• Uncategorized

    Pagan Theology

    Responsibility   One of the important things that religions do is regulate behavior.  You may not like it, but that’s the way it is.  One of the reasons that others in society are skeptical of modern Paganism is that we don’t regulate much behavior outside of obvious harm and ill action.  This is part of the reason that modern Paganism appeals to many whose spirits are freer, or just unwilling to behave the way society expects them.  Since religion is one way the culture regulates behavior outside of the legal system, a religion that does not provide such regulation could be seen as suspicious (or not a religion).  I think…

  • Uncategorized

    Pagan Theology

    The Christians and the Pagans   Something that tends to distinguish me from my fellow Pagans is that I do not believe that “Christo-Pagans” are possible.  That goes against the general openness of Paganism.  And it flies in the face of our Pagan historical and cultural norms, which tell us to accept just about as many Gods and Goddesses as we can cram into a theology and still have room.  Thus a theological bias against Christians in general and Christo-Pagans in particular tends to irritate the Christo-Pagans and embarrass the regular Pagans (it has no effect on the observant Christians, they think we’re all crazy).   So now you are either…

  • Uncategorized

    Pagan Theology

    Growing Up   What do we want to be when we grow up?   That is a very loaded question.  First, it assumes that any of us want to grow up, and, frankly, I have not met a lot of Pagans that think growing up in the traditional sense is a good thing.  Having rules, being serious, acting deliberately, and losing your sense of wonder at the world are all generally accepted parts of what it means to “grow up” in our society.  Unfortunately they are pretty much diametrically opposed to the polytheistic, fun-loving, world-embracing, and spontaneous Pagan movement.  Second, its worth commenting on the individual pieces of the sentence. …

  • Uncategorized

    Pagan Theology

    Sexytimes In Public Oh my stars.  Catholics are asking to be treated differently due to their religious beliefs when it comes to providing health care for women who work for them.  The Republicans, sensing an opportunity that was actually a mistake, have done their best to pile onto this issue, in some very inelegant ways [1].  There are a lot of political arguments here, ones that have been stated much more clearly and interestingly elsewhere [2].   Personally I do believe that there should be an exemption for institutions whose primary function is religious on matters of principle where it is reasonable and practical.  This is a fundamental principle of religious…

  • Uncategorized

    Pagan Theology

    Getting out of the stores I am no historian of religions but I have to think that ours is the first that is mainly built up around stores.   It is somehow humorously incongruous, a religion, something that is traditionally divorced from the material world, that meets in, organizes around, and has the main part of its public identity bound up in stores.  I suspect that this is also a uniquely American way of managing our religion.  An easy analysis would say that its our pervasive materialism simply expressing itself in religious terms.  If megachurches can have Starbucks and gift shops then we may indeed be at the cutting edge of…

  • Uncategorized

    Pagan Theology

    Coincidence and magic The young boy loved camping, particularly the fire building parts.  Tonight they were deep in the woods, staying under the stars in tents with families from the circle.  The adults knew that he loved fire making and had asked him to tend the ritual bonfire.  All during the ritual he’d been seeing shadows coming and going from the edge of the circle.  The Old Gods seemed to be out tonight, but that wasn’t something he worried about.  That stuff was for his mom.  He just liked the camping.  The circle was just opened and he turned to go get some more wood for the fire.  There, staring…

  • Uncategorized

    Pagan Theology

    Guilt For Samhain this year our group will be putting on a ritual themed around the idea of atonement.  Not the “feel bad, please forgive my rotten mess” kind of atonement, but the idea of reviewing the past year, our actions, and their effects in order to see what we can do to affect our fates in the coming year.  In structuring the ritual I began to realize just how closely aligned atonement, review, contemplation, actions, effects, and other items normally associated with all these bad ideas of “sin” and “guilt” are closely aligned with the Pagan concept of fate. For Christians all these ideas are very closely linked through…

  • Uncategorized

    Pagan Theology

    The Old Gods and Goddesses One question that seems to be fundamental to Pagan belief is whether the Gods and Goddesses represent one idea or underlying form that has many names, or whether they represent many individual entities that, well, have many names.  This must be an important issue because it almost always seems to get mentioned in any discussion of belief or working.   The way it usually goes is along the lines “she is the mystery that we call by many names.”  This seems to be subdivided between those who say there is some practical division (male/female, dark/light) in the mystery and those who feel that everything is unified…

  • Uncategorized

    Book Review: Weisser Field Guide to the Paranormal

    Weisser Field Guide to the Paranormal Paperback: 224 pages Publisher: Weiser Books (December 1, 2010) Author: Judith Joyce A Paranormal Spectacular [Fail] Last month I got to review an absolutely amazing book, The Clavis or Key to the Magic of Solomon as edited by Joseph Peterson.  While that was an interesting and illuminating experience, its far more fun to take on a popular book where I don’t have to worry about dusting off 18th century references and doing what passes for fact checking in my columns.  Fortunately I’ll have none of those tasks this month as I’m reviewing the Weisser Field Guide to the Paranormal [1]. The short review:  don’t…

  • Uncategorized

    Book Review: The Clavis or Key to the Magic of Solomon

    Review:  The Clavis or Key to the Magic of Solomon I guess I’m just may be too inclined to try and stuff things into categories and bins but it has always escaped me why ceremonial magic and Paganism are often tied together.  I understand that modern Paganism is a broad net that sweeps up all the little fishes it can find, but I do sometimes think we have to draw the line somewhere.   Given the recent debate about who is and isn’t and does and doesn’t want to be a Pagan, I think this is a valid question [1].  In my opinion, ceremonial magicians are inherently Christian, given that their…