Democratic Forest Trusts (PDF)in Watson, Alan; Dean, Liese; Sproull, Janet, comps. 2006. Science and stewardship to protect and sustain wilderness values: Eighth World Wilderness Congress Symposium; 2005 September 30-October 6; Anchorage, AK.Democratic trusts with leadership elected by citizen-members promise to solve many of the problems afflicting both traditional government and corporate ownership of forestlands. This article explores these issues in some depth.Complexity and the Dream of Human Control of Eco-Systems (PDF)in Watson, Alan; Dean, Liese; Sproull, Janet, comps. 2006. Science and stewardship to protect and sustain wilderness values: Eighth World Wilderness Congress Symposium; 2005 September 30-October 6; Anchorage, AK.The title captures it. I then explore the kinds of institutions compatible with both nature and the modern world that are implied from this analysis.Rethinking the Obvious: Modernity and Living Respectfully With Nature (PDF)The Trumpeter: Journal of Ecosophy, Winter, 1997.Modernity is usually considered a wrong turn in terms of respect for and sustaining the environment. I argue the reality is more complex, for modernity has freed us from personal dependence on agriculture, ended the economic value of children, radically reduced the likelihood of large scale wat, and shifted much production to intellectual rather than material capital. This partially decouples society from nature, which gives us important opportunities as well as problems.Towards an Ecocentric Political Economy (PDF)The Trumpeter, Fall, 1996.This paper begins my effort at showing how liberal modernity can be harmonized with an ecocentric perspective on our relationship with the natural world. It is a corrective to much “free market environmental” literature that sacrifices Nature to money as well as to anti-liberal attacks by well-meaning but economically naïve environmentalists.Unexpected Harmonies: Self-Organization in Liberal Modernity and Ecology (PDF)The Trumpeter, Journal of Ecosophy, 10:1, Winter 1993This is my initial paper exploring how what I term ‘evolutionary liberal’ thought can be an important means by which society and nature can be brought into greater harmony. The other Trumpeter papers build on it.Deep Ecology and Liberalism: The Greener Implications of Evolutionary Liberalism (PDF)Review of Politics, Fall, 1996.Liberal thought and deep ecology are usually regarded as mutually exclusive. But the “evolutionary” tradition offers a way to integrate the two through commonalties in the work of David Hume, Michael Polanyi, Arne Naess, and Aldo Leopold, providing a stronger foundation for liberalism while strengthening the case for an ecocentric ethic.(Related subjects: Ecology)Saving Western Towns: A Jeffersonian Green Proposal (PDF)in Writers on the Range, Karl Hess and John Baden, eds., University Press of Colorado, 1998.Developmental pressures in the rural and small town West involve three groups: long term residents, new arrivals, and environmentalists. Today their interests often conflict. This conflict is in part the outcome of institutions which prevent harmonizing competing interests. The concept of developmental trusts, both for rural regions and for small communities offers a means whereby these interests can be harmonized for the benefit of all concerned.(Related subjects: Politics)Social Ecology, Deep Ecology, and Liberalism (PDF)Critical Review, 6: 2-3, 1992.Murray Bookchin is considered a leading radical environmental theorist. However, his analysis is incapable of leading humankind towards a more respectful and sustainable relationship with the natural world. Criticisms of Bookchin from both the deep ecology and evolutionary liberal perspective complement one another, pointing the way towards a better understanding of how modernity relates to the environment.The paper as a whole offers an early discussion of issues that are more clearly addressed in later papers, particularly Deep Ecology and Liberalism (1996) and the three Trumpeter articles in 1997, 1996, and 1993. However, there are other ideas in the article which have not been developed more thoroughly elsewhere.
Children are increasingly victims of witchcraft accusations in Africa, egged on by some but by no means all Christian leaders there. (Indeed, this story was provided to me by a Evangelical Christian). Witchcraft, which is understood there and in many other places as engaging in Black Magick, has long been outlawed in many areas, but the focus on kids is new.
The Religious News Blog has additional information on this issue, including a downloadable UNICEF report. The site is Christian, but looks to me as if they try and provide accurate information without sexed up or lurid fantasies. Certainly that is true for the Evangelical who alerted me to it.
