Naturalistic Paganism

We reached 30% of our funding goal … 20 days left!

zesemi3cmladexidzbsvOur Goal: To place an add for HP on the main page of The Wild Hunt.

What we need: $538

What you can do: Go to HP’s Indiegogo campaign.


You can help HumanisticPaganism place an add at The Wild Hunt, the primary online destination for news relating to and of interest to contemporary Pagans. The Wild Hunt is our third largest referrer of traffic to HumanisticPaganism.com, after Facebook and search engines. HumanisticPaganism is piggybacking on The Wild Hunt’s Fall Funding Drive.

The Wild Hunt is offering to place a graphical underwriting ad on the main page of wildhunt.org for the first 20 people to contribute $500. An ad at The Wild Hunt would greatly increase the visibility of HumanisticPaganism and draw more people to our community.

If we reach our $538 goal ($500 + $38 Indiegogo fees), we will contribute $500 to The Wild Hunt and receive a graphical underwriting ad on the main page of wildhunt.org. If we don’t reach our goal, $150 will be contributed to The Wild Hunt (making us an affiliate) and the balance will be retained for next year’s campaign.

Any contribution over $10 will get you a shout out at HumanisticPaganism (unless you prefer to remain anonymous). Contribute $25 or more and we will link to the website or blog of your choice on the front page of HP. To contribute, go to HumanisticPaganism’s Indiegogo campaign.

“Vulture” by Robinson Jeffers

Catal Huyuk, Central Anatolia, 7400 to 6200 BC, vultures depicted reaching for headless human bodies (originals are drawn in red)

The poem “Vulture” by Robinson Jeffers expresses a religious perspective on death and afterlife that is pervasive in contemporary green spirituality. In it, Jeffers reflects on an occasion when, while lying on his back in adesert canyon in the Southwestern United States, he was once mistaken for carrion by a vulture.
I had walked since dawn and lay down to rest on a
     bare hillside
Above the ocean. I saw through half-shut eyelids a
     vulture wheeling high up in heaven,
And presently it passed again, but lower and nearer,
     its orbit narrowing,
     I understood then
That I was under inspection. I lay death-still and
     heard the flight feathers
Whistle above me and make their circle and come
     nearer…
. . . how beautiful he looked, gliding down
On those great sails; how beautiful he looked,
     veering away in the sea-light
     over the precipice. I tell you solemnly
That I was sorry to have disappointed him. To be
     eaten by that beak and
     become part of him, to share those wings and
     those eyes –
What a sublime end of one’s body, what an ensky-
     ment; what a life after death.

Total Lunar Eclipse (Blood Moon) tomorrow (Oct. 8)

Tomorrow MORNING is a total lunar eclipse. A total lunar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes completely through the Earth’s dark shadow, or umbra. During this type of eclipse, the Moon will gradually get darker and then take on a rusty or blood red color. The eclipse will be visible throughout most of North America, South America, eastern Asia, and Australia.

The full eclipse will start at 6:25 a.m. ET, NASA says, and last until 7:24 a.m. ET.

Because it happens right after the perigee, the closest point to Earth in the moon’s orbit, this blood moon will be nearly the size of a super moon — appearing 5.3% larger than the previous blood moon on April 15.

For more NASA Map and Eclipse Information.

“Death: Sacred, Necessary, Real” by Rev. Michael Dowd

This article is reblogged from The Huffington Post.

Everything we value is possible only because of death. The ancients couldn’t have known this truth revealed by science. We can no longer afford to remain ignorant of it; the cost is too high. Death is no less sacred than life. Read More

What to look forward to in October at HP

This Month at HP

This month, we continue our early fall theme: “Life and Death“.

Oct 5  “Death: Sacred, Necessary, Real” by Michael Dowd

Oct 8  “Vulture” by Robinson Jeffers

Oct 12  Postpagan Ceremony & Ecology by Glen Gordon

Oct 15  Mid-Month Meditation: “Breaths”

Oct 19  Starstuff, Contemplating by Jon Cleland Host

Oct 22  Samhain poem by Linette Jensen

Oct 26  A Pedagogy of Gaia by Bart Everson

Oct 29  The Wheel of Evolution by Eric Steinhart: Samhain

Oct 31  DE NATURA DEORUM: “On the Road with the Wild Huntsman” by pagainaidd

HP Calendar for October

Oct 2  Gandhi’s birthday and International Day of Non-Violence

* first Monday in October is World Habitat Day

October 8 – Total Lunar Eclipse. A total lunar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes completely through the Earth’s dark shadow, or umbra. During this type of eclipse, the Moon will gradually get darker and then take on a rusty or blood red color. The eclipse will be visible throughout most of North America, South America, eastern Asia, and Australia. (NASA Map and Eclipse Information)

Oct 12  Cosmic Calendar: First photosynthesis occurs 3 bya

Oct 16  World Food Day

Oct 17  International Day for the Eradication of Poverty

Oct 29  Cosmic Calendar: Oxygenation of atmosphere occurs 2.4 bya

Oct 31/Nov 1  Neo-Pagan autumn cross-quarter day (Samhain) / Halloween

Oct 31  Anniversary of the publication of The Spiral Dance and Drawing Down the Moon