Atheology
-
On Becoming An Atheopagan
What is a religion? Is a religion what you believe? Is that what people in churches and temples and mosques throughout the world do on their appointed sabbath days? Believe? I found myself pondering this question after I fell out of love with Paganism , in 2004, following a series of experiences wherein dysfunctional and unethical behavior on the part of leaders in my Pagan community was excused as having been “directed by the gods”. This was simply intolerable to me. It flew in the face of science, of reason, and of ethics. It was wrong. I grew up an atheist. I believe in science and reason. In facts, and…
-
Once Upon a Time in the Eighties
A memory, for May Day/Beltane… It wasn’t really a fabled time. There was a lot wrong with it. That said, there were things about it that were golden. It was a moment in Northern California, in the Pagan community. It mostly took place in wild places, in woods and deep forests. We danced naked under the full moon. We celebrated our rituals around a blazing fire. We made love in meadows. We took drugs: psilocybin mushrooms, San Pedro cactus. MDMA. And in that golden, loving space, alive with the joy of living, the world singing around us, we grew. We evolved. We healed. Again, to be fair: there were those…
-
Protip for Straight Pagan Men
There’s a thing straight Pagan men do. As I’ve observed it, they kind of do it a lot. Recently, I’ve had a couple of conversations that have brought this issue into high relief. They do it mostly to signal to women they don’t know very well—but are attracted to—that they are hip and cool and sex-positive. It’s this: they make sexual jokes. Double entendres, puns. “That’s what she said.” Guys, please stop this. It’s creepy. It makes people uncomfortable. Not to put too fine a point on it, when it’s unwelcome, it’s sexual harassment. By definition, unwelcome sexual overtures, jokes, suggestions are all sexual harassment. And here’s the thing, gentlemen: with…
-
In the Season of Sex
These days, I find it’s difficult just to navigate the world without getting sex all over me. The flowering trees and plants are airing their perfumes. When I get in my car in the morning, the windshield is covered with a fine dusting of yellow pollen. Fortunately, I am not subject to allergies, so it’s amusing, rather than oppressive. Meanwhile, there is all the usual hypersexualized nonsense in our media, of course: the objectifying inside-out world of a repressed people. And then, there is the disgusting story of Kenny Klein. It’s a steamroller, sex is. Grabs a person right by the lizard brain. So much sickness I see in our…
-
On Mirth
As I have referenced before, these are challenging days. Much is at stake, and fools are at the wheel. For someone prone to depression like me, it can be hard to keep my chin up and headed forward. This is why Atheopagan Principle 5 is so very important. Because it reminds us that the world of humans is not only tragic: it is absurd. And absurdity is hilarious. I’ve never heard any—perhaps they do not survive—but I guarantee that German Jews in the mid-1930s had Nazi jokes: not only because Jewish culture is generally lively withh humor, but because this is what humans do. We make the unbearable bearable, we knock our problems down to size, even…
-
Children in Circle
Recently, there has been some discussion in the Pagan blogosphere about children in ritual circle: whether and when they belong there, what the considerations are. Those of us with experience circling in Pagan ritual know that this can be an issue. A crying baby, an ebullient toddler, a sullen, checked-out teenager who just stands there and refuses to participate…these are all distractions that can make it hard for a ritual to bring participants into the Ritual State* (also known as Presence, Trance, or Flow). I’ll be the first to admit: I’ve been in rituals that were pretty much ruined for me by kids. I’ve also been in rituals where the…
