European Pagan Memory Day

In memory of James Hillman

2011-10-28T17:24:00.002+01:00

Yesterday, 85-years-old James Hillman died. The European Pagan Memory Day celebrates him by his own words in the hymn to Aphrodite, published in Aphrodite's justice, Capri, La Conchiglia, 2008:

So, Great Lady, whom I shall sometimes name in Greek as Aphrodite and sometimes in Latin as Venus, allow us to investigate your nature, not only for our human purposes, that we may find more love and beauty and pleasures in our lives, but further, for your purposes - that the strange compulsions and irresistible allures that emanate from your presence find their way more happily for you into this world that you fill with your sensuous being.
Too long, Great Lady, have you been conceived only as the Golden One, the Smiling One, as the Greeks called you, only the bringer of sweet temptation that transgresses the ethical order with little concern for justice. Those who follow your train and traffic with your gifts - poets, lovers, musicians, crafts persons and colorists of many tastes, and those who would make each moment in their day show a sign of Venus in manner, odor, decor, dress and speech, those who bring charm, sensuality, lightness of touch, frivolity even, and the madness of passion - have for too long been relegated in our civilization to a lesser, trivial place, neither serious nor moral.
Not withou trepidation do I invoke your presence at the outset, for history shows that turning directly to you ends often in disaster. Think of Paris who chose you above Athene and Hera: think of the consequences - Troy in ruins, the heroes dead, the ensuing murders, the tragedies. Think of Anchises, who enjoyed your favors only to be disfigured and struck by thunder. Of Dido, one of your favorites, Queen of Carthage, and the misery she suffered, even in the Underworld long after her life on earth had passed, still tormented by the desertion of Aeneas who had set his sails for Latium; and of Phaedre, driven crazy by her illicit love for her stepson, Hippolytus. Think of our own lives: how we have each been made mad by an Aphroditic infusion: become liars, cheats, insane with jealousies, vain, inflated, manic, and cruel.
Great Lady, be kind to us today.

Persecutions in Alexandria

2011-10-12T16:47:00.002+01:00

A new page has been published on European Pagan Memory Day website, about persecutions of Pagans in Late Antiquity Alexandria (4th-5th century). Hypatia's murder is only the most known fact of the period: many bloody others happened for more than a century. Discover them here (though the page is still only in Italian; translation coming soon).

Death of Georges Dumézil

2011-10-11T16:03:00.002+01:00

25 years ago Georges Dumézil died in Paris. Modern Pagans know his theories about Indoeuropean mythology and religions (especially Roman and German ones); he can't be called a Pagan, unlike other scholars who dealt with ancient religions, but for sure his studies and theories, though controversial, gave a contribute to modern paganism. We'll talk about him again on EPMD's site.

Website renewed

2011-08-28T15:48:00.001+01:00

After a couple of months work, the European Pagan Memory Day website is online with a new layout. Please report us on this blog or writing at info@giornopaganomemoria.it any problem or broken link and tell us what you think about it!

Podcasts are back

2011-04-23T21:10:00.002+01:00

A new episode of the podcast "Ritorno ad Alessandria" (back to Alexandria) is finally available after the long, long break. Find it on our website; this time we talk about the future development of the project. The podcast is in Italian only; as some of you may remember, we deleted the English version of our podcast Fontes due to lack of listeners. If you would like an English version of our podcasts again, please make your claim and let us know!

The Altar of the twelve Gods is in danger

2011-03-05T17:54:00.004+01:00

The Altar of the twelve Gods, the centre of the Ancient Athens is in risk of being buried under the works for the renovation of the railway. The railway was built unwittingly on the Altar at the end of the 19th century, before the beginning of the excavation of the Agora. When the excavation started, in the Thirties of 20th century, a piece of the Altar was discovered and remained visible until now. This year, the works for the railway have brought to light the rest of the altar, but the company refuses to move the tracks in favour of this great religious and archaeological discovery, and wants to bury the altar once again, and this time probably forever. We received this plea from the Greek Pagans' (ethnikoi hellenes) association Thyrsos:

Dear Visitor of Athens

Right here, where you walk, on the railways near the train station of Thiseion,a really priceless discovery was made. A unique masterpiece of our Ancient History, the center of Athens on the Ancient years, the Great Altar of the 12 Gods. It is one of the most important monuments ever been found in whole Hellas. Knowing your interest and your love for the Hellenic Culture we kindly request for your assistance. At the moment, the railway company wants to bury the altar under sand and heavy iron on the basis of the totally outrageous argument that they are “losing money” because of the delay of the constructions on the underground railway network. They claim that it doesn’t worth the “trouble” to alter the rails' route,whilst ignoring the Archaeologists’ viable proposals to uncover the altar and make it accessible to the public. To save this Altar is for us a reason to fight and defend our Sacred Heritage, a heritage that the Hellenic State doesn’t seem to be interested of. This Altar is of great importance for thousands of Hellenes not only for its Historical Value! There are many followers of the Ancient Hellenic Religion who see their Sacred and Alive monument being destroyed as the State just ignores their pleas.

How can the Hellenic State be claiming the return of the Sculptures of our Sacred Parthenon when this very State, destroys virtually every trace of Antiquity that is discovered - just because it doesn’t fit on their business plan? How can they claim the respect of the globe, when themselves they do not respect their own country's History?
Please help us to save our Sacred Heritage! It is very easy; just send an email both to the railway company (I.S.A.P.) and to the Ministry of “Culture” with some words in defence of the Altar and against its destruction plan.

Unite your voice with us and spread the word all over. The Hellenic Civilization worths more than their profits!

YOU CAN HELP!

Thank you in advance.

