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
January 9, 2019
Heathen Sailors, LGBT Shintōists, And Sexy Biceps
January 9, 2019 By Tom Swiss
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January 5, 2019
A Sigil For Political-Artistic Liberation In 2019
January 5, 2019 By Tom Swiss
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We sometimes think of creativity as a light, playful thing, an airy-fairy luxury for the good times. But this is not so. Creativity is essential for liberation. More and more we hear the slogan "A better world is possible"; to envision that world takes an act of creative imagination. Read more
January 1, 2019
Mastering Time And Space With The Bullet Journal
January 1, 2019 By Tom Swiss
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Just as it is a genuine act of witchcraft to give a friend with an upset stomach a cup of ginger tea, and just as prosperity magick can bump up against matters as mundane as balancing your checkbook, there is a magickal attitude with which to approach your calendar and to-do list. Read more
December 21, 2018
Not Much Light But It Beats The Darkness
December 21, 2018 By Tom Swiss
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Are we on the watch for the light, or for the darkness? The whole phenomenon of the seasons and the solstices is, in effect, a question of which direction we look. Read more
December 2, 2018
George H.W. Bush And The Banality Of Evil
December 2, 2018 By Tom Swiss
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I woke up yesterday morning to the news that President Bush — the first President Bush — had died. The NPR reporter told a story about how Bush the First had told her that the happiest time of his life was not his Presidency or his campaign, but when he returned from World War II and was going back to school, with his wife and son at home waiting for him. I’m sure the hearts of the ghosts of the estimated 13,000 Iraqi civilians who died in Gulf War I and the 70,000 who died in its aftermath were suitably warmed by this tale of domestic bliss. Read more
November 29, 2018
Sandman At 30: The Birth Of A Pantheon
November 29, 2018 By Tom Swiss
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Deities are either invented, created, or discovered. And that is a process of story-telling. We invent them in our stories, or create them via our stories, or we spread the discovery of them through our stories. Stories make gods. Read more
November 18, 2018
Jonestown at 40: Religious and Political Lessons
November 18, 2018 By Tom Swiss
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For those of us in the business of unusual religious practices, the fortieth anniversary of the Jonestown Massacre is a good opportunity to pause and reflect on how we protect against dangerous cultish behavior. And to contemplate how movements that seem to have noble ends can end up deadly authoritarian nightmares. Read more
November 11, 2018
Armistice Day, Veterans’ Day
November 11, 2018 By Tom Swiss
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What we owe our veterans is not some “thank you for your service” platitude. What we owe them is a deep apology and compensation for the way our government has used the lives of men and women as geopolitical tools for the benefit of our ruling classes. Read more
November 5, 2018
Should You Bother To Vote?
November 5, 2018 By Tom Swiss
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It is ironic and problematic that this style of republic, structured from the start to restrict democracy and preserve the power of the wealthy, has become synonymous with “democracy” in modern conversation. In general, your vote matters little. That’s how the system was designed from the start. But we won’t get better if we don’t exercise the tiny capacity we do have. Read more
October 29, 2018
The Veil And The Void
October 29, 2018 By Tom Swiss
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What if we thought of the veil between the worlds not as a separation between our physical realm and a realm made out of some more rarefied substance but as the boundary between the ordinary view of reality and that fuller view which sees that "form is emptiness, emptiness is form", as the Heart Sutra puts it? Read more
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