Naturalistic Paganism
Call for submissions: “Order and Structure”
Our late winter theme for 2014 begins February 3.
The theme is “Order and Structure”.
How do we structure our world as Naturalistic Pagans? How do we make a cosmos out of chaos with our beliefs and the stories we tell? How do our naturalistic beliefs merge with our other beliefs? Is Naturalistic Paganism compatible with other belief systems?
Send your writing and art to humanisticpaganism [at] gmail.com. Submissions need to be received by February 3.
What to look forward to in January at HP
Two-faced Roman god, Janus, looking backward toward the old year and forward toward the new year
This month we conclude our early winter theme of “Beginnings”.
This Month at HP
Jan 3 Announcement of late winter theme/Call for papers
Jan 5 “Without Gods”, Interview with Stifyn Emrys
Jan 8 Postpagan Ceremony & Ecology by Glen Gordon: “Sacred Seasonal Narrative for Today’s Humanism and Naturalism”
Jan 12 Starstuff, Contemplating by Jon Cleland Host: “Treasures Hidden in Plain Sight”
Jan 15 Mid-Month Meditation: “American History: a poem by Ken Apple”
Jan 19 “Ouroboros Pantheus”, by Annika Garratt
Jan 22 Musings of a Pagan Mythicist by Maggie Jay Lee: “Step to the right: religion and the divided mind”
Jan 26 Review of Stages of Faith by John Halstead
Jan 29 A Pedagogy of Gaia: by Bart Everson:”Always Beginning Again”
Humanistic Paganism Calendar for January
Jan 1 New Year’s Day
Jan 1 Cosmic Calendar: Big Bang 13.8 billion years ago (bya)
Jan 20 (third Monday) Martin Luther King Day
Jan 22 Chief Seattle surrenders native land
Jan 27 International Holocaust Remembrance Day
What to look forward to in 2014 at HP
We divide the year here at HP into 8 semi-seasonal themes, following the Neo-Pagan Wheel of the Year. The themes for 2014 are inspired in part by the Earth Story Calendar created by Peter Adair. Your contributions to any of these themes (or any other topic related to Naturalistic Paganism) are welcome.
Early Winter (Dec 21-Feb 2)
Cosmic event: The birth of the universe
Theme: Beginnings
Questions: How does our religious (or non-religious) past continue to influence our future as Naturalistic Pagans, for better or for worse?
Late Winter (Feb 3-Mar 19)
Cosmic event: Galaxies emerge
Theme: Order/Structure
Questions: How do we structure our world as Naturalistic Pagans? How do we make a cosmos out of chaos with our beliefs and the stories we tell?
Early Spring (Mar 20-May 4)
Cosmic event: Supernovas and the seeding of space
Theme: Inspiration (Fire)
Questions: What role do intuition, inspiration, poetry, and art play in our Naturalistic Paganism?
Late Spring (May 5-Jun 20)
Cosmic event: The earth forms
Theme: Practice (Earth)
Questions: Let’s bring our discussion “down to earth”. How do we practice our Naturalistic Paganism with our senses and our bodies?
Early Summer (Jun 21-Aug 6)
Cosmic event: Formation of the atmosphere
Theme: Intellect (Air)
Questions: How do we make intellect serve wonder? What constructive role does intellectual inquiry play in our Naturalistic Paganism?
Late Summer (Aug 7-Sept 21)
Cosmic event: Formation of oceans on earth
Theme: Emotion (Water)
Questions: Naturalistic Paganism may sometimes seem to be a matter of the mind rather than an affair of the heart. What positive role do the emotions play in our Naturalistic Paganism?
Early Autumn (Sept 22-Nov 6)
Cosmic event: Life emerges
Theme: Life and death
Questions: This was a very popular theme this past fall. We will revisit these questions: What role does an awareness of death play in our spirituality as Naturalistic Pagans?
Late Autumn (Nov 7-Dec 21)
Cosmic event: The last great extinction
Theme: Responsibility
Questions: What ethical obligations do our beliefs impose on us as Naturalistic Pagans?
Cosmic Calendar Special
Carl Sagan’s Cosmic Calendar maps the entire history of our cosmos onto a single year. You can follow the entire calendar here at Humanistic Paganism. As you imagine, things speed up considerably as the year advances. After the Big Bang on January 1, we have to wait until May for the Milky Way to form and September for our own sun to form. But things get really busy in December:
Dec 5 First multicellular life 1 bya
Dec 14 Simple animals emerge 0.67 bya
Dec 14 Arthropods emerge 0.55 bya
Dec 18 Fish and proto-amphibians emerge 0.5 bya
Dec 20 Land plants emerge 0.45 bya
Dec 21 Insects and seeds emerge 0.4 bya
Dec 22 Amphibians emerge 0.36 bya
Dec 23 Reptiles and dinosaurs emerge 0.3 bya
Dec 26 Mammals emerge 0.2 bya
Dec 27 Birds emerge 0.15 bya
Dec 28 Flowers emerge 0.13 bya
Dec 30 Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event (non-avian dinosaurs die out) 65 mya
Dec 30 Primates emerge 65 mya
Dec 31 Hominids emerge 15 mya
Now December 31st is finally here, and we have an especially fun way to count down to the New Year with Sagan’s Cosmic Calendar. Jon Cleland Host shares the experience with his children, calling out momentous events by the tick of a watch, as history whizzes by in the last few seconds before midnight.
