Paganism

What Do Pagans Want To Read In Their Blogs, Magazines And Books?

October 3, 2012 By Teo Bishop

Writing is a bitch sometimes. I've given myself a number of writing projects, some religious in nature and some more scholastic. Some are a blending of the both. I've also begun to explore what it would be like to take my writing to print. All of these things are squeezed into my calendar and shuffled onto my desk throughout the week, and on some days -- like the last four -- it feels as thought the weight of these papers, ideas, self-directed critiques, and a few outside-constructive … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Paganism, Practice Tagged With: Blogging, Blogs, Books, creativity, Magazines, New Media, Paganism, Pagans, Print, Readership, Reading, Writing

How Do We Respond to Conflict in Pagan Communities?

September 25, 2012 By Teo Bishop

Paganism, on the surface, seems like a retreat from the challenges posed by organized religion. Our great, mostly-pentacle-shaped umbrella, under which all shades, shapes and sizes of earth loving, god or goddess invoking creatures rest, looks to the untrained eye like a respite from bureaucracy, miscommunication, and any of the other ills of "The Church." It just isn't so. When people gather, organize and commit to being in relationship with one another, conflicts arise. This is an … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Community, Paganism Tagged With: Church, Compassion, Conflict, Congregation, Holding Space, Paganism, priest, St Georges

How Do You Know It’s The Gods You’re Listening To?

September 20, 2012 By Teo Bishop

Since I began working through the Dedicant Path this second time, I've run across a number of people who are also starting their studies with ADF. They're showing up in the comment section on Bishop In The Grove, on Facebook, and I'm wondering if there's some deeper meaning behind it. A friend of mine suggested that we should distrust the Volkswagen Bug syndrome. You know -- the one where you buy a VW bug, and then all you see around you are VW bugs. They start popping up everywhere -- in … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Discernment, Paganism Tagged With: Christianity, Comments, Consumerism, discernment, Divinity, GOD, Gods, Judgement, Listening, Metaphysics, Paganism, Polytheism, Reflection, The Secret, VW

How Much Stuff Does One Pagan Need?

September 18, 2012 By Teo Bishop

Should I let go of my stuff? Should I have a metaphysical yard sale, in which I sell my Cunningham books, my surplus of pewter jewelry, and my... ...ahem... ...crystals? Should I rid my closet of the long, green, hooded robe I've worn twice, my Guatemalan patchwork jacket I scored for $7 bucks, or my black ceremonial duds? How about my malas, my God and Goddess candle holders (don't you just love P. Borda?), or my copper OM chalice? When I look at the shelf above my desk, I … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Paganism, Values Tagged With: ADF, Asceticism, Bibles, Books, Consumerism, Crystals, Dedicant Path, Jewelry, Nature Spirituality, Pagan, Paganism, Possession, Religion, Spirituality, Stuff, Values

Want To Make The Gods Laugh?

September 14, 2012 By Teo Bishop

Make a plan. I dare you. Ok, ready? You're me: You put on your denim kilt, blue button up shirt, and patchwork hat. Your beard is tidy and trim, and your socks pulled up. You load up the car with your husband, a tupperware container of crayons, and a bag of chocolates. Drive. After a half hour, you're at a little Unitarian Universalist church near the foothills. You unload, begin to arrange chairs in a big, circular meeting room, and you wait. When you can't wait any … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Songcrafting Tagged With: creativity, Inspiration, Music, Paganism, Pantheacon, Ritual, Singing, Song, Songcrafting, Songcrafting Workshop, Teaching, Unitarian Universalist, UU

Paganism Beyond the Warm and Fuzzy

September 7, 2012 By Teo Bishop

I fell into a frozen lake once. It was winter, and we were on holiday from school. I was running ahead of my two cousins and my older brother, and I hit a thin patch. In no time, my tiny body was submerged. The water was violently cold, and I was certain I was going to die. I didn't. When I was about 10, I went to a summer camp for kids who like horses. While riding one afternoon, a fellow camper got thrown from her horse. She was dragged for at least 100 yards. Her body … [Read more...]

Filed Under: In The World, Paganism Tagged With: ADF, Camping, Childhood, Druidry, Gods, Horses, Nature, Paganism, Storytelling

Pagans Among Wild Geese

August 31, 2012 By Teo Bishop

Carl McColman at the first Wild Goose Festival, June 2011

I had plans to attend the Wild Goose Festival this weekend. I was supposed to leave today, but then the money got tight. As I wrote about in my last post I made the decision to forgo my studies at Marylhurst for at least a term or two, in part for financial reasons. In light of that kind of penny-pinching adjustment to plans, I decided to save my plane ticket to Portland for a future trip. I would not have been the only Druid in attendance. Allison Leigh Lilly is going to be … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Christianity, Paganism Tagged With: Festival, Interfaith, Paganism, Progressive Christianity, Progressive Politics, Social Change, Social Issues, Wild Goose Festival, Wild Goose Festival 2012

It’s Back to (Druid) School Season

August 27, 2012 By Teo Bishop

The harvest season comes, and the kids go back to school. I can't pass a rack of school supplies without stopping to see if there's anything I want need. There rarely is, but I still like to look. The eco-folders and notebooks, while more ecologically responsible, are nowhere as cool as my Trapper Keeper. It was rad. I love school. Or, I love the idea of school. Perhaps I'm nostalgic for a time when I was unaware of the responsibilities that accompany adulthood, many of which … [Read more...]

Filed Under: DP, Paganism Tagged With: ADF, College, Dedicant's Path, DP, Education, Marylhurst, Pagan, Paganism, School, Student, Study

Solitaries are the Glue which Hold Paganism Together

August 17, 2012 By Teo Bishop

I've spent nearly the entire week working on new ways to make ADF Druidism an accessible tradition to solitary Pagans. The work is still in its early stages, and I'm piecing together ideas which I hope to share once the leaves have fallen. My backyard maple is only hinting at new color, so it will be a few months yet. Crafting religious practice gets me really excited, though. As perplexed as I was last week about the Gods (and I've been on the fence about capitalizing "god," by the way -- … [Read more...]

Filed Under: ADF, Paganism, Solitaries Tagged With: ADF, Isaac Bonewits, Paganism, Practice, Religion, Solitaries, Solitary, Solitary Druid

Think, Drink, and Be a Druid in Honor of Isaac Bonewits

August 12, 2012 By Teo Bishop

In his brief, "immodest third-person" biography, Issac Bonewits called himself, "articulate, witty, yet reasonably scholarly." I never knew the man, but I hear he was a bit cantankerous, too. In the early part of 2009, a year before Isaac's passing, I was encouraged by T. Thorn Coyle during an intuitive reading she gave me to make my way to a Druid gathering in California to meet Issac. The event would be a Lughnasadh celebration at the Pema Osel Ling Retreat Center in Corralitos, California, … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Druidry, Memorial, Paganism Tagged With: ADF, Ancestor, AODA, House of Danu, Issac Bonewits, Memorial, Memory, OBOD, Paganism, Veneration

What Do Pagans Want To Read In Their Blogs, Magazines And Books?

How Do We Respond to Conflict in Pagan Communities?

How Do You Know It’s The Gods You’re Listening To?

How Much Stuff Does One Pagan Need?

Want To Make The Gods Laugh?

Paganism Beyond the Warm and Fuzzy

It’s Back to (Druid) School Season

Solitaries are the Glue which Hold Paganism Together

Think, Drink, and Be a Druid in Honor of Isaac Bonewits

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