Personal Reflection
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My Pagan Purple Heart
I’m afraid that unless I find a voice-dictation solution soon, posts to this site are going to slow for awhile. I was helping to set up the ritual fire circle at Ignite last Thursday, and I fell from the back of a large pickup truck, belly-flopping onto the road with my left arm underneath me. It swelled instantly, but we (the onsite nurse and I) concluded it was a bad sprain, wrapped it, and I started a regimen of icing and NSAIDs. The pain was pretty serious, but manageable, and I went on to have powerful, beautiful experiences at the three all-night fire circles that followed. On Monday, after my return, I went…
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Ave Fortuna!
A guest post by Kaigi-Ron Ave is the principle of gratitude. Of recognizing, in each moment, how incredibly lucky you are…because it could’ve gone another way. It could be so very much worse…but, fortunately, it isn’t. Ave Fortuna! It all started with the Focus to Fortuna. In this world ruled by chaos, she rolls the dice. They cannot be unrolled. So it goes. I added miniature decks (both standard playing card and tarot), a pewter ship (the winds of change), plus a full set of D&D dice. May the Odds Be Ever in Your Favor… …and I’m reminded of a passage from Leonard Mladinow’s book The Drunkard’s Walk – all about how we perceive randomness. Think for a…
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In Memoriam: Morwen Two Feathers
“To know who I REALLY am, you have to look into my eyes and dance when I drum.” I learned today that my friend Morwen Two Feathers has died, following five years of living with brain cancer. Morwen and her husband were among the early pioneers of what would come to be known as the Fire Circle tradition, a ritual tradition that is now practiced in many events throughout the country and the world, by a community of which I have been a happy member since the early 2000s. She was a woman of kindness, wisdom, humor and integrity, and a terrific ritual drummer. For more than 25 years, Morwen was…
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What is There to Live for?
In an atheistic world, many ask: what’s the point? What is the purpose of living if there’s no judgment, no afterlife to be attained, no cosmic plan or purpose? I can’t tell you what is meaningful in your life. Perhaps it’s your art, or your family: being the best parent (or grandparent, or aunt or uncle) you can be. Perhaps it’s the sacred calling of a career of service to the Earth, or to fellow humans. Perhaps it is simply to enjoy the pleasures of this abundant world. It could be a lot of things. I’ve written on a subject related to this previously: we are Atheopagans to live in…
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Mysterious Impulses
It’s a big subject, what it means to be human. We ask it in science, and in art, in literature. We get some answers. Neuroscience and anthropology have identified many facts about our species. But I’ve been thinking a lot about the mysteries of human nature lately. Like: what’s up with music? Why do we make it? Why is music a thing that is so important to us? And dancing? A completely unproductive expenditure of energy. Yet we love it. It’s ubiquitous. Perhaps just as mysteriously, why do we gravitate to bodies of water? Particularly to moving water, like waterfalls, the ocean, large lakes with tidal effects? Yes, we must…
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In a Dream of Incense and Candlelight
My Focus is densely populated, because I like it that way. It is rich with meaning and history: places I have been, things I associate with important principles. In its candlelight, illustrations of cave drawings from 35,000 years ago flicker. A Homo Erectus stone tool rests for a tiny percentage of its existence. Images of the Earth, of the Hubble Deep Field image, of rivers I’ve run and canyons I’ve hiked, and precious, beautiful things from Nature; symbols of my chosen family and of this community; A chalice of rain water; a bouquet of wheat; a quartz crystal and one of tourmaline; a slate engraved with a triple spiral; a bowl…
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Requiem and Invocation
Friends and Allies, let us grieve. Let us grieve that an era of progress and forward thinking appears to be drowning in a sea of ignorance, hatred and fear. Let us grieve that reason has been swamped by credulity, and science by superstition and willful ignorance. Let us grieve. Let us tear the words from the walls of our bodies, howling: we have lost so much. The children suffer. The good green Earth bleeds. The water is sullied, the creatures die, the air itself stifles the living of the world. The people are punished for being themselves. Our leaders are dupes and psychopaths. They hate this good world as much…
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The Pitfall of Consumer Paganism
I don’t buy “pagan stuff”. No crystals (mined destructively from the Earth), no chalices or blades or wands or new Tarot decks. Sometimes I’m tempted, but I don’t do it. Well, other than candles. I already have enough incense to last the rest of my life, stored carefully so as to remain fresh and pungent. I don’t take great pride in this, because the fact is that 25-30 years ago, I DID accumulate some of that stuff. I have enough “things” to dress a Focus (altar) and to symbolize all the various qualities and attributes I might wish to include in a ritual. I’m a bit short on ritual clothing,…
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“I Don’t Get It.”
“I don’t get it.” A comment I’ve seen and heard several times in relation to Atheopaganism: “I just don’t get what you’re doing, or why you’re doing it. Why would you do rituals if there is no magic and there are no gods?” (or, “what’s up with these rituals and holidays? Why do you do that?”) Well, let me explain… For joy. For wonder. For wisdom. For depth. For laughter. For self-discovery. For connection. For friendship. For solace. For clarity. For calm. For delight. For forbearance. For kindness. For fun. For sharing. For passion. For flight. For belonging. For discovery. For pleasure. For creativity. For curiosity. For community. For surprise.…
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Does Truth Matter?
Eppur si muove. —Galileo Galilei Recently. a friend posted to the Atheopaganism Facebook group, describing a conversation she was having elsewhere in which accusations of “classism” and “colonialism” were being leveled at those who express what is almost certainly the truth: that gods and magic do not exist, except as ideas. And you know? That accusation may have a point…if that message is directed at indigenous practitioners of native spiritualities. For those people, cultural preservation is important—and threatened—no matter how out of step with objective reality their beliefs might be. They have reasons to steward and preserve their cultures which have nothing to do with how factually accurate their…
