Aug 27 2010
Do we leave our birth religion behind? As Pagans, have we simply substituted one god or pantheon for another? The discussion this month is about coming to terms with our religious baggage – venting, grieving, healing, and then making peace.
(above, Nicholas strikes Arius at the Council of Nicaea)
Jul 27 2010
It’s craft night at the Pagan Round Table! Bring a dollar or your own package of Femo/Sculpy polymer clay and we will make amulets based on the artifacts catalogued by noted archaeologist Marija Gimbutas (Language of the Goddess, also the subject of the film “Signs Out of Time” by Starhawk and Donna Read).
Jul 15 2010
This topic generated so much interest in the spring that we are revisiting it! Here are some discussion starters, plus bring your own questions:
1. Should we, as pagans, have a public community? What does that mean?
2. How can we support a pagan community (Financially? As volunteers? Other?)
3. Should we bother building a pagan community
4. Should pagans support other pagans who don’t think like they do?
5. What are we doing with our paganism to improve the world and society that we live in?
6. How do we get along with other pagans?
7. Should pagans “tithe” or otherwise give funds regularly to a group or coven?
Our facilitator has issued a challenge to everyone to bring at least one friend to this PRT!
Jun 01 2010
Join the discussion every third Tuesday in Columbia, SC.
Children and Paganism
What pagan community resources are available for pagan parents? Are there any?
What are the consequences of being open about paganism with your children?
What pagan friendly educational resources are out there?
What community and educational resources need to be created for children from pagan households?
What pagan community resources are available for pagan parents? Are there any?
What are the consequences of being open about paganism with your children?
What pagan friendly educational resources are out there?
What community and educational resources need to be created for children from pagan households?
Location: Mayflower Bistro (the recently renamed Queenstown Bistro), 1420 Colonial Life Boulevard (right by Dutch Square Mall, next to Melting Pot, across from one of the old Sounds Familiar stores which is now closed) plenty of parking. All are welcome. Questions, 803-798-8007, or sekhmet@osireion.com, or visit the Columbia (and the Surrounding Areas) Meetup at www.meetup.com
Bring a friend, and come prepared for a great discussion, keeping in mind the following group agreements:
• We’ll announce the topic and/or guest for the evening at 6:30. We recommend that you order your food as soon as possible since we start discussion at 6:30.
• The facilitator will introduce the topic for the night with a question. After this introduction, all are invited to participate by sharing comments and/or questions of your own.
• Please limit your comments to no more than two minutes. A facilitator will call on people, if needed, e.g., if many try to speak at once or we have a very large crowd.
• No personally-affrontive comments are tolerated. Open disrespect of others, or of other religions, will earn you an escort out of the room for the rest of the evening.
• If you are not Pagan, thank you for coming, and you are very welcome to participate, but you may not evangelize or proselytize, or you will be asked to leave.
• At 7:45 PM, the facilitator will begin to draw the discussion to a close. If necessary, the facilitator will say how many more people have time for a comment, or point to the one, two or three people who may speak in the remaining time.
Apr 27 2010
For a change of pace, the Pagan Round Table will host Elle Shepard of Augusta to share her extensive knowledge of theater and how to enhance our rituals for a deeper spiritual experience. We think you will find Elle as warm and engaging as we do!
Elle Shepard is a retired DOD Entertainment Branch Director and Marketing chief. She worked for over 32 years in various parts of the US and several countries doing what she terms as “The dream Job” - A charmed life living abroad on Uncle Sam’s dime, traveling and creating entertainment and events in both the Military and the civilian sectors.
A Pagan in the Ancient Path tradition - she practiced primarily as a solitary most of her Pagan life - roaming the woods and mountains and seashores all over the world looking for that one ritual experience that would “make my hair stand on end.” She observed, took part in, even helped create several interesting, but “not very moving” ritual experiences over the years, and still the fine hairs remained stubbornly limp and the repetitious chants bored her to tears.
Then, one day an Ancient Path priest mentioned “ritual drama” to her and she asked exactly what that meant. He responded - well, think of all the rituals you’ve seen but with a twist of “drama.” She was hooked and started devising all manner of ritual drama.
