MetaPagan

Third Annual Pagan Values Blogging Month

2011-04-12T12:23:00.002-04:00

Pax of the Pagan Values Blogject has just announced the third annual Pagan Values Blogging Month.

You can sign up for it on Facebook.

Pax writes:

We must not be afraid to discuss the values and virtues and ethics we have discovered in our contemporary Pagan faiths. There are enough books on rituals and spells and prayers to last us a few generations… let's start writing works on confronting poverty and hunger from Pagan perspectives. Let us set aside the fear of prejudice, and the once glamorous but now tattered and worn mantle of the outsider and the rebel, and take pride in ourselves and our faiths, in our works and lives and worship and in our Pagan communities and our larger communities.

Learn more about the event.

When you get your contribution written/recorded and posted in June put a link to it in the comments stream on the Facebook page. Tags such as "PVE2011" and "Pagan Values" are also encouraged.

Pagan Values Blogging Month 2010 and 2009 produced some excellent reflections on Pagan values and virtues - it was popular theology in the making.

Pagan Values Month 2010

2010-04-26T10:36:00.000-04:00

Last year, the highly successful Pagan Values blogging month organised by Pax of the Chrysalis blog attracted a huge number of high quality contributions from the Pagan community and beyond. Now June is approaching once more, and Pax has issued a call for contributions for 2010. I think this is an excellent project.

The Sun is nearing its height in the Northern Hemisphere and nearly hidden from view in the Southern Hemisphere. Midsummer and Yule, festivals of fire and of light. Times to exuberantly celebrate all that makes life bright and wonderful, and to light our personal and familial candles and hearth fires of our inspiration and nourishment in celebration of our beloved living.

Once more I issue a Challenge and a Call to my fellow Pagans, of every Pagan faith and path, to join me in blogging about Pagan Values in the month of June.

I invite you to share those Values and Virtues and Ethics and Ideals that you have found within whatever your Paganism is. How do you carry these jewels out into the world, thus enriching it and yourself, in your daily lives? What has living your Values taught you? How have the Ethics or Ideals of your particular Paganism challenged you? What have you discovered about yourself in your relationships with the Gods, and the world around you, and with the Ancestors, and with the Spirits of the World around you – however your individual Pagan path defines these things?

Brighid Poetry 2010

2010-02-08T08:49:00.001-05:00

All the poems for Brighid can be seen at brighid2010 on delicious

Annual Poetry Blogfest in honour of Brighid

2010-01-30T06:42:00.002-05:00

Anne Hill at Blog o'Gnosis has announced the fifth annual online poetry festival in honour of Brighid.

If you post your contribution to delicious.com using the tag brighid2010, all the posts will appear in one place. I will also add the tag to the MetaPagan pipe.

Help Haiti

2010-01-27T06:01:00.002-05:00

Letter to the Pagan Community from Alane Brown, on behalf of Peter Dybing

Looking for a way to help the Haiti earthquake victims? Want to support an emergency medical clinic in Port au Prince that's run by a Pagan priest?

Please consider donating money to Haiti Community Support. This NGO is not itself affiliated with any political or religious group. However, the man running the clinic, Peter Dybing, is a member of the Covenant of the Goddess and a longtime practitioner of the Craft. He was very active in the Albuquerque Pagan community before relocating to the Virgin Islands a few years ago. There he met Mathilde and Bruce, who run Haiti Community Support. Haiti Community Support is a NGO that has been helping Haiti since 2006 through programs in health, education and infrastructure building.

Following the earthquake, Haiti Community Support shifted its emphasis to disaster relief. Peter (an EMT) and Mathilde traveled to Port au Prince on January 14th and set up an emergency clinic in a park. They recruited over 30 local Haitians and together they began caring for people who, despite severe injuries, just could not get into the overwhelmed hospitals. They arranged for shipments of medical supplies through a grassroots overland supply route from the Dominican Republic. At first, their medical supplies did not meet demand. They would treat patients until they ran out of supplies, then had to close up and wait for more. But as more donations began to come in, they were able to purchase more supplies, and can now make it through each long and grueling day. They treat wounds that have become increasingly serious because of the delay in treatment. Peter treats unset broken bones, cleans maggots from infected wounds and treats dysentery and other disease spreading through populations living in horrible conditions.

On January 23rd, ten more volunteers joined the clinic. They came from an Oregon rescue unit and from St. Croix Rescue. Now the clinic has a doctor, PA, nurse and several EMTs and paramedics. Together with the Haitian support personnel, they have expanded the clinic. Later this week they plan to go mobile, bringing the clinic to areas of Port au Prince where unmet needs are greatest. As the HCS emergency team looks to the future, their goal is to transition to a clinic run by Haitians, that can continue sustainably into the future. Peter says that the thing that impresses him
the most is the dignity with which his Haitian patients face their terrible losses.

The organization is all volunteer, so there is very little overhead. Funds sent to them are immediately converted into relief work -- buying medical supplies, as well as covering the expenses of transporting them and running the street clinic.

I've been talking with Peter by cell phone several times a week. He has asked me to get the word out to the Pagan community about what he's doing. Circle Sanctuary has posted a link on its website and announcements have been passed through Covenant of the Goddess lists. Please spread the word to your pagan contacts: by donating to www.haitisupport.org you can help those who are suffering, through the healing hands of a member of our spiritual community, Peter Dybing.

On a magical level, please take a moment to imagine Peter's hands and send the power of healing into them, and thus on to those he touches in Haiti. And most of all, please donate now! Go to www.haitisupport.org -- donations are tax deductible in the USA.

If you have questions, or want me to pass on a message of support to Peter, please contact me at alane@frontier.net Please feel free to pass on this message to other like-minded folk. I have donated $100 and I hope you will donate, too.

Alane Brown, elder priestess
Crow Women Circle and Goddess Choir
Durango, Colorado

Pagans at the Parliament

2009-12-04T04:54:00.002-05:00

You can follow what Pagan representatives at the World Parliament of Religions are doing at the new blog, Pagans at the Parliament over at the Pagan Newswire Collective.

There are posts from T Thorn Coyle, Selena Fox, Andras Corban Arthen, CoG, and Ed Hubbard so far.

A triumphal progress

2009-11-06T12:14:00.002-05:00

Ten Years of Triumph of the Moon
Academic approaches to studying magic and the occult: examining scholarship into witchcraft and paganism, ten years after Ronald Hutton’s The Triumph of the Moon

A collection of essays edited by Dave Evans and Dave Green

Contributions by: Ronald Hutton, Amy Hale, Sabina Magliocco, Dave Green, Henrik Bogdan, Phillip Bernhardt-House, R.A. Priddle, Geoffrey Samuel, Caroline Tully & Dave Evans

Congratulations to all involved in this - it looks great.

Pagans and academics alike should find this anthology useful, as it explores the changes in contemporary Paganism brought about by the publication of Triumph of the Moon - not least among these changes being the abandonment (by the vast majority of Wiccans) of any idea that Wicca is ancient.

Pagan Godspell is back

2009-09-21T11:33:00.004-04:00

I am delighted to announce the return of one of the finest blogs in the Pagan blogosphere, namely Pagan Godspell. The writing is beautiful, the ideas pop and fizz out of Ruby Sara's brain like drops of precious oil landing in a hot griddle, and the poetry of the language speaks to your innermost divine self.

Take this passage from her latest blogpost and tell me if it doesn't stir the depths of your being:

The year is ripe with potent meaning and shattering depth. It is so flush with metaphor and story that it's bursting at the seams. Yes, there is power in bringing a cosmic mystery down into your own breath and bone, and asking it how it works in your microcosm. Certainly. But... Power, Big Power, shattering Holy Power, also, and profoundly, lies perfect and plain in the thing itself, by itself, without the need for our sometimes heavy-handed, hyperindividualized, personal-psychological extrapolation. And it is ritual based on this premise, on the things themselves and the mysteries they simply embody, that I wonder more about – that I find myself digging and reveling in come the turn of the leaves and the blue sky filling with the heart-smoke of autumn.

Tread gently on the Earth

2009-09-03T10:21:00.003-04:00

There's an article on Witchvox about an important issue: taking care of the Earth whilst expressing ourselves spiritually. It's all very well being Dances-with-wannabes or whatever, but if your spiritual practices are despoiling the Earth and its inhabitants, or ripping off indigenous traditions, or bringing Paganism into disrepute, then you're not helping.

The purpose of the spiritual path (for me at least) is that by raising my own consciousness, I can spread a little happiness to others (both human and other-than-human). Despoiling the Earth and its inhabitants does not spread happiness. Many Pagan traditions are supposed to be Nature religions, which, it is generally agreed, involves taking care of Nature.

Do You Have Eagle Feathers? « Witchvox

Pagan Newswire Collective

2009-08-26T06:57:00.004-04:00

Jason Pitzl-Waters of the Wild Hunt has started an exciting new project to bring together Pagan writers and journalists and websites in one place. It sounds like a sort of Pagan Reuters.

It's called the Pagan Newswire Collective and aims to be "an open collective of Pagan journalists, news-makers, media liaisons, and writers who are interested in sharing and promoting both primary-source reporting from within our interconnected communities as well as news and editorials of interest to us from mainstream sources."

Photo spam

2009-07-15T10:57:00.002-04:00

We used to have a widget on our sidebar with photos from the Paganism photo pool on Flickr, but now it's being spammed by an evangelical Christian, so I have taken it down for now.

Christians: if you want to convince others that your faith is worthwhile, live according to the teachings of Jesus, show the rest of us what a nice life you're having: but don't spam us with Bible quotes, preach at us in the street, or spout vicious theology at us.

Pagan values

2009-06-10T16:36:00.005-04:00

So, Pax over at Chrysalis called for an international Pagan Values blogging month. It's a great idea, as our values are something we all want and perhaps need to talk about. It's better than yet another Wicca 101, or bickering about what colour your candles should be. And Pax has unleashed a wave of blogposts on our values, some a general overview, others on a specific value or ethic, and yet others arguing about what Paganism is, or whether it is desirable to have a consensus on values. All interesting stuff.

Pax's excellent series of posts on Pagan Values can be found over at Wordpress.

Here's a few of the contributed posts so far (though oddly, Google Blogsearch appears to ignore Livejournal):

Walking the Hedge » Henceforth, June is Pagan ...
12 hours ago by Juniper
Let us then use our hearts and minds and words, invoking the fires of inspiration; let us write of the virtues and ethics and morals and values we have found in our Pagan paths, let us share how we carry these precious things forward in ...
Walking the Hedge - http://walkingthehedge.net/blog/
A Heathen's Day: Pagan Values Month - Heathen Values
9 Jun 2009 by Hrafnkell Haraldsson
Since this is Pagan Values Month, I've tried to put together a post on just that. This is my third post of the day, so apologize for the sudden string (if you're interested, there is below this a petition from MoveOn.org about clean ...
A Heathen's Day - http://alheithinn.blogspot.com/ - References
[ More results from A Heathen's Day ]
The Watcher: International Pagan Values Month
8 Jun 2009 by Aldrin FT
I almost forgot! I was so caught up with all that shit going around with Colt 45 (which, by the way, is still on air!) that I forgot that June is supposedly International Pagan Values Month (thanks Sannion for the tip). ...
The Watcher - http://ahaldrin.blogspot.com/ - References
Same Earth: International Pagan Values Month
8 Jun 2009 by Aldrin FT
Just give me a few minutes to arrange or write something about the positive values of the various "paganisms" around the world (with focus on my own). If not, maybe a few videos or pictures exhibiting ethnic paganism (the type I ...
Same Earth - http://sameearth.blogspot.com/ - References
Pagan Values and Who Gets to Pick 'Em
5 Jun 2009 by paganwiccan
At some point, word got passed around the Internet that June 2009 is apparently Blog AboutPagan Values Month. I'm not sure who made the original decision that this is what we're supposed to focus on, but it's been spreading like ...
About Paganism / Wiccan - http://paganwiccan.about.com/b/ - References
[ More results from About Paganism / Wiccan ]
Putting the “Pagan” in Pagan Values « Chrysalis
7 Jun 2009 by Pax
There is apparently some confusion as to what the Pagan in International Pagan ValuesBlogging month means. I think that that both of the Wikipedia definitions above are a good start. Although I tend to agree with those who dislike the ...
Chrysalis - http://chrysalis1witchesjourney.wordpress.com/
[ More results from Chrysalis ]
The Gods Are Bored: Pagan Values Month: Medical Ethics
4 Jun 2009 by Anne Johnson
Anyway, the point of this little entry on Pagan Values Month is that science continues to evolve, and its pace is quickening. Best not to look to one single old book for guidance. Let's debate these thorny issues as they arise. ...
The Gods Are Bored - http://godsrbored.blogspot.com/ - References
[ More results from The Gods Are Bored ]
Hecate: Pagan Values?
26 May 2009 by Hecate
But if you put a gun to my head, I'd say that most modern Pagans value the Earth, the body, matter, the connection between all-that-is. (As soon as I'd say that, someone could produce half a dozen examples that disprove what I'd said. ...
Hecate - http://hecatedemetersdatter.blogspot.com/ - References
[ More results from Hecate ]
Property of a Lady » Pagan Values Month: Putting the “poly” in ...
3 Jun 2009 by Deborah Lipp
Pagan blogger Pax has declared June to be Pagan Values Month, and is asking Paganbloggers to write about Pagan values. Fundamental to our values, I believe, is pluralism. Everything we believe, even the lines we draw in the sand, ...
Property of a Lady - http://www.deborahlipp.com/wordpress/
FULL CIRCLE * Earthwise News & Notes: Hecate on Pagan Values
3 Jun 2009 by Sia
thanks for blogging on pagan values--it's so needed since so many non-pagans think we have no values. I'm in the midst of writing a paper and trying to incorporate pagan values in some way, so this is very much top of mind. ...
FULL CIRCLE * Earthwise News & Notes - http://fullcirclenews.blogspot.com/

Pagan Values, What Are They Exactly?
2 Jun 2009 by Dawn
Witchmoot is a community blog for witches and other members of the magical spiritual community.
Dawn's Song - http://www.witchmoot.com/dawn.php - References
Cernunnos' Path: Mythology and Paganism Blog » International Pagan ...
21 May 2009 by mahud
is it possible for me to join even if I am not a pagan? I really wanted to know what the real deal because I only knew pagan in some movie. Don't worry I am not a critic, I am just a curious people who respect other beliefs and trying ...
Cernunnos' Path: Mythology and Paganism Blog - http://mythology.ourgardenpath.com/ -References
Silver Maple - June is Pagan Values Month
28 May 2009 by dmiley
A number of different bloggers including Anne at The Gods are Bored, Erik at ExecutivePagan, Yvonne at too many blogs to count, but you can start here responded to Pax at Chrysalis for June to be bloggers Pagan Values Month. ...
Silver Maple - http://dmiley.livejournal.com/ - References
Iridescent Dark: Pagan Values Month: The Witches Pyramid
25 May 2009 by Haley @ Iridescent Dark
For Pagan Values Month, I will write four posts (one for each part of the above statement) about how I think these words embody the values that we as Pagans both uphold an strive to enact in our own lives. ...
Iridescent Dark - http://iridescentdark.blogspot.com/
[ More results from Iridescent Dark ]
Pagan Values - No Rules, OK?
3 Jun 2009 by Aquila ka Hecate
I had meant to start Pagan Values Month by blogging about some of the really cool valuesPagans share. Witches, Druids, Shamans,Goddess Folk, Reconstructionists, Mystics - I had a kind of general notion that they had a few things that ...
Aquila ka Hecate - http://aquilakahecate.blogspot.com/ - References
Pagan Values: Ecology, Environmentalism & Practical Pacifism
5 Jun 2009 by Ali
Ordinary people, whether they realize it or not, are incorporating the fundamental values of practical pacifism into their everyday lives: seeking out creative alternatives to callous destruction; practicing self-discipline and ...
Druid Journal - http://druidjournal.net/ - References
international pagan values blogging month
4 Jun 2009 by neowiccan
not a bandwagon i'm gonna be jumping on. i'm a pagan and i have values, but the values themselves are not intrinsically pagan. they're human values. i hate it when christians start yawping about how our country was formed on 'christian ...
suz's muses - http://neowiccan.livejournal.com/ - References
Pagan Values
6 Jun 2009 by Damon Leff
Despite our differences in belief and practice and in spite of the absence of any single unifyingpagan theology or philosophy we Pagans share by default the same values treasured by every preceding generation. ...
Damon Leff - http://damonleff.livejournal.com/

Pagan Values: Go Play Outside!
6 Jun 2009 by Ali
I don't know if other Pagan writers experience this odd whine of feedback ringing in their ears, when one desire comes too close to another, one value rubs up against another.... There are times when I want to fill this blog with that ...
Meadowsweet & Myrrh - http://meadowsweet-myrrh.blogspot.com/

Pagan Values Month
3 Jun 2009 by catvincent
Also good to see this by Dawn on the Witchmoot group blog, which asks “What are pagan values, exactly?”, which is more than a little critical of some aspects of the pagancommunity: We don’t want to be Christians. Not really. ...
Cat Vincent's Oddities and Mutterings - http://catvincent.wordpress.com/
June is International Pagan Values Blogging Month
1 Jun 2009 by Borea
At least one of the folks I read regularly, Svartesol over at Vanic Thoughts, has begun this quest in earnest, and Pax at Chrysalis has collected previous instances of pagans writing about ethics and values on the web. Some other.
The North Wind Was a Woman - http://borea-thenorthwindwasawoman.blogspot.com/
So What About These So Called Values
4 May 2009 by paganparentsote
Arrowind has been wanting to do a show on Pagan values for a while now and here it is. They talk about Her’s and Foxfire’s own personal interpretations of Pagan values and how those mix with personal values. We talk some about the kids ...
Pagan Parents on the Edge - http://paganparentsote.podbean.com/

June 2009 is International Pagan Values Blogging Month!
13 May 2009 by Christopher Orapello
Pax at Chrysalis blog has declared this June to be International Pagan Values Blogging Month (IPVBM) . At his site there are a number of individuals participating in this event so be sure to check out all the great thoughts and feedback ...
The Infinite and the Beyond - http://theinfiniteandthebeyond.blogspot.com/
Personal Values Inspired By Hellenic Polytheism
4 Jun 2009 by annyikha
Executive Pagan writes, “[T]he first thing that comes to mind is that I’m not clear on what 'pagan values' necessarily are” [link]. I think that's an apt assessment of pagan values, but with that I think it proper to also question which ...
KALLISTI: An Apple in Pandemonium - http://pandemoniumapple.blogspot.com/
the dance of the elements: Pagan values
46 minutes ago by Yewtree
It is difficult to say with certainty that all members of the Pagan community subscribe to the same or similar values (it's always possible to find an exception who still counts as Pagan), but certainly many, if not most, Pagans aspire ...
the dance of the elements - http://heartofflame.blogspot.com/
June 2009 is International Pagan Values Blogging Month!
31 May 2009 by Graeme K Talboys
Clas Myrddin - http://clasmyrddin.blogspot.com/
Musings of a Quaker Witch: June 2009 is International Pagan Values ...

