Moral is not a word you hear used very often in the Pagan community. It’s become synonymous with conservative Christianity. We are a moral people though. Just because we don’t have a broad Pagan ethical code doesn’t mean we lack a moral compass. Moral means right behaviour and though we may nitpick over details, we all agree on the fundamental basics. It’s wrong to sexually abuse others. It’s wrong to cause wanton harm. It’s wrong to curtail someone’s freedom of... Read more

Considering recent cases within our community concerning the sexual abuse of children, and the larger context of news-making abuse cases within non-Pagan faith intuitions, I feel that a voluntary statement of ethics put forward and enforced by Pagan leaders, groups, event organizers, media outlets, and organizations could go a long way towards fostering an atmosphere that would support victims, discourage would-be abusers, and potentially avert some cases of abuse. Read more

"Let us pay her tribute. Let us beg her for her strength and protection. let us pray that she may bring forth her strong plants, her rich food, her very life. How selfish we are. We give her but a seed, a kernel, a dead thing. Yet see what she returns to us. Such bounty, such riches, such life! What mortal is there who cannot help but wonder at her, love her, fear her?" Read more

I know the phase of the moon, the sign’s of the moon and sun and the next major holyday right off the top of my head. Regardless of how many calendars I keep, I can never remember Mercury retrograde until I’m in it, and frustrated, frazzled and fed up! Mercury will be in retrograde until May 11th, although it’s shadow period extends until May 28th. Mercury is in retrograde four times this year, which is a bit unusual, and this... Read more

This article explores a little known Norse God: Narvi, the son of Loki and Sigyn. It talkes about unexpected ways of honoring the Divine and helping to bear the grief of a God. Read more

I’m terrible when it comes to meditating regularly. I can honestly say I avoid it like the plague. It’s not that I don’t enjoy it or find it beneficial. I do but I get stressed over work and finances and avoid it. I drop it from my routine just when I need it the most. It’s not that I find meditation hard but that it’s easy that I avoid it. I can easily spend an hour dropping out of mundane... Read more

So, exactly how “out” of the broom closet are you? I ask because recently I’ve started doing things that are definitely more “out” of the broom closet than ever before. Not that I’ve ever really tried to hide anything about being Pagan, just never so openly “advertised” before. In the last year, I’ve become active with participating in, and now helping organize, my local Pagan Pride Day (www.frontrangepaganpride.org), joining a Witch Hat Society, attending (and leading) open rituals and workshops,... Read more

Are your hackles raised, are you ready to fight? Recently during a pagan study group, amongst fellow academic Pagans from Cherry Hill I made the simple statement that our earliest forebearers, the genetic pool of humanity, saw the Divine as feminine. You would have thought I had dropped a bomb, with the intent to start a ‘gender war’, the hue and cry was deafening; I could tell they did not agree. They sort to turn my archaeologically founded comment into... Read more

To me, there is nothing more natural and earth-centered than sexuality. Fertility in older days essentially meant life, whether that be plant in nature, or human, and sex is an integral part of life. Otherwise, none of us would be here to discuss sexuality. I've observed the rich traditions of older, earth-centered religions, and they all seem to have this in common. Fertility is life. One of the things that scares me about our modern culture is the trend to group sex and death together. Read more

Gender polarity causes as much ruckus in the Pagan community as a noisy fart in a meditation circle. It’s not just that it feels exclusionary to GLBT folk, but it can also cause friction among het folks.Here’s the nitty-gritty: Gender polarity in Paganism is the idea that male and female energies are necessary to achieve the necessary energy for both spiritual and mundane magical acts. Think of it like electricity, where both negative and positive terminals are needed to complete... Read more