Connecting with Spirit: Part II

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4 centers of paganism, bioregionalism, earth-based relgion, genus loci, landspirits, nature, nature spirits, paganism

When you need to pray, go down to the sea.  Breathe with the rhythm of the waves. Become the sun, the surf, the sand.  And when you no longer know one from the other, let your hopes, your fears, your dreams, your very soul become one with the world, with the universe.

Don’t worry, when you are finished you will find your way back to yourself.  You will have cleansed the stain of civilization from your soul to one again embrace your true self.  And you will know that you can come back anytime, you are only a small thought away from god.

If you lack a handy nearby ocean, don’t worry.  You can do this anywhere…just shut off your computer or put down your book, open your front door and go outside (shoes are optional, but generally not recommended).

Connecting with Nature—

Earth-centered Paganism would include those Paganisms concerned primarily with ecology, those more local forms of Paganism that I would call “backyard Paganism” or are sometimes called “dirt worship”, and many forms of (neo-)animism which view humans as non-privileged part of an interconnected more-than-human community of beings. The Pagan identity of earth-centered Pagans is defined by their relationship to their natural environment. Authenticity for these Pagans is defined by one’s ability to connect with the more-than-human world.
~John Halstead, Three (or more?) Centers of Paganism @ The Allergic Pagan

Nature Centered Pagans find the Divine in Nature – their primary concern is the natural world and our relationship with it. You may hear terms like “Earth centered” “tree hugger” and “dirt worshipper.”

This may be a non-theistic practice, though not necessarily so. It includes Animism, the idea that whatever animates you and me and the birds and bees also animates the wind and rain and even the mountains.
~John Beckett, The Four Centers of Paganism @ Under the Ancient Oaks

My “Connection with Spirit” is primarily a connection with nature.  Yes (as mentioned in the last post), I worship deities, but do so in relation to their relationship to the natural world. My connection with nature is specifically a relationship with my bioregion (but not an animistic one), the Chesapeake Bay watershed. I worship personified natural forces as a way of worshiping Nature Herself (through the Nereids). Land is steeped in sacredness, whether one sees these as individual spirits (what one might call land wights, or nature spirits) or part of a greater (almost pantheistic) spirit is (IMO) beside the point. It has been my experience that the land doesn’t care about what you call it, it cares that you have heard its call (and it doesn’t care whether you believe that call is literal or figurative).

A Nature or Earth centered Pagan may work with only one of these aspects–spirits, nature, and Nature; a naturalistic Pagan might work with nature, an animist might work with their local bioregion, a pantheistic Pagan with Nature Herself, etc. Or a Nature-centered Pagan may work in the area where Nature and the gods overlap (if we think of this as a Venn diagram), or with all three aspects. Either way, the focus for most Nature centered Pagans generally seems to be building a relationship between the various aspects of nature and one’s self. This may mean building a relationship with one’s local land spirits, incorporating service and/or activism as a sign of reverence (which can be as simple as picking up trash at the local park), or creating a tradition unique to yourself and your bioregion. For me, it includes all of the above, as well as things like being ecologically thoughtful about my offerings, being a conscious and responsbile consumer, and striving to teach all of these things to my children.

I found it surprising that Albertsson didn’t address nature worship much as part of “connecting with spirit”, as he comes from an ADF background (though I suppose one could argue that he does address various ways to do so in the rest of the book).  ADF considers nature part of the Three Kindred–gods, nature, and ancestors.  The ADF Dedicant Path though the Wheel of the Year (a book that can be used to help complete ADF’s Dedicant Path) explains Nature awareness as having three facets–awareness of the physical and material existence of nature, an awareness of the spirits of Nature, and the awareness of the Earth as a sort of Mother deity (akin to what I call “Nature, Herself”).   One of the activities incalls upon its new members to find a place near enough to their home that they can visit it at least weekly for at least an hour, and to observe and experience that place with their entire being for the entire year of their Dedicant Path work.

