Pagan Bloggers with Naturalistic Worldviews
Sitting outside in the bright, yet gentle mid-morning sunlight. Incense lit, second cup of coffee in hand. I’ve watered herbs and refilled the bird feeder. I’m watching my beloved Poe stalk a squirrel and listening to a red-bellied woodpecker knock on the utility pole at the corner of our backyard. So it is, and so… Continue reading Back to Home Base →
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At the beginning of a hatha yoga class that I attended, the teacher led a centering exercise. It involved lying supine and progressively relaxing each part of the body, fully surrendering our bodies to gravity, to the floor beneath us. “You are in this body now,” the teacher crooned at the end of the guided… Continue reading This Body Now →
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I am excited to announce that the official IndieGoGo campaign for my next book, Vulture Culture 101: A Book For People Who Like Dead Things, will launch on February 6, 2018! More than a book on taxidermy or bone identification, Vulture Culture 101 is… Continue Reading
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One of my New Year’s intentions is to celebrate each of the full moons of 2018 with a wildcrafted tea ritual. Aligning my spiritual life with moon cycles reminds me of the cyclic, rhythmic nature of life. Wildcrafting gets me outside and compels me to consider my relationship with green bloods and the rest of the… Continue reading January Full Moon Tea: Pine Needle →
The backyard compost pile is easily the most magical place of my family’s suburban home. We alternate layers of kitchen scraps with dry brown leaves, and in about a year the pile transforms our coffee grounds, onion skins, apple cores, and carrot tops into rich, dark brown compost, which I use to fertilize our herb… Continue reading Composting the Old Year →
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 →
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.
So how will you be celebrating? There are less than three weeks left before Yule (the Winter Solstice)! This is going out a week early because for many of us, this is a Sabbat that takes a little more preparation…
We can’t authentically engage with others, unless we’re self-aware, and we can’t truly care for others, if we’re not also caring for ourselves. I occasionally relearn this lesson at work, when I attempt to care for patients for the duration of a twelve-hour shift without drinking enough water, taking a lunch break, or pausing to… Continue reading Why I’m Pagan →