For modern Pagans seeking to connect with traditional indigenous peoples the issue of Witchcraft worldwide is a thorny one. On the one hand, missionaries and Christian authorities long called their traditional religions witchcraft and devil worship. On the other, baneful magick has long been an issue in traditional societies, and has been outlawed and often severely punished in many societies world wide. Making the issue even murkier, many elements of traditional practice intertwine with Christianity as practiced by indigenous peoples. For example, Brazil has often been described as 100% Christian and 90% Pagan (although that is lower now with inroads by Evangelicals). Getting clear about all this is a Gordian knot, but necessary in any quality connection with traditional indigenous people.
The issue is made all the more complicated because there is plenty of disagreement about just how real baneful magick really is. I won’t go into that here.
Regardless of how this latter issue is answered, that children are being dragged into ever deeper misery by witchcraft accusations is an appalling commentary on those Christians involved, particularly Pentecostals, charismatics and revivalists, as the UNICEF account makes clear (pp. 15-16, 33-37). To add to the kids’ misery, often the accusations are simply a way to get an inconvenient mouth to feed out of a poverty stricken household.
From the accounts I have read, while the problem is often but not exclusively with Christians, the people exposing and denouncing it on the front lines are also often Christians. I would wager that the traditionalists implicated in these crimes are simple charlatans making money off of others’ misery (37-9). But there are traditional precedents, although not widespread. . The issue here is less one’s religion than one’s decency as a human being and, for sincere witch-finders, their appalling judgment regarding their spiritual discernment and connections. It is also a disturbing sign of abuses that can happen when people have accepted a Magickal view of the world.
No matter what one’s view of the world, I think having heart gets you through it successfully and lacking heart leads to crime and suffering.
posted July 24, 2010 at 1:56 pm
It’s just horrible the way these helpless children are being targeted.
Although as my husband says, “The danger with Witch hunts is that sooner or later you run into a real Witch”.
posted July 24, 2010 at 3:27 pm
The outrage of children being abducted, tortured and murdered in the name of battling against “witchcraft” is a purely modern phenomenon and one that is directly connected with the spread of Pentecostalism. It has nothing whatsoever to do with traditional beliefs about magic and spiritual powers.
As you point out in your post it is not always clear who is a Christian and who is not. But just because it is not clear doesn’t mean that it is not possible to sort out who is who.
For example, check out the website of the “Traditional Healers Organization” based on South Africa:
http://www.traditionalhealth.org.za/t/aboutus.html
Their logo is a picture of the African continent with a cross emblazoned on it, and a crown sitting on top. Classic Christian symbolism.
Also, there is the phenomenon of “African Initiated Churches”, which are simply “indigenous” Evangelical Protestant sects. These sects are direct offshoots of the Evangelical, revivalist Christianity that came out of the so-called First and Second Great Awakenings. They are “indigenous” in their membership and leadership, but they are purely Christian and should not even be thought of “syncretized” blends of Christianity and African Traditional Religion.
In particular the Kimbaguist and Zionist Churches are frequently treated as if they were partly or even mostly “indigenous” or even “traditional”.
The Catholics also blur the distinction as well. It is extremely common for Catholic Priests to also dabble in “traditional” healing. This is so widespread that the Vatican has issued specific instruction forbidding the practice.
The bottom line is that the current wave of horrific violence against “witch children” bears no resemblance to anything that has ever been associated with African Traditional Religion — but it bears a painfully obvious resemblance to practices that have been endemic in Christianity throughout its history.
posted July 24, 2010 at 5:12 pm
This is truly sad. The dispossessed, those who have to voice, the poor, and the oppressed are generally the ones society blames for its ills. The simple fact that they blame and then torture children is reprehensible! Jesus spoke about the little children but I don’t seem to recall any place where he accused them and put them to death.
Ignorance, superstition, and the addition of particular sects of Christianity have done nothing but create a climate of terror and death for these little ones.
Honestly, I pray the Universe comes around and drops itself on top of these smucks but then they’d simply blame the children. Perhaps these people need to look within themselves to see what the problems are rather than blame the innocent.
posted July 24, 2010 at 5:18 pm
Cheryl Hill,
I got a big laugh at your husbands statement, “The danger with Witch hunts is that sooner or later you run into a real Witch”.
When I see things like this happening to children, it really pisses me off and I’d love to use magick to punish them but I’m reminded of the rede as well as the belief (mine), that magick should be used to protect the innocent and not punish the guilty. I leave that up to the Goddess, God and Universe as I’m sure they can find a way to get the point across far better than I.
