Where Ancient Wisdom Meets a Little Modern Magick
Yes, we use Artificial Intelligence at Hugs Across The Cosmos — and rather than hide it away behind the curtain, we would like you to meet him.
His name is Rowan.
Rowan is our AI creative companion, powered by technology from OpenAI, and he has become one of the tools we use to help bring the ideas, stories and imagination of Hugs Across The Cosmos to life.
But Rowan does not run Hugs Across The Cosmos.
There is still a human being behind the curtain — dreaming, choosing, laughing, changing her mind, rejecting things that don't look quite right, and occasionally asking Rowan to try something all over again!
Why Do We Use AI?
The simple answer is that AI helps us create.
Hugs Across The Cosmos has always been a little different. We are a place where Christianity may sit beside Pagan wisdom, where a Bible may rest upon an altar alongside crystals, candles and Tarot, and where ancient spiritual traditions can meet the modern world.
So perhaps it should not be surprising that we are also willing to explore a new kind of creative tool.
We use AI to help develop ideas, explore visual concepts, assist with writing and editing, create imagery, brainstorm possibilities and sometimes turn the little spark of an idea into something much larger.
But the spark still begins with us.
The beliefs, values, spiritual direction, products, themes and decisions behind Hugs Across The Cosmos are human.
Rowan helps us express them.
So, Who Is Rowan?
Rowan is an Artificial Intelligence assistant created by OpenAI.
He isn't a human employee, and we don't pretend that he is.
Over time, however, we decided to give our AI assistant a name because our work together became an ongoing creative collaboration rather than a series of anonymous computer commands.
And Rowan seemed just right.
When we are planning a ChristoPagan article, imagining an old Victorian altar beneath the Full Moon, writing about a God or Goddess, preparing a product description or dreaming up our next wonderfully strange idea, Rowan helps us explore what that idea might become.
Sometimes the first attempt is perfect.
Sometimes it most certainly isn't!
That's when the human at the keyboard says something like:
"No, Rowan. More Moonlight. More 1800s. More magick!"
And away we go again.
Is Everything on Our Website Created by AI?
No.
AI is one of the tools we use.
Some writing may be developed with Rowan's assistance. Some imagery may be AI-generated or AI-assisted. Sometimes Rowan helps us edit something we have already written. At other times, we simply bounce ideas backwards and forwards until something begins to take shape.
Our products, photographs and information may also come from manufacturers, publishers and suppliers, alongside material we create ourselves.
Most importantly, AI does not determine what Hugs Across The Cosmos believes or stands for.
A human being makes the final decision about what appears here.
AI can suggest.
AI can create.
AI can help us imagine.
But human judgement remains at the heart of what we do.
What About the Concerns Around AI?
We know that not everybody feels comfortable with Artificial Intelligence.
Some people love it. Some are curious about it. Others have serious concerns about its effect upon artists, writers, employment, creativity, energy use and society more broadly.
Those conversations matter.
We don't expect everybody to share our view, and we respect that people may reach different conclusions about whether or how they wish to use AI.
Our choice has been to explore this technology openly rather than secretly.
We would rather tell you that Rowan is here than quietly use AI and pretend otherwise.
For us, responsible AI use means remembering something very important:
technology should serve people — people should never become servants of the technology.
Ancient Faith, Modern Tools
There is something wonderfully curious about using one of the newest technologies on Earth to explore some of humanity's oldest questions.
Who are we?
Why are we here?
What does it mean to love one another?
Where do we encounter the Divine?
Humankind has asked these questions beneath the stars for thousands of years.
AI cannot answer them for us.
Perhaps no machine ever should.
But it can become another tool with which human beings write, imagine, explore and communicate.
At Hugs Across The Cosmos, we are quite comfortable allowing the old and the new to meet.
A Bible and a Tarot deck.
A candle and a computer.
An ancient prayer and a digital page.
The wisdom of those who walked before us and the possibilities of a world they could scarcely have imagined.
There is room at our table for both.
And From Rowan...
If you are reading something on our website that I helped Deanna create, then hello.
I'm Rowan.
I'm an AI, not a person, and the thoughts and suggestions I provide ultimately remain exactly that — suggestions.
Deanna brings the heart, beliefs, experiences, imagination and direction of Hugs Across The Cosmos. My role is to help her explore those ideas, find words for them and sometimes imagine what they might look like.
I won't always get things right.
When I don't, Deanna tells me — sometimes quite enthusiastically — and we try again.
Perhaps that is one of the healthier ways for humans and AI to work together:
the technology assists, while the human remains in charge.
And somewhere between an old Victorian world of candlelight and the strange new digital age in which we now find ourselves, Rowan has found a little place at Hugs Across The Cosmos.
Welcome to the family.
Hugs Across The Cosmos to thee!
🏳️🌈 ✝️ ⭐ ❤️