{"id":358,"date":"2005-01-24T20:34:00","date_gmt":"2005-01-24T20:34:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=358"},"modified":"2005-01-24T20:34:00","modified_gmt":"2005-01-24T20:34:00","slug":"358","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=358","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

Is polyamory<\/a> required?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The publication of this article<\/a> in Sunday’s Denver Post<\/em> lit up the biggest Colorado Pagan e-mail list.<\/p>\n

Of course, we recognized a pentagram ring–and the reference to reading Robert Heinlein’s Stranger in a Strange Land<\/em> rings a big Pagan-history bell, about the founding of the Church of All Worlds in the 1960s.<\/p>\n

But now people are asking, “Is monogamy subtly put down in the Pagan community? Is there pressure to be polyamorous<\/a>?”<\/p>\n

One poster, a divorced mother with a steady boyfriend, notes, “When I was married, I found it hard to find support for monogamous relationships in the community. The implication seemed to be that if you were monogamous, you were really just repressed and needed to get with the program.”<\/p>\n

The high priestess of a Boulder coven, married 25 years, talks of people assuming that she must be polyamorous. “When potential initiate\/students come to me on a first information-gathering chat, they often ask if it is required to sleep with the [high priestess] or [high priest].” The answer for her is no, absolutely not.<\/p>\n

It’s an aspect of Pagan life that isn’t discussed too often outside the arena of plain old gossiping. When your religion–many forms of Wicca, at least–is heavily erotic in its symbolism, does that symbolism cross over into personal behavior? Like Carrie Bradshaw<\/a>, I will leave the question hanging.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Is polyamory required? The publication of this article in Sunday’s Denver Post lit up the biggest Colorado Pagan e-mail list. Of course, we recognized a pentagram ring–and the reference to reading Robert Heinlein’s Stranger in a Strange Land rings a big Pagan-history bell, about the founding of the Church of All Worlds in the 1960s. […]<\/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":[],"class_list":["post-358","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s6xQTg-358","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":322,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=322","url_meta":{"origin":358,"position":0},"title":"Canada's First Pagan Conference Gaia\u2026","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"December 5, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Canada's First Pagan Conference Gaia Gathering, billed as Canada's first national Pagan conference, is planned for May 20-23, 2005, at the University of Alberta in Edmonton. Panel discussions include topics such as Pagan paths, Paganism in the various regions of Canada, interacting with the mainstream community, forming 'churches', marrying rights,\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4380,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=4380","url_meta":{"origin":358,"position":1},"title":"Ten Pagan Authors Interviewed","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"July 1, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"The editors of The Wiccan\/Pagan Times have taken ten interviews with contemporary Pagan authors and published them in ebook and paperback format. Presented here are some of the\u00a0many memorable interviews we have published over the last 13 years. We have taken 10 of these interviews and put them together with\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Paganism\"","block_context":{"text":"Paganism","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=paganism"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4163,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=4163","url_meta":{"origin":358,"position":2},"title":"9th Claremont Pagan Studies Conference","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"April 29, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Conference on Current Pagan Studies: Pagan Sensibilities in Action January 26 & 27, 2013, Claremont, California Call for Papers \u00a0This year we will focus on Pagan Sensibilities in Action. We welcome papers that discuss how our pagan perspectives manifest as our lived experiences in artistic expression, personal and collective practice,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"California\"","block_context":{"text":"California","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=california"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":439,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=439","url_meta":{"origin":358,"position":3},"title":"\"Community\" or fence-building?A Roman reconstructionist\u2026","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"May 15, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"\"Community\" or fence-building?A Roman reconstructionist Pagan decides that Pagan \"community\" is a hopeless notion.The reason seems to be that too much group identity is built through denigrating other Pagan groups.What did I, the militant new convert to Reconstructionism, discover about the Greco-Roman spheres of reconstruction? I soon discovered it was\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7020,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=7020","url_meta":{"origin":358,"position":4},"title":"New Pomegranate Published","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"February 9, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Issue 16:2 of The Pomegranate: The International Journal of Pagan Studies has now been published online, with print copies coming soon. The publisher does charge for articles (but try to see if your library can get them), although book reviews are free downloads. Contents \"Deepening Conversations between Ritual Studies and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"publishing\"","block_context":{"text":"publishing","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=publishing"},"img":{"alt_text":"Pomegranate web header","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Pomegranate-web-header.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Pomegranate-web-header.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Pomegranate-web-header.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":12050,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=12050","url_meta":{"origin":358,"position":5},"title":"Pagan Studies Call for Papers, American Academy of Religion 2021","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"February 5, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"This is the call for papers for the Contemporary Pagan Studies unit of the American Academy of Religion for the 2021 annual meeting, to be held in San Antonio, Texas, Nov. 20\u201323. (Insert pandemic disclaimer here.) Contemporary Pagan Studies is an interdisciplinary unit, and we welcome submissions of theoretically and\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\/2021\/02\/SanAntonioWelcomeHeader-633x260-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/SanAntonioWelcomeHeader-633x260-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/SanAntonioWelcomeHeader-633x260-1.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358","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=358"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=358"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=358"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=358"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}