{"id":6320,"date":"2017-04-06T05:00:14","date_gmt":"2017-04-06T11:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/?p=6320"},"modified":"2017-07-04T10:16:41","modified_gmt":"2017-07-04T16:16:41","slug":"dont-land-honor-land","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2017\/04\/dont-land-honor-land.html","title":{"rendered":"We Don\u2019t Have to Own the Land to Honor the Land"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Tuesday\u2019s Wild Hunt<\/a> was a feature on Wade Mueller, who leads a Pagan intentional community in Wisconsin. It\u2019s spawned an unusual amount of comments: some sympathetic, some critical, and some that make you wonder if the commenter actually read the article.<\/p>\n

I respect what Wade Mueller is doing. Intentional communities almost always fail \u2013 this one has been going since 1999. Building a community around a place allows for a deep connection that cannot be duplicated by occasional or virtual meetings. Mueller\u2019s intentional community flows from a similar vision as my dreams of a Druid college<\/a>. I hope his community succeeds even beyond his dreams.<\/p>\n

But there are problems. It\u2019s not that he appears to be speaking for all Pagans when that\u2019s not his intent (something I\u2019ve been accused of doing a time or twenty). \u201cWho made you the Pagan pope?\u201d is a defensive reaction that rarely addresses a substantive issue. The problem is that some of Mueller\u2019s comments are flat-out wrong.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not really Pagans. We have a Pagan veneer over the top of a Christian and secular life. Until we have permanent lands that we live on, are born on, and die on, we won\u2019t be Pagans.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I\u2019ve written plenty about the impact of Christian and secular society on our Paganisms. It\u2019s a problem we need to be mindful of. But to say that means we can\u2019t really be Pagans is simply wrong.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, Paganism is about what we do. If we honor Nature, honor our Gods, refine ourselves, and support our communities (or some combination thereof<\/a>), we are Pagans. Where we live is a secondary consideration, the same as what we believe.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are now a religion of nomads yet all of our traditions are based on place. If we want Paganism to to move past where we are now, a social gathering, we need to do something different.\u201d stated Mueller. That something different is to buy land to create Pagan communities, businesses, and worship centers.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Humans have always been nomads, or at least, migrants \u2013 something all Americans (North and South, native and immigrant) should understand very well. We may settle down for a few generations, but then we move on. While rooting ourselves to a particular place can be beneficial, any robust religion must accommodate human movement.<\/p>\n

Fortunately, Paganism can do this.<\/p>\n

\"02<\/a><\/p>\n

We carry our ancestors within us<\/h1>\n

There is value in living close to where your ancestors\u2019 bones are buried. But no matter where you go, you carry them within you. You share their blood. More importantly, you share their lives: the odd saying you picked up from your mother, your grandfather\u2019s love of Nature, a song your family brought with them from Ireland so long ago no one remembers when.<\/p>\n

If you want to connect to them, honor them. Make offerings to them, tell their stories, call their names. Do genealogical research and study the history of their times. Every point of commonality is another connection.<\/p>\n

Living on the same land is a good thing, but experiencing our ancestral roots does not require a connection of place.<\/p>\n

Our Gods move with us<\/h1>\n

The spirit of the River Boyne cannot be found outside of Ireland. But Brighid? She\u2019s here. I know \u2013 I\u2019ve experienced Her first hand. The Morrigan? She\u2019s made a strong connection<\/a> to many people on this continent. Where ever people have gone, their Gods have gone with them.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a temple to Athena in Nashville. Yes, it was built as a secular celebration of the centennial of Tennessee statehood, but things that look religious have a habit of becoming religious, regardless of intent.<\/p>\n

\"the<\/a>
the Parthenon \u2013 Nashville<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This isn\u2019t just a modern thing. The Romans carried the worship of Mithras from Persia and Isis from Egypt as far away as Britain. The stories of the Tuatha De Danann begin with Their arrival in Ireland. The literature is unclear exactly where They came from but it is clear that They moved. Whether on Their own or with Their peoples, Gods move.<\/p>\n

Our experiences of the Gods may be different from place to place<\/a>, just as our experiences of our fellow humans are different from place to place. But we can be Pagans where ever we are, because our Gods move with us.<\/p>\n

We can honor the land where we are<\/h1>\n

Which is better, the excitement of a new lover or the familiarity of a long committed relationship? They\u2019re not the same thing, but they\u2019re both pretty good.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m envious of Kristoffer Hughes \u2013 his family has lived on Anglesey for 3000 years. He has a connection to that land I can never have to any land. My family has barely been in America for 200 years, and I\u2019ve only been in Texas for 15 years.<\/p>\n

But that doesn\u2019t stop me from walking out into my back yard and pouring offerings to the spirits of the place. It doesn\u2019t stop me from listening to the trees. It doesn\u2019t stop me from running my fingers through the good black Earth and feeling a connection that goes deep into the ground.<\/p>\n

\"back<\/a><\/p>\n

You\u2019re renting? Do the same thing. Live in an apartment? Find a nearby park, or be like Jack Sparrow and bring land with you into your house.<\/p>\n

Ownership has practical advantages \u2013 mainly that someone else can\u2019t sell the land out from under you (most of the time, anyway<\/a>). But I can promise you the land and the spirits of the land don\u2019t care whose name is on the piece of paper in the courthouse. They care that you honor them with your rituals and that you respect them as you go about your ordinary life.<\/p>\n

We don\u2019t have to own the land to honor the land.<\/p>\n

Paganism is about time as well as place<\/h1>\n

Wade Mueller is right that Paganism is about place, but it\u2019s also about time. It\u2019s about looking backward to our ancestors and their beliefs and practices. It\u2019s about reconstructing, recreating, and reimagining those beliefs and practices to fit our lives as they are, here and now. And it\u2019s about looking forward to our descendants and leaving a better world for them than what we inherited (a very difficult task, but that\u2019s another topic for another time).<\/p>\n

I lived in the same house from the time I was born until I went away for college. Shortly after Cathy and I got married, we built our own house on the back edge of that land. My connection to that land was strong, and I planned to live there forever. \u201cForever\u201d turned out to be six and a half years \u2013 that\u2019s when my job went away and we moved to Indiana, then to Georgia, then to Texas.<\/p>\n

My story is not unique. Perhaps we should<\/em> settle down and always live in the place where we were born (and accept the limitations that brings) but that is not the reality of our time. In this time, our religions must be as mobile as we are.<\/p>\n

Paganism can do this. We carry our ancestors within us, our Gods move with us, and we can honor the land where ever we are.<\/p>\n

Whether we own it or not.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Humans have always been migrants. We may settle down for a few generations, but then we move on. While rooting ourselves to a particular place can be beneficial, any robust religion must accommodate human movement. Fortunately, Paganism can do this.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1129,"featured_media":6326,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[427,584,1285,64,4,5,1284],"class_list":["post-6320","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nature","tag-ancestors","tag-cara-schulz","tag-intentional-communities","tag-nature-2","tag-pagan","tag-paganism","tag-wade-mueller"],"yoast_head":"\nWe Don\u2019t Have to Own the Land to Honor the Land<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Humans have always been migrants. We may settle down for a few generations, but then we move on. 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