Our Public Square topic on Patheos is is Sexuality. There’s an old joke that no matter how lofty a Pagan discussion begins, it always ends talking about food and sex! We’re a sensual, earthy people and sex is an important energy for all living things. Please check out the articles above and the upcoming blog posts on sexuality. Feel free to comment and add your own voice. We’ve also updated our video playlist on the bottom right of the Portal... Read more

I have to admit this is a private topic of wondrous amusement to me, often causing me to bait Christians that from their replies I might glean insight into their mind. Every response adds to my research and aids my reflection of human nature, informing the way religion manipulates ordinary people in their everyday life. Of course my poor victims are completely unaware that they are indulging such inquiry, which only adds to my amazement and fuels my amusement. With... Read more

I am on pins and needles waiting for a chance to see Alex Mar’s documentary “American Mystic”. It features Native American, Spiritualist and Pagan mystics searching for the divine. It looks absolutely fabulous and will most certainly be a film I will have to add to my collection. If you haven’t yet heard about it you can find the trailer here. This morning Jason over at the Wild Hunt (see the link in our news feed below) talked about an... Read more

Many non Pagans curiously ask me, “Do you cast spells?” To which replied “All the time.” Then they ask me “How can you believe in them and have faith that they will work.” To which I reply “Do you believe in prayer?” Personally I perceive prayer, ritual and spellcasting, as ways that the living, whilst here upon this physical plain, can petition and interact with Divinity, whatever their faith. Prayer I know well, thirteen years of convent education has left... Read more

Candle lit, incense wafting, salt blessed and anointed in oil I step into the bath. Herbal flowers scent the water and steam rises languorously. I meditate on things I’ve put behind me, things in my past, and bid them to stay there. I want room for fresh beginnings and don’t desire to be visited by ghosts of old disappointments. I let go of all the tension and frustration of the past, letting it leach out into the water and down... Read more

We tend to think of miracles as being Big. Huge. Gigantic. Something on the scale of King Kong climbing the Empire State building. Often we tend to discount the small miracles that change our lives in quiet, solid ways. In Jan of 2004 I was unhappily married, I’d quit my fast-food job and was having trouble with my anti-depressant medication. I’d had a rough few years. My dad had passed on after years of fighting colon cancer. I was at... Read more

I recently reconnected with an old friend of mine. As we were talking, she posed an interesting question. She asked if I thought that, as Pagans, it was required that we believe in miracles, in the sense that things happen supernaturally and without explanation. The answer is a qualified “no.” I think I do need to accept that there’s more out there that I don’t understand, but I don’t think that I have to believe that miracles are unsolvable mysteries.... Read more

Death when it visits is traumatic regardless of one’s chosen religion, however the way it resonates within the life of individuals is very much influenced by their faith and beliefs therein. Hence to venture comment with any degree of empathy is as difficult as commenting about pain, for one person simply cannot fathom anothers suffering. Therefore with respect I merely offer for your contemplation my personal understanding, ethos and experiences of death, born of the ‘gifts of the spirits’ given... Read more

I hope you’re enjoying the Oak and Holly blog, but as you sit sipping your tea, coffee, wine or Mtn Dew take a gander at our video playlist on the bottom right of the Pagan Portal page. We’ve updated it with some goodies. Not only do we have a vlog on Religious Literacy that complements Julie Maldonado’s excellent post on Pagan Apologetics, we also have a Lifetime Television special on Witches narrated by Anjelica Houston and featuring Janet Farrar and... Read more

Project Pagan Enough is an endeavour to engender  reform amongst Pagans; it was founded by Fire Lyte, a fellow blogger.  He  is of the opinion that although Pagans express the need for tolerance and understanding across the whole ecumenical plain, that hypocrisy languishes within our ranks, for we sorely lack this same level of generous tolerance when dealing with fellow members of the Pagan community. Personally from a Welsh perspective I find this to be very much an American issue , for here in the... Read more