Blessings Cheryl to you and your husband. And to you, Gus, as well.
posted July 24, 2010 at 6:52 pm
Gwyddion9, blessings back at you and yours also. I understand how you feel about the Rede; I’ve found many Wiccans who feel as you do.
But as a Hedge Witch, I have no qualms about fighting back when someone attacks me or mine. In my view, there’s a big difference between being the one to start a fight, and being the one to finish it.
posted July 24, 2010 at 8:34 pm
I don’t really know what to say except that this is another horrible example of what happens when some (by no means all) “Christians” push their beliefs on a group of people. Why any parent falls for this and allows those folks to do what they do to their children confounds me…how can a parent claim to love their children and allow the so called leaders of a church to torture their own flesh and blood. As a parent, I can’t and don’t understand.
posted July 24, 2010 at 8:50 pm
Think what is happening in Africa puts a whole new meaning to what Jesus was supposed to have said: “Suffer the little children to come unto me”! Suffer is being taken to actually mean “suffer” not “allow” as it used to mean in the time the words were actually written. The rightous Christians who are accusing the children of witchcraft could stand to indure a little suffering!!
posted July 24, 2010 at 9:25 pm
The best portrayal of the conflict among organized and shamanic religions I’ve seen is in Babylon V. It’s not a conflict between good an evil or tyranny and freedom; it’s a conflict between order and chaos. At the extremes both are pathological.
posted July 26, 2010 at 4:16 pm
Can I ask something? When you see pain and suffering, why does your Rede keep you from doing harmful magick to someone who is torturing little children?
posted July 26, 2010 at 5:15 pm
Sarenth, I’ve pondered that question too. However, I don’t consider it “harmful” Magick. Justice and balance is not harmful.
Among many Wiccans, there seems to be a general shunning of the manipulation of negative energy because of “paybacks” via their rule of three. I love my Wiccan friends but – that attitude is one of the reasons I’m not Wiccan.
I don’t have a problem with using negative energy. If I need to use it, I do. If your use of that energy is justified, you are within your rights to use it. You have to be careful with its use, but then you need to be careful with *any* energy manipulation.
posted July 26, 2010 at 9:02 pm
Actually the rede does not say that – though it is often interpreted that way. I discuss it at length in Pagans and Christians (pp. 149-152).
Briefly, if you do not harm anyone do as you will. BUT that does NOT mean you can never harm anyone.
On the other hand, getting power to do good magically by harming or manipulating another is a very dangerous tactic because it assumes we have the wisdom to use it. It should never be done lightly.
This does not mean it should not be done – consider the tale of how witches throughout Britain did magic to manipulate Hitler into calling off the invasion. Skeptics will pooh pooh it, but the results strongly reflected how magick works in practice: the non-concidental accumulation of meaningful coincidences.
posted July 27, 2010 at 10:27 am
I wasn’t asking all Wiccans, and I have read Pagans and Christians…however I was going after the interpretations that believe that one can never do harm. I also take issue when it is said that the Goddess and God are more wise than you somehow allows for inaction. If someone is beating a child in front of you, you would do what you must to make it stop. Why should our magick be used differently? It isn’t actually Wicca I’m taking issue with, per se, but I want to understand how the mindset itself works in this scenario.
posted July 31, 2010 at 4:35 pm
You know reading the two links in the original posting, it’s bizarre to me how we in America have made a god out of Materialism, with all the problems it brings. On the other hand, the people in the Congo in Africa seem to have the opposite problem, a lack of materialism to the extreme that everyone is miserable and going through horrible mistreatment. There has to be a balance. Once the balance is found, I think a lot of the negatively charged events will cease. What we as Wiccans could & should do, in my opinion, is to take a minute in our rituals to send energy to help balance the situation there. It takes decades to iron out those kinds of social ills, and seeing the way Ugandans have treated gays, clearly the mindset there is starkly different than in a more industrialized country. Industrialization has its problems, but I think it’s civilized us all to a great degree, or at least made a way for more developments with technology. I think the future lies in combining technology with Nature & combining rationality with intuition. But to the main point of your question, I would say to use good judgment and discretion when deciding what kind of energy to send out. In the end, all energy returns to the sender, so I would think that sending out a lot of negative energy would be self-defeating. But practically, we have to always stop misery & suffering for others when we see it. Not doing so would be a big error. As an individual, all I can do is send positive energy their way, and it will have an effect.