Raven's Dispatch: Weekly Pagan & Norse Community News

Week of September 28–October 4, 2026

Editor's note: this issue runs text-only. Photos from the original sources are linked in the Sources & Citations footer rather than republished here.

Modern life runs on alerts, deadlines, and the strange little panic of realizing you forgot why you walked into the room.
The old world was not calmer. It simply buried its wealth, carved names into stone, hid protection under thresholds, and trusted somebody else to remember the important parts.

Here is this week’s record from the field: more silver in Norway, six gold arm-rings in Denmark, a possible memorial under a Faroese floor, gods named in an Italian sanctuary, court fights over religious gatherings, and a hate symbol that has no business being passed off as ancient.

FRONT PAGE, Mørstad passes 5,000 coins

The Mørstad Hoard in eastern Norway has crossed another hard number. The count now stands at roughly 5,200 Viking Age coins as of this writing, making it the largest Viking Age coin hoard ever found in Norway.

Metal detectorists Rune Sætre and Vegard Sørlie found the hoard in April on landowner Ole Erik Hørstad’s field. Before summer, the count had reached 4,886. Excavation and ground-penetrating radar found no more, so Hørstad sowed his grain. After harvest, the search resumed.

Then came coin number 5,000 (an Otto-Adelheid penny, a common type in the hoard) dug up by the detectorists and landowner together.

County archaeologist May-Tove Smiseth said the detectors are still beeping out in the field — “just a little less often and a little deeper down.” Soil is being removed to reach the deeper coins. The museum cataloguing alone will take at least a year.

The hoard also keeps throwing questions at the historians. Several English coins carry moneyers’ names that sound Norwegian: Beorn, Aslac, and Cetil. Was a Viking working in an English mint? Maybe. The evidence is not a complete answer, but it is a good hard question.

Four coins bearing Harald Hardrada’s name date the hoard to around 1046–1047, right at the end of the Viking Age. As archaeologist Kjetil Loftsgarden put it, “You don’t forget where you buried almost 5,000 silver coins.” Somebody did, somehow. We are still digging through the consequences.

ARCHAEOLOGY DESK: Gold, names, and a chapel floor

The Rold Hoard comes out of the Danish woods

Six intact Viking Age gold arm-rings, weighing 762.5 grams, have been named the Rold Hoard. It is Denmark’s third-largest Viking Age gold find, behind the Tissø Ring and the Fæsted Hoard.

Two rings were first spotted partly exposed beside a field road near Rold in Himmerland, without a metal detector. A proper survey found a third ring nearby, then three more about fifteen metres away.

The rings date broadly to 900–1000, with the National Museum of Denmark narrowing that to the second half of the tenth century. Three are twisted from paired gold rods. One includes thin gold wire and a knob-shaped closure. The others are smooth, solid gold forms. Several have wrapped closures; another has flattened ends marked with zigzags and triangles.

The important part is what was not done to them. None was cut into fragments for weighed silver-and-gold exchange. The museum reads that as evidence of status, rank, affiliation, or gift-giving, not just bullion in a pretty shape.

That places the objects in the rough political weather of Harald Bluetooth’s Denmark, when royal power and Christianization were tightening their grip. Torben Sarauw of Nordjyske Museer calls it “a completely unique find.” Sidsel Wåhlin of Vesthimmerlands Museum says you do not gather that kind of wealth without international connections.

The rings are on temporary display at the National Museum of Denmark in Copenhagen through the end of 2026. They are legally treated as danefæ, treasure of the nation, not a private jackpot story. The find site is private land and is not open to the public.

A thousand-year-old name under a Faroese floor

At Á Sondum on Sandoy, archaeologists found a rune stone reused in the floor of a small medieval building. Runic inscriptions in the Faroes are scarce, so even a damaged stone matters.

A preliminary reading points toward the Old Norse phrase "Her hvílur…" — "Here lies" or "Here rests." That suggests a memorial or gravestone, though researchers are not calling the case closed. A runic specialist has been brought in, and the stone is being 3D-scanned to limit handling.

