Naturalistic Paganism
Category: Intellect
Happy Darwin Day!
Happy Darwin Day! This commemorates the birthday of the one who contributed the theory of natural selection to our understanding of evolution, Charles Darwin.
Read More“Is Anyone Else Getting Weird Vibes?”: On Confirmation Bias and Emotional States, by Lupa Greenwolf
It’s okay to want to not feel alone in your thoughts and feelings. But remember that we humans share a lot of common experiences. And it’s natural for us to feel empathy for others in the same situation we’re in: welcome to being a social species of ape. We evolved this connection to each other over millions of years, and we share it with lots of other species, too.
Read MoreVisions, Part 3: The Power of Spiritual Experiences, by Jon Cleland Host (Starstuff, Contemplating)
Spiritual experiences are a powerful and wonderful part of being human – but what do they mean? Do they prove one religious path is right over all the others? What does the evidence show? What happened during my spiritual experience? Here is some discussion of these points, in this video:
Read MoreVisions, Part 1: Integrating Critical Lenses into Spirituality as a Naturalistic Pagan Goal, by Emile Wayne
Our spirituality integrates not only ways of seeing the world – critical and spiritual – but also integrates us into the world. It is a spirituality that builds deep connections between and among all the Beings with whom we share our breathing, dancing, changing planet, whirling through space. If there is a set of tools that offers us insight into those lives with whom we share a deep kinship, from our fellow primates and mammals all the way into the depths of the sea, then it is useful and essential to our spiritual path(s). We must heed what these tools teach us, whether the lesson is a humbling confirmation of the kinship of all life, or a startling reminder about the fragility of our ecosystems. By doing so, we also (re)claim religion as a fundamentally human endeavor, one that helps us speak to the depths and heights of our experiences.
Read MoreLonging and Contradiction in (Re?)Creating Modern Paganism by Emile Wayne
I feel this situation speaks to a deep and important longing among modern Pagans. We admire the non-creedal, integrated, world-affirming lifeways of ancient paleo-pagans and hope to (re)create that form of religion for ourselves, working past centuries of religious alienation produced by religions which insist that any experience of “depth” must be “Not of this World.” But the societies in which ancient paleo-pagan religions were practiced no longer exist; if we celebrate paleo-paganisms because of their seamless integration with daily life, natural systems, and cultural milieu, then the fact that we live in entirely different circumstances means that, even if we could recover these systems in their entirety, we could not successfully integrate them into our own lives, which is the goal in the first place.
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Pagan Coming Out Day – May 2nd
Naturalistic Paganism 