Teaching World History II The voice weaves inthrough my open doorwayfrom the classroom down the hall. Like talking wind,or seeking vines,or blackberry canes with thorns. He’s a midway barker,a sword swallower,a fairground carnival ride. Yesterday, I saw him juggleOne orange, partly eatenA paper-clip, anda single battered copy ofGlencoe’s World History II. Child Left Behind You ain’t got nothing to teachme. No, I don’t got to sit down. I hate this class. I hate this school.Why can’t I go to the... Read more

I have been enjoying the conversation swirling among several Pagan blogs, at least partly in response to the Spontaneous Blog Carnival that I wrote about on MetaPagan. It has taken a while–about six months, by my rough reckoning–but MetaPagan seems to be doing what its founders hoped it would do: facilitate a thoughtful, intelligent conversation in the Pagan blogosphere. Comments are up–cross-posting is up–and Pagans are listening deeply to one another as we talk about things that matter to us.... Read more

Here’s our final offering to the Triple Goddess of poetry, one from our good friend, Penny Novack. TRIBALISM Certain hills painted our feetColors of growing, colors of birth.Certain springs drank us into them,Watered our children and made them strong.Certain rivers asked us questionsWe answered according to season.Certain seasons taught us the songsWe sang to our little onesBare-painted by the hills at our feet. Blessed Imbolc, everyone. Let us rejoice in the returning light! Read more

I grew up listening to my father read at the supper table: he read short essays by Mark Twain, Tolkien’s The Hobbit, and poetry–lots, and lots of poetry. Sandburg and Whitman, and, my favorite when I was young, Robert Frost. I can’t remember a time when this poem wasn’t one of my favorites. I love it both because of the message–one that’s especially appropriate to this blog, perhaps–and because of all the hours I have spent scrambling on and over... Read more

I’ve been contacted this week by a reporter on religion, who wants to talk about my Quaker Paganism. I feel clear about going ahead and speaking to this man–I’m not going to represent “all Friends everywhere”, and I’m certainly not going to represent all Pagans. In fact, I may not be representing anyone at all, including myself; I can’t be sure that, after the most recent exchange of emails, this fellow will still think me worth an interview. Turns out... Read more

Erik, of Executive Pagan, has been thinking about things missing in his spiritual life as a Pagan. In his last post, he writes, “my paganism is more in the head and heart than in the hands,” and I found myself nodding vigorously. I know that, as a new Pagan, in an area of Vermont that back then had even fewer Pagans than it does today, it sometimes seemed just easier to stay home, do my own personal trance journeys, and... Read more

In case you missed it, after a five month hiatus, Deo’s Shadow is back! Deo’s Shadow has no competition in the world of Pagan talk podcasting. (In the world of Pagan musical podcasting, I must put in a word for Jason Pitzl-Waters’ A Darker Shade of Pagan, a really professional mix of “Pagan Sounds from the Underground”; and more and more Pagans have already discovered the high-quality Pagan news commentary of Jason’s Wild Hunt blog.) A long hiatus from Deo’s... Read more

This quote from Carl McColman, in a post called “Holy Agnosis“, really caught my eye. I think it says something that all of us who practice experiential, mystical religions should bear in mind (though he frames it in a limited way, in terms of Christian sanctity vs. heresy): Gnosis is holy insofar as it refers to an experiential encounter with Divine Grace; it becomes heretical when it functions as a wedge that separates the “haves” from the “have nots,” thereby... Read more

I was recently at Jeff Lilly’s Druid Journal, and a post and comments thread there evoked something from me I’ve been trying to say since summer, though it has never come out right before. Maybe it isn’t right even yet, but it’s the closest I’ve come… As we’ve written before, Peter and I deliberately sought out workshops and activities at New England Yearly Meeting this past August that we hoped would be challenging to us. Obviously, we’re what would have... Read more