“Autumn Equinox” by SwanSherri

This month at HP, we conclude our late summer theme of “Emotion” and begin our early autumn theme “Life and Death”.

New Column: Druidry Without Deity by Ryan Cronin

HP is pleased to announce our newest columnist, Ryan Cronin. Ryan is a former Catholic who spent almost a year living in a monastery, got a degree in theology, and is now an atheist with an interest in earth-based paganism and nature-centred spirituality. His journey has led him to explore the ideas, symbols and practices of modern druidry, as an effective framework for expressing a sense of the sacred in nature and forming connections with the other-than-human world. He is a member of the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids as well as a Dedicant member of Ar n’Draiocht Fein, but tends to practice druidry in a solitary context. He is interested in evolution, philosophy, anthropology and the psychology of religion as well as creating secular spirituality without supernatural claims. Ryan writes about his ongoing druidic exploration at Room of Roots. He is also fascinated by people’s relationship with death and its role in society, and he discusses those themes on the blog Deathly Ponderings, where he is a regular contributor. He is due to begin studying for an MA in Death, Religion and Culture with the University of Winchester in January 2015.

This Month at HP

Sept 3  “Being a Spiritual Wallflower: How Humanistic Pagans can get off the wall and dance” by John Halstead

Sept 5  “Entering the Isle of Birds” by Anna Walther

Sept 7  Postpagan Ceremony & Ecology by Glen Gordon: “The Art of Ceremony”

Sept 10  Starstuff, Contemplating by Jon Cleland Host

Sept 12  Mid-Month Meditation: equinox poem

Sept 14  Musings of a Pagan Mythicist by Maggie Jay Lee

Sept 17  A Pedagogy of Gaia by Bart Everson: “The Other Equinox”

Sept 21  The Wheel of Evolution by Eric Steinhart: Mabon

Sept 22  Autumn equinox (Northern Hemisphere)

Sept 24  Druidry Without Deity by Ryan Cronin: “The emotional sense of the sacred”

Sept 26  “Why I’m Religious but not Spiritual” by Eric Saumur

Sept 28  “The Death of Everything” by Brock Haussamen

Humanistic Paganism Calendar for September

Sept 1  Cosmic Calendar: Sun formed 4.57 bya

Sept 1 (first Monday in September) Labor Day, unofficial end of summer in U.S.

Sept 4  Anniversary of Dettmer v. Landon, Wicca legally recognized as a religion

Sept 6  Tim Zell has his Theagenesis vision in 1970, predating the popularization of James Lovelock’s Gaia hypothesis

Sept 9  Emerson publishes his essay “Nature” in 1836, unofficial beginning of Transcendentalism

Sept 11  9-11 / Anniversary of the World Trade Center attacks

Sept 13  Defy Superstition Day

Sept 15  International Day of Democracy

Sept 16  Cosmic Calendar: Oldest rocks known on earth date to 4 bya

Sept 21  World Peace Day

Sept 21 Cosmic Calendar: First life emerges (prokaryotes) 3.8 bya

Sept 22  Autumn equinox in the Northern Hemisphere (fall begins in the U.S.) / Neo-Pagan autumn quarter day (Mabon)

Sept 30  Blasphemy Rights Day