I found a way in to post - courtesy of the error I made on my last blog post. I'll correct it when I leave Maine. But again, that post that should have been there is here. Enjoy
It's an Open Thread for now. I take off for the West Coast tomorrow. Business as usual soon. Once I get a new computer.
Meanwhile Midcoast Maine is wonderful. Crisp and chilly but sunny.
Recently in Pagan Culture Category
Tuesday November 17, 2009
Categories: Pagan Culture
Open Thread
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Filed Under: pagan culture
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Add to StumbleUponSunday November 15, 2009
Categories: Pagan Culture
Something nice for this morning
Courtesy of Balloon Juice, a very nice piece by Faun.
Filed Under: music, pagan culture
Monday November 2, 2009
Categories: Pagan Culture
Energy Shielding
Wicca 101 class went very well the day after I returned from
the Southwest - despite my having forgotten to make copies of Tables of Correspondence, which was to
be a big part of the intended lesson.
Since we had been working with energy, I made a quick change, and we
worked on shielding instead - something I had planned for the next class.
Filed Under: pagan culture, Wicca 101
Thursday October 29, 2009
Categories: Pagan Culture, Pagan Holidays and Sabbats
Halloween and Samhain
The commercialization of Christmas has rightly bothered many Christians, but my take on the commercialization of Halloween is more benign. The past few decades have seen an extraordinary explosion of Halloween kitsch, usually of the cheapest plastic employing the crudest designs. No better statement about corporate America's soulless lust to sell at any cost could possibly be imagined. The only thing they haven't figured out how to make a lot of bucks on is Thanksgiving. Consequently, when I went into a store yesterday to buy candy for Saturday's little visitors, I noticed the Christmas stuff was already taking over an aisle.
Filed Under: pagan culture, pagan holidays and sabbats
Wednesday October 28, 2009
Categories: Current Events, Pagan Culture
Must Pagans Be "Ultra Liberals"?
This issue has
repeatedly arisen on this blog, perhaps because people think, mistakenly, that
I am an 'ultra liberal.' The issue
arose most recently as a question for the special Beliefnet post I am
developing. I won't use it for
that purpose - there are more basic issues pertaining to Pagans as a spiritual
community and I have limited space - but it raises interesting questions.
Filed Under: current events, pagan culture
Sunday October 11, 2009
Categories: Pagan Culture
Cool Pagan Puzzle-and-More- Site
Wicca Within the Web Activity Book speaks for itself, and has good stuff for adults and also kids. Particularly cool for folks who like puzzles. ...
Filed Under: pagan culture
Saturday October 10, 2009
Categories: Pagan Culture, Pagan Spirituality
Men, Masculinity, and Spirit
There has been a lot of good stuff written about the Goddess, Goddesses, and the Divine Feminine,. The Wiccan Goddess is first among equals in traditional Wiccan circles., and in my view, should be. Certainly She has been the most...
Friday October 9, 2009
Is Ritual Necessary for Sustainability?
Last night Joan Marler of the Institute of Archaeomythology --- gave a fascinating talk about the likelihood Europe's first agricultural peoples had developed writing 8,000 years ago, long before Sumer. It is called the "Danube Script." The evidence she offered...
Monday October 5, 2009
Going Native, Part 2.
Magick? This brings me to Pitch's second point, that in many ways really underlies his first. Wild species are more magickally powerful than tame. When you have a message from Spirit that your work should focus on native species, as...
Sunday October 4, 2009
Going Native, Part 1
When I posted on Mabon, I suggested we need to get in better touch with the energies and denizens of the places where we live. Only then could we really honor the spirits of the earth. I mentioned salmon, grapes,...
Wednesday September 23, 2009
Categories: Pagan Culture, Pagan Spirituality
The Wiccan Rede and the Ten Commandments
Last night we discussed the meaning of the Wiccan Rede: An It Harm None, Do as Ye Will. Its tone and message is very different from much monotheistic teaching, such as the Ten Commandments. Superficially read the Rede simply says,...
Wednesday September 23, 2009
Categories: Pagan Culture, Pagan Spirituality
The First 'Wicca 101' Session
We had our first Wicca 101 class last night, on Mabon, the Equinox. Along with the Priestess who is co-teaching, we had five students: two with previous experience, the others without. A sixth, also a newbie, will join us at...
