Last week I came across a word that, ten years ago, I would never have thought to see in a Pagan context: “faith”. In fact, I came across it several times: The first time I noticed it was after reading Christine Kraemer’s post “Opening a Pagan Theological Dialogue” at the Sermon in the Mound. Encouraging Pagan theo/alogy is a subject dear to my heart. Christine provided a link to her book on Amazon, Seeking the Mystery: Introduction to Pagan Theologies.... Read more
When I left the Mormon church, I felt a strong need to justify myself. A Mormon can request to have their name removed from the church records by putting the request in writing. You don’t have to state your reason, but I wanted to, so I wrote a lengthy letter (10 pages) itemizing my issues. I had issues with Mormon dogma (specifically is patriarchy and its Christology) and with the LDS Church’s failure to come to terms with the less... Read more
I have a confession to make. Yes, I love Christmas. I’m Pagan, and I love Christmas — not just Yule or the Winter Solstice (although that is part of it) — I love Christmas. We just brought in our live Christmas tree and I’m listening to “Silent Night” and “Rocking Around the Christmas Tree” and Alvin and the Chipmunks’ “Christmas Time is Here” on the radio. My love of Christmas is not politically correct in Pagan circles — this is... Read more
In an excellent essay entitled, “The New Old Paganism”, Ronald Hutton reviews the history of “magic” as a concept among academicians. Starting with James Frazer, magic was defined in contradistinction to religion, the latter consisting of petitioning supernatural powers for favors and praising them, the former consisting of human manipulation of supernatural powers. Later, Ruth Benedict posited a continuum on which both religion and magic exist. Magic continued thereafter to be distinguished by “the concrete specificity of its goals, a... Read more
Magic is no instrument Magic is the end — Leonard Cohen The issue of magic came up in the comments following a recent post about being embarrassed by some parts of Paganism. This is also a topic that Drew Jacob has taken up recenlty on his site Rogue Priest. Magic is a vague term that has been used to describe a wide array of cultural practices, from sleight of hand (legedermain) to summoning demons, from healing with herbs to divination... Read more
“You will be ashamed because of the sacred oaks in which you have delighted; you shall blush because of the gardens that you have chosen.” — Isaiah 1:29 In a previous post, I wrote about “Being Embarrassed by Paganism”. I’ve been surprised at the responses. While some people took it as an attempt to perpetuate the “pagan hierarchy”, a surprising percentage expressed sympathy. Among the commenters were Humanistic/naturalistic Pagans, polytheists and Recons, Neopagans and witches. Drew Jacob responded twice in... Read more
In my last post, I wrote about “Being Ashamed by Paganism” (which was really about “embarrassment” not “shame”). For me, the most interesting and challenging response came from Alison Leigh Lilly, who suggested that embarrassment can be “an invitation to growth”. Alison discusses her own experience of embarrassment (at poorly executed ritual) and being the subject of someone else’s embarrassment (because of her enthusiasm). I agree with Alison that my embarrassment says more about me than it does about the... Read more
Years ago, when I was deciding whether to leave the Mormon church, one of the recurring thoughts I had was that, by continuing to associate with the Mormon church, I was (mis-)representing to the world that I shared all the same beliefs and the same ordering of values as the Mormon church. I felt that, the Mormon church no longer represented me, so it was disingenuous for me to go on representing the Mormon church. To put it bluntly, I... Read more
[UPDATE 6/16/15: Jung’s Collected Works can now be downloaded from Scribd.com.] Christmas has come early for this Jungian Pagan. I have been on the hunt for Jung’s writings on the Internet and have not met with much luck … until now. Finding certain publications by Jung is very easy, but Jung was a prolific writer. His Collected Works span 18 volumes, not including the bibliography and general index. While it is easy to lay hands on collections of excerpts of... Read more
John P. Dourley is my favorite interpreter of Jung. Author of numerous books on Jung, including A Strategy for a Loss of Faith, The Psyche as Sacrament, and On Behalf of the Mystical Fool: Jung on the Religious Situation. You can read a couple of his essays online: “The Foundational Elements of a Jungian Spirituality” (Scribd) and “Jung and the Recall of the Gods” (.pdf). My favorite, however, is his book, Goddess, Mother of the Trinity (1991). Unfortunately the book is... Read more
The Allergic Pagan
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