Pagan Values: Ecology, Environmentalism & Practical Pacifism
5 Jun 2009 by Ali
A Guest Post by Ali, of Meadowsweet & Myrrh Back at the beginning of April, I wrote a blog post ostensibly about global warming, but also in part about the various forms that our own complicity in and justification of violence can often ...
Daily Yoga - http://daily-yoga.org/
Pagan Values Month
28 May 2009 by Sarita
I just found out over at The Gods are Bored (here's the relevant post) that June is Pagan Values Month. Basically, that's when us Pagan bloggers are, to quote Anne, "supposed to talk about the deep philosophical underpinnings of our ...
A College Girl's Days - http://collegegirlsdays.blogspot.com/

Dancing with Gaia

2009-03-06T06:07:00.003-05:00

Dancing with Gaia is a new film by Jo Carson of Feraferia.

Many adults cannot recall the feeling of lying belly down on the earth, or harvesting plants as food. Many of us also feel disconnected from our basic right to experience joy in sexuality.

Earth energies, sacred sexuality and the living earth as Gaia are deeply connected, and Dancing with Gaia shows how they can be personally experienced.

The film has fifteen interviews with visionaries at sacred sites around the world, and looks like a must-watch film for Pagans and anyone else interested in reclaiming our ancient birthright of feeling at home in our bodies and on the Earth.

Earth Hour

2009-02-24T08:16:00.001-05:00

Anybody out there heard about WWF’s “Earth Hour”? It started in Sydney, Australia, back in 2007 with 2.2 million homes and businesses turning their lights off for one hour to highlight the need for action on global warming and the seriousness of climate change. Following media coverage the simple event in Sydney in 2007 became a global affair in 2008 when over 370 cities and towns including many famous landmarks across the world, joined in for an hours blackout. This year WWF wants the event to become even bigger and really bring home to governments in every country that dangerous climate change won’t just go away and something needs to be done now and not when it is too late.

8:30pm, Saturday, 28th March is the time and date for this years “Earth Hour”. Sit on your own in candlelight or get together with friends and have a candlelit dinner party or maybe a storytelling session around the fire. There are various ideas for what to do (and how to raise money for WWF whilst doing it) on the WWF website where you can also register:

Follow Up: Kiva and Pagan Charities

2009-02-16T16:09:00.002-05:00

Just a quick follow up to Yewtree's comments about Pagan charities; Kiva, an organization Yewtree mentioned in her last post, is popular with Pagans for a number of reasons, but one is their wisdom in allowing members to join together in "teams"--groups whose members decide individually how and what to donate, but whose donations are tallied together.

This kind of strategy lets Pagans not only continue to support people who need it, but to demonstrate to outsiders that, though we lack the infrastructure many large religious institutions have, Pagans are also generous to those in need. As you might expect, there is already at least one Pagan team: the Wiccans, Pagans, Witches and Fellows team. What's next? Druid grove teams, Heathen kindred teams, Hellenic teams?

All of the above, I hope, and perhaps other charities will be savvy enough to follow suit. The ability to help someone in need and become visible as we manifest the Pagan spirit of hospitality will likely attract more of us to the charities that allow us to do this.

If you're interested, joining to Kiva is easy--PayPal as well as credit cards work just fine--and especially effective, since the money not donated for operating costs is actually given out as loans; once repaid, loans can either be sent out again, to help another individual or community, or reclaimed by the Kiva donor. (Technically, this does mean no charitable donation deduction is allowable on the loan amounts, something important to understand, but not much of a discouragement to make the loans, given the effectiveness of the strategy.)

Know of other charities that allow the formation of teams that allow Pagans a little positive visibility? Let us know: we'll pass it on!

Pagan charity work

2009-01-31T14:46:00.003-05:00

In 2003, a Bush-administration official claimed that Pagans don't do charity work. I have heard this claim in other quarters as well.

However, there is a lot of service to the community and charity work being done by Pagans; it's just that we don't always get recognition, or seek it. There's a fascinating discussion of why there aren't many specifically Pagan charities at the Wild Hunt (see the comments section) and an older Witchvox article from 2003 musing over the very same topic.

Just last week, Jarred at The Musings of a Confused Man highlighted a charity that he is involved with called Kiva, where people can give microloans directly to people in the developing world.

I know personally two Wiccans who go to a homeless shelter to help out on Christmas day. (I bet they don't wear pentagram T-shirts there.) There must be many more.

Pagan chaplaincy for hospitals, the military, prisons and universities is another very important service offered by Pagans, in both the UK and the US, and all the chaplains are volunteers. It can be difficult for chaplains to get recognition, especially in universities.

Lots of covens, groves and hearths hold fundraising drives. Sometimes the charity they give the money to declines it, or doesn't acknowledge to other donors that it is from Pagans.

To me, Christian charities always seem like a thinly-veiled attempt to evangelise. You know, "look how nice Christians are, helping the poor and oppressed; that's why you should become a Christian".

That's why Pagans support (and get involved in) secular charity work: because we're not interested in making converts. And that's why Pagan charities are usually focussed on specifically Pagan issues, because other charities don't address those issues.

In fact, there aren't that many charities specific to other religions either, though many religions have an ethic of service. For instance, Sikhs give 10% (yes, 10%) of their income to charity, but there are no specifically Sikh charities that I know of. Jews are very charitable (Jewish housewives have a row of jam-jars labelled for different charities on their windowsills and put spare change in them, apparently) but I can't think of any internationally-known charity that is specifically Jewish. And so on and so forth for all the other major religions, but no-one accuses them of being away with the fairies and not caring about others. I expect Pagans donate more to environmental causes and animals, but that's good because other people always seem to be raising money for cancer and kids, but never for wildlife or oppressed tribal peoples.

4th Annual Brigid in the Blogosphere Poetry Slam--You're Invited

2009-01-19T09:47:00.004-05:00

This just in from D. Oak of Branches Up, Roots Down:

Feel free to copy the following to your blog and spread the word. Let poetry bless the blogosphere once again!
WHAT: A Bloggers (Silent) Poetry Reading
WHEN: Anytime February 2, 2009
WHERE: Your blog
WHY: To celebrate the Feast of Brigid, aka Groundhog Day
HOW: Select a poem you like - by a favorite poet or one of your own - to post February 2nd.

RSVP: If you plan to publish, feel free to leave a comment and link on this post. Last year when the call went out there was more poetry in cyberspace than I could keep track of. So, link to whoever you hear about this from and a mighty web of poetry will be spun.

Feel free to pass this invitation on to any and all bloggers.
Thank you, Reya, for beginning what is now an annual event.

Note to all: Posting your contribution as a comment to this post at MetaPagan is also encouraged. Or, if you'd like to post contributions to the poetry slam to our blog aggregator, make your delicious label point to metapagan.events , and the feed will pick it up for you. (Detailed directions on how to use delicious to post to MetaPagan appear here.)

What MetaPagan is

2009-01-15T04:28:00.006-05:00

The central section of MetaPagan (shown in the illustration on the right) is written by the editors, Yvonne Aburrow, Cat Chapin-Bishop, Jason Pitzl-Waters and Chas Clifton. It is licenced under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License, which means some rights are reserved: namely, to have our work properly credited to us, that you may not make derivative works, nor use the content for a commercial purpose.

You certainly may not pass off our work as your own writing.

The MetaPagan blog aggregator

The MetaPagan blog aggregator is hosted at Yahoo Pipes. People post notable Pagan-related blog-posts to Delicious.com. They only post a small amount of the post (about 10%) as a taster; they also post the title of the blog and of the blogpost, with a link back to the originating blog (that's how Delicious.com works). This drives traffic to the originating blogs. At no point is the content of the feed claimed to be the work of someone other than the original author.

In addition, with the permission of Jason Pitzl-Waters (obtained by me from him via email), posts from the Wild Hunt are merged in with the MetaPagan Pipe. There is also the Editor's Picks section, which works in a similar way, but using Magnolia.

Posts from the MetaPagan Yahoo Pipe are shown here using the widget (shown in the illustration below right). People are welcome, indeed encouraged, to add this widget to the sidebar of their blogs.

You are not encouraged to add any content from MetaPagan in the central section of your blogs or websites, where it would look as if it was written by you.

You may quote articles from MetaPagan under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License, provided that our work is properly credited to us, by author name. You may not make derivative works, nor use the content for a commercial purpose.

The URL of this blog is http://metapagan.blogspot.com/

Plagiarism

2009-01-14T15:54:00.008-05:00

I've just discovered a post that I wrote for Autumn Equinox on someone else's blog, lifted in its entirety without my permission. The other blog did link back here, but I would prefer that they just quoted a small part of my post and linked back to it, not just lifted it in its entirety.

UPDATE: I emailed the lady who owns the site and got the following reply:

"I am really sorry, I had no idea they looked like my own posts, and that was most certainly not my intention - I thought there was a link and a credit to each post showing the source. I have removed all posts and taken the site down while I sort it out. I am not that clever with this sort of thing and had used some sort of add on with Wordpress to show posts from blogs I liked. It was a friend who sat down with me and set it up to bring back info from various sites; it was certainly never my intention to plagiarise."

The Pagan Collegium

2009-01-09T08:56:00.004-05:00

Partly in response to the current explosion of discussion about what constitutes Pagan identity, and whether the Pagan community can retain its intellectuals and sceptics, Pax has set up a new site called the Pagan Collegium.

The Pagan Collegium is a free online resource for all modern Pagans and Neo-Pagans interested in expanding their base of knowledge and personal education, as well as anyone interested in learning and discussing our core topics within a Pagan perspective.

It is our hope to be able to recruit Department Chairs and Authors in our core topics of History, Philosophy, Sciences, and Theology; and to have them publishing articles and encouraging discussions on those articles.

If you want to participate either as an author or a reader, head on over there and comment to register your interest. If you want to be an author or a chair, post your qualifications as well.

Portuguese Pagan blogs

2009-01-08T09:49:00.002-05:00

Some time back I did a couple of posts on French Pagan blogs and German Pagan blogs.

Today I received a request from a Brazilian lady who blogs in Portuguese to add her blogs to the Pagan blogs listing. So I have created a page of blogs in Portuguese.

Spirituality, identity and community

2009-01-07T11:27:00.012-05:00

Spirituality is a curiously nebulous experience, and the word can mean a variety of things, which sometimes conflict with each other. I once saw an academic paper entitled "Spirituality: A Glowing And Useful Term In Search Of A Meaning" by Lucy Bregman. Spirituality is often a largely individual response to what stirs the spirit (whether that is immensity, beauty, sexuality, landscape, compassion for others, or whatever). A person can be "spiritual but not religious" which often means that they have chosen not to identify with any particular religious grouping. Or they can be mystical, which means other people will probably assume they are impractical, even though mystics often come up with highly practical suggestions for solutions to real-life problems (think of Gandhi, for example). But being a mystic is a great thing to be, though it usually means you'll get persecuted for heresy (think of Baruch Spinoza and Giordano Bruno), or at least suspected of it (think of Hildegard of Bingen and Francis of Assisi).

When we do choose to adopt a label (be it Pagan, Druid, Witch, Wiccan, reconstructionist, UU, QuakerPagan, or whatever) we immediately realise that there are other people who use the same label differently. Flaky, fluffy people who go on about the Burning Times; or Christian Quakers and Christian Unitarians who don't want Pagans joining their movement (these objectors seem to be a minority, as it happens); or people who don't want Paganism to be too public, or too intellectual, or too theological, or not countercultural enough, and strongly resist any such developments. All labels are constantly being pulled in one direction or another. People are constantly moving from one religious identity to another until they find one that fits their spiritual journey.

But is a religious label really about beliefs, or about participating in community, and sharing values and practices? Is it about doing something for the wider community? Or about a quest to understand the world and know how to live in it well? When does identifying with a label become membership in the group? Where and how does membership end? If you were accused of practising your religion in a court of law, would there be enough evidence to convict you?

Perhaps religion is really a convincing narrative that helps to confer meaning on the world and our place in it. Even if it isn't literally true, it's symbolically true and internally consistent.

A lot of people are saying they have outgrown Paganism; many more are saying Paganism needs to grow - to reassess its values, its anti-intellectualism, and its lack of interest in theology.

Of course there are many intellectual Pagans, but often they feel isolated amongst the fluffy and the flaky. But you don't have to leave your brain at the door to join the Pagan community, and long may it remain so. Nevertheless there is some really bad amateur scholarship out there, and some of it is really cringeworthy. We have to do better. Every time I do a search for seasonal blogposts to include in a round-up of posts about Pagan festivals, I have to reject dozens because they include incorrect assertions about the history of the festival.

But if you are an intellectual Pagan, or an atheist Pagan, or a non-theist Pagan - don't despair! There are others out there.

the light in the cave

2008-12-24T08:58:00.003-05:00

The solstice is all about the return of the light, as the Sun (metaphorically) returns from the underworld.

Astronomy Picture of the Day has a wonderful image of the solstice light at Newgrange in Ireland and another of an analemma (the path of the Sun throughout the year) over the Porch of the Maidens in Athens. You can also see a webcast of the Newgrange sunrise.

As ever, Mything Links (a wonderful site for mythological and spiritual resources) has gathered a smorgasbord of links and words for Yule, including this Credo by Judith Roche:

I believe in the cave paintings at Lascaux,
the beauty of the clavicle,
the journey of the salmon.
I believe in all the gods -
I just don't like some of them.
I believe the war is always against the imagination,
is recurring, repetitive, and relentless.
I believe in fairies, elves, angels and bodisatvas.
Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy,
I believe Raven invented the Earth
and so did Coyote. In archeology
lie the clues. The threshold is numinous
and the way in is the way out.
I believe in the alphabets, all of them
and the stories seeping from between their letters.
I believe in dance as prayer, that the heart
beat invented rhythm and chant --
or is it the other way around?
I believe in the wisdom of the body.
I believe that art saves lives
and love makes it worth living them.
And that could be the other way around, too.

I love it.

It's also worth taking a look at the 2006 Wintery Shamanism essay and the 2007 Kore and Persephone page.

This year's page also has links to two other incredibly useful websites, which I frequently find myself referring to when writing rituals: Candlegrove and School of the Seasons. If you haven't visited these sites before, do check them out.

Not that many Pagan blogposts about Yule, maybe everyone is too busy enjoying themselves to blog about it...

WitchDoctor Joe has been celebrating Yule in style, with the traditional combat between the Oak and Holly Kings. He has also been hanging out with the Unitarians, writing poetry, and doing a Yule ritual at the local prison (he's a prison chaplain).

Be merry

2008-12-19T11:56:00.002-05:00

Happy Winter Solstice (yes Virginia, axial tilt is the reason for the season)
Io Saturnalia!
Bona Dies Natalis Solis Invicti
Merry Yule
Happy Modranecht
Happy Kwanzaa
Happy Hannukkah
Happy HumanLight
Merry Christmas
Season's Greetings
Happy Sanghamitta
Happy Hanukwanzmas
Joyeux Noël
Fröhliche Weihnacht

and a huge variety of other fascinating festivals!

Here are some scrumptious Yule blogposts from the Pagan blogosphere:

The Winter Solstice: Neolithics to Christians (Magic in these hills)

This special time of the year has been celebrated the world over from time out of mind. We're not really sure which ancient culture first began to study and honor the solstices and equinoxes, as there are monuments relating to these dates in nearly every ancient culture, but it's likely to have been of marked importance since Neolithic times.

Letter from Hardscrabble Creek: Yes, Hypatia, There is a Santa Claus

Santa Claus, Father Christmas has joined the lineup of graven images on our polytheistic/animistic mantel.

Pagan theologies / Seasonal customs

Notes on the origins of some popular Yuletide customs - mostly Pagan or folk customs

Samhain Stories

2008-10-31T09:58:00.003-04:00

Leaving aside the usual annual glut of mainstream news stories that crop up this time of year, Yvonne and I thought our readers might be more interested in a rundown of what various Pagans have to say on the season to one another. (Though, if you haven't yet visited The Wild Hunt blog for Jason's daily round-ups of mainstream news coverage, ranging from the sublime to the ridiculous, you really owe it to yourself to do so. Just sayin'!)

Moon Mystic, over at The Spirit Journey, reflects on her own quiet and private celebration of the thinning of the veils:

Many of my pagan friends' holy days are steeped in ritual. We find great comfort in the familiarity of them. However, there are times when I prefer spontanaeity to ritual: to talk to the deities from a full heart not leaning on formality. And Samhain is that time for me.... ...As the veil becomes thinner, I ask the souls of the departed if they have messages of instruction, correction or hope...

