Yvonne Aburrow's Blog, page 10

The shape of politics

There’s an old chestnut that one sometimes sees repeated, that the political spectrum looks like a circle. But that excellent tool, the political compass, makes it clear that there are multiple dimensions to politics.

The political compass has four quadrants: libertarian left, libertarian right, authoritarian left, and authoritarian right.

The libertarian left is socially left wing, supporting same-sex marriage, abortion rights, divorce, etc; and it’s economically left wing, supporting...

Tolkien Reading Day

“The world is indeed full of peril, and in it there are many dark places; but still there is much that is fair, and though in all lands love is now mingled with grief, it grows perhaps the greater.”
— JRR Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

Today is Tolkien Reading Day, founded by the Tolkien Society because it was the day when the Ring was destroyed. It’s also Lady Day, and Tolkien chose it for the date of the Ring’s destruction because of his special devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary. ...

Pagan Wordle 5

Play Pagan Wordle 5

Check out some of my previous posts

Stone circlesSpirits of the Land

Depression and anxiety

A lot of people suffer from depression and anxiety, me included. It can act as a blockage to spirituality, too. All too often we don’t talk about it, for various reasons. We want to post content that cheers us and others up. And we don’t want loads of spurious advice about how to cheer up. But sometimes we need to be real.

CN: depression, anxiety, suicidal ideation. But also what I did to overcome them.

Depression

I have depressive tendencies, and have been quite depressed at vari...

Pagan Wordle 4

Play Pagan Wordle 4

Check out some of my previous posts

SunriseThe Dawn Of The GodsThe Sun came up

Eostre and Easter

Spring Equinox is approaching which means it’s time for the annual debunking of the BS that gets spouted about Eostre. There is only one historical reference to Eostre and it is in Bede’s history of the English church.

The egg is associated with Easter because there’s a legend about Mary Magdalene and an egg that turned red.

In European folklore, many animals bring eggs in the spring, including foxes, storks, and hares (not rabbits).

Ostara is not even an ancient goddess, she’s a co...

Mary and Stella

I’ve always loved Cold Comfort Farm. It’s one of those books I keep more than one copy of in case I lend it to someone and it doesn’t come back. But I’ve also always been aware that it was a parody. The spoof introduction and dedication to someone who is obviously a caricature of Thomas Hardy makes that clear.

I also corresponded online in the 90s with Stella Gibbons’ nephew. But until the late 1990s, I had no idea whose work Cold Comfort Farm was a parody of. And then it became clear tha...

Mens sana in corpore sano?

A healthy mind in a healthy body… not going to happen as a result of school sports.

Games involving the pursuit of a ball on a cold wet field are absolutely pointless and stupid.

The sheer awfulness of physical education in the UK must be a major contributor to the lack of exercise of many people.

I hated school sports. I have no hand-eye co-ordination so could not play ball games; I hated the picking of teams because I was always left till last (how humiliating); I was not very fi...

Pagan Wordle 3

Play Pagan Wordle 3

Check out some of my previous posts

The winters of my childhoodWinter in OntarioMeditation with snow

Occultea 5: Conclusions

Joanna Wiedźma (polish.folk.witch on Instagram) has shared some prompts to get people thinking about online witchcraft community. To participate, use the hashtag #occultea and tag her on Instagram or Threads.

5. Conclusions

• What are some topics of conversation I’d like to see more of in our community?

• What are my community needs?

• Where would I like to be held and supported?

• Where do I feel like I’m not truly being seen by my community?

• How can we help each other in re...