Changing Paths challenge day 21 — family
There are two types of family — the one you were born into, and the one you choose. If your birth family is problematic for some reason, you can create your own.
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Seven fires
Changing Paths blogging challenge day 20: hopes and fears.
When I chose this prompt, I was thinking of the position in the solar cross Tarot spread that corresponds to hopes and fears.
But now, with the news that we will be crossing the 1.5°C global warming threshold in the next few years, I’m reminded of the Seven Fires Prophecy of the Anishinaabe:
Continue readingJungian dreams
Changing Paths challenge day 19 — dreams.
Once I dreamed that I was walking across a rocky sandy landscape (the bedrock was reddish sandstone) and saw an old church.
To the library!
Changing Paths challenge 18 — throwback Thursday.
This was my local library when I was a kid. It’s where I discovered Greek mythology, The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Mary Stewart’s Arthurian trilogy, Robin Hood, Roger Lancelyn-Green, Geoffrey Trease, Henry Treece, and many more. I was introduced to Cynthia Harnett by a teacher at school but I am sure I borrowed some of her books from this library. I first learned about heraldry from Cynthia Harnett too.
Continue readingDeep magic
Changing Paths challenge day 17 — deep magic
The deepest magic that I know is love. Not sacrificial love, not romantic love, but the everyday magic of connection, nourishing and soul-satisfying.
Continue readingStories
Changing Paths challenge day 16 — stories.
The power of stories to change and challenge a person’s worldview is immense. My worldview was definitely informed by reading A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula Le Guin, Tolkien’s The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings, The Writing on the Hearth by Cynthia Harnett (now sadly forgotten by most people), Mary Stewart’s Arthurian trilogy, and The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint Exupéry. And of course the Narnia series by CS Lewis, and many other books depicting a magical mythopoeic worldview. Ursula Le Guin’s science fiction was and remains extremely important to me.
Continue readingWibbly wobbly
Changing Paths challenge day 14: changing paths.
Changing paths is a wibbly-wobbly thing. During the process, I was all over the place. It was like having the bends (you know, the thing where a diver rises too quickly to the surface and gets cramps) or being on a giant scary roller coaster ride. That’s why I wrote the book, in the hope of helping other people to have a gentler ride through the process — regardless of their starting point or destination. Although the second half is about joining Paganism, it’s fairly applicable to joining any group.
Continue readingThings I miss
Changing Paths challenge day 13 — things I do miss about my old path.
Unitarian hymns — specifically the earth-based ones like Peter Mayer’s “Blue Boat Home” (which doesn’t get sung often enough in the UK), “Mother Spirit” by Norbert Čapek, and nature-based ones like “Daisies are our silver” and “Spirit of Life” of course, but also some of the other ones like “Name Unnamed” which is beautiful. And I really appreciate how the Unitarians have defanged some of the classic Christian hymns by removing the obnoxious bits.
And the earth is my blue boat home” — UU poster by Gwinna
Blue Boat Home (tune: Hyfrydol) by Peter Mayer
Though below me, I feel no motion
Standing on these mountains and plains
Far away from the rolling ocean
Still my dry land heart can say
I’ve been sailing all my life now
Never harbor or port have I known
The wide universe is the ocean I travel
And the earth is my blue boat home
Sun, my sail, and moon my rudder
As I ply the starry sea
Leaning over the edge in wonder
Casting questions into the deep
Drifting here with my ship’s companions
All we kindred pilgrim souls
Making our way by the lights of the heavens
In our beautiful blue boat home
I give thanks to the waves upholding me
Hail the great winds urging me on
Greet the infinite sea before me
Sing the sky my sailor’s song
I was born upon the fathoms
Never harbor or port have I known
The wide universe is the ocean I travel
And the earth is my blue boat home
Changing Paths is published by 1000Volt Press and is available from all the usual online stores. Ask your local bookseller or library to stock it!
The goal of the book is to help you decide your own path by guiding you through the perils and pitfalls of the terrain, and asking questions to help you deepen your understanding of the reasons for your desire to change paths.
Things I don’t miss
Changing Paths challenge day 12 — things I don’t miss about the traditions I have left.
Continue readingLover of leaving
Changing Paths challenge day 11 — why I left
I left Unitarianism in the end because of archetypes. The archetype that fits me the best is that of the witch, and it’s an archetype that sits uncomfortably in the Unitarian path. (The combination may work for others: didn’t work for me.)
I left Christianity because of its exclusivist views on salvation and the institutional homophobia.
And when I left Paganism for a while in 2007, it was because of it being excessively heterocentric / heteronormative, and other reasons too lengthy to get into here.
However, at the end of the day, you have to pick something (could be atheism, could agnosticism, could be a religion or spirituality) and make it work for you. I chose inclusive polytheist Wicca.
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Changing Paths 