Pagan Every Day: Finding the Extraordinary in Our Ordinary Lives

by Barbara Ardinger

Barbara Ardinger teaches us that a contemporary spiritual experience can show up in some of the most unexpected places—such as The Muppet Show and Dirty Dancing. Clearly Pagan Every Day is not your ordinary goddess-a-day or spell recipe book! Rather than writing about the usual sabbat rituals and offering the standard goddess-speak, Ardinger offers 366 (365 plus one to grow on) literate and witty entries on various topics that provoke readers with new ideas and new ways of exploring paganism as a spiritual practice.

Included are the holy days of other cultures, pagan elements in literature, lessons from history, famous pagans, and popular culture and paganism. Ardinger teaches us to look for undercurrents of esoterica not only in witch movies or fantasy television, but in the mainstream culture. Take February 2—reflect on the movie Groundhog Day and how it symbolizes karma and reincarnation. Intertwined are some more traditional pagan beliefs, with a contemporary twist. On August 17, Ardinger retells the familiar story of Odin and his search for runes and transforms it into a shamanic journey for each of us to find our own runes.

Jane Goodall, Judy Chicago, John Donne, Miss Piggy, Harry Potter, the Ghosts of all those Christmases, Mary Magdalene, not to mention Saturn, Diana, Sonnenwenda, Adonis, Aphrodite—they all have their places in Pagan Every Day.

Genres: Paganism, Nonfiction, Religion

379 pages, Paperback

First published August 7, 2006

Reviews

[Diana · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was not the kind of book I expected. I thought it would be about bringing a pagan aspect to everyday life, but it was more of a day book, with a short selection to read for each day, most of which dealt with subjects that didn't seem wholly pagan to me.

[Maggie · Rating 2 out of 5]

It is one of those page to a day books which I find annoying. Each entry (many quite brief) deals with paganism in a unique and surprising way - in fact I felt that many of the entries weren't particularly pagan at all - lots of references to modern culture, films. A lot is made of annual and cultural celebration days, some quite obscure. I read this to learn, and came away feeling I had not. Now, I am not a Pagan - not by a long shot, but I am interested in goddesses, spirituality, nature, and so paganism comes into my field of general interest. I found this to be a bit too cutesy for me.

[Christy Stewart · Rating 1 out of 5]

If you are an earthy wiccan who is looking for a Chicken Soup for the Soul type book to add to your collection; this is it. Nothing against those people, but I'm not it.

[JOELLA · Rating 2 out of 5]

I know numerous people who consider themselves pagan in this area and have often found certain things intriguing and some down right strange, confusing or even inconsistent. Since I am in a learning mood these days I decided I wanted to understand it a little more. This book is like a Pagan devotional. It gives little tidbits every day that stem from beliefs or practices. It left me feeling more confused and baffled than anything and again demonstrated inconsistencies. I learned some but was left with more questions than understanding.

[Hali Davidson · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a fun and informative bathroom read.

[Tami · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pagan Every Day is directed at the "pagan" but as the author explains this word really just refers to any belief system that is Non-Christian. It is not that Christianity is trashed in this book on the contrary the author has been very careful to represent and be lovingly tolerant of all traditions. The entries simply examine history, mythology, and beliefs that tend have more than one God or Goddess or that share insight into the living earth.

Topics are too numerous to mention and I have bookmarks and written notations marking up most of the book. There is a lot of information on Greek, Roman, Sumerian, and Egyptian Deities complete with references showing the evolutions and connections between these different beings amongst different cultures. There are interesting sections describing the practices of different traditions from Buddhism to Wicca. The author describes some locations that I definitely have to visit. She even shares a few spells and some contemplative activities to undertake.

Since I had to do a review of Pagan Every Day, I read this book from start to end. I was overwhelmed with the interesting information, great ideas, and little comments that really made me think. Now that I've completed this review, I can go back and more leisurely reread the entries. This way, I can take in a lot more of the information, do a little more research in some of the areas that really intrigued me when I read them the first time, and take a little more time to contemplate some of the notions presented.

[Cara · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was going to check out this book from the library, but it seems more like a book I would buy just because it has a different page for every day of the year to tell you something about how that day has meaning in paganism. However, the version I checked out was published in 2006, and when I looked up the day, that page had a blurb about Daylight Savings Time - since the DST rules changed recently, the day is off! But that's so minor for what seems like a neat book to have around.

[Jenn C]

An eclectic - and interesting - mix of ancient and modern, which I am currently making my way through), though resources (books, websites) would have been a nice addition after each entry. (There is a bibliography at the end, but the sources listed aren't linked to any of the specific subjects.)

[Regina Hunter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Unique

[Juli Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a typical page-a-day "spiritual" guide for pagans. I put "spiritual" in quotes here because I think Ardinger has as much an eye on pop culture, history, and weird factoids as she does for devotional writing. Her approach is obviously Goddess-centric, but she manages to remain fairly undogmatic in this book. As a devotional, this book is not for me (I think I will like Living Earth Devotional: 365 Green Practices for Sacred Connection much better), but as a bathroom reader, it would be pretty fun.