We are currently in PRIDE Month 2025, and I want to take this opportunity to comment on two leading texts of Gay Neo-Paganism: 

Why produce a commentary on the works of others rather than write a stand-alone text? The reasons are modesty and continuity.

Modern Paganism - like historical Paganism - is a religion that focuses on ritual practice rather than belief systems. This distinguishes us from book-religions like Christianity or Islam. Consequently, one should not write a stand-alone text that does not describe a vital ritual practice as it is actually practiced. I practice Modern Paganism, for instance in a temple dedicated to the local Goddess of Austria called Noreia-Isis, but I do not plan or lead rituals for others. Hence, I should not claim to have anything to teach others about practicing our religion. And in fact, I do not want to criticize the stories, myths, and rituals Storm and Penczak offer. Their religious practice, life wisdom, and spiritual guidance are untouched and appreciated by what follows. 

I am going to criticize Storm and Penczak quite a bit. Some might wonder why this is necessary - couldn’t I just present my views and leave them alone? This would be ill-advised, because all of us form a single tradition. As I said, Paganism is formed by ritual practice in a community, not by theological stances, positions, or convictions. Not referring to those who disagree with you might give the wrong impression that Modern Paganism is balkanizing - like Christian denominations - according to theological differences. However, Paganism does not, and shall not, be divided by theological disagreements. We stay united in religious practice. 

Others might wonder why I spread disharmony rather than compassion or love. But at this point, we already reach theological disagreement. As an Atheopagan, I follow Mark Green’s conviction: “The Truth Matters!”[1] Also, as an academic, I follow Ronald Hutton, who implicitly warns us not to build Modern Paganism around time-bombs.[2] On a more personal note, the Orphic Hymns sing of Saturnus as the God of deep learning. Saturnus’ planet was, in ancient and medieval medicine, associated with the melancholic personality. So maybe disharmony and dissatisfaction should not be entirely dismissed on one’s spiritual path, but embraced as an opportunity to discover deeper mysteries. 

Storm starts his book almost with an apology by citing George E. P. Box: “All models are wrong, but some are useful.” That may be true, but nevertheless, some models are more useful than others because they are closer to the truth. An example is an astronomy that sees the sun, not the earth, as the center of our solar system. And since truth matters, we should dismiss attempts to explain Paganism that are easily seen as flawed. In the case of Penczak, these include alpha waves of the brain and energies that exist in spectrums science has not yet codified. In the case of Storm, these include polarities and a model of the self that divides it into Talker, Fetch, and Holy Daemon. 

Starting with brain waves: first, alpha waves are indeed produced by the brain. They can be measured and produce electromagnetic radiation. Alpha waves are connected to meditation and are indeed related to the meditative practices Penczak discusses in his book.[3] However, the alpha waves relevant to neurological processes have a rather long wavelength. The brain produces waves with frequencies from 0 to 200 Hz. This corresponds to wavelengths that are at least 1,498,962 meters (about 931 miles) long. If one takes single neurons, then the waves have a frequency of at most 10 kHz, which corresponds to a wavelength of at least 29,979 meters (about 19 miles). No human brain - and definitely no single neuron - is large enough to resonate with any cosmic alpha wave effectively. Hence, meditative practices do not perform the function Penczak suggest they do in relation to psychic powers. 

What about other forms of energy not yet codified by science, of which some witches claim to be aware? For sure, science is necessarily an open project. But usually, new findings arise from realizing possibilities no one previously considered. Science does this through abstract thought and rational reconstruction that leads away from old thought patterns. We can be fairly sure that everything currently "on the table" and yet to revolutionize science - especially if it has lingered in human thought since antiquity - probably never will. 

An example of such an idea is the physics of the Kybalion, from which Storm takes his "law of polarity." It springs from the occultism of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and is supposedly derived from their exegesis of the Hermetic texts—i.e., a late ancient (2nd century AD) compilation of Egyptian theological writings. Storm is unsatisfied by the use of such ideas in orthodox Wicca, because they are implemented through a heterosexual perspective. Magic is taken to be creative; creation happens when male and female energies combine, according to orthodox Wicca. Hence, Storm searches for other kinds of polarities that could form a basis for same-sex magic.

The law of polarity is itself grounded in a metaphysics that sees energy flowing from some transcendent spiritual realm to form the material world. Arguably, a better source for gay spirituality than the law of polarity can be found in the insights of evolutionary biology: Creativity in biology – emergence – does not come from the polarity of the sexes, but a unit’s ability to preserve its physical integrity. Life begins with the ability of molecules to adapt to their environment in a way that prevents being destroyed, while death emerged with the development of sexual reproduction in multicellular organisms.[4] Here, Storm might find a way to overcome the identification of heterosexuality with life and homosexuality with death. Are gay men not a good example of the struggle to survive? 

