Two other people participated in the Changing Paths blogging challenge 2024: Jarred the Wyrd-worker and The River Crow. Kudos to Jarred for keeping it up for the whole month and continuing to write blogposts in response to the prompts at the end of the chapters in Changing Paths. And The River Crow wrote some beautiful poetry in response to the prompts.
Continue readingother people’s journeys
Deconversion story
Books
Changing Paths challenge day 25: books 📚
I love reading books. I love writing books. I love talking about books. I love having a to-be-read pile. I love rereading books that I have enjoyed.
A book is a little world and its characters are mirrors you can hold up, and try identifying with them to make sense of who you are.
Continue readingOn being a Queer Muslim
Amazing conversation on being a Queer Muslim, leaving and returning to your religion with a fresh perspective, navigating different spaces that don’t support every aspect of who you are, and dealing with religious trauma.
Reblog: Why I like being a Pagan
There was some part of me that almost craved a sense of wonder and magic — something existing just beyond the humdrum of everyday life — all my life. I remember being a kid and imagining that I could feel the flow of magical energy all around me.
Why I like being a Pagan: Exploring a journal prompt from Chapter 8 of “Changing Paths”
Reblog: Desiring sacred community
My belief that both I and the other are sacred has me focusing more on building and nurturing relationships between the sacred self, sacred others, and the sacred world. I find myself looking more at the importance of community.
— Jarred the Wyrd-worker
Desiring sacred community: Exploring a journal prompt from chapter 6 of “Changing Paths”
Reblog: My religious deal-breakers
My religious deal-breakers: Exploring a journal prompt from chapter 5 of “Changing Paths.”
Hello readers and happy Friday! Time to tackle another journal prompt from Changing Paths by Yvonne Aburrow. This week, we’re looking at chapter 5, …
Before I start pulling out my “laundry list” and discussing it, I should note that this is today’s list of my deal-breakers. I’m not sure everything would have been on my list back in 1998 when I was making my break from Christianity. After all, my only goal in 1996 was to make peace with the fact that I was gay. I didn’t plan on changing any other aspect of my faith at that time. But that’s the thing about such lists. They change and grow as we do. We need to allow them to change. Maybe we’ll add new items to the list. Maybe we’ll take some items back off it, or at least clarify what exactly it is we’re opposed to. But let’s get on with my current deal-breakers.
My religious deal-breakers: Exploring a journal prompt from chapter 5 of “Changing Paths.”
Reblog: A weird boy, but definitely a boy
A weird boy, but definitely a boy: Freestyling it again for chapter 4 of “Changing Paths”
This Friday, I’ll be blogging some of my thoughts from reading Chapter 4, “Religion and Gender” of Yvonne Aburrow’s book, Changing Paths…
It’s been interesting for me as a man primarily dedicated to and working with Freyja. It seems in some Pagan and witchcraft circles that it’s typically thought that men will dedicate themselves to a god and women will dedicate themselves to a goddess.
A weird boy, but definitely a boy: Freestyling it again for chapter 4 of “Changing Paths”
Alanah Sabatini
Beautiful music for deconstruction from toxic religions by Alanah Sabatini, who has just released an EP of reclaimed hymns. It’s available on Bandcamp and YouTube now, and on all the major streaming services next Friday:
It’s very calming and could be sung as a group. It would work well in Unitarian, Unitarian Universalist, and Pagan settings, as well as at atheist events.
You can find her on instagram & threads as @alanah.dont.wanna
Reblog: Ritual style preferences
Reblogging Jarred the Wyrdworker who is writing blogposts using the prompts from Changing Paths.
Ritual style preferences: Exploring a journal prompt from chapter 1 of “Changing Paths”
I find all four styles — or at least elements from them — appealing. I certainly like the familiarity of certain liturgical elements whose symbolism and meanings I can fall upon. Yet I’m not big on “avoiding outbursts of emotion” or embracing a total lack of spontaneity. So I prefer repeating a ritual structure that has been carefully thought out and contains deep meaning for me, yet leaves space for moments from the heart and the interjection of Divine (or human) ecstasy into a particular rite as well.
Ritual style preferences: Exploring a journal prompt from chapter 1 of “Changing Paths”
I think Pagan traditions often mix different styles together (liturgical plus magical, or creative + magical). I liked Jarred’s thoughts about ceremonial rituals to create or strengthen community cohesion too.
Just to note that the ritual modes or styles were originally categorized by Ronald Grimes.
Changing Paths 