Naturalistic Paganism
“Entering the Isle of Birds” by Anna Walther
During the past year I’ve been learning to identify the bird calls I hear in my backyard. Some are obvious and easy to learn; I’ve recognized the strident screeches of blue jays and grackles for at least as long as I’ve lived in Austin. Other, subtler voices require a more attentive ear.
A little over a year ago I learned to distinguish the call of a Great Horned Owl from the call of an Eastern Screech Owl. Both species live in my neighborhood, and I was lucky enough to hear them calling for mates during winter months, when I was up late or early studying for an anatomy course. During a hike at McKinney Falls this spring, I learned to recognize the loud chip of the Northern Cardinal. While watering my garden a couple of mornings ago, I heard a familiar voice: tea kettle tea kettle tea kettle tea kettle. Though I’d heard the call in my backyard many times before, I didn’t know the owner. I watched the tree branches, and within a minute a Carolina Wren hopped into view. Another morning in the garden I heard someone knocking on a nearby utility pole. I looked up and saw the red cap and black and white barred wings of a Red-bellied Woodpecker, and then I heard its rolling trill-l-l-l. There are many more voices to learn, and I’m a long way from understanding the subjects of their songs. But I’m learning to listen to birds, and I’m beginning to match names, faces, and songs. Read More
“Being a Spiritual Wallflower: How Humanistic Pagans can get off the wall and dance” by John Halstead
Even under the influence of the narcotic draught, of which songs of all primitive men and peoples speak, or with the potent coming of spring that penetrates all nature with joy, these Dionysian emotions awake, and as they grow in intensity everything subjective vanishes into complete self-forgetfulness. In the German Middle Ages, too, singing and dancing crowds, ever increasing in number, whirled themselves from place to place under this same Dionysian impulse. […] There are some who, from obtuseness or lack of experience, turn away from such phenomena as from “folk-diseases,” with contempt or pity born of consciousness of their own “healthy-mindedness.” But of course such poor wretches have no idea how corpselike and ghostly their so-called “healthy-mindedness” looks when the glowing life of the Dionysian revelers roars past them.
— Friedrich Nietzsche, The Birth of Tragedy
What to look forward to in September at HP
This month at HP, we conclude our late summer theme of “Emotion” and begin our early autumn theme “Life and Death”.
New Column: Druidry Without Deity by Ryan Cronin
HP is pleased to announce our newest columnist, Ryan Cronin. Ryan is a former Catholic who spent almost a year living in a monastery, got a degree in theology, and is now an atheist with an interest in earth-based paganism and nature-centred spirituality. His journey has led him to explore the ideas, symbols and practices of modern druidry, as an effective framework for expressing a sense of the sacred in nature and forming connections with the other-than-human world. He is a member of the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids as well as a Dedicant member of Ar n’Draiocht Fein, but tends to practice druidry in a solitary context. He is interested in evolution, philosophy, anthropology and the psychology of religion as well as creating secular spirituality without supernatural claims. Ryan writes about his ongoing druidic exploration at Room of Roots. He is also fascinated by people’s relationship with death and its role in society, and he discusses those themes on the blog Deathly Ponderings, where he is a regular contributor. He is due to begin studying for an MA in Death, Religion and Culture with the University of Winchester in January 2015. Read More
“Compassion as Foundation” by DT Strain
This essay was originally published at The Spiritual Naturalist Society.
Compassion is under assault in our media, entertainment, and politics. Meanwhile the faceless nature of the internet often encourages even greater levels of meanness and vitriol than would normally occur in human interactions, and this negativity unavoidably spills into other parts of our lives.
Yet, compassion is an essential part of our nature as social animals and moral beings. Thomas Merton wrote that compassion is, “the keen awareness of the interdependence of all things”. Called Rahmah in Islam, compassion is considered a major trait of God, who they call “the merciful and compassionate”. Hinduism has a principle of doing no harm called Ahimsa and their word for compassion is Daya. In Buddhism, you have the notion of wishing a release from suffering in others, called Karuna, and the notion of wishing happiness for others – loving kindness – calledMetta. When asked if cultivation of compassion and loving-kindness is part of their practice, the Buddha replied, ‘no… [it is] all of our practice.” The life of Jesus exemplifies the very essence of compassion to Christians. Judaism lists 13 attributes of compassion and leading Rabbi Hillel the Elder in the 1st Century stated that the whole Torah could be summed up as, “That which is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow” adding that all the rest is merely commentary on that principle. Read More
“Unitarian Universalism and Paganism” by Crafter Yearly
I first learned about Unitarian Universalism and Paganism at roughly the same time in my life. I was 16. And I knew, at that point, exactly two Pagan families: one, the family of the woman who mentored me in the Goddess religion; the other, the family of a girl I danced with in a ballet company. The women in both families encouraged me and supported me in my interest in Paganism. They were both strong women with big personalities and full, earthy bodies. And they were both convinced that their religion—our religion—was dangerous and must be kept secret. Or, rather, that bigots and fundamentalists were dangerous, and so we must keep our religion secret in order to stay safe. Read More
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Pagan Coming Out Day – May 2nd
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