Pagan prayer

March 12, 2014 By Yvonne Aburrow

A prayer can be nothing more than time taken to set an intention for the day, or to contemplate the day's events before going to sleep. It can be time spent communing with a deity, or holding others that you care about in your awareness and wishing them well. It can take place at your personal altar, or just in your head. It can be spoken or unspoken, formal or informal, and involve stillness or movement. It can involve descending into your own depths to find a connection with all-that-is; or it can be reaching out to a deity or spirit of place. Read more

Your mountain is not my mountain and that’s just fine

March 11, 2014 By Yvonne Aburrow

Metaphors for religion are tricky things, especially when we try to stretch them and make them work too hard by trying to turn them into analogies. One very popular metaphor for explaining religious diversity is the idea that we are all walking different paths up the same mountain. However, many people are coming to believe (myself included) that we are in fact all walking up different mountains. Read more

Wiccanate Privilege and Polytheist Wiccans

March 10, 2014 By Yvonne Aburrow

We should dismantle Wiccanate privilege as soon as possible. Let’s have devotional polytheism, liturgical Paganism, Wiccan (rather than Wiccan-flavoured) ritual, revived Eleusinian mysteries, Heathen blots, Druid rituals... And let’s not have assumptions about what Pagans believe. Read more

Drugs: it’s all about the context

March 5, 2014 By Yvonne Aburrow

Drugs and other mind-altering substances have been used in a sacred context for millennia. It is only when drug use is taken out of this sacramental and communal context that it becomes a vice. If a drug is taken to alter one's consciousness for a sacred purpose - to obtain information or abilities inaccessible to normal consciousness - then it is a rare occurrence, and for a good reason: in the service of one's community. Read more

If you build it, they will come

March 4, 2014 By Yvonne Aburrow

I would like to see Pagan weddings become legally recognised in England and Wales. I would like to be able to practice Pagan rituals in public without fear of harassment. I would like to see public bodies acknowledging Pagan holidays in listings of holidays both secular and religious. (In the UK, many employers send round lists of holidays from various faiths, but Pagan holidays are often not listed.) I would like to see a Pagan student society in every UK university, and a Pagan temple accessible to every Pagan who wants it. I would like to see Pagan traditions covered in education about religion (not indoctrinating children into it, just teaching them the facts about it). I would like Pagan traditions to be full participants in interfaith councils and bodies. Read more

Pagan Tea Times with John Halstead and Fritz Muntean

March 3, 2014 By Christine Kraemer

I sit down with John Halstead and Fritz Muntean to talk about Paganism, the internet, babies, and subcultural norms. Read more

All the Pagan Tea Times You Can Drink!

February 25, 2014 By Christine Kraemer

More Pagan Tea Times: John Beckett, David Dashifen Kees, Julian Betkowski, and Henry Buchy. The month is almost over, but let the conversations continue! Read more

Lupercalia

February 14, 2014 By Yvonne Aburrow

Whatever the origins and timing of Valentine's Day, 14 February was originally the date of a very different festival - the festival of Lupercalia. This was a fertility festival honouring the she-wolf who suckled Romulus and Remus. It also honoured Lupercus, god of shepherds. The festivities were presided over by the priesthood of the Luperci, who were dedicated to Faunus. They sacrificed two goats and a dog. There was then a sacrificial feast, and the Luperci cut thongs called februa from the skins of the animals, dressed themselves in the skins of the sacrificed goats, and ran round the walls of the old Palatine city. They struck all those who came near with the thongs. Young women would line up on their route to receive lashes from these whips. This was reputed to ensure fertility, prevent sterility, and ease the pains of childbirth. Read more

Tea Times with Aine Llewellyn and Rhyd Wildermuth

February 13, 2014 By Christine Kraemer

Fantastic Tea Times this week! Pagan history, the role of alternative religion in critiquing culture, harmonizing spiritual practice with paying work, and more. Read more