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The Soul of Nature:
The Meaning of Ecological Spirituality
Copyright 1996 by Lynna Landstreet. See contents
page for full permissions.
16: Conclusions and endnotes
 n
conclusion, we must remember that the single most important aspect of
ecological spirituality is in providing the why of environmental
activism. Why should we care? Why should these issues
matter to us? Why should we be willing to keep working, keep
fighting, keep caring, in the face of constant setbacks, defeats and
ridicule? What gets us through?
It is at those moments that the deeper questions call out to be answered,
that we need the assurance of something vaster, older, deeper, than
our individual selves:
O stars, lend us your
burning passion.
O silence, give weight to our voice.
We ask for the presence of the spirit of Gaia.[60]
Notes
- Fraser, Charles, quoted in John
McPhee, Encounters with the Archdruid: Narratives about a Conservationist
and Three of his Natural Enemies. NY: Farrar, Straus & Giroux,
1971, pp. 95 & 103. Return
to text.
- Mitchell, Kara, The Wildlands
League, personal communication. Return
to text.
- Graber, Linda H., Wilderness
as Sacred Space. Washington, DC: Association of America Geographers,
1976. Return to text.
- This, and all dictionary definitions
that follow, come from Merriam Webster's Collegiate Dictionary,
Tenth Edition. Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster, 1993. Return
to text.
- LaChappelle, Dolores. Sacred
Land, Sacred Sex -- The Rapture of the Deep: Concerning Deep Ecology
and Celebrating Life. Silverton, CO: Finn Hill Arts, 1988, p.
118. Return to text.
- Ibid. Return
to text.
- Seed, John, "To Hear Within
Ourselves the Sound of the Earth Crying," in John Seed, Joanna
Macy, Pat Fleming & Arne Naess, Thinking Like a Mountain: Towards
a Council of All Beings. Philadelphia: New Society Publishers,
1988, p. 6. Return
to text.
- Foreman, Dave. Confessions
of an Eco-Warrior. NY: Harmony Books, 1991, pp. 52-53. Return
to text.
- Macy, Joanna. Despair and Personal
Power in the Nuclear Age. Philadelphia: New Society Publishers,
1983. Return to text.
- Ibid, p. 16. Return
to text.
- Ibid, pp. 28-29. Return
to text.
- Ibid, pp. 24 & 27.
Return to text.
- Seed, Macy, Fleming & Naess,
Thinking Like a Mountain. Return
to text.
- Baudino, Gael, Strands of
Sunlight. NY: Roc, 1994. Return
to text.
- Starhawk (Miriam Simos). The
Spiral Dance: A Rebirth of the Ancient Religion of the Great Goddess.
NY: Harper & Row, 1979. pp. 77-78. Return
to text.
- Eliade, Mircea. The Sacred
and the Profane: The Nature of Religion. NY: Harcourt, Brace &
World, 1957, p. 17. Return to text.
- Young, Dudley. Origins of
the Sacred: The Ecstasies of Love and War. NY: St. Martin's Press,
1991, p. xxi. Return to text.
- Ellis, Peter Berresford. Dictionary
of Celtic Mythology. London: Constable, 1992, pp. 41 & 198.
Return to text.
- Ó hÓgáin,
Dáithí. Myth, Legend & Romance: An Encyclopedia
of the Irish Folk Tradition. London: Prentice Hall Press, 1991,
p. 244. Return to text.
- Green, Miranda. Animals in
Celtic Life and Myth. London: Routledge, 1992, p. 1. Return
to text.
- Laurie, Erynn. A Circle of
Stones: Journeys and Meditations for Modern Celts. Seattle: Eschaton
Press, 1994. Return to text.
- Laurie, Erynn. Message posted
on Nemeton-L, Wednesday, April 19, 1995. Return to
text.
- Eliade, The Sacred and the
Profane, p. 116. Return to text.
- For an excellent account of this
transition, see Merchant, Carolyn. The Death of Nature: Women,
Ecology and the Scientific Revolution. San Francisco: Harper &
Row, 1980. Return to text.
- Starhawk. Dreaming the Dark:
Magic, Sex and Politics. Boston: Beacon Press, 1982, pp. 7-8.
Return to text.
- Scarce, Rik. Eco-Warriors:
Understanding the Radical Environmental Movement. Chicago: The
Noble Press, 1990, p. 34. Return to text.
- Browning, Elizabeth Barrett.
"The Dead Pan." Cited in The Pocket Book of Quotations.
NY: Pocket Books, 1942, p. 263. Return to text.
- LaChappelle, Sacred Land,
Sacred Sex, p. 121. Return to text.
- Jeffers, Robinson, "Credo."
Cited in The Pocket Book of Quotations. NY: Pocket Books, 1942,
p. 12. Return to text.
- Eliade, The Sacred and the
Profane, p. 13. Return to text.
- This story appeared in an interview
with Starhawk in some feminist magazine, which I cannot for
the life of me find right now. Return to text.
