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SAVE THE DATE and CALL FOR WORKSHOP PROPOSALS: MOON MEET 2018!
SAVE THE DATE! The second annual Moon Meet is a congregation of Atheopagans, non-theist Pagans and others interested in our paths, held from Friday, August 24 through Sunday, August 26, on private land on a redwood-covered mountain near Healdsburg, in the beautiful wine country of Sonoma County, California. Moon Meet—named because we will hold it during the weekend of the full moon—is a group camping gathering; a few indoor sleeping locations will be available for those disabled or coming from distance and unable to bring their gear along. We will share meals and workshops, hold a community discussion about how our Atheopagan community is developing and how best to move…
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Producing Your Own Atheopagan Event
Having online community is great, but real, in-person gatherings where we can build relationships, celebrate our rites and learn from one another are much, much better. I encourage you to organize your own events and start building your own non-theist Pagan community. To that end, I’m happy to announce the release of the Atheopagan Event Planning Guide . I hope you’ll download the Guide and its associated spreadsheets (the Timeline Template and the Budget Template), and use them to create your own gatherings. When planning your Atheopagan event, be sure to contact The Atheopagan Society (our registered nonprofit) to see if there are ways we can help (with affordable event…
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Fire Makes All the Difference
A guest post by Kaigi-Ron. Fire makes all the difference. I know this from two personal experiences – both of which didn’t have a fire the first night, but did on the second…and that one change transformed everyone and everything. The first event occurred years ago, in another state. We were going to share songs and stories around the campfire, as hominids have done for millennia…but that year, we were denied a permit for a fire in our campsite. Ever the innovators, we wove together a basket of branches, decorated it with strips of red cloth, and finished it off with a helpful sign that said “Fire”. We all did our Pagan best…
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A Reflection on Moon Meet
A guest blog entry by Kaigi-Ron. I was fortunate enough to be one of the celebrants at the very first Moon Meet, and I am deeply grateful. Events like this don’t happen nearly enough…sometimes it seems like we have more total eclipses than we do truly bonding, inspirational experiences such as this. Note to Self: Do Everything Possible to Help Create More of These. I truly believe that this one thing will help make our poor, wounded world just a little bit better. I learned things – about myself, about our emergent IRL Atheopagan community, and about obscure topics like soil drainage in California’s redwood hillsides. For example, did you…
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MOON MEET: A Weekend with Atheopagan Friends
Moon Meet 2017 was wonderful! A warm, fun gathering, where we shared meals, rituals, discussions, workshops and a vision for Atheopaganism as a growing path. I went up to the site on Thursday, the day before the event began. Joined by so-helpful Atheopagans Orin, Jody and Collette, we helped site owner Jeffry to complete tidying the site, to decorate with paper lanterns, signs with inspirational quotes and white “Christmas” lights. At night, the forest became magical. We enjoyed a delicious dinner and shared community as the feeling of the event began to settle in. On Friday, we continued to prep the site until the rest of the attendees began to…
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Summer’s End, New Beginnings
The “cross-quarter” Sabbath between Midsummer (the solstice) and Harvest (the autumnal equinox) is a bit of a stepchild Sabbath for many Pagans. This is High Vacation Season, and many are off on adventures or otherwise occupied with the social season of summer. Not only that, but it marks the beginning of the autumn season, and in most places, that just doesn’t square with what is actually happening. Here, I detect the signs of Summer’s End at this time, but they are subtle. Blackberries have ripened, ready for cobbler and pie and all the wonderful things. The climate is firmly in the fog/heat cycle of coastal California: hot days which persist…