The email of the railway company: pro@isap.gr
The email of the Ministry of Culture: grplk@culture.gr

Thyrsos - Hellenes Ethnikoi
For the research, study and spread of the Ancient Hellenic Culture
www.thyrsos.gr

There is also on online petition you can sign. Since the importance for all western pagans, please spread the voice!

Georges Dumezil

2011-03-04T16:44:00.001+01:00

Today in 1898 Georges Dumezil was born in Paris. This year will be the 25th year since his death.

EUROPEAN PAGAN MEMORY DAY

2011-02-24T00:15:00.000+01:00

Send us the photos or description of your celebration at info@giornopaganomemoria.it and allow us to publish it on our website.
Let's show how we can stay united for an idea even though we are different; since we are pagans, we can gain strenght from our differences.

Jung and the Jungians in the renewal of a Pagan consciousness

2011-01-30T21:48:00.002+01:00

There are several 20th century scholars who made theories and discoveries in their research fields which revealed to fit also a renewal of a Pagan Consciousness, that is the revival of Paganism in everyday life. Among them there are Carl Gustav Jung and some of his successors: James Hillman, Ginette Paris and somehow even Karoly Kerenyi, who was not a psychoanalist, but a friend of Jung. We talk about this in the new page of our site, which you can find at

http://www.giornopaganomemoria.it/jungians.html

This time we also made some little graphic changes to the page, in order to improve the way the text can be read. Look at it and let us know what do you think about and if these changes should be extended to other pages.

Happy new year

2011-01-01T11:55:00.003+01:00

The European Pagan Memory Day project wishes you a happy 2011. In the image above we announce the main themes we are going to deal with during this year: the celebration of the international year of forests and the memory of Georges Dumezil since this year is the 25th from his death.

New episode of Fontes

2010-12-27T21:59:00.002+01:00

A new episode of Fontes is now available on our website and on our MySpace profile (made just for listening to Radio GPM's podcasts and reading our latest news in brief). This time we talk about the changes in the myth of Orpheus made by christianity. For the reasons we explained in the episode of Fontes issued on the 31st October, we can't keep translating Fontes episodes, so from now on they'll be available in Italian only, sorry.

Pool on our website

2010-11-02T11:02:00.003+01:00

The new website has been online for eighteen months, so now we would like to ask you: do you think that our pages can be read easily enough? Or do you think that something could be improved? If you have any suggestion, you can vote our pool aside this post and then reply to it or write us at info@giornopaganomemoria.it

New episode of Fontes

2010-10-31T19:32:00.002+01:00

A new episode of Fontes is available on our website or for listening from our MySpace page; this time we talk about "Dance and furor", the relation between music and dance and divine inspiration. We're sorry to say that this could be the last episodes of Fontes translated in English: we began to translate so that people from outside Italy could interact more with the European Pagan Memory Day, but it's sad to say that we didn't have any feedback from that, so we quit (maybe for a while, maybe for a longer time) translations of Fontes. Now all Radio GPM's broadcasts will be in Italian. If you have comments or suggestions, let us know.

Translation into Spanish

2010-10-13T17:05:00.002+01:00

The European Pagan Memory project is back after the break due to the WCER congress held at the end of August: online you'll be able to find a translation into Spanish (by Luis Abbadie, whom we thank very much!) of the website main pages. There are still some broken links, but we'll fix them within tomorrow evening.

Video "Myth in Veneto"

2010-07-05T17:52:00.003+01:00

For the project "The myth where you don't expect it" a new video has been published, with some photos taken in the Italian region Veneto. The video is in Italian, but you can enjoy the photos anyway. Watch the video at:

http://www.livestream.com/GPEM_TV/video?clipId=flv_87e63645-7d3e-4433-920a-a1d8ee4f9079

or on our website

http://www.giornopaganomemoria.it/mitovideo.html

Petition results updated

2010-06-02T12:42:00.004+01:00

Finally, after several months, we updated the petition results on our site; signing this petition you can simbolically agree with the purposes of the Day. Since september 2006 we have had 646 signatures. On our website, you can also read the petition text.

New episode of Fontes

2010-05-30T11:07:00.001+01:00

A new episode of Fontes, also in English, has been uploaded on our site. You can download it from there, or listen to it on our listening point (our MySpace profile). This time we'll talk about Hades, the invisible god so often depicted too similar to the christian devil.

Pagan Asatru Holidays

2010-05-05T19:06:00.003+01:00

Surfing the web I've found some interesting information about Asatru's holiday. I didn't know that celebrations of Asatru "martyrs" were so spread; this time I'll give you the link, and soon I'll update the Pagan Memory Day Calendar to introduce the remembrance exposed here. If you know some others, please tell me (possibly, quoting the source, like a book or an organization's website).
The link is:

http://www.asatru.org/holidays.php
(in English)

European Pagan Memory Day

2010-02-24T00:01:00.000+01:00

Today it's the European Pagan Memory Day

After the Pagan Memory Day rite

2010-02-22T17:15:00.002+01:00

This has been created for the participants to the Federazione Pagana's rite last saturday:
it says: "20th february 2010; among the Gods of the rain and wind, we remembered. Rite of the European Pagan Memory Day - Federazione Pagana"

The Federazione Pagana's rite

2010-02-21T21:22:00.004+01:00

The Federazione Pagana hold yesterday evening the European Pagan Memory Day rite; praise to all those who took part to it, because the weather wasn't favourable: rain and cold wind didn't prevent the celebration to take place anyway, according to the usual scheme with the addition of the reading of some dates of the struggle against paganism led by monotheism (from Vlassis Rassias' book A history of love, not translated from Greek yet). Soon photos and videos will be available on the website; in the meanwhile you can see those of past rites on our websites.

