Earth Spirit Dreaming: Shamanic Ecotherapy Practices - Elizabeth E. Meacham 2020

Western Earth-Honoring Sacraments
Sacred Rituals: Pathways to Re-Dreaming the World
Dream-Connecting Practices

One of the most complicated aspects of the emergence of re-indigenized spiritual rituals is developing common sacraments. Some movements of eco-spirituality in the West connect with and modify pre-monotheistic religions, such as goddess and Gaia spirituality, adoption of Native American beliefs and practices and learning, the indigenous religions of genetic places of origin, such as Wicca, Druids, a variety of northern European shamanic traditions and a return to African tribal traditions. Sometimes Westerners seek the ancient indigenous religious practice of their own lineage, but just as often, or more often, we seek traditions from other lineages, often causing conflict and suffering along the way. Re-indigenizing is a messy and sometimes distressing process of exploring, learning and often appropriating indigenous traditions. I firmly believe that Westerners can find their own indigenous ceremonies and traditions by muddling through together, relearning to speak to and listen to the Earth and to move in the spirit realms, and to process and grow from these experiences in community. We are in a mess of confusion and separation, and it will be messy finding our way out.

I deeply honor the connection that Western people find in ancient Earth-honoring religions by seeking the indigenous cultures of their own places of origin. I believe that our ancestral memories and spiritual senses are catalyzed by contact with religious forms and locales that supported our evolution in specific areas. Yet, I also believe that there is value in creating rituals and sacraments that activate who we have become through the journey of enlightenment and the immersion in reason and science, and that emerge from connection with the land wherever we find ourselves.

Still, we need specific sacraments to represent developing and current experiences of our own new story and shifting consciousness. These sacraments must capture the great pain and challenge that we face: the desecration and destruction of the Earth. They must represent the new stories that capture our abilities and power to overcome the myriad tragedies that surround us and that are the result of human choices and actions. Whether or not we integrate and find them within traditional Western religions, we need pageantry, music, ritual orders and specific ceremonies that guide us again and again into the orientation of consciousness and actions that inspire us to face these challenges and take action for the Earth. I’m not suggesting that we are creating a new religion, but we are seeking to foster a spiritual orientation that can support a profound shift in perception and beliefs and create and maintain new (and ancient) practices for a healing that can only come through re-indigenizing. Deep ecologist and shamanic guide, Bill Pfeiffer, captures this idea beautifully in his book, Wild Earth, Wild Soul: A Manual for an Ecstatic Culture:

One of the misunderstandings that can arise in coming upon a book with such an ambitious title is that it is attempting to get all people to adopt the same cultural forms, and to do so en masse. This is not the case.

The invitation here is to allow nature and direct experience to determine what kind of Earth-honoring culture is best suited for a particular community. There is a place for everyone in helping to sculpt a diversity of cultures where the health of the land and the people is primary.⁸⁹

I believe that these new ways of knowing and being can fit into any religious tradition that people already practice. I have seen many examples of how this is done, many of them chronicled in important works capturing Western religious return to Earth, such as the book This Sacred Earth.⁹⁰ We do not have to abandon who we are, but transform how we believe and engage at the threshold of the Great Mystery, and modify how we understand our relationship with the Earth and the Divine.

For Earth Spirit Dreaming rituals, there are many options for ritual objects. The “sacraments” that the ritual objects represent capture the central tenets of visionary environmental thought and experience: everything is connected, the Earth is sacred; we can experience Earth in new ways that change our consciousness, spiritual awareness in Earth-honoring ways and new stories of action for the Earth and new ways of living in balance with the Earth. So, sacraments for Earth Spirit Dreaming begin with things that represent and bring forth the essential elements and beings of the Earth stories, songs, art and dance that honor the Earth; ritual orders that mark the seasons and rhythms of nature; ritual elements that honor specific bioregions.