Mar 04 2010
Deepen your Pagan experience and strengthen community ties by gathering to ponder a different topic each month. Open facilitated discussion group in St. Andrews/Columbia.
Tuesday, March 16, 2010 6:00 - 8:00 PM
Spring, Rebirth & The God Reborn
If you haven’t been to the Pagan Round Table, you are missing a wonderful experience and the chance to interact in a positive way with others from lots of varying backgrounds. Virtually all of the ancient mystery cults celebrated the ever-renewing cycle of life, death and rebirth. How do these mysteries affect us today? What does it mean to be reborn? And who is that Horned One, anyway?
New location! Queenstown Bistro, 1420 Colonial Life Boulevard (right by Dutch Square Mall, next to Melting Pot, across from one of the old Sounds Familiar stores which is now closed) plenty of parking. All are welcome. Questions, 803-798-8007, or sekhmet@osireion.com, or visit the Columbia (and the Surrounding Areas) Meetup at www.meetup.com
Bring a friend, and come prepared for a great discussion, keeping in mind the following group agreements:
Jan 06 2010
“Magic is all about perception. Things are the way they are because we’ve agreed that’s the way they are. An act of magic is when we’re convinced we’re experiencing something that doesn’t fiti into the conceptual reality we’ve all agreed upon.” (Charles de Lint from “The Invisibles”)
“Magic is a faculty of wonderful virtue, full of most high mysteries, containing the most profound contemplation of most secret things, together with the nature, power, quality, substance, and virtues thereof, as also the knowledge of whole nature. . .” (Henry Cornelius Agrippa from Three Books of Occult Philosophy)
For this month, we will explore the many facets of Magick! We will be asking such questions as: What exactly is Magick? What role does magick play in our lives? How can ethics be applied to Magick? If so, how?
Join the conversation at the next Pagan Roundtable, Tuesday, January 19 6:00PM-8:00PM.
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Nov 09 2009
“Up until the present, biology and physics have been handmaidens of views espoused by Isaac Newton, the father of modern physics. Everything we believe about our world and our place within it takes its lead from ideas that were formulated in the seventeenth century, but still form the backbone of modern science–theories that present all the elements of the universe as isolated from each other, divisible and wholly self-contained.” (Lynne McTaggart, The Field)
“Was there something the old mystery schools knew that we have lost? Did they purposefully work deosil in counterpoint to some other, widdershins flow? Did Rumi turn widdershins, as the pilgrims so circle the Kaaba, for some deeper, arcane reason?” (T. Thorn Coyle, Kissing the Limitless)
Join the conversation at the next Pagan Round Table, Tuesday, November 17, 6:00 - 8:00 PM.
Oct 15 2009
A Good Life, A Good Death: Preparing for Samhain, with special guest, Reclaiming co-founder M. Macha NightMare (by webcast).
$5 offering requested for this event only. Questions, call 803.422.4565 or email us.
M. Macha NightMare, Priestess & Witch, is an author, teacher and ritualist, with a penchant for collaboration. She is an initiate of two traditions of Witchcraft: Reclaiming and Faery/Feri, Reclaiming’s root tradition.
Before she became known as Macha, Aline found NROOGD Witchcraft in 1971, then, in 1975 met a young woman named Starhawk at a local metaphysical bookstore. From 1975 to 1979 she circled on sabbats with covens Compost, Honeysuckle, and Raving. (Thirty-five years later, Compost Coven still exists.)
Among the founders of Reclaiming, Macha was the first person to identify Reclaiming, which until then had been a collective of Witches teaching and offering public sabbat rituals, as a tradition in itself.
In 1981 Macha joined the Covenant of the Goddess, the oldest and largest non-denominational organization of Witches in the USA, with her then-coven, a group priestesshood called Holy Terrors. Since joining CoG, she has worked with all manner of Witches and Pagans throughout the United States, as well as in Canada and Brazil.
Beginning in 1992, Macha has organized and presented video and independent film screenings and panels to discuss such matters as “Changes to Paganism in the 21st Century (CE),” “Goddesses & Matriarchies,” “Pagan Clergy,” and several other subjects. In addition, she has served as a panelist, most recently on “Teaching Methods in Pagan Traditions” in New York, “Who and What Are the God/dess/es?” in Delaware.
