Tag: Polytheism
-
The Unexpected Immediacy of God
Dear Sara, Thank you for your response. It’s delightful to read about your personal experiences with all of this. You offer a soothing, yet invigorating perspective. You asked, “What is contradictory for you personally between Christianity and Paganism…theologically, emotionally? Does opening the door to Christianity automatically mean shutting the door to Paganism, and if so, why? […]
-
Contemplation Is Right Action
What, I wonder, are the differences between a contemplative practice and a devotional practice? I’ve read a lot about devotional polytheism this morning. I read Galina Krassova’s first installment of her Fundamentals of Polytheism series, “We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Theories,” and Galina places a great deal of focus on the development of a devotional […]
-
Claiming a Soul-Centered, Contemplative Pagan Practice
John Halstead doesn’t mess around. When he writes, he means business. Just read his exposition on the most recent explosion of discussion and debate among Pagans and polytheists over superheroes and gods and you’ll know what I mean. John has a tremendous intellect, and when he writes on Allergic Pagan about the in’s and out’s of […]
-
Where Does Love Fit into Pagan and Polytheist Traditions?
I am not a Christian, but I have no problem with placing love at the center of my religious ideology. (That I should feel the need to qualify the centrality of love with an “I am not” statement is notable.) When I check in with my desire, my deepest yearning, I discover love. It’s there, […]
-
Top of the Week at BITG
Top of the week to you! This week is starting off with a whole bunch of Internet happenings. First, it seems that my RSS Email subscribers haven’t been receiving my blog posts since mid-December. Sorry everyone. Here’s what you missed: I wrote a post on Yule at HuffPost, and we talked about decentralization. After pulling […]
-
How Do You Know It’s The Gods You’re Listening To?
Since I began working through the Dedicant Path this second time, I’ve run across a number of people who are also starting their studies with ADF. They’re showing up in the comment section on Bishop In The Grove, on Facebook, and I’m wondering if there’s some deeper meaning behind it. A friend of mine suggested […]
-
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 […]
-
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 […]
-
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 […]
-
Where Does Compassion Belong Among Pagans and Polytheists?
I’m having a hard time with compassion. So far, I’ve developed a daily ritual at my altar, I’ve reconciled (for the time being) my differences with my Christianity, I’m working to hold the tension between my Druid Revival leanings and my ADF approach, and all of that feels good. I feel like I’m developing a […]
-
More On Christian-Pagan Relations
Pagans hate generalizations made about Pagans (he writes with a smirk). That’s one generalization I feel confident in making. In my last post I made some bold statements about the unwillingness of Pagans to accept the existence of the Christian god, knowing full well that those statements were not completely accurate (or, perhaps even close […]
-
Christian-Pagan Couples Counseling
Pagans don’t want to accept the possibility that the Christian god is real. Doing so might open us up to a diatribe about salvation, our inherent sinfulness, or our “need for conversion”. We’ve had that talk a time or two, and – thank you – we’ll pass. Christians are of the “One and Only God” camp. Not […]
