New Age Journal - A Pagan Perspective - By Gary Varner, Pagan Author

It was only in November, 1997 that a leader of a patriarchal religion, Bartholomew I, head of the Greek Orthodox Church, stated that the "degradation of nature is a sin". No other leader of a Christian , Jewish, or Islamic body has ever made such a statement. To do so is revolutionary, even though Pagans and indigenous people around the world have held that belief since the beginning of time.

Most, if not all, of the worlds indigenous cultures view nature as a divine essence—the very essence of life. James G. Cowan, writing about the Australian aborigine said “they have studied nature, drawn their conclusions from it, and found it to be the embodiment of a profound metaphysical principal pertaining to all existence. For they have seen in nature much more than its visible beauty, fraternity and practical purpose as a provider. They have seen in it a symbol of an underlying reality which needs to be understood as sacred if true wisdom is to be attained.” [1]

Although the indigenous people of the non-Christian world viewed nature as the source of life, the real spiritual and sacred power of the world, early Christian missionaries condemned such thoughts and traditions saying that to continue the rituals, healings and worshipping at trees, stones and waterways “consecrate them to the devil.” [2]

We find then that most “civilized” and “advanced” countries and societies have lost the sense of wonder and the knowledge that nature is much more than trees to be cleared for cattle and hills to be flattened for construction or oil to be pumped for increasingly larger vehicles. How did this occur? Humankind has always altered the environment and it would not be fair, nor accurate, to think otherwise. Prehistoric people were also guilty of eradicating species and whole forests. The Easter Islands is a prime example of misguided thought and poor planning decimating the landscape. Ronald Hutton Reminds us too that “the Iron Age Celts…may have had their holy stands of trees, but this did not stop them from clearing virtually all the large areas of forests spared by their predecessors…(and) under the pagan Roman Empire, the remaining woods were stripped from much of the North African coast, producing an ecological catastrophe…”.[3] However, these events were normally confined to certain, specific areas and were also used as military tactics. Since the advent of Christianity, this has become a worldwide catastrophe. For strange reasons Christianity, consumerism and big business seem to go hand in hand. Theologian Rosemary Radford Ruether wrote of the conflict in her book Gaia & God:

“One side of this tradition (of Christian asceticism), with its hostility to women, sexuality, and the body, and its contempt for the material world in favor of life after death, reinforces the patterns of neglect and flight from the earth. But asceticism can also be understood, not as rejection of the body and the earth, but rather as rejection of exploitation and excess, and thus as a return to egalitarian simple living in harmony with other humans and with nature.” [4]

For the most part this asceticism is defined narrowly and is not eco-friendly. This is slowly changing with the works of Christian scholars such as Matthew Fox, Ruether and others but even now; most Christian/Catholic clergy and congregations are very resistant to looking upon the natural world as more than a hindrance to their journey to heaven or a temptation toward evil. Nature became evil and associated with witchcraft. Women were viewed as completely untrustworthy, evil and the essence of death and sin. “This ambivalence toward women”, writes Ruether “was closely related to Christian ambivalence toward physical nature.” [5] The ambivalence toward women was also a result of the fear of women by the patriarchal leaders. This ambivalence was driven by the fear of the Goddess religion and that a matriarchal society would once again become a dominant force around the world.

The negative attitudes expressed today towards women and nature in general are those same attitudes expressed since the advent of patriarchal religion of Biblical times. Sex and fertility are regarded as sinful, as evil temptations to be shunned, ignored and suppressed. Women are at the disposal of males. One of the ignominious questions of early theologians was “Do women have souls?” For conservative Christians, nature and all of her plant and animal children are soulless, there for the pure exploitation and dominance of man and regarded as habitats for evil. Eleventh century theologians Peter Abelard and Hidegard of Bingen both believed that demons occupied trees and that the devil existed within nature. An example of this is found in carvings located in St. Lazare church in Autun, France. Built in the twelfth century, one notable piece shows two demons hanging a soul from stalks of flowering vines. [6] There is no stewardship professed in most religions today as there was during the pre-historic Goddess era although there are signs that this may be changing—hopefully before it is too late. Those few societies that do still exist today that view nature as sacred and to be protected are regarded as “primitive”. These people, as all other indigenous cultures throughout time, “depended on being able to enter into the very psyche of the environment”. [7] “Our forefathers of fifteen hundred years ago,” writes Brian Branston “lived not what we call ‘close to nature’ but actually involved with nature: they were not creatures apart, different from the birds, plants or animals, but fitted into the natural cycle of synthesis and disintegration which any kind of civilization always modifies….It is from the constant awareness of the living connection between man and the phenomenal world that the myths of our ancestors arise, that their gods are born.” [8] The residents of today’s “advanced” societies are no longer able to do this wonderful thing, which has resulted in billions of people losing touch with their spirituality and ethical living on the earth.

The Green Man, that enigmatic image carved on cathedral and public buildings alike, represents the nurturing aspect of nature and the symbiotic relationship between Nature and the basic characteristics of the human spirit untarnished by brutality or a destructive spirit.

[1] Cowan, James G. The Elements of the Aborigine Tradition. Shaftsbury: Element Books Limited 1992, 2

[2] St. Eligius, AD 640 as quoted by Brian Bates in his article “Sacred Trees” in Resurgence Magazine #181, March/April 1997

[3] Hutton, Ronald. The Pagan Religions of the Ancient British Isles: Their Nature and Legacy. Oxford: Blackwell 1993, 253

[4] Ruether, Rosemary Radford. Gaia & God: An Ecofeminist Theology of Earth Healing. San Francisco : HarperSanFrancisco 1992, 188

[5] Ibid, 189

[6] Kostof. Spiro. A History of Architecture: Settings and Ritual. Oxford: Oxford University Press 1985, 300

[7] Bates, op cit

[8] Branston, Brian. The Lost Gods of England. New York: Oxford University Press 1974, 52-53

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