On the 24th February, on the European Pagan Memory Day, you can take part to the celebration too: if you light a fire, a candle, to remember all the pagan sacred fires that have been set off across Europe, please send your photo at info@giornopaganomemoria.it

Marija Gimbutas

2010-02-02T08:12:00.002+01:00

On the 2nd February, sixteen years ago, Marija Gimbutas (Gimbutiene) left us; she is one of the scholars we remember in the European Pagan Memory Day calendar because of the importance of her researches for present paganism. She was born in Lithuania on the 23rd January 1921.
Marija Gimbutas is known to pagan people especially because of her works about the Goddess, like The language of the goddess and The living goddesses, which gave an archaeological foundation to the theories about the Mother Goddess, and because of her studies about the pre-indoeuropean Europe, the Balts and the first Indoeuropean populations, the Kurgans. To her we owe the expression “Old Europe” to designate the preindoeuropean Europe which, according to Gimbutas’ thought, was matriarchal but without the dominance of one gender on the other, and peaceful, while the Kurgans were a patriarchal society which imposed itself with violence. Actually, later studies demonstrated that the Old-European society weren’t so peaceful as we thought before, while the new findings, especially the rich tombs of female Kurgans, maybe of female warriors, and the fortifications for defence softened a bit the idea we have of Kurgans. Her research about Neolithic Europe brought a new interest for prehistoric religion and underlined the elements related to the goddesses.
The high sensitivity to female deities that Gimbutas showed is probably due to her Lithuanian background: in Lithuanian paganism the goddess of the earth, Zemyna, is a very important one. This feature of Gimbutas’ studies made her very popular among various pagan groups, especially the feminist ones. Nevertheless, we must say that sometimes Gimbutas goes too far in interpreting many graffiti as signs of the goddess: according to her works, spirals, oblique lines and other graphic marks are all symbols for eyes and in turn eyes would be the symbol of the goddess.
For further explanations, we suggest you to read:

Marija Gimbutas, The living goddesses
Marija Gimbutas, The language of the goddess
Marija Gimbutas, The Balts
Marija Gimbutas, The Gods and Goddesses of old Europe

And, about more recent studies about the Indoeuropean populations and matriarchy:

Francisco Villar, Indoeuropeos y los orìgenes de Europa
Cynthia Eller, The myth of the matriarchal prehistory: why an invented past won’t give women a future

The European Pagan Memory Day is getting closer...

2010-01-31T12:27:00.003+01:00

The European Pagan Memory Day is here: have you already decided how to celebrate it?
For people living or passing in northern Italy, the Federazione Pagana organizes a ritual in its Sacred Wood in Jesolo on Saturday 20th February in the evening: to take part to it contact claudiosimeoni@libero.it.
Every other initiative for the day is welcomed, but the most important thing is that the initiative should be public or ar least published on your site or on ours: please send photos , images and videos at giornopaganomemoria@yahoo.it

The celebrations held in previous years can be seen on our site.

Happy 2010

2010-01-01T11:27:00.003+01:00

Happy 2010 to all those who read and listen to the European Pagan Memory Day project

Constantine and his visions

2009-12-27T11:26:00.003+01:00

Three years before the famous battle at Milvian bridge, when it is said that Constantine saw the sign of the cross in the sky, Constantine had another vision, a pagan one, in which Apollo consecrated him as emperor. Why did Constantine use religion in this way to legitimate his power? This is what the new page on our site is about.

New episode of Fontes

2009-11-30T21:29:00.001+01:00

This time I have to annunce that only the Italian version of this month episode of Fontes is now available. I hope the English version will be ready in a few days, but I have to say that I'm no more able to assure a new episode each month, because of the growth of the European Pagan Memory Day project, so the podcast episode will leave a bit more space to other branches of the project itself.

Happy Samhain

2009-10-31T21:32:00.002+01:00

Happy Samhain to you all

New episode of Fontes

2009-10-25T19:42:00.001+01:00

Actually it has already been ready since last Sunday, but because of technical issues it's only today that we announce the new episode of Fontes, as usual available on our website or on our MySpace. This time we talk about the importance of the hymn in pagan cultures, especially the Roman and Greek ones (just because we have more sources about them).

Pagan Memory Day Spanish version

2009-10-18T10:12:00.003+01:00

Thanks to our friend Luis Abbadie's great work, we are preparing a Spanish version of our website. As soon as he sends us his translations (but he's very quick and it's not easy to keep the pace) we prepare the pages for upload. We'll publish the news on this blog as soon as we are ready to upload.

Pagan Calendar: Georges Dumézil

2009-10-11T17:55:00.002+01:00

On the 11th October 1986 Georges Dumézil died. He was the author of very famous works like L’idéologie tripartite des Indo-Européens and Archaic Roman religion. Dumézil became famous for his theories about Indoeuropean religion and society and particularly for the trifunctional scheme he outlined also for Indoeuropean religions. According to this scheme, Dumézil divided gods and goddesses into three categories: gods of sovereignty (to which he dedicated Les dieux souverains des Indo-Européens), gods of war (about whom he wrote Heur et malheur du guerrier, aspects de la fonction guerrière chez les Indo-Européens) and gods of production.
Dumézil was inspired by Indian society and religion; at those times in facts, the most common opinion among scholars was to believe that the origin of all Indoeuropean civilization could be found in India and in Indian civilization. Only later other scholars demonstrated that Indian civilization developed in parallel with other Indoeuropean civilizations from a common root and can't be considered the origin of these; today the trifunctional scheme is also believed to be too strict to be considered a rule.
From a pagan point of view, Dumézil's work is important at least because he studied also the link between the gods and society and real life, considering their characteristics and function (without considering them merely allegories, as it was done in literature and philosophy), inside the pantheon they belonged to.

