Ronald Hutton and the Paradox of Witchcraft

April 16, 2013 By 14 Comments
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At the risk of sounding like a fanboy (or perhaps, at the risk of exposing myself for the fanboy I am) the primary reason I went to Sacred Lands and Spiritual Landscapes was Ronald Hutton. I’ve respected his work ever since I read The Triumph of the Moon in 2002 and I’ve enjoyed listening to some of his lectures on Druidcast. He doesn’t come across the ocean very often and when I saw he would be in South Carolina I knew I wanted to go. He did not disappoint. His two talks were both … [Read more...]

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Magic: Don’t Believe, Do

April 10, 2013 By 5 Comments
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When asked “what is magic?” I generally respond with a three-part answer: part psychological programming, part manipulation of unseen forces, and part intercessory prayer. Last week Yvonne Aburrow had a very good post on this on the Sermons on the Mound blog. She touched on the psychological and energy manipulation aspects of magic, and she also raised an important point: “the more people try to use science to justify their belief in faeries and energies and the like, the more ridiculous … [Read more...]

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Amanda Palmer and the Art of Asking

March 4, 2013 By 2 Comments
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“Punk cabaret” singer-songwriter Amanda Palmer has a TED talk that was released last week titled “The Art of Asking” where she challenges the music business to stop worrying about making people pay for music and instead find innovative ways to let them pay for it. Like most TED talks it’s quite interesting and I encourage you to watch it yourself. I like TED talks, though I’m not a regular viewer. I’ve seen quite a bit of criticism of them lately: they don’t allow rebuttal … [Read more...]

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Make Magic of Your Life

March 1, 2013 By 9 Comments
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“Grace is the unexpected that arrives when you have prepared, yet remain open.” – T. Thorn Coyle I first met Thorn Coyle at the House of Danu Gorsedd in 2009. We had a brief conversation and I bought one of her CDs. When I got home I started listening to her podcasts. That’s where I developed an appreciation for her spiritual depth and her emphasis on this-world action – something that appealed to me as a Unitarian Universalist as much as it appealed to me as a Pagan. When I went … [Read more...]

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The Reality of Limits

February 18, 2013 By 10 Comments
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On Saturday I wrote about how my decision not to attend Pantheacon was a question of limits. Today I’d like to explore the nature of limits in more detail, with particular attention to the relationship between limits and magic. In his book Mystery Teachings from the Living Earth, John Michael Greer devotes a whole chapter to The Law of Limits, which he describes as follows: The Law of Limits: Everything that exists is subject to limits arising from its own nature, the nature of the whole … [Read more...]

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The Myth of Magic

January 31, 2013 By 6 Comments
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There are many views on magic in the Big Tent of Paganism.  For some, magic isn’t very important – their focus is on their gods and ancestors.  For others, magic is all about transforming themselves and aligning their will with the Divine.  Still others see magic as a hands-on tool and use spells and charms throughout their everyday lives. Our larger culture doesn’t think much of magic... or at least, they like to pretend they don’t.  Over on the Patheos “Religion on Science” … [Read more...]

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