Naturalistic Paganism
Perseid meteor showers
August 11th-12th is the peak of the Perseid meteor showers this year. Stardate recommends how to get the best viewing:
Get away from the glow of city lights and toward the constellation from which the meteors will appear to radiate.
For example, drive north to view the Leonids. Driving south may lead you to darker skies, but the glow will dominate the northern horizon, where Leo rises. Perseid meteors will appear to “rain” into the atmosphere from the constellation Perseus, which rises in the northeast around 11 p.m. in mid-August.
After you’ve escaped the city glow, find a dark, secluded spot where oncoming car headlights will not periodically ruin your sensitive night vision. Look for state or city parks or other safe, dark sites.
Once you have settled at your observing spot, lie back or position yourself so the horizon appears at the edge of your peripheral vision, with the stars and sky filling your field of view. Meteors will instantly grab your attention as they streak by.
The Pagan Practice Project
Cultural anthropologist Kimberly Kirner is conducting a new survey of Pagan practices, as highlighted recently at the Wild Hunt. Notably, the survey includes a section on beliefs including archetypal and naturalistic-leaning views. It concludes with an important section on sustainability practices.
I recommend everyone check it out and make their voices heard. The more we participate in things like this, the more our style of Paganism will be recognized!
Here is the link:
International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples
August 9th, is the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples. This year’s theme is “Indigenous Media, Empowering Indigenous Voices”:
The theme aims to highlight the importance of indigenous media in challenging stereotypes, forging indigenous peoples’ identities, communicating with the outside world, and influencing the social and political agenda. (United Nations)
Given the inspiration many Pagans have drawn from various indigenous peoples, including the rediscovery of our own ancestral traditions, this day may be an opportunity for reverence, reflection, and activism. It may also be appropriate to engage with issues of cultural appropriation in our communities.
The HPedia: Ambiguity
Your help is needed! Please critique this entry from the HPedia: An encyclopedia of key concepts in Naturalistic Paganism. Please leave your constructive criticism in the comments below.
This specialized term comes from Tanya Luhrmann’s anthropological study of “magicians” (more or less equates to Contemporary Pagans), Persuasions of the Witch’s Craft. It refers to a peculiar style of language in which both literal and metaphorical meanings may be implied, without commitment to either. “The Goddess”, for example, may operate metaphorically as a personification of the Earth, but may also refer literally to a personality capable of communication, caring, and causal agency. Which meaning is meant at any given time is ambiguous. Magicians are free to believe either way, and may flip back and forth depending on the situation. This is not felt as uncomfortable, since emphasis is placed on practice more than on belief (see “Orthopraxy”).
Lurhmann suspects this ambiguity allows new practitioners of magic a long period of experimentation during which positive emotional experiences are built up before committing to literal claims of magic’s efficacy. Many then gradually move away from mainstream Western beliefs (which deny magic’s efficacy) and toward the majority beliefs of the magical community (which affirm it). This process is called interpretive drift.
One popular ambiguous phrase, attributed to Dion Fortune, is the definition of magic as “the art of changing consciousness at will.” One may easily read that naturalistically as consistent with modern scientific research on altered states. At the same time, it is equally possible to interpret it as opening consciousness to spiritual or astral planes considerably beyond current accepted science. Such a definition allows an easy entry point into magic through naturalistic and metaphorical interpretations, while opening the door to less mainstream theories.
Another popular ambiguous phrase is “whatever works”, a maxim enjoining the use of whatever ritual means produces successful results. On the face of it, this sounds empirical, even scientific. Indeed it would be, if systematic care were taken to sort out precisely what would count as evidence that a given ritual has “worked.” However, it is rare (in my experience, at least) to find any detailed attention paid to this prior to the performance of a ritual. It is left ambiguous in many if not most cases, with the result that nearly any positive-seeming events following the ritual may be interpreted as evidence of success. This ambiguity allows rituals to seem successful without proving anything decisively, creating further conditions for interpretive drift.
One might easily see how such an atmosphere of ambiguity may allow both hard polytheists and naturalists to emerge in the Pagan community. Rather than drifting in one unilateral direction, practitioners may gradually congregate around different poles of belief.
See also “Naturalistic Paganism” and “Deity.”
Check out other entries in our HPedia.
August Cross-quarter
In the Northern Hemisphere, the cross-quarter is celebrated as Lughnasadh (Lughnasa, Lúnasa, Lùnastal, Luanistyn, Lammas). Astronomically, the event falls on the 6th, though some observe the traditional date of August 1st.
Mike Nichols recognizes Lughnasadh as a day of games, craft festivals, early harvest, and first fruits. The custom of setting apart the first fruits of a harvest, by leaving part of the field standing or dedicating part to a deity, was widespread in the ancient world. In the modern context, it is possible to honor this custom in various naturalistic ways, for example by giving a portion of your yearly earnings to a favorite charity.
Jon Cleland Host describes how his family observes Lughnasadh:
We celebrate Lammas by some kind of early harvesting, such as visiting a pick-your-own blueberry farm, wild raspberry picking, or such. To see the abundance of the earth, we’ll sometime spend time wandering (or even trying to run) in a mature cornfield. It’s one thing to say “Oh, yeah, the earth is producing a lot of growth”, but quite another indeed to be surrounded by it, blinding your sight and slowing your movement – that really shows the power of this Sabbat. We usually bake bread, perhaps in a woven Celtic knot, enjoying some of it during our ritual. The ritual is held during the afternoon’s heat, not at night. (Naturalistic Paganism yahoo group)
Glenys Livingstone of Pagaian, in keeping with decline of the length of day, takes this time to contemplate dissolution and the deep self:
This is the season of the waxing dark. The seed of darkness that was born at the Summer Solstice now grows … the dark part of the days grows visibly longer. Earth’s tilt is taking us back away from the Sun. This is the time when we celebrate dissolution, expansion into Deep Self, the time when each unique self lets go, to the Darkness. It is the time for celebrating ending, when the grain, the fruit, is harvested. We meet to remember the Dark Sentience, the All-Nourishing Abyss, She from whom we arise, in whom we are immersed and to whom we return. This is the time of the Crone, the Wise Dark One, who accepts and receives our harvest, who grinds the grain, who dismantles what has gone before.
She also invites ritual participants to contemplate their hopes for the harvest.
For a particularly unique perspective of Lughnasadh this year, you might keep your eye on blogger Drew Jacob: since the day is special to his patron Lugh, and Drew has just begun his Great Adventure traveling from Minnesota to Brazil by his own body’s power, an interesting post no doubt awaits.
Those in the Southern Hemisphere celebrate Imbolc at this time.
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Pagan Coming Out Day – May 2nd
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