There are real benefits to seeking out mystical or ecstatic states: They open our minds, they can be transformative, and they feel good.
I am an atheist when the wind is north-northwest.
I am an atheist but north by northwest. When the wind is southerly, I know a deity from a deist.
Cyanobacteria: R-E-S-P-E-C-T by Brock Haussamen
We owe cyanobacteria our respect. And they might deserve our fullest gratitude as well if it weren’t for one nasty trait.
A Dawn Prayer
Whose warm love flows across the land each day Stirring Life, the world’s magic, arms yearning up, Turning each green leaf to follow. Whose generous balm Upon the skin is love’s touch, ahhhhhh heated fingers soothing, Whose roar boils water from ocean to sky Drawing sweet from salt, becoming rain, snow, river, lake; Whose fervid … Continue reading A Dawn Prayer
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Is Seeking A “Deep Religious Experience” Hedonistic?
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.
Worshiping the Dark at the Summer Solstice
Neo-Paganism is all about balance. It is about bringing opposites together into harmony. If we celebrate the birth of the Sun Child on the longest night, what else would be celebrate on the longest day but the birth of the Dark Child from his mother, the Goddess of the Sun?
What American Gods Tells Us About the Need for Religious Ecstasy
American Gods possibly reflected and probably magnified a dissatisfaction among many Pagans with popular forms of Paganism. And it offered one possible alternative: literal belief in the gods and devotional forms of worship. Popular Paganism was failing to produce the kind deep religious experiences that many of Pagans craved, and devotional polytheism promised to answer that craving. There is a lesson here for Godless Pagans and other Religious Naturalists. If we want our religions to thrive, and if we want to experience the depths that spirituality has to offer, we must find ways to tap into the experience of transcendence and ecstasy.
Building a Strong and Free Pagan Community
I hope that moving forward, we are able to disagree respectfully, as friends, to recognize our common goals and community, and sometimes, to join in powerful and moving rituals, regardless of the fact that some of us see the underlying basis of those rituals differently. With that, we might be able to bring a life-centered Paganism to millions, who might fit better into this or that part of our wider Pagan community, with many of us working together to build a better future for the whole web of life.
Hail, the Magnificent Sun!
These are the kindest and best of days. The evenings grow long, the air is mild. Here where I live, anyway, life is good. For our ancestors, too, these were good days. Planting and early tending of crops were over. Early lambs and hunting of spring animals were abundant. After the long, anxious wait of … Continue reading Hail, the Magnificent Sun!
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Literal Minded Atheism
Whether the gods are objectively real is the least interesting question you can ask about a person’s religious experience. What is much more interesting is the subjective reality of their experience. What was the experience was like for them? And what does it mean to them in the context of their life? People’s religious experiences aren’t going to help us put a person on Mars or cure cancer, but they can help us understand why we want to put a person on Mars or why should try to cure cancer.