Personal Reflection
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We Are All Connected: On Atheopagan Counseling
We are all connected: to each other, biologically, to the Earth, chemically, to the rest of the Universe atomically. —Neil deGrasse Tyson So, I’ve written about our responsibility to the Earth. About how being who we are—Atheopagans—implies a necessary requirement that we stand up, in whatever great and small ways we can, for a better world. And I’ve written about Atheopaganism as a path to greater happiness: an individual path of growth and wisdom. A way to open into the joy of the magnificent Universe, into celebrating the extraordinary beauty of noble, flawed, gorgeous humanity. And those are true things. But there is a point between the global and the…
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Killing the Sixties: Abuse, Consent, #MeToo and the Pagan Community
Today, the revelation of accusations of child molestation against the late Ar nDraiocht Fein founder Isaac Bonewits hit the Pagan community. This comes in the wake of the conviction of Kenny Klein, a prominent figure in Blue Star Wicca, ongoing concern about Pagan sexual culture provoked by the likes of the Frosts, and community discussion about violation of boundaries and consent at Pagan conferences and gatherings. It is also, of course, currently in the context of the #MeToo movement, which has brought countless women forward with their own stories and acknowledgement that they, too, have been harrassed and/or assaulted…and concerns on the part of some about how, exactly, due process…
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Crunch Time: Pagan Priorities and the Otherworld
The fundamental difference between theistic Pagans and Atheopagans is that the former propose that there exists an “Otherworld”: a parallel dimension of reality in which reside gods, spirits, fairies and other such beings. Atheopagans, having a naturalistic worldview, don’t subscribe to this idea. As I look around the community, I think there are questions about this kind of belief that haven’t been asked, and really ought to be. They are: Is such a belief useful? In other words what, exactly, is the point of supposed interaction with an Otherworld of gods, fairies and suchlike? In a time of cultural and environmental crisis, is prioritization of this theory healthy, both individual…
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My Five Favorite Posts of 2017
2017 saw more content than ever posted at Atheopaganism (as well as an upsurge in membership of the Facebook group). Here are five of my favorites among this year’s posts, in no particular order. Farewell, 2017, and happy New Year to you all! A Dawn Prayer Care and Feeding of the Atheopagan Activist There is a Way Happiness, Ecstasy and Threading the Needle Do Not Ever Let
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“Harm None” Ain’t Good Enough: A Call to Action
There has always been something about the Wiccan Rede that has bothered me, and I’ve finally figured out what it is. The Wiccan Rede, for those new to the community or coming into Atheopaganism from atheist/skeptic circles, is the only widely (though far from universally) adopted moral precept in the Pagan community. It reads: “An (if) it harm none, do what thou wilt.” To start with, the Ye-Olde-Tyme-Englande language rubs me the wrong way, using “an” for “if”, and calling it a “rede” instead of a “rule”. The Wiccan Rede is a 20th century creation, not bloody Shakespeare. But that’s a small point. The primary bone I have to pick with…
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Do Not Ever Let
I am here to shout against the rising dark. To say to you—yes, you, individually, yourself reading this—that I know how hard it has become. To believe in a future. To aspire. Do not let them do this to you. Do not allow the ways of the world, this bitter storm turn you away from its rage. Grimace in the teeth of it, and breathe the cold, alive despite it. You have a future. And in it is love and warmth, skies and seas and trees and all the wonders they reveal. No matter how small the men who grind the world become, you will have your days, your skies, your…
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What’s This Atheopaganism About, Exactly?
So, we’re doing this Atheopaganism thing. What’s its purpose? What are its goals? I think we talk around the edges of this question a lot, with discussions of Sacred values and Principles that clearly point their way to a vision. But it would be better to articulate that vision straight-out, so people are clear about where I come from, and so we can discuss and refine it if it doesn’t work for the Atheopagan community writ large. My vision for Atheopaganism is a nested set of Russian matryoshka. It exists on scales from the personal to the societal. Personally, I pursue my Atheopagan practice as a modality for healing my inner wounds,…
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After the Fire
It isn’t really over, of course. Two dozen have lost their lives. Thousands are without homes, their possessions rendered to gray ashes. The most vulnerable among them–renters, the uninsured–will almost certainly flee our expensive region, despite admirable community efforts to raise funds to support them. The acrid smell of burned lives lingers in the air, and driving past the devastation is still like a bad dream. On and on it goes: the gray, burned wreckage, the burned-out cars. That said, people are getting on with it, as they must. The ground floor of our local daily newspaper has been let out as a disaster center with representatives of dozens of…
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The Elemental Enemy
My sacred places are burning. Sonoma County, heart of my heart, is on fire, and its magnificent wildlands, its rolling oak woodland hills and grasslands are steadily being destroyed. Annadel and Sugarloaf Ridge State Parks, where I have lost myself in a steady wash of serotonin joy at the sheer beauty, the wildness, the richness of creation, are aflame; Annadel is mostly gone now. It’s hard even to get my mind—much less my visceral understanding—around this fact. Things are moving quickly and every day of the past five has brought new alerts, new evacuation orders. The fire that dislodged me from my home stabbed deep into my home town of…
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Turns Out, I’ve Been Living in an Atheopagan Focus
A guest post by Kaigi-Ron. It was the knives that first pointed me to the truth. Seven of them stood at attention by my sink (fastened in magnetic rigor by the new strip I’d just installed), adjacent to the Hello Kitty curtains. And I was struck: OMG, I have a living Housewives Tarot card in my kitchen! What was weirdest, this didn’t seem random: I had recently been the victim of vicious (and untrue) gossip. Yet My Science Nerd Mind knew that there was no way this was “directed” at me by “somebody else”. I pulled the HWT deck from the shelf, found the Seven of Swords, and re-read the copy: GOSSIPS…
