Naturalistic Paganism

Category: A Pedagogy of Gaia


[A Pedagogy of Gaia] “School’s Out; Summer’s Here” by Bart Everson

Maybe that’s why I love summer so much. More than any other, it’s the season of liberty. It represents an enduring freedom of the spirit. Sometimes, on the best days, it seems that summer stands outside of the regular flow of time, magical, eternal.

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[A Pedagogy of Gaia] How I Celebrated the Equinox by Bart Everson

If we lived in a truly Earth-honoring society, I wouldn’t have to do this. If our society cherished our planet as source and sustainer of life, the Equinox would be surely be more widely known and celebrated as a sort of secular holy day. But we don’t live in such a society, to our impoverishment and peril. And that’s why we need to nourish a revolutionary spirit. And that’s why I make a point to celebrate the Equinox. And that’s why I took the day off.

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[A Pedagogy of Gaia] Science in Service to Mother Earth, by Bart Everson

Science is, after all, an endeavor of humans and our machines. What would it mean to put this endeavor at the service of Mother Earth? Presumably, our efforts must always be guided by human discernment, in all its fallibility. Who decides what best serves this vision of the Greater Good?

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[A Pedagogy of Gaia] An Equinox Paradox, by Bart Everson

From a photo by Sean Benham, licensed under Creative Commons. I thought I spotted something in the ligustrum tree that grows behind our house. “Is that a nest?” I asked my wife. She’s a better naturalist than I. “No way,”…

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[A Pedagogy of Gaia] My Fifth Decade, by Bart Everson

The task of looking back on my life has not always been easy. Pain seems to be a necessary component of all good stories. If I have emphasized the painful aspects of my life overmuch, it’s in the effort to tell a good story. However, the last ten years have been more about recovery than pain for me. Perhaps that makes for a less interesting story, but I’ll take it.

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