I’m a big fan of the “find a place in nature and exhalt in spending time there regularly” practice as the most effective way to connect with nature. Too bad there isn’t a simpler word for that idea the English lanugage–after all, the Norwegians have the word friluftsliv and the Japanese have the term shinrin yoku, both of which come close…  The myriad of physical benefits from spending time in Nature–decreased stress, improves memory and attention (especially for persons with ADHD), an increased sense of vitality, and a strengthened immune system (to name a few) should have Pagans (of all sorts) lining up to go outside on a regular basis.  Physical reasons for going outside and spending time in nature aside, Paganism is ultimately a religion steeped in the idea of gods that are of this world–gods that are imminent and accessible, that are the forces and features of this existence.

If we truly believe this, whether we do so literally or figuratively, I would hope our worship would include getting to know those forces and features beyond the personality said to represent them. Spend an hour in nature (at least) each week. Learn about your bioregion, your ecosystem, your backyard.  You don’t have to do anything crazy or go anywhere fancy, though activities (like flying a kite to get to know your local Air or planting a native garden to attract your local animal spirits) can absolutely be a part of this process.  Pick up a field guide or two, go on a plant walk with your local Native Plant society, volunteer for a bird count with your local Audobon, pick up trash at the park where you walk your dog.  Talk to your garden, sleep in your woods, swim at your beach.  And do them all with reverence. But no matter what you choose do, let your feet greet the earth and get to know your bit of land, in both the mundane sense and the spiritual sense.

Once you’ve gotten to know your bioregion, make an offering to it or to an aspect of it that you are interested in working with, or to a particular spirit of your region, or to a deity or entity that you feel is representative of your bioregion at large or a particular aspect of it.  Whichever one of these options you choose (or which ever one chooses you) is, in my experience, largely unimportant–it is my experience that the land doesn’t care what you call it or how you relate to it (provided it is in keeping with its features and forces), it “cares” that you are called.  Beyond that, the process of getting to know a landspirit can be much the same as the process in getting to know any other deity.    I would also hope (and here’s where I will take great effort to stay off my soapbox as to not get off topic) that if our spirituality includes the idea of these forces and features as sacred that our everyday actions would reflect that concept of sacredness…particularly once we get to know them.

Thalassa’s Recommended Reading for the Nature-Centered Pagan:

*The Wakeful World: Animism, Mind, and the Self in Nature by Emma Restall Orr
*Biophilia by Christopher Marley
*My “bioregional awareness” post, as well as a post on bioregional witchcraft, and another on spiritual bioregionalism
*The Spell of the Sensuous: Perception and Language in a More-Than-Human World and Becoming Animal: An Earthly Cosmology by David Abram
*Bless the Waters Thrice: Making Environmentally Sustainable Offerings, What Will Druidry Look Like on Mars?, and Talking About Anthropocentrism in Modern Paganism (blog posts by Alison Leigh Lilly)
*The Song of the Land: Bioregional Animism, Land Guardianship, and How to Create a Genius Loci Profile (blog posts by Sarah Anne Lawless)
*The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History by Elizabeth Kolbert
*The Sacred Depths of Nature by Ursula Goodenough
*The Forest Unseen: A Year’s Watch in Nature by David George Haskell
*A Pagan at Donner’s Pass, The Collapse of the West and the Future of the Human Species, and (blog posts by John Beckett @ Under the Ancient Oaks)
*Keeping a Nature Journal: Discover a Whole New Way of Seeing the World Around You by Clare Walker Leslie
*Deconstructing Local Mythologies, Only Connect, and Lost Watercourses and Resacredization (blog posts on Gods and Radicals)
*How Earth-Centered is Neo-Paganism Really? (blog post by John Halstead @ Humanistic Paganism)
*The World in One Cubic Foot: A Portrait of Biodiversity by David Liittschwager
*Depth Ecology (an essay by David Abram)
*A Natural History of the Senses and The Human Age: The World Shaped by Us by Diane Ackerman
*The Meaning of Human Existence, The Social Conquest of Earth, The Future of Life, On Human Nature, Biophilia, The Diversity of Life, and Conscience: The Unity of Knowledge, all by E. O. Wilson

PBP 2014: Thinking about Grace

Tags

2014pbp, bioregionalism, grace, pagan blog project

In the Christian tradition, grace is something that is given and received. If justice is getting what we deserve, and mercy is not getting the punishment deserved, then grace is an undeserved reward–like forgiveness, love, etc. The Christian god gives grace in the form of forgiveness and sanctification and Christians give grace in the form of reverence and worship (depending on the denomination, this may or may not be a tit for tat relationship).  I was raised in a tradition that taught that God’s grace was supposed to flow downhill (something I think a lot of Christians have lost sight of, unfortunately)–that divine favor is given by virtue of divine love, and that there is an implicit responsibility to share that favor with others, regardless of one’s bias as to their worthiness.

