When knowledge was power

June 1, 2013 By 3 Comments
Lynne Kelly

Ritual often seems like an activity designed only for interaction with the preternatural or the supernatural. However, in non-literate (oral) cultures, it can have a mnemonic function - to remember and pass on traditional lore, about how to grow and manage crops, about animal and plant species, how to interact with the land, how to use tools. Lynne Kelly is an Honorary Visiting Research Fellow at LaTrobe University. She is researching the ways in which knowledge is transmitted in … [Read more...]

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Those who are not against us are with us

March 27, 2013 By 4 Comments
Sweet chestnut forest (source: Wikipedia)

I have always felt it would be better to define Paganism and Pagan traditions on their own terms. If we draw a contrast with some other tradition's theology, we always reinforce a simplistic outsider's view of that tradition. For instance, if you always say "our tradition is polytheist, unlike Wicca which is duotheist", then you are denying and erasing the existence of polytheist, animist, pantheist, and atheist Wiccans. You are also over-simplifying what it is that Wiccans actually practice … [Read more...]

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Realism and non-realism

February 6, 2013 By 5 Comments
Remedios Varo, "To Be Reborn"

There are several ways in which to construe the relationship of religious discourse to the world it attempts to describe, and with other (possibly competing, possibly complementary) interpretations such as science and philosophy. The NOMA (non-overlapping magisteria) position, put forward by Stephen Jay Gould, is that science and religion deal with two different domains, and therefore share no common ground for either agreement or argument; science deals with empirical matters and religion … [Read more...]

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Maps and signposts on the journey

January 5, 2013 By 6 Comments
Signpost on Robin Hood Road near Whatstandwell, Derbyshire by Eamon Curry

Do not follow where the path may lead. Go, instead, where there is no path and leave a trail. - Ralph Waldo Emerson I maintain that truth is a pathless land, and you cannot approach it by any path whatsoever, by any religion, by any sect. That is my point of view, and I adhere to that absolutely and unconditionally. Truth, being limitless, unconditioned, unapproachable by any path whatsoever, cannot be organized; nor should any organization be formed to lead or coerce people along a particular … [Read more...]

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