I recently read a ritual called "The Council of All Beings." It goes something like this.
In a group ritual format, people gather an mourn all the ecological problems they can think of. All of them. This is followed by a kind of group 're-birthing' interpretive dance to get in touch with either the evolution of homo sapiens or else the gestation process. Lastly, people become representatives of non-human species and processes. Someone speaks for all wolves, someone else is an eagle. Participants can even choose to channel lichen (I am not making this up). There is a pause for participants to use Stanislavski's method of acting to get into their character.
The animal (and plant and geological) representatives circle around and take turns dropping character and going to the center to be the human representative. The non-humans essentially point, and say, "Look, you've screwed up my life cycles." The human representative(s) must remain silent. Then the non-humans say, "But, hey; you obviously need a gift that only I can offer, so here it is." Insert celebratory drumming here. The End.
That's right: "The End." At no point during this event (at least the description I read) are participants encouraged to say what positive actions they'll take when they return to their normal, non-ritual lives.
What bugs me about this ritual is that 1) it reinforces the concept that humanity is an "unnatural" component of the ecosystem; 2) it strikes me as putting the curse of Original Sin into the mouths of a bunch of talking animals (and rocks); 3) it's a ritual for us to receive gifts of wisdom disguised as an event to raise ecological awareness; and 4) the ritual description seems to have taken a page from the Men's Mythopoetic Movement (insert repetitive self-flagellation here).
I wonder -- did the dinosaurs have rituals like this ? Or what about the early anaerobic bacteria that poisoned themselves in the process of making the planet's current atmosphere ? And do we really need this: it seems to me a less egocentric ritual would be formed around cleaning up one's locality, turning out lights, driving less, and raising money for clean-up efforts (and education on consuming less and researching green energy sources).
My final observation is a re-imagining of this ritual: A bunch of white people gather together and some of them choose to be (and speak for) people of color....
3 comments:
Ouch! And -- yeah, I completely agree.
In my mind, there are two quite different strains of neopaganism, although they are rarely recognized as such. In one, humanity is an indispensable part of nature -- on the vanguard of evolution, in many respects -- and our task is to understand our role within nature, and to act on it. In the other, humanity is an aberration, a cancer, and our task is to cleanse ourselves of our corrupting influence.
You're dead right to associate Original Sin with the latter strain. It's the same damn thing, wrapped in hippy clothing. It denies our oneness with nature, and saddles us with guilt, Guilt, GUILT that is a function of our very existence. Add to that a healthy abdication of personal agency, and what have you got? One of the nastier flavours Xtianity, only with less money and more patchouli. Screw that!
The other strain however? Still good stuff, where you can find it.
John, If you had been paying any attention you would have realized that this was sent to CUUPs by Green Sanctuary in hopes that we would help them lead this ritual. We turned them down, and said that we would help with something but there had to be hope and healing included.I would like to say that you are being incredibly judgmental of a group that you refuse to get to know or have anything to do with. You simply sit in holier than thou judgment. What you see on our email includes about 5% of what we actually do. We are a group of about 12 very active members and another dozen some-timers. We never have less than ten people at a ritual. More often around 15-18. You come across as quite negative and the sour grapes leave a nasty after taste in my mouth. You are so worried that Pagans might come across as superstitious that you sound superstitious. Being Pagan is not about living in your head and finding the negative in all, or the fears that others will find us not intellectual enough. You seem to have no understanding of how myths(Scripture)tell a story of how to live in the world. The intellect is in the depth of the understanding. It not how big the words are. I have read your stuff and it comes across as the worship of the intellect not true understanding of the heart. Without the heart everything is meaningless. In my opinion being Pagan means being/living/experiencing. To be the center of your own Universe means taking part in your own life, not obsessing over other people. If you want to be part of CUUPs and find out what we are really about, come join. If you don't really want to be part of it quit sitting in judgment of what you obviously have no concept of. I came to several of your rituals and was bored beyond tears. I don't think that you have ever been to one of mine. No one has ever complained of being bored!
Elan,
Interesting. My post was not about Eugene CUUPs. Nor was it about you. Or your rituals. It was about the above ritual proposal. It sounds like Eugene CUUPs will not be following this proposal, which makes me glad.
To respond to the rest of your message: it doesn't worry me when Neo-Pagans might come across as superstitious, it frustrates me when they are superstitious.
And, Elan, I have attended at least one of your rituals, a couple of your workshops, and I've seen your fliers. I understand that your ritual and spiritual focuses may be where you need to be, but they are not where I wish to be or go. Why should I attend an event that will only be frustrating to me and sour the energy of the event for those who are interested in it?
To paraphrase this post, being Neo-Pagan is about using the tools of ritual to commune with Deity/Spirit, to transform the mundane into the sacred, and to celebrate our connections with All. It is about living in balance between mind, heart, body and spirit. It is about being aware of systems of maintenance, influx, and distribution. It is the flowing together of all of these that leads us to Grace.
I'll conclude with wisdom from Mr. Scott: "Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me."
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