Ali of Meadowsweet and Myrrh shares with us her Druidical reflections on the holiday from a correspondence with family, including the confession that

To be honest, this time of year has never been anything particularly special to me. Everyone has their favorite holy day, I guess, and I think mine is actually Imbolc/Candlemas, probably because it was the first holy day I officially celebrated as a not-quite-Catholic-anymore.

Weighing in from the Southern Hemisphere, Acquila ka Hecate wishes us a Merry Beltane--but takes time out to remember her very first Halloween costume, and to realize the ways the two holidays are linked by more than a calendar:

They’re poles of the same thing.

Once upon a time, you see – many eons ago when we all lived in the primordial soup...we possessed a kind of immortality about ourSelves. We were then unicellular organisms for the most part, and reproduced ourSelves through fission. We could mostly go on for eternity like this, but we bartered it for something we thought we needed more – adaptability through mutation... ...In this way we achieved the shifting, adapting organism we were looking for, but the price we paid for it was Death.

Deborah Oak, of Branches Up, Roots Down shares with us her annual tradition of decorating sugar skulls in honor of her Beloved Dead, and remembers that

My friend Jeremy was beginning to actively die at this time last year. This was the moment we all began to face that he was crossing over. I was painfully aware last October that this year I would be writing his name in frosting on a sugar skull.

Wondering what to listen to as you read all this wonderful Samhain-stuff? Erik of Executive Pagan offers us his Halloween music-mix suggestions for your auditory pleasure.

Over at Broomstick Chronicles, Macha NightMare remembers Pagan elders Tara Webster, Sequoia and Peter Hughes, and information on Sequoia's memorial for those who might be able to make it there. She also remembers the very first Spiral Dance:

The three goddess masks were made by Medea Maquis and weighed a ton... ...The Elements masks, which you can't see but are also big heavy suckers, were made by Eleanor Myers. They were clay and I think that over the years all of them have broken.

How are you celebrating the holiday? Assuming you are. There is, of course, more to Paganism than those calendars adapted from the British Isles and Wicca, and no law saying that your average Hellenic, Khemetic, Asatru or Baltic Pagan will be paying attention to today and tomorrow any more than they might to a celebration of National Ketchup Month.

However, whatever your hemisphere, whatever your path, blessings of the seasons to you, from all of us here at MetaPagan. (And try not to eat too much of your kids' trick or treat candy...)

Samhain poetry and traditions

2008-10-31T09:30:00.000-04:00

Samhain greetings from the Pagan blogosphere!

The San Francisco Chronicle has a Pagan-friendly article about the Reclaiming celebrations of Samhain, where people are reviving old traditions like the Dumb Supper.

Sorita d'Este is feeling the Hallowe'en Love with some traditional spells:

When the word Halloween is spoken “love” is certainly not the first thing that comes to mind! It is usually pumpkins, candy, ghosts, monsters and witches, fairies and other otherworldly creatures! And truly these creatures all have their place in the myths, legends and magick of Halloween, or “All Hallow’s Eve” but so does love!

Several charms for predicting love, divining for future lovers, finding out if love is “true” and variations on this theme have been recorded as being ideal for performing on this night.

She also explores the Welsh festival of Nos Calan Gaeaf (the Welsh equivalent of Hallowe'en):

In Tenby (Pembrokeshire, Wales) hempseed would often be sowed at crossroads and women would perform a rite to do this at midnight first digging a small patch of ground. Then they would chant asking for a vision of their true love to appear to them and to rake the hemp seed up.

Anne Johnson at The Gods are Bored waxes lyrical about Samhain:

The air is crisp, the veil is thin, the year has ended, the crops are in.
Is there any more sane time of year to consider the 365-day cycle complete? When the last frosted pumpkin has been hauled from the field, when the apples have all been collected, when even the grass shrinks back in the cold, a circuit has come to an end.

I posted a Samhain song on my poetry blog which I wrote back in 1995:

The tide's on the ebb and the darkness grows
The wheel of the year turns into the night
Light me a candle to mirror the stars
For the darkness gives birth to the light.

Staghuntress at The Hunt has also posted a poem for Samhain:

Land of the ancestors,
place of primordial chaos.
There will I journey,
stripped of self
to walk in Death
and be remade.

A blessed Samhain to all our readers!

Fantasy Pagan film casting

2008-10-15T15:28:00.003-04:00

Evn, Lover of Strife, recently staged a competition:

Strifemongers, pick your favorite myth, choose the most appropriate actors to play the Gods who appear in it, and post your submissions in the comments section. Entries will be accepted until next Tuesday, at which time I'll announce my top three casting directors (assuming more than three people enter), each of whom will win an actual prize.

Yes, that's right, actual prizes - kindly donated by highly talented Pagan artist Thalia Took.

The casting suggestions appear in the comments of the original post.

Nail-bitingly, the judges delayed their decision until Wednesday. And finally, with a rustle of sequined taffeta and the baited breath of the celebrity-studded crowd, the envelopes were opened and the results revealed. Squeeeeeeee! I won a prize! Thanks Evn and Thalia.

Synchroblog on interfaith dialogue

2008-10-07T15:43:00.001-04:00

Sorry for the short notice but there's a synchroblog tomorrow on interfaith dialogue. If you wish, you can address the questions, what do hope to gain from it, what do you think it's for, what is your view of it, why would you enter it, what guidelines should be given to participants, etc.

If you would like to take part, please post the following information in the comments:

Once your post is up and you know the URL, please post the information in the following format:

NA Poster's name
BL Poster's blog name
TI Title of your post
URL Url of your post
REL Your religious background
EM Your e-mail address

Here's the template:

NA
BL
TI
URL
REL
EM

Please DO NOT add colons to the field labels!

The field names above should be followed by a SPACE, and then whatever you type.

Interfaith dialogue and synchroblog

2008-09-19T08:55:00.007-04:00

For those who like peaceful and friendly interfaith dialogue in a spirit of open-minded enquiry and no proselytisation, Steve Hayes (an Orthodox Christian from South Africa) and I (a Wiccan Unitarian from England) have started Religionrap, a Yahoo group for interfaith dialogue. It will also be a place to discuss topics for monthly interfaith synchroblogging. Humanists, Naturalists, atheists and agnostics are also welcome.

If you're not familiar with how interfaith dialogue works, I recommend reading:

Group email addresses

Post message:	religionrap@yahoogroups.com
Subscribe:	religionrap-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
Unsubscribe:	religionrap-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
List owner:	religionrap-owner@yahoogroups.com

Or go to the web site at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/religionrap/

The way I envisage the synchroblog part working is that we all blog on the chosen topic (such as spiritual formation, what interfaith dialogue means to us, the environment, or whatever) from our personal perspective, and then comment on each other's blog posts (that's where the dialogue part comes in).

Autumn Equinox is approaching

2008-08-30T09:29:00.007-04:00

As we're about half-way between Lammas and Autumn Equinox, I thought I would change the header to something more relevant to the next festival. Here in Britain, the leaves are already starting to turn yellow and the fruit is ripening.

The new photo is Apple Tree by Steffe, and the Lammas photo was of some barley by RaeA (both used under the Creative Commons licence).

Rather than seeing Autumn Equinox as being primarily about the equal length of night and day (though this in itself is a significant moment in the eternal dance of light and dark - both of which are seen as positive in Paganism), I tend to see the Equinox as being about the fruit harvest. The School of the Seasons website calls it "The Feast of Ingathering". As such, I associate it with Pomona and Vertumnus.

In Roman mythology, Vertumnus (Vortumnus, Vertimnus) is the god of seasons, change and plant growth, as well as gardens and fruit trees. He could change his form at will; using this power, according to Ovid's Metamorphoses (xiv), he tricked Pomona into talking to him by disguising himself as an old woman and gaining entry to her orchard...

There's a wonderful poem about this by U A Fanthorpe.

We love your blog

2008-08-28T04:02:00.006-04:00

Evn at Lover of Strife has kindly nominated MetaPagan for the "I love your blog" award. Thank you, Evn! Of course, we at MetaPagan love all our contributors (and would like more Pagan bloggers to post their content to our Delicious categories) so it is very hard to pick seven. The following are our personal favourites:

Cat's nominations:

Yvonne's nominations:

The rules are:

Put the logo on your blog.
Link to the person from whom you received the award.
Nominate at least 7 other blogs.
Put links to those blogs on yours.
Leave a message on the blogs nominated.

Spread the love around the blogosphere...

Lughnasadh poem

2008-08-03T10:20:00.002-04:00

The Shadow House of Lugh

By Ethna Carbery

DREAM-FAIR, besides dream waters, it stands alone:
A winged thought of Lugh made its corner stone:
A desire of his heart raised its walls on high,
And set its crystal windows to flaunt the sky.

Its doors of the white bronze are many and bright,
With wonderous carven pillars for his Love's delight,
And its roof of the blue wings, the speckled red,
Is a flaming arc of beauty above her head.

Like a mountain through mist Lugh towers high,
The fiery-forked lightning is the glance of his eye,
His countenance is noble as the Sun-god's face—
The proudest chieftain he of a proud De Danaan race.

He bides there in peace now, his wars are all done—
He gave his hand to Balor when the death gate was won,
And for the strife-scarred heroes who wander in the shade,
His door lieth open, and the rich feast is laid.

He hath no vexing memory of blood in slanting rain,
Of green spears in hedges on a battle plain;
But through the haunted quiet his Love's silver words
Blow round him swift as wing-beats of enchanted birds.

A grey haunted wind is blowing in the hall,
And stirring through the shadowy spears upon the wall,
The drinking-horn goes round from shadowy lip to lip—
And about the golden methers shadowy fingers slip.

The Star of Beauty, she who queens it there;
Diademed, and wondrous long, her yellows hair.
Her eyes are twin-moons in a rose-sweet face,
And the fragrance of her presence fills all the place.

He plays for her pleasure on his harp's gold wire
The laughter-tune that leaps along in trills of fire;
She hears the dancing feet of Sidhe where a white moon gleams,
And all her world is joy in the House of Dreams.

He plays for her soothing the Slumber-song:
Fine and faint as any dream it glides along:
She sleeps until the magic of his kiss shall rouse;
And all her world is quiet in the Shadow-house.

His days glide to night, and his nights glide to day:
With circling of the amber mead, and feasting gay;
In the yellow of her hair his dreams lie curled,
And her arms make the rim of his rainbow world.

(discovered by Sorita d'Este)

Lammas blessings

2008-08-01T05:11:00.003-04:00

Dark Dorset has some details of Lammas folk songs and customs (but beware of Frazerian interpretations of the meaning thereof!)

Pagan Connection has a list of Lammas events in the London (UK) area.

Buzzing Bee has a reflection on the meaning of Lammas:

Lammas is often celebrated as the Wake for the Sacred King. As you know, a Wake is a Celebration of Life, not a time to grieve. Lammas is a joyous time of celebration. So feast to your heart's content, sing, dance and make merry. Light your Need-Fires and make your Kern-babies. You'll "never forget that happy night" you celebrated in The Old Ways!

mindmists asks (and answers) the question of why we celebrate agricultural festivals when we're not farmers:

Why do I observe harvest holidays when I am not a farmer? Well, it's because my beliefs are earth based. I try to be one with the cycle of life. In the old days I'd be carding wool or putting up preserves or curing meats. Thank goodness I don't have to do that! I've actually tried the preserves bit.... a lot of work but strangely satisfying. Life is a cycle .... good times to bad times .... lean times to times of plenty. It's hard to remember the good times when you are in the midst of lean, bad times. So it has always been - so it will always be, no doubt.

A joyous and blessed Lammas to all.

How you can help

2008-07-29T16:58:00.005-04:00

Several commenters at The Wild Hunt and Witches and Scientists asked if there was a relief fund for the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church.

There is: Unitarian Universalist Association Launches Knoxville Relief Fund

It will be used to provide spiritual care and practical financial assistance to those affected by the tragedy in Knoxville, Tennessee.

condolences

2008-07-29T11:16:00.004-04:00

The Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church was attacked yesterday by an anti-gay extremist with a gun, who killed two members of the congregation.

It is terribly sad that people were killed for being open, inclusive and loving to other people.

The hearts of the Pagan community go out to the congregation and the families of those who died, and they are in our thoughts and prayers.

Jason at The Wild Hunt has posted about it:

A comment on Jason's blog sums it up well:

"When I first heard the news, even before anything about the gunman's motives were known, I couldn't help but guess that it was because the UU is the sort of church it is - welcoming, and accepting of pagans, of religious diversity, of glbt, and human diversity." - Sangrail

And Witches and Scientists has expressed shock and sympathy too: Attack on Unitarian Universalist Church, two dead

I posted my condolences at dance of the elements and on the special UU blog.

Witchvox has a call for prayers.

Tnjen at Corrente: Tragedy in Knoxville: Mass Shooting at Unitarian Church

Beth Owl's Daughter is sending her prayers.

Two Witches are in solidarity with TUUVC.

The LGBT community is also sending its thoughts and prayers:
- A lesbian LJ community expresses sadness.
- Out and About expresses condolences on behalf of the Tennesse Transgender Political Coalition

Several commenters on Pagan blogs have asked if there is a fund to donate to.

The UUA has set up a special blog entitled Supporting Our Friends in Knoxville where you are invited to leave comments of love and support.

The UU blogosphere has also reacted with grief and compassion:

Thoughts & Emotions day 2: The vigil tonight at UUCA was amazing - there was probably 50 of us mostly from UUCA but a few from other congregations in metro Atlanta. I wasn't expecting the open microphone where we could share...
Posted on Spirituality and Sunflowers (Site / Info) on Tuesday July 29, 2008
Gathering to Bear Witness: I'd like to share the words I spoke at UUCA's vigil this past Monday, as we held the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church in Knoxville at the center of our thoughts and prayers...
Posted on Thousand Voices (Site / Info) on Tuesday July 29, 2008
Tragic Shooting at Knoxville Church: Everyone here at Beacon Press is deeply saddened by the deadly shooting last Sunday at the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church in Knoxville, in which two people were killed and seven oth...
Posted on Beacon Broadside (Site / Info) on Tuesday July 29, 2008
Hope, Courage, Compassion, Love, Faith.: I know that there is currently a lot of anxiety among those who hold our liberal faith, to realize that we can be the target of a hate crime... but that is not what has moved me in this tragedy.
Posted on Celestial Lands (Site / Info) on Tuesday July 29, 2008
Knoxville: Apart from my own personal feelings of shock and sorrow, I have nothing especially unique to contribute to everything that has been written lately about the terrible shooting Sunday at the Tennesse...
Posted on One Day Isle (Site / Info) on Tuesday July 29, 2008
Updates on Knoxville Tragedy: Hi friends, I'm writing with a few updates on Knoxville. The UUA has a website page with links to key resources addressing the Knoxville tragedy
Posted on Looking for Faith (Site / Info) on Tuesday July 29, 2008
A History of Violence Against Unitarian-Universalists: Sunday's terrible attack on a Unitarian-Universalist church is, sadly, only the latest in a long history of violence against UUs and UU institutions by rightwing terrorists.
Posted on Transient and Permanent (Site / Info) on Tuesday July 29, 2008
I Can't Get It Out of My Head: I have been reading the UU Blogsphere on and off since yesterday when I found out about the shooting at TVUUC and I can't get it out of my head. I am not sure why it is affecting me as much as it is...
Posted on Druuid (Site / Info) on Tuesday July 29, 2008
These Are Not Fearful People.: The interim minister of my church, The Unitarian Universalist Church of Akron , sent me a link to a powerful article written by Sara Robinson on the blog Orcinus Of Madmen and Martyrs We are an odd...
Posted on Druuid (Site / Info) on Tuesday July 29, 2008
Virtual Silent Vigil: I heard about the Knoxville TN tragedy shortly after I arrived at work Sunday. I was numb as such a terrible act is so hard to comprehend ...
Posted on Threads of Meaning (Site / Info) on Tuesday July 29, 2008
CONGREGATIONAL UNITARIAN CHURCH-Memorializing the Knoxville victims: Greg McKendry, a church usher used his massive body to block the gunman's first shot saving many. Linda Kraeger was attending the children's musical with a tight knit circle of close friends...
Posted on "Heretic, Rebel, a Thing to Flout" (Site / Info) on Tuesday July 29, 2008

More at UUpdates

Blue Pagans

2008-07-28T12:42:00.003-04:00

Two Pagans, one a delegate, and one a press-credentialed blogger, will be offering regular reports and coverage of this year's historic Democratic National Convention in Denver.

Rita Moran is Chairperson of the Kennebec County Democratic Committee, and is attending the Democratic National Convention as an official delegate for the state of Maine. Rita, who runs a bookstore in Maine, was outed and stalked last year by a local conservative Christian organization. Since then she has dedicated herself to being an open and positive Pagan presence within the Democratic Party.

Edward L. Lachowicz, is Vice Chair of Kennebec County Democratic Committee, and a Maine Democratic State Committeeman. In addition, he is a regular blogger with Turn Maine Blue, a progressive state-focused blog that has been granted press credentials at the Democratic National Convention.

In an election year where issues of change, the place of religion in politics, the environment, and hope for a more inclusive country have become major themes, having two members of the Pagan community "embedded" at the DNC gives us a unique chance to gage if minority faiths will truly experience "change we can believe in".

In order for everyone to share in Rita and Ed's dispatches, they have created a special blog site at: http://bluepagans.blogspot.com/

If there are any US Pagans of any other political persuasion, let us know and we'll cover it here.

