Alison Lilly, chief cat herder at No Unsacred Place, has a piece at her own Meadowsweet and Myrrh blog where she says “I found myself striving to become an Expert In All Things Pagan.” Alison explains in detail the many and varied expectations she felt as she grew beyond beginning Paganism. She suspects she isn’t alone, and I agree. Even if you ignore the difference in “flavors” of Paganism (Wicca, Druidry, Heathenry, etc.), there are still multiple ideas about what... Read more

the Land, the Sky and the Sea – all part of Nature crossposted with No Unsacred Place Last week fellow No Unsacred Place contributor Lupa wrote an excellent piece titled “We Do Not Return to Nature. We Are Already There.” If you haven’t already read it I encourage you to do so. The title is self-explanatory, and in the first paragraph she says: I would bet that the majority of people who think of “nature” are thinking of open areas... Read more

I remember seeing The Wicker Man as a teenager. It was an edited-for-television version, but it still grabbed me – I can clearly remember thinking “that is so cool” as the Wicker Man burned. On his live album As Nature Intended Damh the Bard introduces a song from The Wicker Man by humorously asking “Why do we like that film? It’s not really the best publicity for the Pagan community!” I think part of us is in love with the... Read more

I’ve seen quite a bit in the Pagan blogosphere the past few days on the connection between practice and belief. That relationship is most clearly expressed in B.T. Newberg’s interview with Rev. Michael J Dangler of ADF at his Humanistic Paganism blog. Dangler says simply “practice begets belief.” He’s right, but I want to dig a little deeper into how and why he’s right. Practice can beget belief, but more frequently practice begets experience and experience begets belief. We engage... Read more

With apologies to Shakespeare, I come to bury Joe Paterno, not to praise him. For the benefit of readers who actively ignore sports in general and college football in particular I’ll offer this summary. For over 40 years Joe Paterno was head football coach at Penn State University. In a sport with tremendous pressure to win at any cost and countless examples of high-level cheating, he was known for running a clean program. He contributed millions to charity and by... Read more

crossposted with Denton Unitarian Universalist Fellowship Tom Stovall This morning’s service at Denton UU was titled “Sacred Space: How Architecture Affects Our Worship Experience.” The guest speaker was Tom Stovall, a retired architect who specialized in church design during his career, and a member of the UU Fellowship of Tyler. I don’t normally review Sunday services, but Tom had some things to say I think are relevant to UUs (who usually have buildings) and to Pagans (who usually don’t). Tom... Read more

This past weekend I made a trip to Houston to visit with the Northwest Community UU Church. On Sunday I helped Cynthia present her service on UU and Islam and on Saturday we had a dinner meeting with some folks who are interested in starting a CUUPS chapter. During our conversation someone said “we don’t know much about doing rituals, we just find stuff we like that seems to work.” Unless you join a teaching coven or other highly structured... Read more

If you’re going to be in the North Texas area, please join Denton CUUPS for our Imbolc Circle two weeks from tonight, on January 28. Click on the image for a larger version of the flyer. Read more

crossposted with No Unsacred Place It is no exaggeration to say that Pagans love trees. Our ancestors had tree alphabets and World Trees. We admire trees, photograph them and hug them. We hold sacred gatherings under them and among them. At times we commune with them. They are beautiful, strong, resilient and supportive of other life. some trees live, some died So it was saddening to hear news reports that last year’s drought killed as many as 500 million trees,... Read more