Anybody who has attended a Pagan event in the Mid-Atlantic region has most likely encountered Irene Glasse. As the president of Frederick Covenant of Unitarian Universalist Pagans (FCUUPS) in Frederick, Maryland, and the organizer of that organization’s annual Frederick Pagan Pride Day, Glasse has contributed to numerous events and organizations in Maryland and nearby environs….
Tag: modern paganism
Many years ago, I was introduced to the idea of selecting a single word for each calendar year to act as an intention, touchstone, and big-picture goal. The beauty of a single word intention is that the simplicity means multiple ways of connecting are possible. For example, one of my words over the years was…
This short sermon was offered for the December 13th, 2020, streaming service at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Frederick. Full text below. I sometimes joke that paganism is an unusually intense form of environmentalism. One of the common threads that comes up when talking to other pagans is that we were pretty feral as children. …
Right now, the sun is setting before 5 PM here in the mid-Atlantic and the days are only getting shorter. A season normally marked with family gatherings, festive events, circles, services, and bustling shopping malls looks a little different this year. Yuletide 2020 is shaping up to be a quieter, smaller, and more solitary affair….
In the world of Tarot, there are a handful of cards that punch incredibly hard. The Major Arcana, the section of a Tarot deck that holds cards for the larger themes in life, includes a card that is the divinatory equivalent of ‘Rocks fall, everyone dies.’ That card is the Tower. The polite interpretation of…
The Wheel of the Year has turned once more. Samhain is past and the days grow shorter and darker till Yuletide reaches us. This is the season of shadow and quiet, of the inward spiral. I think of the time from mid-October till Yule as Veil Season. Although many people focus their Ancestral work specifically…
This short sermon was offered for the October 25th, 2020, streaming service at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Frederick. Full text below. This is one of my favorite parts of the year. I think I am a constant disappointment to my friends who love beaches and summer. It’s just not my thing. Give me gray,…
*October 31st marks one of the High Holidays in the widely-used Pagan Wheel of the Year – Samhain. Out of all our holidays, I’d say this one gets the most press. Our celebration of the end of the growing season coincides with all that is spooky in the larger culture. This time of endings in…
I don’t mean to go all Ned Stark on everyone, but…well… In years without a pandemic, we would be preparing for the last of the harvest celebrations and planning the journey of the inward spiral: the time of turning within for healing, nurturing, and personal growth. This year, of course, is different. Many of my…
One of the best and most beautiful aspects of modern witchcraft is that it is an evolving path. Although we base a good deal of our philosophy and practice on ancient religions, paganism and witchcraft as we know them today are new. Born of the 60s counterculture and the equal rights movements for women and…