Mark Green's Atheopaganism Blog

New Title, Better Boundaries

Posted on 2023-10-25 by Mark Green

If you’re familiar with this site, you may have noticed that the title has changed. Now, it is “Mark Green’s Atheopaganism Blog”.

That’s to make it clear that the thoughts, opinions, ideas, and resources presented here are mine. Not necessarily those of the nonprofit Atheopagan Society, which is administered by a Council on which I have one of thirteen seats.

We are evolving and growing as a community, and it is deeply important to me that Atheopaganism not be “mine”. So this is a step to ensure that the community and its collective activities are directed by itself, not by me, and that includes speech.

Nothing will change here, content-wise. Sometimes it’s personal reflections, sometimes it’s hopefully-helpful stuff about rituals and practices, sometimes it’s news about what’s happening in the community (though this will be reflected elsewhere online as well).

I am also going to be drawing back from some social media engagement where my posts might be confused for speaking for the community as a whole. I’ve created a new Reddit account, for example. Just cleaner that way, all the way around.

So for “official” Atheopagan stuff, go to the Atheopagan Society site (which also links to a bunch of resources here, which is fine by me). This is just about me, my practice, my thoughts about the Principles and values, etc.

Onward!

Posted in Atheopagan, Personal Reflection | Leave a comment

In Memoriam: Michael Dowd

Posted on 2023-10-12 by Mark Green

After a life of convention-challenging thought and leadership, Michael Dowd has left us, quietly in his sleep last Saturday.

There is a lot to say about Rev. Dowd. He was certainly a big thinker and he, with his wife Connie Barlow, was a pioneer in the framing of the very story of the Universe and evolution themselves as a grand spiritual narrative.

He was also a “post-Doomer”, believing that climate change, ecological and civilizational collapse are inevitable and promoting a philosophical position that eschewed big-picture hope, but rather chose small acts of bettering the world immediately around us.

I disagreed with him on this, and we had a couple of go-rounds of debate. My position is that of chaos mathematics and emergent complexity themselves: that we cannot predict with any certainty the outcome of extremely complex processes, and it is therefore premature to simply take on faith that Doom is inevitable.

But he was certainly a worthy opponent in these discussions, and an interesting and thoughtful man. He didn’t exactly “give” us The Great Story, but he promoted it as an alternative to theological narratives like Sin and Salvation, and he was thus, though perhaps not an atheist himself, an early articulator, like Carl Sagan, of the idea of scientifically confirmed history as a religious text.

He left us too soon, and will be sorely missed.

On Community

Posted on 2023-10-06 by Mark Green

Hey, folks. In case you just joined us:

We are working to build something here: a community.

A community.

People of common heart and shared values.

Even though we–Atheopagans–are spread far apart. Even though it usually takes the Internet for us to be together.

In many ways, it’s an alien thing to me. I didn’t grow up in a community and I’m feeling my way forward now to figure out what it is about. I don’t have a feel for it, much as I wish I did.

So: what is a community?

I think it’s a place where you know to your bones that you belong. Where the people care about you. Where if you go, you will be missed. Where people gather to observe important community moments, for better or for worse.

Hard to do, in the Overculture.

Hard to do, without succumbing to a cult and its delusions.

Hard to do when families are splintered and people don’t know their neighbors.

Hard to do when we move around the world like chess pawns to meet the demands of capitalism. To find a job. A roof we can afford.

Community is anathema to the so-called free market. Because it needs us to depend only on the largess of capital. To view as “good fortune” that, if we run the treadmill hard enough, we will be allowed to survive.

But the secret poor people all over the world have learned–yes, even in the United States, in Europe, in the “rich countries”–is that community will keep us alive even if we haven’t “earned” it. Because of who we are in relationship with one another.

Community will feed us, hold our hands, make space on the couch.

Because community is love.

And the Overculture, the market, the interests of shareholders know nothing at all about the power of love. It baffles them when they see it, infuriates them when it turns to organizing change.

Can we achieve all of that? Perhaps not as a whole. Perhaps in small circles of like-minded people who come to know one another.

But as a whole, together, we can be kind. We can listen. We can offer up what support we can when one of us is in pain.

Sure, we mostly gather in places like Facebook and Discord.

Sure, it’s just bits. Just text. But there’s a person behind every post, every comment.

I have had the great privilege of meeting a number of you now. And every last one of you I have met has been someone I was honored to know.

I’m fortunate that the Atheopagan affinity group in my local area meets in person. And the Suntree retreat last year was a truly joyous occasion where nearly 50 of us came together in person, to celebrate, hold rituals, socialize, share knowledge, and just be together.

We’re building something here. A community.

Thank you for being a part of the effort.

Image: attendees at the 2022 Atheopagan Suntree Retreat.

Posted in Atheopagan, Community | Leave a comment

Planning for Eerie Season

Posted on 2023-09-23 by Mark Green

October is nearly here! The witchiest, gothiest, most autumntacular time of year is once again approaching.

If you’re like me, October requires some time commitment and advanced planning in order to get every sanguine drop out of the season. So here is a description of all the stuff I do in October to steep myself in its gothy goodness.

