So, last year I wrote about a new tradition for Riverain, the Water Sabbath, which is how I celebrate the holiday that falls between the Winter Solstice (Yule) and the Spring Equinox (High Spring). Riverain comes at the height of the wet season in California’s…
No Gods. No Masters. No Priesthood.
It’s a sadly familiar tale in the Pagan community: the coven or local organization that is run by a charismatic “high priestess” or “high priest” (or both), doling out “training” and “degrees of advancement” based on how well the subject toes the line, fawns over the “priest/ess”, and, in some…
Killing the Sixties: Abuse, Consent, #MeToo and the Pagan Community
Today, the revelation of accusations of child molestation against the late Ar nDraiocht Fein founder Isaac Bonewits hit the Pagan community. This comes in the wake of the conviction of Kenny Klein, a prominent figure in Blue Star Wicca, ongoing concern about Pagan sexual…
Approaching the Animal Self
I’m a white guy. I mean, a seriously white guy. My 23andme.com DNA profile shows me as having 100% Northern European ancestry, pretty much all of which is English/Irish except for 1.2% Scandinavian, which has GOT to be a Viking raider. Not one of my ancestors ever had…
Crunch Time: Pagan Priorities and the Otherworld
The fundamental difference between theistic Pagans and Atheopagans is that the former propose that there exists an “Otherworld”: a parallel dimension of reality in which reside gods, spirits, fairies and other such beings. Atheopagans, having a naturalistic worldview, don’t subscribe to this idea. As I look around the community, I…
Introducing SLOGG: The Winter Demi-Sabbath
January is a hard damned month for me. There, I said it. After the colorful lights and parties and presents and many festivities of Yule comes a dark, cold time when we all go back to work. No fun for us now: just trudging through the snow or freezing rain,…