John Michael Greer is the Grand Archdruid of the Ancient Order of Druids in America, a Druid in the Order of Bards Ovates and Druids, a Freemason, and a Bishop in the Universal Gnostic Church. He once said, only half jokingly “some people collect stamps. I collect initiations.” Couple that with Greer’s detailed study of Peak Oil and its implications for our relationship with the Earth and you have a very good background to write Mystery Teachings from the Living... Read more

A factory in Sweden in 1995.  A place I visited on business, but not part of the corporation I work for.  This was in January.  It was cold and dark. The corporation I work for has released its first Sustainability Report. It’s a public report, but I’m not going to link to it or tell you how to google it – I don’t mention my employer’s name anywhere on the internet. It’s not a hostile place to work (as corporations... Read more

West Kennet Long Barrow Lupa at No Unsacred Place has a very good essay titled “The Dangers of Talking Plants” where she rants (softly) against the bad science we see from many New Agers and more than a few Pagans. I encourage you to go read the whole thing, but I’ll repeat her closing paragraph. we can continue to have plant spirits and totems, and gods of the harvest and field. There’s nothing wrong with that. But let’s not use... Read more

Yesterday I set out to write a post on the nature of the gods, as should be evident by the quotes I pulled from Cat Treadwell, Teo Bishop and Alison Lilly. But as I got into it, it seemed much more urgent to write about the process by which we are developing our Pagan theology. I’m slowly learning to follow the flow of the Awen instead of fighting it, so that’s what I wrote. And now this post is already... Read more

There are millions of Pagans in the world and thousands of them have some presence on the internet. But only a few write deep reflections of a theological nature. When one of these Pagans publishes something I’ve been thinking about, I consider it a coincidence. Two is a trend. Three is a message, and time for further meditation and thought on my part. There have been three very good pieces this week on the nature of the gods. British Druid... Read more

One of the things I enjoy about the Olympics is seeing athletes in sports most people only watch once every four years. We get jaded watching millionaire players in the major TV sports and we miss the years of single-minded dedication that go into an attempt at reaching the Olympic games. Sport, at its best, shows us that we humans are capable of amazing feats. Sport teaches us lessons we can carry over to other areas of our lives. Running... Read more

Aidan Kelly at Patheos posted a challenging essay titled “The Craft Is Actually Hard Work, If You’re Serious.” I say “challenging” because it’s challenging some of my approaches to religion and spiritual practice. And if Aidan Kelly is challenging me, then I need to take a closer look. If you don’t know who Aidan Kelly is, you should. He was a co-founder of the New Reformed Orthodox Order of the Golden Dawn in the 1960s, earned a Ph.D in Theology,... Read more

Star Foster at Patheos has created a small uproar with a passionate post titled “I Reject Jesus Christ.” It’s a response to a condescending post by a Catholic blogger who explained why Pagans have it all wrong, including a blatantly erroneous insistence that Paganism is “a particularly strong form of Protestantism.” Responses to Star have been all over the board. Some have agreed with her and aired their own grievances against Christianity. A few insist Star’s problems with Christianity aren’t... Read more

It is fashionable in some circles to bash the myth of progress – the idea that things will continue to get better and better all the time. I’ve done it myself – in my last post I strongly implied it was one cause of the great problems of our world. But when I sat down to write about why the myth of progress is all wrong, I found myself in a difficult position. The myth of progress isn’t all wrong.... Read more