, nearing the end of his first pilgrimage to Africa, on Saturday told priests and nuns of their duty to divert their fellow Angolans from malign beliefs in witchcraft and sorcery.




Dutch folk band revive Pagan music in Europe

The Dutch band, Omnia, are bringing Pagan music to European stages. Under
the motto, "Black is the new Green", they've attracted many fans with
their blend of Celtic folk tunes and a back-to-nature philosophy.

The DW-WORLD Article
http://newsletter.dw-world.de/re?l=evz0u8I44va89pI7


Wicca
n.

1. A polytheistic Neo-Pagan nature religion inspired by various pre-Christian western European beliefs, whose central deity is a mother goddess and which includes the use of herbal magic and benign witchcraft.
2. A group or community of believers or followers of this religion.

[Old English wicca, necromancer. See witch.]

威卡教（英語：Wicca）是一種在英國和美國盛行的、新興的、多神論的、以巫術為基礎的宗教。威卡這個詞來於Witchcraft（巫術）的縮寫。威卡教的信徒也自稱自己的宗教為「老宗教」（這個稱呼可以追溯到弗里德里希·施萊格爾）或者「老路」來表示威卡教的根源在於歐洲的魔術和原始宗教。

Wicca as a religion has no central authority nor organization, although various umbrella groups such as the Covenant of the Goddess in North America and the Pagan Federation in the United Kingdom include many individuals and groups.傳統的威卡教信徒組織在巫師集團（coven-- Some are solitary practitioners; others belong to covens.）中，他們在這樣的一個集團中一起進行儀式和祈禱。
The primary organization remains the coven, ideally numbering thirteen persons but in actuality often comprised of fewer.

pagan 
adjective
1 belonging to a religion which worships many gods, especially one which existed before the main world religions:
a pagan religion
The Easter egg has both pagan and Christian origins.

2 relating to religious beliefs that do not belong to any of the main religions of the world:
a pagan festival

pagan
noun [C]
1 a person who has pagan beliefs

2 HUMOROUS a person who has no religious beliefs

paganism
noun [U]

pa・gan

━━ n., a. 異教徒（の）; 不信心者（の）; （古代の）多神教者.
pa・gan・ism　━━ n. 異教（信仰）; 異教徒であること.
pa・gan・ize　━━ v. 異教（徒）化する.

coven, basic group in which witches are said to gather. One of the chief proponents of the theory of a coven was the English Egyptologist Margaret Murray in her work The Witch Cult in Western Europe (1921). According to her a coven consists of 12 witches and a devil as leader.