Aren't cities "earth based"?

[ladymorgaine]

I have to try to make this quick, (yet hopefully coherent) as I'm leaving for work in a few minutes.  If any discussion arises, I'll add further thoughts in the comments.

I read this article this morning with a fair amount of disdain.  http://www.witchvox.com/ ( Read more... )

Comments

[elfwreck]

I do not like to camp. Camping is full of bugs and muck and uncomfortable sleeping arrangements and limited food options.

We invented cities to get AWAY from that stuff. Our "Pagan ancestors" spent a good deal of time trying to improve their roofs & plumbing arrangements. Weather, in case the author forgot, was our enemy... weather gods were appeased as much as revered. Sky-and-thunder gods were often perceived as harsh and capricious. Troublesome weather was like disease: there was a notion that it must be doing some good in a cosmic sense, but you'd really like it to be doing that good somewhere else.

I am annoyed at pagans who think the purpose of paganism is to connect with nonsentient things and energies: rocks, trees, wind, sunshine. Not knocking the idea, but my religion also acknowledges interpersional relationships as relevant, and humans constructing a house is just as much a part of the ecosystem as bees building a hive.

[newdance]

Our "Pagan ancestors" spent a good deal of time trying to improve their roofs & plumbing arrangements.

Indeed. Hell, ancient PAGAN Rome, anybody? Did these people forget that it was superstitious Christians that got rid of bathing and indoor plumbing? Not that there's anything wrong with Christians, but ferchrissakes, it's not like what I'm saying can't be backed up by a simple trip to the library.

Not knocking the idea, but my religion also acknowledges interpersional relationships as relevant, and humans constructing a house is just as much a part of the ecosystem as bees building a hive.

Well put.

[lilairen]

Hah -- at my training retreats my fellow students were quite happy I was along, because I attract every mosquito in a three-mile radius. We had technocratic bug spray, citronella candles, and bug-repelling incense, and I was mightily gnawed on. They were all impressed, in that, "Wow, am I glad I'm not you" way.

I spent a lot of time muttering, "I'm a servant of urban gods. Urban gods!"

*rummages in icons for her favorite storm god, heh*

art and nature

[divineaspect]

I once had a similar argument about what is 'natural'.

Everything which exists changes it's environment by participating with it, this interaction isn't random. I suggest that we call that healthy interaction where the waste of one being can benefit another, each being true to their own nature, Nature. (note the capital N)

Even things which have no apparent value, waste, will eventually be used by something. When there is enough of anything, something will evolve or develop to take advantage of it.

Artifice is the practice of tool Using. Humans make tools, as do some other primates, even dolphins can use tools, what is unnatural about that? The Artificial is Thus an Extension of the Natural.

You could argue that we make so much Waste that we destroy the Natural cycles of interaction and exchange, but while we exist, human interaction can by definition create more Nature.

Eventually Humans will also be space based? does that mean that astronauts can't be Pagans?

[eukarya]

WitchVox will publish anything.

[wibbble]

The name of this community was chosen to be a tongue-in-cheek reference to those kind of people.

After all, we must all be unnatural Pagans, mustn't we?

[sunflower_p]

*sigh* The old "if you want to worship the Goddess, you have to go where She is" argument. Funny how those who are so vehement about that one will at other times wax passionately about immanence.

This post nudged me to move from "I should probably join this community" to actually joining. *waves at various folks known from elsewhere*

Sunflower