Here’s a link to an article from The Wall Street Journal titled “A California Drought: Not Enough Children.” It points out California’s declining birth rate and immigration patterns (including state to state immigration, not just people from other countries) as a predictor of future problems. And it quotes Stephen Levy of the Center for Continuing Study of the California Economy, who said “unless the birthrate picks up, we are going to need more immigrants. If neither happens, we are going... Read more

Yesterday I started a blog post on the most recent internet dustup over the label “Pagan.” I got a page into it before I decided I didn’t really want to stoke this particular fire again. Then today I came across this piece by P. Sufenas Virius Lupus titled “Bringing Back the Gods.” He referenced Sam Webster’s call to rebuild the cult of the gods, then asked “why are so many Pagans leaving them out of their theology?” As a hard... Read more

David Dashifen Kees had an excellent question in response to my last post on Sam Webster’s call to rebuild the cult of the gods: What about deities for whom we lack evidence of an ancient cult or for those which are not ancient in and of themselves? How would you recommend going about the recreation of a cult for these powers? This is an important question, particularly for those of us who follow a Celtic-oriented path. The original Druids kept... Read more

The wonderful folks of the Assembly of the Sacred Wheel now have the audio files from the two panel discussions at Between the Worlds available for download. They run about an hour and 40 minutes each: I put them on my phone and I’ve been listening to them while commuting. Get them and listen to them – they’re excellent. I want to call your attention to one segment in the Friday morning panel “The Turning Of The Ages: What To... Read more

Fellow OBOD Druid Dana Driscoll has a nice piece on her blog on the hows and whys of creating altars. It’s quite good and has some interesting pictures of her own altars. Go read Dana’s piece and then come back. I don’t want to duplicate what she’s already said – I want to continue the discussion and address the question of what we actually do with the altars we build. An altar is a mystical center: a Maen Log, an... Read more

There is something seductive about the beginning of a new Gregorian year. The New Year’s Eve countdown, the changing of the calendar, and the end of the Winter holidays all whisper that the old has gone and the new has arrived and with it a clean slate where anything is possible. We know that setting goals is a key step in creating the changes we want to bring about, and so many of us will engage in the tradition of... Read more

sheep grazing at Avebury The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries is a survey of encounters with faeries, banshees, corrigans and other varieties of fae in the Celtic lands of Ireland, Scotland, Wales, the Isle of Man, Cornwall and Brittany. It was first published in 1911; most of the accounts it relates are from the 19th century. It is a book that likely could not be written today, in part because most of the believers in faeries have died off, and in... Read more

Last night’s Denton CUUPS Winter Solstice ritual was everything I had hoped it would be:  a good turnout, lots of participation, the presence of the gods and ancestors, and a very strong response to the Call to Action in the main working.  For those of you who couldn’t be there, here’s the Call to Action.  The Old Gods and Goddesses are still calling… We all know what happens when a species’ predators are removed from its environment. Reproduction increases, resources... Read more

I learned compartmentalization as a small child. I was an “A” student who loved books and learning and I attended a small fundamentalist church where the preacher was a high school dropout and no one in the congregation had been to college. I lived on a small farm and I attended suburban public schools with the children of middle class professionals. I loved sports but I wasn’t very good at them. I liked cooking and needlework and other things boys... Read more