Lammas is coming

2008-07-27T06:33:00.005-04:00

Lots of blogs are buzzing with anticipation of Lammas or Lughnasadh, the harvest festival at the beginning of August.

Bad witch has a list of Lammas festivals and events in the UK.

The Leyton Lammas Lands Defence Committee will be holding their annual picnic to defend the common land of Leyton Marshes, known as the Lammas Lands.

Moon and Shadow has a nice round-up of things to make at Lammas: homemade bread, corn dollies, apple candle-holders, pentacle wreaths made from grapevine, a corn wheel, other corn crafts, and a garlic braid (together with links to sites with instructions and photos).

Witches' Brew is excited about Lammas because s/he will be spending it with the newly-formed Central Illinois Pagan Society:

It’s common to have three generations of participants at our open rituals, and members have brought non-Pagan friends and Significant Others. It’s great to be back in a Pagan community again.

Pagan Soccer Mom has a picture of her altar with a Lammas corn dolly, and shows us the witchy spaces around her home, reflecting on how good it is to be out of the broom closet with friends and family, so she doesn't have to pack all the stuff away when people come to her house.

About.com has a brief history of Lammas by Patti Wigington, including some reflections about the importance of bread to our ancestors:

In our modern world, it's often easy to forget the trials and tribulations our ancestors had to endure. For us, if we need a loaf of bread, we simply drive over to the local grocery store and buy a few bags of prepackaged bread. If we run out, it's no big deal, we just go and get more. When our ancestors lived, hundreds and thousands of years ago, the harvesting and processing of grain was crucial. If crops were left in the fields too long, or the bread not baked in time, families could starve. Taking care of one's crops meant the difference between life and death.

Third Infinity has an extensive post about Lammas, Lughnasadh and the god Lugh, together with suggestions for ritual and activities:

Plan to go blueberry picking, or some similar harvesting activity. Visit a farmer's market and buy a large amount of some vegetable to preserve, and then have the whole Circle get together to do it. (Pickling is smelly, but everyone gets a jar or two to enjoy during the winter. Any jam, jelly or preserve works.) Since the whole Circle shares the cost of the whole operation, the cost is minimal.

WyrdWillow, a Celtic Reconstructionist, explores the relationship of Lugh with the land and the weather:

The god Lugh is honored by many at this time, as he is a deity of storms and lightning, especially the storms of late summer. However, gentle rain on the day of the festival is seen as his presence and his bestowing of blessings. Many CRs also honor the goddess Tailitu on this day, and may seek to keep the Cailleachan ("Storm Hags") from damaging the crops, much in the way appeals are made to Lugh.

Finally, I must mention School of the Seasons, which although not a blog, offers extended and beautifully written meditations on the festivals. I frequently use it as a starting point for devising rituals.

Summer solstice

2008-06-21T12:40:00.006-04:00

Lara at Planetary Energies has some fascinating facts about the summer solstice, and reflections on its astrological implications:

Traditionally the Summer Solstice is the time of marriage, occurring at the juncture between the signs of Gemini (soul mates, twin souls, partnership) and Cancer (family, nurturing).

The solstice was also a time to wish for love: young men who succeeded in jumping over the Solstice bonfires were said to be going to find their true love in the coming year. This tradition continues today in parts of Europe including rural France.

Peg at Orchards Forever is in nostalgic mood:

Ah, summer! Cookouts and pagan festivals and bounteous flowers.

Of course this time of year also makes me recall fondly my times spent in England at this time of year, including the memorable trip with B. where we attended the first open summer solstice celebration at Stonehenge in more than a decade.

Sia at Full Circle celebrates the solstice with a look at its connections to Epona, the Gaulish horse goddess:

‘Before the gods that made the gods
Had seen their sunrise pass,
The White Horse of the White Horse Vale
Was cut out of the grass.’
G.K Chesterton, 1911

Andy Worthington (author of Stonehenge: Celebration and Subversion) and currently researching Guantanamo Bay, has a gallery of Stonehenge solstices past and present, and a special offer:

As thousands gather at Stonehenge for this year’s solstice gathering, I thought this might be a good occasion to commemorate the long struggle for access to Stonehenge by offering The Battle of the Beanfield at a specially reduced price of £9.95 (normal price £12.95). Click on the link above for details.

And as a reminder of what all the fuss was about — and how despicable it was of successive governments, from Margaret Thatcher to John Major, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, to use political protest and the demand for alternative lifestyles as an excuse to savage our civil liberties — I present below a gallery of Stonehenge solstices past and present, as featured in the books.

Kitchen Witch has some lovely photos of the flowers and herbs in her garden, including St John's Wort, the magical plant of Midsummer:

St. John's Wort can be used to treat mild depression and seasonal affective disorder (aka the winter blues). People in Portland and Seattle, perk your ears up! This sunny flower, which blooms at summer solstice, can be an ally for you!

Bo at The Expvlsion of the Blatant Beast has a plea for better dress sense among Pagans:

Can't we just do better than this? Am I being a horrible reactionary? Am I judging people because of their piercings and dreads, because I have neither? (I did have an eyebrow piercing c. 1998. It dropped off.) I really do hope not. I wouldn't want to be that kind of person. Nevertheless, I can't help groaning inwardly.

I agree - if you must wear crushed velvet, at least get it coutured.

Jason at the Wild Hunt has a round-up of press coverage of the solstice; there is a tendency among the media to focus on the celebrations at Stonehenge, though of course most Pagans are quite happy to go to their back garden or a local stone circle to celebrate. Portsmouth Pagans chose the top of Spinnaker Tower for their celebration.

new tag: experience

2008-05-29T05:27:00.003-04:00

I have just created a new category on del.icio.us, metapagan.experience. If you write a post, or read someone else's post, that you think answers Cat's recent call on The Wild Hunt blog for writing about experience, then please post it to this new category.

Don't give me your ideas on Pagan life, my sisters and brothers. I have ideas enough of my own. And don't give me answers, because ours is a religious movement with hundreds of answers, thousands of answers.

Give me your experience. Give me the marrow and the meat of your spiritual life. Because, unless you write it down, no one else ever will. Only from you can I receive this gift: your own lived Pagan journey.

So far several bloggers have responded to Cat's call, and I hope that many more will do so.

Other blog aggregators

2008-05-26T07:32:00.003-04:00

Some other blog aggregators of interest:

Atheist and humanist

Planet Humanism: humanist blog aggregator
Planet Atheism: atheist blog aggregator (though for people who aren't religious, they do spend a lot of time banging on about religion!)

Liberal religions

UU updates, Discover UU, and Philocrites' Annotated Guide to UU Blogs - Unitarian Universalists blogs and news feeds
QuakerQuaker: Quaker blogs
The Hindu: blog and news aggregator
Baha'i Nine: Baha'i blog aggregator

I couldn't find blog aggregators for Buddhism, Sufism, or Taoism.

You can find other Pagan blog communities in the sidebar.

Pagan bloggers for human rights

2008-05-16T10:08:00.006-04:00

From a Pagan perspective, human rights are inextricable with the concept of our relationship with the planet and the non-human persons we share it with. Peace, justice and the elimination of poverty are intimately connected with sustainability.

Many Pagans are concerned with the right of Pagans to practice our religion without harassment, and also with eco-activism. We also care a lot about human rights everywhere, e.g. in Tibet, and the rights of women and LGBT people. One of the statements in the Charge of the Goddess is that all acts of love and pleasure are Her rituals - and most Pagans take that to mean all forms of consensual sexuality, including gay/LGBT sexuality. So we are very happy about the recent ruling in California that same-sex marriages are now legal there.

Recently a number of Pagans and people of goodwill from other religions banded together to try to save Fawza Falih, who was accused of witchcraft in Saudi Arabia. And Angela at Nine Ravens publicised a campaign to save the witch children of Nigeria. (I also started a Facebook group for that one.) I frequently publicise petitions on my blog.

South African Pagans celebrated Human Rights Day on 21 March.

I am not sure that there is a specifically Pagan theology of human rights, except perhaps the idea that we are all children of the Goddess, or manifestations of the Divine (and that includes other-than-human people). Since our deities are held to be immanent in the universe, and each one of us is potentially divine, and the divine is manifested in an infinite diversity of forms, then each person must be allowed to develop in their own unique way (provided it harms no-one else). Pagan ethics tend to be very much about practice and praxis rather than about absolutes. But we do have our values:

Pagan religions are generally characterized by Earth-based spirituality, belief in the interconnection of all life, personal autonomy, and pantheism or polytheism. Pagans value diversity, good works, living lightly on the Earth, individual freedom, personal responsibility, community service, gender equity, and spiritual development.

Pagan bloggers - if you took part in the blogging for human rights day yesterday, please post a link in the comments.

[Hat-tip to Methodius for alerting me to the existence of the human rights blogging day]

Pagan groups

2008-05-16T06:09:00.004-04:00

I wanted to do a post about LGBT Pagan blogs, blogs from Pagans of specific traditions (Heathenry, Religio Romana, Wicca, Reclaiming, Druidry, CUUPS/UESN etc.), Pagan authors' blogs, and so on, but it's quite difficult to find stuff via Google BlogSearch.

So if you belong to one of these groups, and are aware of other bloggers from your tradition, why not write a post about them with links to their blogs (like my German Pagan blogs and French Pagan blogs posts) and post it to metapagan.community?

French Pagan blogs

2008-05-15T05:35:00.003-04:00

I searched for paganisme on blogsearch.google.fr/

La Littérature et la Paganisme has several interesting posts, including one with a poem about the last Pagan Emperor, Julian (translation of post about Julian).

L'Aube des Dieux has an excellent post about Spinoza's views on the immanence of the Divine and the relationship of his ideas to those of modern Pagans (translation of post about Spinoza). In fact, all of the posts on this blog look worth reading - I will visit it again.

Religions de la Terre has an interesting post about Berber funerary monuments in Algeria (translation here).

Again, it was difficult to find stuff. If you're a French-speaker with a blog, please post it in the comments. MetaPagan has 38 readers in Canada and 3 in France, so there must be some French blogging going on!

German Pagan blogs

2008-05-15T05:04:00.003-04:00

I just did a quick Google for heidnisch, Hexen, and Paganismus to see what I could find in the German Pagan blogosphere. Searching for Paganismus produced the most results.

Erich at epix blurb has a post up about Beltane (translation of Erich's post here).
Polly Oliver (clearly a Terry Pratchett fan) has a post about why witches in folktales are always depicted as ugly old women (translation of Polly's post here).
Luna Hedgewitch has a post about the iconography of Paganism, and trying to find a satisfying depiction of the Goddess that expresses the inner picture in the mind's eye (translation of Luna's post here).
Kunoichininjas bemoans the difficulty of finding a coven (translation of Kunoichininjas' post here)

But there doesn't seem to be a lot of German blogging about Paganism, that I can find.

Hindu temples Google maps mashup

2008-05-14T10:57:00.005-04:00

Wow, there is a Google maps mashup of Hindu temples.

Map My Temple
Map My Temple is a user submitted Google Map of temples in India. Users can submit photographs and details of temples and plot their location on a Google map.

The home page of the site shows a Google Map of all the submitted temples. Clicking on a tab of an individual temple opens an information window with a short description of the temple and a photograph. Clicking on the photograph takes you to an individual page on the chosen temple. The page contains a fuller description and a zoomed in Google Map of the temple's location.

I challenge the Pagan geek community to come up with something similar using the Google maps API for Pagan sacred sites. There is an interactive map on the Megalithic Portal site, but the interface is a bit clunky.

Duality synchroblog

2008-05-14T10:26:00.002-04:00

Is duality really a figment of your imagination? (Dream Builders)
Duality and Beyond (Quaker Pagan Reflections)
Duality - Love With Its Back Turned (Aquila ka Hecate)
Seeing Number 11 and Symbolic Duality (Symbolic Meanings)
On What Are These Things Woven Back And Forth?: Thoughts on Duality (ReligionThink)
Jewish Duality vs. Dualism (Jewish Myth, Magic, and Mysticism)
ARCHETYPES Part 2: Archetypes in Duality (When Isis Rises)
Maybe: Pagan Thoughts on the Limits & Uses of Duality (FULL CIRCLE * Earthwise News & Notes)
The Dual (Paleothea: the Ancient Goddess)
Vertical Dualism of Mother Earth and Father Sky (Mythology Synchroblog 3) (Mahud: Between Old and New Moons)

Beltane is coming

2008-04-30T04:26:00.002-04:00

My favourite festival (and that of other Pagans too, so it would seem) - the encapsulation in one festival of the joyous Pagan expression of love and sexuality in all its forms - glorious life bursting from every tree, flower, animal and bird.

Bo and Justine have been a-Maying in the woods, in one of the most beautiful descriptions of a ritual that I have ever read:

It began to get dark as Justine and I pushed on into the wood, a soft dusk-mist greying the wash of bluebells. Hazel and sweet-chestnut trunks were very black under a roof of green. A great tit swung his unchanging two notes out over the twilight, as though skimming stones on the surface of a lake. (Read on...)

Narbled Gonsense offers a meditation for Beltane based on a Waterboys song:

Then you begin to notice that something is happening. You feel different, something more intense than before. This feeling is sweeter, it emanates from inside of you, from inside your heart. You can hear your heart beating. It’s like an engine burning in your chest. It feels vast, an ocean of fire. Then emotion runs through you, like a quickening. Its like all the loves of your life rolled into one. You feel spectacularly and absolutely alive.

Hecate suggests that we should let go of our notions of the 'perfect' ritual and get Dionysian, let our hair down:

As you prepare this week for Beltane, for the fire festival on the high hills, for our religion's most important celebration of acts of love and pleasure, I hope that you feel free to let go. Goddess knows, I mean to.

She also offers a Mary Oliver poem for Beltane:

Did you hear it, fluting and whistling
A shrill dark music - like the rain pelting the trees - like a waterfall
Knifing down the black ledges?

Pagan LJ communities

2008-04-26T08:55:00.004-04:00

One of Livejournal's unique features is the idea of a community journal that anyone can join and post to.

There are several Pagan LJ communities. The links below are to searches for keywords, so the results may contain a lot of not very useful stuff.

Celtic Reconstructionism
Cochrane, 1734, Mohsian
Druidry
Feri
Heathenry
Kemeticism
Paganism
Pantheism
Polytheism
Quaker Pagan
Reclaiming
Religio Romana
Romuva
Thelema
UUs (some are Pagans)
Voudun, Santeria, Umbanda, Lukumi, Candomblé
Wicca

Have I missed any traditions? Add your own in the comments!

Nine Noble Virtues

2008-04-17T12:10:00.003-04:00

Last year, Bernulf at Expanding Inward produced an excellent article about the Nine Noble Virtues of Heathenry. There are also individual articles about the first six.

two new widgets

2008-04-17T11:27:00.003-04:00

I have added two new widgets to the sidebar of MetaPagan.

The first is a new category for editors' picks - the blogposts that we, the editors, think are the best of Pagan blogging. This is a moderated group on Ma.gnolia (another social bookmarking site that works slightly differently to del.icio.us).

The second is a polling tool where you can vote for the best of Pagan blogging (and add your own choices). Non-Pagan readers can vote too.

contributions

2008-04-16T10:53:00.004-04:00

We're delighted to see how many contributions there are to the MetaPagan feeds, so do keep them coming, but do remember to post other people's blogposts as well as your own, and not to post every single blogpost you write (unless you're the reincarnation of William Shakespeare). Cat has put together some thoughts on the netiquette of collaborative editing, so if you're new here, do have a read of it. We do want to see a varied selection of the best of Pagan blogging - and there's some wonderful stuff out there, so do browse around other people's blogs and submit their writing too.

Happy Birthday to The Gods Are Bored!

2008-04-14T18:14:00.004-04:00

Anne Johnson, blogger extraordinaire in charge of The Gods are Bored:Praise and worship suggestions for those longing to be Left Behind, has been sharing her special view of the world with us for three full years now, she says:

Welcome to "The Gods Are Bored" on this, our third anniversary! Gosh! We've lasted longer than a lot of marriages! It must be the great sex.

The Gods are Bored offers semi-serious "interviews" with Pagan gods and goddesses, tips on how to cope with anonymous tiki gods deposited in your neighborhood, public service announcements for turkey vultures (an important element of a healthy ecosystem and a key element in Anne's personal religion, in turns out) and prominent product placements for TaB Cola.

Not sure what's up with the TaB, but I'm right with Anne on all the rest. Not just one of the funniest bloggers out there, her serious dedication to Druidry and environmentalism also makes her blog a special place.

If you haven't read it yet, check it out! And if you appreciate it as much as I do, stop by and wish her (as well as Puck, Princess, Aine, and the Heir and the Spare) a happy third birthday.

Happy birthday to the Merlin of Berkely Springs!

Hello world!

2008-04-05T10:10:00.003-04:00

Visitors to MetaPagan by country during March 2008
United States: 321
United Kingdom: 80
Canada: 31
South Africa: 11
Australia: 3
New Zealand: 2
Spain: 2
Brazil: 2
Netherlands: 2
France: 2
Italy: 1
Denmark: 1
Czech Republic: 1
Switzerland: 1
Malaysia: 1
Japan: 1
Uganda: 1
Turkey: 1

Thanks for visiting, everyone! I hope you found what you were looking for, and that you will consider contributing to the site. If you see a well-written Pagan blog post, just post it to one of the metapagan categories on del.icio.us.

organ donation and Pagans

2008-04-05T09:50:00.006-04:00

I have just signed up to donate my organs after my death (having been reassured that they only take the organs when you are actually clinically dead). I noticed a page on the site giving the perspectives of the various different religions on organ donation (generally the various faiths are in support of it). But the list did not include Paganism. Now obviously Pagans tend to make up our own minds about such issues, since we are all for freedom of conscience - but I would be interested to know the views of other Pagans on this issue. For example, those who maintain that after death the individual human song should be allowed to merge gracefully and gradually with the greater song of the land might take exception to organ donation. Those who take the view that the body is just an overcoat for the spirit might take a different view. And so on...

