Practice
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An Atheopagan Tarot Spread
I have written before about “divination” and particularly the use of complex symbol systems such as runes or Tarot cards in Atheopaganism. We can use these symbol sets to access our intuitive and subconscious understandings of our situations, despite the fact that the arrangement of the cards (runes, bones, tea leaves, etc.) is random. When reading Tarot, what I am always looking for is that sense of deep recognition: when a particular card in a particular position just feels wise and right and true. I have long since divested myself of the commonplace “Celtic Cross” layout which is the most commonly taught layout for the cards, and thought today I…
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LORE DAY: A New Holiday for the Hallows Season
So, six months from now—in the Northern Hemisphere, mind—there is a two-day traditional holiday comprised of Walpurisnacht on April 30, followed by May Day. The former is a sort of mini-Hallows: ghosts and scary Visitations. Then May Day itself is joy and lusty celebration. Why isn’t this end of the year like that? Why don’t we have a happy joyous day followed by a solemn spooky day? I propose we remedy this situation! Halloween is what it is: it is jolly death-fun with skulls and bones and blood and dress-up. Candy for kids, parties for adults. A denatured, but still potent Festival of Death. Hallows comes at the actual midpoint…
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With Both Hands in Grave Dirt
‘Tis the season for we Pagany/witchy types. There is an entire aesthetic we—or most of us, anyway—enjoy that has a brief moment in the waning sun each year, and this is it. Now, as Atheopagans, we don’t believe in ghosts or spirits or Dark God/desses. But that doesn’t matter: there is plenty of rich fodder for ritual, for reflection, and for psychological transformation at this time of year. We’ve all been hurt. We’ve all suffered loss. And we have only to look out to the world around us to find ample and overflowing reason for rage, for sorrow and for lament. Bones, skulls, graves and funerary ceremonies are powerful images…
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Finding Balance in a Sea of Chaos
So, Harvest is coming up: the autumnal equinox, Sept. 21. And all the usual seasonal meanings apply, of rich harvests and abundant fruits and vegetables and celebration of all the wonderful things that have come to us in the passing year. But there is a second meaning of Harvest. It is the moment at which the night and day are equally long: a moment of balance between darkness and light. And at times like these, the idea of balance is hard to find. So much turmoil in the world, so much insanity in the political sphere, and the Earth’s climate itself spinning out of control. And yet, we must. I…
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This Is a Way of Life. You Can Ritually Commit to It.
Atheopaganism is a Pagan path without “degrees”, levels of initiation, clergy statuses, etc. We’re all of equal value on this planet and in this practice, and so we say that any Atheopagan with the skills and inclination may, say, officiate at a wedding or a funeral, or perform pastoral counseling. What is important is not the “status” of the individual, but their abilities. This is why we emphasize learning ritual skills as a part of developing as an Atheopagan, because Atheopaganism isn’t just about what you believe; it’s about what you do. All that said, while neither I nor anyone else can “initiate” you as an Atheopagan, you can certainly dedicate…
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UNFROZEN: A Ritual for Getting Unstuck
Call it anxiety or procrastination or what have you*, life often grips many of us in a tense paralysis wherein we know we must act, we have obligations and deadlines and must-dos, but we just can’t move. It is a terrifying feeling: to watch the sand dripping through the glass and yet not be able to make one’s self do what must be done. It can affect every aspect of a human life. It’s crippling. What it’s about, fundamentally, is how the brain processes dopamine, the neurotransmitter of initiative and reward, but also of dread and anxiety. Personally, I have problems producing dopamine. I take medications to keep my dopamine levels elevated, because…
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Atheopagan Practice and Mental Illness
It is said that about 13% of people worldwide suffer some kind of mental illness and/or substance abuse issue. That figure goes as high as 18% in some countries; poorer countries tend to have lower reporting, so these figures are skewed to the low end. That’s 970 million people. I am one of them. I have lived with—and suffered through sometimes severe bouts of—Major Depressive Disorder since I was a young child. It has deeply affected and colored my life, for better and for worse. As we learn more about the ways mental illness affects so many of us, it is important for us to be aware that, whether we…
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Summer’s End—The Sabbath of Work
There were three Menne came out of the West Their fortunes for to trye And these three Menne made a solemn vow John Barleycorne must die. Welcome to the end of summer and the beginning of autumn! …though it may not feel to be so where you live. Where I am it is HOT and going to be hotter for the next two months…but I can see in the coloring of early leaves and the hard blue of the sky that the Wheel is turning, that Autumn is coming on. This holiday, titled Lammas by the Catholic Church and Lughnasadh by the Irish, Scottish and Manx people, has historically celebrated…
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Ritual Hygiene: Preparation and Recovery
I made a mistake this week. I assigned the creation and completion of a solitary ritual to the students in the Atheopaganism U. class, and neglected to cover how to take care of yourself before and after a ritual. One of the students had a very powerful experience in her ritual, and then spent hours unable to sleep thereafter. Whoops. In all my writing here at the Atheopaganism site, I have completely overlooked the basic physical/psychological preparation and post-ritual self care that are necessary for health and safety. These are practices I engage in myself–it just never occurred to me to write about them. So here goes. Depending on their…
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In Summer Heat
Today was very warm: 94 degrees F. That’s not hot for the tropics, or the North American Southwestern desert. Not hot for many places, I acknowledge. It gets a lot hotter here: over 110, now and then. But it was warm, and the house felt stuffy and hot when I got home. It’s deep summer. Berries are ripe and gardens are producing and grain has “growne a long, long beard, and so become a Manne”. Peaches and apricots and cherries are glorious, and days are still long, though they are shortening. Summer’s End approaches. Now, I’ve wrestled with this Sabbath. It seems as though there is so much going on…
