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New Carols for an Atheopagan Solstice
One of the things that can be hard about moving away from the Christian Overculture is that there is a lot of beautiful art that can become meaningless to you. Architecture, painting, sculpture, music…so many centuries of accumulated human creativity and effort, all illustrating the myths of Christianity. For many who deconvert from Christianity and other authoritarian religions, these artworks can be intensely triggering, and they don’t want anything to do with them. Others miss aspects of them, like the beauty of music that has…undesirable lyrics. I was never a Christian, so I only know this from hearing the reports of others in the Atheopagan community. But I do find…
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Diversity and Community
In Atheopaganism, we believe in the elevation and development of each individual to be fully themselves. We celebrate the luminous spark of unique humanity in every member of our community. In order to do that, we have to be open to tremendous diversity in how Atheopaganism is expressed on a person by person basis. Your rituals, Focus, and the way you celebrate the wheel of the year will not look like mine, and that’s great! They should be as you find them meaningful, as you find them moving and transformative. This is markedly different than most other religious paths, which expect general conformity in practices, self-identification, often even dress and…
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Cozy
Here in the northern hemisphere, it’s dark time now. Three weeks to the solstice, with lights going up on houses and cars with trees atop showing up in traffic, en route to home and decoration and love. There is the consumer frenzy of the Overculture, too, of course, but I avoid all that. We no longer give gifts–we have enough things, and when we really need something, we just buy it. We choose instead to have lovely experiences and celebrate a bunch of holiday observances, which are detailed here. As the skies darken and the days shorten, grow wetter and colder, I find myself drawn more and more towards comfy…
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Now Comes the Tainted Holiday
It’s American Thanksgiving again. Time for turkey, stuffing, cranberries and cognitive dissonance. Like so much of the history of the United States of America, Thanksgiving is a happy smiley story layered over appalling crimes against humanity. Ask the Wampanoag what they feel about the meal they shared with white colonizers 400 years ago. It is not a happy, smiley story. They are not grateful for encountering those people, or for that day. And yet, part of me is so pulled to the concept of a holiday for gratitude. Which is, after all, one of the Atheopagan Principles. Shouldn’t we have one of those? Yes, I think we should. The Harvest…
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The Atheopagan Libation–A Ritual We Can Share Globally
Recently, as we interviewed her for THE WONDER podcast, guest Susan Paterson of the Atheopagan Society Council suggested that it would be cool if there were a particular ritual that was shared by Atheopagan practitioners all over the world. I love this idea, so here is a suggestion that Atheopagans across the globe can adopt if they so choose. Thirteen being a special number for us, I suggest Atheopagans do this ritual at Thirteen o’clock (1 pm) on the 13th of each month, wherever you are–or whenever you gather with other Atheopagans. If you are at work (as I will be if it’s a weekday), take a few minutes to…
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A Quick Index to Resources on this Site
There’s a lot here. More than 600 posts, going back to 2014. Essays on Atheopagan values and Principles, ritual skills and techniques, ritual outlines, suggestions for seasonal celebrations of the wheel of the year, rites of passage and personal rituals. A lot of useful ideas for help with building your own Atheopagan practice. But it’s a little daunting to navigate, and the search tools are unfortunately limited. So this post is to help you find what you’re looking for. It doesn’t by any means index everything on the site, but it will give you access to many of the key resources here. Getting Started–Beginning Your Practice Page of links and…