In 1997 Macha co-created, with Starhawk, The Pagan Book of Living and Dying: Practical Rituals, Prayers, Blessings, and Meditations on Crossing Over, which formed the foundation of death and dying workshops Macha has presented throughout the country. Macha has served on the Advisory Board of the Sacred Dying Foundation since 1997. In 2004 reviewers for PanGaia Magazine voted The Pagan Book of Living and Dying the Number One book for advanced Pagans.
Macha wrote Witchcraft and the Web: Weaving Pagan Traditions Online in 2001 and Pagan Pride: Honoring the Craft and Culture of Earth and Goddess in 2004. The former book was published in Brazil in 2006.
She is also a contributor to anthologies: Irish Spirit: Pagan, Celtic, Christian, Global, Patricia Monaghan, editor; Exploring the Pagan Path: Wisdom from the Elders, Kristin Madden, editor; and Celebrating the Pagan Soul: Our Own Stories of Inspiration and Community, Laura Wildman-Hanlon, editor. Her writing has appeared in many periodicals, and she has frequently spoken on behalf of the Craft in electronic and print media, and at colleges and universities.
Macha’s besom has taken her to present at Pagan festivals, conferences and conventions (Starwood, Heartland, Magical Mountain Mabon, Sacred Harvest Festival, Between the Worlds, PantheaCon, Ancient Ways, CUUPS Annual Conference, and Pagan Pride Days from Vermont to Utah, Florida to Washington State.)
In 1998 Macha participated in The Biodiversity Project Spirituality Working Group, a small gathering of religious and environmental leaders, in Madison, WI; their work informed the publication of Building Partnerships with the Faith Community: A Resource Guide for Environmental Groups.
As a member of the Nature Religions Scholars Network (now called Pagan Studies), Macha has been quoted in scholarly works on Paganism, goddess studies, and New Religious Movements. She participates in the annual meetings of the American Academy of Religion, of which she is a member, and attendant Conference on Contemporary Pagan Studies.
In 2002 Macha was among those featured in a year-long study in Marin County by Roberta Swan called “Women in Leadership in Faith: Voices of Hope and Healing in a Troubled World.”
In 2003, Macha participated in New Religious Movements: A Symposium on Earth-Based Spiritualities sponsored by Auburn Theological Seminary’s Center for Multifaith Education in New York City. She returned there in 2005 for a ritual, “Bridget: A Celebration of the Triple Goddess of Forge, Flame, and Healing Springs.”
She has spoken about and on behalf of Paganism at colleges and universities (Cornell, UC Berkeley, Sonoma State University, St. Lawrence University, Stanford, St. Mary’s College, College of Notre Dame, New College of California, California Institute of Integral Studies), seminaries and professional schools (Auburn Theological Seminary, Pacific School of Religion, Institute of Transpersonal Psychology), as well as to religious journalists, reporters and interviewers in all types of news media.
Macha holds Elder credentials through CoG. She is the former chair of the Public Ministry Department at Cherry Hill Seminary, now serving on the board of directors. Prior to taking over the department, she taught a 15-week survey course called “Call of the Dark Mother: Working with the Dying, Death, and Grieving.” She is committed to developing the first, and so far only, program in public ministry for Pagans. She views this endeavor, shared with other dedicated and accomplished colleagues, as an opportunity to set a high standard for future generations of Pagans.
She currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Foundation for the Advancement of Women in Religion. And she is also on the Sacred Dying Foundation Advisory Board. She also represents CoG and CHS in the Marin Interfaith Council, one of the oldest and most diverse interfaith groups in the country.
Her matron deity is Kali Ma. Her magical practice is inspired by feminism and a concern for the health of our planet, and is informed by Celtic, Hindu and Tibetan practices, and the magic of enchantment. Macha is an all-round Pagan webweaver.
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Jul 10 2009
Deepen your Pagan experience and strengthen community ties by gathering to ponder a different topic each month. Open facilitated discussion group in St. Andrews/Columbia. Occasional national guests by webcast. Discussion topics may include:
Future topic ideas: