Heathens And The Environment Essay, Research Paper

Heathens AND THE ENVIRONMENT: Witchcraft is the new faith for the new universe. Sparked by the feminist motion and environmental concern of the 1970s, witchery is the largest turning faith in the universe. One belief that unites all followings of witchery is that the Earth is sacred and all life is interconnected. The natural universe is the incarnation of deity, imminent every bit good as transcendent ( COG ) . Rituals follow the natural beat and rhythms of the Universe. All enchantresss pattern environmental preservation techniques by themselves or by going active in an environmental organisation. With how worlds have treated Mother Earth, enchantresss take a personal duty to mending her. Their end is societal alteration. Worlds have distanced themselves from nature, seeking to suppress and command it. Witchcraft is seeking to convey worlds back into harmoniousness with the Earth, which is indispensable to the endurance of all living things. Witchs connectedness with Nature and the Earth can be seen in their Eight Festivals. Each vacation is about six hebdomads apart and they are recognized as polar points in the solar rhythm. It is this sensitiveness to the rhythms of the Moon and the Sun that distinguishes a enchantress s position of the universe from others. Four of the eight Festivals are referred to as Lesser Sabbats. They are Ostara ( the Spring Equinox ) , Midsummer ( the Summer Solstice ) , Mabon ( the Autumn Equinox ) , and Yule ( the Winter Solstice ) . The other four Festivals are called the Greater Sabbats. They are Imbolc, Beltane, Lammas and Samhain ( Nicholas ) . These correspond to rhythms of non merely the Moon and Sun, but to life and decease and reclamation every bit good. Earth goes through this rhythm yearly and each Festival corresponds to a certain myth and arrangement in the rhythm. All living things are affected by these tempers. Plants growing forms are a consequence of the Moon and sun rhythm. This Agriculture Cycle tells husbandmans the best times to works and reap their harvests. The rhythm tells witches what sort of thaumaturgy to execute ( from category notes ) . The rhythm tells all animate beings of the Earth what to make. In the Spring, they procreate. In the Winter, they die or become hibernating. In the Summer, they prepare for the Winter and in the Fall they prepare for coupling. Worlds have lost their touch with Mother Earth and have abandoned her, every bit good as our ain, rhythm. Witchs are conveying this dorsum. Worlds need to recognize we are non in control and we need to go affiliated with Earth and Nature one time once more. Not merely do we necessitate to return to our roots, we need to repair what we have done. Witchs, by definition of their faith, are conservationists. Conservation of the environment is a portion of their doctrine. The two underlining concerns confronting the universe is population growing and economic sciences ( Environmentalism ) . The American diet is non merely unnatural, it is wasteful every bit good. It takes 16 lbs of grain and soya beans to bring forth one lb of beef. Livestock in the United States are responsible for devouring over half of all the H2O in our state. Farm cattle releash100 million dozenss of a nursery gas ( methane ) . 220 million estates of land have been deforested in the United States in order to feed us. We have even distribute our predicament to other states such as Brazil and Costa Rico where we ruin their land and air to feed our already overweight and unhealthy population ( Env. ) . Our diet is grounds of our aggressive and domineering attitude towards the environment. Culturally, we do non see ourselves every bit equal to Earth s other animals or even to other worlds. Economically, we need to reapportion Earth s resources so that all portion to wealth of Mother Earth without consuming her. Americans would merely hold to cut down their meat consumption by 10 % , and the one-year 60 million people hungering to decease could be fed with the nest eggs in grain and soya beans ( Env. ) . Earth s H2O resources are being polluted besides. Merely 1 % of all the H2O is available for worlds to utilize and is largely located in the Earth as groundwater. This H2O is besides the H2O beginning most affected by our pollution. Vehicles leak chemicals into the land. Peoples discard family chemicals down the drain farther fouling our H2O resource. Ru

noff of fertiliser and industrial waste besides end up being absorbed by our Earth and foul our land H2O. Vehicles non merely foul our H2O but our air every bit good. Carbon dioxide emittance from our autos adds to planetary heating. Carbon dioxide is a nursery gas, which magnifies the heat of our planet. Possible reverberations of planetary warming include the thaw of the polar ice caps, which would raise degrees of the ocean ( Env. ) . In this event, coastal metropoliss, like New Orleans, could go submersed. Global Warming is and will go on to alter Earth s clime. Southern provinces will go waterless and unserviceable. Vehicles and Industry besides pollute our air in the signifier of smog. Three out of five Americans are at hazard of lung harm due to ozone pollution ( Evn. ) . Our vehicles and industry are the main subscribers to this type of pollution. Ozone smog putting to deaths wildlife, including worlds, and plantlife. Every populating thing on Earth is at hazard and worlds can non get away what they have created. Heathens are committed to mending the Earth and our resources for farther coevalss. They are protagonists of organic horticulture, vegetarianism, solar power, and all else that is Earth friendly. Enchantresss are involved in organisations such as Sierra Club, Greenpeace, One Earth, The Sacred Earth Network, and many others. Pagans do their portion by modifying their life styles to a give-and return relationship instead than a take-and-take relationship with the Earth. High-power people are recognizing the demand for societal alteration to a more Earth-oriented political orientation. Christian and Pagan beliefs struggle in the sense that God is above us for Christians and God is supra, indoors, and all around us for Pagans. Figures such as Vice-President Al Gore, broadcaster Ted Turner, and the United Nations have been noted as holding a fear for the Earth and her sacred qualities ( Young ) . Some people have attacked Neo-pagans by stating that they are technophobes and are seeking to stand in the manner of advancement for the interest of preservation. This is a false portrayal of most people who choose to follow an Earth Religion. More Neo-pagans clasp hi-tech businesss such as computing machine programming than any other field of work ( Pacoima ) . Balance is the true spirit of the Neo-pagan motion. The Neo-pagan s committedness to the Earth is a committedness to our hereafter. Our hereafter is dependent on a healthy planet and advancement demands to be balanced with stewardship of the Earth ( Pacoima ) . The biggest catastrophe confronting our planet is that of overpopulation. Many people mistake Witchcraft as a birthrate faith because it is to a great extent Matriarichal. By birthrate faith, I mean that members are encouraged to hold babes. Witchs have a greater duty to mending Mother Earth and holding babes adds to the destructing weight she already bears. Trystan provinces: We have to halt engendering mindlessly as though it s our right to foul the universe with our progeny, because it s non. We re here by grace of the Lady, and we owe her this at least. The nucleus of what Trystan is stating hits the kernel of the Neo-pagan faith. The manner society thinks must alter. Consequences of our actions need to be realized because with our promotion, we are killing our planet and ourselves. This is their end and is made apparent by the fact that they welcome interfaith engagement, which older faiths such as Christianity do non. We need to unify and repair Mother Earth. Witchcraft is the fastest turning faith in the universe non by happenstance. A twelvemonth 2000 canvass says that 70 % of Americans picked the protection of the environment over economic growing. This has gone up every twelvemonth get downing in 1995 with 62 % ( Gallup ) . I think there is a direct correlativity between the increased concern over our environment and the increased popularity of the preservation of the environment. Witchcraft is non merely a faith, it is besides a societal motion seeking to alter society. The popularity of the Goddess faith is possibly a witting effort of the people of Earth to reshape our civilization ( Starhawk p. 22-23 ) . Our society has been shaped in the yesteryear by economic forces such as media and political forces such as war. Peoples are encompassing this and acquiring involved. This is a new faith for the new universe.

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