Yvonne Aburrow's Blog, page 61

Can belief in deities be compatible with science?

Some have argued that any form of theism is incompatible with science. Which is odd when so many scientists are theistic in some form or other.

Science and religion

The bitterest argument between science and theism is between evolutionary biology and creationist monotheism, for obvious reasons. According to , however, only about 50% of Pagans believe in a creator deity. Many would say that the universe was born, not made. And they would regard the Big Bang as the moment of bir...

Photography, embodiment, and memory

It’s a curious thing, but when you’re behind a camera, especially one where you have to put your eye close to the viewfinder to see the field of view, you sometimes forget to really look at things and take them in properly. It starts to feel like the camera will do the remembering for you.

There’s a photo of me when I was little, poking a twig between the wooden slats of a bridge. I think my body remembers standing on that bridge, bending over and carefully inserting the twig in the gap. But...

First footing

How to make a New Year luck bag for first footing.

First get or make a drawstring bag. The simplest way to make a bag is to get a square of cloth, place the items on it, take the corners of the cloth in your fingers, twist the cloth into a neck, and tie the ribbon around it.

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A piece of coal (or wood) so that you’ll have enough fuel for heating throughout the year.

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A leaf of holly (or other evergreen) so you’ll have luck throughout the year.

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Some money, so you’ll have money throughout the...

Rite of farewell (for leaving a coven)

I wrote this ritual more than a decade ago, so I can’t remember if we used it in this exact form, but I think it’s important to have rituals to mark changes in your group. Just as you welcome new people with initiations and other commitment ceremonies, it makes sense to offer some sort of closure when they leave.

Start with brief explanation of reasons for leaving & reactions from those remaining.

Set up the circle in the usual way for your tradition.

Each covener charges a pebble or other g...

Plants of Mexico

Today we went on a Hidden Mexico tour to El Tuito, taking in a botanical garden, a village, a wood turning workshop, a bakery with an adobe oven, an artists’ cooperative, a graveyard, some ancient petroglyphs, and lunch in a stream. 

We saw coffee plants with beans on them, avocado trees, lime trees, orange trees, a vanilla vine, a strelitzia flower, and loads of bougainvillea. It’s cool to see things growing outside that we only know as houseplants and hothouse flowers.

Our guide told us so...

Books I’ve read in 2018

I’ve read a lot of books in 2018, so this will be a list of the ones I can remember, or that I listed as having read on Goodreads. I got the idea for this post from a post by James at A Tolkienist’s Perspective. The links in this post go to my reviews of the books listed.

Indigenous rights

First up, two important books for understanding the situation of Indigenous Peoples in Canada:

Indigenous Writes by Chelsea Vowel. A highly accessible read which provides an overview of the current situat...

Thoughts on Planet Narnia

Brenton Dickinson has an interesting post up about his upcoming critique of Michael Ward’s theory that the Narnia books were written to illustrate the ideas of medieval planetary astrology (one book per planet). I read a bit about Planet Narnia when it came out, but have never got around to reading it, partly because I can see that the books have planetary symbolism now that it’s been pointed out, but it is not the main point of the books.

Even if Lewis did not deliberately write the Narnia...

Mexican birds

One of the most amazing birds we’ve seen in Mexico is the frigate bird. I’ve never seen one before but I thought that was what they were as soon as I saw them.

Here’s a picture of one from Wikimedia Commons, by Amado Demesa [CC-SA-2.0].

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We have also seen terns, pelicans, pied avocets, and a rather elusive yellow finch. (All the rest of the photos in this post are by me.)

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Pelican fishing from a boat.

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Pied avocets (I was very excited to see avocets as they are very rare in England and they...

Solstice in Mexico

We arrived on the afternoon of the 20th. Had a stroll around the marina near the hotel. Quite a contrast between temperatures in Canada and here. [image error][image error] There are signs warning of crocodiles in the harbour. [image error] Here the Christmas trees and baubles are outside and it’s about the same temperature as a Canadian summer. [image error] There’s a Nativity scene in the hotel garden. The Bambino Jesus doesn’t arrive until the evening of December 24th, so it looks incomplete without him. The three Magi look distinctly sh...

Ambient Literary Noises

Someone suggested to the Bodleian Library on Twitter that they should post recordings of ambient library noises on their SoundCloud. I initially misread this as ambient literary noises, like the sound of the snow in Narnia melting… the slight tearing noise made by the Subtle Knife as it opens the way between universes… the ghosts of Christmas tenses manifesting to Scrooge…

That got me thinking about more ambient literary noises that I would like to hear.

Pan piping at the gates of dawn.

Asla...