Syfy’s Magicians Series Serves As a Cautionary Tale to Would-Be Magicians

Last updated on: January 22, 2016 at 11:43 am By John Halstead

If SyFy's Magicians series goes the way of other television adaptations of sophisticated novels, then it will be dumbed-down to a battle with an external evil and a hackneyed warning against meddling with powers one does not understand. In contrast, while Lev Grossman's Magicians trilogy is a cautionary tale for would-be magicians, it offers a different kind of warning. It reminds us of the truth of those words which the mother of contemporary Paganism, Doreen Valiente, put into the mouth of the Goddess: "If that which you seek, you find not within yourself, you will never find it without." Read more

Simple Answers Have to Be Earned

Last updated on: January 22, 2016 at 3:52 pm By John Halstead

Simple answers have to earned -- earned by working through complexity. Simple answers which precede such wrestling with complexity are not earned, and therefore tend to me wrong -- or at least misleading. Read more

“Less Christian Than Thou”: Neo-Paganism and Polytheism Beyond the Christian Divide

Last updated on: January 14, 2016 at 11:41 am By John Halstead

Neo-Pagans and Polytheists -- have fundamentally different issues. Polytheism and Neo-Paganism don't just represent different answers to the same question, they represent different answers to different questions. I think much of the conflict between our two communities might arise from the failure to appreciate that each group is trying to be the answer to a different question. It’s become platitudinous to say that none of us have all the answers. But it is equally true that none of us have all the questions. If we can’t appreciate one another’s answers, perhaps we should begin by trying to appreciate each other’s questions. Read more

I’ve forgotten why I cared: The irrelevance of (un)belief in the gods

Last updated on: December 28, 2015 at 6:06 pm By John Halstead

Have you ever asked a question and then, in the course of the ensuring conversation, forgotten why you asked the question in the first place? I'm feeling like that. I've forgotten why I cared whether gods are real. Read more

7 Guidelines for Herding Pagan Cats

Last updated on: April 17, 2017 at 9:47 am By John Halstead

I don't know much about organizing people. But I did pick up a few things when facilitating the working group that drafted "A Pagan Community Statement on the Environment". Here are 7 things I learned. Read more

What’s On Your Pagan Calendar for 2016?

Last updated on: December 28, 2015 at 1:56 pm By John Halstead

What does your Pagan Calendar look like? What special days do you observe in addition to the traditional Wheel of the Year? Read more

My Eclectic Yuletide Ritual

Last updated on: December 24, 2015 at 2:05 pm By John Halstead

My Yuletide ritual this year began on the winter solstice and will culminate with the dawn of the sun on New Year’s day. This ritual has evolved over several years of trial and error and I have worked to integrate the Neo-Pagan winter solstice, Christian Christmas, and secular New Year celebration. Read more

7 Reasons Why Christmas is Part of My Pagan Wheel of the Year

Last updated on: December 24, 2015 at 11:43 am By John Halstead

1. Yule is NOT a minor sabbat. “Whenever I hear a Neo-Pagan say that the winter solstice is a ‘minor Sabbat’, I can’t help but roll my eyes. What makes it ‘minor’? The fact that Margaret Murray only listed the cross-quarters as witches’ sabbats? Because Gerald Gardner only added the quarter days as an afterthought? There are eight stations on the Neo-Pagan Wheel of the Year. Why would one spoke of a wheel be minor and another major, especially in... Read more

Join Taylor Ellwood of Magical Experiments and me tonight as we explore what atheist Paganism is

Last updated on: December 21, 2015 at 5:04 pm By John Halstead

Join Taylor Ellwood of Magical Experiments and me tonight at 6 p.m Pacific / 9 p.m. Eastern as we explore what atheist Paganism is. Read more

A Unitarian Wheel of the Year

Last updated on: December 13, 2015 at 11:50 pm By John Halstead

Vespers in the winter, the Flower Communion in the spring, Pride Day in the summer, and the Ingathering / Water Communion in the autumn constitute a kind of liturgical year or Wheel of the Year for our Unitarian congregation. Read more