Paul Stamets gave a couple of mind-blowing talks at
TED and
Bioneers about mushrooms that suggest ways we might ultimately come to harmonize pur civilization with the natural world. They are well worth the time it takes to watch.
In his TED talk, Stamets covers "Six Ways Mushrooms can Save the World. The
Bioneers talk is shorter and its points are included in the TED presentation.
These talks have wonderful implications supporting a Pagan view of the world. And so, of course, does the ingestion of sacred mushrooms - but these talks are not abut that
Magick?
This brings me to Pitch's second
point, that in many ways really underlies his first. Wild species are more magickally powerful than tame. When you have a message from Spirit
that your work should focus on native species, as I gather is the case with
Pitch, that follows. But what
about those of us who have not received that particular message?
When I
posted on Mabon,
I suggested we need to get in better touch with the energies and denizens of
the places where we live.
Only
then could we really honor the spirits of the earth.
I mentioned salmon, grapes, and apples as examples from
Sonoma County.
Pitch, the source
of many wise comments both there and elsewhere,
suggested that while salmon were certainly appropriate,
grapes and apples, as interlopers from abroad, magickally less effective, and
so were not.
Some Fundamentalists think they have concocted a neat way of attacking evolution on the 150th anniversary of the publication of Darwin's Origin of Species, lowering our national IQ below even the level to which it has currently sunk. A young woman named Cristina
takes them down, and does it wonderfully. And bluntly. I have no firm idea as to where her personal theology falls, nor does it matter. She's done a wonderful job. I also really like the ankh, and that we Wiccans get a kind of honorable mention.
This final section is where I think the bigger picture of how a Pagan perspective helps the modern world better address its problems comes together. Look below the fold if you like political theory...
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Today I read "The Race to Save the Frogs" by Jennifer S. Holland in the April National Geographic. Her article describes the horrendous impact the fungal disease chytrid is having on the world's amphibians, killing off entire species. Holland quotes...
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