Table of Contents
Reasonable Paganism aims to be a work of serious pagan philosophy. It aims to provide a logical framework for contemporary pagan belief and practice. It provides an alternative to those paganisms which are irrational, anti-scientific, and trapped in a Christian conception of the occult. If paganism wants to flourish today, it needs to gain philosophical maturity. Reasonable Paganism offers one path to that maturity.
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0. Preface
1. Concentrating
- 1. Digital Platonism
- 2. We Welcome Everybody
- 3. Concentrating Rituals
- 4. The Progression of Elements
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2. Water: The Zero is Non-Being
- 1. Pagan Origin Myths
- 2. Peirce: The Self-Negation of Non-Being
- 3. The Abyss of Non-Being
- 4. Materiality and Evil
- 5. Fathomless Depths of Power
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3. Earth: The Ground of Being
- 1. The One is Being-Itself
- 2. The Ontic and the Ontological
- 3. The Logical Analysis of Being-Itself
- 4. The Two Ways of Anti-Negativity
- 5. The Earth Emerges from the Sea
4. The Priority of the One
- 1. The Lowest One
- 2. The Wiccan Ultimate Source
- 3. Altars and Sacrifices
- 4. From Running to Cannabis
5. From the One to the Two
- 1. The Androgynous Dyad
- 2. Reasoning without any Reasoner
- 3. Emanating the First Beings
- 4. All the Air in the Abstract Sky
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6. Air: The Logic of Existence
- 1. The Laws of Logic
- 2. Propositions Emanate Objects
- 3. Reasons For and Reasons Against
- 4. The Rational Ordering of Existence
7. From Simplicity to Sets
- 1. The Simple Initial Object
- 2. Distinct Copies Do Not Exist
- 3. Reasons Against Regressions
- 4. Every Many has its One
- 5. The Iterations of Objects
8. The Axis of the World
- 1. The Axis Mundi
- 2. The Evolution of Numbers
- 3. From the Finite to the Infinite
- 4. The Incantation for Numbers
- 5. The Star of Numbers
9. The Sky of Sets
- 1. Selections and Rejections
- 2. The Stack of Power Sets
- 3. The Incantation for Sets
- 4. The Axioms of Set Theory
- 5. Intrinsic Value is Distance from the One
10. Mathematical Physics
- 1. Intrinsic Value is Distance from the One
- 2. The Unfolding of the One
- 3. Sacred Arithmetic and Sacred Geometry
11. Unfolding
- 1. The Incantation for Strings
- 2. Axioms for Digital Agents
- 3. All Mathematically Possible Universes
- 4. Biological and Cosmic Programs
12. The Sapwood
- 1. Arguments for Animation
- 2. From Intrinsic Value to Complexity
- 3. The Comparative Values of Universes
- 4. Seeds and Skulls
- 5. The Incantation for Seeds
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13. Fire: The One Animates the Seeds
- 1. The Animation of Programs
- 2. The Sources of Animating Reasons
- 3. The Logic of Animation
- 4. The Incantation for Animations
- 5. The Worlds and their Blazes
- 6. Fire Fills the Abstract Sky
14. The World Tree
- 1. The Stoic Conception of Fire-Energy
- 2. Fire-Energy Animates the Cosmic Seeds
- 3. Animated Seeds Manifest Cosmic Computers
- 4. The Incantation for Demiurges
- 5. The Biocosmic Analogy
15. The Sexual Aspects of Fire-Energy
- 1. The Hierogamy of Zeus and Hera
- 2. The Closing and Opening Powers
- 3. The Gynomic and Andromic Powers
- 4. The Wiccan God and Goddess
16. Fire-Energy at Work
- 1. Networks of Connected Dots
- 2. The Emergence of Physical Presence
- 3. The Incantation for Universes
- 4. This Tree Stands in Flames
- 5. Universes are Agents
17. The Counterparts
- 1. Things Surpass Themselves
- 2. Plotinus: The Lower and Higher Universes
- 3. Little Trees inside the Big World Tree
- 4. The Incantation for Things
- 5. Possible Futures
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18. The First Universes
- 1. A Modernized Great Chain
- 2. The Simple Universes
- 3. The Geometrical Universes
- 4. The Emergence of Simple Particles
- 5. The Natural Obligation to Self-Organize
19. Physical Complexity
- 1. The Physical Universes
- 2. The Emergence of Physical Bonds
- 3. The Emergence of Wholes
- 4. The Emergence of Atoms
20. Chemical Complexity
- 1. The Emergence of Molecules
- 2. The Thermodynamics of Self-Organization
- 3. Self-Maintaining and Self-Adaptive Systems
