Community
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Godless Paganism declared “The Pagan Book of the Year!”
I was so proud to be a part of the creation of John Halstead’s Godless Paganism, and wanted to let all you Atheopagans know that Megan Manson of the Pagan Tama blog on Patheos has rated it the top Pagan book of the year! If you still don’t have a copy, you can pick it up at http://www.lulu.com/shop/john-halstead/godless-paganism-voices-of-non-theistic-pagans/paperback/product-22646041.html. Or save money and paper and buy the e-book at http://www.lulu.com/shop/john-halstead/godless-paganism-voices-of-non-theistic-pagans/ebook/product-22635653.html Lulu has a 20% off sale going through the end of the year, so get yours now!
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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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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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Some Language I’m Not Going to Use Any More: An Apology
This post is an apology. It has now been more than two years since I waded into the broader online Pagan conversation on behalf first of myself, and then of what has turned out to be the many Pagans who do not believe in literal gods. In those early days, the posts of myself and others like John Halstead and John Cleland Host were received in some quarters with bitter hostility. As a result, I became defensive. And when I’m defensive, I’m often acerbic. “Hard theists” and I aren’t going to agree cosmologically. We have fundamental disputes over the nature of the Universe itself, and those cannot be reconciled. However,…
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Building Atheopagan Community
As I referenced earlier, Atheopaganism as a named path is new. That means that those of us who are a part of it are rare, and far-flung (the Facebook group has members from across the globe). That said, Atheopaganism has something precious to offer both atheists and Pagans, and those are quite a bit more common. Atheopagan community is therefore likely to be ecumenical community: at first, at least, we will gather with both those who share our worldview and those whose cosmologies differ. Pagans are rare enough in most places; expecting to find a broad community of atheist Pagans may be unrealistic. However, most Pagans are pretty tolerant–they will joyfully be a…
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What’s the Point?
People ask me, “if your religion isn’t about gods, what, really, is the point? Why do you do it?” It’s a valid question, because there are several things that Atheopaganism isn’t for. It isn’t for worshiping. It isn’t for entreating supernatural assistance, nor for attempting to influence the physical Universe through wielding of Unseen Forces. It isn’t for attaining an afterlife. No, Atheopaganism can’t offer those things. It operates within an understanding of finites: that the Universe is finite (there are things we imagine that are not so); that our lives are finite (we die); that our powers are finite (we cannot affect the course of physical events merely by wishing…
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What Will Be the Paganism of the Future?
Many religions contain a rosy story about the past, and look forward to a “foretold” future. Certainly the Abrahamic monotheisms do that; and many Pagan paths are highly focused on learning about and replicating traditions from long ago. Even many atheists who pursue spiritual paths these days feel that there must be a story about the future to which they can subscribe: the idea of humans as the vehicle for Life to spread to other words (SolSeed), and even transhumanism, wherein we can use technology so that our consciousnesses are preserved indefinitely, transcending death. To which I say: enh. I’m more focused on the relationship between humans and the biosphere. In healing that rift.…
