First off, the thing that is currently being called AI is not really AI, depending on your definition of AI. It’s not conscious. It’s uncannily able to resemble consciousness because humans tend to attribute consciousness to things that science says are not conscious. I’m not even sure if it would pass the Turing Test, although that has been criticized as insufficient for detecting consciousness.
Continue readingethics
Solon’s 10 guidelines
The “Ten Commandments” of Solon (as recorded in Diogenes Laertius’ “Lives of Eminent Philosophers”, 1.60), are as follows:
- Trust good character more than promises.
- Do not speak falsely.
- Do good things.
- Do not be hasty in making friends, but do not abandon them once made.
- Learn to obey before you command.
- When giving advice, do not recommend what is most pleasing, but what is most useful.
- Make reason your supreme commander.
- Do not associate with people who do bad things.
- Honor the gods.
- Have regard for your parents.
Hat-tip to Richard Carrier, from whom I learned about this list of “commandments”.
Art: “Solon the Wise Lawgiver of Athens” by Walter Crane
Evangelicals harming uncontacted tribes
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Pagans and marriage
Marriage is an odd composite of disparate concepts. It’s a legal contract to share property. It’s usually contracted between two people who love each other. It’s a meeting of minds and hearts. When it’s really special, it’s a sacred union of two people in an alchemical and spiritual relationship.
Continue readingThe Duty of the Witch
A great post from The Less Hidden Path about what it means to be a witch and why it means we should help people get access to reproductive health care.
“Witch”. A loaded term that people have died just through having been suggested to have been associated with. A word with immense cultural baggage …
The Duty Of The Witch
And another great post from the same blog about why witches and Pagans should definitely get involved in politics.
The time to dispense with the modern conceit that “politics and magic don’t mix” is many years overdue. It has never been true, but it gets more harmful the longer we leave it.
Politics and witchcraft
And a great post from a polytheist perspective exploring the Ancient Greek view on when the soul enters the body.
What about *my* religious beliefs? — and a passage from Iamblichus
Personally, I do not believe that the soul can enter the body until birth — which, in my belief system, requires the fetus to be viable without the use of the modern contraptions that keep the extreme premature alive until they are physically self-viable. It has life, yes, but not personhood. A woman who wants an abortion should be able to have one.
— Kalliste
Celtic festival names
Some time back I posted a video about cultural appropriation and Lora O’Brien pointed out that the modern Wiccan and Pagan usage of Sabbat names is appropriated from Irish culture and language.
Gerald Gardner and other early Wiccans did not use the Irish names for these festivals — that happened later. Wicca is not a Celtic religion.
It does seem wrong to lift these festivals out of context. There are other old names for these festivals in England and Wales (the Scots Gaelic has similar names to the Irish Gaelic, but pronounced differently).
Continue readingThe Wiccan Rede
The concept of the Wiccan Rede is frequently and widely misunderstood and misquoted. The full version is “An it harm none, do what thou wilt”. (If it harms no one, do what you want / do your True Will.) I have written about this before but haven’t devoted an entire blogpost to it.
Continue readingThe Threefold Law
I have discussed the Threefold Law in several previous articles but it’s never had its own post before. Most people get the wrong idea about the Threefold Law. It does not actually say that you get back threefold what you send out.
Continue readingEverything you think you know about Wicca is wrong
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 readingBlogging and privacy
People are often confused that I’m a blogger but I really value privacy. They seem to think that having any sort of internet presence is incompatible with privacy. In this post, I will attempt to explain why that is not the case, why privacy matters to me, why it should matter to you, and what that has to do with Pagan stuff.
Continue reading
Dowsing for Divinity 