The building was aligned east-west with an entrance to the west, matching known medieval chapels and prayer houses. Fragments of a small Virgin-and-child statuette and an oil lamp were also found.

This is Norse-Christian, not pagan. That distinction matters. It also matters that someone wanted a name remembered in a place where very little writing survived. The dead keep finding ways to report in.

Eight gods in an Italic sanctuary

Excavations at the pre-Roman sanctuary of Caselle in Pittari in southern Italy produced inscriptions naming eight Italic deities, including Ceres and nymphs associated with rain and springs. The sanctuary dates to roughly the late fourth or early third century BCE.

The University of Salerno says the finds expand what was known from the Agnone Tablet and may open new ground for the study of Italic language and ritual. Italian and Greek press coverage also reports a Doric form of Athena’s name, ASANAS, though the full scholarly publication is still ahead.

A sanctuary that named its gods in a language barely preserved is not a curiosity. It is a record of practice.

A little Venus in a Roman village

At the Roman vicus of Pilisszentiván–Hárs Forest in Hungary, archaeologists found a lead Venus Pudica statuette during a metal-detector survey. The fourth season at the site was led by Bence Simon of the Department of Ancient Archaeology (ELTE), with Archeovertex Kft. staff, students, and local volunteers. It is the first known religious monument from the settlement.

Other finds include coins, fibulae, iron tools, a leaded-bronze mirror fragment, pottery, paved stone, and an intact pair of iron tongs. No imperial palace. No thunderbolt from the heavens. Just household religion in a roadside village, which is where most religion actually lived.

COMMUNITY DESK: Institutions, fashion, and talking boards

The Interdisciplinary Network of Pagan Studies now has a permanent home at the University of Strasbourg, supported by MAKErS and the DRES research centre. Researchers in sociology, anthropology, law, history of religions, folklore, and related fields are being invited into the network. Twenty years ago, Pagan Studies often arrived with raised eyebrows and a folding table. Now it has institutional walls.

Elsewhere:

  • HISTORY traces the Ouija board to nineteenth-century American Spiritualism, not a literal door to Hell. The patent was granted to Elijah Bond in 1891. The horror reputation came later, helped along by The Exorcist in 1973.
  • Vogue has declared fall 2026 a witchy fashion season, with capes, lace, corsetry, antique jewelry, and dark romantic styling. Fine. Just remember a runway trend is not a religious community.
  • Smithsonian Magazine looks at old household protection: plants, apotropaic marks, witch bottles, stones, and concealed religious objects. Everyday supernatural self-defense, before “witch stuff” became something a cousin blamed on TikTok.
  • Yvonne Aburrow’s anonymous AI and Paganism survey remains open for those with opinions about machine-made liturgy.
  • The Wild Hunt’s reactions to Practical Magic 2 raise the better question: does a bloodline-and-nostalgia story serve a community that is mostly neither hereditary nor Hollywood?

LEGAL & CIVIC DESK

California Governor Gavin Newsom vetoed AB 1881, the California Indian Freedom Act of 2026 (Ramos; 2025–2026 session), on September 30. The bill would have amended Government Code § 7930.205 and added Chapter 1.79 (commencing with Public Resources Code § 5097.1000).
From January 1, 2028 it would have barred a governmental agency from substantially burdening a California Indian or California Native American tribe's exercise of religious beliefs or spiritual practices on state lands — even under a rule of general applicability — unless the agency showed a compelling governmental interest pursued by the least restrictive means. Its definition of "substantial burden" covered restricting or interfering with gathering traditional foods and plants used in ceremonies, denying or unreasonably restricting access to sacred sites and ceremonial grounds, and destroying, desecrating or materially altering sacred sites; it also addressed restricting items of cultural, sacred or religious significance such as regalia, headdresses, eagle feathers, traditional medicines and gourd rattles when entering state government buildings. It also made information identifying sacred sites, cultural landscapes or religious practices confidential and exempt from public record laws including the California Public Records Act. Tribes were given exclusive standing to assert violations. In other words, the mechanism was a mix of enforceable rights, consent requirements, and confidentiality — not just an access mandate.

