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The Longest Day
Well, here it is: the longest day of the year in the northern hemisphere. The summer solstice, or Midsummer. I will be living in two of the worlds I inhabit today: attending a 35th-anniversary celebration for the conservation organization I founded back in the 90s, and then going to a solstice gathering with Pagan friends. Hopefully a good mix. By contrast with the huddling-together-against-the-cold-and-darkness of the winter solstice, Midsummer is, rather than a stubborn persistence in the face of adversity, rather a benign and pleasant time. A time for barbecues and outdoor play, relaxation in a hammock. For my European ancestors, it was a time between sowing and reaping, when…
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Leaving the Dark Side of the Year
Happy Vernal Equinox! Today we in the northern hemisphere depart the darker half of the year’s solar cycle for the brighter days of spring and summer. Perhaps it’s just biology knocking on my brain, but I feel oddly optimistic these days despite the deeply disturbing things happening in the news. One thing I am definitely looking forward to is Suntree Retreat 2026! The third of these in-person gatherings of Atheopagans from throughout the Americas (and others are of course welcome–we just haven’t had any attend yet!), Suntree Retreat is a long weekend of workshops, rituals, socializing and fun in Colorado Springs, Colorado, at the gorgeous La Foret Retreat Center. I…
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Gratitude, Mourning, and Rage
It’s American Thanksgiving again. I have feelings. Because let’s face it: the Happy Shiny story most white Americans tell themselves about this day’s origin is a crock of shit: a self-congratulating retcon of colonization as “brotherhood”. In which they, of course, are the heroes. As in every American myth about themselves. Tiresome, really. Ourselves, I should say. Just because I eventually vomited up the Kool-Aid doesn’t mean I’m not a part of this. White Americans tell themselves that their ancestors’ invasion of the lands they now occupy—dragging with them enslaved Africans, which is a whole other abomination—was beneficial to all concerned. Benign, at the very least. Of course, the descendants…
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Hallows: A Compendium
I’ve written a lot about this time of year, this holiday, which I call Hallows. I’ve been celebrating it for decades. And every year at this time, I think about mortality, the cycle of death/decomposition/recomposition, ancestors, memory. The past, the inevitable future. The Big Picture. Dressing up creepy, or goofy, or sexy. Giving permission to people to let their wild side out. I think about all of it. I’m doing that this year, too. Updating my death packet, as I do every October. Rituals, and gatherings, and the wonderful creepy vibe. Candy for little monsters. Taking the whole ride. I’m even taking a week off, from Halloween through the actual…
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Nature and Nurture, and Now
I am the first to cop to it: I am a rather disputatious person. I was a debater in high school and college. Fanatical about it, actually: the theory, the logic (and fallacies), the strategy and tactics, endless hours researching evidence and writing briefs in the days long before the Internet. I am generally pretty skeptical. Many of the ways I have come to understand who I am–as an atheist, as a Pagan, as a nontheist Pagan, as an activist for political change–arise from deep contention with how the world has been arranged by the history of humanity leading up to my life, by how so much of it now…
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Sifting for Indigeneity
You know that feeling when your heart soars at a sunset or a moonrise, or a mountain panorama or the ocean? That I-am-so-blessed/so-grateful/so-privileged-to-be living-this-life feeling, where for one brilliant moment it all makes sense and there is a logic and a system to the world and though we are small we are magical and we belong to everything? That feeling? That’s a fragment of your inheritance. I should be clear: I’m writing now for descendants of settlers like me. If you’re indigenous, you don’t need this post because it doesn’t refer to you unless you have been deeply alienated from your native culture. This piece is about sifting for the…
