{"id":2623,"date":"2011-05-06T21:23:16","date_gmt":"2011-05-07T03:23:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=2623"},"modified":"2011-05-06T21:29:56","modified_gmt":"2011-05-07T03:29:56","slug":"why-did-i-agree-to-do-this-workshop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=2623","title":{"rendered":"Why Did I Agree to Do this Workshop?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Fire<\/a>

Photo from April 29, 2011. All the gray in the background is smoke. I am in the yellow shirt, lower center, trying to get a word with the sheriff. (Photo from the Wet Mountain Tribune)<\/p><\/div>\n

I have spent much of today being nervous about the weather (warm, dry, windy) while yet working on a workshop presentation on nature religion.<\/p>\n

Nature is making me nervous. Ironic, eh? Even though M. and I have been back in our house for a week<\/a>, we are still jumpy. After all, lightning season has not yet really begun.<\/p>\n

At least my little volunteer fire department is suddenly taking training very seriously<\/em>. And we have some new members.<\/p>\n

Last night, when the festival was starting, I was at the fire house, working up an equipment order for the General Services Administration<\/a>.\u00a0 More hard hats! More yellow Nomex<\/a> shirts! And what’s your size?<\/p>\n

So today I had to finish the workshop for tomorrow. It’s too much like preparing a lecture.<\/p>\n

The problem is, I’m not really a Pagan festival workshop guy.<\/p>\n

I used to think I knew some things. Now everything is complicated, nuanced, and requires further thought.<\/p>\n

A couple of months ago, this Pagan podcaster was after me and after me to appear on his show.\u00a0 Finally I told him, “You have to understand that I don’t have a ‘shtick.’ I don’t go around to festivals (other than Florida Pagan Gathering<\/a> two years ago, where I was\u00a0 mainly on panels about Pagan history). In other words, I don’t do ‘how-to’ or ‘how ancient wisdom can make you a better Witch’ or anything like that.”<\/p>\n

Never heard from him again.<\/p>\n

If I had a shtick, I would be like my friend Thorn Coyle<\/a>. I would walk out in front of a group, and inside of five minutes they would be breathing and moving and chanting and visualizing and liking it. That’s what she does, but it’s not what I do.<\/p>\n

So I will try to talk about the ways that I defined “nature religion” in Her Hidden Children<\/em><\/a>, I suppose. And give people an exercise or two to do. Maybe try to convince them that even if they are not capital-N Native (in some legal sense) they can still be “native” in an earth-based spirituality sense.<\/p>\n

I have also decided that I am sick of the phrase “spiritual path,” at least on even-numbered days of the month. Being on a “path” sounds like you are trying to get away from something, but as that 1970s wall poster said, “Wherever you go, there you are.”<\/p>\n

(Did the same people who said “Be here now” also say that they were “on a path”? And if so, did that mean that they were in fact trying to leave here <\/em>and go elsewhere? Inquiring minds want to know.)<\/p>\n

So, yeah, a workshop. Forty-five minutes worth of blather and then dismiss class early? That might work. This bunch will probably be talkative though.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have spent much of today being nervous about the weather (warm, dry, windy) while yet working on a workshop presentation on nature religion. Nature is making me nervous. Ironic, eh? Even though M. and I have been back in our house for a week, we are still jumpy. After all, lightning season has not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[61,48],"class_list":["post-2623","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-beltane","tag-nature-religion"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-Gj","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2634,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=2634","url_meta":{"origin":2623,"position":0},"title":"After the Beltane Festival","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"May 9, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Kinesthetic religion: my left arm was a little sore on Sunday from helping to carry the Maypole in procession\u2014a pine trunk the size of a smallish telephone pole, ridden by a zaftig May Queen. And yes, we heard every ribald variation on \"riding the pole\" shouted from the onlookers. It\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Beltane\"","block_context":{"text":"Beltane","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=beltane"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11901,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=11901","url_meta":{"origin":2623,"position":1},"title":"Lurching into a Virtual Annual Meeting of the AAR-SBL","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"November 29, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"If this were a normal year \u2014 and we know it's not \u2014 I would be in Boston right now with 10,000 of my closest friends, attending the annual meeting of the American Acafemy of Religion and its smaller, parent organization, the Society of Biblical Literature.((The SBL was founded in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"academia\"","block_context":{"text":"academia","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=academia"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Screenshot_2020-11-29-Online-Planner.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Screenshot_2020-11-29-Online-Planner.png?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Screenshot_2020-11-29-Online-Planner.png?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Screenshot_2020-11-29-Online-Planner.png?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1214,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1214","url_meta":{"origin":2623,"position":2},"title":"Did a ‘Pagan’ Bury the Staffordshire Hoard?","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"September 25, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"The \"Staffordshire Hoard\" is a cache of 7th-century Anglo-Saxon sword jewels and other items recently found in England (and a great boost for metal-detector sales, no doubt).The caption on one slide of the golden hoard suggests that because a gold cross was folded in on itself before burial, the person\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"archaeology\"","block_context":{"text":"archaeology","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=archaeology"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5587,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=5587","url_meta":{"origin":2623,"position":3},"title":"Viewing the Earth from Space: A Major Change in Nature Religion?","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"June 11, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"A link to a site about an exhibit and conference in German devoted to the \"California ideology,\" symbolized by a cover from Stewart Brand's Whole Earth Catalog\u00a0 from 1968. The image of the \u201cblue planet,\u201d a new perspective of the earth as seen from the outside, is one of the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"American religion\"","block_context":{"text":"American religion","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=american-religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hkw.de\/media\/bilder\/2013_3\/the_whole_earth_1\/whole_earth_catalog_TEASERBILD.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":10588,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=10588","url_meta":{"origin":2623,"position":4},"title":"Religion News Service: Baltic Pagans Spurred by Conservation","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"June 2, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"A new article from the Religion News Service, which does not normally acknowledge polytheists, describes the long-standing Pagan revivals in the Baltic republics: The pagan [sic] religions have been spurred especially by a growing awareness of climate change and the rise of conservation movements that tap into a deep local\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Estonia\"","block_context":{"text":"Estonia","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=estonia"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/religionnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/webRNS-Baltic-Neopaganism2-053119-807x454.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/religionnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/webRNS-Baltic-Neopaganism2-053119-807x454.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/religionnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/webRNS-Baltic-Neopaganism2-053119-807x454.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/religionnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/webRNS-Baltic-Neopaganism2-053119-807x454.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":9017,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=9017","url_meta":{"origin":2623,"position":5},"title":"On Michael Harner (1929\u20132018)","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"February 6, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"The news of Michael Harner's passing has been going around, and of course some magical practitioners have to react by disrespecting him. You might well have heard the usual string of insults: he is an academic poser, he's a fake . . . a cultural imperialist . . . from\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"shamanism\"","block_context":{"text":"shamanism","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=shamanism"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/michael_drum.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2623","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2623"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2623\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2632,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2623\/revisions\/2632"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}