Defining Nature Spirituality

(July 6, 2022)  What is Nature Paganism? It is freedom where rules are replaced with goals and dogmas are replaced with feelings. If you value freedom and the experiential over rules and dogmas propagated by some authority then you are a Pagan.

The first phase of the Enlightenment challenged human created religious laws and institutions hiding behind a claimed divine sanction. The next phase would challenge was the divine right of kings to rule. The idea of liberty never emerged in nations having a non-Pagan cultures.

The Dawn of Freedom began in Britain in 1688  because that was the year of the "Glorious Revolution" in which constitutional limits were placed on monarchical power and religious toleration was made state policy and entered English culture such that it was never revoked. This phase had its roots in the philosophy of government from the classical era. This is why all the original government buildings in the United States look classical. An overview of this phase of the Enlightenment published in 1966 said the following:

"To call the Enlightenment Pagan is to conjure up the most delightfully irresponsible sexual license: a lazy sun-drenched summer afternoon, fauns and nymphs cavorting to sensual music and lascivious paintings, preferably by Boucher. There is some reality to this fantasy: the philosophes argued for a positive appreciation of sensuality and despised asceticism.... In speaking of the Enlightenment as pagan therefore, I am referring not to sensuality but to the affinity of the enlightenment to classical thought. Words other than pagan - Augustan, Classical, Humanist - have all served as epithets to capture this affinity ...." (Gay 1966)

In this phase, the Enlightenment thinkers tried to separate the role of the state from the role of religion. Europe had seen too many religious wars and wars against heretics in its history. They concluded that the state would be responsible for material things while religion would be responsible for emotional/spiritual things. This first stated by John Locke  (1632-1704) who was also important in closing out the previous phase of Enlightenment. He wrote the following between 1689 and 1693:

Thomas Jefferson in the U.S Declaration of Independence shortened and generalized Locke's phase to "Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness."

The concept of happiness as used by Jefferson thus includes the right to health and the right to acquire and hold possessions. During the civil war Abraham Lincoln and the nation elevated in blood the Declaration of Independence above that of the constitution to justify the elimination of the property right of slavery. The Declaration as a statement of purpose trumped any legal document meant to implement that purpose. Freedom is Pagan.

References

Gay, Peter (1966)  The Enlightenment - The Rise of Modern Paganism 

Kramic, Isaac [editor] (1995)  The Portable Enlightenment Reader.  Penguin books 

(Updated April 5. 2024) Nature spirituality is mainstream Paganism such that the all-encompassing word "Pagan" usually means "nature spirituality" even though its dictionary definition is: "a person holding religious beliefs other than those of the main world religions."

The core of any spiritual practice are feelings. These feelings are non-material conscious experiences having various levels of emotional energy. Consciousness experiences represent the non-material spiritual realm which is separate from the physical realm. No theory of physics explains consciousness.

Not All Pagans are Connective Pagans

Certain groups who call themselves Celtic or Nordic Pagans are not connective or spiritual Pagans at all. Instead they use this identity to justify their rabid nationalism. They are more like polytheistic Christians instead of followers of the real Old Ways. Instead of the Bible they have adopted  medieval bardic tales from their respective cultures as their authority. In practice they are just as dogmatic as any other sacred text religion. They readily exclude and suppress anyone who does not adhere to their sacred text interpretation. If you run into any of these groups run in the opposite direction.

(Updated April 5, 2024) Most Pagan paths known today do not follow the old ways as revealed in the ancient texts translated on this site. Most well known Pagan paths originated under the patronage of various empires (Roman, Greek, Egyptian) or have been partly corrupted by Christianity (Celtic, Nordic).  All that is left (except for early Greek philosophy) are popular myths. Using mythical stories as a basis for any spirituality is like using Hollywood to learn about Christianity. 

 The modern paths closest to what ancient pre-classical texts reveal is actually Wicca and witchcraft due to their anti-dogmatic tradition and because they are based upon emotion magic which is also at the core of the ancient texts. 

(June 9, 2023) How does prayer or any communication with the spiritual realm really work? Are you on the phone or radio with some deity? Of course not! Energy is a physical phenomena and does not cross over into the non-material realm of consciousness. Only feelings have that possibility. Using feelings for that purpose is emotion magic, in other words, witchcraft. 

 The main themes of this video are:

• Magic crafting is a life-long path of growing awareness and self-improvement. 
• Everyone must find their own emotional resonances and correspondences. For example, what you read about what a crystal does may not work for you, that is only an observation of average effects. (standard training is to take a crystal and carry it with you so it is constantly in your mind. Observe what happens to you during that week.)
• You don't need a lot of tools and things to start. While those aid in directing and enhancing certain feelings and emotional channels most things around you generate some sort of feeling within you. Start with natural things you find and personal memory items. Also practice various kinds of meditation and yoga to see what works.
• Don't be afraid to mess up. Everyone is already messing up and doing uncontrolled witchcraft because everyone has feelings which are being projected out to others. These feelings then come back at oneself because we live in a social and spiritual network. So don't be afraid to start magic work which starts to bring emotions into awareness and under some sort of control. (That we exist within a social network has been scientifically proven. That we also exist within a spiritual network is inferred based upon anecdotal evidence and consideration of the evolutionary purpose of conscious experiences.)
• Keeping desired subconscious emotional channels open (emotional conditioning) requires constant but moderate practice just like athletic conditioning. If your life is a mess you have the wrong emotional/spiritual channels open so don't keep using those.
• You don't need to be a Wiccan to be a witch. While this was the first organized witchcraft tradition/religion, it is just one tradition out of many. Find a supportive tradition and make it your own but be aware that not all traditions are supportive. Traditions that are dualist (reality divided into good versus evil), dogmatic, or have lordified, human only, deities will severely limit your witchcraft by blocking many emotional channels. As Jesus himself said "you cannot serve two masters," meaning a person cannot follow both a feeling based spiritual path and a dogmatic path.

(July 3, 2022) This well done video uses the word "Pagan" as meaning "nature spirituality."  Any spirituality involves feelings of connection with the believed sources of existence. Nature spirituality assumes the sources of existence are the various powers of nature found in both its physical and spiritual (conscious) realms and not some human-like god living apart from nature on a higher plane. Also notice that Paganism (Druidry) in both its spiritual and religious forms is an ever growing personal path and not a static dogmatic faith.

(July 3, 2022) Spirituality without grounding is just another feel good drug in a society full of such drugs. Spiritual practices need to be grounded in order for them to make a difference in people's lives. This grounding turns spirituality into a religion. 

Early Christianity faced this same issue due to its initial emphasis on gifts of the Holy Spirit. The apostle Paul issued this warning to those new Christians who only wanted to feel good and powerful. 

Love in Nature Paganism derives from the fact that we are all interconnected socially and spiritually.

The three components of spiritual grounding are:

1. Defining a community knowledge source

2. Defining a paradigm of the Divine

3. Defining the goals (purpose) of the community