Category: Paganism
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Druid Rituals For Dummies
I’ve written a great deal about my daily practice on this blog. There have been periods of prolonged drought, periods of genuine doubt, and times when I felt like my daily practice was all that was keeping me invested in my Druidism. In my ADF Dedicant studies (which will be a central focus for me […]
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Pagans Among Wild Geese
I had plans to attend the Wild Goose Festival this weekend. I was supposed to leave today, but then the money got tight. As I wrote about in my last post I made the decision to forgo my studies at Marylhurst for at least a term or two, in part for financial reasons. In light of […]
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It’s Back to (Druid) School Season
The harvest season comes, and the kids go back to school. I can’t pass a rack of school supplies without stopping to see if there’s anything I want need. There rarely is, but I still like to look. The eco-folders and notebooks, while more ecologically responsible, are nowhere as cool as my Trapper Keeper. It was rad. […]
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Solitaries are the Glue which Hold Paganism Together
I’ve spent nearly the entire week working on new ways to make ADF Druidism an accessible tradition to solitary Pagans. The work is still in its early stages, and I’m piecing together ideas which I hope to share once the leaves have fallen. My backyard maple is only hinting at new color, so it will […]
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Think, Drink, and Be a Druid in Honor of Isaac Bonewits
In his brief, “immodest third-person” biography, Isaac Bonewits called himself, “articulate, witty, yet reasonably scholarly.” I never knew the man, but I hear he was a bit cantankerous, too. In the early part of 2009, a year before Isaac’s passing, I was encouraged by T. Thorn Coyle during an intuitive reading she gave me to […]
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Are You There Gods? It’s Me, Teo.
Sometimes I think there’s a good reason for blind faith, religious ignorance, unwavering piety. Sometimes those seem like a much easier choices than being inquisitive, being contemplative, being patient with your own uncertainty. The dialogue around the last post extended deep into the theoretical as well as the practical, even spawning an interesting offshoot post […]
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I Spotted Thor Down at the Quik Mart
In a recent discussion with a group of Pagans about the development of an American pantheon for use in ADF ritual, someone said this: “When we look at historical evidence to find the ancient deities, we look at what was left behind and what survived for long periods of time, such as the stories that […]
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How Do We Stock Our Metaphoric Pantry?
Last year on Lughnasad I was all worked up over food. Riffling through some old files yesterday I discovered this entry: I’m not sure there’s a way to talk about the “First Harvest” without paying mind to the fact that there is a severe drought across the land, or that in other parts of the […]
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My Friend Got Stuck in the Winter
We’re searching for new beginnings, my friend and I. Yesterday, we took to driving along open roads, through fields turned yellow from the heat, with music playing loud enough to drown out all else, and we let the sound paint a picture of how much we’d changed. A year ago, my friend and I let […]
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The Offerings of Man, the Obligations of Gods
I approach my home shrine in the morning and prepare my offerings. Into three small, porcelain sake glasses, which were given to me by my stepfather, I pour a small bit of sugar, oats, and oil. These were the foods that made the most sense to me, although I’m not sure why. Whether I’m clothed […]
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Since When Were Will and Grace Pagan?
On the last day of the Eight Winds Festival, an hour or so before heading to the airport, I sat around the fire with my fellow ADF members and participated in a discussion with the Senior Priests about the future of ADF’s Dedicant Path (DP). For those not involved with the organization, the DP is […]
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I Went Camping in the Woods and I Came Back a Druid
Organized sports never suited me. But wrestling with my faith? Someone should give out trophies. I would have a garage full. When I left for the Eight Winds Festival, the first ADF gathering I’d ever attended, I was concerned that I may not be able to invest myself fully on account of a little religious […]
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When Jesus Hitches a Ride to the Druid Camp
I’ve been a stay-at-home Pagan, a bookish Pagan, a CUUPS ritual-attending Pagan, and a blogging Pagan. But as of yet, I have not been a festival-going Pagan. That all changes this week. On Wednesday I shall make my way to the Prosser Ranch group campground, located just outside the town of Truckee, California, and celebrate […]
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How Does Paganism Handle Turnover?
A friend messaged me this morning to tell me she’d been fired. The news was unexpected, as it often is, and she was understandably torn up over it. My heart sunk, and I hurt for her. I wanted to reach out and embrace her, but I couldn’t. There was only text between us, and the […]
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New Pagan Music: Join Me in the Sacred Electric Grove
In modern times, a Bard is one who sees their creativity as an innate spiritual ability, and who chooses to nurture that ability partly or wholly with Druidism. – From Druidy.org, OBOD For well over a year my voice has been heard by my readership only as text. You’ve come to know me by reading […]
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One Little Pagan on the Huffington Post
I remember when I first came out as gay, I wanted to read other gay writers. I wanted to listen to gay music, and wear gay t-shirts, and stitch a gay patch to my high school backpack. Gay was the thing to be, as far as I was concerned, and “gay bling” was hot currency. […]
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Looking a little closer at Pagan Leaders, Clergy, and Teachers
An online academic journal called Hybrid Pedagogy posted a piece that I wrote about a student’s perspective on pedagogy, which for those (like me) who aren’t teachers by trade, is the method and practice of teaching. There is a discussion happening in academic circles about the changing roles of teacher and student. The “brick and […]
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You Say Tomato, I Say Druid.
Ever since I took the name, Teo Bishop, and made it my own — both in a religious sense and through the proper legal channels — I’ve had cause to explain what it is that I do on this blog. My writing, as well as my deepening engagement with my own spiritual work, are both […]
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WAKE UP, PAGANS! The End is Here!
I think “eschatology” is a funny word. Speaking it out loud makes potty-jokes come to mind. Say it, and I remember being 5. The definition of eschatology, “the part of theology concerned with death, judgment, and the final destiny of the soul and of humankind,” is much less funny. It, one might say, is a […]
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The Problem of the Pagan “Us and Them”
When I questioned the place of compassion in Pagan and Polytheist philosophy a couple of weeks back, I got an interesting response from one of my readers, “LaurelhurstLiberal”. She wrote, “Now, about compassion: as a Heathen Reconstructionist, this is one of the big questions I’m still trying to puzzle out. Right now, it seems to […]
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What is the Point of Your Religion?
Last week I asked, “Where does compassion belong among Pagans and Polytheists?” Beneath this first question there is another, more relevant question; one that has been nagging at me for several days: What is the point of your religion? I think this is a valuable inquiry, and no one has asked me this just yet. Yesterday […]
