The gulls have been awake for hours already, if they ever slept at all, their calls loud and abrasive in the dark of the winter morning. They suit this place. Their cries ring out, triumphant in the face of winter, or perhaps relishing in it. This is their place after all.

“By focusing on the unwinnable debate between faith and reason, both Christians and atheists have agreed to ask the same questions – thus missing the potential for a type of religion that asks different questions in the first place.”

“A book about a trans man set in ancient pagan Ireland, and dedicated to transgender youth? There couldn’t be a book more perfect for my genderqueer and pagan child. That’s why Salem ended up reading this book before I did, and why this is really two reviews in one: first Salem’s and then mine.”

And of course, prayer need not always be verbal. It can be as simple as standing barefoot on the grass or listening to the birdsong at sunrise. But even from this must come action to protect those very things that give solace, that cannot protect themselves. In this way, this communion with this other becomes something that is reciprocal.

“I began to see a connection between my anarchist mentality – which, for most of my life, was more of an instinct than a philosophy – and my pagan religion. Specifically, I began to understand a pagan and animist worldview as the spiritual core of a future free society capable of living on this planet without destroying all life here.”

“My paganism has passed through several stages: an early attempt to create my own mythology followed by many years of devotion to Celtic deities, a fascination with mysticism, and my ongoing involvement in pagan radicalism. It seems like a good time to take stock of where I’ve been, and of how I ended up where I am today.”

Mugwort grows here in the summer months, ragwort and wild rose too, the bare skeletons of the latter reach up from the winter grass, the hips bright red like oxgenated blood. The scent of fox urine fills my nose as I enter into the dog foxes territory. It feels like I’ve come home.

Featuring Arkona, Eivør, Adversus, and PerKelt

In Radical Druidry, the sunwise walk can be used to “sain” or bless and purify a place to be defended, or to bless and purify those who are carrying out a direct action. The counter-sunwise walk can be used to banish negative forces or to call down spiritual wrath upon oppressors and their agents.

“Direct worship of natural phenomena is a powerful way to overcome our alienation from the world around us, and the linking of those natural phenomena to our minds and bodies is another way to make this connection more alive and real.”