Organ donor sites: USA | Canada | Australia | South Africa.

If you write a blogpost about this, please add a link in the comments, or just post your thoughts in the comments. Would you donate your organs? Do you know of anyone who donated their organs? Do you know anyone who has benefited from an organ transplant? Are there any specifically Pagan ethical considerations, either for or against? Wikipedia has a good general discussion of the ethical issues.

Update: This generated a lot of discussion on WiccanWeb.ca

The amazing Earth

2008-04-05T06:39:00.001-04:00

7 Incredible Natural Phenomena you've never seen
7 Most Beautiful Oases
7 Most Amazing Caves of our World
World's Most Amazing Islands
20 Most Fascinating Prehistoric Paintings
10 Most Amazing Lost Cities
Outstanding Aerial Photos

The planet on which we live is amazing - so let's do our bit to help her by reducing our carbon footprints.

Interviews with Pagans

2008-04-04T12:30:00.001-04:00

Wild Hunt interviews:

St. Louis Pagan Picnic Interviews (video):

Author Interviews available at The Wiccan/Pagan Times:

YouTube - Pagan Interview: Cassandra Michaels

Avalonia author interviews

Pagan academic blogs

2008-04-03T12:45:00.001-04:00

Several Pagan academics have blogs.

Chas Clifton (author of Her Hidden Children and Lecturer in English at Colorado State University) writes at Letter from Hardscrabble Creek.

Peg Aloi (an academic interested in film, paganism and the occult, as well as a freelance writer) blogs at Orchards Forever. You can see an interview with her at TheoFantastique.

The Wiccan Scientist is the blog of Chris Keating, a professor of physics as well as a practising Wiccan.

Gus di Zerega has a fascinating blog about deep ecology, politics and Paganism.

M. Macha Nightmare, witch and author, who is on the faculty of Cherry Hill Seminary, has a blog entitled Broomstick Chronicles.

Anne Hill (writer and sometime lecturer) blogs at Blog o' Gnosis.

Are you a Pagan academic with a blog? Disappointed not to be on this list? Post your blog in the comments.

Public Pagan sculpture

2008-04-01T16:30:00.003-04:00

Jason (at the Wild Hunt) has a post about public religious statuary and other impedimenta, and since the US Supreme Court appear to have ruled that such statuary must be diverse, this appears to leave room for some Pagan religious imagery.

The court has already ruled that isolated religiously-motivated displays are out, but that a religious monument can exist among a diversity of statues and monuments. Now the court will decide how much control a government body can have over which religiously-oriented monuments will be allowed on public property.

They could perhaps take a leaf from the book of the eighteenth century, when Pagan statuary, temples, and fake standing stones were all the rage with the cognoscenti.

Check out my photos of the garden statuary at Stowe, England, reminding us that the days of the week are named after Pagan deities. Or take a look at the wonderful eighteenth-century landscape garden at Stourhead, Wiltshire, replete with Pagan temples and statuary. And in America, virtually every other public building seems to have Pagan heritage written all over it.

Equinox blessings

2008-03-21T09:26:00.004-04:00

Starweaver's Corner reflects upon the modern origins of the festival of Eostre, and explores the history of the concept, via Bede and Grimm:

Many modern Pagans celebrate the Spring Equinox (March 19 this year) as Ostara, one of the eight sabbats of the Wheel of the Year. Unlike some Pagan holidays with well-documented ancient precursors, Ostara is entirely or perhaps mostly a modern invention. The ancient English chronicler, the Venerable Bede, wrote that the Anglo-Saxon name for the month of March, eostur-monath (which lent its name to the Christian holy day of Easter in English), was derived from the name of a dawn goddess, Eostre. There is no other evidence of this goddess, and we know of no celebrations associated with her. As an educated cleric, Bede may have been inferring a relationship between the word eostur and the Greek Eos, goddess of the dawn.

Suburban Guerrilla reports on a vernal equinox office party:

the insurance company on the floor down from us had a giant Vernal Equinox party at the office today. They brought in all kinds of great-looking food and they took everyone down to the parking lot for a ritual welcome to spring.

Stephanie Frieze at In Your Neighbourhood celebrates a lot of spring festivals including Ostara:

We are a religiously eclectic family (actually we are eclectic in pretty much all ways) and find it convenient to celebrate it all. Spring seems such a sensible time to celebrate a new year with the rebirth of nature. Whether you celebrate Easter, Passover, No Ruz, Nawruz, or Ostara, may the coming of Spring bring joy to your heart and hearth and chocolate to your tummy.

Sia at Full Circle explores some activities you can do for Spring Equinox, including the usual egg-painting, but also this excellent practical suggestion:

You might want to clean the hair out of the family hairbrushes and pull some (preferably natural and cotton) lint from your dryer, and put it out for the birds to use as nesting material. When you do, send loving thoughts to the birds that will use this material to make their homes.

The Wild Hunt blog also has a round-up of Eostre quotes, and an overview of the festival:

Today is the vernal (spring) equinox. It is the astronomical beginning of spring. Wiccans, Heathens, and various modern Pagans celebrate this day as Ostara, Lady Day, or simply the spring equinox. Several current secular Easter traditions including the Easter Bunny, and dyeing/decorating eggs are considered remnants of pre-Christian spring celebrations. It is a time for the celebration of the renewal of life.

The Wiccan Scientist explains the astronomical aspects of the equinox, and explores a fascinating folk belief about eggs:

I have heard many times how the equinox is the one day of the year when you can balance an egg on end. The story goes that all of the forces align just right to make it possible. This one has just enough truth to it to keep going. I've even had students tell me how it was a family tradition while they were growing up to balance an egg on the spring equinox every year to celebrate the arrival of spring...

ElvenBeads has a history of Ostara, some myths associated with it, and a suggestion for a solo ritual.

In medieval societies in Europe, the March hare was viewed as a major fertility symbol -- this is a species of rabbit that is nocturnal most of the year, but in March when mating season begins, there are bunnies everywhere all day long. The female of the species is superfecund and can conceive a second litter while still pregnant with a first. As if that wasn't enough, the males tend to get frustrated when rebuffed by their mates, and bounce around erratically when discouraged.

Ancestral Celt, on the other hand, won't be doing anything special for the equinox, and wants to know why others find it to be special:

It's the vernal equinox this weekend, but I will not be doing anything special. Aside from the fact I don't have a day off until March 29th, the equinoxes have never appealed to me as something to be honoured.

Certainly the death and resurrection of various Mediterranean fertility deities (Attis, Adonis, etc) was celebrated around this time, but it wasn't hugely popular in Northern Europe.

Bo at The Expulsion of the Blatant Beast quotes his friend Justine, who says 'The Spring Equinox is a very blonde festival.'

In other words, it's a festival in the Pagan calendar which somehow seems less bright than the others. If Samhain is Eileen Atkins in Cranford walking behind the coffin, and Lughnasadh is Ma Larkin at her floury-armed, bosomy best, the spring equinox is any vacant blonde dolly out of Hollyoaks you care to name. The 'Eostre' card in the Goddess Oracle pack adds to the impression: it shows a simpering teenage girl in a pink pseudo-Grecian gymslip holding an egg (or a whole mozzarella) whilst petting a tiny unicorn. Dear gods, the wretched girl is cradling a bunny rabbit in her lap.

In a subsequent post, he writes:

We have devised a potential solution to the sappiness of the spring equinox: exploding goose eggs. ... We are actually going to try this. Gods help us, we may be picking bits of eggshell out of the woodwork for weeks. What we want is a small bang and a flash and a whiff of frankincense, not to lend the sacred forest the atmosphere of downtown Basra.

Interesting idea, I hope it works...

Of course Spring Equinox is sappy in the sense that now is the time of the great systolic thump of the rising surge of sap everywhere!

And whatever activities (sappy, explosive, hare-brained, or hairbrush-plucking) you get up to for the Equinox, I wish you much festive fun!

how to use del.icio.us

2008-03-07T11:20:00.002-05:00

A really neat little video about how to use del.icio.us.

Once you've got the hang of del.icio.us, adding bookmarks to MetaPagan is easy - just read our posting guidelines, use our predefined list of tags, and your contributions will automatically be added to our feeds.

Landscape synchroblog

2008-02-27T09:37:00.003-05:00

Mahud's original synchroblog post
Nature and me at Executive Pagan
The importance of local landscapes at Manzanita, Redwoods, and Laurel
Transcendental Experience Out Of Doors Opens The Gateway To Magic by Pitch
Symbolic Landscapes of Norse Mythology by A. Venefica
Aquila ka Hecate: The King and the Land are One
Quaker Pagan Reflections: Gone Away
The Dance of the Elements: Landscape and Mythology
Druid's Apprentice: Landscape Synchroblogging

Pagan theologies wiki

2008-02-25T17:10:00.001-05:00

Another shameless plug...

The Pagan theologies wiki is another attempt to promote discussion among Pagans. What I mean by "Pagan theology" is "a distinctively Pagan theology" not "a single unified Pagan theology".

"I am using the plural 'theologies' here deliberately. A polytheistic religion gives many different accounts of the divine beings, and these accounts, or theologies, reflect the divine patronage of their inventors. People sometimes raise their eyebrows when they hear of Pagan theology, but in fact the word 'theology' dates from Pagan times and was first used concerning Pagan deities."

from Pagan Pathways essay on "Pagan Theologies" by Prudence Jones, Page 32.

The Pagan theologies wiki has several sections:

Contributions are needed in order to make this a genuinely multi-perspective view of Pagan theologies - please email me at , or post a comment here if you have an article that you would like to contribute.

Extended Deadline: Synchroblog on Landscapes

2008-02-23T09:13:00.005-05:00

As previously reported, Mahud of Mythology Blog: Between Old and New Moons has extended an invitation to Pagan bloggers to participate in a synchroblog on sacred landscapes. Though originally intended to run only until February 22, the deadline has been extended to March 1.

If you'd like to participate, be sure to put a link up to Mahud's post on the synchroblog at your post on the topic, in the comments or in the post itself, and leave a comment at Mahud's post, too.

The Netiquette of Collaborative Editing

2008-02-17T08:05:00.004-05:00

What an embarrassment of riches! In the past few weeks, we've seen quite an uptick in the number of volunteer editors for MetaPagan. This is incredibly important--not only because Web 2.0 efforts like this one, and the Pagan Theologies Wiki depend on community involvement to succeed, but because of the value Pagans place of community. It's due to the assistance of our volunteers--our readers--that we are able to provide links, not just to Pagan blogging, but to the best of Pagan blogging.

If you're interested in posting links here at MetaPagan, there are a few technical tools to master. If you have never used our bookmarking system, del.icio.us, you'll want to read the directions on how to do so using our system of specific MetaPagan bookmarks. That is how MetaPagan's bots know how to find your selections, and to add them to the feed, so it's important to use the particular bookmarks our bots are set to look for. (If you have suggestions for new bookmarks, that serve topic areas we should be addressing, but aren't, please let us know, and Yvonne will set them up, with a corresponding web page here at our main site.)

There is more than technical detail involved in collaborating at MetaPagan, though. What a joy it is to have enough volunteers to make it important to go over the Nettiquette of collaborative editing!

The purpose of MetaPagan is to provide a selective collection of links to specific blog posts we (meaning you, the MetaPagan reader, and we, the editorial staff) think will appeal most to intelligent Pagan readers. Now, needless to say, a lot of us at MetaPagan have our own blogs, and enjoy the bump in traffic we get when MetaPagan carries a link to one of our posts.

However, though MetaPagan certainly serves the purpose of promoting our blogs, it's the hope that it will not become just another place on the web where people promote themselves--there are many, many non-selective link exchanges out there that serve that purpose, but no other resources we're aware of that do what we're trying to accomplish at MetaPagan, providing links to only the most thoughtful and interesting individual blog posts (and to new Pagan blogs of note.)

So MetaPagan hopes that all the members of our collaborative project will do two things:

First, to select the very best of your own posts, rather than every post you make. If, like me, you're a prolific blogger, that would mean pretty nearly a daily plug for your blog, to be sure... but it would also mean that blog readers would no longer be getting just my best.

I admit, in the heat of a first posting, I sometimes have a hard time remembering this rule. So I'll often make myself wait a little while, or even wait and see if one of my regular readers makes the tag instead of me. It's always a thrill to see that somebody else tagged my stuff! But use your own strategies. Just keep in mind that when you make a post to MetaPagan, you're saying that what you've posted is among the very best of the Pagan blogosphere that day.

Second, one of the things that I've learned over time is that some of the very best Pagan blogs have a narrow, almost a unique focus. We love to feature specialty blog posts, on topics like Pagan parenting, Pagan scholarship, interfaith work, and more. And often, the best entries on those topics will come from a handful of bloggers who choose to focus their writing on those topics, maybe to the exclusion of anything else.

This is one reason we have our topic-specific pages. If you are interested, for instance, in interfaith work, you can go directly to our page on that topic--or get for your own blog the widget that carries just posts on that one subject. This is how we've set the del.icio.us bookmarks up.

But every post that is featured on the specialized topic headings is also picked up and carried through our main feeder, for all of our readers. We think this is how it should be--part of the fun of being a MetaPagan subscriber is seeing how diverse the interests of the Pagan blogosphere really are.

It does, however, call for a certain element of trust on our part, and courtesy on the part of our collaborators. If you are following one particular topic, like Pagan parenting or therapy, you want to pace your contributions. If you find a single source that is a mother-lode of good an useful information, feel free to post a link to it as a "New Blog" (remember, there's a tag for that!) as well as to the topic specific del.icio.us tag. Or, if you think it's better to point out each of the many terrific posts at that site, go ahead and do so, but not all at once.

Remember, MetaPagan's main feeder is a mix of many subject areas. Try doling out the wonderful series of posts you've discovered at a rate of one or two a week. You'll build more of an audience--eight or nine posts together will quickly get crowded out the main feeder--and more of our readers will discover the new treasure trove.

Needless to say, this is even more true if the treasure trove is your own blog. We're not asking you to practice false modesty: we want to see all of your best work. But, to be a good citizen of the Pagan blogosphere, and to attract the largest possible readership for your best work, take it all off... slowly. Entice us a little.

It'll be worth it.

And keep it up! We love our collaborative editors. Without you, this project would be impossible.

Blessed be.

MetaPagan: A (Deservedly) Shameless Plug

2008-02-01T16:07:00.001-05:00

I have been enjoying the conversation swirling among several Pagan blogs, at least partly in response to the Spontaneous Blog Carnival that I wrote about on MetaPagan. It has taken a while--about six months, by my rough reckoning--but MetaPagan seems to be doing what its founders hoped it would do: facilitate a thoughtful, intelligent conversation in the Pagan blogosphere. Comments are up--cross-posting is up--and Pagans are listening deeply to one another as we talk about things that matter to us.

But one thing may be missing from MetaPagan--your participation.

What is MetaPagan? It's a daily roundup, not of unfiltered links to Pagan writing or to stories about Paganism, but of the very best of Pagan blogging. Participants learn how to use our del.icio.us tag system--it's not hard, and we've got a guide to get you started--and whenever they come across something that's truly outstanding, they flag it for you to read.

There are hundreds of Pagan blogs. But--can we talk?--a lot of them aren't very good. And none of us write something earth-shaking every single day.

But with a service like MetaPagan, instead of being overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of Pagan blogs out there, or of essays posted each week on The Witches' Voice, you can focus on the posts that have gotten readers interested and excited--the ones that are contributing to the ongoing conversation about Pagan religion, Pagan culture, and Pagan activism.

You can join us in promoting the work of other good Pagan writers on your own blog, by installing one of the MetaPagan widgets on your web page or blog. It's free, and it's easy: simply click on the blue "Get Widget" button below the MetaPagan feed blidget on our sidebar, or on the sidebar of any of the participating blogs already carrying the feed. (You can get our feed as a Facebook app, or a Google Gadget, too.)

Feel overwhelmed by the volume of good posts recommended by MetaPagan? Consider mounting a sidebar blidget for one of our specialized categories, like Pagan Books, Pagan Parenting, or Interfaith work. Your participation can be as broad, or as specialized, as your interests.

MetaPagan has the potential to become a powerful tool, linking Pagan writers together in a web of online community. We'd like you to be a part of that. Please consider installing a MetaPagan feed reader on your web page or blog today. And, next time you come across a story that's really first rate, consider tagging it on del.icio.us, for the whole Pagan world to read.

Exploding fallacies

2008-01-30T05:56:00.000-05:00

I love it when another enduring fallacy gets exploded. Here's another...

The Myth of Sacred Prostitution in Antiquity (Hardcover)
by Stephanie Lynn Budin (Author)

Book Description
In this study, Stephanie Budin demonstrates that sacred prostitution, the sale of a person's body for sex in which some or all of the money earned was devoted to a deity or a temple, did not exist in the ancient world. Reconsidering the evidence from the ancient Near East, the Greco-Roman texts, and the Early Christian authors, Budin shows that the majority of sources that have traditionally been understood as pertaining to sacred prostitution actually have nothing to do with this institution. The few texts that are usually invoked on this subject are, moreover, terribly misunderstood. Furthermore, contrary to many current hypotheses, the creation of the myth of sacred prostitution has nothing to do with notions of accusation or the construction of a decadent, Oriental "Other." Instead, the myth has come into being as a result of more than 2,000 years of misinterpretations, false assumptions, and faulty methodology. The study of sacred prostitution is, effectively, a historiographical reckoning.

