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I Know.
I know you’re struggling. I know that even if your basic needs are met, the state of the world is crying inside you. And if they’re not, I know you’re afraid and exhausted, numbed, perhaps unable even to contemplate the future because the now is taking up every last bit of energy and attention you can muster. I know you’re tired, and there is so far to go before it seems there can be hope for improvement. If you’re in the US, or paying attention to it, or to world affairs generally, I know the impacts of that man’s irrationality and arrogance and incompetence to all that is Sacred and…
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Ecstacy, Ritual, Transformation and Getting High
Fire circle rituals. Punk rock mosh pits. Raves. Ordeal rites. BDSM practices. And drugs, of course. State of consciousness is a function of brain operation, mostly through the varying levels of several key neurotransmitters (examples being the mood-regulating and executive-functioning neurotransmitters serotonin, dopamine and norepinephrine). So to change our state of consciousness to an “alternative” one from our ordinary state of awareness, humans conduct activities like those listed above to alter the levels of these neurotransmitters, Why we do this is a mystery, but we clearly have a predilection for altered states of consciousness, from little children spinning around until they are dizzy to adults taking intoxicants, performing extreme feats…
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Mendicant Traditions and the Accumulation of Wealth
A mendicant is a beggar: a poor person who importunes others for money or other material support. In Pagandom, we remember many holiday traditions rooted in mendicant practices. This post is about the special wonders of traditions involving house-to-house beggary, and the deeper meanings associated with many of them. I’m thinking about these traditions, and what they mean. What their function is. But to start with, let’s look at them! First and most famously, there is Wassailing in England: the homes and the orchards. As well as… Thomasing in England: The former custom of going from house to house on St Thomas’s day (December 21) to beg for small gifts…
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Gone A-Maying
Joyous, pleasurable, a little transgressive, and underneath all that, sacred. That’s May Day to me. Historically in Europe, May Day was the beginning of summer–the time when freezes were generally over and spring foliage was leafing out. It was the time of the custom of “going a-Maying”, wherein young adults would go into the forests to “gather wildflowers” and get some unsupervised time together. It was a wink-nudge practice and everyone was in on the joke, so there are many ribald poems, songs and stories about it: So the coming of summer also meant an opportunity to slip out from under the watchful gaze of Mum and Dad for some…
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Create Your Own Atheopagan Gathering!
What I know is this: the gatherings are lovely. Good people, good humor, intelligent conversation, kind values. The kind of people I am proud to call friends. The Atheopagan Society has now produced two in-person events for Atheopagans: the Suntree Retreats, in Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA. We do them every two years*. The Suntree Retreats and the in-person gatherings of my local Atheopagan affinity group are precious to me because of how they feel. When I am there, I feel seen and open and surrounded by people who interest and inspire me. Nice as Zoom gatherings are, there is nothing like hanging out with people in person. Recently, while attending…
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Sacred Turbulence
I have a predilection for watching trees sway in wind. Understanding that under the hypnotic dance, swaying resiliently against the buffets of air, there is extraordinary chaos mathematics: that the raised arms of the trees as if to pray to the Sun–for, after all, isn’t that what they are doing?– are both enduring and celebrating. Knowing that this chaos is everywhere in our world, and yet these creatures, like all of us, are built for surviving and know how to bend rather than break. I can watch for a long time. Poetry of the world in long upraised fingers, in light and shadow, dancing. It’s good for me. Helps, in…
