Naturalistic Paganism
Happy Summer Solstice!
(Winter Solstice/Yule for those in the Southern Hemisphere)
Happy Summer Solstice!
Sun goddesses/gods are very common across cultures, and Solarcentre published this poster of some of the main ones just in time for the Solstice.
Celebrations
The ways that many of us are celebrating were published a few weeks ago. Some of us may be lucky enough to be celebrating at Stonehenge today, but for those who are not, remember that there are at least hundreds of other stone circles in Europe, and many others on every continent (except Antarctica, of course). That includes the United States, where they are often known as Medicine Wheels – as well as many recently made circles, like the small stone circle we made in the woods behind our house. Just a few years ago, I held my Summer Solstice ritual next to the ancient earth circle in central Indiana (which has a Summer Solstice notch). This year, I had the unusual pleasure of being the Sun god Ra at our UU Summer Solstice service yesterday.
In whatever way you are celebrating, Happy Summer Solstice!
Your Chance to help those in Orlando – Naturally.
Have you ever gone to the funeral of an Atheistic loved one, and found your loved one’s death used to proselytize a religion she or he didn’t agree with? I have – too many times to count, in fact. It’s like getting kicked in the face when you are already grieving. If I can spare that for anyone, it’s worth it.
That’s why this opportunity struck me as being so important.
The Central Florida Freethought Community (CFFC), together with city of Orlando and the world, continues to grieve and search for ways to lend support after the tragic events at Pulse nightclub. More than friends and allies, many LGBTQ Americans are also members of the secular community. 4 out of 10 LGBTQ Americans are religiously unaffiliated, with almost half of those individuals openly identifying as atheist or agnostic. To support the particular needs of this sizable cross-section of secular LGBTQ individuals and their families hurt by this tragedy, the CFFC is proud to offer free secular and humanist memorial services or celebrations of life.
Click on the link above to see the whole description. But more importantly, you can help. I’ve donated. Every little bit helps. We all have other expenses (including, for some of us, donations to UU Fellowships), and this is putting one’s spirituality into action.
The GoFundMe link is here.
After you’d donated, sharing on facebook or other social media can help too.
The Threefold Law – Supernatural or Psychology? by Megan Manson
One thing I like about Paganism, and particularly Wicca, is that rather than attempting to teach rules and ethics, it teaches wisdom. There’s really only one moral “rule” in Wicca, which is the Rede: “An it harm none do what ye will.” Most Wiccans interpret this to basically mean, do what you like as long as it doesn’t hurt anyone or anything. Which is a fairly liberal code in itself, but even then, some Wiccans do not follow it. Some, to quote Pirates of the Caribbean, see it as “more of a guideline than a code.”
But related to this is the Law of Three, also known as the Threefold Law. Read More
Non-theistic Freemasonry, by Roy Vrizent
Editor’s note: In this article, Roy describes another non-theistic spirituality: non-theistic Freemasonry. Like Naturalistic Paganism, Secular Buddhism, and others, this adds to the many naturalistic spiritualities sprouting up around us – another approach to practice that shares our worldview.
Non-theistic Freemasonry
The Summer Solstice is just two weeks away!
The Summer Solstice approaches! Ready?
The Summer Solstice is known in Contemporary Neo-Paganism as Litha or Midsummer. Neo-Pagan mythology often marks this as the moment the sun god meets his death, though sometimes that event is reserved for the cross-quarter in August or the autumnal equinox in September. A bunch of ritual and celebrations ideas can be found here, Read More
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Pagan Coming Out Day – May 2nd
Naturalistic Paganism 