Category Archives: Religion and spirituality

Imbolc: The Pulse of the Seasons

Posted on February 3, 2013 by Administrator

February 2nd is the Pagan festival of Imbolc, and to celebrate I went for a long walk in the countryside. Imbolc is the time of  ’the quickening of the year’ when the first signs of the coming Spring appear, & … Continue reading →

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Time and place: Seasonal thoughts

Posted on December 25, 2011 by Administrator

Christmas is an odd time of year for me. The reasons are various but it’s largely to do with its proximity to the Winter Solstice. Christmas Day is a few days after what for me is the main event and … Continue reading →

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Eco-Paganism and place

Posted on September 1, 2011 by Administrator

I recently posted a guest blog on Adventures in Animism called ‘Eco-Paganism 101′. Eco-Paganism exemplifies several themes that I’ve been exploring here, so I want to flag them up. Eco-Pagans are animists, “people who recognise that the world is full of persons, only … Continue reading →

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Twyford Down

Posted on August 22, 2011 by Administrator

Although my chapter in ‘The Wanton Green’ tells of life on recent protest sites, the spirit of an older campaign hovers in the background like a ghost. Twyford Down was an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and a Site of Special … Continue reading →

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London’s burning

Posted on August 8, 2011 by Administrator

Ubuntu is an African word which can be inadequately translated as ‘humanness’. It may, in fact, be untranslatable, but the principle is expressed in the African saying: ‘Umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu’ – ‘A person is a person through other persons’. One of the most influential Western philosophers claimed that … Continue reading →

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The Wanton Green – Pagan places

Posted on July 31, 2011 by Administrator

For many contemporary Pagans the relationship between bodymind and place is fundamental, but that relationship has rarely been explored in any depth. Paganism is often described as being polytheistic, animist or about ‘nature worship’, and while that’s all true in a vague and anodyne way, it’s of … Continue reading →

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The threshold brook

Posted on July 19, 2011 by Administrator

My Ph.D. research into embodied knowing found that Eco-Pagans living in urban environments often had a powerful spiritual connection to a specific place. Barry Patterson, one of my research participants, described this connection as listening to the “threshold brook” (Harris, … Continue reading →

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The Work that Reconnects

Posted on April 5, 2011 by Administrator

On Sunday I went to a workshop on Joanna Macy’s ‘Work that Reconnects’, an approach that calls upon systems theory, spiritual teachings, and deep ecology. I knew what to expect as I’ve been to similar events and facilitated a few myself, but what struck me was how fresh … Continue reading →

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Spirit of place: What lies beneath

Posted on March 29, 2011 by Administrator

Most of Uluru lies beneath the surface of the desert. Human cognition is like that too: Probably 95 percent of embodied thought lies below our everyday awareness. Our cognition is like an iceberg; the familiar self is just the tip that emerges from the sea, while the vast bulk … Continue reading →

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