Today’s 30 Stories in 30 Days question comes from Kimberly McGill, Flock member, blogger and teacher of a unique online Spanish learning course, Dreaming in Spanish (so cool.) Today Kimberly asks:
Q: How does nature fit into your spiritual perspective and why do you say you have a soft spot for pagans.
As children, my cousins and I used to joke that we were the prototypes for the story of Country Mouse City Mouse. They lived in the Sierra Nevada’s and were happiest when they were on a mountain top, on the river, or climbing some impossible height. We lived in the city and were well-fed on the museums, performance halls, and amongst re-known architecture. As adults, my cousin’s spirituality is deep steeped in the natural world, while and mine feeds off of art.
That being said, even this city girl is guided by the nature. The turning of the seasons is of great import to me spiritually, and each one is celebrated in our home. The Fall Equinox(Mabon) finds us expressing gratitude and embracing abundance as we host an annual party where we feast as our guests fill our family shrine with nuts, leaves, and other examples of Autumnal goodness. Winter Solstice (Yule) means costumed finery, communal art projects, and an all-volunteer feast organized by our local arts council. If you peek into our backyard on the Spring Equinox (Ostara) you’ll find the girls and I doing Yoga poses for Mama Earth. And Summer Solstice (Midsummer) finds us dancing down the street in the local Solstice Parade.
When I was serving as a traditional pastor at a conservative evangelical church, I joined the Fremont Arts Councilas an “outreach” opportunity. I quickly discovered that the artist and the neo-pagans in that community were more Christ-like than many so-called Christians. The “pagans” – who in my paradigm at the time were going to hell—were loving, generous, eager to understand the other, forgiving, and deeply accepting of “the least, the last, and an the lost.” I was deeply inspired by the testimony of their lives. Much to my religious friend’s chagrin, I was often found wearing an “I ♥ Pagans” tee-shirt. (So much for evangelism! Who convert who?)
Life with the artful pagans led me to study the pagan roots of the Christian traditions. I was energized and inspired by the deep historic connections – many of which honor more feminine ways of knowing, and free Christianity from patriarchal manipulation. The pagan roots of Christianity (seen even more easily in Jewish traditions, as Judaism is the older, parent-tradition to Christianity) are fascinating to me and inspire me to new ways of expressing my faith.
Now, years later, in my own right-fit spirituality, the teachings of Jesus are still bedrock to my beliefs and to my way of living. But we also celebrate home-based Jewish traditions, and “lite” versions of some neo-pagan and Wiccan rites—especially around the natural year. I call this eclectic mix “The High Holy Days” and teach all the seasonal holidays in our online community Flock, where each member adapts my suggestions based on their own spiritual hybrid. I believe God dances in ten-thousand places, and I’d like to celebrate any and all of them.
What about you? How does nature affect your spirituality? Are your (pagan) roots showing? We’d love to hear all about it, “’cuz there ain’t no place to go but together.”
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ONE PLACE LEFT to ask a question for 30 Stories in 30Days! Email me your question along with the link to your blog, and I’ll book you a date on my 30Stories whirlwind. (Ooooo…I do so love getting behind the mic to answer your questions!)
30 Stories : 30Days – The Collection
Day 1: What is the intersect between work and play and how can I find it?
Day 2: How has your spirituality shaped your sexuality?
Day 3: IRL and Online Friendships: same? different? balanced.
Day 4: How can I connect with my neighborhood?
Day 5: What do I do if my partner and I have different faiths?
Day 6: What are you doing to make a difference in this world?
Day 7: What is your highest high and what can you learn from it?
Day 8: What role has massage played in your life?
Day 9: How can I make administrative tasks a creative/spiritual practice?
Day 10: What has it meant to you to have your birthday so near Halloween?
Day 11: How can I manage resistance around my art?
Day 12: I want to establish some kind of spiritual practice. Where do I start?
Day 13: What is your primary spiritual practice?
Day 14: Do you prefer living in Europe or in the U.S.?
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{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Thank you for answering the question Rachelle!
I encountered pagan ideas through books about 15 years ago and felt drawn by the nature based system and some of the ritual. It lead me to explore different pagan paths, Christian paths that seemed no connect with nature and the wellbeing of us all like the liberation theology of Mathew Fox. As the years went by I encountered pagans and others who, as you said, embodied Christ-like attitudes and behaviors and were not Christians.
I´ve not ended up a pagan in the traditional sense of following a certain pagan path, or a Christian … or … I am earth centered and celebrate the seasonal wheel, have a deep respect for our Earth and strive to live in ways that honor all of nature, of which humans are a part! I still love drawing from Mathew Foxes books and others related to that theology. But my main practice I would say is Buddhist, and I am discovering lately how that path is about to expand for me. A post about that coming soon :0).
Rachelle, your blog continues to inspire me and Flock is a real oasis for my spirit. Thank you again for answering the question and also helping me feel like I am not all alone as a spiritual hybrid.
Hi! I’m curious if there were particular books you read in regards to the pagan roots of Christian traditions. In the one class I took at Fuller many moons ago I remember learning about some details about Easter, but I’m curious about where you found some of the information you refer to. I know you have lots of resources at your fingertips.
There’s a reason for the similarities, though most, if not all pagans may disagree with me on this point. The Pagan and Christian roots are realated. As biblical Christians, we’re taught by Word that all pagan religions are the worship of demons or fallen angels.
Satan or Lucifer was the leader of these fallen angels which were about a third of all the angels in heaven. Lucifer was the most beautiful angel in heaven, one of the son’s of God Himself. God loved him.
He would wait outside of the gate of heaven and with his beauty, he seduced a third of the Angels in heaven. When he and his angels were cast from heaven to earth, he begin to build his own empire with a similar design to God’s Kingdom.
For Satan lived in heaven beneath the illuminated throne and the Light which is Jehova. Therefor he is a witness to the glory of God’s house. It’s should be no surprise that there are similarities. To gain a better understanding of this, one would need research King David and his son, Absalon.
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