Author: Teo Bishop
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I Was Not Ashamed at Pagan Pride
A year ago I wrote about feeling ashamed at Pagan Pride. The circle was to blame, I stated. On Saturday, to my surprise, I found myself standing in a circle at another Pagan Pride, but this time I was helping to facilitate ritual. I was “West,” to be specific. I stood in a circle, one […]
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Making My Way Through the Cloud
Today is the first day since we’ve been in Portland that the sky was completely overcast. Our bedroom was a pale blue-gray when we woke, and I found the color to be incredibly peaceful and calming. I have a feeling that there are plenty of Portlanders who do not share my adoration for this hue, […]
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To Be Pagan Without Community
I spent the morning catching up with an “online” friend, forging a new “on ground” relationship. The internet is amazing, really. To be able to initiate these kinds of relationship and build community having only the context of Facebook or an e-mail forum is phenomenal. I’m a transplant to this town, and yet there are […]
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A Reaction to Living
I am on the cusp of a new beginning. New beginnings are terrifying. And liberating. And challenging. And not without a degree of nostalgia and loss. Things have to end in order for other things to begin. Circle of life, and all that stuff. My house is almost completely packed up. Our bed is on […]
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Pagan Assumptions and the Direct Results of Ritual
“There can be no direct results of ritual. The results are always just part of the fabric of all action.” — Sean Michael Morris As I prepare for my upcoming appearance at the Sacred Harvest Festival I’ve been giving thought to assumptions I’ve made about Paganism; assumptions that many of us make. We assume the […]
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A Letter to Portland from a Colorado Pagan
Dear Portland, I’m moving to you in August. My husband and I are packing up all of our things, loading up our three dogs in the car, and driving for two days across Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, a bit of Idaho, and a good stretch of eastern Oregon to get to you. Neither of us have […]
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Equality is a Pagan Value
Those who say that equality is not a relevant “Pagan” issue are incorrect. There is no one for whom equality is not a relevant issue. Strip the rights of one, and you strip the rights of all. Conversely, uphold the dignity of one, and you uphold the dignity of all. Today SCOTUS struck down DOMA and […]
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The Continued Relevance of Compassion
This has been quite a week. I made the choice to leave ADF. I handed over the Fellowship to an amazing person, Kristin McFarland. I left home for Los Angeles to meet Cher and write songs with a bunch of starry-eyed kids. It’s been surreal. Then, at the end of the week, after rushing to put […]
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About Breakups
The thing about breakups is that you’re never really out of each other’s life. It’s an illusion to think that you can just sever ties (if that’s what you were hoping for) and then… Poof! No more connection. It never happens like that. When I made the decision, and then the subsequent announcement that I was […]
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On Leaving
Something broke today: a levee on the inside. My heart, tight and clenched for days, softened. And when it did, I knew… I have to leave ADF. I spoke the words out loud, and they sounded right. They didn’t sound easy, or pretty, or anything remotely uncomplicated. They just sounded right. I’m not leaving because it’s […]
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Who’s Going to Be My Pagan Jesus?
I started reading a book yesterday called Contemplative Practices in Action: Spirituality, Meditation, and Health. It’s an academic volume which seeks to demonstrate that contemplative practices have positive affects on the lives of those who engage in them. It’s of personal interest to me for a number of reasons. First, I would like to see […]
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The Tree of Contemplative Practices
While talking with my husband I realized that many of the arguments I’ve been making during my conversations with hard polytheists, particularly with Galina Krasskova (read our Facebook chat here and see the post it inspired from her here), are not necessarily reflected in or supported by the evidence of my own practice. Or, in […]
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Contemplation Is Right Action
What, I wonder, are the differences between a contemplative practice and a devotional practice? I’ve read a lot about devotional polytheism this morning. I read Galina Krassova’s first installment of her Fundamentals of Polytheism series, “We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Theories,” and Galina places a great deal of focus on the development of a devotional […]
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Claiming a Soul-Centered, Contemplative Pagan Practice
John Halstead doesn’t mess around. When he writes, he means business. Just read his exposition on the most recent explosion of discussion and debate among Pagans and polytheists over superheroes and gods and you’ll know what I mean. John has a tremendous intellect, and when he writes on Allergic Pagan about the in’s and out’s of […]
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Caught Up in the Flow: What I Believe
This is less a journal of my proclamations as it is a record of my process. I am figuring it out as I go. If you think you’ve already got it figured out, my writing may likely rub you the wrong way. Over the past several days I’ve been in the midst of what my […]
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Is Hard Polytheism Incomplete?
I think that hard polytheism is incomplete. I think that there is an underlying unity in all things that hard polytheism — at least, the hard polytheism I see presented most often within my own tradition, ADF — does not take into account. This became clear to me when I began to read Saraswati Rain’s […]
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My Christian Baggage
Yesterday I realized that I have what you might call, “Christian baggage.” To many, this will come as no surprise. It’s been said as much on post after post, and in the occasional Pagan forum thread. In response, I always said that I didn’t think that label was fair. Most times I think I was […]
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How Do I Know I’m a Pagan?
How do I know I’m a Pagan? I mean, really. I had this thought after my unexpected visit to church. I also had this thought after I returned home from Beltania, the Colorado Beltane gathering I attended and presented at over my birthday weekend. It may seem strange that I would question my Pagan identity after a Pagan […]
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A Pagan, a Druid, and an Episcopalian walk into a Church
I went to church last night. It was the first time I’d been to church since I left the Church. Taking in an evening mass, done up to the 9’s with incense and vestments, was something I hadn’t planned to do while visiting Eugene, Oregon, nor was it an invitation I expected to receive from […]
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Bishop In The Grove on Temporary Hiatus
Bishop In The Grove needs to go on a temporary hiatus. These are the words that popped into my head yesterday. As soon as I heard them, I knew they were true. Blame it on the New Moon. I’ve had the feeling for a little while that something needed to give. I’m a decent juggler (3 […]
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The Intersection of the Myth and the Meaning
To those participating in the Bishop In The Grove’s Bookclub reading of T. Thorn Coyle’s Make Magic of Your Life, join me on Twitter throughout the month of April and engage in a Twitter dialogue about the questions raised in this book. Be sure to @reply with the hashtag, #MakeMagic and Thorn’s handle, @ThornCoyle. Now, […]
