If there is one human sense more than any other that really drills down beneath the thinking mind and evokes feelings, memories, longings, it would be the sense of smell. Olfactory cues go to the most primitive parts of our brains, and are remarkably powerful in snapping us back to powerful feelings…
What does the Moon mean to an Atheopagan? Well, to this one, at least, the Moon is the bringer of “magic light”. Low light conditions tend to damp down the activity of the pre-frontal cortex of the brain, enhancing the role of the limbic system in consciousness. In moonlight, we…
I read Tarot cards. Not as much as I used to, but I still do it. I don’t think of it as “fortune telling”. I think of the Tarot as a magnificently complex set of symbols from which I randomly choose, creating therefrom a narrative which draws up my intuitive…
As I practice and have described it, the tenth Principle of Atheopaganism is responsible sensuality: the cultivation of pleasure for its own sake, so long as in doing so we are not harming others or the Earth. It’s May Day weekend, that sexy festival of fertility and…
Shame. It impedes so much. It’s easy to succumb to the impulse to think that it’s something to be overcome, and that’s the end of it. Freedom, eh? And yet… Someone completely without shame is a sociopath. Shame is a guide. It can help us to understand how best to fit…
Words have power. In ritual—even solitary ritual—the spoken word can move, inform, reinforce, set intention and make more “real” what is not yet real. By speaking and hearing words, our minds are reshaped around their meanings, and we begin to believe, just a little bit more, that they are true.
