Pagan Bloggers with Naturalistic Worldviews
There has always been something about the Wiccan Rede that has bothered me, and I’ve finally figured out what it is. The Wiccan Rede, for those new to the community or coming into Atheopaganism from atheist/skeptic circles, is the only widely (though far from universally) adopted moral precept in the Pagan community. It reads: “An (if) … Continue reading “Harm None” Ain’t Good Enough: A Call to Action
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Happy Solstice!
It’s been a rough year for many in my personal circles, and it’s been a rough year for our larger communities. Some of my friends have struggled with illness, some with loss, some with financial strain. White nationalists have marched openly in our nation’s streets, and an ill, ignorant, unrepentant bully sits supreme in the… Continue reading Season of the Dark Mothers →
My final wish for you all this Yule season is that you be surrounded with love. We are social apes, we humans, and loneliness is a terrible burden to us. Here at the dark and cold time of year, we can feel even more isolated, even more as though we must face life’s trials on … Continue reading Yule Offering #3: Love
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My second hope for you at Yule is that you engage the season with bravery. This is the time when we stand up to darkness and cold and the prospect of much more of it, and we do so with a combination of brazen silliness and real strength: the kind of strength it takes to … Continue reading Yule Offering #2: Courage
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Here’s my first hope for you at (what I consider) the New Year: the Winter Solstice, or Yule. That after the holiday frenzy of Silly Season, after the parties and dinners and rituals, there comes a moment when you can just stop. And be still. And feel within you the glow of all your life’s wealth: … Continue reading Yule Offering #1: Stillness
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For every gem of genuine ecological wisdom I have found in the Pagan community, there is a deluge of crystals and correspondences, divinities and divination apps, wizards and wishful thinking. Maybe it’s time to face up to the fact that, while I am spiritually and religiously “pagan” with a small-p, culturally I am not a capital-P “Pagan”.
What is needed is not belief, not fantasies and wishful thinking, but but practices which get us out of our heads and away from fantasies and wishful thinking. What is needed is not belief in an otherworld populated by fairies and dragons, but practices reveal to us where we actually are and the holiness of this place we call earth.
If we continue with our harmful habits and routines that maintain the current path toward global warming, then we will become another fossilized tree stump. But if we can learn from the history of what this can do, and stop our mistakes from continuing, then we will someday look back at this and be grateful to have the chance to camp in old-growth forests again.
For those of us who care about our Earth, this season presents a conundrum: How do we navigate this most commercial and consumeristic of seasons and remain true to our values? Well, here are some thoughts. I hope they help. First of all, the tree. Buy a real one. Artificial trees create three times the … Continue reading What Shall We Give for Yule?
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