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Outside the Charmed Circle

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August 2018

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 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 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 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...

March 23, 2018

Horses and Zebras: Some Further Thoughts on Abuse in Our Communities

For a movement that places so much value on personal, spiritual, and sexual autonomy, we...

March 18, 2018

Witch-Aesthetics Redux, or, Everything Old Is New Again (Except Us)

If you're suspecting that I'm about to call this a manifestation of misogyny, you're exactly...

March 15, 2018

We Can Be Heroes: Some Thoughts in the Wake of #NationalSchoolWalkoutDay

We live in a world on fire, and we cannot wait for a hero to...

March 03, 2018

Stations of the Day: Encompassing the Indefinability of Witchcraft

Sometimes, I'm asked what witchcraft is. Rather than a definition, what I have are memories,...

March 01, 2018

Answer Me These Questions Three: A Word for Discerning Seekers

The story of the Seeker is a classic, almost a folk ballad in its structure,...

February 2018

February 24, 2018

Words Mean Things: A Resource for Discussing Gender and Sexuality

Gender and sexuality can seem a lot more complicated nowadays, especially without the language to...

February 22, 2018

Some Unconventional Thoughts about Pagan Conventions

That's not to say that conventions aren't important, or filled with magic. They can be...

February 16, 2018

Safer Sex Magic: How to Learn Sex Magic in Three Easy Steps!

It's time to get down to brass tacks... but first, I apologize for any misapprehensions...

February 10, 2018

Safer Sex Magic: Getting Down to Business, As It Were

It's not surprising that our ancestors came up with the idea of using sex as...

February 08, 2018

Safer Sex Magic: Dancing in the Thicket Between Science and Religion

Magic is notoriously one of those words where, if you ask any ten practitioners, you'll...

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