![\"trees1\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/363\/2015\/06\/trees1.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n[Note: It was initially represented to me by Amy Blackthorn that the Sunday Stew had declined to publish this interview because I missed\u00a0the deadline. Since then, the editor of the Sunday Stew, Kallan Kennedy, has advised me that she\u00a0declined to publish the interview because of a post I wrote here at The Allergic Pagan. I\u2019m saddened by the loss of any person\u2019s support for A Pagan\u00a0Community\u00a0Statement on the Environment. \u00a0I\u2019m surprised that anyone would\u00a0decide not to support the Statement because of something that I or\u00a0any other individuals\u00a0has written. \u00a0I did not write the Statement, and\u00a0mine is\u00a0just one signature out of over 6,500 people. \u00a0I did not think this needed to be said, but apparently it does:\u00a0Anything I write on this blog represents the views of just one person, and is not representative of the group that drafted the Statement, nor is it representative of the over\u00a06,500 people who have signed the Statement. \u00a0A Pagan\u00a0Community Statement on the Environment is far, far bigger than me. \u00a0It belongs to all those who have signed it. \u00a0Furthermore, as I have written previously here, \u201c<\/span>I respect the choices of those\u00a0<\/span>who have chosen not to sign the Statement, and those\u00a0w<\/span>ho have chosen to sit with it a while before deciding whether to sign, and those <\/span>who wrestled with it and ultimately chose to sign it.\u00a0 I want to be clear here that there are principled reasons for Pagans, whatever their path, to sign or<\/span>\u00a0not<\/em>\u00a0sign the Statement.\u201d To any person who takes issue with me or the opinions I have expressed here, I encourage them to weigh the importance of such concerns against the importance of taking collective action as Pagans in face of the climate crisis.]<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n I was recently interviewed by Amy Blackthorn from the Sunday Stew<\/a> about \u201cA Pagan Community Statement on the Environment.\u201d<\/a>\u00a0Due to communication\u00a0difficulties on my end, the interview could not be published\u00a0at the Sunday Stew, so instead it\u00a0is published here in full.<\/p>\n What led to the creation of the petition?<\/strong><\/p>\n What prompted me to call for the creation of the a Pagan Community Statement on the Environment<\/a>\u00a0was my own\u00a0growing ecological awareness, which coincided with the publication in August 2014 of\u00a0an environmental statement by the Covenant of the Goddess. The CoG statement\u00a0highlighted for me the the absence of other such statements among Pagans. \u00a0So\u00a0I created a Facebook group and began inviting Pagans to come together to\u00a0draft a Pagan Community Statement on the Environment<\/a>. \u00a0Membership in the\u00a0group was open to anyone who self-identified as Pagan or part of the Pagan\u00a0community, and a special effort was made to invite individuals from a variety\u00a0of different Pagan traditions, with the understanding that no such group\u00a0could be truly representative of the diversity of the Pagan community.\u00a0Ultimately, a group of between 40 and 50 individuals contributed to the draft\u00a0statement to varying degrees.<\/p>\n Did the petition grow out of your own spiritual dedication?<\/strong><\/p>\n My call for the creation of the statement<\/a> did grow out of my own\u00a0spiritual quest. Over the course of 2014, I had several experiences which led\u00a0to the awakening of an ecological consciousness in me<\/a> and a transformation of\u00a0my orientation to Paganism. \u00a0After attending Pantheacon 2014, I came to terms\u00a0with the fact that I was not interested in developing a devotional\u00a0relationship with deities, but that I was interested in developing a\u00a0devotional practice with the earth itself<\/a>. \u00a0In July, I visited Pando<\/a> in\u00a0central Utah with my family. \u00a0Pando is grove of interconnected aspens which\u00a0is the largest living organism on the planet<\/a>. \u00a0While there, my wife led me\u00a0and her largely Mormon family in a simple but beautiful ritual of\u00a0thanksgiving and connection. \u00a0The next day, we spent the night in the\u00a0mountains and I laid out watching the Milky Way stretch from horizon to\u00a0horizon.<\/p>\n After returning home, I saw a movie, \u201cLucy\u201d, which had nothing to\u00a0do with the environment on its face, but in it the heroine experiences a\u00a0profound a shift of consciousness toward what I would describe as\u00a0identification with the cosmos. When I left the movie, I actually began\u00a0experiencing this myself<\/a>. \u00a0Around the same time, I was discovering the\u00a0writings of John Muir<\/a> and Rachel Carson<\/a>, which inspired me to explore deep\u00a0ecology<\/a>. \u00a0Then came the release of the Covenant of the Goddess statement on\u00a0the environment. \u00a0Soon thereafter, in September, the People\u2019s Climate March\u00a0was held and the growing sense of urgency I was feeling around this issue\u00a0peaked.<\/p>\n Was there an \u2018ah ha\u2019 moment?