The first in a 4-part series, originally published at The Woven Song. I. Falling Towards the Ancestors (Sacred Space) “When the leaves fall, the bones are laid bare. Old scars are revealed.” – Émile Wayne Hauntings of autumn are carried…
Les Cafés Mortels, by Renee Lehnen
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.
Save Herbalists from ‘Alternative Medicine’ By Rua Lupa
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?
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. 
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.
Celebrating Seasons of the Goddess – with Contributions from Glenys Livingstone
“Celebrating Seasons of the Goddess restores the original vision of celebrating cultural and natural landmarks from the perspective of Goddess feminist activism. By taking such categories as time, seasons, nature and the female divine as a point of departure, this book…
Learning to Live in Time and Place by Émile Wayne
I will soon celebrate the one-year anniversary of my cross-country trek from southern California to New Jersey, as well as my birthday. Anniversaries are good opportunities to stop and take stock of things, to imagine what could have been done…