I wrote this poem last week, but wanted to petition the Erinyes with it this morning because it is their sacred day. Hail to the goddesses with snakes in their hair, companions of Persephone who speak for countless souls. Please hear my prayer, exacters of justice. To the Erinyes. Children of Nyx, in that grove … Continue reading To the Erinyes on 5 Puanepsion 699.1
Category: polytheism
Review: Watts’ The Final Pagan Generation
The Final Pagan Generation (Edward J. Watts, 2015) covers the 310s – 390s CE. It looks at four elites of the Roman social world — Libanius, Themistius, Praetextatus, and Ausonius. Three were traditional religionists, and one was Christian. Watts follows this cohort's lives to answer the questions of how the radical social, political, and religious … Continue reading Review: Watts’ The Final Pagan Generation
Are you in Connecticut?
During a prior post, I said that I was going to at least attempt to create local community over the next two years. The online world is great, but if we're going to have temples and community centers by the time I'm 70, we'll need to get off of the Internet. So. I was actually … Continue reading Are you in Connecticut?
The Natural World, the Gods, and Ethics
I thought hard this morning about what my response has been to prior natural disasters, so I went back to the Old KALLISTI to see what I said there. The words I wrote in 2010 — so long ago now — don't completely match my current worldview. For Pagan Values Month (June 2010), I wrote … Continue reading The Natural World, the Gods, and Ethics
Skipping Along
This week, two things have happened in my life. One of these is highly topical and has to do with syncretic religious expressions; the other is a realization that I came to — and confirmed via divination — about things I have been mulling over regarding religious and philosophical communities for a few years at … Continue reading Skipping Along
Copyright for Text-Based Works is Real
Comments have closed on a Wild Hunt post about a file-sharing Wiccan group by Terence P. Ward, but as a librarian who works in academia, I have a few thoughts to offer. One of my strong professional interests is how to reconcile information-seeking behaviors and assumptions of new(ish) academic library users with the realities of how … Continue reading Copyright for Text-Based Works is Real
Casual Devotion and Inexact Terminology
I was on Tumblr this morning and found an interesting thread about casual religionists. The original post seemed to be using casual as a synonym for atheistic or noncommittal polytheism in its first paragraph, but it's possible that I misunderstood the person writing it. The term I use for atheists engaging in religious practice is culturally … Continue reading Casual Devotion and Inexact Terminology
Some Links to Twitter and a Hymn Paraphrase to Hermes
You might know that I'm on Twitter, but there are a few things that I have microblogged there recently that I would like to highlight. The first is the poem I wrote early in the current Presidential administration and that I repost on occasion: Spring is a time when buds bloom, leaves fan out like … Continue reading Some Links to Twitter and a Hymn Paraphrase to Hermes
Helpful Search Strings to Avoid Seeing Cars and Other Things That Are Probably Not Gods
Recently, I looked up something related to cultus in Google and discovered that (yet another) term that actually has a real meaning has been gifted to a car. As a librarian, I often teach Google searching. The most important thing about looking anything up in Google is that it's sometimes not the right place. As an example, … Continue reading Helpful Search Strings to Avoid Seeing Cars and Other Things That Are Probably Not Gods
KALLISTI 