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Today is Earth Day. April 22, 2024. The day in which we all get together and claim to show our love for this globe which gives us life. This year, I decided to give the celebration a purely Pagan slant.
Even though it has been co-opted for all sorts of bizarre and cynical purposes over the years, as a Pagan I still find Earth Day a worthy, and historically important, day. Originally a teach-in on environmental issues, it has since become a global moment where we collectively stop and take stock of how we are treating our home, Mother Earth. Since before the very first Earth Day in 1970, many modern Pagans have embraced and incorporated the idea of being Nature Religions, in addition to religions of fertility or mystery.
The Horned God embraces The Mother Goddess (The Earth Mother)
The spirit of Earth Day 1970 did not just happen; its roots could include the gradual stirring of environmental consciousness that accelerated in the 1960s, but that stirring itself had deeper roots in an American consciousness of a special relationship with the land, even if that relationship was often abusive.
Pagan and Heathen faiths, whether they identify as “nature religions” or not, have a special, sacred relationship with the natural world. Our Gods and Goddesses can be found in oceans, rivers, forests, and mountains (indeed, in many cultures, Earth is the primal mother of most acknowledged Gods and powers), some pre-Christian cultures envision a World Tree that binds reality together. Our rites often mark the changing seasons, and once tracked the progress of crops essential to our survival. Deity is not merely a transcendent force separate from creation, deity is everywhere and within every thing. Each of us holds the potential to be like the Gods, and we acknowledge that the Gods and powers walk and exist among us still. So it isn’t surprising that many Pagans feel a special urging to advocate for the environment and the protection of the natural world.
Our faiths have a special role in the movement. I think only spiritualities of a sacred nature are capable of doing earth justice, and I think that we, as Pagans, have a responsibility to act and speak in defense of this planet that has blessed us into existence. If anyone can, it is we who can argue for and sometimes introduce others to a direct experience of the sacredness of the Earth. Far from being anti-human, we need only enlarge that part of us that may be most unique, our hearts. It is much like any other ethic one has Such an ethic simply enlarges the boundaries of the community to include soils, waters, plants, and animals, or collectively: the land.
However, sacred care for the Earth need not be solely a Pagan practice, o matter what some reationary individuals believe. all Earth citizens have the responsibility to see Earth Day become the kind of consciousness that focuses on our relationship to the natural world and to this Earth on which we all live ... and not just for one week or one day each year. We had better be doing this every day if we want to save our collective home. Because when it is gone, where are we going to live? Or if it becomes a real wasteland, we have no one to blame but our collective human race going back decades. No sense in blaming one generation or the other. We just need to fix it. There is plenty of blame to go around.
As the effects of climate change start to seriously endanger the lives and livelihood of people of all countries, an ethos of 'wild law' is being formalized in hopes that a new relationship between man and nature can occur. As green living stops being an ethical lifestyle choice and starts becoming a fiscal and environmental necessity, I think ideas of naturalness and interconnectedness will naturally develop alongside them. We require a positive narrative for the changes we make in our culture and lives, even if they are changes made because we have run out of other options. As this gradual shift happens, modern Pagans can become the philosophical, spiritual, and ethical leaders we have often supposed we could (or should) be.
Pagans should be at the forefront of the environmental movement. We should put into practice the green living techniques learned over the last decades and show the world we take seriously what we preach: Earth is our Mother and we will honor Her by becoming green beacons to which others gravitate.
The problems begin when others view Pagans ... all Pagans no matter what path they follow (and there are several) as tree-hugging, hippie-dippy weirdos to be laughed at and not taken seriously. No, these people would rather put their faith in an image of a bearded man in the sky sitting on his throne of gold to save their Earth. Good luck with that.
Today, with immense environmental challenges facing us, from climate change and the destruction of natural ecosystems to the impending freshwater shortages, the ideals and message of Earth Day are more vital than they have ever been.
“I will sing of well-founded Earth, Mother of all, eldest of all beings. She feeds all creatures that are in the world, all that go upon the goodly land, and all that are in the paths of the seas, and all that fly: all these are fed of her store.” -- Homer
Darkmum
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