New episode of the podcast "Ritorno ad Alessandria"

2009-10-04T20:22:00.002+01:00

A new episode of the pagan podcast about books and information, "Ritorno ad Alessandria" (Back to Alexandria), is now online, in Italian only. This time we talk about how the classical myth entered the 17th century Italian literature. The episode is available on our site, but it seems that the player on our MySpace profile (our listening point) can't update the list of available mp3, so you'll have to wait until tomorrow to use the listening point.

First modern pagan temple in Thessaloniki

2009-10-03T18:40:00.003+01:00

The first modern pagan temple has been built in Thessaloniki, thanks to Mr. Aristoteles Kakogeorgiou, who also creates the pictures to decorate the inner part of the temple. This is an old (january 2009) article of the blog Prometheia that talks about it, with a lot of photos:

http://prometheia.wordpress.com/2009/01/09/naos/

Three new episodes of "Cantami, O Diva"

2009-09-27T20:12:00.002+01:00

There are three new episodes of the podcast "Cantami, O Diva" now available (in Italian only) on our website or on our MySpace listening point. This time we tell some tales from the "Metamorphoses" by Ovid, a poem which for many centuries has been the main source for knowledge of ancient myths, though these myths are far from their cultual meaning.

New episode of Fontes

2009-09-14T21:17:00.002+01:00

A new episode of Fontes is online, available on the site and, from tomorrow, on our MySpace listening point. This time we talk about the abolition of Lupercalia, the last Pagan Roman festival.

New episode of "Ritorno ad Alessandria"

2009-08-29T10:36:00.001+01:00

A new episode of "Ritorno ad Alessandria" (Back to Alexandria) is now online: this time we talk about the classical myth in the Italian Renaissance literature. This podcast is broadcasted only in Italian: you can listen to it on our Myspace listening point (red player), or download it from our website.,

Petition results updated

2009-08-04T19:02:00.002+01:00

The petition results page has been updated to 31st July 2009. If you agree with the purposes of the European Pagan Memory Day, sign the petition if you haven't done it yet!

Just a few days more...

2009-08-01T20:39:00.002+01:00

Please be patient for just a few days more to have the new episode of Fontes for the month of July-August (yes, Fontes too goes on holiday).

New layout

2009-06-22T15:16:00.003+01:00

As I promised, today it's the day: the restyled website is finally online.
It works perfectly with Firefox and Netscape and has some little changes if opened with Explorer, but it seems to work anyway. I didn't check all the pages: please tell me what you think about the new style and if something doesn't work (broken links ecc...).

New layout for the site on the 22th of June

2009-06-18T19:04:00.001+01:00

On the 22th June the European Pagan Memory Day new site will be issued; we are waiting for your opinion at info@giornopaganomemoria.it.
Since this work has been very time consuming, Radio GPM will open its microphones again on the next days; English speaking people may be especially interested in the new episode of Fontes, in English, about the relations between the Celtic religion and the Roman one through the analysis of the Gallo-Roman Mars.

New episode of Fontes online

2009-05-10T18:33:00.002+01:00

A new episode of Fontes is online on our website. This time we talk about Ares and Mars: two names but how many gods? Can we really say that they are the same god, from an historical point of view, but above all from the Pagan point of view?

Earth Day 2009

2009-04-22T18:50:00.001+01:00

A short video to celebrate the Earth Day 2009

New episode of Fontes

2009-04-19T14:07:00.002+01:00

A new episode of Fontes is online, available on our site in English version too. This time we talk about the demonization of Pagan Gods according to christian sources.

Hidden, but existing: a new look for our website

2009-04-08T19:37:00.002+01:00

As I told you during the episode of "Fontes" in February, during this Third Pagan Memory Year we'll renew our website www.giornopaganomemoria.it. The renewal implies a new look, more comfortable to be read and more accessible, but also a new arrangement for contents. Old contents will remain (site updatings are suspended until the work is finished), but I hope that the new arrangement will make them easier to browse. Finally, after two months, the design of the new look is finished and I think it's quite satisfying. You won't be able to see it until the second part of the work, the arrangement of contents will be finished, too.

Happy Spring!

2009-03-21T14:18:00.001+01:00

Happy Spring (or Ostara) to you all

New episode of Fontes

2009-03-08T17:14:00.002+01:00

As I promised to you yesterday, a new episode of Fontes is now online. This time we talk about the relationship between the cult of Pagan Goddesses and the christian worship of Mary. According to some pagans, it's possible to see a remainder of Paganism behind the cult of Mary, but how much is this true? This is the question to which we try to answer in this episode of Fontes. The English version of Fontes is downloadable from our website, but still hasn't its own player on MySpace. We hope we'll solve this soon. Have a good Women's Day.

Tomorrow, for the International Women's Day

2009-03-07T16:16:00.004+01:00

The Venus from Willendorf [photo by: Oke]

Tomorrow, for the International Women's Day, a new episode of Fontes will be uploaded; this time we'll talk about the relationship between Paganism and the worship of Mary: is there really a descent as some scholars and pagans said? Like the last episode, this one will be in English too.

New episode of Fontes: English version

2009-02-27T16:30:00.004+01:00

A new episode of Fontes, the podcast about Pagan Culture is online, for the first time in ENGLISH. You can listen to or download it from our website; a player on our myspace page will be ready soon. This time we talk about what we did during the last Pagan Memory year and what we would like to do during the third Pagan Memory year that has just begun.

