William, a Pagan Humanist
Welcome to A Pagan Humanist, I am William and my blog provides a means for me to engage with a larger audience than my circle of friends and local events. With that, permit me to provide some background about me. I have been actively engaged as a Pagan for over 30 years. This means that I been part of and founded groups; worked with other Pagans; attended both private and public rituals; taught; drummed; danced; expressed my views; been interviewed by the media; held offices; attend and taught at festivals; counseled others; made mistakes within the community; changed my opinion over time; learned; been too stubborn to learn; read; donated time and money; and a whole plethora of other stuff. However, by no means am I an elder in a tradition or the community. Mostly, I think that I am an average Pagan who has been around long enough to be involved with some very interesting local groups, people, and events.
I have an academic tendency in my studies where I engage in religious philosophy within a Pagan context. I serve on the Board of Directors of Cherry Hill Seminary and the Conference on Current Pagan Studies. In part, this blog is my means of expressing those ideas that I think about, which includes Paganism as Piety (Єύσέβεia), Applied Ethics, Religion and Science, Greco-Roman Moralist, Philosophy, Aristotle, and Evolutionary Theory. Along with my academic tendencies, I provide Project and Program Development for local government and non-profits with some data and statistical analysis.
Wow. This is EXACTLY where I want to be. I have only recently (last few years) ‘come’ to paganism; it turns out that I had already been there, just didn’t know what to call it, having reasoned out my beliefs over time.
I’m so very interested in the intersection between paganism & philosophy. Are there any texts out there that explore that?
Thanks Scott, I think the Humanistic Paganism blog is great.
Hi William:
Nice blog. This is Scott. I met you at the Pagan Meetup by MistrissPrime in Orange last week (you know…tall guy sitting to your left). I got to your blog quite by accident. Syncronicity?! I was trolling around at humanisticpaganism.com and clicked on your link and…”OMG…I just met him!” LOL. There is a lot on the site I just mentioned above that “clicks” with me. Funny thing is, I was thinking about you, Angela, & others and how many other questions I wish I could have asked you guys. What I didn’t really tell you at that meeting was my naturalistic/humanistic bent toward things and my strong penchant for mythology as archetypes (ala Karl Jung & Joseph Campbell, just so you know where I’m coming from). I should have said something earlier but I had a little fear of being in a new group and not offending anyone with my humanistic bent; I just needed to feel where everyone else was coming from first. I also appreciated everyone’s acceptance of me. It is a nice group.
I have been reading a lot and have many deeper questions than I discussed at the meeting last week – particularly about things like a naturalistic view of magick and things like grounding. I really like a lot of what I am finding out but need to put it in a naturalistic framework that works for me. I am beginning to find that there are a few more people like me out there which helps. I would really appreciate if we could have a chat sometime. See email link. Thanks.
Scott