Pagan Bloggers with Naturalistic Worldviews
It’s time for Paganism as a whole to grow up. If we don’t, as a community, mature beyond the first stage of spiritual development, then we will continue to only attract people who are in the first stage of spiritual development, and we will only keep them for as long as they are in that first stage. When they make the transition to the second stage, they will leave Paganism.
The aspects of dying that these two people shared taught me more than a library of reading could. We plan to hold another Death Café in winter 2018 if only to chase away the cold with cake, hot beverages, and intriguing conversation. Naturalistic Pagans are most welcome.
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. 
I’m no stranger to conflict in Pagan circles. Over the years, I have noticed similar themes arise when I come into conflict with other Pagans. These themes can be summarized as five lies that Pagans tell themselves.
Unless you live under a rock, you know that hurricane Harvey brought Texas-sized climate change to Texas last week, with much of Houston and surrounding counties under water. You can help. I’ve donated. Every little bit helps. 
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.
I agree that it would be nice if we Pagans were completely harmonious and accepting of each other – but by comparison with practically anyone else, we are doing really, really awesome, and no one has killed or even physically attacked anyone, as far as I know. 
Religion is far more than a set of propositions to which we intellectually assent or dissent. Religion is inextricably intertwined with our social networks and our cultural context. And religious behavior, including religious speech, is far more than an expression of belief; it is a performance which binds us to our religious communities. When secularists, atheists, and religious naturalists attack a religion on the basis of the demonstrable falsity of the beliefs of its adherents, we reveal our own ignorance of the complexity of this thing we call religion. 
My honest personal view on this is that I find that the search for transcendence or ecstasy in order to have a “deep religious experience” is frankly hedonistic – Let me explain why.