Talon

For those who are interested, there are 2 books on Numenism available.

One is at Amazon.com: The Practical Handbook of Dying and Death. This book is exactly what the title suggests, a practical handbook on dying and death, what to expect, what to do, how to set your affairs in order, how to clean up after someone who didn't set their affairs in order before dying, how to care for someone who is dying, how to get the best care while dying, what your options are, and what to do after death. It is written for Numenists, but the religion part is not heavy-handed and it is a suitable book for people who adhere to no particular religion or are atheists or agnostics because we all die regardless of religious affiliation or lack thereof.

The other is at Lulu.com: The Numenous Way. This is an introductory book on Numenism and contains all a person needs to become a Celebrant.

There are other books in the works for Celebrants who want to focus on ministry or the priesthood or to form a local House. There are several books in the works for Celebrant parents to share their beliefs with their children, and one on becoming an elder in Numenism.

For now, though, there are these two books.

Not all acts of magic are done with oogity boogity stuff. In Numenism, we study and work with patterns, and the acts of magic don’t have to be surrounded by ritual or hedged with safeguards. Some of the most powerful acts of magic have been done by people who didn’t know they were working magic at all. Let’s take a look at some of the more publicly accessible acts of magic. By studying them, you will better see how Numenist patternworking is done.

( The following example is not performed by Numenists - that’s one of the points I want to make. )

The way Numenism is structured, ethics, morals, and values are strongly emphasized. As a community-oriented religion, these are extremely important. One of the reasons we stress ethics, morals, and values is because these attributes contribute to the smooth functioning of society as well as personal interactions. These may seem obvious, but sometimes, in stating the obvious, new connections are made and a deeper understanding is achieved. ( Each of these attributes deserves their own post, so here, we'll take a look at values. )

Unlike many other pagan groups, Numenists have always raised our children as Numenists. For us, it was the only thing to do. Everyone around us raised their children in their religion, so of course we raised our children in our religion.

We took a few hints from our Jewish neighbors, who understood both the importance of raising one’s children in one’s religion and being a minority religion that sometimes faced bigotry, harassment, misunderstandings, and even persecution. Persecution was never something we expected to face. After all, we live in the US. But bigotry, harassment, and misunderstandings we accepted as potential problems in raising our children up in our own beliefs.

( click here to read about it )

The price we pay for life is death. Now, we need to define “life” and “death” in order to fully understand that sentence. There are numerous interpretations of the two words, practically all of them valid in one context or another, some of them contradictory or ambiguous enough to be confusing.

( To read how Numenists handle dying and death, click here: )

Numenism has been likened to being an “open source” religion or a “wiki” religion where there is a core understructure, but the adherents develop everything else according to their own needs and individual preferences. In both cases, what is added on has to mesh with the core understructure or the edifice erected on it will be unable to sustain itself without changing that core part – and when that happens, it’s no longer Numenism, no matter what the people living it may say.

For those who have never heard of Numenism before, a brief, very brief, overview: Numenism is a religion that was created in 1946 as a response by some soldiers and their families to the after-effects of WWII and the Atom Bomb. Initially it was a study group attempting to make sense of what happened and how a kind God could allow it to happen. By 1956, it had diverged so far from its Christian roots it could no longer be considered Christian, and had developed the rudimentary foundation that became the core understructure of Numenism. By then, the founders knew they were no longer seeking answers to their experiences in WWII; they were actively creating a new religion that was meaningful to modern Americans. The early focus was in creating the core understructure of connection with divinity and what place adherents held in the spiritual and physical world. Once the core was built, the religion was left to grow or not, as the adherents chose. This is pretty much how and why it became an open source, wiki-esque type religion. Some of us embraced Numenism, and some tinkered with the core and became something else.

( If you're interested, click here to read more )