Throughout the month, I watch movies: I like to watch creepy, campy and thematic films in October on my way to Halloween. Perennial favorites include Practical Magic, The Others, Jacob’s Ladder, The Sixth Sense, various Hammer Horror films (lots of Christopher Lee!), classics like James Whale’s Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein, the Lugosi Dracula and The Innocents with Deborah Kerr, Young Frankenstein and Beetlejuice (because of course), maybe the Kenneth Branagh Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, and this year I may fire up Lovecraft Country again. Gotham, a ghost story movie from the 80s starring Virginia Madsen and Tommy Lee Jones I’m partial to. I’m sure there are others I am forgetting. I liked the miniseries of The Haunting of Hill House and Midnight Mass from a few years ago–maybe I’ll cue those up as well. I’m sure I’m forgetting some. Oh, Shaun of the Dead. And, a little guiltily but it IS hilarious, Zombie Strippers.

The advent of Halloween, of course, requires decorating: Here, my watchword, and what I recommend to you, is authenticity. It’s much better just to have a dash of seasonal flair than to buy a bunch of plastic junk from the Halloween store that is going to end up in the landfill. PLEASE don’t buy fake spiderwebs –they kill wildlife. I have web-design fabrics for use as tablecloths, and use candlesticks and real bones and autumn leaves and real pumpkins and winter squash for decorating. I do have one life-sized plastic skeleton, I admit; it’s nice to have something to greet people at the front door.

You can set the holiday scene by playing music: I’m not much of one for Halloween soundtracks, but there is one artist of eeriness that I find exquisite: Jill Tracy. Her album Diabolical Streak is sublimely dark; her soundtrack to the original Fritz Murnau Nosferatu, Into the Land of Phantoms, makes for great October listening. Check her out: you will be a fan, too. Buy her stuff–she is an independent artist and needs your support!

It helps to fill the house with seasonal Scents: There’s pumpkin spice, of course, and that is really nice for the autumn. But Atheopagans cannot live by cinnamon and cloves alone! Try out some earthy, evocative scents like this one or this one to really lay some spooky vibes down in your home.

And, of course, when the week of Hallows (Oct. 31 through Nov. 7, which is the actual midpoint between the equinox and the solstice) rolls around, it’s time for rituals.

Costume parties are traditional; we used to produce them (more here and here), but now just like to attend.

Trick-or-treating on Halloween night is still a thing where I live, and I enjoy the parade of cute young kids, sullen teenagers* and patient, caring parents. I try to choose for our candy something the kids will really like, and we dress in costume to greet them.

I tend to conduct solitary rituals during Hallows week: remembrances of my honored dead, my ancestors (I tend to focus on Deep Time ancestors like protozoa and tetrapods), and contemplations of mortality. I update my death packet then, as well, updating any information for my survivors that may have changed. I pour a bottle of stormwater from the previous winter onto the ground to summon back the rains dry California so desperately needs.

Finally, on the first weekend in November, my ritual circle, Dark Sun, gathers again for what will be our 33rd Hallows ritual. The combination of years of tradition, deep familial relationships, and the awe-inspiring meanings of the season make for a deep, transformational tip of the hat to Death and turning of the wheel of the year into the time of compost, decomposition and the magic of new life made from old.

And then the wheel is turned, and the clocks are turned back (in places where Daylight Savings is observed, anyway), and the Dark of the Year holds sway over all. Whatever the weather, the darkness says Winter has arrived.

A great deal of meaning and symbolism are freighted into those eight days. It helps me to prep my mindset with three weeks of movies and atmospherics. I hope these ideas are helpful for you as Hallows rolls around once more.

Have a wonderful October!

*I have no problem giving candy to teenagers who are resentfully/embarrassedly canvassing for candy because they can. It’s rough being a teenager.

Posted in Practice, Holidays, Ritual, Descriptions | Leave a comment

A Paradoxical Trip

Posted on 2023-09-16 by Mark Green

So, I’m flying today, to help the environment.

Seriously.

I’m on a work trip to lobby in Washington, D.C., meeting with Congressional and Senatorial offices to promote wilderness protections and promote the designation of three new National Monuments. If ever there were a net-benefit reason to put that carbon in the atmosphere, this would be it.

Wild lands are essential for biodiversity, and sequester tremendous volumes of atmospheric carbon when they are managed for thriving ecosystems. My organization, CalWild, is the preeminent voice for protection of wild areas on public lands in the state of California–an internationally-recognized biological diversity hot spot.

California also plays an outsized role in climate policy and biodiversity protection at an international scale. The fourth-largest economy in the world, what California does often lights the way for other states and even other nations. I’ve heard from people who were at the most recent international conference on climate change that the talk there focused on “what is California doing?”

I’m proud of this: proud to be a part of the powerful conservation movement here, and to have helped to build its infrastructure and achieve some of those ground-breaking policy wins. I’m proud now to be a voice from California to Washington, to speak on behalf of the people here who care about the environment and see thriving nature as an important value.

