Hey! I missed our birthday! Oops. Quaker Pagan Reflections turned 1 year old on April 12. Not only that, but we’ve managed to post 60 entries over the year–a little better than the post-a-week goal that my serious blogger friends recommend. So hooray for us. And thank you for reading. Blessed be! Read more

It doesn’t feel entirely like a First Day if I don’t feel torn, rushed, and stressed after meeting for worship, by the need to zip home, grade a huge stack of papers, and batten down the hatches for another week of teaching. That said, I will say I am not complaining. Ours was a sleepy and somewhat restless meeting today, if I’m any judge. Still, I had a good meeting. Sitting in worship, listening to the sound of sleety rain... Read more

For Quakers, the most topical part of this essay is probably going to be towards the end, where I’m going to try to say at least a little about the current contretemps about the discriminatory FUM personnel policy, and how Quakers, as a community, are dealing with it. For Pagans, the most interesting bits may be some thoughts about creating peace even in the face of injustice. I’ll try not to ramble much, guys, but the issues are complex. Anyway,... Read more

More than anything, as a writer, I seem to be driven to find words for things for which I have no words. (To “eff” the ineffable, as I sometimes think of it to myself.) And words for the experience of Spirit are the hardest to find of any. Pagans have a real poverty of writings on the subject of experienced religion, in spite of our immersion in it. Quakers have more, but it is all very hard for me to... Read more

For those interested in coming together in Quaker/Pagan community this Memorial Day Weekend, The Huron Valley Friends Circle is hosting a gathering for Pagan Quakers and Quaker Pagans. The gathering will last from May 25–28 in Ann Arbor, Michigan; most events will take place at the Ann Arbor Friends Meetinghouse. “Are you a Quaker who experiences the Divine primarily through Nature, the Earth and Her seasons, the Divine Feminine, the Goddess and the God, or other pre-Christian Deities? Are you... Read more

A little while ago, in response to a comment I left on his blog, Brooklyn Quaker, Rich wondered “what a Quaker Pagan is. Is it somehow related to nontheism or to polytheism or to both or to neither?” and I threatened to make a long post here in reply. (I made a pretty long comment as it was, and poor Rich could be forgiven if the eyestrain alone keeps him from ever wanting to read further!) I’m not, however, feeling... Read more

WARNING. THE BLOG POST YOU ARE ABOUT TO READ CONTAINS HUMOR. IF ALLERGIC TO THIS SUBSTANCE, PLEASE DO NOT INGEST! So here it is, the eve of St. Patrick’s Day–well, technically the eve of the eve–and I find myself in the annual quandry–what to do about St. Patrick? You might not think St. Patrick would be much of a factor in my yearly calculations. After all, as a Quaker or a Pagan, what relationship could I possibly have with St.... Read more

My daughter has just returned from a trip to see her grandparents over her spring break. And we just concluded yet another of our ongoing mother-daughter debates on the future of the environment. “Debate” is a word that only applies because I’m her mom, mind you; this is an area where she knows enough more than I do that I pretty readily yield to her expertise–she just keeps arguing because, after all, she’s used to it. Comes with the age–though... Read more

I’m realizing that I’ve been holding back from commenting on the Quaker blogs I read lately. I don’t exactly “hold back” from commenting on Pagan blogs that I read. The conversation there seems to be a bit different. Pagan blogging seems, somehow, to take place in a larger “room” than Quaker blogging does. I suppose that makes sense, given how many more Pagans there are around than Quakers—over 400,000 in the United States alone , according to some recent data,... Read more

Two posts in one day? Holy Herne and Hecate, Batman, what is this blog coming to? It was SO GOOD to have a snow day close my school yesterday. Amazing what a little bit of time off can do for your soul… It may also be, if not amazing, a little odd for such a self-consciously Pagan Quaker to want to encourage you to read a post that ends by reflecting on what “we – – as His disciples –... Read more