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On Authenticity
Many religious people and paths—including many Pagans and Pagan traditions—place a great premium on claims of authenticity: that their mythologies, traditions and practices are, for want of a better word, “real”. “Real” ancient lore or rites. “Real” narratives about god/desses. “Real” translations of “real” ancient texts. “Real” rituals, real traditions, real teachers, real magic. “Real Paganism”. There are those who will go on about this at great length, opining about what they believe is authentic…and, as often as not, why you’re not it. But here’s the thing about authenticity: it has nothing to do with any of those things. Authenticity in relationships has to do with what is in your…
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CANCELED: Midsummer Dawn event
Regrettably, projected spread of the COVID-19 virus indicates that it is simply not safe to plan a group gathering for late June, so I have been forced to cancel Midsummer Dawn 2020. I will refund the registration fees of those who have signed up over the next few days. I’m really sad about this, but public safety takes precedence over fun. Stay safe, everyone.
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Protected: Atheopagan University: Week 8
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.
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Protected: Atheopaganism University: Week 7
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.
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GUEST POST: A Naturalist’s Shrine
By Dustin Autry What is a shrine? Whether a box, an alcove, or a demarcated spot, it is a sacred site dedicated to a person, deity, idea, or something else worth veneration or remembrance. It could be a saint, or a town’s war dead; in a less formal sense, it may be a shrine to a beloved actor’s career or a sweetheart. Those crosses on roadsides marking sites of tragedy qualify as shrines. Shrines may be simple and plain, or cluttered with memorabilia or objects of significance. What they all have in common is that they are sacred space, in the sense that they are set apart from the mundane…
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Is This The Time to Work on Your Spirituality?
The world has the novel coronavirus. The pandemic is serious, spreading, and causing major disruption. Many of us have been sent home from work, hopefully to work remotely but, for the less fortunate, simply to tough it out. And in our non-work time, we have hours and hours of empty space we might otherwise fill with gatherings, events, outings and activities. It’s damned inconvenient, at best; at worst, it’s going to be deadly for some of us. I had to cancel a trip to the Midwest to a Pagan convention, which was fortunately subsequently deferred until September, so I hope to be able to go then. But as the Chinese know,…
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Protected: Atheopaganism University: Week 6
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.
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Love in the Time of the Coronavirus
Hello, Atheopagans. By now, everyone knows about the novel coronavirus, COVID-19. It’s spreading rapidly and it has killed more than 3,800 people worldwide as of this writing. It appears to have a mortality rate in excess of 2%. To put that in context, the 1918 “Spanish” (it wasn’t) flu pandemic had a mortality rate of 2%, and it killed 20 million people worldwide. That’s more than died in World War I. This is a serious thing, and we need to treat it seriously. You can follow the progress of the virus at the Johns Hopkins University dashboard here. So please: do as public health officials ask that you will do. If…
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It Is Long Past Time for Women, God Damn It.
I voted for Elizabeth Warren for US President. She was clearly the smartest, most prepared, most compassionate and sincere and—yes, I’ll say it—most progressive candidate in the race. She really gets poverty. She gets bigotry. She gets intersectionality. She gets it. She wasn’t perfect, and she’s made mistakes. Who hasn’t? But Elizabeth Ann Warren is an educated, passionate, articulate, knowledgeable woman. And that, America simply could not forgive. I am sickened. I work in the nonprofit sector, and I have worked under a number of women. And I would characterize most of them as exceptional leaders with competency, empathy, compassion, and focus, who nonetheless had to be twice as good…
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Presenting THE WONDER: Science-Based Paganism (Launches Today!)
The podcast is a reality! You can listen to or download the first episode here or through any of the major podcast distribution channels (Apple, Google Play, etc.—though it may take a few days for this first episode to propagate through the various purveyors). Arwen and I are excited to present this work as an ongoing source for information, inspiration, ideas and support for the nontheist Pagan community particularly, but for anyone who finds it useful or entertaining. The first few episodes are conversations, but later we will do interviews, reviews, and other podcast-y stuff. Your ideas and questions can help us! Email to thewonderpodcastqs [at] [gmail] [dot] com with…
