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Frequently asked questions

Short answers to the questions people ask most, with a link to the page that goes further. Where the honest answer is ‘it depends’ or ‘nobody knows’, that is what it says.

10 min read · Updated 11 November 2026 · Last checked 11 November 2026

Epicureanism #

Did Epicurus teach ‘eat, drink and be merry’?

No, and he said so. In his letter to Menoeceus he says that when he calls pleasure the aim of life he does not mean the pleasures of the prodigal or the sensual, and he blames people for misreading him through ignorance or ill will. By pleasure he means the absence of pain in the body and of trouble in the soul, and he lists drinking-bouts, merrymaking and rich food as things that do not by themselves make a pleasant life.1 Read the whole letter; it is short.

Was Epicurus an atheist?

Not in the usual sense. The letter says that there are gods and that we can know of them, but that they are not as the crowd imagines. They are blessed and undying, and the impious person is the one who ascribes the crowd’s beliefs to them.2 What he meant by their existence is still argued over by scholars, and the Stanford Encyclopedia entry sets out the main readings.3 More on this at death and the gods.

Does the argument that death is nothing really work?

That is a live question. Epicurus’ line is that when we are, death is not present, and when death is present, we are not, so it cannot harm us.4 Critics have pushed back for two thousand years, and a modern study sets out the arguments and the replies.5 The page on death and the gods gives both sides, and you do not have to accept the argument to find the rest of the philosophy useful.

What does ‘live unnoticed’ (λάθε βιώσας, láthe biōsas) mean?

The Greek is literally ‘live hidden’. It is advice to step back from the ambition and public competition that Epicureans thought made people anxious, not an instruction to vanish. We know it mainly through Plutarch, who wrote a hostile reply to it, so his reading is not neutral. His essay is known by its Latin title De latenter vivendo.6 Epicurus still valued friendship above almost everything, and the Garden was a community.7

Where should I start?

With the letter to Menoeceus, then the Principal Doctrines in plain English. If you want the ideas explained first, begin with the overview. For a comparison with the other great school of the time, see Epicurean and Stoic.

Can I practise Epicureanism today, and is it a religion?

People do read and discuss it today, in reading groups and shared suppers, and the page on Epicureanism today suggests how to hold one. It is a philosophy of living with its own view of the gods, not a religion in the sense of worship and belief, and I know of no central body that speaks for it.

Paganism #

What does ‘pagan’ mean?

The word comes from Latin paganus, and how it came to mean a follower of the old religions is debated.8 Today ‘Paganism’ is an umbrella for many separate religions and ways of living, from reconstructed traditions to nature-based spirituality. The Paganism overview and where to begin are the places to start, and the glossary explains the terms.

Is the Wheel of the Year ancient?

The pieces are old and the wheel is not. The solstices and equinoxes, and the four Gaelic festivals, are each found in the past. Joining them into one cycle of eight is a twentieth-century development, as the standard history of modern Pagan witchcraft explains.9 The long answer, with its sources, is at where the Wheel of the Year came from. A young wheel is still a real one for the people who keep it.

Do I have to follow the Wheel of the Year?

No. Many Hellenists follow the ancient Greek calendar, many Heathens keep Nordic festivals, and some animists watch the local seasons instead. Each of the paths says how it keeps time, for example Hellenism and Heathenry.

Were nine million witches burned?

No. The standard survey estimates about 110,000 trials and about 60,000 executions across early modern Europe, and some other historians give somewhat lower totals. Everyone agrees these are estimates and far below nine million.10 Historians also do not accept that modern Wicca descends from a surviving medieval witch cult; see the page on Wicca.11

Is it all right to burn white sage?

It is worth thinking twice. White sage is overharvested and poached in parts of California, and Indigenous people have campaigned about the commercial trade in it.1213 If you want to burn something, a herb from your own garden does the job, and so does a candle or just opening the window. The longer answer is on Pagan ethics and cautions.

Can I be pagan and keep another faith?

Some people do. The Druidry page notes that some Druids combine it with another faith, and animism is described as a stance that can sit within other paths. Groups differ, so if you join one, ask about its view first.

How do I find a group safely?

Read before you join, meet in a public place first, and be wary of anyone who asks for large sums, claims secret lineage or pressures you. The pages on where to begin and ethics and cautions go through this in more detail.

Shinrin-Yoku #

What is shinrin-yoku, and where did the name come from?

