“Be Open to Spiritual Experience. Also, Be Really Careful.”

An elegant expression of the CultPunk/Poetic Faith perspective courtesy of Ross Douthat, writing for The New York Times: Start with the broad youthful impulse toward what you might call magical thinking, ranging from the vogue for astrology to the TikTok craze for manifesting desired outcomes in your life. In certain ways this is an extension of the … Read more“Be Open to Spiritual Experience. Also, Be Really Careful.”

“How to Find Your Faith: the key to transcendence starts with a practice, not your feelings”

Arthur C. Brooks writes for The Atlantic, pointing out that spiritual practice is at least as important as feeling and faith; perhaps no more so than for the growing demographic of those who profess to be “spiritual but not religious”. The right approach is to start practicing, notwithstanding your current state of belief and feeling. … Read more“How to Find Your Faith: the key to transcendence starts with a practice, not your feelings”

“Metamodern Religion is Just Getting Started”

Inspiration from Brendan Graham Dempsey, caretaker of the Sky Meadow retreat center and principal of the Sky Meadow Institute: Despite the recent uptick of high-profile conversions to traditional Christianity, metamodern spirituality remains centered in progressive developments of and radically novel innovations to religion. Here I foreground and recall these efforts in the desire to reconnect … Read more“Metamodern Religion is Just Getting Started”

“The Demons of Satanism & the Religions of the Nontheistic”

Satanic Temple co-founder Lucien Greaves writes: Theistic religions often only differ from nontheistic religions, at their core, only in degree of intellectual humility. We identify with our mythology, our values and ethics are contextualized by our understanding of Satanism, but we view all knowledge as provisional, as we religiously believe in the value of intellectual … Read more“The Demons of Satanism & the Religions of the Nontheistic”

Forbidden Fruit Eve: a Proposal for a New Satanic Yuletide Custom

In the hallowed tradition of inventing new holidays and rituals expressing the wants and needs of niche communities – witness the viral success of Wolfenoot, an annual festival of canine-themed kindness created by an imaginative seven-year-old, or Festivus, as popularized by Seinfeld – here is a modest but timely proposal for Forbidden Fruit Eve as … Read moreForbidden Fruit Eve: a Proposal for a New Satanic Yuletide Custom