The Time of Culling

I’ve always had trouble with this time of year, from a “earth-worshiping-pagan-who-celebrates-Wiccish-holidays-more-or-less” standpoint. Lammas/Lughnasadh and the Autumn Equinox always feel so disconnected to me. They really shouldn’t, because they are actually at the perfect time for harvest in the climate into which I was born — there’s a reason Canadian Thanksgiving is in early October, …

Prayer, and how it’s difficult

I realized today — I don’t know how to pray. I do pray, quite often, but it’s always clumsy, and sort of haphazard, like I’m picking my way through a cluttered cabin full of spiritual knick-knacks and doodads, trying to find just the right one for my purposes. Quickly uttered “Dear Brighid, please wrap so-and-so …

30 Days of Paganism: 2. Beliefs — Cosmology

There are several definitions for the word cosmology (no, none of them are “the study of trashy magazines, marketed to women, with horrible sex advice”), but generally speaking in theology the one that’s meant is this one: “A specific theory or model of the origin and evolution of the universe.” Put in simpler terms, “What …

Orthodoxy vs. Orthopraxy

In case you need more Morag this week, I’ve also posted at Maenads of the (R)Evolution (MaRE for short), my project with partner-in-crime-and-awesomeness Daniel Grey (aka Sage or Danny). As well, Veggiewolf also did a post on Obesity for Pagan Blog Project, and it’s pretty damn good. You should read it. Now. On to the second O. (Sounds …

Landbinding

I mentioned Landbinding once, I think, in my blood sacrifice post. Since then I’ve been meaning to actually talk about what Landbinding is, or at least what sorts of nebulous ideas I’ve got about it. Danny’s post yesterday, The Morrigan, The Goddess of Blood, sort of spurred me on, and now here we are. When …

Expelling the Venom

A lesson I have yet to learn: other people’s advice is never as good as my own intuition.  On Saturday night I went with some friends to their belated Full Moon ritual. They’re just starting their ATC practice, so it was the first time they were doing an ATC Full Moon ritual. It was pretty …

Flamekeeping: July 7th to 8th

For shift today and last night I’ve written a few blog posts, attended a full moon ritual, cleaned my writing space, healed a part of myself, did dishes, did laundry, and talked about Brighid with Danny. We concluded She’s the Goddess of Cheese  and thus eating cheese was appropriate worship of Her. That’s our story …

Hearing the Gods: self-deception is the enemy

How can I tell what the gods are saying? I’m in a relatively small camp of people who are ‘god-bothered’. We’ve usually been thwapped by gods and have really intimate relationships with Them, and many of us have conversations with those gods that are pretty distinct. (If you’re going to get jealous or upset because …

Blood Sacrifice

Finally doing that B post that I was missing! Trigger warning for discussion of cutting. Warning for discussion of blood and blood sacrifice. On June 23rd, at sunset, I had a Landbinding shift. This is one of the once-every-20-days shift that I’ve come up with to complement my Flamekeeping shifts with Brighid — Landbinding is …

Immanence

We are not human beings having a spiritual experience; we are spiritual beings having a human experience. —Pierre Teilhard de Chardin That quote may seem rather cliché, especially to many pagans (or anyone who listens to that idiot Wayne Dyer), but it’s always rung true for me on some level. Sure, I am human, and …