Naturalistic Paganism
The Dying God: Learning to Die in the Anthropocene
This essay was first published at Gods & Radicals.
Our civilization is rushing toward its inevitable end. And it’s going to take out a big part of the biosphere with it. Cap and trade is not going to save us. Renewable energy is not going to save us. Nuclear energy is not going to save us. Carbon capture is not going to save use. The politicians are not going to save us. The scientists are not going to save us. The activists are not going to save us.
We are not going to be saved.
For so many reasons, we are going to fail … and fail badly.
Once we come to terms with that fact, the question becomes …
SO WHAT DO WE DO NOW?
Read MoreTripping With the Gods – On Entheogenic Spirituality:, (Part 3 of 5) by Wayne Martin Mellinger, Ph.D. [The Dionysian Naturalist]
THE PHARMACRATIC INQUISITION
The emergence of patriarchy in the Neolithic era led to several related social structural changes which radically altered the role and function that mind-altering plants played in societies. The two most central of these are (1) the State and (2) Patriarchal monotheism (e.g. Christianity). The lethal combination of patriarchal Church and State proved deadly for shamanistic cultures because out of them emerge “the Pharmacratic Inquisition”—a severely violent prohibitionist campaign of terror.
Time + Tenacity = Hope, by Mark Green
Story time! Time to visit my Really Not Finest Hour.
There’s going to be a lunar eclipse on Saturday, July 4.
As many of us know, the Moon’s phases run in roughly 19 year cycles. What that means is that 19 years ago, a full Moon with a lunar eclipse fell on the 4th of July.
And 19 years before that, there was another: July 4, 1982. That 4th of July is a date I remember vividly.
I saw the bloody Moon that night from the walled outdoor enclosure of a mental hospital called Oakcrest.
Episodes 11, 12, and 13 of THE WONDER podcast – Altars & Building Community, by Mark Green
Episodes 7 & 8 of THE WONDER podcast are up!!
Tripping With the Gods – On Entheogenic Spirituality:, (Part 2 of 5) by Wayne Martin Mellinger, Ph.D. [The Dionysian Naturalist]
- HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
The use of substances to alter consciousness seems to be innate. UCLA Professor Ronald Siegel (2005) calls it the “fourth universal drive”, as natural as hunger, thirst and sex. Many other animal species also pursue intoxication, including elephants, cats, monkeys, jaguars and bees. No amount of prohibitionist indoctrination has yet been able to uproot these primal instincts. Drug war ideologies are forced upon all school children who learn to recite in unison “Just say no!”. Instead we must learn to accept human nature for what it is, letting go of our Enlightenment fantasies of the rational human.
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Pagan Coming Out Day – May 2nd
Naturalistic Paganism 