Pantheacon is the world’s largest indoor Pagan gathering, exceeded only by the largest outdoor festivals like Pagan Spirit Gathering. Each year’s lineup of speakers, workshops, rituals and entertainment (not to mention connecting face to face with people you only know via the Internet) is both impressive and broad. Most people who go say it’s awesome. I’ve never been… one of these years I’ll get my travel budget and vacation time aligned so I can. Unfortunately, for the second straight year... Read more

The Tale of Gwion Bach, told as the Story for All Ages at the February 5 Denton UU Sunday Service on “The Cauldron of Transformation.” Thanks to Jake Jacobson for the video editing. Read more

Our mothers are our first and most important teachers. Stephen T. Abell has a new essay on his “Letters from Midgard” blog on Patheos titled “Thinking of Heathen Women.” The subtitle is “the perspective can challenge the unprepared.” Heathenry – the recreation of Norse and Germanic beliefs and practices – is different from most other Pagan religions, to the point that many Heathens don’t consider themselves Pagans. Heathens place strong emphasis on the bonds of family and tribe and on... Read more

I spent the last three days working on a long, philosophical, metaphysical blog post, trying to build a framework to better understand and explain some of my beliefs and practices. I finally got it to the point where I was happy with it yesterday afternoon, but when I went to upload it I ran into some technical issues. It was late in the day and I had a meeting at Denton UU last night, so rather than fight through the... Read more

If you’re in the North Texas area, please join us on Saturday, February 25 from 2:00 till 5:00 for our “Introduction to Modern Pagan Religion” class. We’ll cover the beliefs and practices of our ancient ancestors, the origins of Wicca and other modern Pagan religions (and the differences between them), basic concepts shared by most Pagans today, the structure of group rituals and how to lead them, and the essentials of personal spiritual practice. This will be the third edition... Read more

Charles Darwin This is the seventh annual Evolution Weekend and Clergy Letter Project, which asks ministers of all denominations to speak on the importance of evolution and the lack of conflict between religion and science. Though I am not clergy (at least not in the usual sense) I feel the need to add my voice to this project. Last September I wrote on The Great Story of Evolution and why it’s important to us as UUs, Pagans and other religious... Read more

UU Pagans – Faith in Action Sometimes I forget how good I have it. Denton CUUPS had been in existence for three years when I arrived. There were still a few people in the Denton UU Fellowship who were skeptical about Paganism in a UU church, but by the time I was elected Congregational President in 2005 that was pretty much over. Our current minister is very Pagan-friendly and attends many of our circles, our long-time members understand us and... Read more

photo by Ashley Crouch We all have religious experiences. We all experience that most basic and universal phenomenon: wonder and awe. We experience the presence of a goddess or god, of our ancestors, or of the spirits of Nature. We experience the Unity of All. We have dreams, visions, or intuitions. We see omens and auspices. These experiences happen to everyone. But an experience in isolation has no meaning. It is simply data: a collection of observations and sensations. We... Read more

The Denton Unitarian Universalist Fellowship February 5, 2012 Note:  I was originally scheduled to present this service last November.  On the preceding Saturday evening I got violently ill.  I thank Rev. Pam Wat for filling in for me with about three hours’ notice, and I thank the DUUF Worship Committee for the opportunity to lead this service this morning. Introduction – the Celtic Hallows In the legend of Arthur, a boy becomes king when he pulls a sword from a... Read more