Pagan Blog Project: Places need Witches

Tags

2013PBP, genus loci, loving where you live, pagan blog project, Spiritual Bioregionalism

this has been a catch-up post for the pagan blog project!

I was all set to write about “Doing What Works” (aka Pragmatism), but I got sidelined by kismet when I browsed through my blogroll this morning…

Now, places, of course, need priestesses and priests. Places need Witches. Places need Druids, and Magicians, and Heathens who practice the old ways of honor, and home, and hearth. Places need magic and places need listening attention. Places need people who live within, and can help to turn, the Wheel of the Year.

~Hecate Demeter, in her ongoing blog-story “A Place Without a Witch”

If you don’t follow her (you should) and if you haven’t read this particular series of posts (your really ought to), you can find all of them (in reverse order, so find Chapter 1 and start there) here.

Places need people that see the Nature in nature, that find the Divine in the Soil and the Sun and the Sky and the Sea.  Places need people that worship Gods of those Places, of those Powers, particularly as we become more technological, and more removed from Place.  Places need Pagans, particularly earth-based Pagans that know what it means to stick your hands in the dirt and actually get dirty.  Places need people that aren’t afraid to get sweaty and mosquito bit and to teach their children to do the same.  Places need us to get up off our collective asses and ya know, get shit done.  (And I thought this wasn’t going to be about pragmatism after all, lol…)

Places need us to do what works.  And what works isn’t the current paradigm.  Places need us to learn about them, to learn about their history, to learn about their present, to hear and see and feel what they need to be restored to their glory in a way that we can all co-exist sustainably.  Places need us to spend our time and our energy in them, to play in them, to work in them, to live in them.  Places need us to give a shit and to minimize our footprint so that Places can recover from our apathy, our ignorance, our deliberate pilfering for convenience. Places don’t need this for themselves, without us, they would go back to being places…changed, to be sure, but still a Place.

We need Places.  We need them to feed us, to clean our water, to clothe us.  We need them to shelter us, to enrich us.  We need Places to Root ourselves, to expand our minds and stretch our branches.  We need Places to exist, to co-exist, to pray, to rest, to sing, to love, to hope, to dream, to create, to write, to mourn, to teach us to be human.  

Places need witches, but witches need Places even more.  And not just witches.

People need Places.  Whether they are Pagan or not.  But, since (most) Pagans (tend to be) are closer to Places than not, Pagans need to lead the way to caring for their Places.  Lead the way by example and action, not just words on a screen or in the air.

Its just pragmatic.

 

Pagan Blog Project: My Locus

Tags

2013PBP, bioregionalism, genius loci, pagan blog project, spirit of place, Spiritual Bioregionalism

I’ve written a time or twenty about where I live, and about its importance in my Paganism.  While the reality and the reasoning is nuanced and complicated, at its most simple–my land is (part of) my pantheon.  As my land is my pantheon, it is only logical that I know its history, its mythology, its characteristics, and its other inhabitants.  A nicely succinct guide for getting to know one’s land comes in the form of an old post from Sarah Lawless @ Witch of Forest Grove (she’s recently moved her blog, but all of her old posts are still there) on creating a profile for one’s genius loci.

(maps in this image provided from google maps)

You might recognize the word locus (plural, loci) from mathematics.  Mathematically, it references a point or set of points whose coordinates fulfill a single equation or condition.  But, before mathematicians co-opted the word for their own use, it was a term adopted from Latin meaning a location, place, spot, or position.  The word locus can also refer to a center of activity or focus of attention.

So, this is my locus.  Where the Chesapeake Bay meets the Atlantic Ocean.  As a geological feature, the Bay is only about 3000 years, formed by melting glaciers during the last ice age.  In the past million years, this is the fourth bay that has formed at this location in this manner.  The Bay is one the largest estuary in North America, and is constantly changing with the forces of wind and water.  The Bay is home to over 2500 species and its watershed is home over 14 million people.  Its natural and human history is fascinating, and the two are relentlessly intertwined (and have been since humans first came to this place).

My locus, as a place, is the center of my (religious) activity and the focus of my (spiritual) attentions.  I gather water from the mouth of the bay to make my own ritual salt, I use the shells and sand and rocks and branches and vines from the beach and the woods and the waterways to make my own tools and decor, and I gather edible and medicinal and magical plants from here when and where I can.  When I meditate, it is often to the sound of the waves and the pull of the tides.  I see the gods in the Ocean, and the Bay, in the Beach, in the Tide, in the Woods–in the genius loci, or spirits of this place.

 

 

Pagan Blog Project: Divinity=EverythingEnsouled

Tags

2013PBP, animism, consciousness, ecosophy, nature, pagan blog project, pantheism, polytheism, Spiritual Bioregionalism

In weaving, the warp is laid down first, lengthwise, and generally on a frame of some sort.  The weft is then woven, over and under, up and down, line by line, to create an entire piece of cloth.  They are so integrated that to remove either the weft or the warp completely destroys the fabric that has been produced, leaving it in a tangle of threads.

As an allegory, I think this describes perfectly how the material and immaterial (definition #2) weave together the fabric of the Universe.  So much so, that I don’t see a division (in the final product) between the physical reality of the universe and the non-physical reality of the universe.  There is a difference, yes…but not a division.

