Paganism in Depth
A Polytheist Approach: Foundations, Practices & Challenges
published by Llewellyn Worldwide, June 2019
288 pages
available from Llewellyn, Amazon, or Barnes & Noble
The clichéd advice for writers is “write what you know, not what you think you know.” What I know about Paganism is how I got here and how I do it now that I’m here. The Path of Paganism was about how I escaped fundamentalism and how I built an experienced-based foundation for my religious, spiritual, and magical practice.
Paganism In Depth is the story of the next steps on my Pagan path. Because it’s a deeper book, it is necessarily a narrower book. This is not the only way to go deeper into Paganism, but it is how I have gone deeper. As the subtitle states, it’s a polytheist approach.
Part 1 of Paganism in Depth covers foundations: the ideas, concepts, and principles on which my Paganism is built, foundations that are different from those of our sometime-Christian, sometimes-atheist mainstream society.
The interlude is titled “I like it here – why do I have to leave?” Oftentimes we get comfortable with something and we’re reluctant to change. But if we want to learn and grow, we have to be willing to move into unfamiliar territory.
Part 2 is Practice – all the things we do on a regular basis that build our skills and strengthen our relationships with our Gods and spirits. We covered some of this in The Path of Paganism – we’ll go deeper in Paganism in Depth.
Part 3 is Challenges. Let’s not kid ourselves – deeper practice is hard, and it can bring challenges we haven’t seen before. We’ll cover things like roadblocks, demanding Gods, and perhaps the biggest challenge in modern Paganism – building healthy communities.
Paganism in Depth is a guidebook to going deeper into the forest, higher up the mountain, and further out to sea. It’s an invitation to join this sacred work, to go where there are no maps, to find your way through careful practice and intuition and pure luck – and through the help of the Gods – and then to draw a map for those who come after you. This journey is not easy; not everyone wants to do it, and not everyone can do it. The decision to take it is yours and yours alone. As for me, I can’t imagine doing anything else.
The Path of Paganism
An Experience-Based Guide to Modern Pagan Practice
published by Llewellyn Worldwide, April 2017
320 pages
available from Llewellyn, Amazon, or Barnes & Noble
Paganism is a way of seeing the world and your place in it. It means challenging the assumptions of mainstream society and strengthening your relationships with the gods, the universe, your community, and your self. The Path of Paganism provides practical advice and support for honoring your values and living an authentic Pagan life in mainstream Western culture.
Discover tips for establishing or deepening a regular practice. Explore how your spirituality can help you deal with life’s inevitable hardships. Learn the basics of leadership roles and other steps to take as you gain experience and move into more advanced practices. With questions for contemplation as well as rituals to help you integrate new concepts, this book guides you through a profoundly meaningful way of life.
Editor
The Book of Cernunnos
edited by John Beckett and Jason Mankey
published by ADF Publishing, June 2023
available from Amazon
Contributor
“The Theology of Personal Experience”
in Ascendant II: Theology for Modern Polytheists
edited by Michael Hardy
published by Bibliotheca Alexandrina, December 2019
181 pages
available from Amazon
“Pagan Depth in Unitarian Universalism: Or, Why UU Polytheism is Not an Oxymoron”
in Pagan and Earth-Centered Voices in Unitarian Universalism
edited by Jerrie Kishpaugh Hildebrand and Shirley Ann Ranck
published by Skinner House Books, June 2017
256 pages
available from the UUA Bookstore or from Amazon
“Culture of Consent, Culture of Sovereignty: A Recipe From a Druid’s Perspective”
in Pagan Consent Culture: Building Communities of Empathy & Autonomy
edited by Christine Hoff Kraemer & Yvonne Aburrow
published by Asphodel Press, February 2016
536 pages
available from Asphodel Press or from Amazon