Environmental Magic

The Return Of Wonder

by Eric Lethe

When I undertook the writing of this article, I didn’t want it to be a technical treatise on industrial processes or a political rant about environmental laws and regulations.

The feeling of wonder is a doorway to the elemental power that we utilize in magic. In order to gain an impression of this feeling, think back to childhood. Remember when you looked up at the clouds, or how you felt when you saw a shooting star, or really looked at a brilliant sunset. This sensation is the feeling of wonder. To recall this feeling is to make yourself open to the essential environmental energies that surround us. I feel that to lose touch with the earthly energies is to “take a vacation” from being alive. So many things influence us to disregard the expressions of the Goddess in this world.

It takes a conscious effort to regain this wonder-full perspective.

Yesterday I saw the crocuses had emerged from their winter sleep and had flowered in a purple greeting to the Spring. This then was my inspiration. All of us, as pagans, have a need to continually refresh the sense of wonder that comes from our recognition of the seasons, of natural phenomenon, and of those expressions of the Goddess that present themselves to us. This is of especial importance to those of us who live in the city. Our power, our magic, are expressions of Earthly energy, and need to be recognized and regenerated.

The First Peoples of this land knew the importance of renewing their connection with the Mother Earth at every opportunity. Why? Because their Shamans knew that the Earth, Fire, Water and Air were the sources of spirit power that the people drew upon, and needed to be replenished by ritual and sacrifice.

I’m not suggesting cutting or burning your household pets, but to emphasize the importance of recognizing and replenishing the sources of your personal power. I cannot recommend strongly enough the importance of regaining the energy, the wonder of feeling the connection with the Earth. The textbook definition of ecology is the study of the connectedness of all living things and their environments. These things that are living include the Earth herself.

Other than during ritual, when was the last time you did an Earth or element feeling meditation? It is my opinion that we who “walk between the worlds” owe a special debt to Gaia, or the Goddess, or whichever manifestation of the Great Mother Earth presents herself to you.

Consider the law of threefold return, and what you may do for the healing of the planet. Volunteer for an environmental clean-up or a reforestation project. Help restore a salmon stream, or devote some time to distributing literature for a good environmental cause. These are things which can be done on the material plane. Probably the most important thing you can do is include the conscious effort toward healing the Planet in all your rituals. Make time to experience the joy and wonder of those things as simple as the opening of a Spring flower, or the colors of a sunrise or sunset.

These things are the roots, branches and fruit of our spirituality. To lose touch with them is to lose the reason for our being.

Our power, our magic (again, my opinion) lies in the ability to come into contact with these wonder-full energies and utilize them in accordance with our will. The success of these utilizations depends upon their effect upon the natural world…in all its dimensional forms.

I will share one of my favorite meditations for connection to the essential energies: Imagine yourself lying on a raft with your eyes closed. The air is warm and the sun is shining. You begin to float downstream, with the water lapping at the raft. With your eyes still closed, you see the sun dappled by the tree branches overhead. You smell the trees, and the water plants, and the warm day. Your attention focuses upon the water sound: gentle, lapping and flowing around you. The water is all around you, and you feel it within you, pumping and flowing as blood. The smell of all the plants around you enter your senses, and you breathe deeply. Each breath suggests a gift, a blessing of life. The breath, the air, the smells are enveloping and enrapturing to you.

The raft passes from beneath the trees, and you feel the warm sun upon your face. Feel the fiery sun giving energy to you and to all living things the rays fall upon. You can almost feel your hair growing, plant-like in the sun. Your face feels radiant, as the sun beats down. There is an awareness that this gift will also burn and consume you with passionate, wonder-full heat.

The raft has come to rest in a small pool, out of the stream’s main flow. Reaching out, you touch the bank and sink your hand into the cool mud. It feels slimy and refreshing both. You open your eyes, and look at the handful of wet earth you hold. The prehistoric fishes and amphibians crawled out onto just such mud as this a billion years ago. Are we still so different? It is time to return to yourself in the here and now. Be aware though, that this place of wonder is one that is within each of us, just as assuredly as each of the elements are part of us.

Blessed Be!