Tag: blogging

Around the Pagan Blogosphere

On By Chas S. Clifton3 Comments

• I too am one who is uncomfortable with the word “faith” in Paganism because of the baggage that it carries. When I worked on a couple of collaborative projects with Evan John Jones, he sometimes spoke of the “Old Faith,” which always jarred me, even though I think that for him it was simply a synonym for “religion.” The Allergic Pagan” starts with the same discomfort and ends up defining four styles of Paganism/nature religion, which might be useful categories.

• Sam Webster starts a new blog with an opening post: “Welcome Thinking Pagans.”

• London blogger Ethan Doyle White has started a series of interviews at his blog Albion Calling.  The first one was with British scholar of esotericism Dave Evans. The newest one is with me.

• And have a look at my blogger sidebar. I try to keep all links up to date — if you encounter a dead link, let me know — and you do not have to give me money to be listed.

Three Related Blog Posts

On By Chas S. Clifton2 Comments

From Deborah Castellano, who also blogs at Charmed, I’m Sure: “The Art of Career Occultism.”‘

Let me ask you, how do you see a career occultist?  Do you see her as someone who gets up and does sun salutations, writing in her dream diary over herbal tea and an organic scone, sauntering through a field with an animal companion as she chooses herbs to harvest while wearing something fabulous and floaty, coming home to her gorgeous dedicated workshop for afternoon sketching for new designs?  Because . . .if so, you’re going to be greatly disappointed as to what’s actually the job.

From Heather Awen at Adventures in Animism: “Dancing in the Ashes of the New Age.”

A friend recently said to me that she’s going to go for it and do some really hard things to make her dreams of working to improve children’s lives a reality. She said that she had to believe the Goddess would provide for her. I used to believe that. I want to believe that, but I don’t anymore. I asked her to explain this, not to be a bitch, but because I was hoping she’d be able to convince me that the Goddess works this way. . . . .  How did the Goddess decide who to provide for? So why should I trust that “we always get what we need” when clearly the facts say that we don’t?

Both are about facing some facts of mundane life and a balance between willing, affirming, etc., and actually doing.

At Pantheon, Star Foster is talking about an ancient philosopher who could help sort these questions out: Epictetus.

So as I sit here worrying How am I to live? and How do I cope with this huge change in my life? I am finding my answers in Epictetus.

He lived from 55-135 CE. He was at first a slave — an educated slave, as some were, but still a slave. That ought to give him a certain amount of street cred, don’t you think, when it comes to knowing what you can change and what you cannot?

Pentagram Pizza for May 18th

On By Chas S. Clifton1 Comment

• Twelve words for for bloggers, pointed towards people in the medical professions, but likely appropriate for academia as well.

• While we are in the workplace, some thoughts from a Psychology Today article on why “diversity training” is a waste of time. Or why good manners are better than rules enforced by bureaucratic idiots.

• More thoughts on cult-occult films of the 1960s, this time from Zan at The Juggler. I have a couple in my Netflix queue now.

Babies, Bathwater, and the Reclaiming Community

On By Chas S. Clifton13 Comments

Of all American Witchcraft traditions, Reclaiming seems to be the most prone to self-criticism. Perhaps that is because, as Anne Hill writes in her brief blog-memoir, The Baby and the Bathwater, there was always much conflict over different visions for Reclaiming.

What started with one foot in the Faery/Faerie/Feri Witchcraft tradition of Victor and Cora Anderson also co-existed with a social vision of growing organic vegetables in a solar-powered paradise fueled by consensus decision-making, pushing the boundaries of gender-theory and overcoming enemies with the power of  love and passion.

Hill, one of the original group’s long-term members, writes things that only an insider could say. The Baby and the Bathwater combines blog posts that she wrote from 2006 to 2010, including the comments that readers left on her Blog O’Gnosis.

We’ve seen good people come and go over the years, and have noticed that mostly the good people go after they realize that Reclaiming is a victim of its own idealism and there’s nowhere to “advance” once you have experience and skills. I said that I have been struggling to clarify my present-day involvement with Reclaiming, particularly trying to discern what is baby and what is bathwater and not throwing away that which is of lasting value.

My friend responded instantly: “But there is no baby in the bathwater,
and there never has been.” I was stunned at that, and have been thinking about it ever since. Can it be true that what started as a grand experiment in creating a spirituality that was Goddess-centered, egalitarian, politically and socially radical would have absolutely nothing to show for itself 25 years after the fact? Could it be that a community and religious movement which has been at the center of my identity for over two decades consisted all along of nothing but our intense willingness to believe our own promotional language?

The Baby and the Bathwoter sees an up side to Reclaiming too, as Hill visits groups seeded in other areas and savors their enthusiasm.  You can download the PDF file for $2.99.

The Dangers of Pagan Blogging

On By Chas S. Clifton6 Comments

I started blogging in 2003, but I had no idea that being a Pagan blogger was the “scariest job on earth.”

On a regular basis you will receive messages claiming someone in the Pagan community is a thief, a pervert, a pedophile, a drug addict, a rapist, a sexual harasser, and even a murderer. In hysterical language you be told of misdeeds so foul that you think you must have misread the e-mail.

Dear readers, you are letting me down. No one has denounced anyone to me lately as a pervert, murderer, etc. Where are the evildoers that I may blog about them?

(Really, don’t bother.)

The 50 Best Professor Blogs

On By Chas S. Clifton

I found this on University Diaries, which rightly heads the list.

Here is a sample:

  • The Cranky Professor: This history professor enjoys using the past to get a rise out of his pupils. That rise takes place more in their aptitude than in their angst.
  • The Faculty Lounge: When nearly a dozen bright minds collaborate in lively blog writing, the results are always worth the read. The blog focuses on the place of law in current culture.
  • The Irascible Professor: The smiling photo that opens the Irascible Professor’s page shows him as anything but. All smiles are aside, though, when he focuses on the serious issue of American education.
  • The Right Wing Professor: There’s nothing wrong in taking a look at a brand new point of view, realized fully. For those unfamiliar with the right, this is an excellent primer.
  • theblogprof: This professor has a special appreciation for religion’s place in scholarship. Learn more on how spirituality and academics aren’t so dissimilar.
  • Todd Kashdan: A quirky professor brings a bit of needed quirk to his readers’ understanding of world workings here. Posts about serial killers eating lobster have won many fans.