Pagan Bloggers with Naturalistic Worldviews
In the earlier post on teaching children about death, Kansas covered several important points. In teaching those, the additional ones mentioned above, basic family discussions (such as when a pet dies, hopefully before a relative dies), and more, the following resources could be useful.
We learn about death at school through literature, science, history, and mythology, but the topic alone never seems to be discussed. I feel like if sex education is taught in some public schools, we should be allowed to have death education. I think if we begin to discuss it with our children (whether someone they knew passed or not), it can not only help to teach them about its natural process, both miraculous and necessary as birth, but it can teach it to us, as well.
I’m still looking at the stone when I hear the voices of the main ritualists begin to raise in a song. I cannot really hear the words. I catch snippets—something about the land. Something about belonging to the land and to each other. I let the singing, the voices wash over me—through me—around me. I cannot take my eyes from the stone as the current raises and turns raw.
And, like that, I am opened. I surrender to it.
The enormous “Flame Stone,” a 4-ton and 22-foot slab of red, brown, and gray sand stone, is the 53rd stone to be raised at Four Quarters. Set in the North, the Flame Stone is the first stone of a larger interior circle that will take another ten years to build. 
With recent events in Virginia, many people are shocked that in 2017, there are still neo-Nazis, KKK members, skinheads, and white supremacists in large, organized numbers in America. To better understand how this is the case, we need first to…
Now, the reason they’ve chosen pigs is due to the similar size and appearance of organs we share, even though there’s a bit of a gap between our evolutionary history. But there’s more we share with pigs than just anatomical organs. Throughout world mythology, we have deities that either depicts pigs, are associated with them, ride them, or are partially pig themselves like Varahi from Nepal. In Greek mythology, Hercules captured the Erymanthian Boar for Eurystheus, as his Fourth Labour. Pigs were also a favorite sacrificial animal of various cultures and are used as a main festive dish for several religious holidays.
One night, meat was plentiful. A man named Potok had killed a cave bear after a fierce battle. Our bellies were full and grease hissed in the fire, and when we had eaten, Potok stood and told his tale: how he had lured the bear and crept upon it, how his spear went deep, and then he leapt upon the bear with his flint knife. The bear’s fangs hung, fresh and bloody, from a thong about his neck.
Sex and health are important topics for anyone, but maybe more so for us Pagans. Being an earth-based belief system, we tend to favor and embrace a more natural and holistic approach to our health; steering away from chemicals that can harm the Earth and us, and pills that may contain multiple side effects. And when it comes to sex, we don’t usually attach cultural taboos, and restrictions like other religions do but encourage that which gives our bodies pleasure when performed in mutual enjoyment. We don’t always wish to produce more children, however, so we use contraceptives to prevent this from happening.
In early August, many Pagans will celebrate Lammas or Lughnasadh. As I type these words, raspberries are ripening on canes, sweet peas rest in their pods, the first tomatoes are blushing, and bees are buzzing in the lavender. There is so much goodness in our gardens, orchards, and farms. Fasting is a time-tested, spiritual practice that can help Pagans to receive these summer gifts in health, joy, appreciation, and thanks.
After the stinger was removed and the wound cleaned, they applied a thick coat of honey to help bring the swelling down (a cruel irony), and I began to hate bees. But little did I know how essential bees are to our heritage, our history, and our planet.