As a storyteller, I tend to do much of my thinking through stories. In the much-vexed ongoing discussion of cultural appropriation it seemed to me that abstract theorizing may well benefit from the wisdom of narrative. So I began casting around for a story that treated with the topic. Read more
When you engage with a troll, the troll always wins. Do not feed the trolls. Read more
I hold these things to be sacred and holy: all life, the earth, nature, our selves, our bodies, our relationships. Read more
Yes, atheist Paganism is "a thing." And it should neither be confused with secularism nor reduced to humanism. Read more
There will never be a clean separation between Pagans and Polytheists. There will always be people who move back and forth between the two communities, like children of a joint custody arrangement. And we will continue to use much of the same vocabulary, albeit using many of the same words to mean different things. We will continue to bump up against each other in online and IRL forums. So silence is not an option. Read more
Gathered in one place were Catholics and Protestants, Buddhists and Jains, Muslims and Sikhs, Hindus and Pagans, members of various indigenous faiths and others. The sentiment that I heard expressed repeatedly over the long weekend was: "What if the world were like this? What if the Parliament of the World's Religions represented reality?" Read more
Sound bites from the Parliament of the World's Religions in Salt Lake City Read more
I am very excited to be attending the Parliament of World Religions starting this Thursday in Salt Lake City. I'm honored to be speaking on a panel of Pagans responding to Pope Francis' environmental encyclical. I'm looking forward to some great Pagan programming, as well as learning from those of other faiths. Read more
Do those who are attempting to revive a dead culture have the right to claim vicarious victimhood? Culturally all of us are much closer to the perpetrators than to the victims of the cultural crimes that we are claiming to be vicarious victims of. We’re all of us -- eclectic Neo-Pagans and polytheistic reconstructionists -- in the same boat. And living in a pluralistic society, we have to get used to the idea that others will use our images and our words in ways that are sacred to them, but alien to us. Read more
This is where I write about my spirituality. This is where I write about holy things. And this image is holy to me. Now maybe you can’t appreciate the connections I’ve drawn. I don’t expect you to. But I do expect you to respect the fact that the connection exists for me. It is as real and as holy to me as your relationship to your gods is to you. Read more
The Allergic Pagan
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In