Perhaps the ultimate end our existence is something of a sublime old joke, but if it is, I at least want to be attentive enough to catch the joke and share a grand old chuckle with the cosmos.
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Even under the influence of the narcotic draught, of which songs of all primitive men and peoples speak, or with the potent coming of spring that penetrates all nature with joy, these Dionysian emotions awake, and as they grow in…
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Category: emotion, humanism, John Halstead, Paganism, ritual
Tags: adoration, devotionalism, Dionysian, group ritual, letting go, life, metaphor, nature, poetry, rationality, revelry, ritual, veneration, worship
Today we continue our late-winter theme of “Order and Structure” with Rhys Chisnall’s exploration of the role of theistic language in non-theistic Paganism. This post is also the first article of our new column, De Natura Deorum, where we explore the beliefs of…
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Category: atheism, De Natura Deorum, Order and Structure, Rhys Chisnall
Tags: belief, Craft, death, gods, hard polytheism, Lady, life, literal, Lord, metaphors, nature, symbols, Wicca
We can forget the most important experiences of all. We can and do lose touch with the most profound truths of existence. I want a reminder. I want to be nudged, shoved if need be, back to the truth. This is the trick of living, or one of the tricks anyhow. It’s easy to pay lip service to love and wonder, but I want to know it, to live it, to feel it in my bones.
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I felt a connection through time and space to every woman who ever labored. I could feel their fear, their worry, their pain, but even more, a deep sense of peace and rightness. I was a part of something much, much bigger than the birth of our child. This was about all of us; all of life — renewing itself, beginning and ending.
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Naturalistic Paganism
Naturalistic Paganism 