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.
Not quite a year ago I decided to offer a Wicca 101 class here in Sonoma County. Its focus was “generic British
Traditional Wicca.” Not Gardnerian
or any other particular British tradition, but one in harmony with their basic
approaches. For me, the test of a tradition is: Do the Gods come? This link gives you an outline of what our class covered.
Beginning at Mabon, we met for almost a year, and my students
got ever better at what they were learning. Some sections we covered in a week, some, particularly the
more experiential that occurred later, took many weeks to do well. When the class ended many wanted to
continue as a coven.
Some older Pagans in our community were also interested in
forming a working coven. They had
been solitaries for some years, and missed the energy of good circles, although
they were wary of the internal politics that is the bane of many groups. Being older, they’d endured these
problems, and did not want to return to them.
I arranged a meeting between both, enabling them to get to
know one another and see if the interpersonal energy “jelled.” We ranged in age from the 20s to the
70s, but that did not seem to bother anyone. Our gathering was a lot of fun, and we decided to do a
genuine Full Moon ritual this month.
Last week we did, and it was wonderful.
We are also trying something not the norm in BTW
traditions. Because so many are
practitioners of long standing, and because my students are so good at what
they do, we are creating a far more explicit consensual framework than is
usually the case. No permanent
high priestess or high Priest, with that role being open to anyone the group
recognizes as qualified on a flexile basis.
For those of you out there who are able to teach such a
course and wishing you had a group to work with – here is a wonderful way to
maybe get there. Offer a basic
introduction within your own tradition, if not oath bound, or an “outer court”
if there are elements you are not at liberty to divulge to non-initiates. You will learn a lot simply by teaching
others, and after it is over you may have come together enough to try your
hands at a real coven. If not, a
number of people will have learned a lot about Wicca – or whatever tradition
you practice.
I am now trying to decide whether I have the time and energy
to offer another “101″ course this fall, for I am planning a long fall trip but
want to begin either before Samhain or after Yule.
posted July 30, 2010 at 12:45 am
I have found one of the most interesting and challenging problems facing the craft today is the search for an organizational structure that works. For a variety of reasons, traditional covens don’t work for most folks over the long haul. Nothing wrong with solitary work, but it too leaves much to be desired, and people want more than the occaisional free for all public rituals. I think you may be onto something. After my initiation and three year trek in a learning/revolving door/drama coven, I decided the only way I could find the right group is to create the right one. You could call it a coven, or maybe even just a close working association of friends. My vision was for a group of mature people who take the craft seriously, but not themselves. A coven for people who have had it with covens. In my magickal and mundane work creating it, I set no number on it. If I found one good person, I would be happy. More would be a bonus. I found a priestess who was casting about to form a group along the same lines, and we merged the concept. We have no degrees, no HP/HPS. On any given month, we might only have the two of us for full moon. On the cross-quarters, we have as many as 16. Our “outer court” if you will. I’ve never been happier.
posted August 2, 2010 at 1:14 pm
Would you ever consider running an online course?
We could use free software such as skype to have group calls one a month or so?!!?
posted August 3, 2010 at 12:51 pm
Vanessa, it’s an idea – but the problem is that so much of what I teach is group work- circle work.
I think it is really important to find some people to work with/learn with. We are already so isolated – and our computers in a sense link us in but in another sense separate us. I’ll mull it over – but I’m not sure how we could handle a number of people simultaneously even if it was practical. For example, feeling energy shields around a person and within a circle – I’m not sure how it could be done on line with individuals separated physically from one another.