No Unsacred Place

I recently read the following quote by Wendell Berry, “There are no unsacred places. There are only sacred places and desecrated places”. This profound thinker has in one sentence, succinctly put what I have babbled on about for years. I think all true poets are at their core, Bards. And Mr. Berry is a true Bard and poet and I give him heartfelt thanks for writing this phrase. It will really help me in my role as a priest as I try to communicate the nature of Druidry.

I am out in California for work at the moment. As I drive around I take in with all my senses, the intense level of desecration that has happened here. I see endless miles of pavement, strip malls and corporate glass buildings. The land itself is paved over and chopped up so there is no continuity of the eco-system. This isn’t to just pick on Cali, this seems to be the case everywhere where we humans tread on this planet. But when I leave my home in the Maine woods, it is still alarming to experience the vastness of destruction as I fly across the continent. It is terribly unsettling, even depressing.

“No unsacred place”. Indeed, we are immersed in Nature, a part of Nature, made of Nature. And as an animist and a pagan, when I stop and really look at the world, I can not find any aspect of Nature that isn’t spiritual, that isn’t sacred.

Yet throughout the human collective experience, we all seem to experience a feeling of disconnection. Philosophers have been trying to understand the nature of human consciousness since the inception of the philosophical mind. I don’t have an answer as to why we all experience disconnection. What I do know is the result.

Where we experience disconnection, we cease to perceive the sanctity of Nature. And when we cease to see the world as sacred, we desecrate. All of us do this, all the time. Try as we may to “live consciously”, we can’t seem to stop adding to the damage and desecration of our Earth. Trying to become carbon neutral; growing all of one’s own food; or building a completely green home; while great in their intent, are still acts of participating in this modern society. And that by its nature is adding to the desecration. If you drive a car; if you produce trash; if you buy clothes; if you use a cellphone or a computer; if you buy food transported by fossil fuels; you are participating in the damage and desecration of Nature. The Earth is being hurt by these activities – very little on an individual level, but huge when looking at the collective. Not matter if you accept this premise or not, one thing is for sure, we are all in this together when it comes to the results. Our interconnection is undeniable (well you can try denial I guess :>) and we have collectively caused so much harm to the planet, it is possible we are approaching the tipping point where the Earth becomes very inhospitable to human life.

So what is the solution?

I don’t have one. My intuition tells me we won’t find one until we get past our frontal lobe and develop a stronger connection with the subconscious mind, and then even deeper to the soul. It lies with learning to live through the nemeton, living on a soul level. We need to run our decision-making through our soul, not just through the old and new brain. We need to take into account the entire story of the energies we are dealing with. We need to live in a sacred manner where what we do is entirely based on complete cooperation and integration into our environment. Where the sense of individualism is replaced with the perception of being part of.

We are capable of this. We can choose to work at seeing all of Nature as sacred. We can decide this is a basic premise on which we base our lives on. Only when we recognize all the souls around us as sacred, will we cease to desecrate. And I believe we as pagans can lead the way.

Someone very wise told me long ago, “Paganism was the first religion and it will be the last”. And as we edge toward the tipping point, I believe she was right.

Blessings of wholeness,
Snowhawke /|\