It is the Japanese word for taking in the forest atmosphere, usually translated as forest bathing: slow, unhurried time among trees with the senses open. In an interview, the researcher Miyazaki Yoshifumi dates the coining of the term to 1982, under Akiyama Tomohide, then head of the Forestry Agency.14 See Shinrin-Yoku for the full introduction.

Does forest bathing treat illness or boost immunity?

I can’t say that it treats anything, and nothing on this site is medical advice. Some small studies report changes in stress measures and, in a few Japanese trials, in immune markers.15 One review of reviews grades how trustworthy the evidence is, and a meta-analysis of the cortisol results is listed here for anyone who wants the numbers; read both before drawing a conclusion.1617 Take it as a pleasant, low-risk way to spend time, and see your doctor about any health concern. The essay on what the research does and does not show goes through the studies one by one.

How long, and how often?

There is no official dose. A study of short visits to urban green spaces points to about 20 to 30 minutes as an effective length for lowering stress.18 A large survey found that people who spent at least 120 minutes a week in nature reported better health and wellbeing, but that is an association and does not show that nature caused it.19 The practice builder offers a session from short to long.

I have no forest nearby. Does it still count?

A park, a street of trees or a garden can work, and the seasons guide covers bad weather and winter. The point is slow attention more than the size of the wood, and the five senses guide has short exercises you can do almost anywhere.

Do I need to hike?

No. Forest bathing is not exercise. You walk slowly, stop often, and may sit for most of the time. If walking is hard, a bench in a quiet green place is enough.

Notes

  1. Diogenes Laertius, Lives of the Eminent Philosophers, Book X (Epicurus), trans. R. D. Hicks (Loeb Classical Library, 1925), X.131–132. I compared the wording with the Hicks translation online for this page. The section numbers are those in the standard text. ↩
  2. Diogenes Laertius, X.123–124. Checked against the Hicks translation online for this page. ↩
  3. David Konstan, 'Epicurus', Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. I have not checked which readings it names. Read it for the current state of the argument. ↩
  4. Diogenes Laertius, X.124–125. The wording is as in the Hicks translation. ↩
  5. James Warren, Facing Death: Epicurus and his Critics (Oxford University Press, 2004). ↩
  6. Plutarch, 'Is “Live unnoticed” a wise precept?' (De latenter vivendo), Moralia 1128–30. ↩
  7. Diogenes Laertius, X.148. Principal Doctrine 27: of all the means to a happy life, none is so important as friendship. Quoted from memory of the Hicks translation; the number is the standard one. ↩
  8. 'Paganism', Wikipedia. A tertiary source, used only for the history of the word. ↩
  9. Ronald Hutton, The Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft (Oxford University Press, 1999). I have used summaries of this book and have not checked page numbers. ↩
  10. Brian P. Levack, The Witch-Hunt in Early Modern Europe, 3rd edition (Pearson Longman, 2006). I took these figures from reports of the book and have not checked the page. ↩
  11. Hutton 1999. ↩
  12. California Native Plant Society, 'White sage' (conservation page). ↩
  13. 'Sage advice', High Country News 52.10. ↩
  14. 'Miyazaki Yoshifumi Explores the Healing Power of the Forest' (interview), nippon.com. An interview is not a scholarly history, and I have not found a second source for the date. ↩
  15. Qing Li, 'Effect of forest bathing trips on human immune function', Environmental Health and Preventive Medicine 15 (2010), 9–17. The author’s own review of his studies, which were mostly small. ↩
  16. Marita Stier-Jarmer and colleagues, 'The psychological and physical effects of forests on human health: a systematic review of systematic reviews and meta-analyses', International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 18 (2021), article 1770. ↩
  17. Michele Antonelli, Grazia Barbieri and Davide Donelli, 'Effects of forest bathing (shinrin-yoku) on levels of cortisol as a stress biomarker: a systematic review and meta-analysis', International Journal of Biometeorology 63 (2019), 1117–34. I have not summarised its conclusions here. ↩
  18. MaryCarol R. Hunter, Brenda W. Gillespie and Sophie Yu-Pu Chen, 'Urban nature experiences reduce stress in the context of daily life based on salivary cortisol', Frontiers in Psychology 10 (2019), article 722. ↩
  19. Mathew P. White and colleagues, 'Spending at least 120 minutes a week in nature is associated with good health and wellbeing', Scientific Reports 9 (2019), article 7730. ↩

Ancient sources cited

Modern works cited

Cite this page. The Garden, ‘Frequently asked questions’, https://camelmaps.org/garden/faq.php, last updated 11 November 2026, last checked 11 November 2026. What has changed.

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