Naturalistic Paganism
Geminids Meteor Shower peaks tonight, Dec. 13
The Geminids is the king of the meteor showers. It is considered by many to be the best shower in the heavens, producing up to 120 multicolored meteors per hour at its peak. It is produced by debris left behind by an asteroid known as 3200 Phaethon. The shower runs annually from December 7-17. It peaks this year on the night of the 13th and morning of the 14th. The waning gibbous moon will block out some of the meteors this year, but the Geminids are so bright and numerous that it should still be a good show. Best viewing will be from a dark location after midnight. Meteors will radiate from the constellation Gemini, but can appear anywhere in the sky.
What to get a Humanistic Pagan for … Christmas?
As Naturalists and as Pagans, we have twice the reason not to celebrate Christmas. But let’s face it. A lot of us Humanistic Pagans do celebrate Christmas in one form or another — either as a secular gift-exchange or with Christian family members. But many of us aren’t really into the traditional Pagan swag (herbs, candles, statues). So what do you give a Naturalistic Pagan for Christmas? Here are some ideas …
1. “Atheopaganism is Beyond Belief”
Atheopaganism has opened up a Zazzle store, which you should definitely check out. There’s mugs, T-shirts, and bumper stickers. In addition to getting some fun stuff, you will be supporting an emerging Naturalistic Pagan tradition. You can check out the new Atheopaganism website here. And you can give back by contributing to the Atheopagans Coming Out At Pantheacon 2015 campaign.
Holiday Music from HP’s very own DJ
Enjoy these playlists from our own Bart Everson (“Editor B”).
Call for Essays: “Our Community”
Next month, our theme will be “Community”, especially Our Community of Naturalistic and Humanistic Pagans. We have chosen this theme in celebration of Jon Cleland Host‘s launch of the Naturalistic Paganism Yahoo group 10 years ago, in January 2005, which was (as far as I can discern) the first such online community. Send us your essays and articles to humanisticpaganism [at] gmail [dot] com. Ideas for topics include:
- What does it mean to you to be a part of a religious community like HP?
- What holds a community like ours together with its diverse beliefs and practices?
- How can we deepen our sense of community and strengthen our bonds with one another?
- How can we better integrate our community with the larger Pagan community, or do we even want to?
- How can we better integrate our community with the larger religious naturalism community, or do we even want to?
- A topic of your own
A Pedagogy of Gaia, by Bart Everson: “Wheel Without End”
The Purpose and Function of Holidays
Many suppose that a holiday is simply time off work, similar to a vacation, an opportunity to rest and relax and engage in various recreational activities. This is certainly a workable definition but we can look deeper. A holiday enshrines values, reminding us again and again of certain existential truths. Holidays help us remember what’s important.
As individuals at this particular moment in history, in the industrialized West at least, we have unprecedented levels of privilege, autonomy, and freedom, as well as access to global information. We can pick our own holidays, even invent them, and in so doing we have the ability to choose our own path, to shape our own identity, perhaps even to determine our own destiny, in ways unimagined by our ancestors.
Buy Godless Paganism (paperback)
Buy Godless Paganism (ebook)
Pagan Coming Out Day – May 2nd
Naturalistic Paganism 