Spiritual Year In Review

This has been a year of learning.

In addition to what I wrote about in the previous journal, there was a prayer for knowledge that seems to have been answered (though finding information about things that interest me isn't necessarily supernatural, I am looking for them after all.)

A year ago, I rededicated myself to the Gods, or rather, established a formal relationship with them for the first time.

http://dreamsinanime.livejournal.com/80726.html

At the time (October a year ago (2012)) there was a campaign to save sacred Native sites such as Pe'Sla. One of the comments by a Native stuck in my mind. He/she described a life of hardship, being kicked around, but always somehow surviving against the odds, ending with "'Don't worry, we have Mother Earth on our side' my grandmother used to say. It took me many years to see the truth in that."

It struck a nerve. Why can't I have Mother Earth on my side? Or be on her side? Is being an enemy of the Earth really part of my traditional culture? Must all people of European descent be at war with the planet? (That, and, since getting into Paganism, natural sacred sites are no longer abstract to me, no longer some other culture's "primitive" beliefs, I love wild places and if there's one that's that extra powerful to experience, it should be preserved.)

Such was in my mind when I set out to thrice purify myself for Samhain that year. It was deeply personal, intense, and very fruitful. I ended by asking Mother Earth, "Help me find ways to be on your side."

...

Looking back, I've learned (mostly unexpectedly) many, many ways to be on the side of the Earth.

Starting with the basest of motives - looking up naked hippie girls on tumblr (Because they'd be more likely to be all natural instead of breast implants) I stumbled upon a convergence of women into (naked) yoga, veganism, and Buddhist philosophy. I learned a lot about all 3. About the Chakras and how to care for them. (And that the modern-day hippies are all surprisingly young, well-spoken, tech-savvy, and aware of world events.) Everything hippie my parents ever warned me away from all my life, I suddenly know much about...

From that core, I found out about artists making clothing (mostly on Etsy) out of natural materials. Shoes made of out of recycled materials. Bought an example of such at FCN (a raccoon hoodie) it's not eco-friendly but technically it's made by artists not a sweatshop. Which is a step in the right direction.

Handcrafted soaps made of natural plant materials without any potentially harmful modern chemicals. Shampoos made the same way.

Organic farming and composting, the legal and technological hurdles to making and living in small homes, "Hobbit" homes off the grid, "Earthships" that contain greenhouses to feed their occupants, what's really killing the honeybees - genetically modified crops.

The ongoing fights of native peoples to keep their sacred sites from being bulldozed, paved over with roads, or simply evicted illegally from their homes by mining companies.

Ecoterrorism, the Earth Liberation Front, and even the idea that maybe civilization was a mistake, likened to an alien invasion. "If your home was being destroyed by invaders, wouldn't you fight back?"

I don't know what, if anything, I can do with this information. Much of it is too extremist. Or too "off the grid". But that prayer to Mother Earth seems to be answered - I know now many, many ways one can be more on the side of the Earth, some so big they'd require dedicating your life, body and soul; others little things that can be incorporated into daily life (and probably improve your health.)

And this kind of learning has been going on ever since. I'm constantly stumbling upon information about this "other side" of life, as if a river of knowledge was diverted to run through my land...