It’s American Thanksgiving again. Time for turkey, stuffing, cranberries and cognitive dissonance. Like so much of the history of the United States of America, Thanksgiving is a happy smiley story layered over appalling crimes against humanity. Ask the Wampanoag what they feel about the meal…
In Memoriam: Michael Dowd
After a life of convention-challenging thought and leadership, Michael Dowd has left us, quietly in his sleep last Saturday. There is a lot to say about Rev. Dowd. He was certainly a big thinker and he, with his wife Connie Barlow, was a pioneer…
Naturalistic Animism
“Animism” has meant a lot of things over time. It was a racist slur against indigenous people; it has been claimed by panpsychists (who believe everything has consciousness). Robin Wall Kimmerer describes in her brilliant book Braiding Sweetgrass that the core of the indigenous relationship to the natural world*…
The Atheopaganism Book is Now Available As an Audiobook!
In the two weeks before I started my new job, I realized that I wasn’t going to have an extended run of days in which I could record an audiobook of ATHEOPAGANISM: An Earth-Honoring Path Rooted in Science–a long-planned project–for a long time, and it was the moment! So…
With the Fog, Summer has Returned
In many modern Pagan reckonings of the seasons, as well as in some places in the world like Ireland, the solstices and equinoxes do not mark the beginnings, but rather the peaks of each season. The “cross-quarters” in February, May, August and November are the seasonal beginnings. So…
Shame, Guilt, Pride and Humility
Recently, I’ve had a number of opportunities to feel shame. They come to all of us. We do things or say things we wish we hadn’t, especially in anger but sometimes out of simple ignorance or carelessness. Like all of us, I have done and said my share of shameful…