Yvonne Aburrow's Blog, page 12
February 17, 2024
Calling out antisemitism in Paganism
It’s true that antisemitism exists in Paganism, just as it does in other groups in society—especially when people use the phrase “Judaeo-Christian”, or assume that all Jews think the same thing. And we absolutely should call out antisemitism in the Pagan community. I’ve done so before.
But let’s be clear about what is antisemitism and what is not.
If you conflate the actions of the state of Israel with Jewish people as a whole, that’s antisemitic. If you blame the actions of Israel on ...
February 15, 2024
Borrowed 2024
A decade ago, I started the festival of Borrowed. It’s on February 28th or 29th (depending on which is available), and is a reminder that the Earth is precious and ecosystems are fragile. It seems even more relevant in the face of the climate emergency.
The festival of Borrowed highlights the idea that we do not own the Earth and its finite resources, we only borrow them, and share them with all other life.
For the festival of Borrowed, you’re invited to organize a group to plant some ...
February 13, 2024
Horsehead Nebula in my eye
On Thursday evening last week, I had flashes in my peripheral vision. At lunchtime on Friday, I saw an alarming dark plume entering my visual field from the lower left. It then spread across my eye until it looked rather like the Horsehead Nebula.
The Horsehead NebulaCW: if you’re squeamish about medical details, don’t read on.
I had flashes again on Friday evening and Saturday evening. I made an optician appointment for Saturday morning but they said to go to the ER. So I went t...
February 2, 2024
Tide Marks
It’s interesting to look back and reflect on how long I have been a Pagan and a Wiccan. The various milestones along the way could be described as tide marks — welcome ones, as the seasonal round keeps turning and I find I’ve been celebrating the festivals for more than half my life.
I first realised that I am a Pagan in 1985. I was thinking about my beliefs while I was walking to the centre of Southampton. These were ideas like celebrating the joy of being alive and finding divinity in N...
January 31, 2024
Mirror
I wrote this poem and the note below it on 1 March 2003, in response to the Iraq War. Sometimes those of us opposed to that war were accused of having forgotten the dead of 9/11. Just like now when those of us opposed to the bombing of Gaza are accused of indifference to the dead of October 7th.
Mirror
Looking at the cherry blossom
Just opening on the black branches:
Fragile stars in the February wind.
It seems so easy, when the flame
Blossoms from the end of a gun
...January 28, 2024
Thoughts on AI
First off, the thing that is currently being called AI is not really AI, depending on your definition of AI. It’s not conscious. It’s uncannily able to resemble consciousness because humans tend to attribute consciousness to things that science says are not conscious. I’m not even sure if it would pass the Turing Test, although that has been criticized as insufficient for detecting consciousness.
The current crop of “AI” is based on machine learning (ML), where you give the computer a hug...
January 27, 2024
Jewish solidarity with Palestinians
View this post on InstagramA post shared by 𝗬𝘃𝗼𝗻𝗻𝗲 𝗔𝗯𝘂𝗿𝗿𝗼𝘄 (@yvonne_aburrow)
View this post on InstagramA post shared by 𝗬𝘃𝗼𝗻𝗻𝗲 𝗔𝗯𝘂𝗿𝗿𝗼𝘄 (@yvonne_aburrow)
Also the most famous Jewish witch ever, Starhawk, has consistently stood up for Gaza and was even barred from Israel for doing so.
Review: The Book of Mormon
We went to see the stage show of The Book of Mormon at the Princess of Wales Theatre in Toronto. I haven’t laughed so much for ages. It was hilarious. It’s also making some serious points about religion.
Read the rest of the post at the Changing Paths blog:
Review: The Book of Mormon
January 19, 2024
Diverse Witchy Novels
There are many excellent and entertaining books with diverse LGBTQ+ and Black characters that you could be reading instead of that book, or that other book. Deciding whether to boycott the work of problematic authors is on a case-by-case basis, and depends on how awful they are, or were. In the case of living artists, is buying their work enabling them to continue to be awful? (Almost always yes.) Is their awfulness reflected in their work? But that’s the subject of another post. This is about r...
January 16, 2024
A historic moment
I am so proud of my friend Linda, who gave the first ever Pagan reflection at the Scottish Parliament today. She did a brilliant job.
View the video