Once, nearly 25 years ago, I went on such a lobbying trip to Washington. I’ve done many of them to Sacramento, the capital of California, and locally. But it’s been long enough since going to the national arena that I feel a little nervous, and honestly, that’s kind of fun.

All of this, of course, is rooted in my Atheopagan values. Reverence for the Earth (Atheopagan Principle 2) is a core perspective that I hold to the core of my being. I chose the career I did as a result of this, and now, late into it, I still feel that passion and commitment.

It brings me pride to be a part of a community that holds the Earth as Sacred. So thank you, for being a part of it.

I’m off to the plane!

Epilogue

I’ve been back for about a week now. DC was a rush of activities and meetings–oh, my aching feet by the time I was done!–and so, so worth it.

Our meetings with Administration officials, Senators’ and Representatives’ offices went really well. I’m hopeful that the policies and wilderness protections we advocated for will advance, and soon.

It’s a little strange to have met with Senator Dianne Feinstein’s office a week before she died. Say what you will about her, Feinstein was responsible for permanently protecting millions of acres of wild lands, and that’s something anyone could be proud of.

I really enjoyed strapping on my armor/suit and being “back in the saddle” in terms of policy advocacy, after several years of not doing much of it. Met a bunch of wonderful people from The Conservation Alliance, relationships that will hopefully grow.

In time not spent in meetings I first got to visit with some local Atheopagans! Here are me and Danford, Rachel and Cheryl in the hotel restaurant.

I also visited the National Museum of African Art, the National Museum of Asian Art, the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum (the original Wright flyer! The command module from Apollo 11!), and, finally, the National Museum of African-American Culture and History, which was so heartbreaking, infuriating, and inspiring that I think every American should see it.

Here’s our “strike team” in the rotunda of the Hart Congressional Office Building (note smart women who brought comfy shoes for the walks between meetings). I didn’t actually have any meetings in the Capitol (some other teams did), but because the Senate and House buildings are on opposite sides of it, I walks back and forth past it a LOT. Goofy pic included from one of those back-and-forth trips.

Posted in Activism, Politics | Leave a comment

Harvestide

Posted on 2023-09-10 by Mark Green

The season of the Harvest Sabbath is upon us again, and it is time for celebration and stock-taking!

This Sabbath sometimes gets short shrift, coming as it does on the heels of every Pagan’s favorite witchy month. But it’s an important observance time and a meaningful holiday. Here are some thoughts about what Harvest means and how to celebrate it.

To me, this time is the time of celebrating abundance. The winter vegetables are pouring out of the gardens now and where I live, the grape harvest and processing (“The Crush”) fills the air in the rural areas with the smell of fermenting wine. Harvest fairs take place at this time, and the imagery of the bounty of the Earth is everywhere.

It is a time as well of reflecting on what has been achieved (harvested) over the past year cycle: to look back on those dreams and plans we hatched back in the dark of winter, and see how they played out. What has been harvested? What continues to grow? What didn’t come up, or didn’t make it, and must now be turned back into the ground?

In other words, it is the beginning of the Inward Time of the dark months, the time for introspection and assessment and learning from past successes and failures to inform future decision making. With the autumnal equinox comes the beginning of the half of the year which is more dark than light, and this is a moment to reflect on how the year has been.

In my wheel of the year, Harvest is also a time for honoring of the elders of our community. I map the course of a human life onto my wheel of the year, with conception at Yule or Midwinter, birth at Brightening, childhood at High Spring, young adulthood at May Day, full maturity at Midsummer, middle age at Dimming, elderhood at Harvest, and death at Hallows. The elders among us are those who are looking back on their lives and seeing what was achieved, hopefully enjoying the rich harvest of a life well lived. It is their life experience to which we turn for perspective and wisdom.

The Overculture in western societies doesn’t value age much. We have a cult-like fetish for youth and remaining young. It is my hope that among Atheopagans, we will begin to change this.

Ritually, this is the time I like to have a feast with friends, focusing on local foodstuffs when possible. My area is particularly abundant, having both many vegetables and fruits produced locally, plus beef and dairy products, goats and goat cheeses and milks, chickens and fresh eggs, and seafood from the seaport of Bodega Bay. A food blessing reminds us of how fortunate we are to enjoy the Earth’s bounty, and of all the people whose effort it took to bring it to us. My standard food blessing is:

This food, swelling from the body of the Earth by the power of the mighty Sun, comes to us by many hands. May all be honored. (The diners reply: We are grateful to eat today)

It can be a festive addition to a Harvest feast to have guests make Autumn crowns for themselves to wear at the table (which should be dressed appropriately with autumn leaves, dried cobs of colorful corn, gourds, pumpkins and winter squash, etc.).

Autumn crowns are easy! Use colorful autumn leaves and florists’ wire to make them. Or you can use this technique. Or if you’re really crafty and ambitious, you and your guests can spend a couple of hours in happy craft time, making these amazing felted autumn crowns.

Harvestide is a happy time of year, the gateway to the wonderful autumn and a time for enjoyment and social interaction. I hope your harvest has been plentiful, with plenty of wonderful memories to cherish and accomplishments to celebrate.

Bon appétit!