How do we respond?

There are a range of spiritualities and belief systems represented among environmentalists. Encountering some of them for the first time can be a provocative experience. It can be difficult to know how to respond. Mari Shackell has sent in a story that asks important questions.

Mari’s story below raises vital questions about how we relate to spiritual approaches present with environmentalism.

For many of us the crunch point comes at a meeting when something unusual is proposed. We ask ourselves - Can we join in? What is this? How can I understand it?

EarthAbbey people will take a range of views about these questions, but perhaps there is a common attitude that we should try to foster. And, for me, it centres on two words, appreciation and discernment.

I guess we need to try to appreciate how such a belief or practice may be genuinely helpful in the quest to live more in tune with the earth.

Secondly I think we need to try to discern what aspects of this can be embraced within an authentic understanding of the Christian faith.

In response to Mari’s story, EarthAbbey will soon be developing a series of conversation starters on these subjects for our folk to pursue in their homes, meetings or whatever.

Here is the full text

A New Earth Spirituality

I recently returned from a tented gathering in the heart of rural Sussex organised by the Transition Movement. This movement concerns itself with grass-roots community responses to the challenges of Peak Oil and Climate Change. It is deeply environmentally based, supports localised initiatives and resilience and has developed out of Permaculture, a way of living sustainably and simply within the natural limits of the planet. Permaculture has three tenets – earth care, people care and fair shares.

Consensus was an important theme which was explored at the gathering. What interested me was how through such popular consensus a spirituality seemed to be evolving, something new and different from anything it had emerged from, as when a pidgin language spontaneously develops into a creole. The spirituality which I encountered at this weekend took me by surprise because at last year’s camp it was barely apparent. Then, we had strands from various spiritualities, some oriental, others not, melded together in a somewhat eclectic, pick-and-mix way.

At ths meeting, by contrast, great emphasis was placed on what I can best describe as an Earth Spirituality. To me it seemed akin to what I understood as paganism, although this word was never used by anyone. Although it was not something I had ever seen before first hand, it was obviously very popular with many of the people there who were predominantly in their thirties and forties.

This Earth Spirituality is highly ceremonial and seems to take place almost entirely out of doors. It is highly inclusive – everyone is invited to join in, no a priori knowledge or initiation is required. People stand in or move within circles, often chanting in time to a drum-beat or repeating short phrases. At one stage all the participants walked a Cretan labyrinth which one of the initiators had constructed from ropes on the ground. The natural elements of fire, water, earth, wood, air, sun and moon are given great importance which almost elevates them to objects of worship. On entering the labyrinth, each participant was “cleansed” wth smoking sprigs of sage.

The initiators of these rituals seem to be self-appointed, overwhelmingly female and characteristically dressed in long flowing garments of striking designs or colours. The ceremonies themselves can well last several hours and typically seem to end with some kind of mutual affirmation and embracing. Although their forms and timings seem to vary a lot, they are happy, celebratory occasions.

As someone who had stumbled upon these activities unexpectedly, my own first gut reaction was that they lacked very much depth or meaning. However, there was nothing offensive or in any way sinister here, all was life-affirming and well-wishing. No recreational drugs were used and all the participants were entirely sober. I could appreciate the role this might play in gelling together groups of strangers whose cultural and spiritual backgrounds could be very diverse. Nevertheless I found myself unable to take part beyond standing on the sidelines making some token percussion accompaniment. I found it all too primitive, too simplistic, too superficial, the sort of thing I call “Key Stage 2“ - suitable for those in junior school. It was quite definitely not for me!

It then became apparent that next year’s gathering was being carefully planned to avoid equinoxes and full moons, because of clashes with other events which some of the participants were involved in. I decided that next year I would not be going. Still, I had to admit to myself that any significant new spiritual practice which can gain such acceptance at a gathering of diverse and well-meaning people must have some value and be worthy of further investigation.

So where do these ideas originate from? One very significant influence is Joanna Macy. Based in California, she is an eco-philosopher, Buddhist teacher and social activist who created a movement called The Great Turning, which she describes as “a name for the essential adventure of our time: the shift from the industrial growth society to a life-sustaining civilization.”
Now aged about 80, she continues to promote her life-work of four decades, travelling widely giving lectures, workshops and trainings. She came to Britain on a tour only a few years ago and also has a strong presence on the Internet. She created The Work That Reconnects, a pioneering form of group work that began in the 1970s to demonstrate our interconnectedness in the web of life and our authority to take action on its behalf. 

One activity at the camp was the Council of all Beings, a spiritual workshop which lasted three hours and took place in the campfire circle. This is a series of “re-Earthing rituals created by John Seed and Joanna Macy to help end the sense of alienation from the living earth that many of us feel” and to “renew the spirit and vision of those who serve the Earth and connect participants with deep sources of joy.”  To me as an onlooker it just looked childish: at one stage everyone donned cardboard masks decorated to represent some non-human being. However, those involved reported afterwards that the experience had been meaningful and moving.

The new Earth Spirituality, as I have called it, also draws on Native American Indian ritual, Shamanism and Deep Ecology. The camp’s facilities included a communal sweat lodge or sauna in a canvas tent. The sweat lodge is a social hub as well as a cleansing, spiritual ritual and participants often sit in it chatting and telling stories until late into the night.

One charismatic character who has been influential in drawing all these various strands together is Starhawk. On her website, she introduces herself as “author of many works celebrating the Goddess movement and Earth-based, feminist spirituality. I’m a peace, environmental, and global justice activist and trainer, a permaculture designer and teacher, a Pagan and Witch.”

Yet another inspiration for the movement is the concept of Spiral Dynamics, based originally on the work of Dr. Clare W. Graves and elaborated on since by many others. This concept is worth an article to itself, but in a nutshell it envisions human spirituality and culture as developing through a number of successive stages, each more refined and all-encompassing than the previous one as humanity moves towards an eventual spiritual enlightenment.Each stage is represented by a different colour. Permaculture is considered to be at the green stage, whilst Transition Culture has progressed beyond it to yellow, a whole step-change more advanced, inclusive and “integral”.

At the end of this camp, I was left wondering whether what I witnessed during that fine, late September weekend was just a group of well-meaning individuals engaging in primitive rituals on a rural farm field, or an early manifestation of an important new spiritual movement with global implications. I still do not know.  For now, I reserve all judgement and am content to simply watch and wait.

Mari Shackell,  January 2010

For further information see:

Transition Towns
Joanna Macy
Rain Forest info
Starhawk
Spiral Dynamics

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