We'd like to extend a warm welcome to the 300+ followers who've joined us on /slowcore-hq, the new Farcaster channel for Black Stone Sanctuary. We appreciate all the contributions of warps and $DEGEN tips for our onchain bootstrapping purposes. Special thanks to @edit for helping us get the word out.
Thank you, everyone, for your kindness.
If you're just joining us, the Sanctuary is a Pagan polytheist monastery-bootstrapping project by Danica Swanson and Trish Deneen. Our work is inspired by animist pre-Christian Nordic and Germanic religious and folk traditions. We're bringing elements of this work onchain.
If you missed any of our five new releases (text + visual art + video) from onchain launch week (April 8-15, 2024), you can always find and mint them through our Zora collection page. Here's the full list:
1. Welcome to Black Stone Sanctuary
Our main page. Includes an intro to who we are and what we do, highlights from our 13-year history, and info from our Scriptorium on our publishing plans.
2. Slowcore and the Inner Genius
Intro to Danica's Thinkspace (blog).
3. Came for a Goddess, Stayed For the Darkness
Intro to Trish's Corner (blog).
4. Pagan Nuns of the Imaginal Realm
Danica's art. Also featured on our welcome page.
5. Zorbish Meditation #1
A 25-minute slowcore meditation video made for the Sanctuary by Trish. Zorbish visuals and a "snowy" background, set to drone music. No spoken words.
Here's a sampling from what we've got in the pipeline for 2024, if all continues to go well. We'll be releasing a mix of new material and updated versions of reader favorites from our archives.
6. Blog Posts + Essays
Non-Coercion as Wealth
What is Sacred Endarkenment?
Contemplative Animism and Non-Contrivance: Exploring the Sanctuary's Monastic Rule
The Contemplative Practice of Accepting Limits
Why Do Polytheists and Animists Need Monasteries?
Advice for Aspiring Monastics in the Modern Polytheist Revival
On Religious Place-Making and the Sacristan Role
Episcopagan: Why This Polytheist Attended an Episcopal Church
Dark Spaces of Wisdom: Creating Polytheist Spaces for Grief and Mourning
Drinking the Tears of the Earth: Lamentation Dance for Ecological and Ancestral Grief
Cave Dwellers Unite
7. Prayers + Devotionals
Prayer: In Praise of Holy Darkness
Prayer to Fulla
Hail, the Unsorrowing: Welcoming Nótt
8. Outreach + Place-Making
Guide to Hosting Dark Moon Incubation Retreats
Online Resources for Polytheist-Animist Monastics
Liturgical Development at the Sanctuary
Zorbish Place-Making
9. Books + Music + Audio/Video
Guided Meditations by Trish
Incubation Reading Room
Quotes from the Collective Ink Books anthology Polytheistic Monasticism: Voices From Pagan Cloisters
Incubation Listening Room (themed playlists from our Chthonic Cathedral Project)
Scandinavian Heritage: An Interview with Ulf Söderberg
Uneasy Listening: Dark Ambient Music Appreciation for Pagans
We cultivate a slow-paced, restorative, restful atmosphere, and prioritize depth over breadth. Our motto is: "only a mile wide, but a thousand miles deep."
We invite you to explore, read, and reflect at your own pace.