About the Author
Stephanie Budin received her PhD in Ancient History from the University of Pennsylvania with concentrations in Greece and the Ancient Near East. She studied at the American School of Classical Studies in Athens as a Pennfield Fellow and the following year she continued her studies both there and at the Albright Institute of Archaeological Research in Jerusalem as the Samuel H. Kress Joint Athens-Jerusalem Fellow. She has delivered papers in Athens, Nicosia, Jerusalem, London, Dublin, Stockholm, Oldenburg, and in various cities throughout the United States.

a.. Hardcover: 392 pages
a.. Publisher: Cambridge University Press (January 14, 2008)
a.. Language: English
a.. ISBN-10: 0521880904
a.. ISBN-13: 978-0521880909
a.. Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 1.1 inches

Why is this important? Because anti-pagan polemic has often centred on the issue of temple prostitutes. If temple prostitution didn't exist, then that's another fallacy exploded.

Another possibility that has been suggested (by Esther M Harding in Women's Mysteries) is that women went to the temple at least once in their lives to offer themselves to random passers-by in order to experience the ecstasy of the act of union when possessed by a deity. Maybe the puritanical commentators on this custom couldn't imagine women deriving pleasure from such an experience, so they assumed that the women were coerced. Or maybe Ms Harding was trying to put a positive spin on a custom that didn't exist in the first place...

Thanks to Caroline Tully for the information about this book.

Spontaneous Blog Carnival?

2008-01-29T17:07:00.000-05:00

It must be something in the aether...Discussions of Christianity are breaking out on Pagan blogs everywhere.

It's odd, but whenever I post anything related to the subject of Christianity at my own blog, the number of hits and comments--from Pagans--goes way up. Maybe I'm not the only person to have noticed this, because over the last few days, numerous members of the Pagan/Heathen blogosphere have posted entries on the topic of Christo-Paganism and related topics. Some bloggers are concerned, some are puzzled, and some are embracing at least some Christian concepts, if not Christianity, per se.

Generally speaking, a Blog Carnival or a Synchro-blog event, like the Brighid in Cyberspace Poetry Reading described below, is planned in advance. This one, however, seems to be just happening. Recent related posts include:

Grace at Christine's This Shaking Keeps Me Steady
What's my Problem with Sharing Craft with Christianity? by Pitch over at Here's the Pitch
Paganism and the Threat of Assimilation by Pagan author Gus diZerega on his blog
A Path by any Other Name: The Christo-Pagan Problem at Soul Bites Blog
What is a Christian? at Quaker Pagan Reflections
Is Christ Special? at Meadowsweet and Myrrh
And last (but very much not least) a news round up over on The Wild Hunt Blog that asks the question, Can You Be a Christo-Pagan in Prison?

For whatever reason, the interface between Christians (or Christianity) and Paganism seems to be in the air just now. Have you sighted another of these posts, floating through Cyberspace? Want to add your two cents' worth to the discussion? Just add your comment or a link--to your own blog in the comments field below.

Why so much interest? Explanations or speculations on the phenomenon are welcome.

Imbolc poetry reading

2008-01-27T05:54:00.000-05:00

As Imbolc approaches, Deborah Oak is organising the third annual Imbolc poetry reading in honour of Brighid... it's happened twice already, so that makes it a tradition! Hooray.

WHAT: A Bloggers (Silent) Poetry Reading

WHEN: Anytime February 2, 2008

WHERE: Your blog

WHY: To celebrate the Feast of Brigid, aka Groundhog Day

HOW: Select a poem you like - by a favorite poet or one of your own - to
post February 2nd.

RSVP: If you plan to publish, feel free to leave a comment and link on this
post. Last year when the call went out there was more poetry in cyberspace
than I could keep track of. So, link to whoever you hear about this from and
a mighty web of poetry will be spun.

Feel free to pass this invitation on to any and all bloggers.

thanks
deborah oak at branchesup.blogspot.com

People could also post the poems to del.icio.us using a special tag, 2008-brigid-imbolc, then they will all be gathered in one place.

"witch children" petition

2008-01-17T08:38:00.001-05:00

Many Pagan bloggers have expressed concern over the plight of the so-called witch-children in Nigeria. There is now a petition you can sign:

In response to the recent Observer article on the plight of the children
that Stepping Stones work with in Nigeria a petition has been set up to pressure the
Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Godswill Akpabio, to act to stop the gross
violations of child rights that are taking place due to the belief in
child "witches". As many of you will know, countless children are being
abandoned, tortured and killed in this region due to this traditional
harmful belief. We need to act as quickly as possible if we are protect
more children from harm and challenge this deeply held belief.

I would be grateful if you could sign it and circulate this request to your
contacts. Once there are as many signatories as possible Stepping Stones will then
personally present the petition to the Governor. This is just the first
step in what is going to be a long, concerted effort by Stepping Stones
Nigeria and their partner NGO - the Child Rights and Rehabilitation Network
- to put an end to this needless suffering. They will also be looking to
significantly expand the scope of their Prevent Abandonment of Children
Today (PACT) campaign in 2008.

The petition can be found at:
Care2 petition for the children who are targets of the Nigerian witch-hunt

There's also a Facebook group - please join to show your support, and donate to Stepping Stones.

Deo's Shadow Returns!

2008-01-16T21:21:00.000-05:00

In case you missed it, after a five month hiatus, Deo's Shadow is back!

Deo's Shadow has no competition in the world of Pagan talk podcasting. (In the world of Pagan musical podcasting, I must put in a word for Jason Pitzl-Waters' A Darker Shade of Pagan, a really professional mix of "Pagan Sounds from the Underground"; and more and more Pagans have already discovered the high-quality Pagan news commentary of Jason's Wild Hunt blog.)

A long hiatus from Deo's Shadow was disappointing, of course. Still, it's no surprise--full time graduate school has competed with the unpaid work of running a talk show for the Pagan community, and is likely to continue to do so. Alas! The price of having such articulate and intelligent hosts is that Deo and Mandy have lives beyond the podcast. Go figure.

Given the hiatus, a good deal of this return episode is a discussion of the ins and outs of running a Pagan podcast and managing relationships with a sometimes ornery and demanding Pagan public. (Someday I will figure out why doing something for free makes so many people think they are entitled to you continuing to do it, for free, and with bigger and better product.) So, if you're not yet a fan of the show, I'd recommend starting your addiction with an earlier episode. (I'm especially fond of the show which features an interview with Gus DiZerega, the show which featured the Dragon Ritual Drummers, and the somewhat controversial discussions of firepit behavior at Pagan gatherings.

Though for fans, and for those of us who have also experienced that special category of hostility that the Pagan community reserves for those who offer real labors of love free of charge, the current episode is well worth a listen as well. And Deo and Mandy give the folks behind "The Secret" the benefit of a little critical thinking (in more ways than one) as well.

Apparently more content is on the way--a continuation of the interview with Dr. Brendan Myers, and some material from discussions on the Deo's Shadow forum are both in process. I've got my fingers crossed that more episodes come out soon--and plenty of suggestions for future interviews, in case Deo and Mandy ever run short of material. Meanwhile, I'm just glad to welcome them back, and blessed be!

Intercultural and Interfaith

2008-01-04T11:39:00.000-05:00

Andras Corban Arthen is well known among Pagans, especially in the Northeast (of the USA), for his leadership in the EarthSpirit Community. Perhaps he is somewhat less known for his interfaith work with the Parliament of World Religions.

Andras has published a really moving account of his participation in the World Interreligious Encounter (Encuentro Mundial Interreligioso) in Monterrey, Mexico, this past September. His descriptions of his interactions with representatives of the indigenous peoples of Mexico, and of his own reactions and his reception as a representative of "one of the indigenous European pagan traditions" were especially meaningful to me.

The shortest day

2007-12-22T06:26:00.000-05:00

A poem sent to me by a Wiccan friend:

The Shortest Day

And so the Shortest Day came and the year died
And everywhere down the centuries of the snow-white world
Came people singing, dancing,
To drive the dark away.
They lighted candles in the winter trees;
They hung their homes with evergreen;
They burned beseeching fires all night long
To keep the year alive.
And when the new year's sunshine blazed awake
They shouted, revelling.
Through all the frosty ages you can hear them
Echoing behind us - listen!
All the long echoes, sing the same delight,
This Shortest Day,
As promise wakens in the sleeping land:
They carol, feast, give thanks,
And dearly love their friends,
And hope for peace.
And now so do we, here, now,
This year and every year.
Welcome Yule!

By Susan Cooper (author of The Dark is Rising)

I love the way this poem emphasises the historical continuity of the celebration of the return of the light at the solstice, from ancient times until today, no matter the religion of the celebrants.

I also just received this from a Unitarian Universalist:

Robert Ingersoll was a late-19th-century lawyer, politician, freethinker, orator, gadfly, and agnostic (although he did avow respect for both the Unitarians and the Universalists, and would be right at home among us today). In 1897, he wrote “What I Want for Christmas” - we offer you some of his reflections for this holiday season:
If I had the power to produce exactly what I want for Christmas, I would have all the kings and emperors resign and allow the people to govern themselves.

I would have all the cardinals, archbishops, bishops, priests, and clergy admit that they know nothing about theology, nothing about hell or heaven, nothing about the destiny of the human race, nothing about devils or ghosts, gods or angels.

I would have them tell their "flocks" to think for themselves and do all in their power to increase the sum of human happiness.

I would like to see all editors of newspapers and magazines agree to print the truth and nothing but the truth, to avoid all slander and misrepresentation, and to let the private affairs of people alone.

I would like to see corporal punishment done away with. Cruelty hardens and degrades; kindness reforms and ennobles.

I would like to see a fair division of profits between capital and labor, so that the toiler could save enough to mingle a little June with the December of his life.

I would like to see the whole world set free -- free from injustice -- free from superstition.

This will do for this Christmas. Next Christmas, I may want more.

We're still waiting for some of these...

Yule is coming!

2007-12-20T09:32:00.001-05:00

The music of Yule
Executive Pagan has two posts on the music of Yule and its mythic resonances:

Good Winter Solstice music is hard to find. In general I do not include filked Christmas carols in the “good” category, although there are a couple of exceptions (and completely new pagan words set to an existing melody are a different matter altogether). Good *Christmas* music abounds, of course… and some of it is even reasonably pagan-friendly.

He also recommends White Frost and the Black Thorn, by Eleanor’s Visceral Tomb:

This is a ritual in music - no other way to describe it. It transcends any possible category of pagan or Christian music - it is truly and deeply mythic in the sense of the Pratchett quote I posted previously, having “to do with gods only in the way that roots have to do with leaves.” It has definitely altered my vision...

The meaning of Yule
Deaf Pagan Crossroads has a series of Yule posts:

Old Woman Winter reflects upon the Cailleach
Helios, Sol and Saturnalia looks at Roman and Greek cultures - their ancient pagan traditions and how those traditions may have indeed paved the way for the later Christian celebration we know as Christmas.
Chamber of the Sun has some beautiful photos of solstice sunrises in burial mounds, and reflections upon the rebirth of the sun at the solstice
The Meaning of Solstice discusses the meaning and symbolism of the word "solstice"

Audio Latin Proverbs has an explanation of the Roman proverb, Semper Saturnalia agunt.

You will find the saying in Petronius's Satyricon. There's also a similar, more pessimistic saying from Seneca: non semper Saturnalia erunt, "It will not always be Saturnalia-time." In other words: party-time will come to an end, sooner or later. Some people, of course, are on a kind of permanent vacation; semper Saturnalia agunt, as in today's saying.

Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose...

The About.com Pagan/Wiccan blog has studied Saturnalia customs in some detail:

One of the highlights of Saturnalia was the switching of traditional roles, particularly between a master and his slave. Everyone got to wear the red pileus, or freedman's hat, and slaves were free to be as impertinent as they wished to their owners. However, despite the appearance of a reversal of social order, there were actually some fairly strict boundaries. A master might serve his slaves dinner, but the slaves were the ones who prepared it -- this kept Roman society in order, but still allowed everyone to have a good time.

Hunter Ash gives an explanation of the Heathen customs of Yule and Mothers' Night:

The first night of Yule is called Mothernights, where Frigga and the Disir (female ancestral spirits) are especially honoured. Mothers Night is appropriately named, as it represents the rebirth of the world from the darkness of winter. This is the date with the shortest day and the longest night of the year.

A traditional vigil from dusk to dawn is held on the Mothers night, to make sure that the sun will rise again and welcome her when it does.

And this 2005 post from Chieftain Ash explains how to celebrate Yule in Anglo-Saxon style:

In all likelihood, Modraniht was in some way connected to the cult of the Mothers. Altars all across the Lowlands, in England, France, and in other areas were erected to the "matrons," by Germanic mercenaries in the service of Rome. In some cases these altars were more than mere votive stones, but made up part of greater cult centers such as those at Nettersheim and Bonn. The "mothers" were shown with fruit baskets, plants, trees, babies, children, cloths for wrapping babies, and snakes. Most feel that this cult of "matrons" can be linked to the Norse idea of the disir or ancestral women who had a sacred night to them in the fall at Winter Nights (commonly referred to as Disablot).

The Pagan calendar has all the significant dates of December, complete with explanations of each festival.

Getting charitable...
Circle Sanctuary are helping Pagan soldiers by sending gift packages, and the Montreal Pagan Resource Centre are collecting food or food vouchers for Pagan Community Yule Baskets.

And if you're looking for a good cause to donate to this Yule, please consider donating to Stepping Stones Nigeria, who help children in Nigeria who have been abandoned, abused and tortured because they have been accused of witchcraft. I learned about this charity from Angela at Nine Ravens.

Yuletide wit
Garrett Eisler at the Huffington Post has an excellent article satirising the recent spate of right-wing Christian articles on the "war on Christmas":

There's a war being waged against our sacred winter holiday, people. Centuries ago, our forebearers at this time of year began exchanging gifts, decorating trees, and welcoming the winter solstice with the return of light and end of darkness. All in the name of our beloved God. Yes, you know who I mean. Even in these heathen times, I'm not ashamed to speak his name: Saturn. There, I said it. Let's stop denying who this holiday is really about.

What has become of our holy Saturnalia, fellow pagans? I go into my local Wal-Mart, greeted by all the familiar holly and ivy of yore, and am welcomed not with the rousing "Io, Saturnalia!" of simpler times, but with some made-up newfangled, supposedly "non-offensive" substitute: this "Christ-Mass" thing.

In Milkbreath and Me, the symbolism of the Saturnalia tree is finally explained:

So we put up the tree yesterday, complete with Sol Invictus at the top. B insisted that it was not a tree but a ROCKET. The balls are planets. The lights are stars. The glass pickle ornament is an asteroid ("That's a kind of rock out in space!" he keeps explaining). The stocking ornament is a "space sock" -- so the astronauts don't get blisters from their moon boots.

Is Narnia Pagan after all?

2007-12-07T05:16:00.000-05:00

After much scholarship emphasising the Christian vision underlying the Narnia Chronicles, a book has now been released showing that Lewis intended each book as an extended meditation on the seven planets of medieval astrology. And as everyone knows, astrology is Pagan. Each planet has its tutelary deity (and They make an appearance in Lewis's Space Trilogy, especially in the last book). And of course, at the end of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Professor Kirk is heard to say "Why, bless me, it's all in Plato". And Plato was a pagan philosopher.

So is Narnia Pagan after all? Well, yes and no. It has creatures from Pagan mythology (centaurs, dwarves, river gods, maenads, and even Silenus and Bacchus) and it has an underlying astrological theme. It also shows the mythopoeic vision of nature as alive, and full of tree and water spirits. And Lewis was certainly respectful towards ancient pagan mythology in the Narnia books and in his other writings, but he was a believer in a form of providential history - the idea that the incarnation of the Divine in Christ changed the world forever. There is also a cosmic struggle between the powers of good and evil in his cosmology; and this is a vision of reality that seems to be unique to the monotheisms, starting with Zoroastrianism and continuing on into Western Christianity (heavily influenced by Augustine, who started life as a Manichaean - a tradition heavily influenced by Zoroastrianism).

So I would argue that Narnia is both Pagan and Christian - just as Christianity itself inherited a lot of ideas and traditions from the ancient world (baptism, croziers, the Good Shepherd, the Queen of Heaven, Platonic forms, a hierarchical cosmos, astrology, the pontifex maximus, stoles, and many more); and just as contemporary Paganism (particularly Wicca) has inherited or reacted against many Christian ideas - so Narnia is an amalgam of Christian and Pagan themes, and is all the more interesting as a constructed world as a result.

Jezebel the Polytheistic Princess

2007-11-26T00:16:00.000-05:00

I am reading Lesley Hazleton's Jezebel: The Untold Story of the Bible's Harlot Queen, which I picked up at the Doubleday booth at the AAR-SBL meeting.

Somewhat as Robert Graves did in King Jesus decades ago--but with better sourcing--she takes a familiar Bible story and re-tells it from a different perspective.

Jezebel (Phoenician "Itha-Ba'al" -- woman of the Lord) was a Phoenician princess united in a political marriage with Ahab, who was actually one of the more militarily and successful Israelite kings of the Omride dynasty. The Bible slams him for not being hard enough on polytheists, however.

As queen and then as queen mother, she plays the political game as best she can before falling victim to monotheistic religious violence incited by the prophet Elijah. It's telling that Hazleton describes Elijah as issuing a fatwa against her: He is nothing but a forerunner of the Islamic preachers of today, urging the young men to blow themselves up in the name of Allah. When the Bible speaks of "companies of prophets," I see the Taliban.

The story is told in the the Book of Kings, which Hazleton supplements with what archaeology has since learned about the kingdom of Israel.

It has been many years since I looked at 2nd Kings. It is supposedly a chronicle of Israel and Judah, but as Hazleton says, "It has the logic of a dream." But I was reading Jezebel with the Bible in my lap for cross reference (Hazleton provides ample citations.)

