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Acting Like We Have Relatives

December 16, 2021 by Fowler

I’ve been told that the Dineh people of the desert southwest describe someone who has gotten grievously off-track in his life and behavior by saying: “He’s acting like he doesn’t have any relatives.”

Among ancestral peoples, someone who acts like he or she doesn’t have relatives—someone who behaves as if they are not linked to their life-honoring ancestral ways, and who disrespects and rejects the human and non-human members of their community—is in major trouble. Those who rudely fail to acknowledge their connections or carry out their obligations to Gaia’s web of life, of which they are inevitably a part, are considered seriously ill, both mentally and spiritually. [Read more…] about Acting Like We Have Relatives

Filed Under: Ancestral Spirituality, Home Featured Left

Becoming “Woke” on Behalf of Gaia

November 11, 2021 by Fowler

These days we’re being confronted on all sides with a wide variety of human grievances. We’re even being urged to re-examine the very words we use, to become more “woke” to systemic discrimination and oppression.

As a relatively privileged white woman, I can’t imagine the trauma of centuries of oppression and mistreatment of Native and Black people, and their justified outrage about that. But one way I can get close to understanding it is when I contemplate the violence and aggression long perpetrated by men on women and girls. I can certainly resonate at times with the temptation to dismiss all men as arrogant, destructive, and hopelessly ignorant, if not downright complacent, about the vast male-supremacist ocean in which we all swim. (This despite the fact that in my own life, I enjoy close and respectful friendships with men who honor the Feminine in the world and themselves.) [Read more…] about Becoming “Woke” on Behalf of Gaia

Filed Under: Deep Ecology and Earth-Centered Philosophy, Home Featured Left

The Flowing Green Love of Autumn

September 27, 2021 by Fowler

One day last year, walking along a nearby mountain stream, I entered a place that felt sacred and mysterious. Shaded by a grove of willows, the creek’s waters gently flowed and purled around some stepping stones, evoking a sense of quiet, of waiting. I felt the presence of a water spirit and started singing to her. Very soon she began to sing back. She ended up giving me a beautiful song, which I was fortunately able to echo and record, line by line, as she sang it. When it was over, with great gratitude I inquired, “is this a song from the Mother of the Waters?” And I heard very clearly: “No, it is a song from a Mother of the Waters.” [Read more…] about The Flowing Green Love of Autumn

Filed Under: Ancestral Spirituality, Home Featured Left

What is Natural?

August 18, 2021 by Fowler

The other day a friend and I were having a discussion about the future of this planet and of humanity. She asserted that since humanity is of Planet Earth just as much as any other lifeform here, all the human-caused disasters that are happening—forest fires, floods, droughts and heat waves, air and water pollution, even extinctions and climate disruption—are “natural.”

Well, on one level that’s hard to deny, unless humans were dropped off here long ago by an alien spaceship (a theory that I don’t find so far-fetched sometimes!) But, nevertheless, I felt myself resisting the idea that the heartbreaking mess we’re in right now, with the biosphere near collapse all around the globe, can be excused as merely natural. If natural means acting according to our true nature, can we really say that humans are “naturally” unconcerned about our impact on the planet; that we’re naturally uncaring and even hateful toward our fellow creatures? [Read more…] about What is Natural?

Filed Under: Deep Ecology and Earth-Centered Philosophy, Home Featured Left

Whose Heart Is It?

May 4, 2021 by Fowler

We normally think of our hearts as “belonging” to us. And yes, our heart is undeniably part of our physical body, as a muscle ceaselessly pumping our blood around, and literally keeping us alive.

On the emotional level, we are told early and often that our hearts “belong” to romantic love.
This begins as the simple, adolescent love of infatuation, which, ideally, matures into more nuanced, balanced love for a partner and for families and friends. [Read more…] about Whose Heart Is It?

Filed Under: Earth-Centered Practices and Ceremonies, Home Featured Left

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Mary Janet Fowler
Mary Janet Fowler

I am a sacramental ceremonialist on behalf of Gaia

I grew up roaming the mountains and mesas of northern New Mexico. Out there I came to know that the earth and its creatures and places are not only alive, intelligent and beautiful, but are an essential part of who I am. I also learned firsthand about the spiritual beings of the Sacred Land, and felt their promptings and protective presence for years before I even knew a language to describe it.

I was intrigued and excited by the Gaia Hypothesis—which proposes that the entire planet is a dynamic, self-regulating being—when it was first explicated 50 years ago. I found this idea both radical and obvious. I’ve always known that there is a living, interconnected presence in Nature, a vibrant physical and spiritual wholeness, grounded in both change and continuity, ever seeking harmony and balance.

After a lifetime of earth-centered explorations, I’ve come to focus my entire spiritual life around Gaia Herself—the vast, vital, planetary being who generated me and the lands, plants and creatures I love. My calling is to do whatever I can to strengthen Gaia’s regenerative, transformative powers, on behalf of all future generations of human and non-human beings.

Blog Topics

  • Ancestral Spirituality
  • Deep Ecology and Earth-Centered Philosophy
  • Earth-Centered Practices and Ceremonies
  • Gaia and the Divine Feminine
  • The Sacred Land’s Wisdom

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