Paganism

Column: On the Altar, in the Academy

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When Ronald Hutton’s Triumph of the Moon hit bookstores in 1999 something changed in British Pagan culture. It was immediate. Someone known to be friendly and spiritually sympathetic had put us on the academic map, and shown Pagans we have a rightful place in Britain’s cultural history. The book was eloquent and magisterial, linking Pagan ideas to literature, social justice, liberalism and the broad cultural avenue of western esotericism. The book drew young Pagans who were intellectually gifted to want to study Pagan-related subjects at universities for Masters and doctorate degrees.

Paganism

Column: Bend in the Steel

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Sometimes you only walk away with scratches. A photo posted by Eric Scott (@lofrothepirate) on Jun 30, 2015 at 6:27pm PDT

[Warning: The following column involves a description of a serious car accident.]

Two sounds in quick succession, so close together that, as I remember them now, I cannot tell which came first – the sound of the front right tire digging into the mud and gravel shoulder of the two-lane highway, or the sound of my wife seizing up in anticipation. I am driving, for the next few seconds, anyway. I turn the wheel, only thinking to escape the shoulder, but my turn is too hard. I try another.

Paganism

Column: All That Is Without You

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I’m friends with the monster that’s under my bed
Get along with the voices inside of my head
You’re trying to save me, stop holding your breath
And you think I’m crazy, you think I’m crazy

–Monsters, Eminem (featuring Rihanna)

The gods are madness, and so is love. I couldn’t sleep for the noise; her wails clawing deep into my brain more fiercely when I’d close my eyes. In waking distraction, I could shut her out a little — loud music, pointless conversation, anything to drown out her pain. But in bed next to my lover, her pain was intolerable, becoming pain so loud it became my pain, and I couldn’t make her shut up. I tried drinking.

Paganism

Column: The Magic of Play

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Let’s try something.  Here’s a simple task developed by psychologist Nancy Napier (2014). Take a sheet of paper and draw two horizontal lines a couple of inches apart. Now start a timer and write “I am a great multitasker” in the first line and the numbers 1-20 sequentially on the second line. How long did it take?

Paganism

Column: Vignettes on Death, Gods, and Bridges

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I thought I was a strong swimmer. But I was also seventeen, and I thought I knew everything. It was hot, and the Delaware River was refreshingly cool. I can do this, I said to myself, perhaps a little too confidently. I stood at the bank of the Pennsylvania side, with my eye on a small sandy landing across the river in New Jersey.