Post-Doom Conversations

Click here to access over eighty in-depth conversations facilitated by Michael Dowd on what it means to live meaningful, fulfilling lives in the face of climate chaos, societal breakdown, and economic and ecological “doom”: Those with a post-doom mind and heart haven’t given up; they’ve stood up. Empathy follows naturally in the wake of realizing … Read morePost-Doom Conversations

A Pioneering Theosophical Funeral in 1870s New York City

In the first series of his Old Diary Leaves (1874-’78), Colonel Henry Steel Olcott records the events of a Theosophical funeral ceremony he devised and presided over at the Masonic Temple in New York City. The ritual was to mark the life and death of the Baron de Palm, a member of the then-recently inaugurated … Read moreA Pioneering Theosophical Funeral in 1870s New York City

Skepticism, Faith and Compassion in “FairyTale: A True Story” (1997)

This is what really happened; in 1917, and again in 1920, two rural English schoolgirl cousins went into the local woods and took photographs of paper cutouts shaped like fairies. All historical evidence suggests that the girls intended nothing more than a simple, silly prank, which then spiraled out of their control. As one of … Read moreSkepticism, Faith and Compassion in “FairyTale: A True Story” (1997)

“A Very British Day of the Dead”: The Glastonbury Festival of Death and Dying

The Somerset market town of Glastonbury has a long and highly storied history, being closely connected in legend to both the coming of Christianity to England and to a vast stream of pre- and post-Christian “alternative spiritualities”. The modern township includes representatives of some seventy religious and spiritual persuasions and the main shopping district is … Read more“A Very British Day of the Dead”: The Glastonbury Festival of Death and Dying