Atheopagan Life
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Engaging the Work: My Next Frontier
Atheopaganism is about increasing our capacity for happiness and engaging our responsibilities to the Earth and to our fellow humans. As such, it requires us to look at ourselves and the world with both curiosity and compassion; to see where there is work to be done. For me personally, after years of resistance I am coming to confront that a large portion of my work now relates to inhabiting my body. I was raised only to celebrate the accomplishments of the mind. In my family, I saw no modeling of physical recreation or exercise, and as a result, I was always the kid who was reading a book during recess. I…
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An Atheopagan Life: Celebrating Riverain, and Adapting the Wheel of the Year
Originally posted at HumanisticPaganism.com The eight holidays of the modern Pagan “wheel of the year” present an annual cycle of Sabbaths tracing seasonal changes, agricultural cycles, and metaphors of the cycle of life. For an Atheopagan, it’s not a bad point to start from, rooted as it is in astronomical fact (the holy days are the solstices and equinoxes, and the midpoints between them) and the reality of seasonal change in parts of the world which have a European climate cycle. And while there is a large body of mythology in the Pagan traditions which ties these seasonal changes to stories about gods, the gods aren’t really necessary for the cycle…
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An Atheopagan Life: Observances for November and December
Originally published at Humanistic Paganism. November and December certainly don’t lack for observances and holiday celebrations. In the temperate zone of the planet, pretty much every culture has had some way of celebrating the winter solstice, and the accumulation of many of those traditions lives with us today in the form of Christmas, Chanukah, the Pagan Yule, newer traditions such as Kwanzaa and even Festivus. For Atheopagans, navigating this season in a manner free of theistic and supernatural overtones can be a bit of a challenge. We’re besieged with well-intentioned messages from relatives and friends rooted in their credulous religious beliefs. Exasperating as it can sometimes be, the main thing is…
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The Conversation: How I Talk About My Religion
It’s a pretty complicated topic. Let’s face it: for someone just becoming exposed to the idea of “rational religion”, there is a lot of territory to cover: the idea that religion doesn’t have to involve gods or the supernatural; the idea of Paganism itself, which is not exactly mainstream, even in groovy Northern California. And then, at the end of it, the big question: why? If you don’t believe Anyone is Listening, why would you do rituals and have celebrations? If your understanding of the nature of religion is founded in the characteristics that define the mainstream monotheisms, it’s a long and somewhat arduous walk to understanding a religion that…
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An Atheopagan Life: Observances Around the Year (Sept/Oct)
Autumn on the North Coast of California is an odd time. Our climate is a Mediterranean-style cycle of winter rains and a completely dry summer, and the transitional seasons are subtle in character. In fall, we experience the hottest period of the year, as while summer mornings are characterized by ocean fog that cools most days to temperate comfort, the weaker sun of September and October cannot drive the fog system so effectively. As a result, these months bring lengthy stretches of days in the nineties, parching lands which haven’t seen rain in months to what feels an aching dryness, as empty creek beds and golden-brown hills attest. We do…
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Now Writing for the Humanistic Paganism Blog
I’m happy to announce that I have been asked to write a monthly column for the blog Humanistic Paganism. My column will be entitled An Atheopagan Life: Musings and Observances of an Earth-honoring Atheist. I’ll link new columns here so the core Atheopagan crowd is aware of them.
