Pagan Paths


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Paths Blogs

Specific paths such as Heathenism, blended traditions, polytheist reconstructionism, etc.

Posted by on in Paths Blogs
Honoring the Bear Spirit

I wanted to honor the bear spirit this year. As long time readers of this blog may remember, Odin activated my bear to protect me from dangerous spirits. I wanted to honor my bear specifically and also the great bear spirit generally. My housemate also had a relationship with a bear spirit, and of course there are various gods and goddesses with bear forms, and I wanted to honor them as well. 

I happened to have an unusual opportunity to have access to fresh salmon through an online grocery outlet box company. I ordered enough for the whole kindred to have one small piece each during ritual. As it happened, a household with a lot of members had illness, and other households were otherwise unavailable, so we had an overly authentic Bear Day because only those who live here showed up and we ended up eating all the salmon, berries, and honey ourselves. Bear Day turned into Bear Weekend as we stuffed ourselves with salmon until I didn't want to see another fish until next year. I got way too in touch with my inner bear and was definitely ready to hibernate afterwards.

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Posted by on in Paths Blogs
Community Experiences Fall 2023

From kindred holidays to the return of my local Pagan Pride Day, I've had a lot of community experiences this autumn. It's been awesome and of course I am sharing my fun with my blog readers. 

American Celebration Kindred usually does our fall ritual as Rainbow Season, for two reasons. Firstly in honor of Heimdall, Tom's patron. Secondly, because we live in the Mojave Desert, where summer is the rainy season. After the rain comes the rainbow, so after the rainy season comes the rainbow season. This year we held Zisa Day in September and I did a Rainbow Season ritual at Pagan Pride Day in November. We'll probably return to doing our Rainbow Season ritual in September in other years, but we also try to do a least one or more new rituals each year. Last year my kindred's other gythia Amanda led Haustlong, a traditional autumn ritual, in September. This year we held Zisa Day. 

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The Minoan Lady of the Colors: Potnia Chromaton

Today I'd like to introduce you to a deity you probably haven't heard of before. Her name is Potnia Chromaton, and her name means Lady of the Colors.

We met her serendipitously when we followed the legendary red thread that winds through the Labyrinth in the infamous Greek legend. While that story mis-identifies several Minoan deities as humans, it gave us some tidbits to grab hold of and follow back in time to the Bronze Age via comparative mythology and shared gnosis.

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Posted by on in Paths Blogs

My first article for my new Asatru Plus column appears in the latest issue of Witches & Pagans Magazine. I think readers of my blog and book will enjoy my column, and vice versa. My blog Gnosis Diary focuses on gnosis and on my personal experiences, while the column will focus on practical information for readers to use. 

My first column is about honoring the powers associated with the days of the week. After a brief introduction about my new column, I talk about the heathen gods and powers of the days of the week, and the 7 day heathen ritual cycle. The powers are Sunnna on Sunday, Mani on Monday, Tyr on Tuesday, Odin on Wednesday, Thor on Thursday, Freya on Friday, and then there is Bath Day. The old name for Saturday was Laugrdagr which means Bath Day or Wash Day. Why 6 major powers and bathing? Find out in my column! 

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Lies, Damn Lies, Statistics... and Minoan Art

Lies, damn lies, and statistics - you've heard the saying. But sometimes, we really do have to look at the hard numbers to see what's really there, because our impressions can be incorrect, often wildly so.

Case in point: Minoan art.

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Why I Am Not a Christian (or, Adventures in Bible-Based Reading)

Encouraged by my devout sister-in-law, I’ve just finished Surprised at Oxford, a memoir by Carolyn Weber. Attending Oxford University on scholarship in the 1990s, Ms Weber experienced a year of emotional upheaval, leading not only to finding love but to a heartfelt religious conversion. She found her answers in Evangelical Christianity and the promise of eternal life, which, in her telling, gave ultimate meaning to everything.

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Posted by on in Paths Blogs
Minoan Deities as Benefactors

In Ariadne's Tribe, we associate various animals, plants, and objects with our deities: the griffin with Therasia, the staff with Korydallos, geese and white and yellow flowers with Antheia, for instance. These items help us identify the deities in Minoan art. In that sense, they're kind of like name tags or labels.

But there's another collection of attributes that we associate with our deities as well. Like the ones I just mentioned, these can also help us identify the deity or their domain in the art. But more importantly, they indicate a special type of relationship between the deity and the humans who work in certain occupations or who raise certain food crops.

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