Some acedemic thoughts.
Nov. 16th, 2007 07:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kallistiiOver on ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
academicpagans, I posted this in response to a question about how Paganism, and I see the sacredness of land.
One thing that is inherent in the current Neo-Pagan world view is the underlaying concept that we are integral part of the land, and that through our acts and deeds the land will be changed simply by our being there. Now, that is fine, but the majority also adhere to the unspoken idea that the land was "better" when we were not there. This dichotomy leads to the idea that there was a "golden age" that never existed when humans lived in total harmony with the land, that is, not causing damage to the land.
Personally, I believe that no matter what we do, we are causing change to the planet. As the planet is a chaotic system of systems, it is important to cause as little change as possible within that system, for fear of tipping it out of balance, which will cause the system to try and re-balance itself, to our detriment.
To make a piece of land sacred, something important has to have happened there. In an urban environment, that could simply be the fact that "nature" has an enclave, be it a park, a backyard, etc. And again, we see the dichotomy from above, for although we are part of nature, and have taken parts of nature to build our cities, we consider them less important, less able to be sacred than "nature".
To me, all of "creation" is sacred. So parts, due to specific things, be they human build, like graves of ancestors or works of art or skill; similarly fantastic or beautiful parts of nature are more sacred.
That said, we should always honour nature, for it is the current manifestation of the planet that originally gave us birth even if the "seeds" of life may have come from a passing comet as current scientific through has theorized.
As an example, I live in Ottawa, and consider one of the most sacred places on the Earth at the moment to be the Canadian Shield. It is one of the few places where you can go and touch the bedrock of the original super continent of our planet. One of the most sacred parts of the Shield are the Gatineau Hills. They were once as tall or taller as the Rocky Mountains, and through successive glaciations, has been worn down to just a line of hills. That shows the power of the planet that we should remember, or be eliminated by it. (Can you tell that I once considered a career in Geology?)
academicpagans, I posted this in response to a question about how Paganism, and I see the sacredness of land.One thing that is inherent in the current Neo-Pagan world view is the underlaying concept that we are integral part of the land, and that through our acts and deeds the land will be changed simply by our being there. Now, that is fine, but the majority also adhere to the unspoken idea that the land was "better" when we were not there. This dichotomy leads to the idea that there was a "golden age" that never existed when humans lived in total harmony with the land, that is, not causing damage to the land.
Personally, I believe that no matter what we do, we are causing change to the planet. As the planet is a chaotic system of systems, it is important to cause as little change as possible within that system, for fear of tipping it out of balance, which will cause the system to try and re-balance itself, to our detriment.
To make a piece of land sacred, something important has to have happened there. In an urban environment, that could simply be the fact that "nature" has an enclave, be it a park, a backyard, etc. And again, we see the dichotomy from above, for although we are part of nature, and have taken parts of nature to build our cities, we consider them less important, less able to be sacred than "nature".
To me, all of "creation" is sacred. So parts, due to specific things, be they human build, like graves of ancestors or works of art or skill; similarly fantastic or beautiful parts of nature are more sacred.
That said, we should always honour nature, for it is the current manifestation of the planet that originally gave us birth even if the "seeds" of life may have come from a passing comet as current scientific through has theorized.
As an example, I live in Ottawa, and consider one of the most sacred places on the Earth at the moment to be the Canadian Shield. It is one of the few places where you can go and touch the bedrock of the original super continent of our planet. One of the most sacred parts of the Shield are the Gatineau Hills. They were once as tall or taller as the Rocky Mountains, and through successive glaciations, has been worn down to just a line of hills. That shows the power of the planet that we should remember, or be eliminated by it. (Can you tell that I once considered a career in Geology?)
