Around the Pagan Web

Over at The Juggler Cather ‘Catalyst’ Steincamp talks about the issues brought up by the Terri Schiavo case and why Pagans should talk about it with eachother.

“I would encourage Pagans to talk about this with their peers, and for groups– be they small, religious groups or large, social groups– to take up this issue. Death is a very spiritual subject, and while we as Pagans do not generally push spiritual views, even within our community, I think we should foster discussion of the subject. I would hate to see the Pagan Community torn apart by something that could be resolved by discussion, and I’d particularly hate to see us pressuring a family to make a decision that may conflict with the wishes of the person who is most affected.”

Over at her blog Thorn Coyle discusses Anarchism, Paganism, Utopianism and the issues of self-governance.

“There is no self-government without self-governance. Yesterday, I sat on the religion and anarchism panel at a conference in Berkeley. I was struck by many things – first of all, by how hard it is for people to articulate their beliefs, no matter what they are and how much they say they believe them. Second, I was struck by a typical human behavior of not really hearing another person because we hold preconceived notions. Here was a group of people dedicated to what I believe is an attempt at something new because it is seldom tried, yet most were behaving in the same old ways. Probably myself included.”

Laura Jean Karr writes a column talking about Pagan Reconstructionists.

“So, what is a Pagan Recon? Well, Pagan Recons are those who strive to practice their faith as closely as possible to the original way in which their chosen pre-Christian faith Pagan culture practiced. They study all there is to know about their chosen path from historical documents to archeological evidence. Recons go beyond what is touched upon by Pagan Eclectics and search for the actual facts of what is known about their chosen faith. Some Recons only establish the historical evidence for their religious practices while other Recons chose to live their daily lives as closely as they can to the way in which their chosen pre-Christian people lived. Recons do not believe or follow any practice unless there is historical or archeological evidence to support it.”

Finally, Chas Clifton points us to a site that discovers modern Pagan holy sites.

“The ‘Neokoroi’ page lists primarily civic sites with strong Graeco-Roman religious elements that might effectively function as holy places.”

Tags: Neopaganism