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Top 10 Posts of 2024

Top 10 Posts of 2024

Last updated on: December 29, 2024 at 3:00 am by John Beckett

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Top 10 Posts of 2024 2024-12-19T19:00:15-06:00 John Beckett

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Thank you for reading Under the Ancient Oaks in 2024, and especially for liking, sharing, and commenting on social media and in the comments section.

Here are the top ten posts for the year on Under the Ancient Oaks, as measured by pageviews.

10. 5 Steps to Re-enchant the World (February 2024)

Re-enchantment has come up more than once this year. I think that’s a good thing, even though the world has never been truly disenchanted – and even though some people are taking re-enchantment in a dangerous direction.

Still, re-enchantment has been part of the Pagan movement since at least the 19th century. This post discusses five ways to re-enchant our own lives, and in the process, re-enchant the world.

9. Divination for 2024 (January 2024)

My reading for 2024 said “the core of this reading is highly positive. But ‘positive’ doesn’t mean ‘easy’ – we’re still living in Tower Time.”

I’ll have more to say about the accuracy of this reading when I do the reading for 2025 on January 1.

8. Walpurgisnacht in the Infirmary (May 2024)

Walpurgisnacht is April 30 – Beltane Eve. Traditionally it’s a night for witchcraft and related activities. At this year’s Walpurgisnacht I was medically sick and emotionally drained. I wasn’t able to do what I wanted to do, even though I wanted to do it very badly.

And so Someone had to tell me to go back to bed, for my own good and for the good of all the things I’m working on.

This is pretty much a transcript of what happened that night. Some of it was communicated in feelings that I had to translate into words, but this is as faithful an account of that conversation as I can produce.

7. Being Pagan In An Era Of Religious Decline (August 2024)

So many of our expectations of Paganism come from our experiences in other religions – especially the Protestant Christianity that still dominates this country. But that religion – and all religion – is in decline. How can those of us who are called to this path build a Paganism that works for us, here and now?

6. The New Asatru Temple and the Challenges to Authenticity (February 2024)

A new Norse temple opened in Iceland and the mainstream Religion News Service covered it. Comments on the report were mostly negative. Several of them challenged the authenticity of the temple, of Ásatrú, and of modern Paganism in general. They say that since we don’t have direct continuity with the ancients, we’re “making it all up.”

Those comments are misguided. That we have no direct continuity with the ancients is a challenge, but it doesn’t mean we’re “making it all up.” Rather, we’re trying to build contemporary Pagan religions that are inspired by the beliefs and practices of our ancestors, but that are meaningful and helpful to us, here and now.

5. Tower Time Is Still Very Much With Us (June 2024)

I stopped talking about Tower Time because those conversations stopped being useful. Too many people were expecting an apocalypse. Or they accused me of fear mongering. Or their own fears were so great they couldn’t or wouldn’t deal with it. But Tower Time is still very much with us. It isn’t pleasant and it isn’t easy. It isn’t the Star Trek future we were promised. But this is the hand we were dealt. This is the environment in which we work.

As I say so often – especially to myself – you don’t have to like it, you just have to deal with it.

4. A Witch Decides A Witch’s Fate (November 2024)

The first time I saw witchcraft on TV as a small child, I immediately knew two things. First, I knew what I was watching was fiction. And second, I knew there was a reality behind the fiction – and I wanted to find it. That search took me almost 30 years. I was mainly looking for a spiritual path, and when I found Druidry, I instantly felt at home. I continued working magic, but I never called myself a witch. That began to change in 2022.

I had two very different blog posts in my head for after the election. I didn’t get to write the one I wanted to write. I wrote this one because sometimes you have to choose a side. In a society that voted for a convicted felon who is a genuinely bad person, who promotes chaos and cruelty, that supports Christian Nationalism and Project 2025, I choose witchcraft.

3. A Response From One Of The Pagans (January 2024)

On Christmas Day 2023, scholar and Conservative Rabbi David Wolpe published an essay on The Atlantic website titled “The Return of the Pagans” in which he argued for the moral and ethical superiority of “monotheism.” Paganism for Wolpe seems to mean “whatever I don’t like.” But while Paganism still doesn’t have a precise definition after over a century of its revival, it has a meaning.

This is my response to Rabbi Wolpe and all the people who use “Pagan” when what they mean is “irreligious.”

2. Do Not Comply In Advance (November 2024)

I did not expect Donald Trump to win the election. I really didn’t expect the election to be called early on Wednesday morning, and for him to win the popular vote. When he did, I was filled with disappointment, and also with the realization that this is who and what the United States of America is: a country where more than half the voters don’t understand basic economics, think the President controls the price of gas and the price of eggs, are so afraid of trans people that anti-trans attack ads are effective, and reduce the complicated issue of immigration to keeping “those people” out.

This is reality – what are we going to do with it? One thing we can’t do is to comply with Trump’s division and cruelty unless we have no other choice.

1. 6 Kinds Of People Who Revert Out Of Paganism And Witchcraft (January 2024)

Any time a celebrity witch, Pagan, or alternative spirituality practitioner reverts to Christianity, people scream “it’s all about the money!” Maybe it is, in some cases. More often, though, people change religions because their beliefs change. I identified six kinds of people who revert out of Paganism and witchcraft.

The saddest are those who never dealt with their religious baggage. They were happy as witches and Pagans, but then at some point, things got difficult, they got scared, and they ran back to what they were taught as children. Sometimes that happens because of nostalgia, but more often it happens out of fear. And it’s not just celebrities – it can happen to us too.

Deal with your religious baggage, particularly if you grew up in a “we’re the One True Way” environment. Build a strong intellectual foundation for your chosen path, whether you consider it religion, spirituality, or simply “what I do.” Study and practice diligently. You can’t just dismiss bad religious experiences – you have to crowd them out with good experiences.

Previous Post

December 26, 2024

The 4 Best Posts of 2024 You Didn’t Read

Next Post

January 1, 2025 Divination For 2025

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