Close up of an orange poppy flower with many brown stamen

Recalling the Body: a Rite for Spring

We are inundated with bad news and a self-perpetuating negative spin. If we’re not ever mindful, it can be easy to fall into the trap of pessimism and disenchantment. We face challenges that can feel insurmountable, but active optimism is an antidote. Re-enchantment is an antidote. Rewilding is an antidote.

Column: Nine Heathens Speak of Spring

Since the beginnings of the modern Heathen era in the early 1970s, the revival, reconstruction, and reimagining of a wide variety of religious beliefs and practices rooted in northern Europe have spread across much of the globe. The Worldwide Heathen Census 2013 received responses from ninety-eight countries, ranging from a single practitioner in Algeria to nearly eight thousand in the United States. That’s an amazing spread of a new religious movement in a relatively short period. As spring finally arrived here in Chicago, I began to wonder how Heathens around the world welcomed the change of seasons. I contacted Heathens in Canada, Costa Rica, Denmark, France, Germany, Iceland, Mexico, Scotland, and the USA and asked them a few simple questions: How do you celebrate the arrival of spring?