I awoke very early this morning, from a combination of aches, pains, and troubled dreams.  Wandering through my house, I could hear very faintly the call of an owl, and despite the cold and the fact that I was wearing only pajamas,  I wandered out onto the back stoop to listen for them. It was 4:30 A.M. The stars were bright overhead, wearing their winter constellations, with Orion high to the south.  A quarter moon burned to the east, like... Read more

So I get to thinking, “I should go to a nice retreat at Woolman Hill,” and I notice one coming up on deepening worship. “Great!” I think to myself.  “I should try that!” And so I read the brochure.  And it reads in part, “What do you do to nurture your spirit? How regular are you in this practice?  If you are attending the retreat, please practice a spiritually nurturing activity for 20 minutes or more each day. If you... Read more

First, I want to say thank you for making me welcome among you.  You might not have, so I’m grateful–because I need to be here.  I didn’t become a Quaker to prove a point, and I didn’t become a Pagan because I love controversy.  Our shared culture often treats anyone who is not a Christian as a threat or a flake, and it has been a joy and a delight to be heard first, judged second (or even not at... Read more

I’m not sure if The Princess Bride was one of my daughter’s favorite movies when she was growing up or not, but I know that it has always been one of mine.  And today, in meeting for worship, a scene from The Princess Bride rose up in me as an answer to a spiritual question. All spiritual communities have their struggles.  Sometimes they are rooted in personal conflicts that divide a group; sometimes in the differing needs of a group’s... Read more

As a Quaker Pagan, I’m often accused (and, yes, that really is the word for it) by other Pagans of being a closet Christian.  Nope.  I am not now, nor have I ever been, a member of the Jesus Club.  Though hanging out with Quakers has given me a deepened awareness of how much there can be of value in Christianity, and being Quaker myself has taught me how to approach Christian messages by “listening in tongues,” I have yet... Read more

“Nature is not mute. It is man who is deaf.” – Terence Mckenna If we accept that land is alive, and has spirit and the ability to communicate to us how (and whether) it wants to relate to us, how do we find out what that is? I’ve said that I respect Andras’s family’s patience in learning to hear from their land before diving in to constructing sacred sites on it, and it’s something that I think Peter and I... Read more