But divine grace is not unique to Christianity.  One might wonder, on a Pagan blog, why I would lead with a discussion of a Christian perspective–quite simply because many (I would even venture most) people have been exposed to the Christian context of the term.   Grace in and of itself is a multi-faceted word and an equally multifaceted idea.  It can mean everything from “to thank” to “to bestow favor” to esteem, good will, refinement, elegance or virtue.  As a Pagan, I embrace the idea of grace with some tweaking of the Christian perspective.

Were I a traditional sort of polytheist, I might reject the idea of grace (I have had conversation with people that take this position) on the basis that the gods do not interact with humanity in a way that dispenses undeserved rewards (I can certainly agree with the idea that the gods do not hand out divine salvation).  Or, I might accept the idea of grace in a manner similar to that of a Christian (and I have had conversation with people that take this position as well)–the gods do gift us (well, more specifically their followers) with things we do not deserve (fortune, good fortune, etc).  And, for both of these groups, we humans certainly give grace to our respective gods in the form of worship, reverence, and offerings.

But…I’m not a traditional sort of polytheist (one might argue I’m no kind of polytheist at all, though that seems to ebb and flow like the tide, and will surely be discussed again and again as my understanding of deity is constantly evolving), so it should come as no surprise that my idea of grace is a bit non-traditional.  We live in a state of grace.  That grace is bestowed upon us by virtue of the gods.  We are given undeserved gifts.  Incredibly undeserved gifts–water, earth, air, the sun, the moon, the rock, the tree, the sea gull, the dolphin, the bear, the bee, one another.  We do nothing to deserve these things–they are a gift (as is our very existence) of Nature.

And if grace is both given and received, we need to start doing a better job at giving some.  Reverence is not enough.  Worship is not enough.  Sacrifice is a good start, but still not enough.  I believe (to borrow some Sophocles) that if the gods help them that help themselves, then we have a duty to help those that cannot help themselves.  We who have been given the gift of (relatively) good health and (relatively) good fortune, can start by being the physical hands of the gods in doing the physical work that they cannot in this world.  In the context of a bioregional theology, that means doing the work of Rock and Tree and Ocean and Mankind for the rocks and the trees and the ocean and one another.

*Note–I once wrote a post about what Pagans could learn from Christians…some of these ideas and words are taken from that post*

This has been a blog post for the letter G for the Pagan Blog Project

PBP: Bioregional Witchery

Tags

2014pbp, bioregionalism, pagan blog project, witchcraft

I tend to talk a lot around here about loving where you live…in fact, last year for the letter B, I had yet another post on that very subject (also for the letter P, the letter L, the letter F…heck, even some of the letters I *didn’t* get to were going to be on that subject!).  So, it should be of absolutely no surprise what-so-ever to my regular readers to greet this topic again.

A bit of a crash course (in case you declined to follow the links):

Bioregion: An area with similar natural characteristics, including plant and animal life, human culture, climate, and continuous geographic terrain.  Varies by scale, from a larger ecoregion (akin to a biome), to a very localized bioregion, depending on the features being considered–smaller bioregions nest into one another, and into larger ecoregions, and can overlap as well.

Bioregionalism:  Emphasizes the bioregion as the basis for a healthier co-existence between human culture and the natural environment and sees humanity and its culture as a part of nature, and calls upon people to build positive, sustainable relationships with their bioregion.

Spiritual Bioregionalism: Considers the bioregion, and its inhabitants (including people, past and present) as the originating inspiration for religious and spiritual beliefs.  Uses both the ideas of human cultures and ecology as the framework for a personal (though share-able) and organic religious tradition.  Is firmly rooted in the idea of “spirit of place” and celebrates the cycles of nature in relevance to individual bioregions, as well as those personally relevant in an individual’s culture.

