I’ve often wondered what it is that makes humans human. Is it our developed forebrains and opposable thumbs? We’ve named ourselves homo sapiens. We are the wise apes. We make tools. We make war. Eliade called us homo religiosus. We are the animals that bury our dead. Others have proposed that what makes us human is our self-consciousness. I believe that what makes us unique, alone among all the other animals on the planet, is our experience of being alone —... Read more
So spring has arrived. It’s beautiful. We have our windows open. Just in time for the spring equinox. Not that we won’t have one last freeze in the next few weeks, like nature’s own Walpurgis Night — the last ride of the spirits of winter. Nature is a tease. And right on time, my allergies are back. Yesterday I was walking around in a fog — and not one produced by allergy medication. I have yet to break out my... Read more
Jason Mankey recently posted an interesting essay about what he calls the “Pagan/Atheist alliance“. In his post, Jason raises the question whether Christians are, at least in some instances, the more natural ally of Pagans than atheists. He specifically has in mind those atheists who tend to mock all religion, seeming for sport. He also suggests that our Pagan values might require us to honor the Christian religious experience as much as our own. “When someone tells me they’ve been... Read more
Saturday night I went to the Hindu Holi festival at the Hindu Temple of Greater Chicago with my wife and kids. It was great. I was amazed by how friendly and welcoming everyone was. There were probably only 10 white faces there, including the four of us, and hundreds of Indians. People were throwing colored chalk in the air and going around a painting each other’s faces with it. Several complete strangers came up and added various colors to our... Read more
I recently had an online discussion with Rua Lupa following her guest post at Humanistic Paganism. Her question was whether a truly humanistic paganism would not be better off without gods — or god-talk. After much back-and-forth and the help of other contributors to the Comments discussion, I came to appreciate that (at least one of) Rua’s concerns with god-talk, even when it is intentionally metaphorical, is that it tempts us to project our own ideas onto the world, rather... Read more
In Pilgram at Tinker Creek, Annie Dillard describes a mystical experience in nature: “When her doctor took her bandages off and led her into the garden, the girl who was no longer blind saw ‘the tree with the lights in it.’ … one day I was walking along Tinker Creek thinking of nothing at all and I saw the tree with the lights in it. I saw the backyard cedar where the mourning doves roost charged and transfigured, each cell... Read more
Here in the Midwest we have had an unusually warm winter. In fact, with only a couple days of actual snow accumulation, we really haven’t had a winter at all. Then I walked outside this morning, the sun was shining, it was around 65 degrees, and the birds were chirping. It felt like the world was singing! O sweet spontaneous earth, how often have the doting fingers of prurient philosophers pinched and poked thee, has the naughty thumb of science... Read more
I attended many rituals over over the 3 day Pantheacon event. I want to talk about each of them briefly and then talk a little about what it is like to attend so many rituals in such a short period. Day 1: Friday (starting the in the afternoon) Opening Ritual by Glenn Turner The first ritual was what I would call a generic Pagan ritual. There was zero preparation — a fact which Glenn just laughed off, but pisses me... Read more
“Am I Pagan?” Oh my god! Am I really writing about this again? This happens every time I have any significant contact with the Pagan community. Maybe that should tell me something. This Pantheacon had a panel discussion about the question of Pagan identity. The moderator started the discussion by describing the Drew Jacob controversy from last year. I should be grateful for the controversy, because it introduced me to blogs and got me blogging. Anyway, although the constituency of... Read more
This is my 100th post! I started this project last July. I published over 30 posts in August (I was a little manic that month) and between 2 and 4 a week since then. This has been a great spiritual exercise. I have never had difficulty writing (hence my 30+ posts in one month). But I have always had difficulty writing journals. For one thing, I am self-conscious about my mediocre handwriting and need to edit with a word processor. ... Read more
The Allergic Pagan
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