“I felt the Earth. It’s all connected, it is, but... it’s not all good and pure and rootsy. There’s deep... deep black. There’s... I saw... I saw the Earth, Giles. I saw its teeth.” – Willow, from the episode “Lessons” in Buffy the Vampire SlayerOver the past few weeks we’ve been reminded over and over again that the Earth has teeth. There was the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. We’ve seen flooding in the Midwest. Now we’re in the middle of tornado season. There have … [Read more...]

There’s a guest post on the Patheos Pagan blog titled “It is time for Pagans to stop being Pagan.” It’s another attempt to find a unifying principle for the community that loosely uses the label “Pagan.” The writer clearly – and understandably – has some frustration with our lack of unity of belief and practice and the occasional attempts to claim unity where none exists. He suggests we rally around “the conscious decision to defend everyone’s right to practice our own … [Read more...]

Happy Earth Day, a day when we honor and celebrate our Mother and our home. Christian theologian Paul Tillich spoke of God as “the ground of being.” The Earth is literally our ground of being – we grew out of the Earth, we are sustained by the Earth, and we can only leave the Earth (at least physically) by taking the Earth with us. Along with the Sun, we are totally dependent on the Earth for our survival and sustenance. Therefore it is critical that we care for the Earth, and that we … [Read more...]

Just in time for Easter, TIME magazine has a cover story asking “Is Hell Dead?” It’s inspired by and largely focuses on Evangelical pastor Rob Bell and his new book Love Wins. TIME does a fair job of presenting Bell’s case for Christian almost-Universalism as well as touching on traditional arguments for Hell. And now the Dallas Morning News’ “Texas Faith” feature asks this question to its interfaith panelists, which is dominated by liberal Christians but includes others such as … [Read more...]

my campsite at CMA BeltaneI’m back from a 4-day weekend trip to the Council of Magickal Arts’ Beltane festival at Spirit Haven, CMA’s group-owned land near Flatonia, Texas. This was my first large Pagan festival – it was quite an experience. I don’t know how many people were there – I didn’t get an official count, and the orientation leader said they vary from 500 to 1500. My best guess would be somewhere in the 1000 range, but that’s a pretty wild guess. I’m not going to … [Read more...]

It matters what we believe.As above, so below. As within, so without.Bolivia is set to enact a law recognizing that Nature has inherent rights. From an article in the Guardian, these include “the right to life and to exist; the right to continue vital cycles and processes free from human alteration; the right to pure water and clean air; the right to balance; the right not to be polluted; and the right to not have cellular structure modified or genetically altered.”If such a law seems … [Read more...]

Phaedra BonewitsI spent today at Sacred Journey UU Fellowship in a workshop on magical tools led by Phaedra Bonewits. Phaedra is perhaps best known as the widow of Isaac Bonewits, which is unfortunate since she has an impressive magical resume on her own – including a term as Vice President of the national CUUPS Board of Trustees. I have the usual assortment of magical tools. Some (like the athame I rarely use any more) I purchased in the early days of my Pagan and magical exploration, … [Read more...]

Should Christians make a big deal out of Easter?  Should Pagans go all out for Beltane?  Are special holidays worth the trouble?   Here’s an interesting essay by Bruce Reyes-Chow, a Presbyterian minister who’s calling on his congregation to “Stop Making a Big Deal Out of Easter Worship.” He calls it “activity that ends up with people who are burned out and a worship service that looks nothing like the service that is held on a normal Sunday,” says that “we too … [Read more...]

If you really pay attention you may have noticed a change in the blog roll earlier today. The new addition is No Unsacred Place, a new blog on “Earth and Nature in Pagan Traditions.” It's part of the Pagan Newswire Collective and it will cover religion, spirituality and the environment from a Pagan perspective.I'll be blogging there once a week or so, plus I'll be writing a monthly column titled “The Sacred in Suburbia”. Suburbs have a rather bad reputation in Pagan, environmental and … [Read more...]

Three occasions for one to speak falsehood without excuse: to save the life of one who is innocent, to keep the peace among neighbours, and to preserve the Wise and their crafts – a Druid triadLucinda Breeding of the Denton Record-Chronicle (better known as Cindy to Denton UUs) has a new column discussing the “It Gets Better” campaign, which attempts to reduce LGBT youth suicides by telling the stories of people who have been through what they’ve been through and come out OK. Cindy is … [Read more...]