Do we worship the same gods? Over at Patheos, Star Foster recently published an interesting post on the “Problem of the Personal Experience”. In it she explains that she recently turned down the opportunity to edit a devotional anthology to the god Hephaistos, who she worships. She writes: “The reason I couldn’t do it is because I have very strong personal relationship with Hephaistos. And all of those submissions bore little relevance to my personal relationship to him.” She goes... Read more
For a few months now, I’ve been following the weekly Mysteria Misc. Maxima posts at the Invocatio blog, “a blog *mostly* about Western esotericism”, which is written by former journalist turned religious studies student and esotericist Sarah Veale. Veale brings together other blog posts and news items of interest to esotercists and the like. There are usually items that I think would be of interest to Pagans, so I want to draw your attention to it and invite you to check... Read more
I’ve come across several good posts on other blogs recently that tie in with subjects that I have tackled here. Happiness and Mormons First, AskMormonGirl, Joanna Brooks, tackles the myth of Mormon happiness: “… there are lots of sad, anxious, and depressed Mormons too — though you might never tell from the outside. There are even Mormons who shut down vast regions of their inner lives so as not to risk harboring a feeling that doesn’t measure up. For the... Read more
I can’t believe I am diving into this linguistic swamp again, but here goes. Recently, I’ve been engaging in some online discussions with polytheists and the “Pagan enough” debate was aroused, of course, and it got me thinking. One person in particular, L.S., insisted that the term “Pagan” is meaningless and should be abandoned — an argument that I find particularly frustrating as someone who identifies primarily as Pagan, not with any specific Pagan tradition. Someone else wrote that “Pagan”... Read more
Recently Teo Bishop wrote a wonderful post about his experience of doing ritual in nature. (Sometimes I think I should rename this blog “What I think about awesome things Teo Bishop has said”.) Anyway, in his post, Teo writes that when he performs a certain ritual indoors in the city, he lifts his hands toward the ceiling and imagines that he is feeling the warmth of the sun. He imagines that his feet have become roots, extending into the earth,... Read more
If you haven’t already, check out B.T. Newberg’s new blog at Pagan Square: Pagan, Naturally: Reverence in a Naturalistic World. His first post, Who’s a Naturalistic Pagan?, features yours truly, plus several people way cooler than me. Also check out his most recent post, What’s a Naturalistic Pagan?. Read more
Jungians are sometimes accused of being ego-centric navel gazers in the Pagan community. There is a certain truth to this. Jung wrote that “every step towards fuller consciousness removes [a man] further from his original, purely animal participation mystique with the herd, from submersion in a common unconsciousness. Every step forward means tearing oneself loose from the maternal womb of unconsciousness in which the mass of men dwells. [… He] has estranged himself from the mass of men who live... Read more
My wife pointed this out to me this morning: the first red leaf. The first sign of autumn in my little piece of what Ruby Sara calls the “fiercely wild urban midwest”. “How frail a thing is Beauty,” I said, “when every breath She gives the vagrant summer But swifter woos her death. For his the star dust troubles, For this have ages rolled; To deck the wood for bridal And slay her with the cold.” — Willa Cather, “I... Read more
In Part 1, I traced the development of Unitarianism since the early 19th century to the present and argued that UUism has, since its inception, been characterized by what William Channing called a “too partial culture of the mind.” In Part 2, I argued that the “one needful thing” for contemporary humanistic UUism is a transformative experience of self-transcendence. I also hinted that this might be needed in humanistic/naturalistic Paganism. In response to Part 2, D.T. Strain wrote about his... Read more
I just returned from a trip to San Francisco. In addition to getting some business done, I took advantage of many of the attractions that the area has to offer. My first stop was at the Japanese Tea Garden in the Golden Gate Park. In my wanderings around the Gorden Gate Park, I came across this wonderful piece of Art Nouveau. I offer this for all the Dionysians out there. I also went to the Asian Art Museum, which is... Read more
The Allergic Pagan
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