Spiritual Bioregionalism (as I conceive it) is bound to a single idea–showing responsibility towards the environment and ALL of its inhabitants (including fellow humans) and respecting their capacity for self-determination.  It is centered in the notion that the bioregion can take the place of a central deity (without being a deity, unless you wanted it to be one), and be interacted with and celebrated using traditional human ideas of godhood.  This interaction may (or may not) include belief in gods–whether it be one god, shit tons of gods, or no gods at all, and whether the nature of belief in said gods is literal, symbolic, or non-existent, whether said gods are a historical or created pantheon (or are the natural features of the bioregion themselves).  Spiritual  Bioregionalism calls upon us to worship (or not) in any way that  brings  ecstasy  and  reverence  while  honoring  the cycles and stages of the bioregion and its inhabitants, and may or may not include the practice of magic (however one chooses to believe in it).

So, when it comes to being a witch, it may come as no surprise that one of my most sacred ideas is that “witchery starts where you live”.  It starts with rooting yourself where you live, and learning to love it–as an act of devotion.  It calls means  grounding yourself in the energies of your locus–your landbase, your bit’o’land, whatever you want to call it (and wherever it may be located–your backyard, a shady spot in a local park, a tree in a courtyard).  It calls upon is to make peace with the history of our locus–in this area of Virginia, that includes the displacement of the native people, two wars fought in this area specifically, and the bondage of thousands of human beings.  It includes reconciling the disparate origins and cultures (new, and old) of the people that share one’s locus–they (and the structures they have erected–buildings, statues, even parking lots and strip malls) are as much a part of its energy as plants and animals and rocks and things.

And speaking of rocks and trees and river otters and horseshoe crabs…  Part of bioregional witchery is knowing your own flora and fauna, and the distinctive energies and feel of your local species.  It is finding the place where you can forage for peppergrass (I just used my last bit up) and where the mulberry trees are (I’m running low on those too), knowing which tree on the drive in to work has the bald eagle nest and where the deer like to hang out in the early morning.  Its is knowing your land well enough to grok where to put that protection charm, or dispose of an old spell, or where to make an offering to…whom ever you are making an offering to.  Its knowing which plants are invasive to the native ecosystem and getting rid of them, even if they are pretty…and even if they have a “traditional” correspondence that is useful.  It is finding new correspondences using native species (ethically and legally sourced, of course) and using traditional correspondences obtained from local sources when possible–knowing where to shop is just as important as knowing where to forage!

Bioregional witchery is about making magic with the immediate energy of the world around you, and co-creating relationships with the entirety of one’s surroundings.

A post for the letter B, click here to check out more!

Our Sacred Small Spaces

Tags

bioregionalism, loving where you live, sacred spaces

I wandered across a lovely blog challenge today, that I think I’ll go ahead and take up, since it seems to fit with one of my favorite themes around here!

We have a number of small, sacred spaces, where we pick mulberries and pull invasive ivy for crafts and make mudpies and pick up trash and dig for mussles and catch crabs for our dinner and forage for wild strawberries and pick wildflowers and play hide and seek and hunt for rolly-pollies and chase skinks and climb trees, where we meet Nature embodied in the nature all around us. Some of these pictures I’ve shared before, and some of them I haven’t…but here’s a look at two of our small, sacred spaces (and one slightly larger one).

The park across the street, bordering a creek and some woods:

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The beach by our old apartment (now just a couple miles down the road):

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Belle Island, a small park (not many non-locals know about it, so I figured it counted, even though its a park!) right in the middle of Richmond–on an island in the middle of the river rapids (a foot/bike suspension bridge gets you there) that has been an Powhatan Indian village, then a colonial racetrack, a Confederate storage site and Civil War prison, a steel works, a quarry, and a hydro-elecrtric plant before becoming a park:

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Where are yours?

