Blog – Page 2 – Gus diZerega

Looking Deeply: NeoPagans, Domination, and the ‘Woke’

Posted on February 24, 2020April 7, 2020 by Gus

Our community is divided over issues of sex and gender, often to the point of truly poisonous communications directed towards those with other points of view. In a way this division seems strange. Sex is a biological category. Gender is … Read more

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Power, Evil, and the Crisis of Our Times: an animist view

Posted on January 31, 2020January 11, 2022 by Gus

Gus diZerega

Presented at the Conference on Current Pagan Studies, Jan. 25-6, 2020

Auschwitz guards and staff on holiday.1944

In 2013 I published Faultlines: The 60s, the Culture War, and the Return of the Divine Feminine. Written largely in 2010, … Read more

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Samhain and Day of the Dead, 2019

Posted on October 14, 2019April 7, 2020 by Gus

With Samhain just around the corner, its relation with Day of the Dead is an issue of some importance to many Pagans. Taos, where I now live, is famous for the ubiquitous presence of decorated Day of the Dead skulls … Read more

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Critics of natal-women-only rituals oppose NeoPagan religion

Posted on June 28, 2019June 28, 2019 by Gus

One of the more disturbing things about the uproar among some mistakenly calling themselves ‘woke,’ while attacking natal women-only rituals in a Pagan context, is their failure to distinguish between universal human standards and those focused on honoring a particular

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The right wing’s Orwellian manipulation of ‘socialism’

Posted on April 13, 2019April 13, 2019 by Gus

All of a sudden, some right wing online commentators are emphasizing that Scandinavian nations are “not socialist.” I am seeing this claim in many places of late. But for years, decades even, right wing commentators have called Sweden in particular … Read more

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Two Sexes, Many Genders and the Perils of Thinking in Dichotomies

Posted on January 30, 2019April 13, 2019 by Gus

The NeoPagan community has been divided over issues of gender and sexuality, particularly the appropriate relations between natal and trans-women. While this controversy deals with important issues, its vehemence is due to mistaken ways of thinking about it, ways rooted in … Read more

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Looking Deeper: Kavanaugh, Women, the Culture War, and Us.

Posted on October 17, 2018October 17, 2018 by Gus

The controversy over appointing a ruthless political operative, perjurer, and probable sexual predator to the Supreme Court has led many people to put the blame on old White males and their culture of privilege. While there is some truth to … Read more

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Two Spirits, Two Sexes, Many Genders

Posted on September 16, 2018October 15, 2018 by Gus

This post is from my August 8, 2018, blog at Witches and Pagans.

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Z Budapest once stirred up strong feelings, ending in a demonstration, by holding a biological-women-only ritual at Pantheacon. The previous year another group had also … Read more

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Why arguments against abortion fail

Posted on May 7, 2018March 17, 2022 by Gus

I am struck with how the debate over whether or not abortion is morally acceptable has become a battle of slogans rather than of reason. I think the major culprits are on the so-called ‘pro life’ side, but at this … Read more

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Transforming the Cultural Appropriation Debate: Pagan and magickal insights.

Posted on September 2, 2017March 14, 2021 by Gus

The common academic issue of whether or not one engages in ‘cultural appropriation’ has divided the Pagan community. I have been very explicit in my dislike of the idea, but in working out just why I dislike the concept I … Read more

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