“Why Fictional Religions Feel So Fake”
The ReligionForBreakfast YouTube channel offers advice for science fiction and fantasy worldbuilders towards creating imaginary religions that feel lived-in and real.
Cultpunk
Stephen Jenkinson on Ritual
“A ritual, if it is truly a ritual and not a gauzy affirmation of the best of life, or a threadbare disdain for the lowly and the prosaic, carries something of the radioactive about it, something of the dark arts.” “Rituals are out at the edge of what is likely, what is familiar. They are … Read moreStephen Jenkinson on Ritual
“I became a sun-worshipper” (George Carlin, 1999)
The incomparable George Carlin explains his conversion to sun worship during his 1999 TV special You Are All Diseased.
The Clock People (from “Even Cowgirls Get the Blues”)
Above: Pat Morita in the godawful film version of Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, which omits the Clock People storyline entirely. For your own sake, read the novel instead. The Clock People manage their anarchism (if that is not a contradiction) simply because they have channeled all of their authoritarian compulsions and control mania into … Read moreThe Clock People (from “Even Cowgirls Get the Blues”)
“The Rise of Religious Naturalism: A New Public Theology of Sacred Nature”
Wayne Martin Mellinger writes on the past and future of religious naturalism, arguing in favor of a more Dionysian, intuitive, deeply playful approach than has often been evident in this niche movement: Abstract The Rise of Religious Naturalism: A New Public Theology of Sacred Nature explores the emergence of Religious Naturalism (RN) as both a … Read more“The Rise of Religious Naturalism: A New Public Theology of Sacred Nature”
New Traditions: an Illustrated Memoir of the Sky Meadow Sacred Harvest 2025
Photos courtesy and Kathrynne and Tony Wolf. Recently returned from another week-long stay at Sky Meadow, our soulful home-away-from-home deep in the mountains of Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom. Originally a dairy farm and homestead dating back to the mid-19th century, the 114-acre property has served as a spiritual/nature retreat and permaculture farm since the 1980s. The … Read moreNew Traditions: an Illustrated Memoir of the Sky Meadow Sacred Harvest 2025
“How to avoid getting drawn into a cult” (BBC Ideas)
Richard Turner, a former cult member who is now a recovery therapist, explores how social groups that establish coercive control often don’t fit the “cult” stereotypes, and don’t need to, in order to pose a threat.
“The TRUTH About Bread and Puppet”
An intrepid reporter goes undercover to expose the bizarre “Bread and Puppet” cult in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom mountains … In actuality, the Bread and Puppet Theater is a venerable and beloved mainstay of the Vermont counterculture scene. Hats off to the vlogger for her hilariously convincing homage to conspiracy nut Alex Jones’ infamous “infiltration” of … Read more“The TRUTH About Bread and Puppet”
The Spiritual Naturalist Society
Brendan Graham Dempsey of the Metamodern Meaning podcast interviews Daniel Strain and Alex Cheruk, the founder and Executive Director, respectively, of the Spiritual Naturalist Society.
“How Spirituality Went from Taboo to Trendy in the Art World”
Eleanor Heartley writes for Art in America: (…) at the advent of the second quarter of the 21st century, a pileup of crises—social, political, environmental, and technological—seems to have all but extinguished the sense of optimism about the future that flared periodically throughout the 20th century. Af Klint’s mysterious, luminous abstractions offer a salve to … Read more“How Spirituality Went from Taboo to Trendy in the Art World”