Religion is dangerous
“Religion is dangerous. The people in power have always realized this. Either they must tame it — make it all about how King Zork enjoys the Will of Heaven —or keep a heavy, cast iron lid on it.
The trouble with religious people is that they are not always loyal enough — to the king, to the government, to the Party, to the corporation.”— Chas S. Clifton, Does Anyone “Own” the Vikings? The NY Times Wants to Know
Back to basics
“Back to the basics' works if you chose the right basics. (We could debate that.)”— Chas Clifton, Rhetoric: It’s “Classical” Because It Works
Polyester, Protestant Pagans?
Polytheistic view
❝That is the polytheistic view of life. The world is a mess. The world is beautiful. The gods are eternal (or as good as). The gods work at cross-purposes, and sometimes humans are caught between them.
"If you try to change the world in the name of some grand, sweeping, utopian vision, you will just make it worse. The most you can do is to give Achilles and Kevin Houston a good cause.❞
— Chas. S. Clifton, On the Necessity of the Iliad for Modern Polytheism
Speaking of athamés
So I'm pointing it out.
You should go read it now.
Signs
Stranger
❝When we look at the Tarot for what it apparently is, we look into a mental map of the time when the Italian and French Middle Ages were poised on the cusp of the Renaissance - a time that is actually stranger and intellectually more foreign to us than we tend to think.❞
— Chas S. Clifton from "The Unexamined Tarot," Gnosis № 18, Winter 1991
Taproot: Taboo

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Read More...Synchronicity, coincidence, perception, and perspective
Experience & Art
❝Paganism should spread through experience and art, not theology. The theology comes later, if it comes.❞Read More...
— Chas Clifton, Looking at Your Polis as a Pagan
Homework assignment
❝Morality ought to be filed under Philosophy, not Religion.❞
— Chas S. Clifton, How to Ruin the Mysteries, or Religion is not Moral
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