{"id":2268,"date":"2015-01-31T11:15:03","date_gmt":"2015-01-31T19:15:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/atheopaganism.wordpress.com\/?p=2268"},"modified":"2015-01-31T11:15:03","modified_gmt":"2015-01-31T19:15:03","slug":"why-an-acorn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mgreen.atheopaganism.org\/?p=2268","title":{"rendered":"Why an Acorn?"},"content":{"rendered":"

NOTE: In 2018, the Atheopagan community collaborated to nominate and select a new symbol for our religion. That symbol, the Suntree, is in the header of the blog and is described HERE<\/a>.<\/h4>\n

I wear a silver pendant of an acorn, and have since my transition out of more traditional Paganism and into Atheopaganism. To me, it is the symbol of my religion.\u00a0If you’ve been to the\u00a0Zazzle store<\/strong><\/a>, you will see that there are several items for sale there that also feature the symbol of the acorn, and it is also the favicon of this site.<\/p>\n

Given our diversity and wide range of backgrounds, I’m sure that among Atheopagans, there is a similarly wide range of relationships to symbols and icons. Some wear the pentacle, I expect, which I used to do as well. Now, I find it connotes too much of an “occult” quality to me\u2014it feels too deeply associated with systems of belief and thinking that are simply out of step with the naturalistic worldview of Atheopaganism.<\/p>\n

Still, if you like it\u2014perhaps liking how it affiliates you with the larger Pagan community, or sets you markedly apart from other religious-symbol wearers\u2014I have no problem with it. I just don’t want to do it myself.<\/p>\n

I chose the acorn because pretty much anywhere in the world you may live (except in the polar regions), you are almost certain to find a species of quercus<\/em>, the oak tree. It is as close to a ubiquitous family of multicellular life as can be found on Planet Earth. It serves as food source, nesting habitat, shelter and hunting perch\u00a0for countless birds, mammals, and invertebrates throughout the world. The California live oak, blue, black and valley oaks are the keystone habitat species of the place where I live, and that makes oaks sacred to me.<\/p>\n

An acorn contains the spark of life, the potential of something new, beautiful, fruitful and beneficial to what surrounds it, and that, in a…well, a nutshell \ud83d\ude42 …is what I hope Atheopaganism itself is and will be: a source of beauty, kindness, meaning, and sustenance for its participants and for the greater society and the world itself.<\/p>\n

And that is why I wear the acorn.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NOTE: In 2018, the Atheopagan community collaborated to nominate and select a new symbol for our religion. That symbol, the Suntree, is in the header of the blog and is described HERE. I wear a silver pendant of an acorn, and have since my transition out of more traditional Paganism and into Atheopaganism. To me, it is the symbol of my religion.\u00a0If you’ve been to the\u00a0Zazzle store, you will see that there are several items for sale there that also feature the symbol of the acorn, and it is also the favicon of this site. Given our diversity and wide range of backgrounds, I’m sure that among Atheopagans, there is a similarly wide range of relationships to symbols and icons. Some wear the pentacle, I expect, which I used to do as well. Now, I find it connotes too much of an “occult” quality to me\u2014it feels too deeply associated with systems of belief and thinking that are simply out of step with the naturalistic worldview of Atheopaganism. Still, if you like it\u2014perhaps liking how it affiliates you with the larger Pagan community, or sets you markedly apart from other religious-symbol wearers\u2014I have no problem with it. I just don’t want to do it myself. I chose the acorn because pretty much anywhere in the world you may live (except in the polar regions), you are almost certain to find a species of quercus, the oak tree. It is as close to a ubiquitous family of multicellular life as can be found on Planet Earth. It serves as food source, nesting habitat, shelter and hunting perch\u00a0for countless birds, mammals, and invertebrates throughout the world. The California live oak, blue, black and valley oaks are the keystone habitat species of the place where I live, and that makes oaks sacred to me. An acorn contains the spark of life, the potential of something new, beautiful, fruitful and beneficial to what surrounds it, and that, in a…well, a nutshell \ud83d\ude42 …is what I hope Atheopaganism itself is and will be: a source of beauty, kindness, meaning, and sustenance for its participants and for the greater society and the world itself. And that is why I wear the acorn.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2269,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2268","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-practice"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mgreen.atheopaganism.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2268","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mgreen.atheopaganism.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mgreen.atheopaganism.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mgreen.atheopaganism.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mgreen.atheopaganism.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2268"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mgreen.atheopaganism.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2268\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mgreen.atheopaganism.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2269"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mgreen.atheopaganism.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mgreen.atheopaganism.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mgreen.atheopaganism.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}