Community
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A Reminder: Atheopaganism Has a Patreon!
Providing thoughtful material and useful resources for Atheopagans and managing our growing community on Facebook (1,139 members as of today!) takes time, reflection, and work. I do it because I truly feel called to the task, and gratified that so many are gravitating to our Pagan, atheist path. It is a privilege to support and serve this community of fascinating and diverse folk. That said, I can use some help as I do so. Ensuring that I have the time carved out for Atheopagan work (even after I find a job again, which will be soon, I trust) is assisted by having some income directly from the community to subsidize…
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Visions of the Crash
We are warned now that we may have only a dozen years before global climate change reaches the 2 degree C. tipping point that will render Earth’s climate so unstable as to create ongoing crises in health, agriculture and, fundamentally, human survival. Our population continues to climb, ocean fisheries are crashing, extinction mounts worldwide. Something is going to shift. It is shifting, and fast. The question is how quickly, and how it will happen. To start with, let’s be clear: however big a tragic gouge we cause to be scraped from the biodiversity of Planet Earth, life will survive and go on to evolve for billions of additional years. The…
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Paganism, Gothic Aesthetic, and the Sensibility of Darkness: An Observation
‘Tis the season, so let’s talk about it: it’s a thing, among us Pagans. Cemeteries, bones, skulls, ravens. Vampires and absinthe and Ye Olde Occulte Symboles. Dark. Spooky. Sexy. It scares some people. Particularly non-Pagan, white-light-obsessed Christians and New Age folks. At this time of year, the Pagan community leaps with particular gusto into the seasonal enthusiasm for skulls and graves and blood. Much of this is because our paths, rather than phobically avoiding the subject of death, actually embrace it as a necessary and inevitable part of the human story. We understand that life is not just light, but is also darkness. That the human experience is not only of…
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Talking to Kids about the Cycle of Seasons
A guest post by Editor B. This past equinox marks the seventh year running that I’ve come in to my daughter’s school to talk to her class about the cycle of seasons. I started in 2012, when my daughter was in Pre-K. She and most of her classmates were four years old then. I’ve come in for every equinox and solstice since. Now my daughter is ten years old and in fifth grade. I’ve given some version of this presentation 25 times now, and these kids have grown up before my eyes. There have been some changes over the years, and also some persistent themes. I started off by reading…
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Themes for Atheopagan “Welcoming” Gatherings
This past weekend, a handful of us threw a successful Atheopagan gathering for the Harvest Sabbath. Not everyone there was an Atheopagan. Not everyone there had even heard of Atheopaganism. But we ate and drank and socialized and circled together, and a good time was had by all. And isn’t that the point? Where I’m going with this is that wherever you live, there may not be self-identified Atheopagans to gather with. Not right away, at least. But there are people: folks who might very well enjoy a seasonal gathering with a theme, socializing and food, and a short acknowledgement of the meanings of the season in ritual form. Those folks may find,…
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A Warm, Relaxed Gathering for Harvest
Due to the low turnout for Moon Meet 2018, those of us in attendance at that event had a discussion about how best to make local Atheopagan in-person events more accessible and attractive. Some of our conjectures were that it was asking too much to expect people to come for a multiple-day event for their first gathering with us, and that the site for Moon Meet was too remote for some of the prospective attendees. I mention these concerns because we are a far-flung community, distributed across the globe. Any lessons we learn can be used in creating your own events and gatherings*. Accordingly, three of us planned a Harvest gathering…
