Got your house decorated yet? Samhain (the Fall Equitherm) is only a few weeks away! For many of us (including me), this is one of the most sacred times of the year – a time when I feel my Ancestors…
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Paganism, 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
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A word of power: VOTE
“Happy for the outcome; sad he had to be treated so badly,” a woman commented on my mother’s Facebook post in celebration of the Senate’s confirmation of Justice Kavanaugh. My mother and her friend teach preschool together in deeply conservative Northeast Texas, where I grew up. Lots of nice, white Southern ladies live in my… Continue reading A word of power: VOTE →
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A Gift from the Dying
I’ll cut to the chase: we’re all dying. It’s the only guaranteed fact of our lives: we die. Atheopaganism doesn’t promise an afterlife. There really isn’t compelling evidence to support the idea of one, and so we conclude (tentatively, at least) that it is unlikely that there is one. This is the life that we … Continue reading A Gift from the Dying
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A Gift from the Dying
I’ll cut to the chase: we’re all dying. It’s the only guaranteed fact of our lives: we die. Atheopaganism doesn’t promise an afterlife. There really isn’t compelling evidence to support the idea of one, and so we conclude (tentatively, at least) that it is unlikely that there is one. This is the life that we … Continue reading A Gift from the Dying
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And 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
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Talking to Kids about the Cycle of Seasons
A guest post by Editor B. This past equinox marks the seventh year running that I’ve come in to my daughter’s school to talk to her class about the cycle of seasons. I started in 2012, when my daughter was in Pre-K. She and most of her classmates were four years old then. I’ve come … Continue reading Talking to Kids about the Cycle of Seasons
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Blasphemy! by Starstuff, Contemplating
Blasphemy laws are one of the most egregious and severe forms of religious privilege. It is the use of state-sponsored violence to attack someone for speaking in ways that religious leaders don’t like. Yet many countries, including the United States,…
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Why Pagans Need Field Guides
I was talking to someone on Facebook today about how I’m a field guide nerd. I have an ever-growing collection of identification books on the fauna, flora and fungi of the Pacific Northwest, as well as its complicated geology, climate, and other natural features…. Continue Reading
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Starting 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
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