“No one writes good music anymore.” “All the best movies have already come out.” “Fiction today just isn’t what it used to be.” I’ve seen the same complaint leveled across multiple interest areas. Over and over again, the refrain of ‘the new stuff is terrible’ rings out. From people who think metal began and ended…
Tag: modern paganism
I have some big news to share today. Many of you already know that I teach Blackfeather Mystery School with my co-teacher Caine Dreamwalker. Our school is in its third year right now. Blackfeather Mystery School is a full-spectrum training in Empowered Witchcraft. It is a synthesis and outgrowth of more than 20 years in…
The intersections of older spiritual practices and modern life are interesting and complex. Halloween season is a bubbling brew of history, belief, contemporary attitudes and goofy good times. Within paganism, the world of Earth-centered spirituality, October is the season of the ancestors and contains our New Year on the 31st. Our cycle ends, and then…
Sometime during summer, I go a little dormant. The high heat and humidity where I live in the mid-Atlantic weighs heavily on me. I begin to drift, to slip into the doldrums. I tend to slide out of my patterns of practice and choose checking out rather than dialing in. I go through the motions…
“Freyja says there’s going to be trouble.” I didn’t know the man speaking to me. I had never met him before – we were in the same workshop at Sacred Space Conference. He had turned back to look at me several times during the class, and I steeled myself for the inevitable come-on. However, when…
Some days, there’s just not enough coffee in the universe to get me going. During most of the year, doldrum days are pretty rare for me. I generally have good forward momentum: I have dreams and visions I’m trying to manifest, sacred Work I’m focused on, and a beloved community to serve. For some…
August can be tough in Maryland. The high heat and lack of rain (in some years) means that backyard gardeners like me often struggle to keep our vegetable and fruit beds happy. Air conditioners work overtime, and tempers can be a bit more volatile. When I’m nearing a high frustration point with the umpteenth 90-degree…
If it seems like the people around you are more volatile than usual, you’re not alone. Over the past month I’ve stood on the sidelines as multiple relationships around me caught fire in various ways. The stress of over a year’s worth of pandemic concerns and the whiplash of relief to restriction is applying pressure…
When I look at the path of a river, I sometimes marvel at the way it cuts through stone to wend its flow through the landscape around me. I’m lucky enough to live near both the Potomac and Monocacy rivers and I’ve spent a lot of time wandering their shores and paddling kayaks along their…
I was recently at dinner at my mother’s house and we were talking about how different her childhood was from my sister’s and mine. My grandfather was in the Navy, which meant Mom went to a lot of different schools over the course of growing up. Contrasting to that, my sister and I lived in…