Naturalistic Paganism
[A Pedagogy of Gaia] The Worst Animals in the World, by Bart Everson
The Worst Animals in the World
The first results came in from Indiana, my home state. Us grown folk were not surprised, and we knew the final results would be different — or so we thought. Read More
Some Election Thoughts from a Naturalistic Pagan
Map of the vote compared to last election
The Election
I don’t know where to start. Fortunately, many others have chimed in by now, so much of what I would say has already been said, often more clearly that I would say it. Also, this post contains a lot of my own political views, so if you aren’t interested in that, you of course don’t have to read it.
In fact, there is a lot we don’t know yet. We don’t know the extent of the damage we’ll suffer as part of the Earth, nor the damage to our society, to minorities of many types, to church/state separation, and so on. We don’t know how long racists, bigots, and sexists will be emboldened to continue carrying out attacks on anyone who is different. We don’t know where, on the long scale going from a relatively inactive Trump who just used the racism & bigotry of 100 million Americans to get elected on one end, to a very aggressive Trump rounding up people of all kinds at the other end, the events of the next four years will fall. We’ve already seen signs that point in either direction. Read More
Late Autumn Theme: Humans
In Deep Time, late autumn can remind us of the rise of humans – just a short eyeblink of geological time ago, yet, perhaps, a profound event. The existence of us humans engenders strong emotions in we humans. In past times, some of us thought of us as the pinnacle of being, an exalted goal of evolution. Others (largely before that, but still some today) saw us as the literally depraved, worthless, fallen creatures corrupted by “sin”. A common view today sees us as a harmful disease afflicting our mother Earth. Still others rejoice in the wonder of our human brains, without equal in the Universe to our (admittedly limited) knowledge. Many of us combine aspects of these and other views – it’s not a simple topic, after all. Regardless of which view or combination we each old, many of us agree that the rise of humans has been a very significant event in the history of life on Earth. As with all themes, this just an optional muse.
Late Autumn (October 31 – December 21)
Cosmic event: The rise of humans (2 million years ago, through today)
Theme: Humans
Questions: How do we see humans and their effects? How does that effect our worldview and our spirituality? How can our spirituality influence our interactions with other humans, and our view of our own self-worth?
We care about the world.
With just a few days before the United States election, it’s inevitable that at least some of us are considering what our Naturalistic Paganism (under any name, and similar paths as well), has to do with our politics. While I of course can only speak for myself (Jon Cleland Host), I think that several aspects of any naturalistic path (including Naturalistic Buddhism, Naturalistic Judaism, Naturalistic Christianity, and more) make the question of political involvement pretty clear, and don’t support the idea that as a blog about spirituality, we should avoid anything political. Read More
You can help every child realize that they are stardust!
For many of us Naturalistic Pagans, the roots of our spirituality can be traced back to when we first realized what a vast, ancient Universe we are part of. Often, that began with Carl Sagan’s Cosmos, or Neil deGrasse-Tyson’s more recent remake of Cosmos. We now have a chance to help bring that magic to more kids who are wondering about it all as well. I’ve donated. For me, this is one tiny part of how I hope to embody my gratitude for my Ancestors as action for future generations.
From the site: When Bailey was eight years old, she was watching the TV program Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey with her family. In that evening’s episode, the host and narrator Neil deGrasse Tyson said, “The planets, the stars, the galaxies, we ourselves and all of life—the same star stuff.” Bailey was so excited by this idea that she immediately went up to the family computer, opened a new document, and started writing what eventually became this book, so that she could share what she had learned with children everywhere.
Bailey worked with her father over the next year to develop a story that they felt would teach children this idea, along with other areas of science such as evolution and astronomy, most effectively. After various versions of the story, and feedback from numerous parents and children, the story for My Name is Stardust was finalized. Here’s the link and video to the kickstarter project to make this book (about reality) a reality. Also, please consider sharing this with others.
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Pagan Coming Out Day – May 2nd
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