Tuesday September 22, 2009
Categories: Pagan Culture, Pagan Holidays and Sabbats, Pagan Rituals and Festivals, Pagan Spirituality
Of Sabbats, Wheels, and Place
Our Mabon and Samhain discussions have prompted this post. Wicca's roots are in northwestern Europe, a land of strong seasons like those in much of the US. It was easy to integrate the agricultural cycle in the British Isles, and...
Wednesday September 16, 2009
Liberalism: A Pagan Perspective, Part III.
This final section is where I think the bigger picture of how a Pagan perspective helps the modern world better address its problems comes together. Look below the fold if you like political theory......
Monday September 14, 2009
A Pagan Take on Liberalism, Part I.
The political posts that have often filled this blog have led me bit by bit into wondering how a Pagan perspective, taken seriously, changes the way we think about politics and society. The more I delved into this, the more...
Tuesday September 8, 2009
Categories: Pagan Culture, Pagan Spirituality
The Nature of Myth - And More Good Stuff by Robert Bringhurst
Pagan cultures have always made use of two sources of knowledge about the world, which Karen Armstrong defined in her book The Battle for God as mythos and logos. Modern societies, including most modern religion, limits itself to one, logos. ...
Wednesday September 2, 2009
Categories: Pagan Culture
The Locust- A Wonderful Maori Song
The Locust is a wonderful, and very Pagan, Maori song. Enjoy.With many thanks to Clare for turning me on to it....
Tuesday August 25, 2009
Categories: Pagan Culture, Pagan Spirituality
Wicca 101 Outline
Here is the projected course of instruction for my Wicca 101 class, starting this in September. Each numbered section will be at least one week long, sometimes longer. It is biased towards a broadly British Traditionalist approach, and also is...
Monday August 24, 2009
Categories: Books, Pagan Culture
Robert Bringhurst's "The Tree of Meaning"
When I first became a Pagan I thought that we were primarily a new/old religious perspective that would better integrate human beings with the world and feminine values. I still think that, but just what that means has continued to...
Tuesday August 18, 2009
Categories: Pagan Culture
Good Pagan Music Source
When I was just becoming a Pagan, one of the things I loved most was the music. Fortunately I lived in the San Francisco Bay Area, whch was one of the centers for a lot of good musicians, including the...
Tuesday August 18, 2009
Categories: Pagan Culture, Pagan News
Attention Pagan Scholars!
Coreopsis A Journal of Myth and Theatre is issuing a call for Papers on Shamanism, Trance, and Shamanic Performance.Look interesting? Go on over and take a look. Their submission guidelines are here.They also have an interesting list of forthcoming...
Monday August 17, 2009
A Pagan Reason Not to Shop at Whole Foods
John Mackey, the dishonest CEO of Whole Foods, has caused quite a stir with his foolish editorial about why we do not need health care reform. Many people, myself included, have decided to boycott the chain until Mackey is looking...
Friday August 14, 2009
Categories: Pagan Culture, Pagan Spirituality
Grumpy Musings on Lineages
I've been thinking about what lineages mean and don't mean in Wicca. In a world where the Sacred can be approached from almost any direction, what does being Faery or Gardnerian or Alexandrian or Reclaiming mean compared to being self-initiated?...
Wednesday August 5, 2009
A Lammas Song
Our Lammas ritual was the best I have attended in years. Among its many charms was a song we sang: The Harvest, by Rick Hamouris. It really captures the spirit of the time for me, and I pass it along....
Monday August 3, 2009
Wiccans and Opposing Evil
David E. Oliver asked whether Wiccans would cast a curse to " stop someone who is going to committ murder? Sometimes doing harm is only way to fight evil. Do pagans believe in evil?" I promised him a thread, and...
Friday July 31, 2009
Lammas Rituals
Lammas, or Lughnasadh, is one of the most important Pagan Sabbats, midway between Beltane and Samhain. Here are some ideas for two Lammas rituals you might want to try if you have no other gathering to attend. Even if you...
Thursday July 30, 2009
Thoughts About Lammas
Lammas, or Lughnasad, has always been one of my favorite Sabbats. It is celebrated from July 31 to August 2, generally, and we are fortunate this year that all the dates are on the weekend. Lammas is the first and...
