2018 was rough for me. I was unemployed the whole time, begging and borrowing to stay under a roof. It was necessary, but it filled me with shame and embarrassment. I had a series of near-misses with job seeking, finishing second repeatedly. In one case, it seemed I was the top candidate, and then the … Continue reading Closing the Door with Gratitude
Read moreIn the Cold Midwinter
Today, the Wheel turns again: a new year is born and the sun begins its long swing back to warm the northern hemisphere. It has been a challenging year for me. I have been unemployed the entire time, and survival has been a severe struggle. But one bright spot in my life has been Atheopaganism … Continue reading In the Cold Midwinter
Read moreContrasts
Saturday night, I was dancing around a cauldron ablaze with candles, with drums thundering and voices lifted high in song, at the monthly Spark Collective gathering. Sunday morning, I attended a Unitarian Universalist service. Tellya, there are differences. Paganism is fundamentally an ecstatic practice: it’s about living in the body, embracing physicality both of ourselves and … Continue reading Contrasts
Read morePaganism, Gothic Aesthetic, and the Sensibility of Darkness: An Observation
‘Tis the season, so let’s talk about it: it’s a thing, among us Pagans. Cemeteries, bones, skulls, ravens. Vampires and absinthe and Ye Olde Occulte Symboles. Dark. Spooky. Sexy. It scares some people. Particularly non-Pagan, white-light-obsessed Christians and New Age folks. At this time of year, the Pagan community leaps with particular gusto into the seasonal … Continue reading Paganism, Gothic Aesthetic, and the Sensibility of Darkness: An Observation
Read moreAnd So We Fight On
We believe in a better world We believe in justice We believe in a better world We believe in peace We believe in a better world We can heal our planet We won’t bow down. We won’t bow down. –An Atheopagan ritual chant It matters now to hold … Continue reading And So We Fight On
Read moreStarting Fresh: Imagining a New Paganism
What if we were starting today? If, here, 18 years into the 21st century CE, we were to invent a new, Earth-loving, progressive, reality-based religion? Imagine a practice, a cosmology, a set of values rooted in what we now know about the Cosmos, about Nature, about ourselves. If we were starting just today. What would … Continue reading Starting Fresh: Imagining a New Paganism
Read moreA Reflection at Dusk
Days are noticeably shorter now. The coastal fog cycle native to my region is sputtering with the weakened power of the Sun, so we have days of heat followed by days half of which are soft and gray, burning off only in the afternoons to sun. Autumn is here. Usually, this is a joyous realization … Continue reading A Reflection at Dusk
Read moreReemergence
As regular readers know, I broke my arm at a Pagan event three weeks ago. Since, I have been contending with lining up a specialist to do surgery to reset it, having the surgery, and recovery. I am in the boring phase of this process. I can’t do much, and I’m chained to my bed where … Continue reading Reemergence
Read moreMy Pagan Purple Heart
I’m afraid that unless I find a voice-dictation solution soon, posts to this site are going to slow for awhile. I was helping to set up the ritual fire circle at Ignite last Thursday, and I fell from the back of a large pickup truck, belly-flopping onto the road with my left arm underneath me. It swelled instantly, … Continue reading My Pagan Purple Heart
Read moreAve Fortuna!
A guest post by Kaigi-Ron Ave is the principle of gratitude. Of recognizing, in each moment, how incredibly lucky you are…because it could’ve gone another way. It could be so very much worse…but, fortunately, it isn’t. Ave Fortuna! It all started with the Focus to Fortuna. In this world ruled by chaos, she rolls the dice. They cannot be unrolled. So … Continue reading Ave Fortuna!
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