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What is a Gaian anyway?! 
Gaians perceive the Earth as a living, breathing being, perceive the creatures, (including humans) the rivers, oceans, mountains, forests, prairies as part of that being. Gaians recognize that we are inescapably connected to one another via all the Earth's systems. While I would say that most pagans would agree with the Gaia Theory, many pagans believe in the Deity of Mother Earth - some to the point of believing in petitionary prayer. I don't go that far, but I will go as far as invoking an archectype of deity as a means of exploring my humanity. To adopt the perspective of Dionysus or Brighid or Kuan Yin for a season is to open one's self to the myriad possiblities, to engage in the concrete (however subjective) experience of changing world view. This ability to shift perspective at will is the definition of what pagans call magic. Whether you "believe" in the existance of a personfied Goddess as separate from ourselves or not is irrelevant to the reality of the life we're living. But how our actions are shaped by our undstanding is relevant. Our ability to see the picture in it's entirety, to understand not only the parts of the whole, but the relationships between them, AND the whole, is what separates the Gaian perspective from Descarte's universal clockworks. To the extent that Paganism acts as a catalyst for reconnecting people and our understanding of the wholistic world view, I celebrate it. In much the same way as ritual, a well done concert takes us out of our linear, "mundane" sense of time, into a place where the listener becomes the heart of the song, the character in the story. In a sense, musicians are practicing their own variety of magic - radically shifting the perspective of the listener. As a belief system, the cultural mores that permeate much of pagan culture, are good for the state of the planet, and ultimately healthier for us than the "use it til armageddon comes" attitude that is currently the working model for industrial capitalism. Science tells us that we're interdependent, interpenetrating, ancient stardust constantly exploding in between mutual realities. Music shows us what that feels like. Science gives us mathematical models to explain the universe; music and ritual give us the voice of the Earth as it speaks through us. I try to make music that speaks to both. If we're really to move beyond the Cartesian paradigm, what language do we use as a framework to build a community of celebration and action? While it's important to bring the scientific nomenclature into the language, how will we bring people who aren't ready to dive into James Lovelock or Fritjoff Capra towards a basic understanding of systems theory. What do we do when people of like mind get together to celebrate this? I look to emerging and ancient nature religions to provide the language of transformation. The intuitive understanding of pre-industrial peoples has validity that has been overlooked and denigrated by proponents of the mechanistic world view, mostly because it's easier to make a quick buck if you can strip mine instead of digging a shaft, let someone downstream deal with the tailings. When the spirit of a place has a value that takes precedence over the short term profits of a few, and you happen to be one of the few that wants the profits, you present the veiwpoint that gets you what you want and denigrate the opposition. |
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All contents © 1993 - 2002
Christopher Bingham. All rights reserved. If you use part of what you read here, please attribute accordingly. |