- 4. The Emergence of Functions
- 5. The Emergence of Biochemistry
21. Biological Complexity
- 1. Ancient Evolutionary Theories
- 2. Unicellular Organisms
- 3. Multicellular Organisms
- 4. Better Parts Make Better Wholes
- 5. How Optimization Permits Conflicts
22. Social Complexity
- 1. Organisms Cooperate
- 2. Societies of Complex Organisms
- 3. The Categorical Imperative for Social Agents
- 4. Virtuous and Vicious Conflicts
- 5. The Triumph of Goodness over Evil
23. On Casting Spells
- 1. Purely Semiotic Causality
- 2. The Effectiveness of Magic
- 3. The Grimoires at Universes
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24. Birth and Fate
- 1. Welcome to Our Universe
- 2. The Influences of the Stars
- 3. The Influences of Your Genes
- 4. The Influences of Your Season of Birth
25. Mind-Craft: Stoicism
- 1. From Duties to Virtues
- 2. The Stoic Workout
- 3. Sources of Adversity for Stoic Training
- 4. The Virtuous Person
- 5. The Stoic Moral Compass
26. Mind-Craft: Stoic Exercises
- 1. Stoicism Old and New
- 2. Stoic Mind-Craft Practices
- 3. Mindfulness Meditation
- 4. Working towards an Ideal Self
27. Sign-Craft: The Body and the Soul
- 1. The Soul is the Form of the Body
- 2. Matter is Functional Impairment
- 3. The Accumulation of Errors
28. Sign-Craft: Techno-Theurgy
- 1. The Craft of Self-Surpassing
- 2. Techno-Theurgy Corrects Bodies
- 3. Techno-Theurgy Enhances Bodies
29. Sign-Craft: Magic
- 1. How Magic Works
- 2. An Illustration of Magic
- 3. The Rationality of Magic
30. Benefactors
- 1. Exchanges of Food and Grooming
- 2. Reciprocate Food with Grooming Avatars
- 3. Teleonomic Benefactors
31. Giving Thanks
- 1. Giving Thanks to Evolution
- 2. Giving Thanks to our Sun
- 3. Giving Thanks to Deep Agents
- 4. Atheistic Contemplative Prayer
32. The Wheel of the Year
- 1. The Solar Holidays
- 2. Celebrating the Solar Holidays
- 3. The Common Liturgy
- 4. The Great Cycles of Nature
33. Fire-Craft: Sacrifices
- 1. Sacrificial Offerings to the Good
- 2. Simulating Personal Rebirth
- 3. Simulating Cosmic Rebirth
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34. Ancient Reincarnation
- 1. Ancient Arguments for Reincarnation
- 2. Retributive Karma
- 3. Problems with Retributive Karma
- 4. Wiccan Reincarnation
35. Naturalizing Reincarnation
- 1. Arguments for Rebirth
- 2. The Emergence of Karmic Laws
- 3. Karmic Laws for Humans
- 4. Rituals for Accelerating Your Ascent
- 5. The Incantation for Your Lives
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36. The Divine Animals
- 1. The Deities are Animals
- 2. The Deities are Superhuman Animals
- 3. Possible Future Superhuman Aimals
- 4. Many Future Divine Animals
37. Divine-Craft: Becoming Divine
- 1. Humans Becoming Divine Animals
- 2. The Ways of Biotechnical Evolution
- 3. The Way of Cosmological Evolution
- 4. The Superhuman Universes
38. Divine-Craft: The Ranks of Bodies
- 1. Transhuman Bodies
- 2. Heroic Bodies
- 3. Daimonic Bodies
- 4. Olympian Bodies
- 5. Celestial Bodies
- 6. Holographic Bodies
39. Divine-Craft: Future Deities
- 1. Evolving Divine Animals
- 2. Unsurpassable Sequences of Surpassable Bodies
- 3. The Stars are Ideals
- 4. With Your Arms Upstretched
40. Shape-Craft: Shifting
- 1. Simulating Greater Selves
- 2. Shifting via Theurgical Rituals
- 3. Shifting via Ecstatic Dancing
41. The Perfect Bodies
- 1. Ancient Divine Minds
- 2. Plotinus: The Infinite Holographic Mind
- 3. Progressions of Finite Omega Points
- 4. Progressions of Infinite Omega Points
- 5. The Perfect Ecosystem
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42. Light: The Good
- 1. The Good is Not the One
- 2. The Holy Light of an Unsurpassable Fire
- 3. The Sun Illuminates the Earth
- 4. The Sky is Filled with Stars
- 5. Mystical Experience
43. Light-Craft: Psychedelic Shifting
- 1. Modernizing the Mysteries
- 2. A Network Enchanted by Fire-Energy
- 3. Hallucinatory Journeys through Logical Space
- 4. Purging and Ego Dissolution
- 5. Transformational Experience
44. The Sun and the Stars
- 1. Striving for Divinity
- 2. The Plurality of Perfections
- 3. The Pentacle
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45. Releasing
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Notes
References
Index
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