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Subscribe to this list via RSS Blog posts tagged in religious education

Posted by on in Culture Blogs

 The Best Chainsaws of 2022 - Best-Selling & Top Rated Chain Saws

A True Parable

 

It once so happened that a great thunderstorm blew through a certain pagan festival. In its aftermath, it was discovered that a tree had fallen and crushed a tent beneath it.

(Fortunately, the tent was empty at the time, and no one was injured.)

A certain man, a forester by trade, then—with parental consent—instructed the festival's teenage boys, his own son among them, in the safe use and handling of chainsaws.

In no time at all, under his careful supervision, the fallen tree was cut into billets that, when duly dried, will feed the fires of future festivals.

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Posted by on in Paths Blogs
Looking Forward and Back

(A picture of a marble bust of Janus Bifrons, his two bearded faces back-to-back.  He looks forward and back.)

I find myself in 2016 wondering exactly where the last of 2015 went. It's a rather easy question to answer in reality. It went to art. It went to family. It went to study and research. To resting. To respecting my spirit's need to pull back and sit within myself. To slow down for the sake of my body.

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  • Anthony Gresham
    Anthony Gresham says #
    I grew up with a copy of Will Durant's "Caesar and Christ" in the house. It had a big fold out map in it. The Roman Empire cover

Posted by on in Paths Blogs
The Kalends at Three

Tomorrow marks the Kalends of April, the first day of the month. In Ancient Rome, this was the day that state-sanctioned sacrifices were made to Juno, Janus, and the Lares. The date of the Nones, the day all other monthly festivals were publicly announced, was given. While a few syncretic Roman Revivalists follow the lunar cycle of marking the Kalends, which would be when the first sliver of a new moon could be seen in the sky or (not quite as accurately) the new moon, most of us observe the first of the month as the Kalends. That was how it was marked for the majority of Rome's history.

Most months, I work extra hard to make sure that I cook a modest but well-balanced meal for my family from scratch on this day. We offer at the lararium, or shrine to the Lares and household Gods, that sits in the middle of our dining room table. In my home, we bring the Gods to the table with us when we eat. We offer the first bites of food from our plate to the Lares, giving Them what They are due, along with all food that might happen to fall onto the floor. With a toddler in our house, the Lares get fed well with all the food that falls.

The rest of the religious duties of the day fall on me, though, and that's because I'm technically the only person in the house of this religion.

Except this is going to change this month. It was agreed upon many years ago that any child I had would be raised within my religion, since my husband is an agnostic humanist who loves Christmas. Now at 3-years-old, I feel like my daughter has hit that magical age where she's ready to start really learning about the Gods (though she continues to insist there are only 2 Gods) and participate in her mother's religion.

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Financial literacy:  what money questions do you have?

I was speaking today with a moneyworker whom I respect a great deal.  The conversation largely focused on financial literacy, and the fact that it's not common in our communities.  (I think that's more because we are a microcosm of a society in which education about money is sorely lacking, but we spoke more about solutions than causes.)  We floated a number of ideas about how we can lift each other up from the self-perpetuating cycles of poverty and money anxiety, and those ideas are certainly going to manifest in our communities, but I want to know what you know, and what you don't, about money.

Some questions which come to mind include:

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  • Dver
    Dver says #
    I feel I know everything I need to in order to live my very simple life. In other words, yes I can balance a checkbook (and I do i
Pantheon Foundation: building 21st Century Pagan infrastructure

When talk is not enough, it is time to build.

This month, with the Claremont Conference on Contemporary Paganism and PantheaCon, I’m taking the month off from my regular blog post to announce the formation of a new Pagan service organization: the Pantheon Foundation.

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  • Greybeard
    Greybeard says #
    Hi Sam. Looking at your web materials the initial organization appears to be very heavily focused on CA/Bay Area leadership and m
  • Sam Webster
    Sam Webster says #
    Thanks, Graybeard. Yes, most of us are Bay Area and Jason of The Wild Hunt is in Eugene Oregon, but that aside, you are right on b
  • Greybeard
    Greybeard says #
    So, Sam. Does that mean you are starting out by excluding all the pagans who have different views on so-called "social justice" a
  • Sam Webster
    Sam Webster says #
    Not sure what you mean, Graybeard. One person's radical is another's passe. However our goal is to help with specifically Pagan re
  • Greybeard
    Greybeard says #
    I hope it works out Sam. May the Lord and Lady guide your path.

Posted by on in Culture Blogs
Paging Thoth & Athena

 

I read a lot of blogs, go to a lot of conferences and festivals, teach a lot of workshops, and have lively discussions with friends related to all things Pagan and Magickal. Although I can say that ease of access to ideas through the internet, bookstores, and Pagan and Magickal events has increased awareness of many social issues, ideologies, religious and theological perspectives, and the vast amount of minutia related Pagan culture and fads, there is an increasing percentage of the Pagan community that is magickally illiterate and innumerate.  I’m not saying that people are less serious, less devoted, or less committed to their path. Nor am I saying that the level of discourse has dropped, in fact in many ways it is much more sophisticated in exploring the development of Pagan culture. What I have noticed is that the technical end of things, magick theory, sacred sciences, and the like, are less well known. I've also noticed a trend towards focusing more exclusively on the lore and mythology of a specific people or a specific time at the expense of a generalized understanding of how magickal paths manifest in a variety of cultures and communities.

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  • Byron Ballard
    Byron Ballard says #
    Ivo, this is well thought out and beautifully written. Thank you for this glimpse into your own processes.I hope you will consider
  • William Anthony Hood
    William Anthony Hood says #
    Mr. Dominguez, I am not able to reply to your specific comment, so I'll have to put up a new one, I hope that is ok. "I am not
  • William Anthony Hood
    William Anthony Hood says #
    This post is perfectly illustrative of why so many reject the term "Pagan" anymore. You're like an American architect bemoaning th
  • Ivo Dominguez Jr
    Ivo Dominguez Jr says #
    Dear William, I am not bewildered nor confused and certainly expected responses similar to yours and others. Certainly you do not
  • William Anthony Hood
    William Anthony Hood says #
    "I would say that authors and teachers like Diana Paxson, Kveldulf Gundarsson, and Edred Thorsson are as good as they are because

Posted by on in Culture Blogs
It Gets Easier. Trust Me on This One.

This morning I packed a basket with Goddesses and Wiccan tools and headed out to the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of the Swannanoa Valley.  I was invited to talk to the young people's RE (religious education) class--they are doing the section on Neighboring Faiths. I sometimes do the sermon at this sweet church and always enjoy the time I spend there.

I began by asking them all how well they'd scored in the Great Pumpkin Candy Berserker Night celebration. Most of the kids know me so it was pretty comfortable for them to talk--since I'm not technically a stranger.  I then read part of the Charge of the Goddess and we launched into an hour's worth of discussion on the Wheel of the Year, European tribes, tools of the trade and the nature of the Divines.  We finished with casting a circle.

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  • Byron Ballard
    Byron Ballard says #
    Thanks. Everything seems best when simplest these days.
  • Shauna Aura Knight
    Shauna Aura Knight says #
    Great post. I really agree with the part about finding your practice getting simpler and deeper.

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