Looking up at the stars makes you realize the sheer size of the universe, and how magnificent it is in its own right — and much larger than most fundamentalists could possibly imagine. This reminds me of the awesome quote from Douglas Adams: “You may think it’s a long way down the road to the chemist’s but that’s just peanuts to space.”
Storytime
Crossroads
Changing Paths challenge day 28 — the crossroads
“Only one heart had to find its true position and travel on from there and all the rest would follow, for no matter how isolated the one felt itself to be, in the deeps of all life all were united and no one could move accurately without all ultimately moving with it…”
—Laurens van der Post, A Far-Off Place, p 304
Wonder
Changing Paths challenge day 24 — wondering.
There’s wondering in the sense of asking questions about the nature of things, and then there’s wonder in the sense of amazement.
Dreams
Changing Paths challenge day 19 — dreams.
Once I dreamed that I was walking across a rocky sandy landscape (the bedrock was reddish sandstone) and saw an old church. But the surprising thing was what was inside the church…
Library books
If I hadn’t had access to books about mythology and King Arthur and Robin Hood, I might not have become a Pagan, and my life would’ve been very different. The book that I count as the one that made me realize I’m Pagan is Puck of Pook’s Hill by Rudyard Kipling, but I’m sure all the mythology and other stories helped too.
Deep magic
Changing Paths challenge day 17 — deep magic
The deepest magic that I know is love. Not sacrificial love, not romantic love, but the everyday magic of connection, nourishing and soul-satisfying.
Wibbly wobbly
Changing Paths challenge day 14: changing paths.
Changing paths is a wibbly-wobbly thing. During the process, I was all over the place. It was like having the bends (you know, the thing where a diver rises too quickly to the surface and gets cramps) or being on a giant scary roller coaster ride.
Things I do miss
Changing Paths challenge day 13 — things I do miss about my old path.
Unitarian hymns — specifically the earth-based ones like Peter Mayer’s “Blue Boat Home” (which doesn’t get sung often enough in the UK), “Mother Spirit” by Norbert Čapek, and nature-based ones like “Daisies are our silver” and “Spirit of Life” of course, but also some of the other ones like “Name Unnamed” which is beautiful. And I really appreciate how the Unitarians have defanged some of the classic Christian hymns by removing the obnoxious bits.
Things I don’t miss
Changing Paths challenge day 12 — things I don’t miss about the traditions I have left.
Why I left
Changing Paths challenge day 11 — why I left
I left Unitarianism in the end because of archetypes. The archetype that fits me the best is that of the witch, and it’s an archetype that sits uncomfortably in the Unitarian path. (The combination may work for others: didn’t work for me.)
I left Christianity because of its exclusivist views on salvation and the institutional homophobia.
And when I left Paganism for a while in 2007, it was because of it being excessively heterocentric / heteronormative, and other reasons too lengthy to get into here.
Dowsing for Divinity 