Human evolution
| Date / time | mya | Event |
|---|---|---|
| 31 Dec, 06:05 | 15 | Apes |
| 31 Dec, 14:24 | 15 | hominids |
| 31 Dec, 22:24 | 2.5 | primitive humans and stone tools |
| 31 Dec, 23:44 | 0.4 | Domestication of fire |
| 31 Dec, 23:52 | 0.2 | Anatomically modern humans |
| 31 Dec, 23:55 | 0.11 | Beginning of most recent glacial period |
| 31 Dec, 23:58 | 0.035 | sculpture and painting |
| 31 Dec, 23:59:32 | 0.012 | Agriculture |
History begins
| Date / time | kya | Event |
|---|---|---|
| 31 Dec, 23:59:47 | 5.5 | First writing (marks end of prehistory and beginning of history), beginning of the Bronze Age |
| 31 Dec, 23:59:48 | 5.0 | First dynasty of Egypt, Early Dynastic period in Sumer, Astronomy |
| 31 Dec, 23:59:49 | 4.5 | Alphabet, Akkadian Empire, Wheel |
| 31 Dec, 23:59:51 | 4.0 | Code of Hammurabi, Middle Kingdom of Egypt |
| 31 Dec, 23:59:52 | 3.5 | Mycenaean Greece; Olmec civilization; Iron Age in Near East, India, and Europe; founding of Carthage |
| 31 Dec, 23:59:53 | 3.0 | Kingdom of Israel, ancient Olympic games |
| 31 Dec, 23:59:54 | 2.5 | Buddha, Confucius, Qin Dynasty, Classical Greece, Ashokan Empire, Vedas completed, Euclidean geometry, Archimedean physics, Roman Republic |
| 31 Dec, 23:59:55 | 2.0 | Ptolemaic astronomy, Roman Empire, Christ, invention of numeral 0 |
| 31 Dec, 23:59:56 | 1.5 | Muhammad, Maya civilization, Song Dynasty, rise of Byzantine Empire |
| 31 Dec, 23:59:58 | 1.0 | Mongol Empire, Crusades, Christopher Columbus voyages to the Americas, Renaissance in Europe |
The current second
| Date / time | kya | Event |
|---|---|---|
| 31 Dec, 23:59:59 | 0.5 | modern science and technology, American Revolution, French revolution, World War I, World War II, Apollo Moon landing |
Below is a video of Carl Sagan explaining the Cosmic Calendar.
“How I became a naturalist”: DT Strain & B. T. Newberg, part 1
Today we continue our early winter theme, “Beginnings”, with an a dialogue between B. T. Newberg and DT Strain, where they discuss how how they became Spiritual Naturalists.
DT Strain
B. T. Newberg
Click above to listen.
In this audio piece, more of a dialogue than an interview, DT Strain and B. T. Newberg each share the life events that led them by round-about paths to embrace naturalistic forms of spirituality.
Check back in February for Part 2 of the dialogue, where DT and B. T. talk about their experiences with naturalistic ritual.
About DT Strain
DT is a Humanist Minister, certified by the American Humanist Association (AHA) and a Spiritual Naturalist. He is the founder and director of the Spiritual Naturalist Society.
Rev. Strain speaks and writes on a wide variety of philosophic concepts and participates in several organizations. His “Humanist Contemplative” group and concept has since helped inspire a similar group at Harvard University. He is former president of the Humanists of Houston (HOH), and has served as vice-chair on the Executive Council of AHA’s Chapter Assembly, on the Education Committee of the Kochhar Humanist Education Center, and as a member of the Stoic Council at New Stoa.
His writing appears in the Houston Chronicle and has been published in magazines, newsletters, and in the AHA national publication “Essays in the Philosophy of Humanism”. He has been a guest speaker on the Philosophy of Religion panel discussion at San Jacinto College, and has appeared on the Houston PBS television program, The Connection, discussing religious belief and non-belief. DT Strain is an enthusiast of Stoicism, Buddhism, and other ancient philosophies; seeking to supplement modern scientific and humanistic values with these practices. His essays and blog can be found at www.HumanistContemplative.org.
About B. T. Newberg
B. T. founded HumanisticPaganism.com in 2011, and served as managing editor till 2013. His writings on naturalistic spirituality can be found at Patheos, Pagan Square, the Spiritual Naturalist Society, as well as right here on HP. Since the year 2000, he has been practicing meditation and ritual from a naturalistic perspective. After leaving the Lutheranism of his raising, he experimented with Agnosticism, Buddhism, Contemporary Paganism, and Spiritual Humanism. Currently he combines the latter two into a dynamic path embracing both science and myth. He headed the Google Group Polytheist Charity, and organized the international interfaith event The Genocide Prevention Ritual.
In 2009, he completed a 365-day challenge recorded at One Good Deed Per Day. As a Pagan, he has published frequently at The Witch’s Voice as well as Oak Leaves and the podcast Tribeways, and has written a book on the ritual order of Druid organization Ar nDriocht Fein called Ancient Symbols, Modern Rites. Several of his ebooks sell at GoodReads.com, including a volume of creative nonfiction set in Malaysia called Love and the Ghosts of Mount Kinabalu.
Professionally, he teaches English as a Second Language. He also researches the relation between religion, psychology, and evolution at www.BTNewberg.com. After living in Minnesota, England, Malaysia, Japan, and South Korea, B. T. Newberg currently resides in St Paul, Minnesota, with his wife and cat.
B. T. currently serves as the treasurer and advising editor for HP.
See B. T. Newberg’s other posts.
Next Sunday
“Without gods”: An interview with Stifyn Emrys.
Buy Godless Paganism (paperback)
Buy Godless Paganism (ebook)
Pagan Coming Out Day – May 2nd
Naturalistic Paganism 