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October 2018

October 29, 2018

On Self-Preservation, Pragmatism, Politics, and Power

The US midterm elections, possibly the most important elections any of us have ever lived...

October 26, 2018

Pruning Your Roots, or, Coping with Samhain When Your Ancestors Suck

How do we honor our ancestors at Samhain if our ancestors were terrible people?

October 19, 2018

Points of the Triangle: The Victim, the Persecutor, and the Rescuer

Let's dig a little deeper into how the dynamics of Karpman's drama triangle manifest in...

September 2018

September 06, 2018

Movie Review: “Hereditary” (directed by Ari Aster, 2018)

"Hereditary" is an extraordinarily well-made, emotionally affecting film with incredible performances, and I feel deeply...

August 2018

August 14, 2018

Scribing the Triangle: Some Thoughts on Power Dynamics in Our Communities

If we're honest with ourselves, about ourselves, I think we'll find is that a lot...

August 13, 2018

Banishing the Boogeyman of Cultural Marxism, and Other Pastimes

Everyone's entitled to their own brand of ignorance and damnfoolishness... up to a point. For...

August 03, 2018

Choosing Who We Are: Boundaries and Inclusivity in Our Communities

The trouble is, radical inclusivity makes it really difficult to develop or enforce shared social...

July 2018

July 27, 2018

Washing the Clay Feet of Broken Idols: Confronting Paganism’s TERF Problem

TERFs are of a piece with the alt-right, from their reliance on pseudo-science to their...

July 23, 2018

Book Review: “Gods and Goddesses: The Rise of Divine Mythologies” by Gabiann Marin

This is a delightful little book, one clearly aimed at younger readers new to mythology,...

July 12, 2018

On the Necessary, Ineluctable Otherness of Witchcraft

Is witchcraft a set of beliefs? A set of practices? Or is it something else...

July 10, 2018

The Agenda I’m Advancing: Some Thoughts on Tolerance, Bigotry, and Discourse

We all have agendas, because we all have worlds in which we want to live,...

June 2018

June 26, 2018

The Long Haul: Managing the Everyday Magic of Resistance

You have the right and the responsibility to say, "This is what I'm working on,...

June 21, 2018

A World Turned Upside Down: On Politics, Power, Gods, Judgment, and History

I can tell someone why they should care, but I can't make them care. At...

June 14, 2018

An Alchemy of Grief: On Sitting with Death and What Comes After

How many of us in 21st century America have spent time with the dying, held...

June 01, 2018

#FollowFriday: Shannon Barber, Michael Lux, and Anthony Rella

I come away from their writing feeling like I've just had my brain sand-blasted and...

May 2018

May 30, 2018

A Handle on My Cup: Some Thoughts about Labels and Identity

In the wild, wild world of Paganism, polytheism, and magical practice, we spend an awful...

May 24, 2018

An Alignment of Belief and Praxis

Even as we invoke the land, we contribute to its destruction.

May 21, 2018

Somewhere I Don’t Belong: Intruding on Paradise, and Other Lessons from Hawai’i

I was welcome to visit, respectfully, and to contribute to the local economy, especially with...

May 19, 2018

A Green and Pleasant Land: On Belonging, Spirits, and Place

For literally the first time in my life, I felt seen and known by the...

May 16, 2018

A Presence Beneath Our Feet: An Anecdote on Communing with the Mountain

I remember my promise to the mountain, and I am reminded that the spirits of...

May 11, 2018

On the Perils and Necessity of Listening to the Land

It might take a while, but sooner or later, you should get a response... and...

May 09, 2018

Communing with the Land in the Age of the Slow Collapse

Stepping away from the slow collapse into dystopia and ecological suicide may not avert disaster,...

May 02, 2018

Snapshots and Sketches: A Rueful Panegyric for “The Community”

Maybe there never was a "community" after all, just an assumption of universality papering over...

April 2018

April 26, 2018

Coloring Outside the Lines: Troubling Gender and the Myth of Universality

The assumption of universality is harmful, not only to the outliers I mentioned above, but...

April 18, 2018

Beltane, as Viewed from Outside the Maypole Dance

I wondered how many people were here, taking part in a glorification and valorization of...

April 13, 2018

Marks of the Witch: The Bend, the Need, and the Will

It's not necessary to be born a witch or to be made one by someone...

April 11, 2018

Book Review: “Becoming Dangerous” (ed. Katie West and Jasmine Elliott)

Hello, beautiful creatures. My mailbox, inbox, and shopping cart have been insidiously delightful places of...

April 06, 2018

#FollowFriday: Scarlet Magdalene, Brandy Williams, and Laura Tempest Zakroff

These are some of the sharpest, wisest, best-educated folks writing about magic right now, and...

April 04, 2018

Bedroom Temples and Broom Closets: On Praxis, Space, and Community

I enjoy group rituals and Pagan and polytheist conferences, but at the end of the...

March 2018

March 30, 2018

The Grail Question: An Annoyingly Useful Discernment Tool

Rather than simply accepting things as they are because we don't want to "rock the...

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