Completely by accident tonight (really? Accident?) I stumbled upon Starhawk's contributions to the Washington Post's "On Faith" column. Wow. Lightbulbs all over. Here's what's been hitting me.
From the oil spill and the soul of nature:
The BP disaster should be a clear lesson to us all--that the age of oil is over. We cannot afford the impact on the earth's climate of continuing to burn fossil fuels, nor the risks inherent in searching for oil in ever-deeper water or more pristine places. Were the costs of disasters and cleanups, the immense costs in life and suffering factored into the costs of production, it would be clear that oil has become unaffordable by any standard. Yes, we will all be required to give us some comforts and convenience to make the shift--but not nearly as many as people fear. Safe and renewable alternatives exist--sun, wind, water, a bit of muscle power, a focus on the local and the truly sustainable would give us an energy policy and the beginning of a new culture and economy that could bring us back into balance with the natural world.
This ties in directly with what I've been learing and feeling/thinking about since I started my CESD schooling. A NEW culture and a NEW economy to run this world and bring about BALANCE. Balance is what we lack. We've swung so far into industrialism and capitalist globalization that there's almost no way to swing back but we have to or we're all dead. Forget save the whales (though they'll die too): Save the Humans! Self-preservation demands we give up the crack-oil and other modes of thinking and being. Time to CHANGE.
Also, why does my faith have to remain a seperate thing from my potential future career? Why does it have to stay almost like a hobby? Something to explore further.
From A Woman's Sacred Right to Choose:
We honor our sacred sexuality by exercising our adult responsibility to nurtue and provide for any children we choose to bring into the world. We can take up that responsibility in many ways--by using birth control, by choosing to end a mistaken pregnancy or by giving a child up for adoption, by working for a world in which all children will be cherished and provided with the means for a healthy and fulfilling life.
My faith and my feminist politics are strongly in accord, for Pagans place spiritual authority within each individual. No priest or legislator can tell us how to resolve our own dilemmas. For it is in wrestling with tough choices that our spiritual development takes place. In our face to face encounters with the great forces of life, death and regeneration, we come to know the Goddess.
Oh gods yes this. THIS x 1000. Many thanks to Starhawk for "The Pagan Book of Living and Dying" which was so helpful to me during my time of need. I KNOW what it is to both carry and give life and to deny it. My hand is that which has nutured and reaped, birthed and slain. No longer can I simply identify with the Maiden; I am all, mother and crone as well. Thus my daily prayer.
"Maiden grant me joy this day. Mother grant me patience for myself and others. Grandmother show me wisdom. Warrior be ever watchful. Go in Balance."
From Pagans and Social Justice:
While Pagans do not have a set creed or unified code of beliefs, our traditions hold in common the understanding that we are all deeply interconnected, all part of the sacred weave of the world. The Goddess is immanent in this world and in all human beings, and part of our service to the sacred is to honor one another and take care of one another, to fairly share nature's bounty and to succor one another in facing the hardships of life. We must create justice in this world, not wait for redress of grievances in the next.
No one person or group has the right to commandeer nature's resources, which are the underpinnings of all wealth
Again, this is very close to some of the things I've been learning in CESD that mirror and express some of my own thoughts/feelings about how the world should work. I expect MORE than there is and I wont settle for what we've got, especially not now when I am woken up every morning by the next generation, the ones that I am holding this world as inheritance for. My son will not grow up in a world without polar bears or tigers or blue whales or any of the other beautiful, vulnerable creatures that share our earth. He deserves to have what I had; forests and streams to play in, lakes and beaches to romp, clean air to fill his lungs so he can laugh and cry with joy and wonder. He, and every other child, deserves this. I'm not in CESD for a better paycheque, I'm in it for a better world.
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