Stories don’t always reflect the world; they make it, too. A book is a world inside the world, and sometimes there are worlds within that.

In the matter of prejudice... we are all the same. Goddess and demon, human and monster: none of us understand difference, but at least some of us make the effort to try.

There are a few people who are, let's say, personality-challenged, who would like to set up a cult, but in large part they fail due to the innate stroppiness and independence of their fellow pagans.

Much of what Karl Popper contributed to the philosophy of science has now passed into mainstream thought, into the currency of that nebulous, tricky ontology known as 'common sense.'

I think that the power of the Silent Minute lies in its inherent lack of external direction: what participants actually do during that minute - prayer, contemplation, focus - is up to them.

Only in the English countryside could violent death remain something that is 'cosy.'

For me, spiritual practice is a lot closer to art than science.

Because contemporary paganism is essentially so new, its underlying ethical structure is not particularly sophisticated.

Some religious practitioners make absolutist claims for their beliefs: I've no interest in doing this, nor do I have any interest in converting people, which is doubtless a relief to anyone who has feared finding me on their doorstep asking if they'd like to know more about Odin.

Contemporary paganism gives me a subjective lens through which the world in which I live can be interpreted on an aesthetic and an ethical basis. I'm interested in narrative, myth, and story, in folklore and the way we connect to the turning of the seasons and the natural world.