Naturalistic Paganism
Category: A Pedagogy of Gaia
[A Pedagogy of Gaia] “The P-Word” by Bart Everson
I call myself Pagan because wild nature is awesome, and I experience Earth as sacred, and I realize I don’t have a well-delineated self separate from the planetary ecosystem. I call myself Pagan because I think honoring the ancestors is a good idea, and I feel a connection to antiquity, and I like mythology. I call myself Pagan because dancing under the moon is my kind of religion, and a purely rational approach to life is deadening.
Read More[A Pedagogy of Gaia] “Awakening to Gaia” by Bart Everson
To awaken to Gaia is to recognize our interconnectedness, our radical interdependence, our participation in the web of life. To awaken to Gaia is to recognize other animals and plants as our distant cousins, to recognize that our kinship extends even to rocks, to the sea, to the atmosphere. To awaken to Gaia is to recognize these realities, to become more fully alive, alert, aware, involved, and mindful. To awaken to Gaia is to wake up from the zombiefied slumber of American-style consumerism, to come alive to what it means to be a social primate in the 21st century. Awakening to Gaia means awakening to oneself, to one’s own potential, to one’s own responsibilities.
Read More[A Pedagogy of Gaia] “After the Ritual” by Bart Everson
This is a follow-up piece to last month’s essay, “Preparing A Ritual”. Before Something always seems to die around Lammas. Last year it was our pet fish, Inky. The year before it was a raccoon under the house. This year…
Read More[A Pedagogy of Gaia] “Preparing a Ritual” by Bart Everson
A ritual should have an overall purpose, and everything should contribute to that, similar to what Edgar Alan Poe termed the “unity of effect” in a short story. The purpose of this ritual is, of course, to celebrate Lammas. What does Lammas mean? Or, more properly, what meaning shall we make of it?
Read More[A Pedagogy of Gaia] “Honoring the Past, Living in the Present, Shaping the Future” by Bart Everson
To dismiss Earth-based religious perspectives, as too backward-looking, too regressive, or too fixated on the past, is to deny one of our best avenues for true progress. But if we cling to our modern modes of existence, we guarantee a bleak future for succeeding generations.
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Pagan Coming Out Day – May 2nd
