The Earth Path : Grounding Your Spirit in the Rhythms of Nature

Rating:
Summary: Starhawk's Earth Path
Review: Back in the 60s, there were many of us involved in "earth ecology". We protested nuclear power plants; we started "Earth Day" as an awareness of what we are doing to the earth. We talked about recycling, living "off the grid" and being responsible for what happened to the earth we live on. We became "aware". Many of us follow the earth based spirituality path today because we became "aware".

This book represents Starhawk's return to that idea, resurrecting the feeling of living in harmony with the Earth and respecting Our Mother as we should. With this book, Starhawk wants to show us that we need to be more than just "aware".

The book looks at our connection with magic, the four elements we work with and how it relates to our beliefs and to the earth and its ecology. The book is filled with stories of her recent workings. It discusses how we connect with each of the elements in nature and provides meditations on the earth, the elements and finding our own place of balance in this world. And all of this is deeply rooted in Goddess Spirituality.

This is a book on personal responsibility to protecting the earth's delicate ecology. This is a book on earth based spirituality. This book is about magic. This is a book about Starhawk and how she has been dealing with all these issues. This is a book about finding where you fit into this whole equation.

As I read through this book, I found myself agreeing with some of the material that Starhawk was discussing. I also found myself disagreeing on some points. This books intention is to raise personal response. As you read the material that Starhawk provides for the mediations and then work through the meditations, the idea is to reflect on your own connections to these ideas, and the workings are meant to provoke personal response. Each person's response will be different, though the material provided for meditation is meant to focus you on specific ideas.

There are many personal stories told by Starhawk about her recent involvement in political actions. Each of these stories, be it the fire protection ritual she is involved with in the opening of the book, or her research about genetically engineered seeds and the World Trade Organization, we see Starhawk's view on personal responsibility carried to many different levels. While there is much here that should be reviewed and her resources for the information provided is extensive (her Select Bibliography is impressive as well) it is up to the individual as to how this affects each of us and how involved we want to be with the processes that Starhawk discusses.

This is a book that combines Starhawk's personal path of spirituality with her own personal path of ecological responsibility. Those who are not familiar with these issues will find that this book can be used as a handbook for personal exploration. It is a book of awareness of the kinds of issues that many of us should at least be familiar. There are many issues addressed here that makes this a good book of information, even though it may seem a bit extreme at times. If you remember how passionate Starhawk is about her chosen path, you can then understand the extremities. This book does allow for you to find your own small part in how all this plays out; you need not be as involved as Starhawk, but you may also find yourself provoked to action by the information provided.

This book is one that should be carefully read, openly discussed, and as you meditate upon the information provided, you will need to know the scope of your own abilities and how deeply your personal responsibility for the issues flows. This book may help you find this.

This is a very good look at Starhawk's recent path of earth based spirituality and responsibility for the earth, and one that every follower of Starhawk's path will want to read. boudica

Rating:
Summary: Really, Really Practical Magic
Review: In between her writing ventures, I seem to forget why and how much I admire Starhawk's work. Then her next book or essay is released and I am reminded all over again of the reasons her philosophy grounds me in the profoundly sane dream of a better future.

Her most recent book, The Earth Path: Grounding Your Spirit in the Rhythms of Nature (HarperSanFrancisco, 2004) serves as a guide to developing awareness of the most basic (and, as such, perhaps most elusive) elements of the natural world. Retreating somewhat from the frenetic pace of the streets in Webs of Power: Notes from the Global Uprising (New Society Publishers, 2002), The Earth Path takes us to Starhawk's home in the Cazadero Hills and through a journey of observing earth, air, fire, water, and spirit - the elements that sustain all life.

The opening chapter uses the fairy tale of the Isle of Birds to illustrate the author's desired outcome for this journey. In the story, a king sends his beloved son to learn the language of birds. After 21 years, the prince learns to hear, to understand, and to respond. For some inexplicable reason, this angers the king (perhaps he expected his son to learn marksmanship?), but the moral of the tale (and subsequently the entire book) is the importance of deep awareness and the simple fact that such awareness requires time and attention.