At this point, some might wonder why I am not simply breaking with magic. The reason is important. Ronald Hutton ends his book The Triumph of the Moon with an insight I also encountered while studying the magic of Marsilio Ficino: 

“[I]f modern pagan witchcraft is viewed as a development of ceremonial magic […] then there is a direct continuity between it and the ancient world, transmitted continuously through the texts.”[5] 

That Paganism survived in this way is no coincidence. It was a deliberate choice of late ancient Neo-Platonists, like Iamblichus and Proclus, to turn to magic to preserve Paganism. Christianity had many perks for individual believers. For instance, it offered a private and intimate relationship with a God. Paganism, on the other hand, was strongly tied to publicly financed and collectively performed ritual practice. This was difficult to maintain in Europe after the rise of Christianity. Hence, the priestly magic of the Egyptians – theurgy – became central in the preservation of Paganism through mystery cults in late antiquity. Confused with the works of Aristotle and included into Aristotelianism, Proclus’ ideas influenced magic from the medieval period onward, while Iamblichus’ theology was popularized through Marsilio Ficino and Giordano Bruno from early modernity onward. 

The idea of these ancient philosophers was to treat religious ritual practice as a kind of magic and then explain it through a theory of magic drawn from Neo-Platonic philosophy. Through this, Pagan religion not only offered the possibility of private worship through magical practice, but it also naturalized Paganism and thereby established it as a religion “proven by science/philosophy.” Hence, when Penczak calls spells the prayers of Modern Paganism, he does have a point. Storm’s division of the human self into the Talker, the Fetch, and the Holy Daemon is also a derivative of Neo-Platonic philosophy. The Platonists divided the soul into a vital, rational, and intellectual part. For them, the rational part must overcome the vital part to reach the cosmic/divine intellect through its own intellectual part. It is due to Modern Paganism’s positive attitude toward the material nature of humans that, for the Faeries, the Talker does not have to overcome the Fetch to reach the Holy Daemon. The Talker rather reaches the divine through the help of the Fetch. This is also the basis of Storm's theory of magical practice.

So how do we Atheopagans shall proceed with magic, now that we are informed by modern science? Proclus gave the answer about 1,550 years ago in his commentary on Plato’s Republic: when it comes to religion, the poet and the philosopher have different but complementary tasks. 

 “[T]he [poet] attempts to capture the unity of the [G]ods by means of symbolic images, [while] the [philosopher] strives to understand the ontological structure of reality by means of rational analysis and intellective insight.”[6]

Modern Paganism in general - and Modern Pagan Witchcraft in particular - is already rich in symbolism. Here, I align with Storm when he says that magic is poetry. But what about rational analysis and intellective insight? Proclus turned to Neo-Platonic philosophy as the “best science” of his time for this task. He therefore explained ritual practice, magic, and the Gods of myth through the actions of the world soul, the cosmic intellect, and the One. The later is not a God as the Christians will later see it but a metaphysical principle.
For us, this Neo-Platonic philosophy is obsolete. Humanity - and with it, Paganism - has moved on. We must turn to modern philosophy as it is now informed by science and empirical psychology. We should give up the occultism fueling parapsychology and the “alternative physics” of the Kybalion, and turn to actual science. How this can be done is shown by Religious Naturalism, as developed by Ursula Goodenough, Donald Crosby, and Jerome Stone. 

Is this a loss? Do we lose the Gods by doing this? I think not. As soon as you realize that you yourself are just a temporary combination of cells, the Christian accusation of idolatry vanishes. The sun with its radiation and gravitational field, the moon with its influence on the tides, and the ecosystem of the earth all operate on a far larger scale than your life, and your very existence depends on them. These and other entities from modern science are the only real things that can be denoted by the word “God” - and we therefore can, and should, call them that. 

[1] M. Green (2019): Atheopaganism. An Earth-Honoring Path Rooted in Science. Green Dragon Publishing. p. 5
[2] R. Hutton (2019): The Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft. 2nd ed. Oxford University Press. p. 380
[3] T. Lomas, I. Ivtzan, C.H. Fu (2015): A systematic review of the neurophysiology of mindfulness on EEG oscillations. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews. 57. pp. 401-410
[4] U. Goodenough, T.W. Deacon (2008): The Sacred Emergence of Nature. Biology Faculty Publications & Presentations. 67. pp. 853-871
[5] R. Hutton (2019): The Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft. 2nd ed. Oxford University Press. pp. 429-430
[6] R. Chlup (2012): Proclus. An Introduction. Cambridge University Press. p. 196