Jezebel's grandniece,known to the Greco-Roman world as Dido, helped to establish the city of Carthage, Rome's military and commercial rival. But Dido's real name was Elitha, which via the Carthaginian colonies in Spain became "Alicia," or so Hazleton claims. Meanwhile, Jezebel--Itha-Ba'al--became "Isabelle" (or Isabella or Isobel) by the same route.

Margaret Murray, the English archaeologist who cast Paganism as the "Old Religion" in early modern Europe, claimed that "Isobel" and its variants (along with Joan) was among the most common names of women tried as witches. (Is that why Björk chose it?) But, really, I think that that was because it was a popular name, not because it was a "witch name."

Anyone for dvoeverie?

2007-11-16T10:59:00.000-05:00

An interesting phenomenon has been quietly gathering for a number of years now: QuakerPagans, PaganQuakers, and UU Pagans. As a Pagan who is currently in the process of joining the Unitarians (whilst remaining very much in love with Wicca and Paganism), I find this phenomenon of “dual faith” very interesting (so interesting that I wrote an essay on it for my MA course). In Russia, the dual practice of Paganism and Orthodox Christianity was known as dvoeverie (double-mindedness) and it was assumed that people were practising the two faiths alongside each other without much thought as to how they would fit together. However, I think contemporary dual-faith practitioners are doing something very different - they are attempting a synthesis, bridging the apparent divide between monotheism and polytheism, and perhaps striving to find some larger or deeper truth than can be found in the paradigm of one religious tradition. Of course, it's easier to be a dual-faith practitioner if one or both of your traditions is universalist (or at least not exclusivist) and/or non-creedal.

Unsurprisingly, this phenomenon is very much reflected in the blogosphere. The Great Waters blog is a meeting place for Quaker Pagans; their initial press release says:

Can one be a Quaker and a Pagan at the same time? Members of the Religious Society of Friends who experience the Divine through Nature not only say "yes," but are organizing nationally for the first time - at Great Waters Pagan Friends Gathering.

And of course our very own editor, Cat, has been a Quaker since 2001 (and a Pagan for 25+ years). She has a series of posts about this, collectively entitled Spiritual Identity and Membership Series: Part 1: Quakerpagan or Paganquaker - Part 2: Membership and Identity - Part 3: Marshall Massey Replies; another interesting post in the same vein is Lloyd Lee Wilson, Herne, and the Sea of Limitless Light.

Other Quaker Pagan bloggers include QuakerWitch and Rainbow Ruminations (somewhere on the path between Quaking and Paganing).

The phenomenon of QuakerPagans is part of a larger one of Quaker Universalists - Quakers who believe that all religions are valid paths to the Divine.

Among Unitarian Universalists, "being a Pagan is an adorable eccentricity" according to ChaliceChick. Paganism has been a strand in UU thinking for a couple of decades now, but it is likely to be assimilated into existing thinking, according to Transient and Permanent:

Newly available theologies, such as Neo-paganism or Buddhism, may be adopted, but they are assimilated to an established core UU identity, expanding one’s personal identity and understanding without fundamentally re-shaping it.

And of course the Belief-O-Matic quiz shows how much overlap there is between all these liberal religious traditions. I took it too - note how my top eleven results are traditions that accept other traditions as valid. Mindykim took it and came out as a Pagan Jewish Quaker. The Hearty Heretic had similar results.

Jewel of the Goddess has been exploring Sufism alongside her Pagan path, and dealing with the wounds caused by her Christian past (I can resonate with that one):

So, when you go deeper, you have to deal with the wounding. I have been going through a process of readdressing God and working on forgiveness for many things, many of which are frankly the result of freewill and my work in this life. I have been unloading the term Lord so it can be there as a empowering word in my magical vocabulary, not something that has dominion over me as a button connected to a wound. And I have been giving myself grace to be not perfect, compassion when I am there and having a hard time with this process and engaging in repentance. See, I still get the hives when I use that term, and I may not get to use it. However, the definition of repentance is merely the willingness to be different when shit isn't working and it is in opposition to my True Will. I realize that our conversations with the Monotheistic bunch isn't as far as away from our own path that we would like. They are not the same, but in fact we are in the same boat, on the same stream and are in fact heading the same direction.

It's difficult sometimes coming up against Christian language, especially Western Christian language. I have great difficulty with "repentance" but metanoia has no barbs for me; similarly, I dislike the word mercy but have no difficulty with eleison. I eventually decided the Mysteries of Orthodoxy were not for me, but I'm glad I had a look around; it was a healing experience that I needed to go through to clean out the poison from the bottom of my psyche. It was rather like that scene in Dune where Jessica drinks the poisonous water of life and transmutes it. Hey, I've always wanted to be a Bene Gesserit.

Meanwhile, I produced a rather naughty post comparing various religions to different types of software. And Waking the Midnight Sun suggests what Christianity can learn from traditional Paganisms:

I will propose that all of these denominations exist because (there’s that magick word, because) they are actually all worshipping different entities. “Ecstatic, snake-handler Jesus” is not the same entity/energy as “Prosperity and a Better Stock Portfolio Jesus” is not the same as the “Military Jesus” is definitely not the same as the “Quaker Jesus” or the “Christian Science Jesus”. These are different energy frequencies that meet the need of different communities of individuals that are compatible with them. The disfunction part comes when these groups believe they are all worshipping the same thing simply because they are all using the same name: Jesus. ... A thousand Jesi: they ain’t all the same guy. What if that was acknowledged and accepted? People could start to align themselves more harmoniously with the Jesus that works for them rather than trying to fit into a peg that doesn’t fit or trying to get others to do so in a belligerent, coercive or violent way.

There seems to be a lot of crossover between different faith traditions; perhaps some kind of new spirituality is emerging, as commentators such as Paul Heelas have been saying for a while.

Certainly this wonderful post at Manifold Oneness gives a hint of the benefits of dvoeverie and syncretism:

The Divine Essence is spread through all creation, directly approachable in that creation and in the Names and Forms of an infinite array of God/dess(e)s. Teachers and books and fellow travelers--and even the Most Holy Names and Forms of God/dess(e)s--are all gateways, vessels, means of conveyance. You can approach the Infinite Godhead directly and expect comprehensible, workable answers immediately--but only if you engage with the process and trust the answers you're given without regard for convention or your own expectations.

Om mani padme hum.

Colours of Paganism

2007-11-15T11:59:00.000-05:00

I have a new guest article over at the ColourLovers blog: Colours of Religion: Paganism. It's part of a series on the colours associated with different religions, and their mythology and festivals.

I consulted with various other Pagan and Heathen bloggers in the writing of it - Chas Clifton, Inanna, M Macha Nightmare, Dana Kramer-Rolls, and Brenda Daverin. So hopefully it represents a fairly broad spectrum of Pagan views of colour.

Autumn leaves

2007-11-01T05:46:00.000-04:00

Some more Samhain posts...

Macha Nightmare has been making candles for the beloved dead and singing songs of Samhain:

When we finished, we took the jack o'lanterns out in front of the El Dia de los Muertos altar and sat in a circle in the firelight and sang Samhain songs to our Beloved Dead. Accompanied by Pasha's guitar, we harmonized, in particular, a song that begins:
Dark is the night, still is the Earth
As the veil unfolds.
Turn the shining Wheel of rebirth.
May Earth receive thy soul.

Deborah Oak has also been making candles and altars for her beloved dead, and has some lovely photos of them. She has also noticed how the true meaning of Samhain is spreading to the wider culture:

It’s Samhain, a time most of us Witches work hard. The alliance between the dead and the living is important. Remembering our dead helps keep the life force strong. Each year, as the Craft as grown, I’ve felt the spiritual part of this holiday gain strength in the overculture. More and more people who don’t call themselves witches are building altars and tuning into the power of remembering. It’s a lot of work, this being a witch. But what better work to be doing?

Jason Pitzl-Waters is celebrating Samhain with a collection of news snippets and quotes - this is my favourite:

"It's a funny festival, when you think about it. A strange collision of All Saints' day (the Catholic Church's way of celebrating all the anonymous 'also-rans') and the pre-Christian, celtic festival Oiche Shamhain (Old Irish for 'Samhain' night, 'Samhain' being a festival of the dead), With that kind of heritage, Halloween was always bound to be a bit weird. In Ireland, where pagan and Christian culture have always been satisfactory bedfellows, Halloween is a cause for a major celebration. Fireworks are let off, barmbrack (a kind of fruit bread) is eaten, there is singing and dancing and, of course, plenty of drinking." - Ben Snook, Bits of News

Daven is reflecting on Samhain and the changes that the past year has brought, and honouring a friend who died:

The only honored dead I have this time is a friend who created “Museum Replicas”, Hank Reinhardt. He was a wonderful swordsman, a good person and gave all of us a place that we can go to and get quality weaponry at reasonable prices. I’ve used their blades for years, and my Coven Sword comes from their collection as well.

Over at QuakerPagan Reflections, Cat is reflecting on mortality, the wheel of the seasons, and the idea of the thinness of the veil between worlds:

What makes Samhain holy? Memory... and love. And loss, and the acceptance of loss. Samhain is the holiday when we deliberately honor the fact of mortality: our own, and that of those we love. It's the day when we look at the skull in the mirror... and smile.

And how does this fit with the Quaker teaching against "the keeping of days"? Surprisingly well, actually, because Samhain, however important it is to me to have had the chance to take today off, is not a day, but a season, a tide. There's no magic charm in the 31st of October... the magic is in the earth itself, and in the cycles of life and death that happen here.

Pagans like to say that, at Samhain, the "veil between the worlds" is thin. And in a sense, it's always thin. The dead are never far from us, and neither are the spirits of nature, of the trees and the earth, and the cycle of life that becomes death and becomes life again. People die at any time of year, after all.

Witches and Economic Decline in the American Midwest

2007-10-31T22:27:00.000-04:00

The GetReligion blog, which covers issues of religion and journalism, takes on coverage of the Witch School's move to Rossville, Illinois.

Jason Pitzl-Waters has posted repeatedly about the various Witch School controversies, so see his blog for the background.

Maybe it is because I am still working to unload my late sister's white elephant of a house in a small northern Missouri town, but I feel that this is as much of an economics story as a religious one.

But this is America, and we habitually mis-label our debates. We use the language of race and ethnicity to talk about issues of social class. And we use the language of religion to talk about people's gut-level fears that their little town -- and by extension, them -- just does not matter any more in the America of Wal-Mart and mega-churches.

From GetReligion: A reader of ours, Christopher, mentioned in a note to us that the story is largely about a community dealing with “economic decline, arson, and drugs."

I agree. Although I have never set foot in Rossville, I have been in plenty of places like it.

And it is just too wrenching for their self-image for the Chamber of Commerce types to think of themselves as another Salem, Mass., and to promote Rossville that way!

Instead, they probably hope to attract a new factory. But it is not coming.

Happy Samhain

2007-10-31T05:38:00.000-04:00

NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day site celebrates with a picture of the Ghost-Head Nebula and information about the origins of Hallowe'en:

Halloween's origin is ancient and astronomical. Since the fifth century BC, Halloween has been celebrated as a cross-quarter day, a day halfway between an equinox (equal day / equal night) and a solstice (minimum day / maximum night in the northern hemisphere). With our modern calendar, however, the real cross-quarter day will occur next week. Another cross-quarter day is Groundhog's Day. Halloween's modern celebration retains historic roots in dressing to scare away the spirits of the dead.

Executive Pagan blogs about Samhain and Hallowe'en, and the difference between the secular and sacred versions of the festival:

Samhain. This is the day we remember our ancestors of blood and spirit, those who walked before us and made the ways we follow. We will attend their altar, and take down the family photo albums to share once again the lives and memories of our beloved dead with our daughter, so that she can know whence and from whom she comes.

Nettle writes about Samhain from a Druid perspective:

Samhain is a multilayered symbol. As a season of the year, it symbolizes the change from light to dark in the length of days and nights and the shift from warm to cold. As an agricultural festival, it signifies the final end of the harvest and the time when all the work of harvesting, preserving and slaughtering has been done. As a spiritual holy day, it is the moment outside of time when communication with other worlds is easiest. It is a time of flow, symbolized in multiple traditions with the element of water and the West, the place of the sunset. This is a time of deep emotion, endings and beginnings.

OceanShaman has a chant for Samhain:

A year of forests.
A year of healing.
A year of vision.
A year of passion.

While the Soup Dragon has learnt some important things this week, including:

Earth apparently has two moons, but the second isn’t actually a moon of Earth, per se.
that most kids in Hong Kong think Hallowe’en should be a holiday.

And she has posted Robert Burns' Hallowe'en poem at her LJ:

Wi' merry sangs, and friendly cracks,
I wat they didna weary;
And unco tales, and funny jokes,
Their sports were cheap and cheery

More Samhain yumminess

2007-10-29T05:36:00.000-04:00

Sarah Sutterfield Winn explores the spirit of Samhain over at Pagan Godspell:

And then it comes. I remember that when all is said and done and folks have worn themselves out from arguing the historical validity of the holiday and whether or not its evil or just fun or spiritually significant, there remains the moss-covered, secret shining truth (truth! yep, I said it) of Samhain in the core of my heart, and within that truth is the fact that this season has always held something precious, gorgeous and mysterious for me, since before I had a name for it. And I have always felt that the veneration of my ancestors is crucial to the practice of my spiritual being. And I am ever in awe of the power of Death. And I am ever grateful for the outstanding and overwhelming explosion of Life that comes through and between and in spite of and because of Death.

The way Sarah writes about Samhain makes you want to eat it, every last crumb. It reminds me of the lines from the Carmina Gadelica:


Cresses green culled beneath a stone,
And given to a woman in secret.
The shank of the deer in the head of the herring,
And in the slender tail of the speckled salmon.

Meanwhile Deborah Lipp remembers her ancestors at Samhain:

We chanted the names of our beloved; departed family members, friends, honored predecessors like Gerald Gardner and Doreen Valiente, pets, and others. As we chanted and later as we ate and drank with them, memories flooded us. My mind couldn’t hold all the names and faces and moments that were rushing to me.

And finally, a recipe for pumpkin soup by Little Heathen Fox:

Small Pumpkin
2 Cloves garlic
1 large onion
Fennel seeds, Coriander seeds, salt, black pepper
Olive oil
–(put in roasting pan and set oven at around 450 or so until pumpkin is soft)–Put in a food processor and add…
Tablespoon or so of fresh chopped ginger
1 can coconut cream ( i used a half pint of regular cream)
A good handful of fresh coriander
I added some chicken broth to get a consistency I liked.

del.icio.us example

2007-10-27T13:31:00.000-04:00

Here's an example screenshot of a Pagan blog entry being posted to del.icio.us:
Once you have typed the metapagan tags into the 'tags' box the first time, del.icio.us will remember them for you and the next time you can just click on the tag in the list below the box.

List of del.icio.us tags:

How it works

Someone bookmarks a blogpost on del.icio.us using one of the preset metapagan tags (see above)
It gets fed through to the main page for that tag on del.icio.us
It gets picked up by Yahoo! Pipes from the del.icio.us RSS feed
It gets displayed in the widgetbox widget

Pagans talk about Samhain

2007-10-26T12:21:00.000-04:00

Some Pagan reflections on the festival of Samhain (these people are so efficient, there's still five days to go before Samhain):

Signs of Samhain (Tales from the Black Cat):

There are two schools of thought about the timing of the seasonal festivals like Samhain. Many people go by the calendar, making Samhain fall on 31st October, whatever the weather. Others go by natural events, and say that Samhain falls at the time of the first frosts. I have sympathy with both approaches. I like the local focus of the nature-oriented approach, where Samhain falls at different times as appropriate across the country. But for a modern Pagan community, with calendar-based approach makes a lot of sense, allowing for forward planning and a nice even spread of eight festivals across the year.

Twas the Evening of Samhain (Cather Steincamp)

A rather touching little ditty found at ExpressiveParents:

'Twas the evening of Samhain, and all through the place
were pagans preparing the ritual space.
The candles were set in the corners with care,
in hopes that the Watchtowers soon would be there.

Samhain and death and grief (Orchards Forever)

A discussion of coming to terms with death:

I am trying to come to grips with something.

Why is grief such a selfish emotion?

In other words, why do so many people respond to death in such self-serving ways?

Incidentally, there are some good resources for the bereaved Pagan or their family at Pagan Transitions.

Origins of Samhain (I am a witch)
(caveat - not everything in this article is historical fact, but some of it might be worth following up)

Two Roman festivals became incorporated with Samhain - 'Feralia', when the Romans commemorated the passing of the dead, and 'Pomona', when the Roman goddess of fruit and trees was honoured. The Halloween tradition of bobbing for apples is thought to derive from the ancient links with the Roman fruit goddess, Pomona, and a Druidical rite associated with water.

Two Coasts, Two Conceptions, One Samhain (The Wild Hunt)

Samhain events, held on different coasts, help illustrate the diversity of attitudes and approach within modern Paganism (specifically religious Witchcraft) while preserving essential elements of the holiday (honoring the ancestors, acknowledging those who have died, celebrating life through feasting and dance, connecting with divinity). To a certain extent, a shared practice (praxis) binds these Witches together far more than any shared theology or ideology. A point that often escapes those looking to pigeonhole "what Witches (or Pagans) believe".

A Pagan View of Death (On Faith, Washington Post)

At this time of year, as we move toward Samhain or Halloween, the ancient festival of the ancestors, we say 'the veil is thin' that divides the world of the living from the realm of the dead. The ancestors return to visit us - and that is the origin of our Halloween customs of setting candles out in jack-o-lanterns to light their way to our doors, of giving offerings (once harvest offerings, now candy) to children, who are the ancestors returning. In our Samhain rituals, like the large, public Spiral Dance ritual that Reclaiming creates every year right before Halloween, we often take an imaginative journey to the Isle, to meet and talk with our beloved dead, to receive help and guidance, to finish what is unfinished, to offer our love. I have many times had visions and a deep sense of connection with my loved ones who have passed on. The meaning is often very personal, a message of hope or approval or advice.

