I was just reading over an essay in a collection of essays meant to explain neopaganism for a religious studies course, Between the Worlds: Readings in Contemporary Neopaganism, ed. Sian Reid et al. What I found fascinating with the essay is Graham Harvey’s comment that comparing ancient druidry from the Iron Age to modern day’s expression of the same thing. He says “[d]ruidry is no longer a profession in the sense of a career, but a profession of faith or commitment to a nature-centred spirituality.”(118)
The text is a phenomenal collection of essays that bring up many ideas, critical thought, and would definitely create discussion in a college or university course in religious studies. (Yes, I did graduate from university almost…my gad, twenty years ago. Ah yes, same amount of clean time I have accumulated free from chemical addiction…another time, perhaps.) At any rate, this is one of those times I wish I could have taken a course in religious studies, or in fact women’s studies. Those courses were not available when I attended school. Still, if you are like me, a wannabe student of all things, and still reading copious non-fiction as my fading interest in escapism has lead me away from novels, this is certainly worth reading. Now, if you want an overview of paganism that is written for a non-university audience, Exploring the Pagan Path, ed. Kristen Madden et al. is a wonderful text; I have used it in a book study I have offered before through my business. But this one is different.
This text is meant to be a university or college text, so the language of the essays, and the research and documentation is at the academic standard. This can make it a little difficult to read if you are not used to it or have been out of school for a while; it does not read like a lot of published pagan works. This is still worth a read, and I would say a recommended addition to the Canadian pagan’s personal collection. Being familiar with the early materials in the front of the text would serve many pagans a core requirement of their understanding of their beliefs and the traditions they subscribe, and to further enhance the accuracy of real history rather than the myth histories that seem to still be regurgitated again and again about the “burning times” and the need to be afraid of persecution. I digress once again; I was interested by the addition of the article about druidry by Graham Harvey.
Druids of all shapes, sizes, and traditions may not agree on most things in druid belief. I guess the one thing most agree is that there is no dogma. Even on the idea that we druids have faith or are committed to a nature centred spirituality is contentious. I contend that while we are no longer a role in a contained, rigid society that had the role of druid is a very busy community leader with pastoral, healing, legal and other forms of inspired work; I would say that druids today have more than a faith in nature centred spirituality. I think it is more about a sensibility, an understanding, rather than a belief in something intangible and unseen. Most of us can find a way to experience “nature” in Canada, even in some of the most urban centres we have. That experience of nature is not the same as having faith in it.
Faith is a word with high levels of connotation with Christian understandings. “Faith can move mountains”, “faith like a mustard seed”, and so forth still bubble in the western collective cauldron of meaning. Faith in nature? I would say that for druids, there is no separation from nature. To me, to use the term nature, is to go back to the romantic times, and once again box ourselves as different from nature. Nature is more like a label that to me does not even come close to covering the sensibility that druids have; that sensibility is more of a Gaian or environmental sense of responsibility. What I see is that while many may come to modern druidry attracted to other aspects of druid practice initially, in time, the environmental injustice that continues to create nasty air and water pollution, and the emissions to the atmospheric soup causing climate change, will sober up most to a reality that modern druidry must awaken. Druid practice is not just a trip to your local wilderness park; it involves being aware of all kinds of ecosystems and environs, and really acknowledging that outside and inside is just part of the same whole.
Sometimes I think as Canadians we get a little thick like the fiberglass we use to insulate our houses; sometimes I think we are insulating ourselves and our minds. We spend so much time indoors due to winter cold, and even in summer when bad air comes, getting close to more air conditioning as the summer gets warmer in Canada, we start to think that outside is some big leap, and that we do not really live in it. I suppose this is cabin fever at its worst. Getting outside, and really embracing it, is tough for most people in the modern age. My father used to take us camping without most of the gear I bring now; my husband thinks the cottage, or a cabin, which is just a rustic house, is roughing it. Gee, growing up mosquito netting was a luxury; West Nile Virus has made it a necessity. Still, to get to know the world as it is means exploring it and being outside in it.
It is hard to not be engaged in the environmental, or green, debate these days, as Canadian gas prices have some of us grumping, and bad air smog is getting worse in our urban centres. Problem is that we have so much space that most of us cannot even remotely grasp just how bring this country is. Imagine driving 12 hours a day, and to get from Prince George, BC to Thunder Bay, Ontario, is three full days of driving. To get to Toronto would be another two. From there, it is at least another two or three to get to Newfoundland on the TransCanada Highway. A full week of sitting and moving through several climate zones, several changes geographically and yet covered by a very large chunk Boreal forest. You get the point. You can see why for Canadians, out of sight, out of mind is very much a problem for pollution issues; unless you are close to it, you seldom see the damage. The other side of this is without internal combustion and the use of fossil fuels, the distance alone would create isolation and regional pockets; actually, it has not really been overcome; and Canada’s history and politics still reflect regionalism and ignorance of what is experienced as Canadians living in the other places.
One of the things that for me being a part of and not apart from, the environment or ecosystem, or more simply, I am a resident of planet earth, so that means that when I engage in some druidic practice which honours Mother Earth, I have to really examine the nature of my relationship with my mother.
We have collectively battered our planet; but we have no intervenionist social workers protecting the planet. We treat her like a doormat, expecting resources for almost nothing, because our economics start from things with get from the planet, and fight over those resources like children. Just because the reaction to the boundary violation is delayed does not justify the breach. The mother is taking a little while to react to humanity’s abuse, and I imagine that we may have to do a lot to restore that relationship, in spite of our collective addiction to things. Garbage and waste may need another look, and learning how to camp in low impact, environmentally friendly ways is a start. I have seen garbage practices at pagan festivals that make me cringe. However, leading by example and not preaching, and when asked sharin what to do, will go farther than browbeating people, who have just got the courage to spend some time outside, helps.
And, when I abuse my mother Earth, I really end up abusing myself. Women tend to understand this more readily, not because men cannot understand it, it is just that in the journey to become an individual woman, many women try to be the opposite of their mothers, while denying that they are like their mothers. To hate your mother is to hate yourself. To accept your mother is to accept yourself. So, to accept ourselves, we need to accept our mother. For men, it is different, but still same. Without your mother, you would not be, and for that, we need to honour the place where life is created. We need to respect the Earth, and by doing so, we respect ourselves. We need to see that we live in everyone’s living room, and that not contributing our part is simply indifference and self-centeredness at an extreme level. Problem is, after the rhetoric, is the practice of doing this.
