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What is the Atheopagan Society?
We’re coming up on three years since the nonprofit organization The Atheopagan Society (TAPS) was organized. For some in our community, its role is a bit unclear, so I thought I would write this post explaining it. The Society is a religious organization recognized by the US Internal Revenue Service as a legitimate religious group and exempt from taxation. We received our letter of determination last summer, confirming this. The mission of TAPS is “To facilitate, support and enhance the spiritual practices and mutual engagement of Atheopagans throughout the world.“ TAPS was created so that Atheopaganism can carry on into the future, beyond me or any other individual. I have…
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Post 600
This website was created on August 19, 2014. At that point, it had become unwieldy to share information and resources as Facebook files to our growing community, and it was clearly time to have a publicly accessible venue for development of thought, exploration of ideas, announcement of events and access to downloadable resources. More than 120,000 site visits, two books (with one on the way), 137 podcasts, 28 YouTube videos, 3 in-person community events and the help of dozens of community volunteers later, here we are, with the 600th post to the blog. Our community has mushroomed in size and complexity, including formation of our own nonprofit Atheopagan Society, and…
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Ever Think,”I Should Be Doing Something?”
One of the things about spirituality is that without some effort, it can become a bit…navel-gazing. It’s not a failing, nor anyone’s fault. What we do through our religious paths helps us to grow, heal, and cultivate joy, all of which are internal things. They help us to build community, too, which adds to happiness and contentment in life. All great stuff, really important. I have always said, though, that Atheopaganism isn’t one of those paths that thinks that politics and activism “aren’t spiritual”. Working to make the world a better place isn’t some sideline or secondary concern in Atheopaganism–it is important, just as the rituals and Sabbaths and sense…
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GUEST POST: A New Year’s Ritual
by Danford and Hawthorne Happy Belated New Years, Atheopagans! I hope your year has been kind to you so far <3 ManifestationLike many Atheopagans, I try to celebrate the turning of the Gregorian Calendar with special occasions.This usually involves beer, friends, and sharing New Year’s Resolutions (perhaps more beer thanresolutions, lol, but always in good company). My friends and I did something similar this year, but witha twist – we decided to add a layer of ritual to our resolutions – both to release what should be left in2022 and to materialize what we want to bring with us into 2023. My initial idea for this was pretty simple –…
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The State of the Atheopagan Community 2023
Hello, lovely community! It’s been awhile since I wrote a general report on everything that’s going on, and it’s State of the Union address time in the U.S., so I thought I’d do one of our own. We have a lot happening! Here’s the lowdown: The Atheopagan Society (TAPS): Producer of our media channels and events, the nonprofit religious organization TAPS is in the midst of its first strategic planning process, which will set our action and program priorities for the next 2-3 years. The TAPS Council is also looking at how we can best keep social media moderators and other leadership in the loop about everything that is going…
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A Brightening Ritual
It’s the February Sabbath! Midpoint between the winter solstice (Yule or Midwinter) and the spring equinox (which I call High Spring), it is the time when the light is noticeably returning after the deep darkness of winter, and the hope of spring is growing. It can thus be called Brightening, anywhere in the Northern Hemisphere. Where I live, it’s the time when it rains constantly, and so I have named this Sabbath, for my own purposes, Riverain, the Festival of Water. This is a concept for a Brightening/Riverain ritual I came up with this year. We did an adapted version of it in the Atheopagan Saturday Zoom Mixer today. The…
