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Pagan

My Blogging Life and Times

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October 2017

October 17, 2017

An Open Letter To Barry Manilow: Please Help My Mom

Dear Mr. Manilow, The last thing my father did in his life was take my...

September 2017

September 25, 2017

A Eulogy For My Father, Mark Swiss

We have hopes about an afterlife. I guess some of us have fears -- Dad...

September 19, 2017

Life Is a Series of Dogs

If we love a dog, the odds are very good that they will die before...

August 2017

August 27, 2017

Love Starts With Boundaries

But we have to operate in both the realms of absolute and relative truth. It...

August 14, 2017

The Fire Circle: All Kinds Magic Worked Here

The fire circle is an audience participation event. In fact, there is no audience. We're...

July 2017

July 31, 2017

Starwood 2017: An Unconventional Convention

Starwood is a magickal adventure construction set. A variety of pieces are provided, but it's...

July 27, 2017

Doctor Who: Continuity and Gender Politics

But we fans of long-running franchises also value internal consistency, a.k.a. continuity. Of course no...

July 14, 2017

FSG: Music and The Morrigan

So the Morrigan, that Celtic goddess (or trinity of goddesses) of war and death (but...

June 2017

June 17, 2017

Remembering Ringo

A heart that never cares is safe from grieving. But that's not what hearts are...

May 2017

May 13, 2017

Kyoto Bonus: Daruma-dera Visit

The figurines symbolize a proverb: if you fall down seven times, get up eight times....

May 07, 2017

Even In Japan, Things Change

Everything needs a little renovation now and again, even the human heart.

May 06, 2017

Kyoto’s Ancestors Are Watching; Deities In Commerce

It was as if the ancestral spirits were watching out over the city. I don't...

May 05, 2017

Seven Lucky Gods And The Spiritual Function Of Travel

And it reminds me of one of the spiritual functions of travel: to shake up...

May 03, 2017

Punching At The Shrine, Partying At The Temple

It demonstrates the way these two different paths fit together here. Religion is not seen...

May 01, 2017

Back In Japan

And so I'll get a little time in here with both Shinto and Buddhist deities.

April 2017

April 26, 2017

Kenny Klein And Jerks In Your Lineage

If we see our spiritual selves primarily as products of a lineage, as inheritors of...

April 16, 2017

Remaking

When my mother got sick back in September, she was wearing this little crystal pendant....

March 2017

March 19, 2017

Chuck Berry And My Dad

Every close relationship has moments of magic. They might be soap bubble fragile, so ephemeral...

February 2017

February 17, 2017

The Streisand Effect, The Vegan Agenda, And Sending Me To Japan

Hello friends. This week's dose of randomness comes a little late due to your humble...

February 09, 2017

Confused Fathers, Messed Up Lives, And Taking Credit

But we all have messed-up stuff going on in our lives, even the great spiritual...

February 08, 2017

Shadow 1 (Digital Photo, “52 Makeup” Week 5)

Photography sent my father to Vietnam. He was the photographer for his high school newspaper....

February 02, 2017

Groundhog Day and Ikuru

So he does three things: he works to improve himself. He comes to love the...

February 02, 2017

Orwell On Nationalism, Learning to Receive, And The Patheos Pagan Kerfuffle

"Notes on Nationalism" is not just relevant to the resurgence of traditional nationalism we are...

January 2017

January 05, 2017

Random Wednesday: Maternal Homecoming, Productivity in the New Year, and Unraveling “Russian Hackers”

Everybody loves Russian hackers these days. Democrats get to blame them for Clinton's embarrassing loss...

January 01, 2017

Congratulations! You survived 2016

So celebrate your good fortune. And may you have all the gods you need.

December 2016

December 21, 2016

Falling Down, Getting Up

Whether we've failed once or seven times or a thousand, the thing we need to...

December 16, 2016

On Santa Claus and Pantheism

Sure, there wasn't a magic guy with a flying sleigh, etcetera, but there was an...

December 14, 2016

In Praise of Socks and Underwear

Seriously, it's getting cold out there. Warm clothing is seasonally appropriate. A good comfortable base...

November 2016

November 10, 2016

The Power — Or Lack Thereof — Of Prayer

Every time that someone said "We're praying for her", the subtext of that was "I...

November 02, 2016

Random Wednesday: My Mom, Luke Cage, Pit Bulls, and Cheap Bourbon

This is, by some reckoning, the "Pagan New Year", and new years are a good...