Read this first: “A Cultpunk Manifesto”

We are Cultpunks.  We affirm that belief systems, rituals, symbols, pilgrimages, tenets, holy days, shrines, festivals, taboos, mythologies and pantheons can and should be created as works of art.  If so, then surely any sufficiently advanced magic is likewise indistinguishable from technology, and religions may usefully be considered as psychological technologies.  Just like any other tech, … Read moreRead this first: “A Cultpunk Manifesto”

Pasaquoyanism: Building a Religion into Being

Pasaquoyanism was the religion of Eddie Owens Martin, the visionary artist better known as St. EOM. Its chief monument is Pasaquan, the seven-acre sacred environment he constructed near Buena Vista, Georgia from the mid-1950s until his death in 1986. There, brightly painted walls, temples, pagodas and monumental figures announce the presence of an imaginary civilization … Read morePasaquoyanism: Building a Religion into Being

The Sky Meadow Folkways

A short philosophical video on the developing folkways – meaningful rituals, customs and mythopoetic traditions – at Sky Meadow, a nature retreat in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom mountains.  The Sky Meadow folkways can be considered as the vernacular praxis of a hyper-local, naturalistic spirituality, taking the real world seriously enough to create ceremonies of storytelling, memorial … Read moreThe Sky Meadow Folkways

“The Witch of Kings Cross” (2021)

Recommended to anyone with an interest in recent Pagan/countercultural history, this suitably artistic documentary delves into the radical life, art and legacy of Rosaleen Norton, known in her heyday as the Witch of Kings Cross. The extraordinarily conservative climate of 1950s Australia was unable to perceive Norton’s lifeworks, which included the ritual veneration of Pan, … Read more“The Witch of Kings Cross” (2021)

In Memoriam: Steve Aydt (1963-2026)

Sad to learn of the recent passing of Steve Aydt, a longtime fixture, mover and shaker in the Texan counterculture scene and founder of the Eulessyinian Hot Tub Mystery Religion. I interviewed Steve on that subject in late 2024, and that interview is part of the second volume of the anthology Poetic Faiths: New Religions … Read moreIn Memoriam: Steve Aydt (1963-2026)

Sky Meadow 2026

Just returned from our much-anticipated, at-least-annual visit to the Sky Meadow Retreat in Vermont’s Northeastern Kingdom mountains. The Sky Meadow property was first developed as a working farm in the 1850s, later became derelict, was rehabilitated and transformed into a spiritual/nature retreat in the 1980s and sustains a more recent ambition to serve as the … Read moreSky Meadow 2026

“The Religion of a Sceptic” (John Cowper Powys, 1925)

Excerpts from John Cowper Powys’ essay: To regard religion as mythology does not make it less important. It gives it a new and lovely glamour. It restores to it the enchantment which it possessed at the beginning when its dogmas had not yet lost their natural poetry in the laboratory of theological speculation. No cultivation … Read more“The Religion of a Sceptic” (John Cowper Powys, 1925)

“For 1,000 years, a cult worshipped the hero of the Odyssey”

Isabelle Gerretsen writes for the BBC: At the start of the Odyssey, the epic poem’s war-weary protagonist finds himself trapped on a remote island by the goddess Calypso. She promises Odysseus immortality and eternal youth if he chooses to stay with her. But after 10 years of waging war against the Trojans alongside other Greek heroes, Odysseus … Read more“For 1,000 years, a cult worshipped the hero of the Odyssey”