All Our Relations: Pagans and the more-than-human world.

For aware Pagans the Sacred encompasses us all, rivers and mountains, oceans and deserts, grasses and trees, fish and fungi, birds and animals. Understanding the implications of what this means, and how to experience it first hand, involves our growing individually and as a community well beyond the limits of this world-pathic civilization. All Our Relations exists to help fertilize this transition.

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Gus diZerega

Gus diZerega

Gus diZerega DiZerega combines a formal academic training in Political Science with decades of work in Wicca and shamanic healing. He is a Third Degree Elder in Gardnerian Wicca, studied closely with Timothy White who later founded Shaman’s Drum magazine, and also studied Brazilian Umbanda  for six years under Antonio Costa e Silva.

DiZerega holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from UC Berkeley, has taught and lectured in the US and internationally, and has organized international academic meetings.

His newest book is "Faultlines: the Sixties, the Culture Wars, and the Return of the Divine Feminine (Quest, 2013) received a 'silver' award by the Association of Independent Publishers for 2014. It puts both modern Pagan religion and the current cultural and political crisis in the US into historical context, and shows how they are connected.

His first book on Pagan subjects, "Pagans and Christians: The Personal Spiritual Experience," won the Best Nonfiction of 2001 award from  The Coalition of Visionary Resources. 

His second,"Beyond the Burning Times: A Pagan and a Christian in Dialogue" is what it sounds like. He coauthored it with Philip Johnson. DiZerega particularly like his discussion of polytheism in Burning Times, which in his view is an advance over the discussion in Pagans and Christians.

His third volume, "Faultlines: The Sixties, the Culture War, and the Return of the Divine Feminine," was published in 2013 and won a Silver award from the Association of Independent Publishers in 2014. The subject is obvious, and places it, and the rise of goddess oriented spiritual movements and our "cold civil war" in historical context.

His pen and ink artwork supported his academic research in graduate school and frequently appeared in Shaman’s Drum, and the ecological journals Wild Earth, and The Trumpeter. It now occasionally appears in this blog.
Three cheers for oral traditions, and two for texts

 Unlike Abrahamic and Dharmic traditions, modern NeoPaganism has no texts regarded as divinely inspired. Perhaps the closest for some is the Hermetica, a late Classical text supposedly dictated by Hermes Trismegistus, but parts of which are truly ancient. Most NeoPagans have never read it, nor does it play much role in our practice. To the best of my knowledge, the Hermetica has never been used to determine who is, or is not, a NeoPagan. Nor, to my knowledge, are equivalent texts found in other Pagan traditions, unless you include Hinduism, which is usually included in the Dharmic traditions.

The New Forest Coven,  with whom Gerald Gardner  circled,  called themselves Wican (with one ‘c.’) The earliest Wican Book of Shadows about which we know was filled with directions for rituals and spell casting. Just as important, according to Gardner, these original texts were  fragmentary. To flesh them out, Gardner and Doreen Valiente  added important parts to create the existing Gardnerian BOS. As some have observed, a BOS is much more like a ‘cookbook’ than a scripture.

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  • Anthony Gresham
    Anthony Gresham says #
    About a month ago I got on Reddit. In one of the subreddits someone asked if there was a male counterpart to the Maiden, Mother,
Day of the Dead and Cultural Appropriation

With Samhain just around the corner, its relation with Day of the Dead is an issue of some importance to many Pagans. Taos, where I now live, is famous for the ubiquitous presence of decorated Day of the Dead skulls in many shop windows, all over town, all year long.  Of course, Day of the Dead themes have been integrated into Halloween celebrations as well, even though Mexicans are a small part of the population. The dominant Hispanic community had been here for centuries when Mexican people brought Day of the Dead with them. Since then, elements of it have caught on, particularly with the White population. 

As it has, the issue of cultural appropriation has arisen.  Cultural appropriation is when the dominant culture, or members of it, borrow and use aspects of minority cultures outside of their intended context. Recently, Aya de Leon offered a thoughtful critique of Anglo celebrations of Day of the Dead as cultural appropriation.

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  • Jamie
    Jamie says #
    Mr. diZerega, Thanks for your thoughtful contributions on a sensitive subject.
Looking Deeper: Kavanaugh, women, culture war, and us.

 

The controversy over appointing a ruthless political operative, perjurer, and probable sexual predator to the Supreme Court has led many people to put the blame on old White males and their culture of privilege. While there is some truth to this argument, it does not go nearly deep enough to shed adequate light on these crimes against the constitution. Going more deeply also sheds light on the rise of NeoPagan religion in this country.

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  • Jamie
    Jamie says #
    Dude, I'll say it for the record. I didn't like Hillary Clinton, but you were right. By the Goddesses and Gods, there was voting
  • Jamie
    Jamie says #
    Mr. diZerega, We haven't always agreed in the past. But I enjoyed reading your post, and I think that your analysis is fundamenta
  • Gus diZerega
    Gus diZerega says #
    Thank you Jamie. Sadly we agree on a reality we both wish was different.
  • Gus diZerega
    Gus diZerega says #
    There are some more PC-than-Thou folks out there who seem to run on self-righteousness and denouncing others. But if you are refe
  • Gus diZerega
    Gus diZerega says #
    Did you actually read my piece? If you are referring to my article, I suggest re-reading it without preconceptions. There is nothi

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Two Spirits, Two Sexes, Many Genders

 

Z Budapest once stirred up strong feelings, ending in a demonstration, by holding a biological-women-only ritual at Pantheacon.  The previous year another group had also excluded trans-women from an all women ritual.  Some people decided it was time to challenge the legitimacy of such practices. It was quite the kerfluffel for a while. I was one of Z’s defenders. 

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Reclaiming Our Symbols

 

This Fourth of July will see American flags displayed all over the nation because the flag is the symbol of our country, and the values associated with it.  In an important sense, our flag is unique, for the United States is the first country created from an ideological revolution whose basic principles were both universal and admirable, however short it fell in their application. The flag symbolizes the values of our Declaration of Independence and Constitution, as well as values of community tribalism. It was because of this combined symbolism that Martin Luther King, jr. could appeal to America’s founding values in a way Nelson Mandela could not. And this association added power to his words.

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Viewing The World Through Pagan Eyes VI:  clearing away the confusions of ‘cultural appropriation’

 

Previous essays in this series

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  • Anthony Gresham
    Anthony Gresham says #
    I have seen pictures of a Sikh family celebrating Christmas and I have read of a Jewish woman saying that Christmas is too nice a
  • Thesseli
    Thesseli says #
    Great article!
Viewing The World Through Pagan Eyes V:  The First Pagan Reconstruction

 This piece builds on these previous articles:  part I , part II , part II , part IV

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