- Walker, Barbara (ed.). Out
of the Ordinary: Folklore & the Supernatural. Logan, UT: Utah
State University Press, 1995. Note that to the best of my knowledge,
this is not the same Barbara Walker who has written several
books on feminist spirituality. Return to text.
- Ibid, pp. 5-6. Return
to text.
- See Sessions, George, "Deep
Ecology and the New Age Movement," in George Sessions (ed.),
Deep Ecology for the 21st Century. Boston: Shambhala Books,
1995. Return to text.
- See Churchill, Ward, Indians
Are Us? Culture and Genocide in Native North America. Monroe,
ME: Common Courage Press, 1994. Return to text.
- Sessions, George, "Deep
Ecology and the New Age Movement"; LaChappelle, Sacred Land,
Sacred Sex, p. 121-123. Return to text.
- For a good introduction to Wicca,
and to neo-paganism in general, see Adler, Margot, Drawing Down
the Moon: Witches, Druids, Goddess-Worshippers, and Other Pagans in
America Today. Boston: Beacon Press, 1986. Return
to text.
- "The Charge of the Goddess."
Precise origin unknown, but thought by many to have been written by
Doreen Valiente and Gerald Gardner in the 1940s or 50s. Widely published;
see for example Starhawk, The Spiral Dance, p. 77. Return
to text.
- Adler, Drawing Down the Moon,
p. 411 17. Return to text.
- See Biehl, Janet. "The Politics
of Myth." Kick It Over, no. 23, Spring 1989. My article
in response, which the editors somewhat confusingly titled "The
Politics of Atheism," appeared in the following issue. Return
to text.
- See Fortune, Dion, The Goat
Foot God (NY: Samuel Weiser, 1936), The Sea Priestess (NY:
Samuel Weiser, 1938), Moon Magic (NY: Samuel Weiser, 1940).
Return to text.
- See Richardson, Alan (ed.). Dancers
to the Gods: The Magical Records of Charles Seymour and Christine
Hartley, 1937 1939. Wellingborough, UK: Aquarian Press, 1985.
Return to text.
- Seymour, Charles. In Dolores
Ashcroft-Nowicki (ed.). The Forgotten Mage: The Magical Lectures
of Colonel C.R.F. Seymour. Wellingborough, UK: Aquarian Press,
1986, p. 135. Return to text.
- Kelly, Aidan, Crafting the
Art of Magic: A History of Modern Witchcraft, 1939-1964. St. Paul,
MN: Llewellyn, 1991. I do not support all of Kelly's theories by any
means, but on this particular point, I believe he is likely correct.Return
to text.
- Seymour, Charles. The Forgotten
Mage. p. 207. Return to text.
- See Naess, Arne, "Self-Realization,"
In Sessions, Deep Ecology for the 21st Century. Return
to text.
- Devall, Bill, and George Sessions.
Deep Ecology: Living as if Nature Mattered. Salt Lake City,
UT: Peregrine Smith Books, 1985, pp. 90-101. Return
to text.
- Seed, John. "Anthropocentrism."
Appendix E in Devall & Sessions, Deep Ecology, p. 243.
Return to text.
- LaChappelle, Dolores. "Ritual
is Essential." Appendix F in Devall & Sessions, Deep Ecology,
p. 247-48. Return to text.
- Lone Wolf Circles. Full Circle:
A Song of Ecology & Earthen Spirituality. St. Paul, MN: Llewellyn,
1991. Return to text.
- See Guha, Ramachandra, "Radical
American Environmentalism and Wilderness Preservation: A Third World
Critique," in Environmental Ethics vol. 11, no. 1 (1989).
Return to text.
- LaChappelle, Dolores. Earth
Wisdom. Silverton, CO: Finn Hill Arts, 1978. Return
to text.
- LaChappelle, Sacred Land,
Sacred Sex, pp. 274-302. Return to text.
- Seed, Macy, Fleming & Naess,
Thinking Like a Mountain. Return to text.
- Churchill, Indians Are Us?,
pp. 234-37. Return to text.
- Churchill, Ward, in Derrick Jensen,
Listening to the Land: Conversations About Nature, Culture and
Eros. San Francisco: Sierra Club, 1995, pp. 161-62. Return
to text.
- Seed, John, "Invocation,"
in Seed, Macy, Fleming & Naess, Thinking Like a Mountain,
p. 7. Return to text.
- Hufford, David J. "Beings
Without Bodies: An Experience-Centered Theory of the Belief in Spirits."
In Walker (ed.), Out of the Ordinary. Return
to text.
- See Evernden, Neil, The Natural
Alien: Humankind & Environment. Toronto: University of Toronto
Press, 1985, pp. 3-14, on the dangers of utilitarian arguments. Return
to text.
- Seed, John, "Invocation,"
in Seed, Macy, Fleming & Naess, Thinking Like a Mountain,
p. 7. Return to text.
  
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