Personal Reflection
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REBLOGGED: Paganism in the time of coronavirus – part 3: Virtual rituals
Some useful observations and tips for performing virtual rituals online. I will be starting to try this soon myself!
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On Authenticity
Many religious people and paths—including many Pagans and Pagan traditions—place a great premium on claims of authenticity: that their mythologies, traditions and practices are, for want of a better word, “real”. “Real” ancient lore or rites. “Real” narratives about god/desses. “Real” translations of “real” ancient texts. “Real” rituals, real traditions, real teachers, real magic. “Real Paganism”. There are those who will go on about this at great length, opining about what they believe is authentic…and, as often as not, why you’re not it. But here’s the thing about authenticity: it has nothing to do with any of those things. Authenticity in relationships has to do with what is in your…
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Love in the Time of the Coronavirus
Hello, Atheopagans. By now, everyone knows about the novel coronavirus, COVID-19. It’s spreading rapidly and it has killed more than 3,800 people worldwide as of this writing. It appears to have a mortality rate in excess of 2%. To put that in context, the 1918 “Spanish” (it wasn’t) flu pandemic had a mortality rate of 2%, and it killed 20 million people worldwide. That’s more than died in World War I. This is a serious thing, and we need to treat it seriously. You can follow the progress of the virus at the Johns Hopkins University dashboard here. So please: do as public health officials ask that you will do. If…
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It Is Long Past Time for Women, God Damn It.
I voted for Elizabeth Warren for US President. She was clearly the smartest, most prepared, most compassionate and sincere and—yes, I’ll say it—most progressive candidate in the race. She really gets poverty. She gets bigotry. She gets intersectionality. She gets it. She wasn’t perfect, and she’s made mistakes. Who hasn’t? But Elizabeth Ann Warren is an educated, passionate, articulate, knowledgeable woman. And that, America simply could not forgive. I am sickened. I work in the nonprofit sector, and I have worked under a number of women. And I would characterize most of them as exceptional leaders with competency, empathy, compassion, and focus, who nonetheless had to be twice as good…
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Mostly Russian River
What I am made of lifted as fog from redwood trees to drip across bay leaves down to Lake Sonoma. It seeped through oaks’ roots and fossil limestone and chanterelle mycelia and vernal wetlands to creeks where egrets and ospreys hunt, where steelhead and coho salmon struggle their way to spawn, and bears yet roam. What I am made of slid down the brilliant bark of peeling madrone. What I am made of knows the scent of the great Pacific, carried up the mighty River by those anadromous fish, and river otters, and tides. It sheets across the sheer compaction of redwood duff on the forest floor, soaking up the…
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The Long Game
It’s not looking so great for the future of the world right now, is it? The machinations of Vladimir Putin to stir up nativist and racist sentiments in the UK and US have led to disastrous results: the Trump election and Brexit. Both are systematically destroying the liberal democratic traditions of these countries and threatening spillover into other places like the Middle East. Meanwhile, China is playing go, calmly and methodically placing its stones throughout Africa, Asia and South America to claim resources and subvert democracies in those places…all the while committing its own domestic genocidal campaigns against Muslims, Tibetans and Uighurs. And, of course, there is climate change. These…
