This post is an apology. It has now been more than two years since I waded into the broader online Pagan conversation on behalf first of myself, and then of what has turned out to be the many Pagans who do not believe in literal gods. In those early days,…
As I celebrate the Wheel of the Year, the midpoint between the summer solstice (Midsummer) and the autumnal equinox (Harvest) is Summer’s End. I call it that because this is the moment when Autumn first becomes detectable in my region: in the angle of the light, in the hard blue of the sky,…
Honestly, it’s the most heartwarming thing. Because I know the feeling so well: the feeling that I’m the only one, that there must be something wrong with it. That I must have missed something. When I first discovered Paganism in the mid-1980s, an opening in my heart signalled that I…
Since probably before humans were even human, there has been music. Rhythm, at least. And where there is rhythm, there is dance. There are preserved footprints in painted caves in France that indicate young boys dancing 20-30,000 years ago. Some ritual dances are still performed …
I am a member of the Spark Collective, based in the East Bay of the San Francisco Bay Area, which holds monthly indoor “fire circle” rituals (around a centerpiece of candles, instead of an actual fire, of course). These are a way of maintaining and building community…
As I’ve mentioned before, the most powerfully evocative of the human senses is the sense of smell. The olfactory centers are in the most primitive parts of the brain, and they can summon vivid memories in an instant, simply from a remembered scent. For…
