Travel gives you an opportunity to raise the magickal energy, but you have to take the opportunity and set the intent to direct it, to make meaningful choices. Read more
April 10, 2019
Liminality, Mastery, And Interdependence
April 10, 2019 By Tom Swiss
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As I write this I am in that most liminal of places, in transit between one continent and another, between heaven and earth: in an Air Canada 777 headed for Sydney, Australia, where I’ll be judging a karate tournament this weekend. Sometime while I tried to sleep, we crossed the Equator, my first time in the Southern hemisphere. Read more
March 28, 2019
Teaching Within Learning Within Teaching Within Learning
March 28, 2019 By Tom Swiss
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The idea that one reaches mastery and then stops learning and starts teaching might be useful in some types of mythological narrative where the focus is on the novice student’s journey. But as a guide to one’s own personal development — in the martial arts, in magic, in one’s profession, whatever — it is sorely lacking. Read more
March 15, 2019
“Shaman” Is A Fine Word For A Shaman
March 15, 2019 By Tom Swiss
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"Priest" can be a specific term referring to Catholic religious figures but it also has a general meaning. The same is true of "shaman" — and that general meaning is quite different from "priest". A shaman and a priest do not fill the same roles. Read more
February 28, 2019
How The Gods And Heroes Operate
February 28, 2019 By Tom Swiss
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The exploits of superheroes can inspire the merely mortal citizens of their comic book and movie worlds to be better, braver, and more empathetic. But more than that: their power is such that they can reach out from those fictional universes into ours, and inspire us in measurable ways. Read more
February 10, 2019
Why The Moment Calls For Magic
February 10, 2019 By Tom Swiss
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In O’Keefe’s view, throughout human history magic has served as a form of resistance the conformity-inducing sort of religion. And thus, it seems to me, magic is also suited to a time when we need a political resistance. Read more
January 26, 2019
Patton Oswalt’s Twitter Act Of Kindness
January 26, 2019 By Tom Swiss
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There is a Buddhist practice of viewing each person as having been your mother or father in a past life. One does not have to believe in a literal transmigration of souls to see the wisdom that the strangers we scream at are not so different from the people we love. Read more
January 21, 2019
Masculinity On The Razor’s Edge
January 21, 2019 By Tom Swiss
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But it seems to me that if we’re going to talk about the problems of “traditional masculinity ideology”, we need to see how that ideology is sometimes an attempt (however flawed) to deal with real problems in men’s lives. And if we want men to “do better”, we have to propose alternative solutions to those problems. Read more
January 20, 2019
MAGA Teens, The Native Elder, And Our Projections
January 20, 2019 By Tom Swiss
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Did a teen being dumb about sharing space become, in our national insanity, the screen on which we project our fears about each other? It would be ironic, but somehow fitting of the moment — not to mention a lovely bit of Erisian Chaos — if this entire news-cycle dominating incident was precipitated by a teenage boy not realizing that he was in the way of someone who wanted to use the stairs behind him. Read more
January 9, 2019
Heathen Sailors, LGBT Shintōists, And Sexy Biceps
January 9, 2019 By Tom Swiss
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Welcome to the first Random Wednesday of 2019, a randomly appearing feature of short bits here on The Zen Pagan. Heathen Sailors A small group of Heathen sailors on the USS John C. Stennis, a Nimitz-class nuclear-powered supercarrier, are now holding lay services in the ship’s chapel. Aviation Electrician’s Mate 2nd Class Joshua Wood has been appointed Heathen “lay leader” for the carrier and authorized to facilitate sumbels. It’s unclear how many Heathen sailors are joining him, but it’s a… Read more
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