In addition to the author's stated intentions, The Earth Path serves as a wake-up call to Pagans that our spirituality involves a tangible and intimate relationship with nature, not just a theoretical acknowledgment of it. The book gently chastises Pagans who have allowed their relationship with the earth to slip into the abstract - perhaps for fear of getting cold, dirtying ritual garb, encountering insects, or simply because our culture places very little value on activities that foster deep awareness. As a result, few Pagans have "time spent talking to trees" penciled into our day planners. A tragedy for us as well as the trees! Indeed, Starhawk takes the whole culture to task perhaps more for keeping us so ignorant of the ecological processes on which our lives depend. As she notes, it's entirely possible (even common) to be educated all the way to a doctorate level with no more than a 4th-grade understanding of photosynthesis and often no education at all as to how our local ecologies sustain themselves nor how our communities can sustain themselves without interrupting this ecological self-regulation.

Readers who have followed Starhawk since she first published her best-known work, The Spiral Dance (Harper and Row, 1979), will delight in watching her evolve in her spirituality and its application. Throughout what has become a veritable canon, we watch her grow from an idealistic girl to a mature woman whose strength and wisdom has only aggregated over the years. The Earth Path will not disappoint her fans and students. It remains as accessible and unpretentious as her previous writing, with the honesty and emotional vulnerability that has always left her readers feeling we know her. Of course, it also includes the insightful, ironic, and sometimes piercing wit for which she is known and loved. Do not ever pick up a Starhawk book if you expect to come away smugly comforted in your personal righteousness! While her ideas indeed comfort and ground, they do not bolster an I'm-ok-you're-ok placidity. She relentlessly challenges our imaginations to stretch upward and outward.

In fact, her latest book contends that constriction of the imagination shapes our perception and awareness. For illustration, Starhawk tells the story of the 2003 Sacramento protests against biotech and industrial agriculture when police confiscated buckets of seedballs, believing them to be projectile weapons. The irony of the situation is both humorous and sad, but well exemplifies the principle that what a person is able to imagine creates categories for making sense of the world - the broader one's imagination grows, the greater variety of things that will make sense. In the rigidly-controlling hierarchies of our culture (such as law enforcement), where constriction of the imagination facilitates predictability of behavior and uniformity of obedience to command, a greater number of things become nonsense and likely to engender fear before understanding.

One key to expanding the imagination is, according to Starhawk, ceasing to care what others think, creating a space with the freedom to think about anything at all. As Pagans, we are in a privileged position to do this since we already exist on the fringes of the "respectable" institutions of Western society, such as academia.

I found myself both disagreeing and feeling challenged by this idea. On the one hand, many Pagans have worked hard to bring earth-based religion under the umbrella of "respectability" - establishing Pagan traditions as legally-recognized churches, securing seats on various ecumenical councils, organizing Pagans in military and police ranks, educating the courts, employers, and general public as to the relatively "normal" lives of most Pagans, right down to changing the dictionary definition of the word "witch". Cultural behemoths, like academia, are, indeed, slow to change. But they do change and I don't believe we're as far removed from academic respectability as Starhawk suggests, especially considering that many of today's Pagan leaders are highly educated. I see academia as similar to the places Starhawk talks about where two ecosystems meet and their diversity creates a mutual benefit and richness for both.

On the other hand, this question of respectability is a good reminder not to compromise what sets us apart from our predominantly alienating and exploitative culture. Religious movements tend to start out loosely organized, culturally marginalized, and socially radical. As they gain numbers, prominence, and respectability, a vicious circle of compromise to gain acceptance is set into motion (usually with a hard lurch to the political right; the Mormons are America's most recent example of this phenomenon). Starhawk's words challenge us not to compromise our values or who we are for public acceptance.

Overall, The Earth Path gives us a practical ethos of questioning how any given action will impact the whole, using deep attention to each element as a guide. Interwoven with this ethical paradigm are some treats new to Starhawk's readers. The text includes the clearest explanation of grounding and anchoring I've ever heard. The author's courage in defending meat-eating (is there a hotter topic anywhere in Pagandom?) is testament to her honest and principled character - the reader may not agree with her, but after taking such a risk, it's impossible not to trust her. Each chapter tackling an element provides useful metaphors for translating that element's nature into principles that guide our lives. For example, Air can teach us how to transform force rather than wall it off or be blown about by it. Fire is a metaphor for manifesting will from a small group of enthusiasts all the way up to the transformation of larger structures. Each chapter includes delightful lessons in permaculture that tantalize the reader to learn more. Starhawk's theory of Gaian Evolution, outlined in Chapter Four, has the potential to change our existing paradigms with the same explosive force as Charles Darwin.

