“There is a love of wild nature in everybody an ancient mother-love ever showing itself whether recognized or no, and however covered by cares and duties.” – John Muir, 1924

Today is Earth Day. Originally spearheaded in 1970 by Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson as a national “teach-in” on urgent environmental issues, it has since become an internationally recognized holiday in 174 countries. Earth Day is partially credited with jump-starting the modern environmentalist movement, and helping to pass legislation like the Clean Air and Clean Water acts.

The Earth flag.

Today, with immense environmental challenges facing us, from climate change and the destruction of natural ecosystems to the impending fresh water shortages, the ideals and message of Earth Day are more vital than they have ever been.

Modern Pagan and Heathen faiths, whether they identify as “nature religions” or not, have a special sacral relationship with the natural world. Our gods and goddesses can be found in oceans, rivers, forests, and mountains (indeed, in many cultures, Earth is the primal mother of most acknowledged gods and powers), some pre-Christian cultures envision a World Tree that binds reality together. Our rites often mark the changing seasons, and once tracked the progress of crops essential to our survival. Deity is not merely a transcendent force separate from creation, deity is everywhere and within every thing. Each of us holds the potential to be like the gods, and we acknowledge that the gods and powers walk and exist among us still. So it isn’t surprising that many Pagans feel a special urging to advocate for the environment and the protection of the natural world.

The Pagan notion of a sacred and interconnected Earth still persists today, and continues to make some people, both Christian and secular, uncomfortable. But as the true magnitude of potential ecological crisis becomes ever more plain, bridges are being built between different faiths and philosophies, to work for mutual benefit and survival.

On this Earth Day, here are a few Pagan thoughts about the Earth, immanence, environmentalism, and our involvement in the environmentalist movement.

“The spirit of Earth Day 1970 did not just happen; its roots could include the gradual stirring of environmental consciousness that accelerated in the 1960s, but that stirring itself had deeper roots in an American consciousness of a special relationship with the land, even if that relationship was often abusive. Still, if there was a year when Wicca (in the broad sense) became “nature religion,” as opposed to the “mystery religion” or “metaphorical fertility religion” labels that it had brought from England, that year was 1970.” – Chas Clifton, Her Hidden Children: The Rise of Wicca and Paganism in America

“Environmentalism is not a religion, but it is the natural position of ANY religion that either sees the divine in the world, as we Pagans and some Christians and others do, or as the loving creation of a Deity whom they profess to honor, as other equally genuine Christians and others do. We Pagans who honor Nature as the expression and manifestation of divinity usually come to a strong environmental conclusion.” - Gus diZerega, A Pagan’s Blog

“When it comes to climate change and other environmental crises, it is increasingly clear that we can’t afford to wait; we can’t let it get too late. That may seem obvious, but too often the slightest glimmer that we might fail is a significant de-motivation to action. We quiver with indecision, only to resolve that it won’t be worth the struggle. For many, the salient information provokes a deep dread, and fear is never a sound motivation for the kind of profoundly creative, imaginative and co-operative action that is now required. To the Pagan then, it isn’t about urgency, about last ditch attempts to save the world: what is needed is that we continue to take each step, ethically awake, with as much honour as we can draw into consciousness.” – Emma Restall Orr, Living With Honour: A Pagan Ethics

“I will sing of well-founded Earth, mother of all, eldest of all beings. She feeds all creatures that are in the world, all that go upon the goodly land, and all that are in the paths of the seas, and all that fly: all these are fed of her store.” – Homer

“A truly vicious act is one which does not allow the dialogue with the Immensity to take place. Against the Earth, the vicious person thinks nothing of urban sprawl, pollution, and destructive forms of waste disposal or resource development. He may even deny the reality of global warming and climate change, as some major corporate interests have done.” – Brendan Myers, The Other Side of Virtue

“For most of our history, we slept on the dirt, perhaps cushioned by a thin layer of leaves or animal skins. We rested on Earth as on the bosom of our mother. Until we polluted the lakes and streams, we sipped the water, our lives utterly dependent on it, as we sucked the milk from our mothers’ breasts. The food we require for life either grows directly from the soil or the waters or else consists of herbivores and omnivores who eat plant life and whom we eat in turn. Earth nurses us and feeds us as do our mothers, who themselves in turn are dependent on Earth.” – Jordan Paper, The Deities Are Many: A Polytheistic Theology

“As part of my commitment to my spiritual path, I choose to take on many obligations. One of those is to be a responsible steward of the earth. While I recognize that not all Pagans and Wiccans make this same commitment, it’s also important to recognize those who do. If indeed we are to honor the earth and its contents as a creation of the Divine, or to believe that the Divine can be found in nature, I feel that it’s important for us to take charge of our planet’s future. We can make changes now, and educate the coming generations, that will have an impact for centuries to come.” – Patti Wigington, About.com Guide to Paganism / Wicca

“…environmental care and action play an important part in the Wiccan ethic. That is why Witches get angry – and active – when oxygen-creating trees are cut down faster that they are planted, when whales and seals are massacred for commercial profit, when chemical fertilizers and pesticides are used regardless of their ecological impact, when indifferent industries pollute the atmosphere and the rivers and the seas with their waste products and when the concrete jungle (often with more concern for commerce that for housing) spreads like a rash over the Earth’s complexion.” – Janet and Stewart Farrar, A Witches Bible: The Complete Witches’ Handbook

Want to get active? Find out where you at, reduce your carbon footprint (and your water footprint), support small farms and eat ethically, teach on global climate change as a moral issue, invest green, vote green, and go green. Make every day Earth Day.

PS – Check out Grist’s fourth annual Earth Day list of the year’s goodies, oddities, and inanities.

Tags: Earth Day, enviornmentalism, Paganism