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On the Edge of Darkness: Hallows Reflections 2016
It’s a gray, dim day here in Sonoma County, under a foreboding blanket of low and heavy clouds. Forecasts are for showers throughout the day; it’s one of those Halloweens where parents crane their necks and scowl at the sky throughout the day, wondering whether they’ll get away with a dry window during trick or treating. Which seems like a pretty good metaphor for this entire year. I’ve been scowling at the sky and wondering just what kind of fresh hell may be coming along a lot, this year. Now with a week left until possibly the most important U.S. election since 1860, there are still no clear answers, but one…
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Atheopaganism at Pantheacon 2017
John Halstead and I have two events on this year’s Pantheacon schedule—plus a social gathering! This conference/convention, held in February each year, is the largest gathering of Pagans in North America and an important driver of cultural development in the Pagan community: four days of workshops, panel discussions, rituals and performances. It is held at the Doubletree Hotel in San Jose, California; in 2017 the dates will be from Feb. 17 through 20. It’s also lots of fun! Much socializing and many parties. It’s an opportunity for people who don’t get to see one another often to catch up and work together, as I am looking forward to doing with John.…
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MOON MEET 2017: An Atheopagan Gathering
Moon Meet will be a congregation of Atheopagans, non-theist Pagans and others interested in our paths, held from Friday, August 4 through Sunday, August 6, 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; options to rent camping gear will be available for those coming from distance and unable to bring their gear along. If there are disabled attendees who are unable to camp, we will work out hotel accommodations and transportation with them so they are able to participate. We will share meals…
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A Pagan Opportunity to Reflect
Recently, John Beckett wrote on “A Pagan Crisis of Faith“. Beckett’s central premise in this piece is that from time to time, and especially when confronted with extreme circumstances, some theistic Pagans will come to a point where they question their beliefs in gods. However, he argues, what they should really be doing is doubling down on their credulity, seeing such major life events as reflecting the actions of gods or “fae” or what have you in the way of invisible, magical entities. Unsurprisingly, I have a different take. I think that when crises arise in life, it is an opportunity for us to shed comforting illusions: to realize that there…
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Harvest 2016
We’re coming up to Harvest this week. I’ll be having friends over to enjoy a feast of locally produced food and drink, which is how I like to celebrate this sabbath: as a kind of Atheopagan Thanksgiving. Last year, I wrote about the shadow sabbath: what happens when the events of life aren’t congruent with the metaphorical themes of a given holiday. It was a hard time of financial distress, having been forced to move from my beloved home of 18 years, and the destruction of a nearby retreat, Harbin Hot Springs, to fire. This year is better. We found another—albeit much less beautiful—place to live, and I am employed gainfully. We have enough to…
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The Beauty of Home
I live in a spectacular place: Sonoma County, California. I have for a long while, and especially since having to move back into an urban center after nearly two decades in the country, it’s been hard for me to remember sometimes how blessed I am, how remarkable it is here. Still, there is a reason why people come here from all over the world, and it isn’t just to get drunk and call it “wine tasting”. Nestled in soft valleys against the Pacific Ocean, this region is home to soaring redwood forests, rolling oak-and-grassland hills, the (mostly) placid Russian River, and locations of historical interest ranging from Native village sites to…
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The Ecstasy of the Mosh Pit
I love punk rock. I was in high school at exactly the period that disco became a popular genre (which means that it was already dying in the gay bars and minority clubs where it had been born; by the time straight white people took it—because there was money to be made—it was pretty well wrung out). Those years–1975-79–saw some of the most godawful popular music that had been seen to date: lush, overproduced orchestral rock anthems with pretentious lyrics, whiny love ballads, the Eagles (enough said) and ubiquitous disco enjoinders to dance and screw, the soundtrack of the Seventies Bacchanal that set the table for the AIDS epidemic. There were exceptions, of…
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Looking Forward
So, Gavin Frost died. And several writers I respect have weighed in on his shameful legacy. I can’t say any better what they have, and my rule-of-blog is not to repeat what’s already out there. What I can say, though, is that the death of this awful human is an opportunity to speak about what it is that makes Atheopaganism different. Or potentially so. Atheopaganism is a forward-looking religion. We don’t claim to derive from a lineage or tradition, and as such, we are neither beholden to nor reverent towards so-called elders. Did those who helped to create Paganism help to pave the way for where we are here? Yes. Did those who helped to…
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INPUT PLEASE! Planning for Moon Meet, an Atheopagan Gathering in Summer 2017
We’ve been building a community, we Atheopagans, both in our own spaces here and on Facebook and in larger contexts such as on the Humanistic Paganism site. Traffic on this site continues to climb, and the FB group is now growing towards 700 members. Pretty sweet for a subculture of a subculture! All that said, there are limits to how much you can build a community without ever coming face to face…especially when your touchstone experience is ritual. So at the suggestion of some of the members of the group, I have begun to explore what it would look like to hold a “real life” gathering for Atheopagans next summer.…
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A No-Bullshit Religion
A week or so ago, when I published “Is Atheopaganism Political?“, I expected some pushback. I suspected that there might be some who have embraced—even subconsciously—the dualistic idea that religion/spirituality lives in a separate realm of human experience from that of pragmatic matters such as public policy. So I thought there might be some commentary along the lines of “well, that’s okay for you, but I don’t concern myself with such things.” Or some such. I doubted you, friends, and I should not have. There was no such response. Feedback was nothing but positive. And this tells me that the Atheopagan group and the readers of the blog get it: that our pursuit of…