At times, the book's intended audience is a bit unclear. Much of the language and ideas seem aimed for the Pagan community. Even as early as The Spiral Dance and Truth or Dare (HarperSanFrancisco, 1988), Starhawk was moving beyond the boilerplate, Paganism 101 fare of much of Pagan literature, filling a void for Pagans who had long ago learned to cast circles and needed weightier ideas to sink their teeth into. However, at other times, the text slips into explanations of the simplest Pagan history and theology. I found the history of the witch burnings a bit incongruent and a subject that has simply been done to death, with conflicting data, in practically every Pagan book ever published. Similarly, the basic explanation of the Sabbats is probably redundant for most readers and, for anyone needing that basic information, the rest of the book will likely be confusing.

In the end though, such minutiae is inconsequential. This is easily the best non-fiction I've read in 2004 and I encourage readers to find their favorite outdoor spot to curl up with The Earth Path and allow it to open their attention to the life cycle around us that is so important and so pervasive that it is too easily forgotten. For those returning to Starhawk's work, The Earth Path will be a welcome addition to their collection. For those who have not yet had the pleasure, I encourage you to run, not walk, to introduce yourselves to the challenging work of one of the most important philosophers of our time.

Rating:
Summary: "Environmentalists are like misers..."
Review: "Environmentalists are like misers. They are hard to live with, but make great ancestors." -The India Times (as quoted in "Environmental Law and Policy" eds. Plater, etc)

I'm reminded of this quote after reading a previous review, where the reader felt guilty about not being more environmentally proactive when reading Earth Path and disppointed about it not being a book about spirituality. I'm an Environmental Science student and environmentalist, myself, and am usually the one making others "feel guilty." So the reader's interpretation doesn't come as a shock, nor am I insensitive to her reaction. It's often difficult, financially inaccessible, and frustrating to make environmentally sustainable choices (try finding sweatshop-free, recycled/reclaimed materials shoes in a women's size 12 and on a student's budget! ack.) As an activist/advocate for a healthy, vibrant environment, I don't want to be or make others feel guilty; I want to help them and myself to become increasingly empowered to act positively and with care for the sacred Earth, of which we are all a sacred part. This is the foundation, for me, of a "Pagan" or Earth Spiritualist path, but it seems to require much more understanding and knowledge of ecology than our culture typically provides.

I refer to a previous review for my own review because it is true, Earth Path is largely a discussion of ecological science, nature, and environmental sustainability. However, I, personally, find it not to be misleading in terms of being a book about Earth Spirituality and hope to offer another view of how spiritual practice can be further informed by reading Starhawk's latest book.

I find it to be entirely fresh, desperately needed, and of utmost spiritual concern for Neo-Pagan culture, which usually supposes that the Earth is sacred, immanently divine, and in which holiday, ritual, and wisdom are founded in the rhythms of nature. Yet, too many of us aren't well-schooled in those rhythms beyond the sometimes abstract poetry of our liturgy, symbols, metaphors, much of our ritual... all beautiful elements of Pagan culture, but not the whole story, I think. As Tori Amos sings, "I think the good book is missing some pages." Or perhaps... the Earth, herself is the "good book" and she's missing some readers! :)

As Starhawk mentions in the beginning of Earth Path, she found that after years of academic training and Pagan/Earth-based spiritual practice, she hadn't really been offered much education in natural science, aka: the laws and workings of Earth, herself. After 14 years on an Earth path and 10 years of post-secondary education, I have felt a similar void and also now seek to correct it. It was so uplifting and hopeful to open Earth Path and see that it addressed this issue!

