An Earthseed Solstice: Festival of the Teacher

Festival of the Teacher, Natural Pagans, Octavia Butler, summer solstice, The Allergic Pagan

The summer solstice coincides with the birthday of Octavia Butler, June 22.  So we celebrate Butler’s life and work, as well as the beginning of summer.  Through the ritual, we will seek to deepen our understanding of the words of the Book of the Living: “God is Teacher” and “Partnership is learning and teaching”.  The ritual will involve song, like Peter Mayer’s “God is a River”, and call-and-response. The center of the ritual will be a “meditative teaching” and the construction of an altar or “focus” to honor teachers who have inspired us.

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How a Hobbit Would Celebrate the Summer Solstice

Climate Change, fire, Frodo, global warming, hobbits, J.R.R. Tolkien, light, litha, Lord of the Rings, Midsummer, Natural Pagans, pagan, Sauron, Scourging of the Shire, Shadow, shadows, Shire, The Allergic Pagan, The Hobbit, Wheel of the Year

When we light our solstice fire this year, I will be thinking of shadows. I will be thinking of ruined landscapes. And I will be thinking of Hobbits. Little people who took up farm tools and kitchen implements and drove out the shadow of desolation from their homes.

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Spiritual Experiences: Fuel for Action [Starstuff, Contemplating]

Atheism and Meaning, Emotion, evolution, experience, HP, inspiration, Jon Cleland Host, Latest Posts, naturalism, naturalistic pagan, Responsibility, Starstuff, Contemplating, wonder

These spiritual experiences are an astounding gift that can be powerful fuel for our actions – motivating us when other lights have gone out.  How could I receive that gift, and not want to use it responsibly, to help empower me to make a better world?  

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Divining the Masculine

Bart Everson, Gender, Neo-Pagan, Religion, Words & Numbers, Writing

This essay on religion, science, gender and the Earth is one of the most difficult things I’ve written. Part One ~ Part Two The composition process felt like torture. I fully expected it would require serious revision, but it was accepted and published as-is in the collection Finding the Masculine in Goddess’ Spiral: Men in Ritual, Community, and …

Continue reading “Divining the Masculine”

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How Wonder Woman Both Perpetuates and Challenges Christian Dualism

Christianity, dualism, God, gods, hierarchy, love, movie, Natural Pagans, Satan, The Allergic Pagan, war, Wonder Woman

The movie Wonder Woman is a Christianization of Greek myth, with Zeus taking the role of the Christian God and Ares taking the role of Satan, making Wonder Woman a female Jesus. A certain kind of Christian dualism has worked itself so deep into our collective psyche that it seems we can’t even tell a story about pagan gods without replicating that dualism.

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