Pagan Bloggers with Naturalistic Worldviews
These are times when those of us who love the Earth can easily fall into resenting or even hating humanity. It’s not much of a leap: not only are we watching climate change in action and the crashing decline of biodiversity, but social and political movements right now are showing humans at their very worst. …
Continue reading On Pagan Misanthropy
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As I write this, the Earth coasts in its slightly angled orbit towards the Ecliptic, the plane of rotation of the Sun. When we cross it, the days and nights will be of equal lengths (at the equator). It is the Vernal Equinox, the moment when the days begin to stretch longer than the nights … Continue reading Equanamity, Balance and the Equinox
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As Atheopagans, we’re about being healthier, wiser, happier humans, and through action to contribute to a better world. Some of that is about values. Ours are articulated in the 4 Sacred Pillars and the 13 Atheopagan Principles, and in this area particularly Principle 4: humility; Principle 5: perspective and humor; Principle 8: legacy; Principle 9: … Continue reading Doing the Work
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Classic depictions of Death personified include skeletons carrying an hourglass or a scythe, mummified persons extending leathery hands, armies of skeletal warriors mowing down the living, or Pale Horsemen laying waste to kings, priests and children, as in the Coleman-Waite “Rider” Tarot deck. It makes complete sense that we view death with fear and revulsion. … Continue reading Death, the Creator
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Goddesses and gods. Fairies and ghosts. Magic spells and hexes. Dragons and griffons and mermaids. Epic. Mythic. Heroic. Awesome. Well of course they are. We are story-telling creatures, and who doesn’t love a good story? If these were pedestrian tales, and boring, why would we listen to them? Why would we long for them to … Continue reading Settling for the Awesome Universe
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Many religious people and paths—including many Pagans and Pagan traditions—place a great premium on claims of authenticity: that their mythologies, traditions and practices are, for want of a better word, “real”. “Real” ancient lore or rites. “Real” narratives about god/desses. “Real” translations of “real” ancient texts. “Real” rituals, real traditions, real teachers, real magic. “Real … Continue reading On Authenticity
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It is midnight on the 29th of December. I have just returned from the Sebastopol Wassail, which is conducted annually by the Apple Tree Morris dancing team in my local area. Wassailing is an old English tradition. Poor people going from house to house begging became conflated with people going from tree to tree in … Continue reading Old Ways, New Days
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They are Honored Dead, at the very least. Giordano Bruno. Galileo Galilei. Copernicus. Isaac Newton. Aldo Leopold. John Muir. Marie Curie. Albert Einstein. Richard Feynman. Rachel Carson. Carl Sagan. Ursula K. LeGuin. Stephen Hawking. Mary Oliver. And there will be more, when they go: Jane Goodall. Richard Attenborough. Bill Nye. Wendell Berry. The work of … Continue reading Atheopagan “Saints”
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We had a great conversation in the Atheopaganism U. video conference today, in which it arose that for many participants, there simply hasn’t been a place in their lives for asking Big Questions like, what is your highest vision for your life? What makes you happiest? They are the very sorts of questions I pondered … Continue reading The Big Questions
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It’s a big conundrum for many theists, particularly monotheists like Christians, Jews and Muslims: if God is good, why is there suffering in the world? Such folk will go through incredible gyrations to try to resolve this dilemma. Thousands—perhaps tens of thousands—of pages have been written in attempts to address it. Everything from blaming a demigod … Continue reading The Problem of Suffering
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