Author: Anna Walther

It has taken me years to experience any clarity around my religious identity. I grew up attending Catholic mass but knew from an early age that I wouldn’t continue, once I had a choice. In adulthood I’ve cycled through Protestant, atheistic, New Age, Buddhist, Unitarian Universalist, and Pagan approaches to religion, in roughly that order. A… Continue reading Exploring mystery, trying on labels →

Autumn Equinox 2018 approaches; time for a pulse check. What’s unfolding with the living world where I am? Daylight hours are noticeably decreasing. In summer months I can see sunlight beginning to peak over the horizon when I arrive for my shifts around 6:30a, but now it’s still twilight when I walk in to the… Continue reading Approaching Autumn Equinox in Austin →

Some say bluntly that there is no afterlife. That our lives are a “one-way trip.” Easy to assert, because it’s almost certainly true. Anyone else remember those care-free slogans of the 2008 Atheist Bus Campaign? “There probably is no god. Now stop worrying. And enjoy your life.” Photo by Dan Etherington via Wikimedia Commons Ah, if… Continue reading Some stories are better than others →

One of my favorite Reclaiming traditions is Waters of the World, the practice of collecting small containers of water for ritual use from the oceans, rivers, lakes, creeks, and springs that we visit. A bowl filled with Waters of the World makes a great centerpiece in rituals related to healing of self, community, or earth,… Continue reading Tools for Practice: Waters of the World →

John Halstead recently called for a Pagan prophet, someone who could unite naturalists and supernaturalists, someone to “come along to lead modern Pagans out of the wilderness of superstition and self-absorption.” John’s role, as he states, is the role of the critic, not the prophet, but he suggests a list of other Pagan writers who… Continue reading Call and Response: Paganism Needs a Shared Telos →

                        I submit to awe of Earth, Sun, Moon, Storm, Sea, Wind, Stone, Fire, Rain, and Forest. I practice the old magics of hospitality, reciprocity, story, and sympathy. I choose to belong to myself. I frame my choices around the ethics of care and… Continue reading A Witch’s Creed →

A few months ago, I wrote about outgrowing atheism, an admission which frankly made me uneasy. I’ve intentionally avoided the word “belief” in recent years, preferring to center my spiritual identity around practice. After all, as Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh says, “My actions are my only true belongings.” Furthermore I’m a naturalist and an evidentialist… Continue reading Choosing to Believe in the Star Goddess →

Even though there’s no official slot for it on the Pagan Wheel of the Year, Earth Day, which began on April 22, 1970, when millions of people across the U.S. demonstrated for peace and environmental protection, feels like one of the holiest days of my year, right up there with Samhain. To celebrate Earth Day, I… Continue reading Practice Well-Being for Earth Day →

A number of recent posts in the Pagan blogosphere, including Lisa Wagoner’s first post in her new Patheos blog Witch, Indeed? and John Halstead’s recent post on why people may have good reason to make fun of Wiccans and witches, have me thinking about the labels that I put around my spiritual practice. I plan… Continue reading On Being Witch: How, Why, Where, When, and with Whom? →