Image from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; image is in the public domain. March 18: In the days since posting this, it has become clear that we must practice the most strict social distancing possible, which means that we must cancel all in-person rituals and events unless they are only with those we already live with.…
Paganism in the time of coronavirus – part 1 was originally published on We're Made of Mud and Magic
I had a beautiful weekend. On Friday evening, Silver Spiral had a belated Litha. It was a gorgeous ritual. In the power raising, the group was given a fairly simple poem to turn into a chant. It started as just rhythmic speaking, than acquired melody, then evolved into a call and response with a complex…
Balance one; balance all was originally published on We're Made of Mud and Magic
My partner sometimes tells a story of the early days of our relationship. I actually don’t remember the conversation, per se, but it is part of the structure of our life together. As the story goes, I sat him down and offered him a simple agreement: we will both agree to say what we mean…
Accessibility in the absence of perfect trust was originally published on We're Made of Mud and Magic
My partner works in construction – in inspections to be more specific – and he sometimes speaks disparagingly of architects. They are artists, but sometimes fall so much in love with their beautiful vision that they neglect the practical (like electrical panels) and the efficient (like preferring all glass). And the world needs people to…
Too many architects; not enough builders was originally published on We're Made of Mud and Magic
Last night, some members of Silver Spiral gathered to rehearse the ritual we’re presenting at Vancouver Pagan Pride Day (VPPD) on September 10th. Jamie Robyn and I had worked to create a very inclusive, accessible ritual that empowered the participants to participate. Our pre-ritual speeches include explicit permission to leave if needed, information on how…
Consent culture at Vancouver Pagan Pride Day was originally published on We're Made of Mud and Magic
Walking through my neighbourhood at about 9:30 last night, I ended up in a prolonged conversation with a stranger; I’ll call her Jane. It started with her asking for directions and then me offering my phone for her to call her ride, and wound up with me hanging out with her on this patch of…
No love, no fight was originally published on We're Made of Mud and Magic
This week, I attended an online conference for my day job. One of the themes was community building. I mentioned that my mantra for community building for my spiritual community is “work together, eat together, pray together” and I noted that you’d probably need an alternative to “pray” for a secular community. One of the…
Creating community isn’t growing a garden was originally published on We're Made of Mud and Magic
In criminology, there’s “the broken windows theory”. Based on my day job managing a coworking space and my other experiences with shared spaces, I propose a similar theory for coworking and other shared spaces: the Spoon Hypothesis. If one spoon gets left in the communal kitchen sink, it will take less than half an hour…
Community is messy, but if you catch the spoon in time, maybe less so was originally published on We're Made of Mud and Magic
Last Saturday, ED, the Vancouver Pagan Pride Day coordinator, and her team put together an amazing community-building and fundraising event. After the financial blow of losing tents to a wind storm at 2015’s main event and the spiritual cost of having to close the event so early and so abruptly, we needed some cash and…
We have rebuilt! was originally published on We're Made of Mud and Magic
We're Made of Mud and Magic 