Those Christians again!

2007-10-26T12:00:00.000-04:00

The Christian synchrobloggers have taken on another Pagan topic, this time Samhain. Most of their posts are in response to the secular Hallowe'en activities of trick-or-treating and the like, but some discuss aspects of our festival, Samhain:

Interesting. They are aware that Samhain is a nice wholesome festival associated with ancestors and remembering the Beloved Dead, and Steve Hayes pointed out correctly that in fact the ancient Pagan festival wasn't really about this - in fact the way it is celebrated now is almost entirely drawn from the medieval Christian celebration of All Saints and All Souls. I just wish all Christians (and all Pagans for that matter) would read up on the history - the best place to start being Ronald Hutton's excellent book, The Stations of the Sun. Anyway, it makes a nice change to see some sane and balanced views from the other side (to offset the journalistic silly-season).

If you want to celebrate Samhain the way the ancient Celts did, read Robin Herne's article about it. For myself, I like the Wiccan approach - commemorating the Beloved Dead and the ancestors (both people we admire and relatives who have died) and being aware of the underworldly connotations of autumn, as the sun descends towards the winter solstice.

If you've written a Pagan blog-post about Samhain or Hallowe'en, post a link in the comments and I'll write a feature about Pagan Samhain blogging, if there are enough.

Environmental blog roundup

2007-10-25T10:27:00.000-04:00

15 October 2007 — Blogger Buzz
In honor of Blog Action Day, we wanted to highlight some of the many Blogger-powered blogs that are focused on the environment, climate change, and sustainability. Want to see more Blog Action Day participants from around the web? Find them on Blog Search.
Cleantech Blog - Commentary on technologies, news, and issues relating to next generation energy and the environment.
The Conscious Earth - Earth-centered news for the health of air, water, habitat and the fight against global warming.
Earth Meanders - Earth essays placing environmental sustainability within the context of other contemporary issues.
Environmental Action Blog - Current environmental issues and green energy news.
The Future is Green - Thoughts on the coming of a society that is in balance with nature.
The Green Skeptic - Devoted to challenging assumptions about how we live on the earth and protect our environment.
Haute*Nature - Ecologically based creative ideas, art & green products for your children, home and lifestyle, blending style with sustainability.
The Lazy Environmentalist - Sustainable living made easy.
Lights Out America - A grassroots community group organizing nationwide energy savings events.
The Nature Writers of Texas - The best nature writing from the newspaper, magazine, blog and book authors of the Lone Star State.
Rachel Carson Centennial Book Club - Considering the legacy of Rachel Carson's literary and scientific contributions with a different book each month.
Sustainablog - News, information and personal meanderings related to environmental and economic sustainability, green and sustainable business, and environmental politics.
These Come From Trees - An experiment in environmentalism, viral marketing, and user interface design with the goal of reducing consumer waste paper.

— Graham

Christians talk about Pagans

2007-10-01T12:25:00.000-04:00

A fascinating series of posts by Christians reflecting on the phenomenon of contemporary Paganism:

Christianity, Paganism, and Literature at Notes from the Underground
John Smulo at JohnSmulo.com
Heathens and Pagans and Witches ... oh my! at Calacirian
Sam Norton at Elizaphanian
Erin Word at Decompressing Faith
Chasing the Wild Goose at Eternal Echoes
Visigoths Ahoy! at Mike's Musings
Belief and Being: The difficulty of communicating faith at Phil Wyman's Square No More
A Walk on the Wild Side at Out of the Cocoon
Observations on Magic in Western Religion at My Contemplations
Tim Abbott at Tim Abbott
Spirituality and the Zodiac: Stories in the Cosmos at Be the Revolution
Rejection, Redemption, and Roots at One Hand Clapping
Matthew Stone at Journeys in Between

It's nice to know that there are some liberal Christians out there who want to engage in constructive dialogue (as opposed to trying to evangelise other faiths out of existence). Speaking as one who admires many of the values found in Christianity, but deplores the exclusivism and sectarianism often found there, this is a refreshing series of posts.

Been to any good festivals lately?

2007-07-09T11:01:00.000-04:00

The 2007 Pagan festival and gathering season is in full swing, and we want to take our readers there!

Have you been to a noteworthy gathering lately? Let us know. We want to host your festival writeup! Tell us all about the food, the merchants, the rituals (the good, the bad, and the ugly) and any especially moving or interesting experiences you've had this summer on the road. Festivals we've added writeups for include Deborah Lipp's Free Spirit blog entry, Southern Stories' Starfest experiences, a trip to the Pagan Unity Festival, and a assorted accounts of the famous Pagan Spirit Gathering.

Want to add your blog write up, or one you've found online, to our collection? Just visit Del.icio.us and create a bookmark for your writeup. Tag it metapagan.events , and it will show up in our MetaPagan Widget box (and, by the way, wouldn't that look great at your blog?) and at the MetaPagan Pipes feed aggregator--not to mention in the Events area and Widgetbox right here at MetaPagan itself!

Posting and tagging blog entries through Del.iciou.us is extremely simple, but if you'd like some assistance, Yvonne has set up a terrific tutorial.

Remember, MetaPagan is looking for news stories from those who have attended gatherings--we're a news page, and not a calendar of events. For that, try looking at (or posting to) the wonderful events listings at The Witches' Voice Circles and Events page.

Pagan art

2007-06-16T04:08:00.000-04:00

There are quite a number of Pagan art sites out there on the web, but here's some sites by Pagan Network members:

SeaWitch

SeaWitch is a 50-something guy from London. Most of his paintings are acrylic on canvas, some are acrylic on board.

Most of them have a marine theme, and many have birds in them. SeaWitch also likes to paint dramatic slyscapes with storms, lightning, clouds and mist.

He also paints marine themes on tea-chests.

His other site is Seawitch.org, a resource site for people who do sea-related magic.

Sensory Chaos

Twilightgirl (aka Sensory Chaos) is a digital artist, photographer and graphic designer. Her work has been featured on magazine covers, a calendar and CD covers. She also makes handmade Pagan cards.

Scorch's Pyrography

Scorch makes designs on wood and leather using a pyrography tool. Her designs are beautifully executed. Check out the portable altars on the Pagan page.

News from the Pagan blogosphere

2007-06-12T09:45:00.000-04:00

Some quick announcements from the Pagan blogosphere.

Sia, from Full Circle Central, points out that there is a new discussion group started for the Gaia's Guardians organization. Who or what are Gaia's Guardians?

"Gaia's Guardians is a loose confederation of professionals and volunteers who work on projects that benefit Mother Earth and her creatures. This is an inter-faith effort & people from all belief systems (or none) are welcome ... This is a networking group for those who are already actively engaged in this sort of work. If you are new to community service, and wish to get involved, either visit Volunteer Match or write to Full Circle at info@fullcircleevents.org and we'll try our best to hook you up with local efforts you can support."

You can learn more about this group's activities and history.

A soon to be launched web site called The Pagan Quill, promises to shine a spotlight on the best that the Pagan and occult blogosphere has to offer.

"[The Pagan Quill] is a writing project geared toward bringing the best pagan writers to the forefront of the blogging community. Pagan Quill will be a virtual environment where pagan bloggers much like yourself submit their works to be featured on the front page with hopes of getting their names out there, in the spotlight, where they deserve to be."

If you think your writing deserves to be featured, send them an e-mail for submission details. No word on a launch date, but you can read their mission statement.

The occult group blog, Key 23, has re-launched as a occult web-zine/blog entitled Key 64 (featuring articles by Lupa, Nick Pell, and Taylor Ellwood). While New Zealand author Caroline Tully has launched a Pagan blog entitled Necropolis Now (with a focus on grave sites and death imagery within paganism).

Finally, I have launched a new blog at www.paganandoccultmusic.com to highlight and promote a new book I am working on. It will be a history of modern Pagan and occult music, hopefully to be published sometime in 2008.

"The ultimate goal of this work is to give the reader a short (yet hopefully informative) history of modern Pagan and occult music. A history that spans a nearly forty year period from the late sixties to the present day, and includes just about every conceivable musical style. We will discuss not only the musicians but also those individuals and groups that provided inspiration along the way. We will discuss the early pioneers of self-consciously Pagan and occult music, and finally, this book will discuss how all of these artists form an essential cultural component to the health and growth of modern Paganism."

The blog will feature reviews, interviews, excerpts from the book in progress, and perhaps some legally released Mp3s for download. If you are interested in all permutations of Pagan music, why not add it to your reading list? You can also subscribe to the blog on Livejournal.

Pagan groups on flickr

2007-05-27T12:53:00.000-04:00

You may have noticed that there are two photo widgets on the sidebar of the MetaPagan blog, displaying lovely Pagan photos on flickr.

I thought I would highlight the various Pagan groups on flickr:

	MetaPagan (our very own group) 2 members \| 0 discussions \| 7 photos \| Created 5 weeks ago Photos of events and places of interest to Pagans, to be displayed on the MetaPagan community blog ( more )	See more photos

MetaPagan
(our very own group)

2 members | 0 discussions | 7 photos | Created 5 weeks ago

Photos of events and places of interest to Pagans, to be displayed on the MetaPagan community blog ( more )

See more photos

	Paganism 322 members \| 25 discussions \| 1,366 photos \| Created 31 months ago A group to share photos and discuss subjects related to paganism. ( more )	See more photos
	Pagan Heart 155 members \| 17 discussions \| 935 photos \| Created 15 months ago Pagan festivals, images, place of worship, stone circles, burial mounds, all walks, all ways welcome. If nature speaks to your soul - let's see it! ... ( more )	See more photos

	Asatru 4 members \| 0 discussions \| 42 photos \| Created 11 months ago Asatru, paganism ( more )	See more photos
	Pagans and Witches and Wiccans, oh my! 94 members \| 8 discussions \| 231 photos \| Created 19 months ago Pagan, Wiccan and witch community here on Flickr. ( more )	See more photos
	Wicca 39 members \| 2 discussions \| 41 photos \| Created 17 months ago This group is for all who are interested of wiccan path, or simply interested of witchcraft. ( more )	See more photos
	Pagan Perspectives 71 members \| 7 discussions \| 172 photos \| Created 29 months ago A group for pagans or those interested in paganism, to share our images of the god and goddess and reflect on our spirituality. ( more )

	Shamanism 63 members \| 5 discussions \| 479 photos \| Created 17 months ago Images of Shamanism ( more )	See more photos

Shamanism

63 members | 5 discussions | 479 photos | Created 17 months ago

Images of Shamanism ( more )

See more photos

There are a lot more groups on flickr if you search for "pagan". If yours isn't featured here, post it in the comments.

Some notable posts on ecology

2007-05-27T12:14:00.000-04:00

In "Glimpsing the Deindustrial Age", John Michael Greer suggests five factors that will govern the collapse of industrial society: depopulation (falling birthrates and the impact of epidemics and ecological disasters); migration (people moving out of areas with few resources, which is already happening); political disintegration (the collapse of current political systems); cultural drift (how cultures will develop in isolation after the collapse of mass global communication); and ecological change (the collapse of ecosystems, and the emergence of new ones).

Sara Sutterfield Wynn asks how much we are prepared to do to halt ecological collapse in her post "Lamentation":

What would I give for the honeybees (dying), the River Dolphin (functionally exinct), the Golden Toad (extinct), all ocean life (dying)? Pieces of the soul, maybe? A finger? My tongue? My life?

She asks if it's enough to change your lightbulbs and recycle your rubbish - surely we need to engage in political protest too:

... it’s all important. Work must be done on the larger scale. AND, it must also be done in the rich humus of our deepest souls, in the fabric and the weave of our spiritualities. It must be done up and in the thick of our worldviews. Given all this knowledge about our psychotic (literally) culture and the orgy of waste and death we are wallowing in - why are we not taking to the streets by the millions every single hour? Why aren’t we? Why aren’t we?

Read the whole post and the comments too - it's a wake-up call.

Meanwhile, an art student in Illinois has been engaging in an innovative form of direct action - read all about it on Chas Clifton's Nature Blog.

Creating an entry on del.icio.us

2007-05-24T10:30:00.000-04:00

The description of your del.icio.us post should be [blogpost-name] << [blog-name], e.g. "The Laughing Skeleton"

The notes section of your del.icio.us post should be quite short -

either a summary of the blogpost, e.g. "A meditation on Baron Samedi, the Voudun loa"
or a juicy quote from it, e.g. "I call him Grandaddy Bones. He is at times hot, cold, drunk, sober, chivalrous, debauched, terrible and compassionate."

Remember to link to the page of the blogpost, not the entire blog, i.e. http://www.starfishmoontree.net/?p=196 not http://www.starfishmoontree.net/

Humour

2007-04-30T09:37:00.000-04:00

Bookmark posts as "metapagan.funny" in del.icio.us and they'll be displayed here. More.

Some posts of note

2007-04-28T09:51:00.000-04:00

From Quaker Pagan’s Live Journal Capriuni writes, in I don’t know if I believe in God... Define God, please:

I'm frustrated with both Atheists and True Believers...it's of no importance whatsoever whether you believe in a Deity or not. What's important is that we find a connection to the world, and walk lightly through it with respect and balance. That respect and balance can be found just as well through science as it can through feeling.

At Cauldron Born, Robin Artisson reflects, from a heathen perspective, on the spiritual importance of community — not just with humans, but with the spirits of land and home:

Human groups, from families to tribes, are a reflection of the natural and sacred manner that humans are supposed to live. We are not solitary beings; we all feel the urge to gather with others, to take shelter with others, to share our joys and sorrows with others... The religion re-affirmed their bonds to one another, and to the Holy Kindreds who are also related to us, but who dwell unseen.

In a post titled Let The Sword Fall, Anne at Blog o’ Gnosis wrote this week about letting a lesson from her study of aikido enter into her magic, and her daily life.

It was one of those moments when you hear something that you’ve probably heard hundreds of times before, but somehow it sinks in for the first time. Just let the sword fall. All that preparation of focusing my energy on the strike, getting the sword in the right position, feeling the alignment of intention and power—all that is just preparation for trusting the sword and letting the strike go free… Needless to say, “let the sword fall” is a principle that is finding its way into every aspect of my life right now.

Finally, at The Wild Hunt, Jason Pitzl-Waters has a deeply disturbing story on sexual assault of Native American women. As a former rape crisis worker, I appreciated the sensitivity of his coverage, though I am saddened by its implications.

About Cat

2007-04-28T09:12:00.000-04:00

I'm a mom, a teacher, a bookaholic, a dog-lover, a pop-culture fan... in other words, a pretty typical Pagan in most ways. Perhaps less typical is the fact that, in 2001, after fifteen years as an out Pagan, I experienced a religious conversion that led me into the Religious Society of Friends. I'm still Pagan in my world view, theology, and identity, but I've added a whole new set of practices and insights. I struggle sometimes to find ways to continue to own my Paganism, and to find myself within the spectrum of beliefs and teachings where the majority--though not all!--of the members are Christian.

As I wrestle with questions of how to live out the spiritual life I experience in worship and in ritual, and how to relate to my two spiritual communities, I see ways that both the broader Quaker world and the Pagan world share some of those challenges. Quakers today are actively struggling with questions about how to be faithful to the historical teachings and traditions that give them depth, while also deciding how much to welcome newer spiritual traditions and insights making their way into the Society of Friends. How can Quakers who are deeply Christian, Quakers who are refugees from Christianity, and non-Christian (Buddhist, Jewish, Pagan, or even atheist) share meaningful worship and community? How can we root our practices deeply enough that we maintain the essential Quaker wisdom of experiential, not notional, religious life? How can we live out our testimonies of simplicity, peace, environmentalism, and social justice without becoming stale, secular, or self-righteous?

Pagans, too, are trying to figure out how diverse our communities can be and still be cohesive, how to support one another as we change as a movement and a culture, how to keep our worship live and spirit-filled, and how to live out our particular spiritual imperitives.

Because I see my own struggle for balance and integration reflected in both my spiritual homes, I've developed a deep love and respect for the best of our writers. Some writers have a gift for putting into words things that I am only beginning to sense; some challenge me to understand why I may disagree with them, or push me to grow into some of the depth and awareness of how to live a life embraced by spirit that I see in them. In other words, there is a conversation going on all around me, and it's one that makes me grow. I like it. I need it.

The Quaker blogosphere has its own tools for finding the most exciting online conversations. It's my hope that this portal will give us, the Pagan community, a way of connecting with one another that will also encourage us to hear each other, talk to one another... and grow.

Blessed Be.

Contributors wanted

2007-04-25T13:05:00.000-04:00

Welcome to MetaPagan.

We need more contributors - the more people post their favourite blog entries to del.icio.us, the more content will appear on this metablog, and the more exciting it will be as a place to visit.

All you need is a del.icio.us account, and you can start contributing. More.

If you're not sure what del.icio.us is:

Traditions

2007-04-25T12:36:00.001-04:00

Bookmark posts as "metapagan.traditions" in del.icio.us and they'll be displayed here. More.

Theology

2007-04-25T12:35:00.000-04:00

Bookmark posts as "metapagan.theology" in del.icio.us and they'll be displayed here. More.

Teen Pagans

2007-04-25T12:34:00.000-04:00

Bookmark posts as "metapagan.teenpagans" in del.icio.us and they'll be displayed here. More.

Spirituality

2007-04-25T12:33:00.001-04:00

Bookmark posts as "metapagan.spiritual" in del.icio.us and they'll be displayed here. More.

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