Yvonne Aburrow's Blog, page 13

Nonbinary Vikings

There’s been a bit of a trend lately for AI-generated “what would you look like as a Viking” pictures. I’m boycotting AI for various reasons (it’s soulless, I don’t like where it is headed, it’s currently unregulated, and AI “art” plagiarizes human art). So I thought I would search for a nonbinary Viking image created by a real artist and post that instead. I found a picture of a dead nonbinary Viking, which was featured in a really interesting article about a nonbinary Viking burial (obviously ...

Despair and the inner life

How do we continue with the inner work when everything is scary and bleak?

One book that really helped me with this question is Hope in the Dark by Rebecca Solnit.

And I also think that it is necessary for activists to practice self care (in the Audre Lorde sense of self care, which is more of a communal and radical self care, not the commercialized version).

Sometimes, when things are overwhelmingly bleak, spirituality can seem like self-indulgence (especially when it doesn’t acknowled...

Happy birthday Doreen Valiente

Happy birthday to Doreen Valiente

“Doreen Edith Dominy Valiente (4 January 1922 – 1 September 1999) was an English Wiccan who was responsible for writing much of the early religious liturgy within the tradition of Gardnerian Wicca. An author and poet, she also published five books dealing with Wicca and related esoteric subjects.”

Wikipedia

I was lucky to hear her speak at the Pagan Federation conference in 1997. You can find a transcript of her speech on the inclusive Wicca website.

...

Books I read in 2023

I also read The Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers by Xiaolu Guo but somehow it didn’t get onto this list.

I didn’t write nearly as many book reviews this year, which was very relaxing. but here are the ones that I did write.

Review: The Moonday Letters by Emmi Itäranta by Sophie KeetchReview: The Witch’s Path by Thorn MooneyReview: The book of Cernunnos, eds. Jason Mankey and John BeckettReview: Queen of All Witc...

Diaspora and colonialism

Just a thought… imagine if a huge number of people descended from the Irish diaspora decided to return to Ireland, not just as immigrants but as colonists who then took over the government, displaced large numbers of the current inhabitants, and then forced the remaining existing population of Ireland to live in a small enclave, which they then bombed repeatedly, while persecuting any of the current inhabitants in the settler zone.

The Irish diaspora were forced to leave Ireland because of ho...

A caricature of Paganisms

If you want to overcome a powerful adversary, one possible tactic is first to make a caricature of your enemy into a bogey to frighten your children, and then reduce that bogey to an absurd oversimplification of your enemy.

This is exactly what the Christian church did to ancient paganism.

In his magnum opus, The Triumph of the Moon, Ronald Hutton identified four languages or discourses about Paganism which were prevalent in earlier centuries.

The first is that of evangelists and mi...

Cui bono?

When reading any article about anything, especially opinion pieces, one should ask, “cui bono?” (Who benefits from this?) That’s the Occam’s Razor.

And of course compare different sources and use the recommended methods for evaluation of online sources.

Who is the author? What’s their angle? Why are they highlighting the issue that the article is about? What are they ignoring? Who agrees with them? Who disagrees with them?

This doesn’t mean that every author is suspect or mercenary...

Still second class citizens

So the Pope has offered the blessing of same sex relationships—while still saying that same sex relationships are sinful. You can’t bless something with one hand and condemn it with the other.

This is more of the same homophobia with a slightly better public relations spin on it. A turd augmented with glitter.

Read more on the Changing Paths blog

The Christmas tree

The Christmas tree was invented in 1520s Germany and was popularized in England by Prince Albert.

However: the practice of bringing greenery into the house does date back to ancient pagan practices. Source: Stations of the Sun by Ronald Hutton.

Photo: our 2022 Yule tree

“Shall we liken Christmas to the web in a loom?  There are many weavers, who work into the pattern the experience of their lives. When one generation goes, another comes to take up the weft where it has been dr...

No tech for apartheid

notechforapartheid.com

Heeding the call from over 1000 Google and Amazon workers to rise up against the contract known as Project Nimbus. Technology should be used to bring people together, not enable apartheid, ethnic cleansing, and settler-colonialism.

Call or email your representatives to demand a permanent ceasefire 

tinyurl.com/CeasefireNowCanada

We need to keep up the pressure. 

Follow Standing Together English — an organization that brings Israelis and Palestinians ...