European Pagan Memory Day

2009-02-24T22:34:00.001+01:00

TODAY THE EUROPEAN PAGAN MEMORY DAY, TO REMEMBER THE SACRED FIRES WHICH WERE SET OFF AND FROM WHICH THE PAGAN DRAWS HER/HIS RELIGIO

THE AIM OF OUR PROJECT IS TO KNOW THE PAGAN PAST IN ORDER TO RECONSTRUCT THE FUTURE OF PAGANISM

European Pagan Memory Day

2009-02-23T21:33:00.004+01:00

Tomorrow evening at 21:30 (GMT +01) on GPEM TV on Mogulus http://www.mogulus.com/gpem_tv you'll be able to see a summary of the rite held by the Federazione Pagana last saturday in the Sacred Wood of Jesolo (Venice), followed by the summaries of 2008 and 2007 rites, in English. Before that, the Italian version of the videos. For half an hour I'll be on the TV chat room to talk with you.
During the day, GPEM TV will broadcast the documentaries that are already on YouTube, both in Italian and in English.
I'm waiting for you and for the photos of your celebrations.

New episode of "Cantami, O Diva"

2009-02-12T23:02:00.002+01:00

A new episode of Radio GPM's podcast "Cantami, O Diva", the podcast narrating ancient myths, is now online and available on our website or from our MySpace page. This time we tell the tale of the Ragnarok, the twilight of the Gods (this podcast is available in Italian only).

Rites for the European Pagan Memory Day

2009-02-04T16:04:00.002+01:00

There are 20 days left before the European Pagan Memory Day, have you already prepared your celebrations? As usual, we ask you to send the photos of your celebrations, rites or fires you light to remember the Pagan Sacred Fires which have been set off in Europe to info@giornopaganomemoria.it

The Federazione Pagana organization is going to celebrate the European Pagan Memory Day with a public rite in the Sacred Wood of Jesolo, on the 21st February. On our site you can see the videos of last year rite and read the hymns to be read during the rite. For further information about participation to the rite, get in touch with claudiosimeoni@libero.it.

Petition results updated

2009-02-03T20:00:00.002+01:00

On our site the petition results has been updated to the 31st of January and I hope to be able to update the comment page too, within the end of February. I would like to thank the crowd of Belgian and French supporters who signed the petition last month.

Happy Imbolc

2009-02-01T10:54:00.002+01:00

Fontes: pagan people and laws about freedom of religion

2009-01-31T22:04:00.004+01:00

Since the Pagan Memory Calendar links the month of January to the relationship between paganism and modern society, this month the new episode of Fontes is about "Pagan people and laws about freedom of religion". You can download the episode from our website or listen to it on our MySpace page, but this episode is only in Italian.
I know that some of you will probably feel frustrated because Radio GPM is only in Italian and maybe you would like to know more. I'm still not enough confident in my English pronounciation, but I'm seriously thinking about translating next episodes (even though they will became a reading more than a real radio programme), so that there will be an English version of them. Please let me know what do you think about it.

The myth where you don't expect it: in Italian municipalities

2009-01-15T16:07:00.002+01:00

Within the project "The myth where you don't expect it", we published a new page on our site: the Myth in the coats of arms of Italian municipalities. In Italy there are about thirty municipalities which bear the image of an ancient goddess or god on their official coat of arms, so we couldn't ignore them. The importance of the presence of deities in these municipalities' signs is clear when we think that a coat of arms should express values and things to which the municipality appeals: usually, these municipalities recalled their past or the origin of their names, but it's important also for paganism that they didn't deny their past. On this page you won't find images because according to the Italian law, one should ask to the municipality the permission to reproduce its coat of arms, so I preferred to link images in authorized sites, when I have been able to find them. To prevent misunderstanding I have also to say that the presence of a municipality in this list doesn't mean that the municipality approves or supports paganism.

Pagan Memory Calendar

2009-01-04T11:11:00.002+01:00

As we promised, we publish the Pagan Memory Calendar, that is the list of themes we are going to deal with during one year:

January: Paganism and modern society

February: the European Pagan Memory Day project

March: the Feminine

April: the demonization of Paganisms

May: Gods and Goddesses

June: relations between Paganisms

July-August: rebirths of Paganism

September: against Pagans

October: Pagan practices and worships

November: Paganisms and the Nature around

December: the "santification" (embezzlement) of Paganisms

New episode of "Ritorno ad Alessandria" (Back to Alexandria)

2009-01-03T18:32:00.001+01:00

The new episode of "Ritorno ad Alessandria" (Back to Alexandria), Radio GPM's podcast about book and information, is online (in Italian only), available on our website or on our MySpace page. This is the last episode of the cycle "The pagan looking for information"; now the programme will take a break to prepare a new cycle.

New episode of Fontes

2008-12-28T15:25:00.002+01:00

A new episode of Fontes is online; listen to it from our MySpace page or download it from our site. This time we'll talk about the way catholicism took possession of paganism in order to delete its memory and destroy it. As usual, the episode is only in Italian; I apologize with friends who would like an English version of Radio GPM's podcast, but I work on the project alone at the moment, translations need time and I'm not enough confident about my English pronounciation to broadcast in English. Maybe next year I'll begin to translate some written text of old episodes, but this is not a promise.

"Cantami, O Diva" new episode

2008-12-18T21:18:00.002+01:00

A new episode of Radio GPM podcast about myths, "Cantami, O Diva" is online (in Italian only): give it a listen on our MySpace page (green player), or download it from our website. This time it's about Leto.

Sixty years from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

2008-12-10T23:48:00.000+01:00

From the Universal Declaration of Human Rights:
Art. 18

Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.

New episode on Fontes

2008-11-29T23:18:00.002+01:00

A new episode of Fontes, podcast of pagan culture, is online on Radio GPM; this time we talk about the relations between animals and deities in European paganisms. Since I can't annoy you for a very long time ;-) and since the matter is very wide, I chose some interesting points to bring to the attention of present day pagans. As usual, the episode, only in Italian, can be downloaded from our site; else, you can listen to it on our MySpace profile.

