Naturalistic Paganism

“The whole world becomes a family reunion.”

Winterviews continues.  From the Solstice till Imbolc, we’ve brought you non-stop interviews and other goodies from big-name authors:

• Brian Swimme, author of The Hidden Heart of the Cosmos – Winter Solstice, Dec. 21st
• Jason Pitzl-Waters, Pagan journalist of The Wild Hunt – Dec. 23rd
• John Ryan Haule, author of Jung in the 21st Century  – Dec. 30th
• Chet Raymo, author of When God Is Gone, Everything Is Holy – Jan. 6th
• IAO131, author of Naturalistic Occultism – Jan. 13th
• Connie Barlow, author of The Ghosts of Evolution – Jan. 20th
• Jon Cleland Host, creator of the Naturalistic Paganism group and frequent author at EvolutionaryTimes.org – Jan. 27th
• Adrian Harris, author of Wisdom of the Body: Embodied Knowing in Eco-Paganism – Imbolc, Feb. 3rd

Today, Jon Cleland Host, Ph.D., talks with us via Skype about honoring ancestors from a naturalistic perspective.

Click above to listen.

Jon Cleland Host, founder and moderator of the Naturalistic Paganism yahoo group, engages the somewhat unexpected topic of naturalistic reverence for ancestors.

I say unexpected because, from a naturalistic perspective, one might well ask:

Why honor ancestors if you don’t believe there is an afterlife in which they exist?

Well, Jon has some enlightening things to say about that:

“I look back at how I used to live… and the best word for it is, the world I used to live in.  It’s like living in another world where everything is meaningful and powerful, and you’re surrounded by connections just like at a family reunion.  The whole world becomes a family reunion.”

Not only does Jon share with us moving stories of why he honors his ancestors, he also explains how he developed his spiritual path, and came to coin the term “Naturalistic Pagan.”

The interviewee

Dr. Jon Cleland Host is a scientist who earned his PhD in materials science at Northwestern University & has conducted research at Hemlock Semiconductor and Dow Corning since 1997.  He holds eight patents and has authored over three dozen internal scientific papers and eleven papers for peer-reviewed scientific journals, including the journal Nature.  He has taught classes on biology, math, chemistry, physics and general science at Delta College and Saginaw Valley State University.  Jon grew up near Pontiac, and has been building a reality-based spirituality for over 30 years, first as a Catholic and now as a Unitarian Universalist, including collaborating with Michael Dowd and Connie Barlow to spread the awe and wonder of the Great Story of our Universe (see www.thegreatstory.org, and the blog at evolutionarytimes.org).  Jon and his wife have four sons, whom they embrace within a Universe-centered, Pagan, family spirituality.  He currently moderates the yahoo group Naturalistic Paganism.

Check out Jon’s other posts: