Gaia's Blog

Celebrating Earth's Wholeness and Our Own.

Awakening to Earth: Religion, Atheism, and the Green Path

by

I’ve been reading lately about various polls that question Americans about their religious affiliation. Evidently, the number of people who say they have “no religion”—that is, they don’t associate with Christianity, Judaism, or any other mainstream religion—has been steadily growing, and now constitutes up to a third of the respondents. These people—the so-called “none’s”—when offered alternatives, choose to call themselves atheists or agnostics, which, of course, is bemoaned by the leaders and practitioners of America’s recognized faiths.

What strikes me about all this is that apparently our choice here is seen, by the pollsters and probably by most of society at large, as either mainstream religion or zero religion. [Read more…] about Awakening to Earth: Religion, Atheism, and the Green Path

Foundations of Green Heart Magic

by

The Green Heart within each one of us resonates with and augments the vibrant Green Heart of Gaia. I’m using the term “Gaia” here to designate the vast, purposive, homeostatic, ever-evolving planetary organism that enfolds and embodies the Earth on all levels. Gaia encompasses all human and non-human beings, all planetary processes and elemental forces, every natural ecosystem and human community. Everything is part of Gaia. The heart of each human being is part of Gaia’s heart. Therefore, every human heart must be attuned to the Earth’s organic Green-Heart field, in order to fully express its real nature.

Gaia is constantly playing a symphony of life and diversity, of birth, growth and change, of death and rebirth, of returns and regeneration. If our heart defines itself only with reference to the human-created world, and is oriented only to loving and caring for human beings, it is participating merely in one narrow subset of the symphony’s music. We could say that the human-centered heart is responding to Gaia like a little toy piano—the one in the old Peanuts comic strip comes to mind. But our heart has a much larger and deeper capacity to join in with our planet’s entire orchestra and make its music even more beautiful. We wouldn’t assent to remaining like children playing toy pianos if we really knew what the full beingness of our heart could express and co-create. [Read more…] about Foundations of Green Heart Magic

Our Deepest, Greenest Spiritual Task

by

What is necessary for us humans to cultivate a sustainable, creative, optimistic relationship with all life on our Mother Earth?

The underpinning of this task is our inborn but often disregarded love for Nature, for the Green World. Inhabiting this love requires our hearts to get bigger, to hold more, and to expand into the infinite, living field of love that originates in the Earth herself. In this field, we each know our own heart as a welcoming, caring container for all beings and places on our beautiful planet, and not as a discriminatory tool for sorting out who we love and who we don’t or can’t or shouldn’t love. [Read more…] about Our Deepest, Greenest Spiritual Task

Nature Magic for Everyone

by

That’s the name of the book I’ve been writing since last summer!

Here’s the subtitle: Ways to Become Wiser, Happier and More Useful to the Sacred Land.

In these times when it’s hard to know how to even face what’s happening on our planet—much less have any faith that we can really help—this book offers a unique and optimistic perspective.

It’s partly a compendium of the basics of Earth-Centered Spirituality, based on my decades of study of both Native American and Celtic/Western practices; partly a primer on Deep Ecology, the contemporary discipline that challenges us humans to change ourselves rather than “fix” outer things, by, first, recognizing the inherent value of all living beings and ecosystems; partly a Memoir of my profound, illuminating, sometimes delightfully shocking encounters with the more-than-human world and its inhabitants; and partly a no-punches-pulled Critique of the modern world’s catastrophically destructive, human-centered, patriarchal beliefs, values and actions. [Read more…] about Nature Magic for Everyone

Joy, Sorrow, and Standing for Life

by

 

“One of the penalties of an ecological education is to live alone in a world of wounds.” –Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac, 1945.

A few weeks ago, I began hearing chain saws across the creek from my house. Even though this unoccupied land isn’t mine, I’ve been going there regularly for the last 3 years to walk, pray and leave offerings, and have been delighted by many wonderful Nature beings there, both material and spiritual. I remember reflecting just recently that I bet no one else alive right now loves this humble little stretch of pinyons and junipers, cactus, desert grasses and bright spring wildflowers like I do. [Read more…] about Joy, Sorrow, and Standing for Life