Thursday July 23, 2009
The Ancestors
Normal 0 0 1 47 273 2 1 335 11.1282 0 0 0 Caroline Kenner has a guest blog over at Wild Hunt, and has provided a fascinating post on the ancestors . Kenner raises an issue that I...
Saturday July 18, 2009
Paganism and America's Future, Part III: The Sacredness of Nature
This is the last of a three part post where I am trying to suggest how we as a community can contribute the most to our wider society. Along with the Sacred Feminine and role of women, the other religious...
Friday July 10, 2009
Paganism and America's Future, Part II: The Divine Feminine
Beginning in the '60s there has been a marked change in the way many people view women and the feminine, and this shift quickly influenced American religion. After a lull, feminism began to regain its moral energy in the 1960s. ...
Tuesday July 7, 2009
Paganism and America's Future: Part I.
New Age Cowboy sparked some additional thoughts through his comments in my previous post, thoughts that I think merit a post all their own. Or rather a series of three. This one as foundational, another will follow on the Sacred...
Saturday June 13, 2009
Spirit of Place
While visiting Walla Walla, Washington, where I had taught for some years at Whitman College, I took a side trip over to northeast Oregon, one of the most beautiful and least known parts of our country. There I visited the...
Saturday June 13, 2009
Categories: Pagan Culture
Acupuncture, Chi and Strokes
While I was in Portland visiting a Pagan friend who was studying acupuncture, I mentioned my stroke last year, and my belief that I had recovered so quickly because of my many years of energy work, aided by my friend...
Tuesday June 2, 2009
Drew Dellinger's Poem on Thomas Berry
Given the negativity that so easily can come to seem the defining feature of this society, it's good to be reminded of why so many of us push back against the forces of dark ignorance. Drew Dellinger's poem is a...
Thursday May 28, 2009
Categories: Pagan Culture, Personal
Anniversary of a Stroke
This week is an anniversary. A year ago I got up one morning, and felt a little light headed in a way that was unfamiliar. For some reason I wondered at the time whether it might be a stroke, and...
Wednesday May 27, 2009
Thoughts on Reading Derrick Jensen
When I first was made to know, in no uncertain terms, that the earth and everything in it was vastly more sentient than I had ever imagined, I looked long and hard for writings that could shed more light on...
Tuesday May 26, 2009
Common Practices vs. Common Beliefs
The first open thread is wonderful. I will try and stay out of these open threads, but occasionally 'mine' some themes for my own purposes. This is one of them.I want to reverse one of the arguments given by a...
Thursday May 21, 2009
Categories: Pagan Culture, Pagan News
Opportunities for Pagan Travel
With thanks to eagle-eyed Valerie, Paula Jean West has just been named the Pagan Travel Examiner at San Francisco's Examiner.com. Another step forward in our increasing respectabity! Please pay her a visit....
Friday May 15, 2009
Categories: Pagan Culture, Pagan Rituals and Festivals
12 Magic(k) Spells
Beliefnet has just published their first 'Pagan gallery' - 12 Magic SpellsSome are more workings than spells in the narrower sense, and bring in several traditions of folk magick. I have not used any of these particular spells or workings...
Tuesday May 12, 2009
Categories: Books, Environment, Interfaith, Nature, Pagan Culture, Pagan Spirituality, Social and Political Theory, Spirituality
Atheists, Christians, and Pagans
The recent plethora of books by militant atheists such as Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, and Christopher Hitchens is beginning to generate a good deal of return fire from people writing within the Christian tradition, either as sophisticated adherents or writers...
Sunday May 10, 2009
Animal Intelligence- Much More Than Most Imagined
Alex, Snowball, Betty - recently birds have been transforming the world we live in - as we discover what had been in front of us for thousands of years. The transformation is in our perceptions and understanding. ...
Sunday May 10, 2009
A Day at Mt. Tamalpais
Saturday was Pagan pride Day in Berkeley. Many dear friends of mine participated, and if someone sends me an account, I'll pass it along. But after much dithering one way and the other, I did not go....
Friday May 8, 2009
Categories: Books, Pagan Culture
Worthy Book, Worthy Blog
Anne Hill has a good review of a worthy new Pagan book that helps us find grounds for good living that are not rooted in someone else's commandment:, The Other Side of Virtue, by Brendan Myers. http://gnosiscafe.com/gcblog/2009/04/30/living-la-vida-virtuosa/ Check it out,...