<\/strong><\/p>\n For me, yes there was. \u00a0I\u2019m a little embarrassed about it, because I\u00a0think it should have happened on a mountaintop or standing by the ocean. \u00a0I\u00a0guess we don\u2019t get to pick the time and place of our epiphanies. \u00a0It was the\u00a0movie \u201cLucy\u201d. \u00a0The climax of the movie is a montage of images in which the\u00a0heroine, Lucy, experiences a connection to both her remote ancestral past \u2014\u00a0in the form of her primate ancestor \u201cLucy\u201d \u2014 and to the universe as whole \u2014\u00a0in the form of mind-blowing macrocosmic vistas. As I walked out of the\u00a0theater, I had this intense feeling of both our infinitesimal insignificance\u00a0and our inestimable consequence as a species<\/a>. I don\u2019t know if this was the\u00a0intent of the movie, but I was left with an intense feeling both of radical\u00a0dissociation from the everyday concerns of my life and of deep responsibility\u00a0to the universe as a whole<\/a>.<\/p>\n Since the press release went out, how has feedback for the\u00a0movement surprised you?<\/strong><\/p>\n I was surprised by the lack of controversy. \u00a0A few individuals\u00a0expressed concern with specific parts of the statement, feeling that it either was too specific or not specific enough, or that it went too far or\u00a0didn\u2019t go far enough. \u00a0But in spite of this, thousands of people felt \u00a0that the urgency of the message justified harmonizing their voices with other\u00a0Pagans at this time in history. \u00a0Over 6,000 people have now signed. \u00a0By and\u00a0large, the statement has been received as it was intended: not as a\u00a0declaration for all Pagans, but as an invitation to join your voice to those\u00a0of the other signatories in defense of all life on Earth.<\/p>\n How has your view of the environment and our impact on it\u00a0changed since you created this petition?<\/strong><\/p>\n Leading up to my call for the creation of the statement, an\u00a0ecological consciousness<\/a> was dawning in me. \u00a0By that I mean, I came\u00a0to realize that I was not who I thought I was. \u00a0I am not my mind. \u00a0Even my body\u00a0is not my own, but is colonized by other living organisms, just as we\u00a0colonize Gaia. My skin, the boundary by which I measure where \u201cI\u201d end and\u00a0\u201cit\u201d begins, is not solid after all, but is permeable, the thinnest of veils.\u00a0I realized that I am a small, but radically interconnected, part of this vast\u00a0earth \u2014 which is itself a part of an even vaster cosmos \u2014 a part of the earth\u00a0that has recently become conscious of itself, and as such has special\u00a0responsibilities.<\/p>\n Did creating the petition deepen your connection to your\u00a0personal gnosis?<\/strong><\/p>\n The process of helping to create the statement did cause me to\u00a0develop a deeper appreciation of the need for collective action<\/a>. \u00a0As Pagans,\u00a0our place is at the forefront of the global movement calling for change in\u00a0our collective relationship with the Earth. \u00a0However, in some ways, we are\u00a0behind the curve. \u00a0While we can come together for ritual and often, in the\u00a0short term, for direct action, we sometimes falter when it comes to speaking\u00a0with harmonious voices on critical issues of the day like climate change.\u00a0Our actions, while laudable, may not be understood by the non-Pagan public as\u00a0well as they might be if we could join our voices in protest as well as we I use the word \u201charmonious\u201d deliberatively. \u00a0Speaking \u201cin harmony\u201d\u00a0with each other does not necessitate us all being of one mind or agreeing on\u00a0every point. \u00a0We Pagans often speak of attuning ourselves to nature and the\u00a0cycles of the Earth. We should also be able to \u201cattune\u201d to one another,\u00a0temporarily setting aside our egos and prioritizing our individual\u00a0disagreements, when a collective voice is urgently needed to effect change,\u00a0as it is now. \u00a0If there is any issue on which we Pagans should be able to\u00a0speak harmoniously, it is on the issue of the desecration of the environment.<\/p>\n What do you hope to accomplish by creating it?<\/strong><\/p>\n I hope the statement will prompt us as Pagans to take our place at\u00a0the forefront of the movement to save the Earth for future generations of\u00a0humans and myriad other-than-human beings. \u00a0I also hope that the statement\u00a0will communicate to others in the interfaith community that we Pagans are\u00a0serious about ecological activism.<\/p>\n How can folks get involved after signing the petition?<\/strong><\/p>\n There is a link on the website (ecopagan.com<\/a>)\u00a0to a page titled \u201cTake Action\u201d<\/a> which offers many suggestions for translating\u00a0the commitment expressed in the statement into action. \u00a0And we are continuing\u00a0to add to the list.\u00a0Also keep an eye on ecopagan.com<\/a> in the future, as there are plans to turn it into a hub for eco-Pagan activism.<\/p>\n Are there suggested resources for signees to create\u00a0meaningful dialogue with friends, family, and political leaders?<\/strong><\/p>\n One of the suggestions on the \u201cTake Action\u201d<\/a>\u00a0page includes a link for\u00a0information on how to respond to climate change deniers<\/a>.\u00a0But it is important not to fall into the\u00a0trap of feeling contempt for our fellow human beings. These feelings are\u00a0guaranteed to undercut our work. If we encounter resistance, we should\u00a0consider carefully where that resistance comes from. Radical empathy is not\u00a0only good for the soul; it will actually make us more effective activists.<\/p>\n
\ncan join our bodies and souls in ritual. \u00a0As a result, the effectiveness of\u00a0our actions may sometimes be diminished by the cacophony of our diverse\u00a0voices.<\/p>\n