At this year’s Mystic South, Courtney Weber told me I should be on TikTok.
I don’t want to be on TikTok. I did a couple of short-form videos on Instagram this year (that I cross-posted to Facebook) but while I’ve worked to develop my speaking skills and my video skills, at the end of the day I’m a writer. I want to write, edit, and post text. And when I’m on the receiving end, I want to read text, not watch videos. Studies say the average person can read at twice the rate of viewing/listening – I’m a lot faster than that.
But I’m going to have to give it some serious thought.
Me complaining about the drop in blog traffic has become an annual affair. This is the fifth straight year blog traffic is down from the previous year. This will be my lowest year since 2013, my first year on Patheos. The usual reasons apply: blogging in general is down. More people – especially younger people – prefer video. Social media suppresses links, to keep people on their apps.
And now AI is adding to the problem. I used to get a lot of traffic from Google and other search engines. Now, people read the “AI Summary” at the top of the results and never click on the links below.
I could move to Substack or to Patreon – other writers seem to be getting good (or at least, better) results there. I could do more video. Everybody seems to be doing a podcast these days. I don’t think podcasting would be a good fit for me, but you never know.
I’m getting close to retirement from my paying job (I plan to work all of 2026 – I’ve made no decisions beyond that). Before I become a full-time Druid I need to evaluate my public-facing work and figure out the best ways to present it. Expect to see more experimental stuff next year, though as I write this I have no firm plans.
But I’m sure of one thing: I’m not going away. As long as I have something to say I’ll find a place to say it. And I expect I’ll have something to say until I take up permanent residence in the Otherworld.
With all that said, it’s time to look at four posts from this year that didn’t get the response I expected. The posts that make this feature each year tend to be either obscure topics, or things I didn’t do a good job of presenting. But I’m not sure what happened with these. They’re all foundational topics for Pagans – things we need to revisit periodically, even if we already know them well. If you missed them the first time, I hope you’ll read them now.
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The four best posts of 2024 that you didn’t read
Continuing Education For Pagans (September 2025, #53 in readership)
Education is a process that is never finished. If we keep looking, we can keep learning more and more about the sacred topics and trends that are important to us, and in doing so, we can make our personal and group practices deeper and more meaningful.
If something works for you and you’re happy with it, I’m happy for you. I’m long past the age where the words “new and improved” are anything more than a sales gimmick. At the same time, my Paganism is a living religion and I want to continue learning and growing for as long as I can.
A Modern Pagan Case For Reincarnation (August 2025, #54 in readership)
What comes after death is one of the Big Questions of Life and I can’t help speculating about it. The fact that the loudest voices in our culture baselessly threaten us with eternal damnation makes it more than simple curiosity. The only thing I’m certain of is that the Christian and Islamic fundamentalists are wrong. No one will suffer eternal torment after death – even the people we’d like to send there.
My own experiences and reflections have convinced me that after death, I will spend some time in the Otherworld and then I’ll return here to continue my work of learning and growing and helping make the world a better place.
Reincarnation is a reasonable possibility for what comes after death. Holding that belief helps me approach my own eventual death with comfort and confidence.
The Metaphysics of Divination (November 2025, #58 in readership)
You do not have to be born with 90th percentile psychic skills and intuitive abilities to read Tarot or to practice any other form of divination. Of course natural ability will help, but what matters most is what you do with the gifts you have. A person with average talents who works and studies diligently can learn to read Tarot and get good, helpful, reliable results – far better than people with “gifts” who never develop them.
The ones with extraordinary gifts who work extraordinarily hard? Those are the diviners of legend.
But the rest of us can do just fine, if we study and practice.
The Divinity Of Nature (October 2025, #64 in readership)
Nature is our source and our sustenance. We are a part of Nature – not the head and not the center, but one part among many. We are connected to all the other parts and all of them are connected to us. Nature is not fallen – Nature is good and holy.
In the words of the Reformed Druids of North America, Nature is good. And likewise, Nature is good.
I don’t love Nature because I’m a Pagan. I’m a Pagan because I love Nature.
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