Messy Religion<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Fellow No Unsacred Place columnist Juniper has a new essay titled \u201cThis Gift, This Sacrifice\u201d about the offerings she made during a recent Hecate\u2019s Night\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2011\/12\/messy-religion.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Messy Religion\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Fellow No Unsacred Place columnist Juniper has a new essay titled \u201cThis Gift, This Sacrifice\u201d about the offerings she made during a recent Hecate\u2019s Night\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2011\/12\/messy-religion.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"John Beckett\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-12-05T22:26:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"John Beckett\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"John Beckett\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2011\/12\/messy-religion.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2011\/12\/messy-religion.html\",\"name\":\"Messy Religion\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2011-12-05T22:26:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2011-12-05T22:26:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#\/schema\/person\/b4c8980dc36f971434424c304ca429ad\"},\"description\":\"Fellow No Unsacred Place columnist Juniper has a new essay titled \u201cThis Gift, This Sacrifice\u201d about the offerings she made during a recent Hecate\u2019s Night\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2011\/12\/messy-religion.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2011\/12\/messy-religion.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2011\/12\/messy-religion.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Messy Religion\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/\",\"name\":\"John Beckett\",\"description\":\"Musings of a Druid, Pagan, and Unitarian Universalist.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#\/schema\/person\/b4c8980dc36f971434424c304ca429ad\",\"name\":\"John Beckett\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0f50bfa2a79f70103847fe75540bb29c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0f50bfa2a79f70103847fe75540bb29c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"John Beckett\"},\"description\":\"I grew up in Tennessee with the woods right outside my back door. 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{"id":180,"date":"2011-12-05T22:26:00","date_gmt":"2011-12-05T22:26:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2011\/12\/messy-religion\/"},"modified":"2011-12-05T22:26:00","modified_gmt":"2011-12-05T22:26:00","slug":"messy-religion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2011\/12\/messy-religion.html","title":{"rendered":"Messy Religion"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Fellow No Unsacred Place<\/i><\/a> columnist Juniper<\/a> has a new essay titled \u201c This Gift, This Sacrifice<\/a>\u201d about the offerings she made during a recent Hecate\u2019s Night ritual. I\u2019ve written about sacrifice<\/a> a few times recently and don\u2019t have anything more to add to that. What grabs me about Juniper\u2019s essay is the messiness of her rituals and her sacrifices.<\/p>\n

As a UU I\u2019m heir to a tradition of reason and learning. As a Druid I\u2019m heir to a tradition of culture. My faith is a reasoned faith. I may be a Pagan, but I\u2019m a civilized<\/i> Pagan\u2026 as are most of the Pagans I know. <\/p>\n

That\u2019s a good thing. We need civilization. We need the Intellect and the Will to guide our lives and to balance the evolutionary instincts which served our pre-human ancestors well but which are not helpful to our lives here and now. But if we listen only to reason, if our religion touches our heads and not our bodies then we\u2019re missing something \u2013 something important.<\/p>\n

When was the last time you got your hands dirty doing religious work? I don\u2019t mean metaphorically \u2013 I mean literally, grease-under-the-fingernails dirty? When was the last time a religious service got you hot and sweaty? When was the last time a religious observance got you cold and wet? If you can\u2019t remember then it\u2019s been too long.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t mean that our religious practices should be unpleasant (though sometimes they may be). There is sensual pleasure in running your fingers through moist soil, standing under the Midsummer Sun, or walking through the snow. \u201cAll acts of love and pleasure are my rituals\u201d means all acts, including but not limited to sexual acts.<\/p>\n

We grew out of the Earth. We are part of the Earth. The Earth is not neat and clean and comfortable and safe. The Earth has teeth<\/a>. If our religion \u2013 our beliefs and our practices \u2013 doesn\u2019t acknowledge and honor those physical connections then our religion is incomplete. If our religion isn\u2019t one of touch and taste and smell as well as one of sight and sound then our religion is incomplete. If our religion speaks to our God-soul and our Human-soul but not to our Animal-soul then our religion is incomplete. <\/p>\n

We are the heirs of the drummers and dancers. We are the heirs of the Lupercalia. We are the heirs of the Great Rite. Our religion may be cultured and reasoned, but at least occasionally, it should also be messy.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019ll excuse me, I have to go outside and get my hands dirty.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"