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Eco-spirituality / Contemporary Paganism

Most branches of contemporary Paganism hold the Earth as sacred and deity as immanent. Goddess spirituality is typical, and there is a mutual influence with some branches of ecofeminism. (See the Eco-feminism discussion on Spirituality). For more on Goddess spirituality see Starhawk.

Contemporary Paganism is, however, far more complex than it is often presented: While is fair to say the Paganism is a ‘nature religion’ (Pearson, Roberts and Samuel, 1998: 1), most Pagans "don't often think about the ethical and political implications of what they are doing''(Adler 1986: 397). In fact "some Pagans affirm a transcendence of nature" and "believe in a sort of divinity that is not of this world" (Davy, 2007: 7). In fact environmentally active Pagans are in "a minority'' (Davy, 2002: 90). We can usefully identify those who are explicitly environmentally active as Eco-Pagans.

Eco-Pagans have been active in numerous environmental campaigns, notably at Twyford Down and Newbury. The web site of the Dragon Environmental Network has information and links to Eco-Pagan resources.

Critiques

Bookchin attacked deep ecology, ecofeminism and others for their neo-pagan leanings. (Bookchin, The Philosophy of Social Ecology (Montréal and New York: Black Rose Books, 1990).

Ken Wilber (A Brief History of Everything) focuses on what Wilber terms the "pre/trans fallacy". Explain. Wilber's critique seems sound on its own terms, but he is far too vauge in his analysis of Eco-Paganism. In fairness very little solid research had been done on Eco-Paganism when Wilber wrote his book, but he treats quite different groups under one broad banner as "spiritually-oriented deep ecologists". Zimmerman offers a useful and stimuating discussion of Wilber's Critique of Ecological Spirituality.

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