New episode of "Cantami, O Diva"

2008-11-15T21:54:00.000+01:00

A new episode of the podcast "Cantami, O Diva" is online; this month we tell the tale of Numa, king of Rome, dealing with the anger of Jupiter. You can download it from the site or listen to it on our MySpace page (in Italian only).

Happy birthday to Radio GPM

2008-11-10T10:10:00.003+01:00

From the 8th November, Radio GPM is one year old!

Cantami O Diva, new episode

2008-10-31T23:09:00.002+01:00

Happy Samhain to you all! This night, radio GPM's programme "Cantami O Diva" tells the Celtic tale of Pwyll, lord of Dyfed, who becomes friend with Arawn, Lord of the Other World. Choosing a Celtic myth to tell is always difficult, because all sources were compiled during Christian era (this is true for the Book of the Dun Cow as well as for the Mabinogion, from which this tale comes) and so they merge pagan elements with christian ones, hiding ancient gods under the guises of heroes and populations. Anyway, enjoy this tale (in Italian only) downloading it from our site or listening to it on our MySpace page.

New page on the website

2008-10-10T16:27:00.001+02:00

A new page has been just published on the European Pagan Memory Day website; this time it's about the Theodosian Code (Codex Theodosianus): let's introduce the matter with a short description.

New episode of "Ritorno ad Alessandria" (Back to Alexandria)

2008-10-06T10:11:00.002+02:00

A new episode of "Ritorno ad Alessandria" (Back to Alexandria), the pagan podcast about books and information on Radio GPM, is online, but still only in Italian. This is the fifth episode of the cycle "The Pagan looking for information" and this time we leave the matter about libraries to start dealing with search engines, by talking about logical (or Boolean) operators, that are useful both for catalogues and for search engines. Next time we'll talk about search engines and later about the reliability of websites. On January, the broadcasting cycle "The Pagan looking for information" will end; you have time until the first days of December to vote the matter of the next broadcasting cycle, on the podcast's blog. In the meantime, you can listen to this new episode on our website or on MySpace.

New episode of Fontes

2008-09-30T11:08:00.002+02:00

A new episode of Fontes is available online, both on our MySpace "listening point" and on our website (only in Italian). This time we'll talk about a very discussed matter: did christianity really impose the separation between church and state and someone says? And what kind of separation are we talking about? Let's look at it through the pages of the Theodosian code, a body of laws edited in 435 c.e.

Cantami, o Diva - new episode

2008-09-16T11:16:00.002+02:00

A new episode of the podcast "Cantami, o Diva" is now online; only in Italian language. This time we'll talk about how Odin got the mead of poetry; thanks to Alcamon Ham Haros who suggested me this passage from the book Miti del nord. - Bussolengo : Demetra, 1999

New video about the battle of the Frigidus

2008-09-14T11:17:00.004+02:00

Finally the English version of the video about the battle of the Frigid river (Frigidus) is ready and available on our YouTube channel. It was the 5th-6th September 394 c.e. when this battle took place between the army of Theodosius, who declared christianity to be the state religion of the Roman Empire, and the army of Eugenius, who had been declared Western Emperor by Arbogastes and had sympathies for the pagan element of the Empire, though he wasn't really a pagan. Enjoy it!

Ritorno ad Alessandria - new episode

2008-09-02T11:44:00.002+02:00

A new episode of "Ritorno ad Alessandria" (Back to Alexandria) is now downloadable from our website. This is the fourth episode of the "The Pagan looking for information" cycle, and we talk about the Dewey Decimal Classification and how it is used to find books in libraries. The episode is, as usual, only in Italian, but I was thinking about translating the texts of the cycle's episodes, even though they have been written looking at the Italian situation. The episode is still unavailable on our MySpace page because of updating issues, but I hope I'll manage to solve them this evening, when I'll come home from work.

The myth where you don't expect it

2008-07-14T09:19:00.002+02:00

The project "The myth where you don't expect it" has now a new Flickr group at http://www.flickr.com/groups/ilmitodovenonaspetti . The group's homepage is all in Italian, but of course people from all over the Europe and the world are welcome to take part to the project. To know more about it visit its page on our website.

Flickr is a website allowing you for free to upload your photos, to look at and comment others' and to take part to discussion groups. I've made a tutorial for those of you who still don't know Flickr, but it's only in Italian; anyway you can search on Youtube and find some good English videos about it.

New episode of "Fontes" online

2008-06-25T16:56:00.003+02:00

A new episode of "Fontes" is online, only in Italian. This time we talk about the relationship between Roman religion and Phoenician (Punic) religion in ancient times, and in general about the relationships among various ancient polytheistic religions. As usual, you can download the episode from the website, or listen to it on our Myspace.

New episode of Fontes

2008-04-25T16:39:00.001+02:00

It's now online the new episode of "Fontes", Radio GPM's podcast about pagan culture (in Italian only). This time we'll talk about an aspects of demonization of ancient Baltic and Slave religions. You can download the episode from our site or listen to it from our MySpace listening point.

Looking for people...

2008-04-01T09:11:00.002+02:00

I'm looking for pagan people (at least English speaking; the group will be bilingual and I'll translate in Italian and in English for those who can't do it) interested in forming a discussion group about new and old activities inside the European Pagan Memory Day project. This will be a support group; the minimum required is that these people take part to discussion and give their opinion about proposal and realizations. Then, all those who want to propose something else or take part to the Survey of reused temples or to the photo album "The myth where you don't expect it" are welcome. People who can't or don't want to do that in a continued manner, can anyway discuss through this blog. For further information, or to take part to the group, contact me at info@giornopaganomemoria.it.