In a previous Pagan Blog Project post, I talked about a reoccurring theme on this blog, the idea of loving where you live.  I worship (and by worship I mean that I celebrate, revere, honor, adore, devote myself to, make offerings to, and regard with awe and deference) nature (and by little-n nature I mean rocks and trees and lakes and ponds and birds and crocodiles and slime mold and slugs) as the physical body of Nature (and by big-N Nature, I mean The Big Mystery, aka The Divine, aka The Universe, aka Nature’s Consciousness) through the language and symbolism of deity (and by deity, I mean individual gods like Zeus or Brigid).

Admittedly, the idea of nature worship can be an idea that is not without its difficulties,  difficulties that  another blogger has tackled pretty thoroughly (if you click and read any links, read these two!).    But this post really isn’t about that.  This post is more about how, when I talk to nature, Nature often talks back.  And how, when I talk to Nature, nature often talks back as well.  And how I have chosen (or been chosen) to interpret deity/divinity in a particular way.  How we have all been chosen to interpret deity and divinity in particular ways, rooted in our own independent and individual experiences of them.

D is for Divine

Last time, for the PBP, I talked about consciousness.  The ultimate question of consciousness is the question of how the physical processes occurring in the brain (such as those that occur when sensing an event) transform into the subjective experiences of the person?  What makes the firing of neurons, the flow of electrons, the transmission of neurotransmitters become something that is unique to each person, that can ultimately be seen differently, felt differently?  So far, this is a question that is unanswerable by science–not because we lack the technology or understanding, but because it is largely untestable.

In my post, I talked about ourselves as a “cauldron of consciousness”, that I think that the place where we meet That Which Is Divine, however it chooses to reveal itself to us (or how we are able to interpret it) is here, in the space between sensing something and experiencing it.  For me, deity is nature–it is rock and tree and sea and sky.  It is also Nature–as Rock and Tree and Sea and Sky.  They are separate, but so tightly woven together that they are one.  For me, my experience of deity has worn into my brain an idea that isn’t quite animism, or pantheism, or polytheism, but  contains elements of each.

When I go to the beach and make an offering to Psamathe, I am honoring the beach itself–the convergence of the physical elements and magical ones, as much as the Nereid of Greek mythology.  I believe in a Divine Universe, woven  into the physicality of the physical universe, where everything is ensouled.

This post is a contribution for the Pagan Blog Project. Be sure to check out the other contributors, and enjoy!

Pagan Blog Project: Loving Where You Live

Tags

2013PBP, bioregionalism, genus loci, loving where you live, pagan blog project, spirit of place, Spiritual Bioregionalism

“What?” You ask, “Loving where you live? That doesn’t start with a ‘B’!”

(Oh, but it does…)

(Really, I promise, you will see!)

“And by the way,” You say, “You are posting this a day early!”

(Well, yes–yes I am, guilty as charged, because the last time I tried to do a timed auto-post, WordPress was naughty.  Of course, it might have been operator error…)

This post is a contribution for the Pagan Blog Project. Be sure to check out the other contributors, and enjoy!

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.

 I talk about bioregionalism with some regularity on this blog…

• “My Paganism is a religion of location. Modern terminology might call it bioregionalist or topophilic. More traditional terminology might say that it is based in the idea of “spirit of place” or by the Roman idea of genius loci.“
• “We love where we live because it is our home, and part of our theology is the idea that we should strive to enter into a positive relationship with the land where we reside. Loving where you live is not passive–it is as much of a relationship (and requires just as much work) as a significant other…“
• “Every one of us lives in a unique ecosystem with a unique history.  Our ecosystem can strengthen us, can teach us, can shape us…if we let it.  If we know how to talk to it–and more importantly, if we know how to listen to it.“

But I’ve never really spelled out the particulars too specifically (and yes, I gave this term to my beliefs, Google implied that it hadn’t been taken yet).  The idea of Spiritual Bioregionalism isn’t entirely new–it overlaps in some ways with concepts such as deep ecology,  bioregional animism, or ecological/natural polytheism.    The choice of the name though, is based in the simple fact is that my Paganism is based in the spiritual exploration of  what I find compelling in humanity’s ideas and ideals and what I connect with in my unique ecosystem.  It all starts, and ends (though it can go to plenty of places in between), with the spirit of place…the spirit of MY place.

Spirit of place is defined as the tangible (buildings, sites, landscapes, routes, objects) and the intangible elements (memories, narratives, written documents, rituals, festivals, traditional knowledge, values, textures, colors, odors, etc.), that is to say the physical and the spiritual elements that give meaning, value, emotion and mystery to place.

from the QUÉBEC DECLARATION ON THE PRESERVATION OF THE SPIRIT OF PLACE

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-existant, 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).

Practically speaking, it might call upon us to go outside more, to get to know our land base and our native species, to volunteer in our communities, to be a lessatarian, to utilize the local farmers market and eat consciously and mindfully, to thrift store more and buy new less, to have a garden, to pick up trash on the beach or at the park, to forage more, or to only eat meat that one can hunt or fish, etc.  Magically, it might mean getting to know your local plants and animals for use in or with rituals and spells, to find a spot to commune and communicate with on a consistent basis as our energetic base.  Religiously it might mean that we develop new relationships with the genus loci or that we get to know them through traditional cultural names and norms.  It might also mean that the Army-Navy football game is just as much of a holiday as Samhain–hey, I’m a former sailor that works on a giant ship and lives in a Navy town…don’t judge.  And it might mean something totally different.

Because, I am sort of the only adherent right now (though I suspect I know of a few people that might qualify).  I only really know what it means for myself and my family at this point.  But, there’s a ton of room to spread out and grow if you want to hang out in a bioregion nearby!

And if you don’t, that’s okay too.