Our biggest problem is, that we have become too "civilized" to believe that the earth is alive. We live in a lifestyle that is totally civilized, or rather, too rooted in the city life and its ways. We believe that the great metropolis and cities are the natural and perfect sites to be, live and work. For our culture, the countryside is a kind of urban space, a mere mixture of beautiful landscapes and areas where you do the production of food for our cities, which is now much improved thanks to the resources of science, technology and modern economy. The countryside is a place to run away from the bustle of the city whenever we want, for a car ride, to have a comfortable and modern home to spend the weekends. Except for some problems that no doubt will be resolved shortly by the steady progress of science and technology, our world and how we see it is safe, nature is tamed, and does what we sent it to do.We live on the order and laws of the city and the power it has over us all.
But despite all the power this image of order has, it is only just that, an image. Because this image lives under the forces of nature, the religious beliefs of rural people, pagan beliefs, no matter what effort we make to try to deny it. And these are more or less subtle forces of nature, pagan cultures were based on the acceptance of those forces, and our civilization is based on an artificial separation of human beings from the relation to nature, based on the belief that we can be "above", or beyond these forces and control them to suit our whims.
We may think we have everything, but the level of poverty of our modern civilization, is incredibly high. The wealth of quality of life, dignity and the great wisdom of the pagan cultures, are conspicuously absent from our lives. Despite centuries and centuries of lowering these people and despising them, the pagans still have much to teach us about living with the reality of the forces of nature.
But despite all the power this image of order has, it is only just that, an image. Because this image lives under the forces of nature, the religious beliefs of rural people, pagan beliefs, no matter what effort we make to try to deny it. And these are more or less subtle forces of nature, pagan cultures were based on the acceptance of those forces, and our civilization is based on an artificial separation of human beings from the relation to nature, based on the belief that we can be "above", or beyond these forces and control them to suit our whims.
We may think we have everything, but the level of poverty of our modern civilization, is incredibly high. The wealth of quality of life, dignity and the great wisdom of the pagan cultures, are conspicuously absent from our lives. Despite centuries and centuries of lowering these people and despising them, the pagans still have much to teach us about living with the reality of the forces of nature.
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