Video of the European Pagan Memory Day rite

2008-02-25T11:44:00.003+01:00

On our YouTube English channel is now available a short video about the Federazione Pagana's rite for the European Pagan Memory Day. Other videos by the Federazione Pagana about the same rite will soon be available on the Federazione's channels, but only in Italian.

I'm also waiting for the photos of your fires, if you want to send them to info@giornopaganomemoria.it

I would like to thank...

2008-02-23T13:40:00.002+01:00

Tomorrow is the European Pagan Memory Day; tomorrow the cicle of the Pagan Memory year will start again and we'll resume what we did this past year and what we would like to do the next. In the meantime, I have some people to thank.
I would like to thank:

All the official supporters of the European Pagan Memory Day, who asked to appeae in our supporters webpage: the Federazione Pagana, the website stregoneriapagana.it, Radio Cultura Pagana (Pagan Culture Radio) and Hèlio's blog penatespublici.
All people who signed our petition
The Yahoo mailing list Pagan Reading Torino, which hosts all our news, and the group Pagan Reading from Torino, for all their initiatives which are a source of ispiration
Alcamon Ram Haros, who usually knows how to say things and always reclaims the importance of a concrete presence besides the internet
Rodan, for injections of warrior spirit, which are sometimes needed
Claudio e Lorenza, for giving us instruments and moral support
Marco, always and anyway
Lycofron, who supports us from Greece
Lusitano-Romano, who spread our petition link on WCER's mailing list
Katia, who made the same thing on her blog
Claudia, who linked our petition everywhere and who deserve a special embrace, she knows why
Giulia, for having the idea of using MySpace and of making pins
Alessandro, for computer support
Hèlio, for his translations, his banners and his help in improving our English
Roy, for having allowed us to publish his article about the Mari, last pagan population in Europe (this article will be published soon, when I'll finish the translation into Italian)
Everyone who follows us without saying anything…

New banners

2008-02-20T17:08:00.003+01:00

A Portoguese friend of ours, Hélio, made us notice that our old banners were too big for blogs and other websites with limited space for announcements, so he designed for us some new banner, available on our website, that are smaller and with images related to ancient Roman religion. Following his precious suggestions, we'll also upload on the site other smaller banner and maybe with images related to different European paganisms. We hope to get some other works from him soon. Hélio's blog, Penates Publici, is also the new entry on our supporters webpage.

New episode of "Fontes", online on Radio GPM

2008-02-15T21:52:00.002+01:00

It's now online the new episode of "Fontes", Radio GPM's podcast about pagan culture (in Italian only). This time we'll talk about some divine aspects of memory in ancient pagan religions and the relationship between paganism and historical reconstruction. Then we summarize what we did during this first year of Pagan Memory and what we would like to do during the next (beginning on the 24th of February); we also thank some people who supported us. You can download the episode from our site or listen to it from our MySpace listening point.

News from the European Pagan Memory Day

2008-02-10T08:59:00.000+01:00

New episode for the News from the European Pagan Memory Day on our YouTube channel, and the first with new graphics. In this episode: the European Pagan Memory Day, the Federazione Pagana's rite, next episode of Fontes, Radio GPM's podcast about pagan culture.

The day is coming...

2008-02-06T16:28:00.000+01:00

As you can see from the counter we put on our MySpace, the European Pagan Memory Day is coming soon. The Federazione Pagana will celebrate a rite on the 23rd of February in the Sacred Wood of Jesolo; if you want to take part to it, contact them. Some photos from last year rite are on our website and on our YouTube channel there is a short video about that rite. Once again, I invite all those who agree with the celebration or the aims of this Day to celebrate it and send at least a photo of the celebration. Documentation is important because it's a way to let the world know that we exist, that we aren't only voices on internet and that we really want to reach our goals, working in order to do that. We don't need great things: just think about the effect we could get only by taking a picture of a flame we lit for the day (be it as big as a camp fire or as little as a candle flame) and gathering all the photos on the website or in a video. I think this could really be a strong sign for everyone.
Don't miss next episode of Fontes, approximately the 15th of February, last day of the pagan memory year cicle, in which we'll talk about pagan gods of memory, the relation between historic reconstruction and paganism, and we'll make a resume of what we did this year and what we want to do next year.

Petition results updated

2008-02-06T16:10:00.001+01:00

The page of the petition results has been updated with signatures of January (90 new signatures this month! Thanks to everyone who spread the announce of this petition and allowed us to reach the top!). Sign our petition here if you haven't done it yet! Remember that signing the petition is a symbolic act of agreeing with the aims of the European Pagan Memory Day; you can see comments made to our petition on another page on our website.

Fontes, episode four: paganism and modern society, second part

2008-01-27T14:02:00.000+01:00

A new episode of "Fontes" is online, only in Italian; this month we talk about links between paganism and modern society, but we split the matter in two part: in the first part, last week, we talked about these links from a politic point of view with the advice to Ethnic-Pagan religions by Prof. Michael Strmiska in a speech delivered at WCER Congress in 2005, while in the second part we deal with the relationship between a pagan form of mind and the basic concept of today's communication society. To listen to this episode, go to Fontes page or to our MySpace listening point.

Petition results page updated

2008-01-25T17:04:00.000+01:00

The petition results page has been updated; this time it has been updated before the end of the month because of the great number of signatures we gathered this time: 43! Thanks to all those who, in Italy and abroad, helped us by spreading the petition URL. We also updated the comment page.

Next Rite for European Pagan Memory Day

2008-01-18T15:52:00.000+01:00

The Federazione Pagana announced that the next rite for celebrating the European Pagan Memory Day will take place in the Sacred Wood of Jesolo on the 23rd of February 2008. You can see a short video of last year rite on our Youtube channel, and read about the rite on the Federazione Pagana's website. For further information or to take part to the rite, contact them.

