Practice
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It’s Even More Important Now
It’s a natural impulse: what, right now, is the damned point?* What’s the point of spirituality, of religion? What’s the point of personal rituals and seasonal celebrations, of rites of passage? With things as they are, why bother with things like mythopoetic expression? And I am here to tell you that at such times, it’s more important than ever to conduct our rites and to build community around our shared values. Here’s why. First of all, it is the #1 assignment for those of us who embrace values like the Atheopagan Principles that we persist. Even the most evil regimes have not lasted forever. We have to carry the torch…
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Happy Midwinter/Yule/Solstice!
The longest night is here (in the northern hemisphere)! May your celebrations be warm and joyous, filled with love and comfort. Good wishes to you from me this holiday season!
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It’s Time to Make Your Atheopagan “Advent” Calendar!
A crafting project for a fun countdown to Midwinter, the winter solstice. Check it out! Instructions, images to paste behind the windows of your calendar, and complementary teaching guide are all here.
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Anxiety Eve
It’s the night before the most important US Presidential election of my lifetime. The entire world has a stake in the outcome: a decent and adequate leader with sound values and qualifications versus a mad, incoherent, hateful man obsessed with prosecuting his grievances and who has surrounded himself with truly terrifying, fascist ideologues. Tomorrow, we vote, the polls close and then we count. To me, this is still Hallows season. We’re watching a creepy movie to escape. And we’ve already filled out our ballots to drop off tomorrow (California is all vote-by-mail). So now, we wait. Gotta work through tomorrow, thinking about people voting, wondering about the outcomes. I’m hosting…
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Solemn, Meaningful, Fun, Creepy
Happy Hallows, everyone, and may your celebrations be all the things listed in the title! I’m off to go walk in the old rural cemetery…
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What We Turn Back into the Soil
It’s Hallows season–Samhain, Halloween, what have you–and my mind turns to mortality, decomposition, recomposition and the great wide Circle of Life. I’ve written a bit about death. Here, about the fact of mortality. Here, about how we can prepare for our deaths in a manner that is kind to our survivors (downloadable workbook included!) And here, finally, as I have grappled with the dark marvel, the creative force that death actually is. Today, I have just returned from a weekend of camping with members of the Northern California Atheopagan Affinity Group, which calls itself the Live Oak Circle. We had a lovely time. One of the things we like to…
