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	<title>Julian Betkowski, Author at Agora</title>
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		<title>Syncretic Electric: Shores, Oceans, and Orientations</title>
		<link>https://www.patheos.com/blogs/agora/2014/03/syncretic-electric-shores-oceans-and-orientations/</link>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Julian Betkowski]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Fri, 14 Mar 2014 08:00:37 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[Columns]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Community]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Editor's Picks]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Syncretic Electric]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[community]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[identity]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[orientation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Pagan]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Pagan future]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Paganism]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.patheos.com/blogs/agora/?p=5313</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[What if we could think of Paganism like the ocean in the above metaphor? What if Paganism was not a object, but an orientation? Maybe if we could conceive of Paganism as a way of being in the world, as a way of understanding our spirituality and our relationships, then we could think of ourselves as simply Pagan.]]></description>
		
		
		
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		<title>Syncretic Electric: Why I Am a Polytheist</title>
		<link>https://www.patheos.com/blogs/agora/2014/02/syncretic-electric-why-i-am-a-polytheist/</link>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Julian Betkowski]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Fri, 28 Feb 2014 08:00:54 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[Columns]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Community]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Syncretic Electric]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[community]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[interfaith]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Pagan]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Paganism]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[polytheism]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.patheos.com/blogs/agora/?p=5066</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[It baffles me to see people come to Paganism, willfully decide to embrace all the pain and hardships that being a member of a minority faith entails, and yet stop short before they are able to really, truly, reap the benefits. Our work is not over just because we converted to Paganism. In fact, I reckon that it has only just begun.]]></description>
		
		
		
			</item>
		<item>
		<title>Syncretic Electric: Communities or Movements?</title>
		<link>https://www.patheos.com/blogs/agora/2014/01/syncretic-electric-communities-or-movements/</link>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Julian Betkowski]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Fri, 17 Jan 2014 15:33:47 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[Columns]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Syncretic Electric]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Theology, Ethics, Philosophy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[community]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Pagan]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[religious identity]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.patheos.com/blogs/agora/?p=4803</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[Before Christmas, I wrote that Paganism could perhaps be better understood if we examined it through the lens of culture. Now, a month or so later, I feel that I must retreat a bit from that position, as I fear that my words could be understood as an attempt to silence the voices of faith.]]></description>
		
		
		
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		<title>Syncretic Electric: Some Questions for Pagan Identity</title>
		<link>https://www.patheos.com/blogs/agora/2013/12/syncretic-electric-some-questions-for-pagan-identity/</link>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Julian Betkowski]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Fri, 20 Dec 2013 08:00:51 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[Columns]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Community]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Syncretic Electric]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[identity]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Pagan]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Pagan culture]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Paganism]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[religious identity]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.patheos.com/blogs/agora/?p=4500</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[Perhaps Paganism isn’t a collection of religions, but a certain way of being in the world. Perhaps being Pagan means that we have chosen to experience the world differently than the larger society expects us to.  Perhaps, Paganism has become a political position, rather than a religious one. If this is the case, then our doctrinal disputes over what constitutes proper Paganism are null and void.]]></description>
		
		
		
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		<title>Syncretic Electric: A Reflection on Mythology</title>
		<link>https://www.patheos.com/blogs/agora/2013/12/syncretic-electric-a-reflection-on-mythology/</link>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Julian Betkowski]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Fri, 06 Dec 2013 08:00:14 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[Columns]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Literature, Media, Film, Music]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Syncretic Electric]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[myth]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[mythology]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Pagan]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Paganism]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.patheos.com/blogs/agora/?p=4362</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[Each of us will come away from mythology with our understandings, and each of us will deploy that mythology in a way that suits us. However, it is important for us to make the effort to allow mythology to speak first to us, before we drown out its unique voice with our own.]]></description>
		
		
		
