January 2018 – Page 2 – NaturalPagans

We Are All Connected: On Atheopagan Counseling

January 18, 2018 Mark Green Atheopagan community, Atheopaganism, Opinion

We are all connected: to each other, biologically, to the Earth, chemically, to the rest of the Universe atomically. —Neil deGrasse Tyson So, I’ve written about our responsibility to the Earth. About how being who we are—Atheopagans—implies a necessary requirement that we stand up, in whatever great and small ways we can, for a better … Continue reading We Are All Connected: On Atheopagan Counseling

The Ritual Cycle of the Rain Baby: An Example

January 17, 2018 Mark Green Atheopaganism, Practices & Rituals, Riverain, Sabbaths

So, last year I wrote about a new tradition for Riverain, the Water Sabbath, which is how I celebrate the holiday that falls between the Winter Solstice (Yule) and the Spring Equinox (High Spring). Riverain comes at the height of the wet season in California’s Mediterranean climate, when the hills are green and the creeks and … Continue reading The Ritual Cycle of the Rain Baby: An Example

MoonCourt: Goddess Ceremonial Space by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

January 17, 2018 HumanisticPaganism Ancient and Modern Paganism, Art, Glenys Livingstone, HP, Latest Posts, naturalistic pagan, Practice, ritual

MoonCourt is dedicated ceremonial space created for the celebration of Her Creativity, as this manifests in the Seasonal Moments, which are holy days of Earth, points of transition marking Earth’s orbit around our mother Sun. MoonCourt as it has been…

This Body Now

January 14, 2018 Anna Walther wildseed

At the beginning of a hatha yoga class that I attended, the teacher led a centering exercise. It involved lying supine and progressively relaxing each part of the body, fully surrendering our bodies to gravity, to the floor beneath us. “You are in this body now,” the teacher crooned at the end of the guided… Continue reading This Body Now →

No Gods. No Masters. No Priesthood.

January 12, 2018 Mark Green Atheology, Atheopaganism, Priesthood

It’s a sadly familiar tale in the Pagan community: the coven or local organization that is run by a charismatic “high priestess” or “high priest” (or both), doling out “training” and “degrees of advancement” based on how well the subject toes the line, fawns over the “priest/ess”, and, in some particularly sad cases, provides them … Continue reading No Gods. No Masters. No Priesthood.

Killing the Sixties: Abuse, Consent, #MeToo and the Pagan Community

January 10, 2018 Mark Green Atheopaganism, Opinion, Pagan Community, Sexuality

Today, the revelation of accusations of child molestation against the late Ar nDraiocht Fein founder Isaac Bonewits hit the Pagan community. This comes in the wake of the conviction of Kenny Klein, founder of Blue Star Wicca, ongoing concern about Pagan sexual culture provoked by the likes of the Frosts, and community discussion about violation … Continue reading Killing the Sixties: Abuse, Consent, #MeToo and the Pagan Community

How Our Brains Often Get Things Wrong, by Brock Haussamen

January 10, 2018 HumanisticPaganism Brock Haussamen, Cosmos, Earth religion, evolution, Gaia/Earth, HP, Latest Posts, life, naturalism, naturalistic pagan, nature religion, Peter Berger, Sacred Canopy, science and god, Science and Religion, wonder

If you’re feeling cynical about people and their errors and foolishness, a place to go to buttress your mood is Wikipedia’s List of Cognitive Biases. It describes more than 150 ways in which our thinking systematically deviates from objective observation and…

Coming Soon: The Vulture Culture 101 IndieGoGo Campaign!

January 8, 2018 lupa Books, Crowdfunding, My Books, Nature, News, Skin Spirits, The Green Wolf, Vulture Culture, Way of the Scavenger

I am excited to announce that the official IndieGoGo campaign for my next book, Vulture Culture 101: A Book For People Who Like Dead Things, will launch on February 6, 2018! More than a book on taxidermy or bone identification, Vulture Culture 101 is… Continue Reading

Approaching the Animal Self

January 7, 2018 Mark Green Atheopaganism, Practices & Rituals

I’m a white guy. I mean, a seriously white guy. My 23andme.com DNA profile shows me as having 100% Northern European ancestry, pretty much all of which is English/Irish except for 1.2% Scandinavian, which has GOT to be a Viking raider. Not one of my ancestors ever had the courage to mate out of group, to … Continue reading Approaching the Animal Self

Crunch Time: Pagan Priorities and the Otherworld

January 6, 2018 Mark Green Atheology, Atheopaganism, Opinion, Pagan Community

The fundamental difference between theistic Pagans and Atheopagans is that the former propose that there exists an “Otherworld”: a parallel dimension of reality in which reside gods, spirits, fairies and other such beings. Atheopagans, having a naturalistic worldview, don’t subscribe to this idea. As I look around the community, I think there are questions about … Continue reading Crunch Time: Pagan Priorities and the Otherworld