Occasionally I hear someone say “if there is no God then life has no meaning.” I’m a theist, but I don’t agree. Finding meaning in life doesn’t require Gods, much less any one particular God. It just requires a choice. Read more
Occasionally I hear someone say “if there is no God then life has no meaning.” I’m a theist, but I don’t agree. Finding meaning in life doesn’t require Gods, much less any one particular God. It just requires a choice. Read more
A meme going around talks about vampires being repelled by crosses and how that works. As someone who’s a vampire fan and who actively works to decenter Christianity in religious discussions, I find this meme fascinating, and worth diving into more deeply. Read more
Recently there’ve been several people who, after making a name for themselves as witches or other Pagan-adjacent people, suddenly reverted to Christianity. Some are cynical about these reversions, but people often change religions simply because their beliefs change. Here are six kinds of people who revert out of Paganism and witchcraft. Read more
Paganism is impossible to precisely define, but that doesn’t mean it’s anything anybody says it is. The irreligious and the none-of-the-aboves are not Pagan. Call them what they are and leave “Pagan” for those who actually practice Pagan religions. Read more
I’m sick of all the “tough love” on social media. They say “I’m just being honest” but they aren’t – they’re trying to make themselves feel superior and being cruel in the process. If you’ve been hearing tough love and it’s just making things worse, read on. Read more
In December 1946, author and Christian apologist C.S. Lewis published an essay in Strand Magazine titled A Christmas Sermon for Pagans in which he argued for the moral and ethical superiority of Christianity. He distinguished between “Pagans” (“the backward people in the remote districts who had not yet been converted” and to whom Lewis showed a modicum of respect, albeit in a patronizing way) and the “post-Christian men” of his era to whom his sermon was directed. On Christmas Day... Read more
The reading for 2024 is quite positive, but also quite challenging. This is not a year for sitting on the sidelines: not in your personal life, not in your spiritual life, and not in your work to build a better world here and now. Read more
The Top 10 posts of 2023 on Under the Ancient Oaks: divination, a Storm Goddess, Pagan clothing and jewelry, and a lot about the conflicts going on in this world and in the Otherworld. Read more
While I’ve come to accept that sometimes the Pagan community just doesn’t care about something as much as I do, there are times when I find myself screaming “this is important! Why are you not reading this?!” Read more
Dark academia and secret societies, free will and fate. Witches, vampires, Tarot, and poison. What would you do to make your dreams a reality? Here are the top five novels I read in 2023. Read more
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