Dr Graham Harvey
Reader in Religious Studies, The Open University, UK,*
and Conscience of the Secular Order of Druids.*

Paganism is the chosen name of a group of nature respecting religions that draw inspiration from pre-Christian religious traditions as well from encounters with the more than human world or “nature”. In its contemporary forms Paganism involves a rich ritual and everyday practice that encourages people to restore respectful relationships and responsible lifestyles as earth- and place-dwelling beings alongside all other life. Since its revival in the early twentieth century, Paganism has grown dramatically, inspired by feminist and environmentalist movements, and is now attracting increasing numbers of people in all continents.

The centrality of nature veneration in Paganism already provides justification for contributing to this critical debate about human efforts to regain harmony with the earth. The re-creation of Paganism in the context of Western modernism and consumerism means that Pagans have always been faced with considering ways to encourage and disseminate alternative ways of being human in an age of crisis.

Until now, the hierarchical dualism of Cartesian modernity has proved a powerful justification for a way of being human. However, emerging popular global understanding of the consequences of the modernist project that separated humans from the earth may yet lead to a mass turn from this elected schizophrenia. Even the “light green” interest in “nature” inspired by TV shows provides glimpses of healthier knowledges of the world. Broadcast evidences of animal and bird consciousness, of the fragility of ecosystems, or of the proliferation of hybrids (neither “nature” nor “culture”) like the ozone hole, might all suggest that the world is not merely an exploitable resource. Unfortunately, the bold effort of religious environmentalists to encourage a “stewardship” model of human relationship with the world is an inadequate challenge to modernism. It does not adequately contest the root problem: the separation of spiritual people en route to a spiritual afterlife cannot radically challenge the hyper-separation of humans from the material world, nature.

A more far reaching model of human being is required. If the majority of humans are to be persuaded to make fundamental, radical and rapid changes to the lifestyles and mindsets that have brought us to the brink of disaster, a compelling positive reason has to be offered. Paganism (along with many indigenous and other religions) is rooted in the knowledge that humans belong here in the community of life that co-inhabits the earth. We are at home as earth-beings alongside all living beings.

Beyond an idea of belonging, Pagans have developed a rich set of ceremonies and seasonal festivals that achieve far more than ethical statements and manifestos. Acts of gift giving and receiving between humans and other beings, for example, not only embody the truths of our belonging and relatedness, but retrain us to live with respect and joy in an animate, sacred, beautiful and threatened world.