| NATURE WORSHIP: - Wicca and witchcraft or other | | | | Wiccan Spirituality: contemporary paths rooted in one |
| shamanic attunements akin to the kind of ethic and | | | | or more nature folk religions of old Europe. Also |
| awe the great and beautiful (FREE) North American | | | | known as the Old Religion, the Craft, Wicca, Wicce, |
| Indians had before the arrival of the 'civilized' men | | | | Ways of the Wise, Neo-Pagan Witchcraft, and |
| from the Old World. | | | | Benevolent Witchcraft. |
| "A Guide to Nature Spirituality Terms | | | | Witch: some Wiccan practitioners use the word |
| Selena Fox | | | | "Witch" for themselves in connection with their |
| Founder and leader of Circle Sanctuary, an | | | | spirituality to bring back its pre-Inquisition use in |
| internationally linked Nature Spirituality resource center | | | | Europe as a term of honor and respect, meaning |
| and Shamanic Wiccan church based in Mt. Horeb, | | | | "medicine person/medicine worker," "shaman |
| Wisconsin. Animism: ancient philosophy that views | | | | Shamanic practitioner," "wise woman/man," "priestess |
| everything in Nature as having an indwelling spirit/soul, | | | | priest of the Old Religion." Other Wiccans refuse to |
| including the plants, rocks, waters, winds, t tires, | | | | use the word "Witch" because of later negative |
| animals, humans, and other life forms. | | | | definitions of the word which led to its use as a tool |
| Animism is the foundation of shamanism and has | | | | of Pagan genocide and religious oppression in Europe |
| been considered the earliest form of human religion | | | | and North America for hundreds of years. {Do you |
| on planet Earth. {Sorry, philosophy students, who are | | | | know when it ended? Did it end when Blasphemy |
| often told Aristotle and his work 'Anima' is original, | | | | Laws were overturned in England in 1951? Some |
| these same students aren't told about his Secretum | | | | would like you to believe it ended when the last |
| Secretorum which is an alchemic treatise covering | | | | person was burned at the stake in Seville, Spain in |
| what he was taught that he sent to his pupil | | | | the early 19th century. It still exists in career and |
| Alexander the Great.} | | | | government as well as social situations. Therapeutae |
| Earth-Centered Spirituality: honoring the spiritual | | | | like Jesus and Pythagoras or other syncretic religions |
| interconnectedness of life on planet Earth, often as | | | | are definitely the real models of discipline that are |
| Mother Earth or Gaia, but sometimes as a gender | | | | "Witches"!} During the "Burning Times" of the Middle |
| neutral Earth Spirit. Sometimes called 'Earth religion' | | | | Ages, bigots in power changed its definition, making it |
| and 'Gaian' (Gaean) religion. Related Eco-Christian form | | | | a term linked with evil, and used it as a brand to |
| is Creation- Centered Spirituality. | | | | mark and exterminate folk healers, {The supposed |
| Ecofeminism: feminist environmental philosophy that | | | | one god church actually believed illness was created |
| draws parallels between the oppression of women | | | | by "sins and demons". The guilt trips are more refined |
| and the oppression of Nature by patriarchy and | | | | as time allows more control and programming through |
| which advocates the spiritual and political liberation of | | | | the destruction of open discussion and free-thinking.} |
| both. Goddess Spirituality: revering Nature and | | | | those who refused to convert to state-sanctioned |
| honoring the Great Goddess in one or more of Her | | | | forms of Christianity, political rivals, and others. |
| many forms. Usually polytheistic and sometimes | | | | Contemporary usage of the word "Witch" by |
| multicultural in practice. Usually incorporates feminist | | | | non-Wiccans is diverse but in recent years has been |
| perspectives. Heathen: Another name for Pagan. | | | | changing in academia and elsewhere {IT is the |
| Many contemporary practitioners of Teutonic nature | | | | position of the American Psychiatric Association that |
| religions prefer this term for themselves and their | | | | trances, and possessions, are mental illness. They do |
| spirituality. | | | | not study or deal with the soul and most avoid |
| Nature Religions: religions that include an honoring of | | | | discussion of it, but when pressed are only acting out |
| the Divine as immanent in Nature. May be premodern, | | | | the old propaganda and prejudice still. Anthropologists |
| modern, or postmodern in philosophical orientation. | | | | seek to make Trances an area of specialized study |
| Usually polytheistic, animistic, and pantheistic. Include | | | | and these scientists (?) want to create a legal and |
| traditional ways of various native peoples of the | | | | druggable disorder called 'Trance Possession Disorder |
| Americas, Africa, Asia, Australia, Polynesia, Europe, | | | | Syndrome'. Real disorders including hallucinations do |
| and elsewhere; religions of ancient Pagan cultures, | | | | exist, and are treatable by witches and shamans. |
| such as Greek, Egyptian, Roman, Minoan, Assyrian, | | | | Vitamin B is often a missing ingredient in the |
| Celtic, Teutonic, and others; and contemporary | | | | nutritional intake and stresses or coping skills must be |
| Paganism. | | | | learned. Compassion is better than drugs and even |
| Nature Spirituality: honoring the spiritual | | | | massage or acupuncture work better in many studies |
| interconnectedness of life not only on planet Earth | | | | such as one done at the U of Toronto in 2000. This |
| but throughout the Universe/Cosmos; ,ore | | | | author may be right when she says there is a |
