Atheology
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Guest Post: My Atheopagan Life (Pt. 2)
by Holly H. Weekly In my kitchen I have five bins; one of general recycling and one for glass recycling, both of which are picked up by my council, one compost bin of food waste that I compost myself for the garden, one general bin which normally contains bread or fat food waste and is rarely used. The final bin contains all the plastic or foil film packaging that food producers are still insisting on wrapping around various foods. This last bin is something I created in the last couple of years, having discovered that my local supermarket now has a big cage in which you can recycle everything from…
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From the Atheopagan Society: A Statement of Policy Values
Ours is an engaged spirituality: engaged in society, engaged in the world. Atheopagans care not only about our own growth, joy in living, discovery and wonder, but the well-being of our fellow humans and the biosphere of which we are each a part. Our Atheopagan values, enshrined in the Four Sacred Pillars and the 13 Principles, are modern, progressive, inclusive, and in some cases have radical implications for improving conditions in our world. We understand the destructive and unsustainably rapacious nature of industrial capitalism, and know the values that dominate the world must change for justice, biodiversity, kindness and happiness to prevail. This is not just abstract. Activism is a…
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Atheopaganism: A Path of Reverence, Celebration and Service
It’s been awhile since I wrote just generally about Atheopaganism: what is it, why does it exist, and what does it stand for? Atheopaganism is a godless, supernatural-free religious/spiritual path I envisioned between 2005 and 2009, which led to publication first of an essay and eventually of the book Atheopaganism: An Earth-Honoring Path Rooted in Science. In this path, the worldview and approach to learning of science are combined with progressive values and Neopagan ritual practices celebrating nature, the diversity of humanity, and our passage through the seasons of the year and of our lives. This not the first time that scientific/naturalistic cosmology has been combined with Pagan practice. If…
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Building Community, Core Values and Leadership
Recently, the Atheopagan Society launched a new program for the community: affinity groups. These are small groups organized around topics of common interest or geographical areas, where Atheopagans can interact, learn, support and get to know one another better. They meet on whatever platforms they choose (or in real life, when safe), and are not moderated by the Society or by the community’s Facebook or Discord moderators. While we have provided forums for asking questions and seeking support, the groups are generally self-managed. I have been careful since the time that Atheopaganism started to catch on with other people to stipulate that I may be the originator of this path…
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Reciprocity vs. the Overculture
I’ve been thinking a lot about the Overculture lately: how the dominant values and paradigms of our societies inform how we think, how we speak, and what we do. For a discussion of all that, I invite you to listen to this week’s episode of THE WONDER podcast. That will give you a good sense of what I’m talking about. It was a great conversation with Yucca. The Overculture is tricky to talk about because it is the water within which we fish swim: it’s everywhere, and to talk about other ways of living seems alien and farfetched. But we know they exist: we did not always live in a…
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You Have Permission to be Witchy
All of us in the nontheist/SASS*/Atheopagan sphere start out having to contend with that pesky internal Critic Voice that says, as we begin to move out of our ordinary mental states and towards creating or participating in ritual, “THIS IS STUPID. YOU’RE MAKING A FOOL OF YOURSELF.” For we are practical, rational folk, yes? We sift the world for evidence to make our determinations. So actions for no concretely definable reason become questionable at best. Ergo, the Voice. Yes, that voice speaks JUST LIKE THE CHARACTER DEATH in the late lamented Sir Terry Pratchett’s novels, with as much authority and gravitas and certainty. The difference between Death and your inner…
