Pagan News Beagle is back! Today is Earthy Thursday and we've got quite a set of stories for you all: nature's own internet run on the backs of fungi, seasonal photos of a lake from Japan, and a Unitarian's position of Ash Wednesday!
Are you one of those who wishes they could visit the naturalistic paradise of Pandora from Avatar? Well it turns out that there may be a system similar to Eywa's here on Earth! According to the BBC, scientists have discovered that plants may communicate with one another through complex fungal networks built around their roots, helping them to fight disease and acquire nutrients more effectively.
Feeling like your food's too artificial these days? Well, a surprising tool to reverse course on that front might well be genetic engineering, which many are proposing could be used to reintroduce genes into wild crops like wheat that have been lost by millennia of selective breeding by humans.
Looking for some scenic beauty? At BoredPanda, photographer Kent Shiraishi shares these incredible photos of a pond in Hokkaido, Japan's most northern island. The pictures depict the pond throughout the winter months, creating a strong contrast between the pond's blue waters and the surrounding snowy white trees.
Most of us probably don't practice Ash Wednesday, but it never hurts to learn more about other religions. Patheos' own Catherine Clarenbach, a Unitarian Pagan, describes what Ash Wednesday means to her and what she thinks both practicing Christians and Pagans can share during the festival of Lent.
Although the gods are unquestionably important to Pagan belief and practice, let's not forget about the spirits of the land either. Our own Sable Aradia, writing for Patheos, shares her thoughts on land wights and why you should get to know them better.