Last Sunday in our “Spirit Circle” discussion at the UU Church, we had one of our typical discussions that was all over the place and is difficult to summarize. It started with the question, “How do your beliefs play out in your daily life.” We rapidly got off that track and at some point one of the Christians in the group said something to the effect that “If you don’t believe in God then you can just do anything.” While... Read more
The sun is back out after a couple days of rain. Grey and rainy days get me down. An area of low atmospheric pressure characterized by rain and unstable weather is called a “depression”. Like the sky is depressed. For some reason, probably not coincidentally, I decided to pick up the book, The Hours, by Michael Cunningham. It’s a depressing book to say the least. It’s about life, death, suicide, illness, love (hetero- and homo-sexual). I loved the movie. It’s... Read more
Today on the way to a friend’s house for dinner, we drove by a giant tree. It appeared to be, and is in fact, dead. My wife, the real tree lover, spotted it first. It turns out that the tree, a Bur Oak located in Merrillville, Indiana, is between 500 and 800 years old and is one of the three oldest trees in Indiana. The photo below was taken 3 1/2 years ago, when officials were still trying to save... Read more
Last Sunday, at the Spirit Circle at my Unitarian church discuss movies that inspire us. There are a lot of movies I find inspiring. One I recently watched was Fly Away Home with a young Anna Paquin, about a girl that rescues a flock of geese and then guides them to a mating ground in an ultralight. It’s sentimental, but I’m a sucker for that kind of stuff. I admit I cried. Another is one that someone in the Spirit... Read more
I go to the Mormon church about once a month. Honestly, it is a painful experience for me. First, it’s boring (to me … just attached that qualifier to everything I say here). There is no real discussion. The questions and the answers are prefabricated, as they must be in any religion which claims to have the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Second, I have bad history with the Mormon church. Frankly, I feel I was... Read more
I just finished Chapter 22, “Marriage and Loneliness”, in John Trevor’s autobiography, My Quest for God. In this chapter, Trevor struggles with balancing the security of marriage and work with the desire for spiritual growth. On the one hand, he explains that marriage grounded him in a way he had never been before: “It was only when I was married that I knew what ease and repose meant. All through my life the genial sunshine of existence had been denied... Read more
Fall is here! Well, it’s been here for about two weeks now. It is gorgeous. It’s what we call “jacket weather”, the air is crisp, although when you stand in the sunshine (which has been bountiful that last few days) it is almost hot. Some of the trees are just starting to turn. One thing I love about our street is that the changing of the leaves is drawn out, due to the variety of trees in the front yards. ... Read more
Last night during our (belated) family Autumn Equinox ritual, my wife got frustrated. Specifically, she got frustrated because of the “fuzzy” nature of Neopagan myth. Here’s some background: My wife’s LDS (Mormon), but very supportive of my Pagan faith. In case you’re just joining my blog, I used to be LDS. I left the Mormon church formally about 3 years after we were married. I spent about the next couple years in limbo, until I started identifying as Neopagan. And... Read more
Introduction The last family ritual we did was at Midsummer. What is Midsummer? It’s also called First Fruits. Do you remember what we did? Why did we do that? Today is the Fall Equinox. What is the Equinox? Today is about sacrifice. And it is about the connection between death and life. Today is also called “Harvest Home” by some Pagans. Why do you think that is? What is the most common grain around here? We’re going to be learning... Read more
Each of the individuals below is someone whose writings have has a profound influence on me, but who also are people who I admire because of their biography as well. 1. John Trevor (1855-1930) The founder of the British Labour Church. I’ve posted about Trevor before and will post about him again. I half suspect I am Trevor reincarnated (if I believed in reincarnation), our spiritual lives are so similar. I was led to Trevor’s autobiography by a quote in... Read more
The Allergic Pagan
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In