Friday May 1, 2009
Merry May!
Up at 4:30 to celebrate the May and 'bring in' the sun. I learned (on my blog!) that Sebastopol has Morris dancers as well: Apple Tree Morris. So I got to sleep later, saved a lot of driving, supported my...
Thursday April 30, 2009
Categories: Pagan Culture, Pagan Holidays and Sabbats, Pagan Rituals and Festivals, Pagan Spirituality
Pagan Celebrations of Beltane and May Day
Tonight is Beltane, and tomorrow is May Day. Two good discussions of this time are by Circle Sanctuary and Witchvox. Beltane and tomorrow is May Day. Beltane and May Day comprise one of our two most important Sabbats, the other...
Monday April 27, 2009
Morris Dancers Dancing in the May
Beltane is approaching, and though I'm on the road right now to Southern California, I will be back to celebrate the dawn on May 1, arriving well before dawn at Berkeley's Inspiration Point in Tilden Park . There, every year,...
Monday April 27, 2009
Categories: Pagan Culture, Pagan Spirituality
Feeling Energy
When I offered my post on seeing 'energy,' one reader told me she would like me to write about how to feel it. This is my answer to her request...
Friday April 24, 2009
Is this Blog Too Political?
I have been taken to task for my curt response to Mike who responded to my post on John Boehner and torture. My reply has grown to being a small post of its own that I hope will interest a...
Friday April 24, 2009
Witchcraft Persecution Today
Eagle-eyed Valerie Voigt has again sent me an important link. It is to a UN publication on contemporary persecution of witches. It is calledWitchcraft Allegations, Refugee Protection and Human Rights: A Review of the Evidence, produced by the United Nations...
Monday April 20, 2009
Digging Deeper on Starhawk's Call for Apologies
When I was reading Starhawk's argument for why the Pope should apologize, for past crimes by the Catholic Church, I was bothered by a key paragraph that raised other issues. When I wrote my piece in response to David Gibson's...
Wednesday April 15, 2009
Categories: Art, Pagan Culture
A Pagan Poem: Catechism for a Witch's Child
Years ago I came across the following poem, by J. L. Stanley. I no longer remember quite how I came across it, but have always been grateful I did. I want to share it now..When they ask to see your...
Tuesday April 14, 2009
Starhawk and the Pope
Starhawk called upon Pope Benedict to apologize to Witches and other Pagans for past Church actions against Pagans and women in today's Washington Post. In response David Gibson at Pontifications Blog here at Beliefnet pointed out that she was behind...
Thursday April 9, 2009
In Praise of Nature Poetry
Nature poetry is important in helping us reconnect with the living earth, an experience even some Pagans have not personally experienced (yet). National Poetry Month is a fine time to reflect on this, and share some poems. Our society...
Tuesday April 7, 2009
Categories: Pagan Culture, Pagan Spirituality
War on Drugs Leads to Religious Persecution
Hecate reports on how the war on drugs in Mexico has spilled over into indiscriminate attacks on shrines to Santa Muerte "Saint Death," whose shrines are popular among those who live in violent neighborhoods, including some drug dealers. Because of...
Saturday March 28, 2009
Categories: Pagan Culture, Pagan Spirituality
Will the Real Pagan Theology Please Stand Up?
Troy Camplin's quip "I've always told people there are in fact 6 billion religions on earth" in a recent blog comment inspires this post. When I first became a Witch I was bothered by the existence of 'traditions' considerably younger...
Wednesday March 25, 2009
Genocide Prevention Ritual
Given that even Fundamentalist Jews can endorse and presumably practice genocide, it is refreshing to see what Pagans are doing in this context. April is Genocide Prevention Month because it is the month when many genocidal events began. An interfaith...
Monday March 23, 2009
Of Frogs and Love of the Earth
Today I read "The Race to Save the Frogs" by Jennifer S. Holland in the April National Geographic. Her article describes the horrendous impact the fungal disease chytrid is having on the world's amphibians, killing off entire species. Holland quotes...
