{"id":189,"date":"2011-11-15T05:05:00","date_gmt":"2011-11-15T05:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2011\/11\/meeting-the-spirits-of-the-land\/"},"modified":"2011-11-15T05:05:00","modified_gmt":"2011-11-15T05:05:00","slug":"meeting-the-spirits-of-the-land","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2011\/11\/meeting-the-spirits-of-the-land.html","title":{"rendered":"Meeting the Spirits of the Land"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>
<\/a><\/div>\n

crossposted with No Unsacred Place<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n

If you grew up watching Looney Toons (and if you didn\u2019t you had a very deprived childhood!) you saw many stories about the collision of Nature and the modern world. Water abruptly stops flowing when a huge dam is constructed overnight. Chipmunks (or was it gophers?) get scooped up by a harvesting machine and have to escape from an automated cannery. And in 1954\u2019s \u201cNo Parking Hare<\/a>\u201d a construction worker tries to evict a certain wabbit so a superhighway can be built on top of his home.<\/p>\n

The formula is simple: peaceful forest creatures are assaulted by \u201cprogress,\u201d the creatures fight back and outsmart the humans, we laugh at the cartoon violence, and in the end some kind of accommodation is reached. The superhighway is built, but it goes around the rabbit hole. Whether that arrangement was sustainable for the rabbit wasn\u2019t discussed\u2026 like a lot of assumptions, both then and now.<\/p>\n

Many of us like to speak of the \u201cspirits of Nature.\u201d Sometimes that\u2019s an expression of animism, the belief that all things have a spirit similar to our own spirits. Other times it\u2019s a reference to creatures who are closer to the land than us but who are still individual beings. Some of us have had experiences with these creatures that give credence to our beliefs \u2013 at least for ourselves.<\/p>\n

What happened to those creatures, those spirits of Nature, when we built our cities and suburbs on top of their homes?<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know. It\u2019s reasonable to assume that some couldn\u2019t deal with the loss of their homes and died. Some moved \u2013 either to more remote regions or back to the Otherworld. But as anyone who has seen a tree growing through a sidewalk can tell you, some are still here.<\/p>\n

Who\u2019s still living in your back yard? Who\u2019s living in the park down the street? Who\u2019s living in the tree in your office parking lot?<\/p>\n

For a long time I avoided approaching the Nature spirits who live near me. Aside from general skepticism (I am an engineer, after all) I was concerned about how I\u2019d be received. Just because you\u2019re a Nature-loving, tree-hugging, Goddess-worshipping Pagan doesn\u2019t mean Nature spirits are going to see you as anything other than another greedy land-despoiling human. Stereotyping sucks, especially when you\u2019re on the receiving end.<\/p>\n

But when you\u2019re around someone for a long time, you get to know them. And when you live in one place for a while, the Nature spirits get to know you. Over time, either your actions line up with your words or they don\u2019t.<\/p>\n

When my daily prayers began to include acknowledgement of the Nature spirits, something changed. I went from feeling like I was being watched with suspicion to feeling like I was being watched with curiosity. I wasn\u2019t just addressing \u201cNature\u201d any more \u2013 I was speaking directly to the spirits who live near me. Eventually, they spoke back.<\/p>\n

They\u2019ve been here a long time and they don\u2019t want to leave. Right now their biggest concern isn\u2019t people, it\u2019s the drought \u2013 all living creatures need water. Mainly they wanted to be left alone.<\/p>\n

It was a short, polite conversation. No pronouncements of wisdom, no offers of treasure or teaching, no dire warnings or threats. Just neighbors, thrown together by the winds of life and change, being neighborly.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re thinking this was all in my head, well, maybe you\u2019re right. I like what J.K. Rowling wrote in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, in the chapter \u201cKing\u2019s Cross\u201d:<\/p>\n

\u201cTell me one last thing,\u201d said Harry. \u201cIs this real? Or has this been happening inside my head?\u201d<\/p>\n

Dumbledore beamed at him, and his voice sounded loud and strong in Harry\u2019s ears even though the bright mist was descending again, obscuring his figure.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There is value in honoring the spirits of the land, no matter who they are or how you see them.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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