Naturalistic Paganism
[A Pedagogy of Gaia] “Communities of mind are necessary but not sufficient” by Bart Everson
The Magic of Collins
A quarter century ago, when I was a college student, it was my privilege and pleasure to live in an extraordinary dormitory: the Collins Living-Learning Center at Indiana University in Bloomington. I liked it so much I stayed there for all four years of undergraduate career, never coveting the off-campus apartments that many of my peers seemed to find essential.
What made Collins great was the attempt to unify and integrate academic and residential life. Courses were offered in the dorm itself, and having dinner with profs after class in the cafeteria was not unusual. Every resident was required to plan and implement a personal project that made a unique contribution to life in the quad. I’m using the past tense, but as far as I can tell this approach still holds today.
That was a magical time and place for me. I loved the communal aspects. I liked living together with a bunch of other people, dining and studying and doing laundry together. The typical late-night philosophical bull-sessions, common to all undergraduate dormitories, were transformed here into something deeper and truer, or so I felt. Read More
The Idea Behind PostPaganry, Part 1: Introduction, by Glen Gordon
Back in March of 2014, I wrote an article for Humanistic Paganism about “Why I Am Not Pagan.” In this article I briefly mention my blog PostPagan but did not expand upon the idea of Postpaganry which spawned that project. Since writing for Humanistic Paganism and discovering Atheopaganism written about by fellow HP writer Mark Green, I feel it is time to revive and revise those ideas for HP’s beloved readers. Read More
Mid-Month Meditation: “Beloved Community”
We encourage our readers to use these Mid-Month Meditations as an opportunity to take a short break from everything else. Rather than treating these posts the way you would any other post, set aside 10 minutes someplace quiet and semi-private to have an experience. Take a minute to relax first. After reading the quote below, take a few minutes to let the experience sink in. If it feels right, leave a comment.
This month, our theme is “Community”. In honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who was born on this day in 1929, and who we honor as a nation next Monday, this month’s meditation about “Beloved Community” comes from King’s 1957 speech “Justice Without Violence”:
“There are certain things we can say about this method that seeks justice without violence. It does not seek to defeat or humiliate the opponent but to win his friendship and understanding. I think that this is one of the points, one of the basic points, one of the basic distinguishing points between violence and non-violence. The ultimate end of violence is to defeat the opponent. The ultimate end of non-violence is to win the friendship of the opponent. It is necessary to boycott sometimes but the non-violent resister realized that boycott is never an end within itself, but merely a means to awaken a sense of shame within the oppressor; that the end is reconciliation; the end is redemption. And so the aftermath of violence is bitterness; the aftermath of non-violence is the creation of the beloved community; the aftermath of non-violence is redemption and reconciliation. This is a method that seeks to transform and to redeem, and win the friendship of the opponent, and make it possible for men to live together as brothers in a community, and not continually live with bitterness and friction.”
How can we Humanistic and Naturalistic Pagans cultivate Beloved Community within our own spheres on influence?
More quotes by King about Beloved Community
More information about King’s vision of Beloved Community
[Rotting Silver] “Haiku Collection: Dogs” by B. T. Newberg
In the well-worn street
A dog is barking, barking
Barking at nothing
In the marketplace
Two dogs fighting for a bone
Only one will eat Read More
“The Devil Never Did Me No Harm” by Sable Aradia
Our theme for January is “Community”. We begin our new theme with an essay by a new contributor, Sable Aradia, challenging us to face up to the Satanic origins of contemporary Neo-Paganism. This essay was originally published at Sable Aradia’s blog, Between the Shadows: The Craft of a Liminal Witch.
Sign of the Horns. Source: Wikimedia Commons.
The Satanic Panic of the 1990s was a time of fear and persecution for witches. You want to talk about the Burning Times? We lived it in a social way. Our neighbours would find out we were witches and call the police to say we were sacrificing babies in the backyard; we would be fired from our jobs on vague pretexts; our children would be seized by social services who claimed we were subjecting them to horrible things. A desperate self-protection movement began. Witchcraft is a harmless earth religion, we said. Witchcraft doesn’t believe in the devil; we have nothing to do with him.
But that’s not entirely true. Read More
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Pagan Coming Out Day – May 2nd
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