The governor's veto message is published in the legislature's bill file; read it there rather than taking anyone's summary of it. Tribal advocates were blunt about the sequence: Native American Day legislation was signed days earlier, while this broader protection was rejected. This is not a Pagan law, but the underlying fight, whether minority religions receive meaningful protection when government action burdens sacred practice, should be watched.

The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear Grand v. City of University Heights on December 9, 2026 — that date is as of this writing, and a scheduled argument is not a decided case. The case concerns whether a religious gathering can challenge zoning restrictions before completing the full local permit process. The group involved is Orthodox Jewish, but the practical question reaches every coven, Heathen group and small congregation that meets in somebody's living room — that's our analysis, not a court holding.

In Brazil, a terreiro in Imaculada, Paraíba, reported as Candomblé/Umbanda, was stoned during a ceremony on October 1. No injuries were reported. CECAB-PB requested investigation and protection, and Tiago Padilha, president of CECAB-PB, described the attack as structural religious racism.

Reports also describe violence tied to “witchcraft” accusations in Mexico, India, and Uganda. These are not Wiccan or Heathen cases, and calling them anti-Pagan persecution would be lazy and false. They show something uglier and older: an accusation of witchcraft can still be used as a weapon.

SYMBOLS & CONTEXT: The Black Sun is not ancient Norse

The Sonnenrad, or Black Sun, is not a Viking Age symbol. It has no runic inscription, medieval attestation, or archaeological Norse context. The specific twelve-ray design was created by the Nazis in the 1930s, linked to the SS at Wewelsburg, and later adopted by neo-Nazis and white supremacists.

Context still matters for many symbols. Mjolnir, the Valknut, runes, and Othala have long religious and cultural lives, though extremists have appropriated some versions. The Sonnenrad is different. It was born inside extremist ideology and remains a documented hate symbol.

If a group claiming Norse religion displays it, listen carefully to what they are telling you.

EVENTS DESK: Autumn is coming fast

Confirm dates, admission, lodging, and accessibility before travelling. Events change. Roads close. Organizers are human, which means the calendar is occasionally held together with string.

Upcoming listings include:

  • Twilight Covening (EarthSpirit): October 9–12, Berkshires, western Massachusetts. Applications are full and there is a waiting list; online registration closed September 19, so check the EarthSpirit page for the waitlist rather than turning up.
  • EBSAT monthly meeting: Online, October 12.
  • Ardantane’s “For the Love of Books”: Online, October 17.
  • Oak Spirit Sanctuary Samhain: October 23–25.
  • EarthSpirit Ancestor Ritual and Sacred Land Walk: October 25.
  • Circle Sanctuary Samhain Festival: October 30–November 1, Wisconsin.
  • Samhainfest: October 31–November 1, Havre de Grace, Maryland.
  • Hekate’s Sickle Festival: November 6–8, Orcas Island, Washington. The retreat notes that its state-park cabins are not ADA-compliant and lists off-site lodging.
  • Coreopsis Journal’s “Spellbound” anthology: Submissions close December 1.

EDITORIAL, Keep the categories straight

Five thousand coins from a Norwegian field. Six gold rings from a Danish wood. One carved name beneath a Faroese chapel floor. Eight gods named on an Italian hillside. Then a veto, a court case, a stoned temple, and people murdered over witchcraft accusations.

That is the range. Small objects, small rooms, enormous stakes.

The mistake is thinking these are all one story. They are not. Ancient history is one thing. Living religion is another. Organized extremism borrowing our imagery is a third. Keeping those categories straight is not pedantry. It is the whole job.

Read past the headline. Check the source. Confirm the event details. Keep your judgment sharper than your spear.

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