Invocation of the Queer Spirits: The Arts of Ritual, “Seance” and Memorial

From an interview with artist/healer AA Bronson: What happens in the séances? The séances are designed in a format suitable to the history of the location: in New Orleans, we have devised a ritual that utilizes the methods of Afro-Caribbean spiritual traditions, especially Voodoo, together with the methods of European ceremonial magic. Peter and I … Read moreInvocation of the Queer Spirits: The Arts of Ritual, “Seance” and Memorial

“Every Thing to be True Must Become a Religion”: Oscar Wilde’s Confraternity of the Faithless

“Religion does not help me. The faith that others give to what is unseen, I give to what one can touch, and look at. My gods dwell in temples made with hands; and within the circle of actual experience is my creed made perfect and complete: too complete, it may be, for like many or … Read more“Every Thing to be True Must Become a Religion”: Oscar Wilde’s Confraternity of the Faithless

Sir Francis Galton Worships Mr. Punch

In his 1909 book Memories of My Life, English polymath Sir Francis Galton reflected – in the language of his era, whose sentiments on civilization do not match our own in some regards – on several curious and creative experiments in poetic faith: In the days of my youth I felt, at one time, a passionate … Read moreSir Francis Galton Worships Mr. Punch

The Willing Suspension of Disbelief: Poetic Faith and Nontheistic Spirituality

Nontheistic spirituality and spiritual naturalism are umbrella terms for spiritual disciplines that require no faith in the literally supernatural. Examples include Humanism, numerous forms of atheistic/secular Paganism, Humanistic Judaism, Secular Buddhism, The Satanic Temple’s approach to Satanism and so-on, as well as present-day revivals of ancient philosophies such as Stoicism and Epicureanism. My Way of Life and Death can be considered and practiced as part of … Read moreThe Willing Suspension of Disbelief: Poetic Faith and Nontheistic Spirituality

Dear Guardians: A Burning Man Short Film (2014)

From the creator’s website: In 2011, I stood in the shadow of the Temple of Transition. I taped a photograph of my wife’s recently deceased father to the inside of an archway. I roamed her hallways, silent. I witnessed a beauty that brought me to my knees, as Mike Ventimiglia writes: “I don’t know if I’ve ever … Read moreDear Guardians: A Burning Man Short Film (2014)

Atheism 2.0 with Alain de Botton

Social philosopher, Religion for Atheists author and School of Life founder Alain de Botton presents his concept of Atheism 2.0, a life-stance and process of inquiry that begins with the understanding that the “supernatural” is fictional and then asks “how can this fiction help us live meaningful and fulfilling lives?” This is also the premise of my Way of … Read moreAtheism 2.0 with Alain de Botton

Poetic Faith (or, Why Oscar Wilde Declined to Join the London Thirteen Club)

Despite their distinct lack of streaming video options, the ladies and gentlemen of the late 19th century were not short of amusing and instructive pastimes. Late Victorian social media was centered around clubs running the thematic gamut from banal to whimsically outré. During the 1890s, examples of the latter kind ranged from the Whitechapel Club of … Read morePoetic Faith (or, Why Oscar Wilde Declined to Join the London Thirteen Club)

“Religion for Atheists: A Non-believer’s Guide to the Uses of Religion”

Social philosopher Alain De Botton’s essential argument is stated in his final line – “Religions are intermittently too useful, effective and intelligent to be left to the religious alone”. The first two-thirds of “Religion for Atheists” demonstrate the strength of that position via examples drawn from many spheres, persuading the reader how – having been, … Read more“Religion for Atheists: A Non-believer’s Guide to the Uses of Religion”

“… a religion of atmosphere instead of faith, a cosmos, in a word, constructed by the imagination.”

So wrote American scholar of new religions Robert S. Elwood in 1973, describing the then-new and burgeoning religious movement known as neo-Paganism. Elwood was among the first academics to pay any serious attention to the phenomenon that it pleases us, now, to refer to as Cultpunk, or (less edgily, more splendidly) as Poetic Faith; the … Read more“… a religion of atmosphere instead of faith, a cosmos, in a word, constructed by the imagination.”