Yoga Wicca Buddha

Exploring a personal, eclectic path by looking at the intersection of three great traditions.

  • Home
    Home This is where you can find all the blog posts throughout the site.
  • Tags
    Tags Displays a list of tags that have been used in the blog.
  • Bloggers
    Bloggers Search for your favorite blogger from this site.
  • Login
    Login Login form
Archer

Archer

 
Archer has been trying to make sense of religion since her parents first abandoned her at Sunday School in the 60s. She’s a mom, yoga teacher and repository of useless bits of information on ancient religion, spiritual practices and English grammar. Check out her column “Connections” in Witches and Pagans.
 
Why I Am Not a Christian (or, Adventures in Bible-Based Reading)

Encouraged by my devout sister-in-law, I’ve just finished Surprised at Oxford, a memoir by Carolyn Weber. Attending Oxford University on scholarship in the 1990s, Ms Weber experienced a year of emotional upheaval, leading not only to finding love but to a heartfelt religious conversion. She found her answers in Evangelical Christianity and the promise of eternal life, which, in her telling, gave ultimate meaning to everything.

Last modified on

Posted by on in Paths Blogs
Baseball Zen

I shout encouragement at the TV. My partner provides analysis. Their bats are hot and their pitches sharp. But the Blue Jays keep losing. Why?

Last modified on

Posted by on in Paths Blogs
Knock on Wood

I knock on wood from habit and superstition. But lately the act has taken on both a Pagan and a Buddhist resonance for me.

 

Trees stand up like us but are taller and more grounded. Even so we are intimately linked: trees breathe out what we need to breathe in, and we return the favour. Trees are witness to our short lives and beacons directing our attention both above and below.

Last modified on

Posted by on in Paths Blogs
Suspension of Belief

I was swept away by the healing ritual, chanting with a hundred others as we worked with the energy of Isis. My friend from the other side of Paganism, however, was aghast. 

 

“You invoke the gods and then do nothing for them. You’re not even properly grateful.” For her the gods existed externally and needed to be honoured and thanked, not used as props in a psychodrama. I just knew that the ritual had worked. I felt alive and uplifted.

 

As I fumbled to explain, she asked in exasperation, “I mean, what exactly do you believe?”

 

Well, I don’t. Believe that is. 

Last modified on

Posted by on in Paths Blogs
The Tragedy of Growing Up

“I don’t know what to do. They wonder why I don’t visit but when I do it’s so painful.” My friend, just cresting her forties, was dealing with a difficult relationship with her parents. They refused to accept any responsibility for—or attempt to change—the behaviours that she’d found hurtful since childhood. She was struggling to find forgiveness, to be able to maintain some connection with them, but every interaction reopened old wounds.

Last modified on

Posted by on in Paths Blogs
The Tin Cup

 

Krishna Das tells the story of an important teaching he received from a fellow disciple of his guru, Maharaji: The disciple showed him with great ceremony an object hidden deep in a cupboard, wrapped in a dirty cloth. It was a small beat-up aluminum pot. The disciple unwrapped it and showed it off reverently. “Do you see?” he said. “You don’t have to shine. You don’t have to shine.” *

Last modified on
Kaleidoscope of Kraft, Or The Joy of Spiritual Flexibility

I used to joke with friends about what I called my “checkered religious history” — I’ve been a Jehovah’s Witness, an Anglican, a wannabe Catholic, a Pagan, a Yogini and a Buddhist—the last three all at once (and still). I have always felt free to choose and/or drop beliefs without a great deal of angst. This shows either a lightness of spirit…or a lack of seriousness. Perhaps both.

Last modified on
Recent comment in this post - Show all comments
  • Jamie
    Jamie says #
    Archer, Thanks for sharing the story of your spiritual evolution. As always, great stuff...like a Thanksgiving Dinner of ideas in

Additional information