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The Soul of Nature:
The Meaning of Ecological Spirituality
Copyright 1996 by Lynna Landstreet. See contents
page for full permissions.
15: Tensions and commonalities
between neo-paganism and deep ecology
 eo-paganism
and deep ecology are by no means the only forms of ecological spirituality,
but they are the two I personally find the most compelling. And there
are, as I have stated, important ways in which the two movements can
complement each other. But there remain potential areas of tension between
the two as well. One question that has been raised is: can the animistic
worldview of Wicca and neo-paganism coexist with science? Many environmentalists,
myself included, have an interest in science and have studied ecology
and conservation biology. Must this inevitably lead to embracing the
mechanistic worldview usually associated with modern science, or is
it possible to hold a more holistic view? Can one look at a jack pine
tree and perceive both its role in the boreal forest ecosystem and its
indwelling spirit?
Personally, I have never had any problem doing just that. I think it
is a question of, as LaChapelle put it earlier, learning to relate to
the world with our whole beings, not just as isolated left or right
brains. To function as a whole and healthy human being, it is necessary
to integrate one's intellect and intuition in order to have a balanced
perspective. Emphasizing the spiritual to the exclusion of the practical
leads to the kind of blissed-out inaction Foreman criticized in "The
Arrogance of Enlightenment," while the reverse leads to the empty
world our society has already been inhabiting for far too long. The
beautiful science-based meditations in Thinking Like a Mountain,
and in particular, John Seed's invocation to Gaia, show that science
and the spirit and coexist:
We call upon the spirit of evolution, the
miraculous force that inspires rocks and dust to weave themselves into
biology. You have stood by us for millions and billions of years --
do not forsake us now. Empower us, and awaken in us pure and dazzling
creativity. You that can turn scales into feathers, sea water into blood,
caterpillars into butterflies, metamorphose our species, awaken
in us the powers that we need to survive the present crisis and evolve
into more æons of our solar journey.
O stars, lend us your burning
passion.
O silence, give weight to our voice.
We ask for the presence of the spirit of Gaia.[57]
On a related note, many deep ecologists may be wary of the elements
of magic and occultism that pervade Wicca in particular, and other neo-pagan
traditions to a lesser extent. While the idea of ritual as a means of
emotional support for political work may make sense to them, the idea
of magic -- of ritual being able to create change in and of itself --
may be seen as being a cop-out, or as just plain weird. There
is no simple answer to this problem; in some respects, the question
of supernatural phenomena reaches deeper than many other spiritual matters,
as it involves not just questions of how we choose to perceive the world,
but of what the world actually is, and is capable of doing.
In Out of the Ordinary, the proceedings of
the 1991 Fife Conference on Folklore, David J. Hufford proposes what
he terms an experience-based theory concerning folk beliefs, in which
he suggests that many people's belief in supernatural phenomena can
be described as reasonable in that it is derived in some way from experience.[58]
In my experience, this is broadly true of most Wiccans; the experiential
emphasis within the religion means that blind faith is frowned upon.
In this light, what the matter essentially boils down to is the willingness
of individuals whose experience of these matters has been different
to acknowledge that other people's experiences may be valid. To avoid
what I identified earlier as an anthropocentric bias, it is not necessary
to blindly accept the reality of any and all supernatural phenomena;
merely to accept that Western science may not have all the answers all
of the time.
Another question that must be addressed in dealing with the existence
of spiritual or religious motivations behind environmental activism
is whether that motivation should be publicly admitted or not. For
those who hold such motivations, is it better to show their true colours
openly, and risk alienating potential supporters or appearing irrational,
or to conceal them and risk relying on utilitarian arguments that may
betray us?[59]
Yet another point that must be kept in mind is the importance of avoiding
dogmatism. As stressed several times throughout this paper, it is spiritual
experience, not doctrine, that is crucial to any meaningful form
of ecological spirituality. Blind faith is not empowering, and demanding
blind faith of others is outright oppressive. Our purpose should be
not to create some new orthodoxy or eco-evangelism, but to encourage
and empower people to open up to new experiences, to rediscover the
sacredness of the world in their own way, and make their own spiritual
journey, in whatever direction it may take them. The attention I have
given to neo-paganism within this paper has been due to my extensive
experience with it, which allows me to discuss it with more assurance
than I could, say, Franciscan Christianity or Zen Buddhism, both of
which have certainly inspired their share of environmental activists
as well.
Any of these paths can fulfill the crucial tasks of ecological spirituality:
The challenge Seed speaks of, of how to integrate the information we
are flooded with, how to make it real and relevant and personal; the
need for what Macy terms "despairwork," a means of overcoming
the paralyzing hopelessness that the daily flood of bad news can engender,
of finding a way to keep on going in spite of everything; and the need,
if we are ever to attain deep-rooted, lasting change in our way of relating
to nature, to escape from Eliade's desacralized cosmos, to rediscover
a world "impregnated with sacredness."
  
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