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Holy Days
OK, to start with let me just say: they’re all holy. Every unique, magnificent, rare and extraordinary day of your life, whether you sleepwalk through it or not, is a holy day. Because there are only so many of them, and then you are gone forever. So try to keep it in mind: every day is a holy day. But a special day, what we usually call a holiday–a Sabbath–whether invented or traditional, is a moment when we step out of routine into ritual: whether it’s convening a meal with loved ones at Harvest or erecting a decorated evergreen at Yule or lighting candles for Hanukkah. We have now entered…
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Meet the Atheopagan Society Council!
This year, terrible as it has been in so many ways, has seen Atheopaganism evolve to a new level. We have created a legal entity which can carry on the work of the path beyond the life span of any individual: The Atheopagan Society. This nonprofit corporation is as remarkable for what it isn’t as for what it is. It isn’t a membership organization: no one is going to make you pay just to be an Atheopagan. Instead, it is simply an organization designed to create resources, provide education and training, and organize support for Atheopagans and for the promulgation of Atheopagan values in the world. The Atheopagan Society has…
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Soil and Sky; Love and Joy
There are those who try to hijack Paganism in the name of their bigotry and their hatred: who crow “blood and soil!” as if that means something. As if it is anything more than an adolescent boy’s angry braying. Like most big lies, the “blood and soil” of neo-Nazis–some of whom describe themselves as “folkish” Pagans or heathens– contains a tiny kernel of truth buried in its pile of garbage. Because there is nothing wrong with a sense of allegiance to land and to family. The problem is in how right-wing haters narrowly define land and family: they value only this land where “we” came from…and “our people” is only…
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A Mood
I have been thinking… No. I have been feeling about this community of people, the nontheist Pagan community. I have been feeling because sometimes such appreciation, such gratitude wells up in me to be with you all. So a wrote a thing. THIS Community We’re having none of the bullshit, thank you. We’ve seen the paths of the lost and confused, and chosen. We aspire: To lofty goals and a kinder world, To sense, sensibility, sensuousness, sexiness, Self-made-Sacred: Sifted Through the fine grate of experience, cultivating it, the joy. And to be better. We’re having all of the work, thank you, Because we are stained. None has escaped The gray…
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A Sad Reckoning
I had hoped that the American Presidential election would be a repudiation of Donald Trump and the divisive, racist, misogynistic, homophobic, fascistic nightmare of Trumpism. That hope was not realized. While Joe Biden–a decent man who I think will be a good though not transformative President–will eke out a victory, nearly 50% of the country voted for Trump even after watching four years of his antics and destructive policies. I could not be more disappointed…unless Trump had actually won. I don’t link to him very often, but John Beckett has a very fine piece on this. You can find it here. He has said the things I want to say.…
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Death, the Creator
Classic depictions of Death personified include skeletons carrying an hourglass or a scythe, mummified persons extending leathery hands, armies of skeletal warriors mowing down the living, or Pale Horsemen laying waste to kings, priests and children, as in the Coleman-Waite “Rider” Tarot deck. It makes complete sense that we view death with fear and revulsion. We are, after all, hardwired to wish to survive, hardwired to want to pass our genes on, however we may. Certainly, our deaths scare us. We die, and by and large, we don’t want to. But if we step back, we can see the value of death. The importance it plays in the perpetuation and…
