Practice
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Ritual Technologies: Light and Beauty
Imagine being in a cathedral. The hush, the dim light from stained glass windows and flickering candles, the faint scent of incense. The faint sound, perhaps, of sacred music through the profound silence. The architecture that sends the eye reaching up, up, to barely discernible vaults. Massive columns, larger-than-life statues of saints. Which, in turns, make the viewer feel small, insignificant by comparison to the soaring magnificence surrounding her. That’s sacred space. The mind cannot help but to downshift into Present, liminal consciousness. Into the Ritual State, which is also known as “trance”. These factors are not accidental. They were learned, over countless years, by those who meant for those who entered…
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Building Atheopagan Community
As I referenced earlier, Atheopaganism as a named path is new. That means that those of us who are a part of it are rare, and far-flung (the Facebook group has members from across the globe). That said, Atheopaganism has something precious to offer both atheists and Pagans, and those are quite a bit more common. Atheopagan community is therefore likely to be ecumenical community: at first, at least, we will gather with both those who share our worldview and those whose cosmologies differ. Pagans are rare enough in most places; expecting to find a broad community of atheist Pagans may be unrealistic. However, most Pagans are pretty tolerant–they will joyfully be a…
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Atheopaganism Alone
Recently, I asked the Atheopagan group on Facebook for suggestions of some topics they would like to see addressed here at the Atheopaganism blog. Given that non-theistic Paganism is a minority element of a minority religion, it’s no surprise that several people suggested writing on how to have a solo practice, or how to build an Atheopagan community. First of all, you’re not alone. There are thousands of us who believe as you do. You can connect with them through the Facebook Atheopaganism group, through the Humanistic Paganism website and other spiritual naturalism sites. You’re not alone. It’s true: we’re new as a recognized group, and you may not have others around you who…
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Ritual Technologies: Sing!
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 and moments long past. Unfortunately, the experience of scent is passive, rather than expressive. While we have receptors for tremendously subtle combinations of chemical cues, we are not able to express ourselves in kind. The second-most powerful sense in terms of emotional impact, however, is sound—particularly, music. Music has the capacity to transport us, to evoke a wide range of…
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Considering the Moon
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 are more likely to feel attentive, emotional and alive in the Present moment rather than trailing off into our thoughts. The same is true of candlelight or firelight–though the flickering of flame is a different quality than the serene calmness of moonlight. There’s a reason why gathering under the full Moon is associated with witches and Pagans. A landscape bathed…
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Intuitive Understanding and “Divination”
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 understanding of a situation or question and illuminates it in complex, interesting and often surprising ways. In a way, Tarot is like a Rorschach test, only with much richer set of available symbols and a long history of interpretation and lore. Besides, it’s really, really cool. Tarot by candlelight, with a bit of incense? You won’t feel much witchier than…
