by Darren Owen

Created on: June 20, 2010   Last Updated: June 26, 2011

There is one thing that no matter what religion you are or what faith you follow we can all agree on and that is the earth is sacred and worthy of respect and care.  Without it we would have no home, no food, no cloths, nothing at all.   Neo-paganism today can be defined as any faith or path that focuses on an earth based spiritual experience so it stands to reason that all neo-pagans should be environmentalists.  By saying this though we ignore the very thing that has attracted so many people to paganism in the first place.

The modern neo-pagan paths have always stood on the fundamental fact that there is no holy book, no overreaching authority and no code of laws that every pagan must follow.  Instead paganism has always been about personal and subjective experience.  We follow this faith because of our personal experiences of the world, because of how we feel when we see a sunset, not because we have been baptised and followed the creed since birth.  We have the freedom to work our personal spiritual experiences into our own personal framework.

Neo-pagans know the earth is more than just the planet that we stand on.  We accept that the animals that cover the planet’s surface are just as important to our spirituality as the Earth we love and we know that the vegetation that shares our land is important for survival as a species.  These things are all self evident to pagans. But because they are self evident to pagans we also see the web of life on the planet and know that the environment is just one piece of the puzzle. 

A lot of pagans go into the health and healing sectors to help others.  This is just as important to the life of the planet we love as the person who helps clear up rubbish or clearing weeds.  People are after all a major component of the world we live in and they are undoubtedly the one thing on the planet that can help it the most.  By spreading health and healing we are making people feel better, who then go out and perhaps spread that feeling of being healthy and happy to someone else who then spreads it to someone else and a chain is born, a chain of random acts of kindness which makes the earth a better place in so many different ways.

What about the pagans who spread ideas? If the feeling of happiness can be spread by random acts of kindness thanks to the initial work of a pagan helping out in a healing way can an idea be spread the same way? Well yes and there called memes. Memes are ideas that spread like a virus and they are most often associated with internet viral adverts or videos.  So if ideas can spread like a virus isn’t the pagan who tries to spread the idea of helping the planet just as important as the person who plants trees at the weekend?

Do we as pagans have a duty of care to the planet? Yes absolutely.  Should we all be environmentalists? no. To concentrate on environmental work as great and important as it is we are ignoring the myriad of small and important other jobs that need to be done to increase the happiness of life on this glorious Earth.   Many pagans have a need to help make our home a better place to live for all life but because of the freedom our pagan path gives us there are many different ways we can help.  It isn’t important that we all try through helping the environment, it is just important that we all try. 

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