Fontes, episode three: paganism and modern society, part one

2008-01-17T18:12:00.000+01:00

A new episode of "Fontes" is online, only in Italian; this time we talk about links between paganism and modern society. This episode has been split in two part: in the first part, now online, we talk about these links from a politic point of view with the advice to Ethnic-Pagan religions by Prof. Michael Strmiska in a speech delivered at WCER Congress in 2005. To listen to this episode, go to Fontes page.

Petition results updated

2008-01-07T17:34:00.001+01:00

The page of the petition results has been updated with signatures of december. Sign our petition here if you haven't done it yet!
Remember that signing the petition is a symbolic act of agreeing with the aims of the European Pagan Memory Day; you can see comments made to our petition on another page on our website.

Fontes, episode two - the "santification" of paganism

2007-12-30T10:15:00.000+01:00

A new episode of "Fontes" is online, only in Italian; this time we talk about the santification of paganism, that means the assumption of pagan elements in christian celebrations. We talk about christmas, S. Anthony's pig, the snakes on the statue of S. Dominic in Cocullo, and so on. To listen to this episode, go to Fontes page.

Sol Invictus

2007-12-25T10:17:00.000+01:00

In wishing to everyone who likes it a happy Sol Invictus or Winter Solstice, we announce that our new YouTube channel is finally active, with the new video uploaded yesterday: The Sol Invictus, last pagan celebration, and solar deities.

Technical troubles on Youtube channel

2007-12-14T12:31:00.000+01:00

Due to technical troubles on our YouTube channel, the latest episode of our news programme, announced yesterday, won't be available until this evening. We apologize for the inconvenience.

New episode of our news programme

2007-12-13T22:26:00.000+01:00

A new episode of our news programme has been upload on our YouTube channel, last video for the old channel.

New project: the myth where you don't expect it

2007-12-08T16:40:00.000+01:00

As you know, Italy is full of pieces of cultural heritage we are used to see: we have squares, buildings, statues and so on. We are so used to see them everyday that often we don't think anymore to what they represent: ancient and pagan myths: a friend of mine, whom I had to met in Asiago under a fountain depicting a satyr riding a roe deer, asked where it was and people who lived there teased her because, according to them, the statue on the fountain didn't depict a satyr or a roe deer, but a child on a horse! So reclaim for awareness of ancient myths we met everyday with this new project of the European Pagan Memory Day: "The myth where you don't expect it". This is going to be a collection of photos of mythological representations along Italian streets (but photos from Europe are also welcomed) and everyone can take part to it. This collection will surely become an album on flickr and have a video about it on the European Pagan Memory Day Youtube channel; if we are able to organize it, we'll make also an exhibition of these photos. We only ask to people who want to take part to it to send us via email or tell us where to download the photos, whose copyright he or she must have or grant that photos are under a CC licence, in order to prevent sites and video to be removed, to declare s/he owns the copyright and to indicate her/his full name (and if s/he want to substitute it with a pseudonym or stay anonimous in videos or in the exhibition). I hope many people will take part to the project, in spite all this needed precautions.

Petition results updated

2007-12-05T12:31:00.000+01:00

The page of the petition result has been updated with signatures for the month of November; I would like to thank Lycofron and the owner of the blog "Il vento tra le fronde" for giving their contribute to the signature increase for this month.

New broadcast on radio GPM

2007-11-23T14:40:00.000+01:00

New broadcast on Radio GPM: "Ritorno ad Alessandria" (Back to Alexandria), pagan podcast about books and information, in Italian only. In this first episode: comparing four dictionaries of classic mythology; the tale of Aristotle's books. Download it from our website or listen from our myspace page.

News programme episode 3

2007-11-21T21:54:00.000+01:00

Online on our YouTube channel and on our Myspace, the latest episode of Pagan Memory Day news programme, in Italian with English subtitles.

This Friday, a new podcast will be uploaded for Radio GPM (Pagan Memory Day Radio): "Back to Alexandria" (only in Italian), about books and information.

Lupercalia

2007-11-21T09:23:00.000+01:00

Found in Rome the cave where it is said that Romulus and Remus had been nourished by the wolf and where the Lupercalia were celebrated. See the site of the Italian Minister of Cultural Heritage for the photos!

Treatises about witches in fifteenth century

2007-11-15T16:02:00.000+01:00

New page added to the witch hunt section of our website: Treatises about witches in fifteenth century. Fifteenth century is the century when witch hunt really starts, with all theories justifying the persecution; on this page you'll find a brief resume of most important treatises about witches.

Radio Giorno Pagano della Memoria (Pagan Memory Day Radio)

2007-11-08T14:51:00.000+01:00

Today opens Radio Giorno Pagano della Memoria (Pagan Memory Day Radio), with the first broadcast. The first episode of the programme Fontes, podcast about pagan culture, talks about the European Pagan Memory Day project, but at the present, the radio broadcasts only in Italian. Anyway you can visit the radio's webpage or listen to Fontes from our Myspace profile.

News programme episode 2

2007-11-05T21:46:00.000+01:00

On our Youtube channel is now online the latest episode (short edition) of the news programme of the European Pagan Memory Day project, in Italian with English subtitles. To see it on our "listening centre" on myspace (our profile, I mean), you have to wait an hour or two, because uploading seems not working now.

Petition results updated

2007-11-04T09:08:00.000+01:00

The page of the petition results has been updated with signatures of october. Sign our petition here if you haven't done it yet!

Remember that signing the petition is a symbolic act of agreeing with the aims of the European Pagan Memory Day; you can see comments made to our petition on another page on our website.

News programme finally on YouTube

2007-10-27T08:34:00.000+02:00

Finally I did it, the first episode of Pagan Memory Day news programme is on line on our YouTube channel (in Italian with English subtitles).