Pagan Planet: Being, Believing & Belonging in the 21 Century

So many different topics and perspective from different writers....it's a bit overwhelming albeit very interesting. I just felt it could have been edited better in a more user friendly way. I don't regret buying it as it has great content.

Being new to learning Paganism I am lost in this book with so much information. I am sure you have heard to many chiefs in the kitchen can ruin to soup. Well the same goes for to many writers in this book. It is lots of stories by different people which is good it that is what you want to hear.

Pagan Planet is an interesting collection of thoughts written by 46 pagan authors, each reflecting on what paganism means to them, and how they've incorporated their faith into their home lives, public lives, and even into their work lives.The writing is varied but well done, and covers a wide range of pagan topics such as activism, raising pagan children, and standing firm in the face of religious bigotry. This is not an instructional guide – if you are looking for a book to tell you just how to celebrate the wheel of the year or how to set up your altar, it won't help you. Rather, this book gives you a sense of how paganism functions in the modern day, and of the different voices out there that are the public face of this religion.Some of the essays had more of an impact on me than others, so I'm going to give a brief view of three of them, and let the authors speak for themselves.The first essay is probably the one that hit me the hardest. “PaganAid and the Road to Social Justice” was written by the founder of PaganAid, Ian Chandler. He wrote about the events and thoughts that lead to him setting up PaganAid, a faith-based charity.“I was deeply committed to fighting poverty and promoting human rights, but I also wanted to protect and preserve the environment. These two goals often seemed to be in conflict. Mainstream thinking on poverty reduction was founded on a model of economic growth, increased production and increased consumption. This project demonstrated that another way is possible, recognizing that as poverty and environmental destruction are two sides of the same coin, to solve one, we need to solve both.”Jo Ashbeth Coffey wrote the essay “Living Ancestors – Honouring the Not Yet Dead”. This should be required reading for everyone. Coffey points out that we have much to learn from our elderly relatives who lived in a different era than ourselves. She gives insightful and practical advice for reconnecting with our still-living ancestors.“If we consider the ancient ancestors key to ourselves, then the chain leading back to them is surely essential to understanding ourselves and how we relate to them. Therefore our very own granny is a very special connection: she is from a past age, and yet she is still here, here to tell us what it was like; a living opportunity for us to show our respect and reverence for our ancestry in person.”The last essay I'd like to profile was written by Edwina Hodkinson, and it outlines the creation of a team called “The Wild Sistas”, who ministered to injured and ill members of a group protesting fracking. She and a few friends opened a herbal clinic in a tent. Over the years, this group has become more formalized and has been present to aid in dozens of protests. This section from her hit me particularly hard.“I believe that Neo-Paganism is not a passive path, we follow the old ones and they ask us to engage with this troubled world and be active. They require sacrifice in exchange for the gifts we ask them to bestow upon us. In our consumerist society we are taught to continually take with no thought of return, and this can often be the same with our spirituality.”There is something in this book for everyone. It's impossible to read this book and not walk away with some new understanding or insight. When I become an older pagan and mentor to younger ones, this is going to be one of the first books I give out. The different voices that sing in this book come together in a wonderful harmony that gives a clear picture of modern-day paganism.~review by Patricia Lynn

* I was given this book free of charge from the Publisher, Moon Books, so I could review it on my blog. It originally appeared at [...] *I almost wish I could make this book mandatory reading. It covers a range of subjects like pagan activism, pagan families and parenting, feminist paganism, etc. The book is an anthology of essays by all different writers and that allows it to cover all of these subjects with very different, but very authentic, voices. I found this to be a wonderful way to read about faith.My favourite essays were ones that dealt with pagan activism – this is something I care a lot about and think about very regularly. The very first essay PaganAid and the Road to Social Justice by Ian Chandler stands out as my favourite. Mr. Chandler is the founder of Pagan Aid, a brand new charitable aid organization run by and funded by pagans. A lot of things he said in his essay really struck a chord with me, but these two passages particularly resonated with what I believe “I believe that all of Mother Earth’s creations have an inherent value and beauty, equally deserving of our love and respect. Humanity as a species has been responsible for destruction on a massive scale, but individuals are not equally to blame or worth of punishment. My love extends beyond the rivers and the mountains, and the flora and the fauna of the natural world, to include those struggling to survive, fighting to feed their children, and longing to live with dignity and security.”He went on to say “I believe to be a true pagan, to live our lives with love and integrity, we cannot be neutral in the face of extreme poverty and environmental destruction; we have to stand up for what we believe in.”What a truly powerful statement, and one I completely agree with. After finishing this very first essay I went online and researched Pagan Aid and found a website and facebook page, invited everyone I know to like the page and am working on a way to get involved. This became common practice after reading many of the essays – I had to take time after and absorb what I’d read and maybe do some research on some of the issues or events highlighted in the story. Since this book was published in the UK by UK writers I was a bit in the dark for many of the issues they mentioned – which I feel pretty embarrassed about.The reason this book only gets four crystal balls out of five is not an issue of content, but rather of structure. As much I loved this book, I didn’t love or connect with every single essay. I mean, how could I? I read every single one, though, and the fact that the essays were just randomly organized was pretty detrimental to my personal reading pace. I would have loved to have them separated by a sub-topic so I could get into the right from of mind. For example, the essays that I liked best, that outlined activist efforts conducted in a Pagan manner were spread out and I’d get all pumped up and then have an essay right after about raising Pagan children – which is so not my style. It took me longer to read this book, and I think part of that was for this reason.Now if you’re sitting there thinking this is a super serious book of ethics I’m going to go ahead and stop you, because lots of these essays were a LOT of fun. Some really made me laugh and I’d love to read more by the author because their tone and voice just made me smile. One example is an essay called Squirrels on Shrooms: Divination in the Deep Woods by Hearth Moon Rising. That title totally delivered and I howled with laughter when I read this line “Now things were beginning to make sense; these squirrels are tripping along the boardwalk.”and I smiled with complete understanding during Modern Pagan Life by Rachel Patterson, which starts off with “When I looked at the subject for this essay, ‘Modern Pagan Life, being, believing, and belonging in the 21st century’ my initial thoughts were, ‘Wow, this is a bit grown up for me.'”I feel that, Rachel. Adulting is hard, even adult witching.I highly recommend this book, even if you pick it up, pick an essay at random and laugh or cry or think along with it and then put the book down for a while. Like I said, I wish I could make this mandatory reading. New pagans and people who teach them often want to know about all of the spiritual and magical stuff – what are spells, when are sabbats, what up wit dat moon tho – and that stuff is totally important! It’s also important to know stuff like, what are my rights as a pagan? How can I get involved in my communities? What’s a handfasting? How do pagans conduct funerals? How do I raise pagan kids? Just because you’re a pagan or witch doesn’t mean you stop living in the real world and it’s important to know how to fit magic and paganism into a regular life. This book gives you a bit of a window into how other people are doing it, with purpose, intent and compassion. That’s what is really great about Pagan Planet, and that’s the reason I think everyone should read it.

Received this yesterday and loving the writing. Written with passion for a good read

Very interesting book.