This blogpost was inspired by this conversation on Twitter:
The snark quotient of this post may be dangerously high — you’re strongly advised to put your snark goggles on, because I have a snark hammer and I am not afraid to use it.
Continue readingPraxis
Notable and quotable 24: death and tea lights
I haven’t done a “notable and quotable” for a while. I’ve been a bit busy making YouTube videos and promoting the second editions of my books, Dark Mirror and The Night Journey. But I spotted some great posts and thought they were worth sharing in case you missed them.
Continue readingHow to make an ancestor altar
Dialogue with traditions
In initiatory Wicca, there have been some fairly heated arguments over the years about what tradition means, and what aspects of Wicca can be creatively altered to be inclusive. When I started talking about making Wicca more inclusive for LGBTQIA+ people, the response from some people was “but what about the tradition?”
In this post, I propose a new approach to questions of tradition: more of a creative dialogue, and a focus on the real purpose of a tradition (which is the approach I have tried to take all along, but some people assumed that I was throwing away all adherence to tradition).
Solidarity with Black Lives Matter
There have now been hundreds of Black people killed by police in the USA. The militarization of the police has continued and expanded since the Ferguson protests over the killing of Michael Brown.
I have mainly been posting about the protests on my Instagram and Twitter accounts.
Notable and quotable 22
This week’s absolute belter of a post was Christopher Penczak’s article Holding the door open.
Don’t miss Julian Vayne’s series of interviews, Our Magical Things.
And a lovely post on egg healing in Slavic magic on the Divine Multiplicity blog.
Really great post on being in mythological time from Kiya Nicoll (how was I not following Kiya’s blog before now?)
And a guest post by Ing Venning on Nimue Brown’s blog.
Hugging while 2 metres apart
Many people are going to be deprived of touch and hugging while self-isolating during the coronavirus pandemic.
Here’s a method for hugging while standing two metres apart (the recommended distance to avoid transmission of the virus).
What we have in common
I dreamed that I was in an Anglican or Episcopalian Church in North America and had been invited by the vicar to introduce a hymn. She handed me the order of service which already had a hymn picked out, and it had been annotated to change “him” to “her”, so I introduced it and encouraged people to sing “her” where appropriate if they wanted to. One of the congregation said they didn’t really know the tune for that hymn. So then I suggested we sang Morning has broken and changed “him” to “her” in the second verse, and “God’s” to “Her” in the third verse. Then I woke up.
Notable and quotable: coronavirus (1)
- There have been some great posts on the coronavirus in the Pagan community.
- Nimue Brown has written on the political implications;
- Laura Tempest Zakroff has created an immunity sigil. (Patheos *)
- I’ve offered a modified version of the cakes and wine ritual.
- Dana offers spiritual self care practices to ease the stress.
- Video from Lora O’Brien on community and coronavirus protocols.
- Article from The Wild Hunt Pagan news outlet on cancelling or rescheduling Pagan events, and rethinking communal practices.
- Excellent comments and advice from John Beckett (Patheos *)
- Wonderful post from The River Crow on Indoor Druidry.
- Mark Green on community and spirituality during quarantine (and good news, he’s working on another book).
- Further updates from the Wild Hunt Pagan news site on event cancellations due to coronavirus.
- Reflections from Julian Vayne on the occult significance of this, and being community-minded.
- My post What we have in common, reminding us of shared values of community and compassion across different faith groups including Pagan traditions.
- How to hug whilst standing two metres apart.
- Notable and quotable: coronavirus: part 2
Cakes and wine in a pandemic
Most religions that share food and drink have been having discussions about how to modify these practices to make them safe during the coronavirus pandemic. Mostly that means not meeting at all.