			</item>
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		<title>Syncretic Electric: A Brief Reflection on Fiction</title>
		<link>https://www.patheos.com/blogs/agora/2013/11/syncretic-electric-a-brief-reflection-on-fiction/</link>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Julian Betkowski]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Fri, 22 Nov 2013 08:00:57 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[Columns]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Literature, Media, Film, Music]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Syncretic Electric]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[books]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[fiction]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[literature]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Pagan]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.patheos.com/blogs/agora/?p=4238</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[Fiction definitely had a great impact on my life, as it continues to do. However, in the end, I was not brought into Paganism by these delightful fictions. I grow nervous when people appeal to these beloved friends of mine as support for their belief and practices, not because I doubt the sincerity of their belief or the efficacy of their action, but because I wonder how we could have read these same books and come to such different conclusions.]]></description>
		
		
		
			</item>
		<item>
		<title>Syncretic Electric: We Need to be Challenged, or Why I am Thankful</title>
		<link>https://www.patheos.com/blogs/agora/2013/11/syncretic-electric-we-need-to-be-challenged/</link>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Julian Betkowski]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Fri, 08 Nov 2013 08:00:55 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[Columns]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Community]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Syncretic Electric]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[community]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Galina Krasskova]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[gratitude]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Pagan]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Paganism]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[polytheism]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.patheos.com/blogs/agora/?p=4125</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[There are moments when Pagan dialogue becomes so concerned with acceptance and diversity that we lose track of the subject of our discussions and stop saying anything at all. Sometimes, I think we could do with a little less nicety. Sometimes, I think, we need to say no. So, that is why I am thankful for Galina Krasskova.]]></description>
		
		
		
			</item>
		<item>
		<title>Syncretic Electric: Looking at Our History (Part 5) &#8212; Feminism</title>
		<link>https://www.patheos.com/blogs/agora/2013/10/syncretic-electric-looking-at-our-history-part-5-feminism/</link>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Julian Betkowski]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Fri, 25 Oct 2013 08:00:31 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[Columns]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[History]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Syncretic Electric]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Theology, Ethics, Philosophy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[activism]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[egalitarianism]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[feminism]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[history]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[modern Pagan history]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Pagan]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Paganism]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[politics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[women]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.patheos.com/blogs/agora/?p=3998</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[Not every Pagan views their spirituality as a site of political action, but, for many of us, this has been one of the lasting gifts of Feminism. For the early Feminists, spirituality and politics were bound up in each other, and this action is mirrored in the eco-consciousness elements of Modern Paganism.]]></description>
		
		
		
			</item>
		<item>
		<title>Syncretic Electric: Materialism and Narcissism</title>
		<link>https://www.patheos.com/blogs/agora/2013/10/materialism-and-narcissism/</link>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Julian Betkowski]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Fri, 11 Oct 2013 08:00:52 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[Columns]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Community]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Editor's Picks]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Syncretic Electric]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Theology, Ethics, Philosophy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[gnosis]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[materialism]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[narcissism]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Pagan]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Paganism]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[spiritual experience]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[spirituality]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.patheos.com/blogs/agora/?p=3922</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[As a community, we need to be very aware of the risk of presenting real spiritual experience as a commodity that all Pagans are entitled to. Gnosis and other spiritual experiences must be earned, and then we must have the discernment and self-knowledge to recognize them for what they are. We cannot go into the process with the expectation of reward.]]></description>
		
		
		
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		<item>
		<title>Syncretic Electric: Looking at our History (Part 4) &#8211; Egocentrism and our Future</title>
		<link>https://www.patheos.com/blogs/agora/2013/09/syncretic-electric-looking-at-our-history-part-4-egocentrism-and-our-future/</link>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Julian Betkowski]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Fri, 27 Sep 2013 08:00:18 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[Columns]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[History]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Syncretic Electric]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[egocentrism]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[gnosis]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[history]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Pagan]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Paganism]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.patheos.com/blogs/agora/?p=3826</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[It is my honest belief that a proper understanding of Paganism, its history and its present, is vital if we are going to continue to move forward as a community into this next century.]]></description>
		
		
		
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