Sam Webster's Blog, page 4
February 19, 2014
Pantheon Foundation: building 21st Century Pagan infrastructure
When talk is not enough, it is time to build. This month, with the Claremont Conference on Contemporary Paganism and PantheaCon, I’m taking the month off from my regular Pagan Restoration blog post to announce the formation of a new Pagan service organization: the Pantheon Foundation.
We are a California non-profit religious corporation applying for 501(c)(3) status with the IRS. Our mission is to provide IRS group exemptions for Pagan organizations through fiscal sponsorship, develop Pagan ministry, study the history, promote the culture, and advance the social welfare of Pagans and the Pagan community.
You can find us on-line at PantheonFoundation.org and on FaceBook, Twitter and Google +.
Please have a look, join our mailing list, consider making a donation.
February 12, 2014
Pantheon Foundation: building 21st Century Pagan infrastructure
When talk is not enough, it is time to build. This month, with the Claremont Conference on Contemporary Paganism and PantheaCon, I’m taking the month off from my regular Arkadian Anvil blog post to announce the formation of a new Pagan service organization: the Pantheon Foundation.
We are a California non-profit religious corporation applying for 501(c)(3) status with the IRS. Our mission is to provide IRS group exemptions for Pagan organizations through fiscal sponsorship, develop Pagan ministry, study the history, promote the culture, and advance the social welfare of Pagans and the Pagan community.
You can find us on-line at PantheonFoundation.org and on FaceBook, Twitter and Google +.
Please have a look, join our mailing list, consider making a donation. And if you’re attending PantheaCon, be sure to stop by our reception on Saturday evening, 9 p.m., suite 1060.
February 5, 2014
Going to PantheaCon?
Here are the Hermes and allied activities at the Con:
1) Hermes Caucus gathering. We’ll start with a brief into to the Dharma practices that front the Tantric Hermes ritual and then render prayer and offering to Hermes the Goer. Then we’ll talk about the status of our various projects discussed at the first Hermes caucus meeting two years ago, and especially to pre-announce the Pantheon Foundation.
Friday 7pm OSOGD Suite 1060
2) Coru Cathubodua is sponsoring a panel on Sacrifice and Modern Paganism.
Dr. Amy Hale and I will both be on the panel. Should be exciting.
Saturday 11am Oak
3) The Tantric Hermes Invocation
Saturday 1:30pm Silicon Valley
4) Oracles from the Living Tarot (A covert CAYA project)
Rabbit & I will be in it.
Saturday 3:30 Cedar/Pine
5) Pantheon Foundation announcement and reception. We have finally built a Pagan religious non-profit organization to serve the many needs of our community and provide legal coverage for our small organizations. This specifically grew out of the Hermes caucus meeting two years ago. Come meet the Board of Directors and Advisors.
Saturday 9pm OSOGD Suite 1060
6) Pagans and Institution Building
For any of you interested in the process of community building or if you want to better understand the role that institutions (such as the Pantheon Foundation) play in shaping modern Paganism, this will be a good opportunity to learn more and be a part of the discussion. Dr Amy Hale and I will be facilitating.
Sunday 9am in Monterey
The Way of Hermes is being rebuilt, and so is the Way of Aphrodite!
Two rituals for Her are planned for the Con:
A) The Many Faces of Aphrodite ritual hosted by the Temple of Aphrodite
Friday 3:30pm in Pine
B) The Rite of Love and Delight is being sponsored by Sacred Fires and Caya
Friday 9pm in Oak
Hope to see you there!
Blessings of the Herm,
)O+
sam
January 30, 2014
Interview with the Mystical Positivist
This weekend I was interviewed by Stuart Goodnick and Rob Schmidt of the Mystical Positivist radio show. Great Fun! Practitioners of meditation themselves (the Way of Tayu), the conversation dove deep quickly past the surface definitions to meaningful experience.
January 29, 2014
We made the top 5, but we can do better
Seriously, Providence RI takes top billing for the least Bible-minded cities? San Francisco simply must work harder!
Barna has a report out: http://cities.barna.org/americas-most-bible-minded-cities-2014/
January 22, 2014
Free Money?
What would you do with $1000 or so a month given to you just because you are a citizen?
This is the somewhat startling idea behind a minimum guaranteed income. Apparently this has been around for while and is under discussion again. With good paying jobs going to robots, and the high cost of administering social safety-net programs, the idea of just giving everyone a lump of cash each month is becoming more than just attractive, but may be a functional way of solving an enormous and increasingly pressing set of problems.
Here is a interesting post on the subject: https://decorrespondent.nl/541/why-we-should-give-free-money-to-everyone/35246939860-ec3a6c3e
Thoughts?
January 17, 2014
Monist? How are you using the word?
Sorry to break my rule of posting every Wednesday, but I was on travel and helping a friend with a family situation. But, the Pagan Restoration post got out, just not referenced here. This time, Monism and some thoughts about how the term is used is the topic…
I’ve been noting over that past year the use of the term monist to designate a bad kind of paganism, at least from the point of the writer, particularly when they are of the so-called “hard” polytheist variety. Frankly, I’m never really sure what they mean other than monism is somehow bad. Its use also (apparently) contradicts the technical meaning of the term. Perhaps you help me understand how they mean to use it… [Read more...]
January 8, 2014
Kinds of Knowing
Today, on the Arkadian Anvil, I hammer out some thoughts on epistemology and the problem of belief.
Different kinds of knowing, each having their own veracity and value, are to be cultivated and used appropriately. However, there is one kind of knowing we should avoid as much as possible: belief.
Read More: http://witchesandpagans.com/Pagan-Studies-Blogs/kinds-of-knowledge.html
January 1, 2014
Happy New Year!
Saw an interesting video: The Trap
It proposes that the only effective ethical freedom system is negative (freedom from), and that any effort at imposing any ethical system, even the imposition of a negative system, leads to tyranny.
Also, provides evidence that the source of zombies is in a cold war program dreamt up by an insane mathematician. Go figure. . .
The Trap, 2007
The series consists of three one-hour programmes which explore the concept and definition of freedom, specifically, ‘how a simplistic model of human beings as self-seeking, almost robotic, creatures led to today’s idea of freedom.’
December 25, 2013
Happy Mithrismas
For me there is no meaningful difference in the subject studied by science or by magic. In fact it was science that lead me to the study of magic, as the study of phenomena I experienced, and the discipline that examined and employed those phenomena. This has driven me all my life.
Recently I can across this video by a woman deeply passionate about physics. I give it to you as a Mithrismas present that it may inspire your passion and the passion to understand our world.
Blessings of Sol Invictus and Happiness for All!