June Forage: Japanese Honeysuckle

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bioregionalism, edible plants, forage, herbs, honeysuckle, invasive species, know your flora, magical herbs, medicinal herbs, wildcrafting

Not long ago, when most people were still fairly attuned to nature, it was commonly noted that her flowers resembled lovers entwined, thereby making “Love Bind,” as she was sometimes called, a symbol of devotion and love. In Victorian times, it was said that if one brought a Honeysuckle bouquet into the house, a wedding would follow within the year. Prudence being the operative theme in those days, perhaps marriage was the only possible option for release of wanton desires, for it was well-known that the perfume that spills from her honey-lipped blossoms would spark dreams of passion and desire.

(source)

If there is any plant that I have a love-hate relationship with…its honeysuckle.  On one hand, its fragrant and tasty and medicinal.  On the other hand, its a pervasively invasive species that does an incredible amount of damage to native ecosystems. When it comes to plants like these (kudzu, garlic mustard, mimosa, etc), I’m particularly bloodthirsty (sapthirsty?) and more than happy to pick ’em til they’re gone (a number of parks are more than happy to let you rid them of invasive species, if you ask the persons in charge of them).

There are about 180 species of honeysuckle, most native to the northern hemisphere. The greatest number of species is in China with over 100. North America and Europe have only about 20 native species each, and the ones in Europe are usually toxic.  Taste is not a measure of toxicity. Some Lonicera have delicious berries that are quite toxic and some have unpalatable berries that are not toxic at all. This is one plant on which taste is not a measure of edibility. Properly identify the species.

(from one of my fave wild edible sites, Eat the weeds)

Our favorite way to enjoy honeysuckle, of course, is sucking the nectar out of the bottom of the freshly picked flower…but we also dry the flower buds and fresh blooms to use in teas and salves.  I’m more then happy to pick as many of the flowers as possible, because less flowers mean less berries, and less berries mean less seeds, and less seeds, mean less honeysuckle plants taking over and smothering native plants.  Unfortunately, honeysuckle is a difficult plant to control the growth and spread of.

General Description: 

Japanese honeysuckle is a perennial vine that climbs by twisting its stems around vertical structures, including limbs and trunks of shrubs and small trees. Leaves are oblong to oval, sometimes lobed, have short stalks, and occur in pairs along the stem. In southern and mid-Atlantic states, Japanese honeysuckle often remains evergreen – its leaves remain attached through the winter. In colder northern climates, the leaves may fall off after exposure to prolonged winter temperatures. Flowers are tubular, with five fused petals, white to pink, turning yellow with age, very fragrant, and occur in pairs along the stem at leaf junctures. Stems and leaves are sometimes covered with fine, soft hairs. Japanese honeysuckle blooms from late April through July and sometimes into October. Small black fruits (photo) are produced in autumn, each containing 2-3 oval to oblong, dark brown seeds about 1/4 inch across.

(from the National Park Service’s “Least Wanted” list)

Parts of interest:   Harvest the unopened blooms early in the morning for infusions or tinctures.  Open blooms can also be harvested for tea and for culinary preparations (honey suckle flowers are tasty in salads).  The young leaves and vine tips of Japanese honeysuckle are edible after boiling (I haven’t tried this myself yet)–the big thing to remember here is the “after boiling”–the leaves are said to have high levels of saponins, which can make you sick to your tummy, but are mostly removed through parboiling, and not readily absorbed through the human digestive tract anyhow. Additionally, it is reported that the vines themselves can be used for basketry. DO NOT INGEST THE BERRIES!  Reports of toxicity vary, but honeysuckle berries are generally agreed to be mildly poisonous in  most species.

How to prepare flowers:  There are a number of ways to use honeysuckle blooms.  First, consider drying them for later use in infusions.  Honeysuckle makes an excellent additive in salves, and a lovely and fragrant infusion.  The unopened blooms are best for drying, but the opened blossoms are suitable for using fresh.  Flowers can be candied, used to make a simple syrup (which can even be used in adult beverages), infused in honey, or turned into jelly.

What its good for:  Medicinally, honeysuckle has been traditionally recommended to combat inflammation, fever, infection, and skin conditions.  Magically, it is said to attract friends, love, prosperity, fidelity, and clear thinking.

Errata:  Honeysuckle is a plant that has quite a bit of disagreement about its use–which species and which parts of a particular species should be used for which ailments, which parts of the plants from which species are safe, etc.  If you choose to forage for honeysuckle as a food or medicine, please do so with caution.