Full Moon Invocation adapted from Doreen Valientein Witchcraft For Tomorrow O Goddess of the Rounded Moon,The queen of all enchantments here,The wind is crying through the trees,As we invoke thee to appear. The cares of day departed are,The realm of night belongs to thee;And we in love and kinship joinWith all things that are wild and free. As powers of magic round us move,Now let time’s self dissolve and fade.Here in place between the worldsMay we be one with nature... Read more

Ireland – photo from NASA I freely admit to some mixed feelings on Saint Patrick’s Day. Saint Patrick is credited with converting Ireland to Christianity. As someone who wonders what the Western world would look like if monotheism hadn’t taken it over completely, I don’t see this as a good thing. Some have said that Pagans celebrating Saint Patrick’s Day would be like Native Americans celebrating Columbus Day. Except, as usual, our legends don’t exactly match up with the facts.... Read more

Star Foster at Patheos has a blog post from Saturday titled “When Bad Things Happen to Good Pagans” where she attempts to understand the earthquake in Japan. She asks why the gods of Shinto (the native religion of Japan) allowed this to happen… and she can’t find an answer. We live in a culture dominated by the Abrahamic monotheistic religions. As a child, I was taught that “He’s got the whole world in his hands” – God is omniscient, omnipresent... Read more

Anne Hill at Blog o’ Gnosis has an interesting piece up called “Does Your Religion Pass the Briefcase Test?” It’s inspired by a story about Scientology and some absurd levels of secrecy: When you reach an exalted level of Scientology, you bring your own locked briefcase to a desk, someone puts a few sheets of paper into it, you go to a secure room, unlock the briefcase, and then you can read these documents—once—before returning them the same way. I... Read more

Legitimate authority needs no enforcement mechanism – its power flows from the rightness of its decisions. Arbitrary authority is meaningless without the power to enforce its decisions. And many authority issues have nothing to do with laws and the power of government. What power do authorities in the common world have – what can they really do? Soup Nazis may be able to keep you from getting their soup, but they can’t throw you in jail. I think many of... Read more

I have authority issues. That doesn’t exactly make me unique. Pagans and Unitarian Universalists tend towards anti-authoritarian, anti-hierarchical views. Combine the two and those views can verge toward anarchy… which creates another set of problems. In any case, while I have no intention of psychoanalyzing myself on the blog, I do think there’s some value in looking deeper into authority and our relationship with it. Definitions The consensus of several online dictionaries is that “authority” means “the right to make... Read more

Sermon – Dangerous Religion by John BeckettFirst Jefferson Unitarian Universalist ChurchMarch 6, 2011 Introduction – Lukewarm Religion I grew up in a small, conservative Baptist church, where they preached the Bible was the literal and inerrant Word of God. When I got old enough to start thinking about that, I realized I had some issues with what they were preaching – issues that eventually led to me become a Unitarian Universalist. I imagine many of you had similar experiences. Some... Read more

I enjoy hearing about why people believe what they believe. That’s a question many people can’t answer, because they’ve never seriously questioned what they’ve always been taught. While browsing the Patheos website, I came across this essay titled “Control is an Illusion – Why I’m a Calvinist.” It’s by David French, whose bio says “is a lawyer, writer, soldier, and veteran of the Iraq war.” As a war veteran, French has experienced things most of us – thankfully – never... Read more

photo from utahskies.org. I don’t have the equipment to take pictures like this, plus I was out to exercise and be in Nature, not to take pictures The waning crescent Moon rose low in the Southeastern sky, Venus shining brilliantly three fingers ahead of it, two of many lights in the night sky. Then the Eastern horizon lightened and the Sun rose until only it and these two remained. We are a part of this great cosmic dance of bright... Read more

The title segment of the most recent Standing Stone and Garden Gate podcast concerns reasonable doubt. Brendan Myers does an excellent job of explaining the role of doubt in examining and interpreting our beliefs and experiences. The philosophical tools he presents are invaluable in the attempt to live a life of integrity, but I believe their ultimate usefulness is more limited than Brendan apparently does. Brendan talks about the concept of “reasonable doubt,” best known in the criminal legal system.... Read more