[updated 2/27/14] I want to share what my daily practice is. My morning ritual, which is outlined below, involves four short prayers in the morning to the air, sun, water, and earth. Then I have a prayer over meals. And finally I have a ritual at night with candles. The prayers are all taken from different sources, words that I have come across over the years that have moved me, most of them not capital-P “Pagan”. My morning ritual: Air... Read more
When I first started this blog, I began with the name Temple of the Earth Mother, a name which was simultaneously pretentious and boring. I mean, you can’t really get more generic in Pagan terms than “Temple of the Earth Mother”. But I actually had a good reason for the name that I never got around to explaining. When I started blogging, it marked a new phase in my spiritual journey, a re-dedication to developing a personal Pagan practice. I’m... Read more
Last Sunday, my wife and I were listening to Peter Mayer’s song, “Holy Now”, while coming home from her church (LDS): When I was a boy, each week On Sunday, we would go to church And pay attention to the priest He would read the holy word And consecrate the holy bread And everyone would kneel and bow Today the only difference is Everything is holy now Everything, everything Everything is holy now When I was in Sunday school We... Read more
You’re going to think I am a big Tarot-fiend, after describing two castings in one month, but last night I really felt the need for some re-focusing after the dream I had and the flashes of inspiration I have had during my Descensus ritual. I used the Vertigo Tarot. I only use the Major Arcana and I used a five card spread, which I interpret as a cosmograph: Macrocosm ¦ Past — Present — Future ¦ Microcosm So this... Read more
I had this dream last night. It was extremely vivid and I woke up very distressed. Since I remember less than a percent of my dreams, and this one seems particularly important, I am going to share it here. Also, about a week ago I completed a week long ritual that I hoped would provoke a symbolic dream for me. There was a prelude to the dream: I was in a cave like place, brightly lit by fires. On the... Read more
Okay, I need some catharsis. Warning: do not read this if you want to sleep well tonight. I just happened to click on a link to a story yesterday about a woman who heard her daughter’s death over the phone. I don’t know what made me click on the link, since I usually ignore that kind of news report. I know horrible things happen; I don’t need to know the details. Well anyway, I couldn’t stop reading this story. It... Read more
1. Peregrin @ Magic of the Ordinary rants about spiritual identity: ceremonial magicians, Neopagans, Buddhists, and Christians. 2. B. T. Newberg @ Humanistic Paganism announces the online publication of his collaborative project with Celtic polytheist Drew Jacob and Voudun priest Urban Haas, called “Encounters in Nature” 3. Teo Bishop @ Bishop in the Grove talks about ChristoPaganism 4. Star Foster @ Pantheon defends her decision to seek initiation in a traditionalist Wiccan coven 5. Tyromanteia writes about Psychological Magic in... Read more
In no particular order: 1. Participate in the Edinburgh Beltane Fire Society celebration. 2. Make offerings at the statue of Isis at the Herbert Hoover National Park in Iowa (exit 254 on Interstate 80). 3. Celebrate the Hindu Holi festival of colors in Spanish Fork, Utah. 4. Attend the Minnesota Renaissance Festival. 5. Attend Reclaiming’s Spiral Dance ritual in San Francisco at Samhain. [Another link] 6. See tomb of Tuthmosis III in Egypt (KV34), which contains the Amduat mural. 8. ... Read more
Last night I had a dream I was on drugs. I’ve never so much as smoked a joint, and my alcohol consumption has been minimal, since I was raised Mormon. But I liked being on drugs in my dream. I dreamed that I was outside looking at the night sky and there were more stars in the sky than I have ever seen … even more than that one time I went into the Utah desert at night. And then... Read more
I have never liked discussions about “esoteric” meaning or practice. “Esoteric” for me is associated with Neoplatonism, Gnosticism, Hermeticism, Kaballah, ceremonial magic (or “magick”), astrology, alchemy, tarot, spiritualism, and Theosophy, and the philosophies of Jacob Bohme, Franz Mesmer, Emanuel Swedenborg, Helena Blavatsky, Rudolph Steiner, Aleister Crowley, and the “occult” generally: none of which (with the exception of Tarot), have I ever been drawn to. My objection to much of what qualifies as esotericism is that it seems ungrounded. I remember... Read more
The Allergic Pagan
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