Sunday March 22, 2009
Cool Book: Linda Hogan's 'Dwellings'
I have just finished Linda Hogan's Dwellings. Hers is not a new book. It appeared in 1995, and I missed it then. I have been the poorer for my oversight. I stumbled across it in a bookstore -and picked it...
Tuesday March 17, 2009
Categories: Pagan Culture, Pagan Spirituality
The Perils of Pagan Clergy, Third (and Final?) Argument
I wonder whether many people's interest in having a Pagan clergy is because we have yet to really separate church from state adequately in this country. Other than legal issues caused by not adequately separating church and state, can any...
Friday March 13, 2009
The Perils of Pagan Clergy: Second Argument
This is my second reason for being very skeptical about the interest on so many pagans' part in our having a "clergy."Words have enormous power. We do not even need to go into a discussion of magick to see that...
Thursday March 12, 2009
Categories: Pagan Culture, Pagan Spirituality
Good Sex, Great Sex, Sacred Sex, and Pagans
A fracas is brewing in Good Hope, Alabama over the issue of God and sex. Seems some Christians are upset with the effort by other Christians to publicly discuss God and Great sex. I'm glad I am a bystander...
Tuesday March 10, 2009
The Perils of Pagan Clergy: First Argument
This is my first post on the issue of why I am very skeptical of having a Pagan clergy. I will come at it on an angle.To have an official 'clergy' is to have some organizational structure with authority to...
Tuesday March 3, 2009
Pagans can feel Pride at Headwaters Forest Celebration
While we are a small portion of America's population, on occasion we can be mighty. Ten years ago the Headwaters Forest in northern California was saved from the rape and pillage methods of logging by Texas financiers who took over...
Tuesday February 17, 2009
More Discussion on Spirit and Buying Local
I will return to Pantheacon issues shortly, but Holly Liebowitz Rossi over at Fresh Living wonders whether I am using the word 'spiritual' appropriately in my blog on shopping locally. This gives me an opportunity to explore this interesting question...
Saturday February 14, 2009
Categories: Pagan Culture
Pagan Authors Discuss the Gods
I sat on an authors' panel Llewellyn hosted today at Pantheacon. There were 10 of us taking questions from the audience about our relationship to deities., and we were a diverse lot, from many traditions, youngish to old, gay, straight,...
Thursday February 12, 2009
Categories: Pagan Culture
Going to Pantheacon!
Tomorrow I head off to Pantheacon, the largest Pagan gathering on the West Coast. It is always a treat to go and immerse myself in our larger community, the (statistically) 'normal', the granola, the techno, the weird, the geeky, the...
Wednesday February 11, 2009
The Spiritual Virtue in Buying Locally
For me, one of the hardest things about being a Pagan is living in a society where nothing has value in itself. Our world is believed to be made up of things - people occasionally exempted unless they are in...
Saturday February 7, 2009
Categories: Pagan Culture, Pagan Spirituality, Science and Technology, Social and Political Theory, Spirituality
Emergent Order in Science, Society and the Sacred
I've been spending the weekend at a conference on spontaneous orders, also known as complex adaptive, emergent, or self-organizing systems. In the human world what those terms, and some equivalent ones, point to is how certain kinds of order can...
Wednesday February 4, 2009
Of Religion and Politics: A Pagan View
The disturbing entry of right wing religion into American politics over the past few decades raises an important question for all of us with a spiritual commitment: how should our spirituality appropriately influence our lives as citizens? As citizens we...
Tuesday February 3, 2009
Are Wiccans Infiltrating Churches?
This morning a friend of mine in Denmark wrote asking me what I thought of an article titled 'Wicca Infiltrates the Churches,' by Catherine Edwards. Its author is quite alarmed at what she sees as unchristian influences seeking to undermine...
Sunday February 1, 2009
Categories: Current Events, Pagan Culture
Pitfalls of Success: A Caution for Pagans
We Pagans have made giant strides in public acceptance and in the numbers of Americans interested in our path. This is wonderful. But no good thing comes without at least a potential shadow. Our current financial crisis can help Pagan...
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About A Pagan's Blog
Gus diZerega is a political scientist/theorist with a PhD from the University of California at Berkeley. While living and working as an artist and craftsperson to finance his degree, he met and later studied with teachers in NeoPaganism, the earth religions more generally, and shamanic healing.
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