Naturalistic Paganism
You can join a Witch’s Brew This Sunday, August 20! From The Critical Thinking Witch Collective
The Critical Thinking Witch Collective is excited to host their anniversary Brew in August – touching on that very witchy topic of magic words.
You are invited, called in, and summoned!
Community, Nordic Animism, Lammas, and more! Recent Episodes of THE WONDER podcast, by Mark Green
Check out the latest The Wonder podcasts! Many of us know well the complex interplay between individual Pagan practice and community – and sometimes our Naturalism adds another twist! Also, a look at Nordic Animism, and our Sabbat of Lammas, or Dimming! All those, and more, are on the page here.
No Nonsense Paganism: Lughna-say-what?
In this series, “No-Nonsense Paganism”, I have been striving to strip Paganism down, take away its ancient or faux-ancient terminology, its mythological and legendary pretensions, its foreign (to wherever you are) folk practices, its superstitious and pseudo-scientific justifications, and its esoteric ritual structures, and get down to the phenomenological core of pagan experience: our interaction with the earth and the other-than-human beings who we share it with. You can check out previous posts in this series here.
Autumn in Summer?
Today, many Pagans are celebrating Lughnasadh, also known as Lammas. Many call this day the “first harvest”. Mike Nichols begins his much-quoted article on Lammas this way: “Although in the heat of a Mid-western summer it might be difficult to discern, the festival of Lammas (Aug 1st) marks the end of summer and the beginning of fall.” Have you ever wondered why it seems like nearly every description of a Pagan sabbats begins with a disclaimer like this, explaining why it’s not really the season that we are celebrating?
Read MoreHappy Summer Thermstice/Lammas!
Celebrations
Heat! Productivity! Success! Growing Darkness! These and many other themes join with the baking of bread and early harvest celebrations of Lunasa. Maybe a good theme for this year’s Lunasa is our moon. It brings us a wonderful full moon to coincide with Lunasa this year – as if to join in the celebration of the fullness of productivity and life – and then this same moon graciously steps back just in time for the Perseid Meteor shower!
Also very fitting that the Oppenheimer movie came out within days of Lunasa – I’ve often linked the power of atomic explosions to the power of Lunasa in presentations, because they both feature power, and happened in August.
Some of the ways many of us are celebrating were recently published (along with many online rituals you can join, some of which are still ahead of us). For my family, celebrations with our annual Lunasa blueberry harvest, baking bread, and evening ritual are coming up! As a special Lunasa treat, check out this Lammas music from Bart Everson, and – like on every Sabbat – the additional music published on this blog, here on the practices hub page (simple page down to the Sabbat you want). It could be part of a ritual, solitary observation, or just having around now.
For some of us, the celebrations will be later this week – the actual midpoint between the Solstice and the Equinox is August 7th. However you are celebrating (including Imbolc celebrations in the Southern Hemisphere), may your be celebration be blessed.
What the Perseids (just a few weeks away, Aug 11-13!) Taught me about Parenting, by Starstuff, Contemplating
This a favorable moon phase this year, so this may be your only chance for many years to see the Perseid meteor shower! Your life could change before the next chance in 2026 – and if you have kids, this is your only chance to share it with them when they are their current ages. Here is how my kids taught me this:
My sons a few years ago, as we planned for that year’s Perseid Meteor trip:
K: Next year the Moon will prevent our trip, but the Moon is perfect this year, it could be an awesome show – maybe like the year we watched by Lake Michigan!
R: Yeah, and the bulldozer we saw there was kinda weird.
K: No, not then. That show was good, but nothing like the Lake Michigan year.
R: But that was a lot of meteors!
K: Yes. It was cool, but not as many meteors as the Lake Michigan year…..
R: But we’ve never seen them over Lake Michigan!
K: Yes, we have. We were out on the sand for hours!
Read More
Buy Godless Paganism (paperback)
Buy Godless Paganism (ebook)
Pagan Coming Out Day – May 2nd
Naturalistic Paganism 