Naturalistic Paganism

This is an edited excerpt from the author’s book PaGaian Cosmology.

I long considered the practice of my spirituality to be Gaian,  encouraged by Charlene Spretnak’s use of the term[1]: that is, it is an Earth-based spirituality, which requires only birth, not baptism, for belonging. We are all native to Gaia; all humans are indigenous to Her, though as Primordial Mother She does have many names around the planet.  We do all issue forth from the same Origin. Gaia, as I understand Her however is not only Earth; She is Cosmos. The same Creative Dynamic[2] that flourishes in Earth is assumed to be the same Creative Dynamic present throughout the Universe. Earth-Gaia is seed and jewel of a larger living Organism. Earth-Gaia is our Mother, but She is Daughter too, of an essential sentience that seethes through the Universe. The only faith required in this spirituality is in the Teeming Abundant Creativity (a name for Deity?) that has been manifesting on this planet in a particular way for some billions of years, and throughout the Cosmos for about thirteen point seven billion years. This is not a flimsy track record! Perhaps, as James Lovelock has said, this is “as near immortal as we ever need to know”[3]; or as Susan Griffin said more poetically, “at no instant does She fail me in Her presence.”[4] Read More