Introduction

The Open Hearth blog is an archive of the rituals that our family developed between 2013 and 2018 to celebrate the eight festivals in the system known as the Wheel of the Year, as well as a journal of my own explorations of a spiritual practice I’ve come to call Scientific Paganism. I’m writing this blog primarily for my child, who was the reason our family set out on this particular spiral path, but I thought I’d make it available to anyone who might find it useful.

Defining Scientific Paganism is essentially what this blog is all about. I don’t have it all figured out, so it’s somewhat of an eclectic mix of rituals, stories, ruminations, and explications of religious themes seen in the light of scientific rationalism. It has long been a goal of certain members of the Neo-Pagan movement to build a bridge between science and religion, and that appeals to me. My starting point is a desire to celebrate the wonders of the universe while rejecting the concept of the “supernatural”—that is, the idea that anything can exist beyond, above, or outside of nature. Certainly there are aspects of the universe little understood by humans—“dark matter” and “dark energy” defy description, and our cosmological models are subject to revision—but they are still part of the natural order. We use tools to grapple with such mysteries, like metaphor and personification. And we seek to celebrate forces greater than ourselves. I prefer the term “celebrate” to “worship,” as I also reject a hierarchical view of the universe. So Scientific Paganism is meant to provide a language and a framework for expression of these spiritual urges. It is not a “mystery religion” that shrouds itself in secrecy. There are no arcane rites of initiation or Masonic-style hierarchies here. There is only a recognition of the Earth as a living being, of which the human race is an integral part, and that forms the basis of our rituals and celebrations. We call this being Gaea, but her true nature remains mysterious.