Ritual is the product of a conscious form applied to unconscious content. The most evocative rituals I have created came from somewhere other than my rational mind. They combined intuitive bodily movements with what W.H. Auden called “privately numinous words”, words that I had read or heard which had a talismanic-like effect on me.
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Category: John Halstead, Latest Posts, The Naturalistic Pagan Toolbox, uncategorized
Tags: body, gestures, light, listening, movement, Natural Pagans, nature, poetry, ritual, solstice, unconscious
Ritual is the product of a conscious form applied to unconscious content. The most evocative rituals I have created came from somewhere other than my rational mind. They combined intuitive bodily movements with what W.H. Auden called “privately numinous words”, words that I had read or heard which had a talismanic-like effect on me.
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Category: John Halstead, Latest Posts, The Naturalistic Pagan Toolbox, uncategorized
Tags: body, gestures, light, listening, movement, Natural Pagans, nature, poetry, ritual, solstice, unconscious
As Naturalistic Pagans, I think we are uniquely positioned to transcend the limitations of both reductionist science and superstitious forms of Paganism. We can can elucidate the distinction between subjective nature and objective nature, without denigrating the former. We can valorize human experience, without confusing experience with objects. This is how we re-enchant the world, not by looking for gods or fairies in the space between atoms or in strands of DNA, but by imbuing both–gods and atoms, fairies and DNA–with human meaning.
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It takes an artist’s eyes—or a lover’s—to really see. It takes a willingness to get our hands dirty, to get up close and personal with messy nature, and to use all of our senses. But most of all, it requires a willingness to be open to receiving, as well as perceiving—an openness to being “touched back” when we touch nature.
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Category: intellect, John Halstead, Latest Posts, naturalistic pagan, The Naturalistic Pagan Toolbox
Tags: animism, David Abram, Martin Buber, naturalism, nature, perception, reciprocity, trees
We Humanistic Pagans may have kin in Iceland.
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Category: Announcements, community, John Halstead, Latest Posts
Tags: archetypes, atheism, Ásatrúarfélagið, gods, high priest, Hilmar Orn Hilmarsson, Humanistic Paganism, Icelandic, Icelandic Asatru Association, literalism, metaphors, nature, Paganism, psychology, temple, theism