The impulse to give thanks at harvest time transcends religion. In every ritual we do, Pagans thank the air, fire, water and earth, the sacred elements that life depends on.

Continue »

Feb. 1 is Brigid Eve, the beginning of one of the major festivals of the year for Witches, sacred to the ancient Celtic Goddess of the holy well and the sacred flame, who presides over the forge, over poetry and healing. And its also a full moon, when we Witches believe the great energies of creativity and fruition flood the earth. So it’s a good time to think about prayer.

Continue »

Feb. 1 is Brigid Eve, the beginning of one of the major festivals of the year for Witches, sacred to the ancient Celtic Goddess of the holy well and the sacred flame, who presides over the forge, over poetry and healing. And its also a full moon, when we Witches believe the great energies of creativity and fruition flood the earth. So it’s a good time to think about prayer.

Continue »

In the Goddess traditions, we see sexuality as sacred because we see the Goddess as immanent—embodied—in the world, as the great erotic, creative power of life itself.

Continue »

Should religion be taught in School? Which religion? And who decides? Do we institute a state religion in the U.S.? Somehow I thought this country was founded by dissidents looking for religious freedom. Whatever happened to that idea?

Continue »

The mass media has rarely treated Witches and Pagans fairly. We are still seen as either scary, evil and demonic, unreal, or slightly deluded figures of fun, overall. It’s extremely difficult for us to receive the same respect and dignity of other religions.

Continue »

My life is strangely split. In my personal life, I’ve been incredibly fortunate. I’m able to do work that I love and feel passionate about—and provide for myself and my family. I’ve been able to write, travel, organize, teach, and walk in the woods. I have a loving partner and a supportive community. Certainly, I’ve had losses and disappointments, but they are far outweighed by the gifts the Goddess has blessed me with.

Continue »

How do I keep my faith during wartime? I’m not sure how I’d keep my faith if my country were invaded, my family slaughtered, my home bombed or my loved ones rounded up and sent to concentration camps—I can only imagine.

But I do know how I struggle to keep my faith—and my sanity—during a war that my country is waging, one that I have done everything I could think of to prevent and to end, one which has lost support of the vast majority of the American people, and one which is still, every day, taking the lives of Iraquis and our own soldiers, squandering the resources we need for health and justice in this country, and leaving a swathe of destruction in the Middle East.

Continue »

I’m cheering for my Pagan sisters and brothers who are demonstrating on this Fourth of July for the right to have a Pagan chaplain in the military. Our constitution, which they have volunteered to defend, grants us the freedom of religion. That doesn’t mean “freedom of any religion we approve of but not those that make us uncomfortable or that we’ve never heard of.” It means freedom to follow the calling of one’s own faith and conscience.

Continue »

One of my earliest memories is watching a Sunday morning religious show when I was about four years old. When they talked about people dying and going to heaven, I remember clearly thinking, “That’s stupid, everyone know when you die you come back as another person.” Learning that neither my parents, relatives or Hebrew school teachers shared this belief didn’t shake it in the least, so I was delighted, when I grew older, to discover other religions that did, including Paganism.

Continue »