I’m back in good health after dealing with a kidney infection, which unfortunately knocked me out during the week of Halloween. Once I got back to feeling better, I wrote up a post that likely would have been over 1,000 words. I finished it, flipped back and forth through what I wrote, and frowned a lot. And then I decided to strip what I wrote down to a few sentences. Most of what I wanted to say has been said,... Read more
First off, I strongly encourage everyone to go read Aedicula Antinoi. There’s some excellent devotional poetry over there (as always), and each post is breathtaking. (So go read. Right now. Shoo.) The world is getting lovely and cold here in Arizona. Well, slightly less warm is more accurate. That fall has finally settled in makes my heart sing. Summer is over, I’m back in the seasons that fit me best. And that are especially conducive to my religious work. National... Read more
I used to be a boy. Was a boy for the majority of my life, until this year when whatever makes gender do what gender does switched and tumbled and turned toward ‘girl’. Which was weird and disconcerting and terrifying, honestly. My expression of myself – lace, ruffles, obnoxious colors, dresses – all stayed the same. Which was off-putting to plenty of people but wonderful to me. When I first felt myself sliding into girlhood, I resisted. Partially because I... Read more
Last night, when a friend and I were discussing blogging and the Pagan blogosphere, I mentioned that I was grateful that I was able to write at Patheos. I've been able to reach a lot more people than I would have if I just kept puttering away over on my personal blog. And I've gotten exposure to a lot more variety of opinions and practices being here than if I were to just go off on my own. Read more
Ancestor worship is simply not something I currently do, and this post is about why I will not ever revere my ancestors of blood and bone/biological ancestry. Working with the dead, communing with the ancestors - I am not saying those practices are worthless. This post is about why I, personally, cannot work with my ancestors. Read more
Most of the time, I want to do ritual with other people. I long for a physical religious community. I try to build it as best I can (stumbling along the way). Community is important to me. But some rituals are just better in private. Read more
Keeping in mind my last post – I’m going to attempt to write this as simply as I can. Last night I had quite the experience. At this point in my life, after dealing with spirit activity and being bothered by faeries for most of my life (as a child, as a teen, as a young adult), I’m rather used to the symptoms that can arise. Especially with the gods are near. Shaking legs, shaking hands, inability to focus or... Read more
I love words. That should be obvious, since I’m a blogger and writer. Words are fascinating. They shape so much of our lives, the very way we think, our entire worldview and culture. It’s so exciting! I love big, tongue-tangling words and I love tiny, simple, day-to-day words. I also dislike how language can be used to exclude and alienate people. Most of the time, we see this exclusion and ‘silver tower’ syndrome in academia. Academia is infamous for creating... Read more
This space is for the not-human, and you are so very human. This post is going to be an interpretation of this myth over on the Otherfaith blog. I’m hoping this will help some of the new devotees understand what an interpretation can look like, and also to give my own ideas of what the story means. You can meander over to the story to read it, but I’ll be providing a brief summary of the piece here all the... Read more
There’s been a lot of discussion about racism and Paganism lately. Important discussions, necessary discussions. I haven’t written a lot about this issue and I don’t plan to. My approach is pretty simple – we live in a racist society. Pagandom does not exist in a vacuum. We are not magically exempt from the problems we live with in daily life. The reason I haven’t written a lot about this is because I’m white. I learned about privilege (before I... Read more
Aine Llewellyn - Dalliances with Deities
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