Dowsing for Divinity
For Wiccans, witches, and many other Pagans, the sexual body is a site of religious practice, a place where we meet divinity flesh to flesh and heart to heart. Read more
For Wiccans, witches, and many other Pagans, the sexual body is a site of religious practice, a place where we meet divinity flesh to flesh and heart to heart. Read more
Frequently, people assume that talk of cultural appropriation means that no-one can ever use an idea from another culture. This is not what is meant by it at all. Read more
A fraud is someone who deliberately and knowingly seeks to deceive others. If you can't trust their word, it would be inadvisable to trust them about anything else. Read more
The biggest problem with this binary view of 100% good people & 100% bad people is that people tend to take the view that preventing abuse and rape is simply a matter of getting rid of the "few bad apples in the barrel". They think that if only we had a perfect means of identifying abusers and preventing them from getting in to the Pagan community, we would be able to fix this problem. If only we could eject abusers from the community once and for all when they were discovered to be abusers, they think. Read more
This is why we need the Pagan and Heathen Symposium Code of Conduct for all events. This is why we need to discuss consent culture and strive to create it in our Pagan communities. This is why "big name Pagans" need to speak out and condemn those who advocate for or commit abuse, and refuse to invite them to events, or attend events where they will be speaking. Read more
We have all been to rituals that fell flat, or didn't work as intended. We have all facilitated such rituals, and hopefully learnt from them. Public ritual doesn't have to be dull and lacking in transcendence, and it needn't involve a lot of standing around being bored. And it absolutely should be a transformative and meaningful experience that makes us feel more connected to the numinous, to Nature, to the gods, and to our community. Read more
A culture, and a religion, is a massively complex system of interlocking ideas, philosophies, symbols, and practices. Read more
This Fall I'm offering Paganism and the Body, a 14-week graduate-level online class in body theology and sexual ethics, at Cherry Hill Seminary. This may be the last time a class like this is available for some years, so if you're thinking about signing up, please do it soon! We start Sept. 12. Read more
One of the things I really like about polytheism is its inherent plurality. Gods and spirits are not one single entity, but a multiplicity of identities, local and finite and specific and particular. They can be the consciousness of rocks and trees and water; or deified humans; or forces of Nature, spirits of place, emerging from the complexity of the universe (or multiverse). Read more
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Hospitality for the Stranger
Both hospitality and reciprocity are Pagan virtues and have been since ancient times. Honour is also important in many Pagan traditions, and I think the honourable thing to do is to welcome the stranger. Read more