Naturalistic Paganism
Category: John Halstead
Playlist for the Wheel of the Year: Spring Equinox
Music has been an essential part of the experience of our family rituals. Without it, it would be much more difficult to create the sense of sacred time and space and to evoke the experience I desire for each ritual.
Read MorePlaylist for the Wheel of the Year: Mid-Winter
Music has been an essential part of the experience of our family rituals. Without it, it would be much more difficult to create the sense of sacred time and space and to evoke the experience I desire for each ritual.
Read MoreAnimism for the Religious Naturalist
Animists see a world that is full of other-than-human persons, including salmon persons, tree persons, and even rock persons. It is difficult for many Westerners to understand the concept of other-than-human persons, especially when talking about (seemingly) “inanimate objects” like rocks. But for the animist, there is no such thing as inanimate matter, because it is all a part of the complex self-regulating living system called Gaia. Animism is not about the projection of consciousness or agency onto non-human things, but about respect and reciprocity within a more-than-human community that transcends the subject-object dichotomy.
Read MoreThe Dying God: Learning to Die in the Anthropocene
We are doomed to walk the path of the Dying God. We must do so not in the hope of survival or salvation. Our job is not to survive … or even to birth a new world. Our job is to die … to die well, to die-with, to die early and often, to die in such a way that the “ash heap of history” might become the compost pile of the Goddess.
Read MorePaganism Isn’t Where You Think It Is
Martin Buber said spoke of “a quiet devoted relationship with nearby life.” That’s a beautiful description of what I have been seeking in the word “pagan”.
Read MoreBuy Godless Paganism (paperback)
Buy Godless Paganism (ebook)
Pagan Coming Out Day – May 2nd
Naturalistic Paganism 