Rosewicket Wicca Coven

Over the course of my shuffling through sites on paganism and Wicca, I've stumbled upon a few people saying that their spirituality is not 'nature-based'.  This always confused me a bit, as to me pagan usually meant 'a nature-based religion', and while I realize it means more 'country dweller' that still invokes in me a deep connection with the land.  I always tilted my head and felt something not quite meshing with my world view, but I usually let it slide.  I didn't really care either way, and the rather nasty and superior way they exclaimed their spirituality as having nothing to do with the earth put me off.  They would always say this when environmentalism became involved, and, of course, being raised by an environmentalist didn't really help me understand why they weren't for environmentalism in the first place.  I usually chalked my non-understanding (not misunderstanding) up to having lived a very different life.

But I'm going to speak frankly what I think, right now.  This is mostly aimed at Wicca, and other religions that focus on the fertility of the land or seasonal cycles, or nature-based spiritualities. 

If you follow a religion/spirituality that is supposed to be tied to nature, shouldn't you be working with nature?  Sure, metaphors and symbols and elaborate, flowing rituals that discuss the greatness of the seasons and their change is awesome, it really is, but if you're not going out and working with the land in some way, even just going outside and breathing all that fresh or polluted air, are you really in tune with nature and Her cycles?  I don't think so.  Sure, some of the rituals that are given in books are great, but the more I read the more I found they didn't apply to my desert environment.  If I went by the traditional view of seasons, my area would only have two.  Summer and winter. 

So, instead of just reading, I got outside and starting paying attention to what was around me.  This was really hard for me; Goddess knows I prefer my computer and books and fantasy land to the heat of Arizona.  But I went outside and I bore it, I let the sun make me sweat so much I thought I'd undergone a purification ceremony, I ran through my backyard and realized it had changed since I was a child, and that there was life everywhere around me, and how had I not noticed that there were over a dozen lizards slithering about our yard, doing little lizard-push ups and blending in just off of perfect into the dirty?

I didn't get bored on hikes anymore and I spent more time looking out the window during car trips hoping to see the progression and change of life as we drove up mountains.  Suddenly I was asking excitedly what plants were which, what trees were those?  Manzanita, I learned, and columbine and we even had pines in Arizona, I thought incredulously?  Not just spiky mesquite?  Juniper, hearts and flowers!  And was that acacia in our backyard?  When did we get that?  And, wait, we were growing what in the garden?  Did you say tomatoes?  Oh. My. Goddess.  I love tomatoes. 

It was as if I'd been asleep for years.  All the reading I'd done paled in comparison to the beauty around me.  How could I have claimed a connection to nature without experiencing this?  It was all so wonderful and real.

Around this time, another interesting thing happened.  A week or so after dedicated observation, the colors got brighter.  It was as if I'd been living in a gray, tinted world and now everything was really alive and revealing itself to me.  I was stunned and overjoyed.  I learned how to talk to trees, really talk to them, and listen to the birds and begin to hear them and notice when they stayed up later than usual.  I became better at people, too, because I noticed their unsaid words and subtle meanings that I'd never cared to catch. 

Now I knew that before we could eat the tomatoes I'd have to put up with dozens of greens, which made me shake my head and push them back.  I learned the taste of my heritage (Southeastern US), of fried food and greens soup and black eyed peas, and I learned the taste of my own land.  Now I knew that when Litha came around, our monsoons were nearing and the heat was going to build ferociously.  Now I didn't just dully answer 'winter' when people asked my favorite season, and I got defensive about my home when my friends complained when didn't have any real seasonal changes.  We had plenty!  How had they not seen the mesquite pollen lining the streets?  It turned our whole city a yellow bordering on neon!

And how could I have been so selfish to think that simply because my mother was dutifully working away at her organization that I was exempt from environmental action?  Didn't I proclaim to love this Earth?  This Earth is in danger!  I had to do something.  It felt necessary, almost like a geis.  If I was to say that I was the Earth's child, I better start taking care of my Mother.

So I did.  I started working in our garden and cleaning our yard, preparing it for a ritual space and also planning to make it more lively and welcoming.  Goddess knew the plants had turned wild and unsure of humans, the mesquite twisting madly about as it spread across the yard.  I began working at my mom's place, filing data and doing the mindless volunteer work that is actually the bones of non-profits. 

This is what I did, and I feel better for it.  I feel like I'm walking my talk, living the life I always said I wanted to live.  I'm bringing into balance now my reading, computer time, and RL time now.  Tomorrow, I'm going to go to my mom's work to look over forest plans, and then I'm headed to my first ever Tai Chi class.  I'm blessed to have these opportunities, the ability to experience this life.

My question, to all of you, is the same one the Earth asked me a long time ago.  If you really love Her, our Mama and the one we reference so much in our rites, what are you doing for Her?  This isn't a guilt trip.  What are you doing?  Connecting with nature?  What can you do?  And what do you want to do?  When you invoke the elements, is it in the abstract or do you really know what earth feels like in your hands, water against your skin, the heat of a fire in the cold winter when you camp, and the wind cooling you off as you spend precious time in the sun? 

Don't just call Her from your room, go to your local park, your backyard, even the plant that you keep on your windowsill, and actually be with Nature.

I agree. In older times, when said pagan faiths were resourfacing or growing, it was a no-brainer that you were with nature. When all these old, polytheistic mythologies were taken as truth, do you think they sprayed plants and ate food imported thousands of miles and tossed beer cans in the ocean? Of course not. It's second nature. I feel like we've sort fo forgotten how second nature it should be.

Wicca to me, seems to have become very passive. There's lots of meditating, expecting visions, interpreting signs, ect. But how often are you expected to really work for something? We sort of expect mysteries and rewards to just be given to us by the divine, just by "recieving them". I disagree. There is something about being human, and being animal, and beign nature that ties us all together. Every now and then, we need to run through trees and pounce a little. Every now and then we should work to protect our forests and make sure the foods we eat and plant materials we process are good for the earth as a whole. We need to remember that even though we are part of the human world, we are also part of an animal world, and a natural world. You can sit in the comfort of your home and deny it, but that doesn't excuse anyone of responsibilities.

Chi at July 12, 2010 at 12:46 AM

I agree. In older times, when said pagan faiths were resourfacing or growing, it was a no-brainer that you were with nature. When all these old, polytheistic mythologies were taken as truth, do you think they sprayed plants and ate food imported thousands of miles and tossed beer cans in the ocean? Of course not. It's second nature. I feel like we've sort fo forgotten how second nature it should be.

 

Wicca to me, seems to have become very passive. There's lots of meditating, expecting visions, interpreting signs, ect. But how often are you expected to really work for something? We sort of expect mysteries and rewards to just be given to us by the divine, just by "recieving them". I disagree. There is something about being human, and being animal, and beign nature that ties us all together. Every now and then, we need to run through trees and pounce a little. Every now and then we should work to protect our forests and make sure the foods we eat and plant materials we process are good for the earth as a whole. We need to remember that even though we are part of the human world, we are also part of an animal world, and a natural world. You can sit in the comfort of your home and deny it, but that doesn't excuse anyone of responsibilities.

This.  Completely.

Now, I've noticed, and this is only my experience and I don't say it will hold true for others, but I noticed way more signs and had better visions when I got active in the real world.  I noticed how strongly my patrons were really calling to me, starting piecing together what kind of spirituality I really had...it helped tremendously.  And I think it made me a better person overall.  My meditations also became more vivid and I got more from them--it's hard to open your senses psychically when they aren't open physically.