| encompassing term than Earth-Centered Spirituality | | | | "growing awareness" but that awareness may be |
| because it also includes Celestial religions; used by | | | | managed to a degree she does not know.} to reflect |
| some as synonymous with contemporary Paganism | | | | the growing public awareness and understanding of |
| and by others as also including interfaith blends, such | | | | Wiccan Spirituality's reclaiming of the word." (1) |
| as those that combine Paganism and Eco-Christianity | | | | In fairness to psychiatry they are equal opportunity |
| or Eco-Buddhism. {Is nature worship doing the | | | | drug pushers and will drug a Christian with visions, |
| denominational rag and differentiating itself with real | | | | too. There are many instances of religious |
| intent to discriminate of claim special status?} | | | | obsessiveness and out of control behavior. One of |
| Neo-Pagan: Contemporary Pagan. | | | | the worst, is believing you have the right to lie to |
| Pagan: pertains to a nature religion or a practitioner of | | | | people about things like ECT in order to meet societal |
| an ancient and/or contemporary nature religion; also | | | | goals. That, of course is the subject of discussion in |
| used to refer to a Nature Spirituality, Earth-Centered | | | | our 'Science' segment and it is no great mystery. |
| Spirituality, and/or Goddess Spirituality group or | | | | Deepak Chopra has a little input of value to balance |
| practitioner. | | | | my overly passionate comments. |
| Pantheism: the Divine as immanent; the Divine is in | | | | "If bliss is basic to life, there should be a physical |
| everything and everything has a Divine aspect. | | | | counterpart for it in the body, and indeed there is. |
| Panentheism: Pantheism that also includes a | | | | According to Ayurveda, the body's counterpart to |
| transcendent component conceptualized as the | | | | pure joy is a subtle substance called 'ojas', which is |
| Sacred Whole or Divine Unity. {Use and misuse of | | | | extracted from food once it has been perfectly |
| language allows epithets and degrading remarks to | | | | digested. Like the doshas, ojas is just on the edge of |
| minimalize or depreciate very similar concepts. Is it | | | | being physical; one could call it a subtle substance |
| not better to say religion is 'what you DO?' and not | | | | that registers on both mind and body. The final and |
| what rationalistic construct that might move your | | | | most valuable result of eating a good diet is to |
| thought at some moment?} | | | | extract every drop of this subtle substance from |
| Polytheism: honoring Divinity in two or more forms. | | | | your food. That enables the cells to "feel happy," to |
| {Does that include the three as one or one in three | | | | experience the cellular equivalent of bliss. {Do you |
| 'Trinity' originally taken from the Triune Nature of | | | | think attuning and visualizing with the process helps?} |
| Man?} Can be belief in/worship of multiple aspects of | | | | Twenty years ago, the idea of a happy cell would |
| a particular deity; of the Divine as Goddess and God; | | | | have made little sense in scientific terms. Now we |
| or of many Goddesses, Gods, Nature Spirits, and/or | | | | know that the body in fact is capable of generating a |
| other Divine forms. Some, but not all, polytheistic | | | | complex network of chemicals (neurotransmitters, |
| nature religions acknowledge an all- encompassing | | | | neuropeptides, and related molecules) that the brain |
| Divine Unity. {This seems more 'open' and less than | | | | uses to communicate emotions throughout the body. |
| the kind of anthropomorphing that ego often does.} | | | | It is also known that a single meal can change the |
| Shaman: an adept who serves as healer and spirit | | | | brain's biochemistry quite radically. A brain chemical |
| world communicator for her/his tribe or community. | | | | connected with feelings of well-being, such as |
| Sometimes known as a 'Medicine person'. This role is | | | | serotonin, goes up and down in response to the food |
| tribal culture/community defined. | | | | being digested in the intestinal tract. This has opened |
| Shamanic Practitioner: someone learning and working | | | | up the exciting possibility of a "food pharmacy" to |
| with shamanistic healing practices for | | | | correct depression, anxiety, and other mental |
| self-development, and in some cases, also for helping | | | | disorders, just as fiber helps to control cholesterol. |
| others. Sometimes known as a 'Medicine worker'. This | | | | In Ayurveda {A very ancient herbalistic shamanic |
| role is self-defined. | | | | process related to Nyaya Yoga said to date back to |
| Shamanism: animistic spiritual healing practices usually | | | | 6000 BC.} we can bypass the bewildering complexity |
| involving trance (ecstatic) and spirit world journeys | | | | of brain chemistry. Nature has given us ojas, a single |
| by adepts. Forms of shamanism include 'Traditional', | | | | substance for happiness that the body makes all the |
| which are rooted in specific indigenous tribal people's | | | | time." (2) |
| cultures, and 'Multicultural', which are contemporary | | | | For me Nature worship of the modern variety is |
| forms that integrate old and new spirit wisdom from | | | | whatever works (!): and the wholistic integration of |
| more than one culture. {Does this seem to be an | | | | the mind body operating system that has knowledge. |
| 'open' and positively ecumenical spirituality? Why | | | | Science has learned such things as the lymph system |
| would there be any problem if anyone and indeed | | | | and chakras act to bring soulful knowledge to our |
| everyone started to learn all wisdom?} | | | | soulful potential. |