Herbal Medicine has merit, there is ample evidence and tests on herbal medicine performing better than a placebo and working as an effective treatment. It is clearly Medicine, so why has it been lumped into the ‘Alternative’ category here?
Happy Fall Equitherm (Samhain)!
Our Ancestors reach back in an unbroken chain billions of years long. Celebrations Death, the dead, and our Ancestors fill our minds today. Some of the ways many of us are celebrating were published a few weeks ago, and at least…
Teaching Death to Naturalistic Pagan Children, Addendum – by [Starstuff, Contemplating]
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.
Teaching Death to Naturalistic Pagan Children, by Kansas Stanton
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.
Raising the Flame Stone: Stones Rising, Four Quarters Interfaith Ceremony, Part 2 by Moine Michelle
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.
Raising the Flame Stone: Stones Rising, Four Quarters Interfaith Ceremony, Part 1 by Moine Michelle
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. 
Naturalistic Pagan Toolbox: “Just Ask” by John Halstead
We assume that asking a question presupposes a sentient listener on the other end. But is the true? Is it really necessary to believe the earth or the universe are sentient in order to address a question to them? Or to receive an “answer”?
Black Lives and Sacred Humanity, A Book Review by Emile Wayne
This book is an important philosophical and spiritual resource for all those currently working towards racial justice, especially for those who do so outside the frameworks of specific religious traditions.
[A Pedagogy of Gaia] How I Celebrated the Equinox by Bart Everson
If we lived in a truly Earth-honoring society, I wouldn’t have to do this. If our society cherished our planet as source and sustainer of life, the Equinox would be surely be more widely known and celebrated as a sort of secular holy day. But we don’t live in such a society, to our impoverishment and peril. And that’s why we need to nourish a revolutionary spirit. And that’s why I make a point to celebrate the Equinox. And that’s why I took the day off.
Happy Fall Equinox!
Happy Fall Equinox, or Mabon! Of course, our spherical planet also gives us the beautiful symmetry of the Spring Equinox (& Ostara) being celebrated now by our Southern Hemisphere friends.