Yesterday was the memorial service for James Stevens. DUUF Minister Emeritus Rev. Don Fielding led the service, and we were fortunate to have him – try finding a UU minister on the weekend of General Assembly. Everyone who wasn’t going to GA was going on vacation or was otherwise unavailable. We were also fortunate to have him because he did a wonderful job paying tribute to a man he never met. Our newly-expanded sanctuary was overflowing with Pagans, bikers, black... Read more

Last weekend’s Intermediate Pagan Practice class covered deities: common concepts of God, Pagan views of God/Goddess and gods and goddesses, and how we can relate to and interact with them. We began by asking everyone “what do you think when I say ‘God’?” The responses ranged from traditional monotheism (we had one Christian in the group, albeit a very liberal, universalist Christian) to descriptions I would describe as “New Age” to hard polytheism to some concepts that wouldn’t be out... Read more

Hail, O Sun and God of the Sun. We welcome your presenceas we celebrate the Solstice,the longest day,the pinnacle of your power;when you stand still in the Northern skybefore you begin your journey Southwardand the days grow shorter. From the dawn of time,men and women of every landhave honored, reverenced, and worshipped you,knowing that without your light and warmth,there could be no life on the Earth. Today, we who call ourselves Paganscontinue this ancient and sacred tradition.In stone circles,on mountains... Read more

We’re only celebrating once this year – there’s no Solstice event at White Rock Lake. But we’re continuing the practice of starting at noon. If you’re in the area, come out and experience it for yourself – I can promise you it’s not like any other Pagan ritual you’re going to see (unless you find yourself in a group of Kemetics… and maybe not even then). Click the image for a larger version of the flyer. Read more

James Stevens died earlier today after a long, painful battle with cancer. We who counted him as a friend are sad to lose him, but we’re thankful he’s no longer in pain. The thing I’ll remember most about James is his generosity. He opened his land to Pagans, motorcycle enthusiasts, historical re-enactors, and just about anyone who asked. He didn’t just let us use his land, he improved it for us, mowing it, building picnic tables, and of course, dragging... Read more

I try to stay out of politics – I find the process frustrating and the results mostly annoying. But unless you live in a monastery (and maybe not even then) it is impossible to completely separate religion, culture, and politics. And that brings me to this essay by Mark Morford, columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle. Morford is the most entertaining columnist I’ve come across in recent years. He can match Ann Coulter bomb for bomb, but this piece is... Read more

If you’ve spent any time in a Christian environment, you’ve heard someone say “God answers all our prayers, but sometimes the answer is ‘no’.” The implication is that what we asked for wasn’t in our best interests, so our Divine Parent wouldn’t let us ride our tricycle on the freeway. You see the same thing in magical environments. A spell or working fails and someone says “it wasn’t your karma to have that.” As Phil Hind pointed out in Condensed... Read more

In preparing for our second Intermediate Pagan Practice class, I pulled John Michael Greer’s A World Full of Gods off the shelf. It was published in 2005 and I read it in 2006, both before I began this blog. I’ve mentioned it in the past, but I’ve never given it its own blog entry. Reading through it today, I see that was a mistake. Here’s the bottom line: this is far and away the best book on contemporary polytheistic Pagan... Read more

The Dallas Morning News Religion Blog is a shadow of its former self, but today their “Texas Faith” panel addressed the BP oil spill disaster. There are no Pagans on the panel, so I added my thoughts in the comments section. I’m repeating them here. Modern Pagans realize that we were not placed on the Earth, we grew out of it. Thus, the Earth is not merely our home, it’s our Mother. We should treat it with the same respect... Read more

My only first-hand exposure to chaos magic has been listening to a few college-aged guys talk about how they do rituals based on the characters from Gilligan’s Island and Star Trek. I assumed they were being bizarre for the sake of being bizarre and went on with my studies and practice. But a couple months ago, I came across this very good guest essay on The Wild Hunt by writer and anthropologist Amy Hale. One of the books she recommended... Read more