Earth Path is a vital effort to remedy the unfortunate and hazardous lack of understanding many of us have, both in Pagan culture and culture abroad, of just how the Earth works, what ecology is, what our role in nature and environment is and could better be, especially as Earth Spiritualists. What can we do to become better partners with the Earth and to practice, with more integrity, an Earth-based spiritual path? The best way to develop, attune, and ground an Earth-based spiritual practice is to connect, directly, intimately with Earth... learn her language, learn her secrets, learn her anatomy, her every curve and crevice, how she breathes, what tones her muscles and makes her bones strong, what she likes for breakfast, and what she doesn't: what makes her stressed and unhealthy, what gives her a yeast infection, what makes her hair fall out! We could stand to learn better how to not be the cause of Mother's hair falling out. :) And upon understanding her so intimately, we might find it more difficult (or less easy) to betray her best interest. Despite our good intentions, without understanding ecology's preferences it must be difficult for Earth Spiritualists to choose and act with spiritual integrity. It also behooves us, I think, to develop informed, coherent language regarding ecology, to be better representatives, advocates, and teachers for our Earth-based paths.

A healthy, informed and direct relationship with the Earth, manifested with integrity in our actions and choices, is a necessary foundation for a healthy spiritual practice based on the rhythms and realities of nature. In Earth Path, Starhawk offers a solution-oriented text for improving this connection by learning more about the "nature" of our spiritual foundation.

Cheers and welcome to Earth Path.

Rating:
Summary: something new from Starhawk
Review: As someone familiar with Starhawk's previous work, I thought that this book marked a new direction for her, one which I welcome. In previous books, she has based her writing on myth, history, feminism, psychology, and politics; while those strands are still woven through this work (especially in environmental politics), in "The Earth Path" she draws more from science and ecology. She manages to create poetry, suggest courses of concrete action, and impart at least an intuitive grasp of some of the basic principles of ecology and permaculture. One of my friends who has a degree in Natural Resources from Cornell says that much of the stuff in the book is kin to the basic things they learned in that course of study.

I thought that the writing in the book was very beautiful, and I feel that reading it has increased my appreciation of the diversity and complexity that exist in the world all around me. I also thought that, while a few of the exercises might be repetitive for someone who has read her other works, most of them seem very useful in honing my observation and awareness skills and building my understanding of and relationship with the world around me - which is, after all, the concrete basis of my own Pagan path.

I also found the bibliography to be useful and hope to get a chance to read a lot more of the books that she cites.

Rating:
Summary: In response to the review by Katrina Kampmiller...
Review: First, I'm not trying to pick at your opinions, if you don't like the authors opinions, political views or methods, you're quite entitled to say that, but:


"Then she says "Wicca is the archaic term for our tradition" and "witchcraft is goddess religion" which NOT!"

Source of the first quote: "When I began studying, teaching, and writing about Witchcraft and Goddess religion thirty years ago or more, what seemed most important to me is that Wicca (the archaic name for our tradition) valued women, the body, and the erotic." page 4.
Wicca has generally been more commonly referred to as Witchcraft, with the distinction between the two really only being made in the last decade or so. The word Witchcraft and Witch come from the words Wicce (female witch) and Wicca (male witch), originally pronounced Witch-eh, and Witch-ah. So - if you practice Witchcraft, then yes, the term witch *has* derived from the archaic terms 'Wicce or Wicca'. The modern religion of Witchcraft/Wicca however, was (to our knowledge) started by Gerald Gardner, in the 1940s or so. The origin of other people's practices, that were dubbed 'witchcraft', such as that of Zsusanna Budapest or the late Victor Anderson, haven't been researched in as much depth, though they probably were syncretistic as well.
As for the second quote I can't find any reference to "witchcraft is goddess religion" ANYWHERE in the book, even with Amazon's search inside feature.



"Also, she states that she doesn't care if people think she's, as she puts it, "woo woo", which I take to mean, "utterly insane". In her book, and when I met her in person, she talked about running around NAKED covered in mud in a corporate head quarters."

While different people have different opinions on political action - I can't find this in the book. I honestly might have missed it, but again, I can't find it with Amazon's search inside feature either. Could you provide a page reference? Are you sure that's actually from *this* book?



"Don't get me wrong, protesting is great and everything, but are we forgetting that her millions of books that she has in print are printed on DEAD TREES? She's famous enough. She could have a PDF copy of her book and people would read it."

From the inside copyright page of the book:
"This book is published and printed on 25-30% post-consumer recycled paper where the virgin fiber portion is elemental chlorine free and meets SHI standards, that is, from wood that is grown and harvested using sustainable forestry practices. In addition, the Work will he printed using soy-based inks."



"But then, to quote her, "Being a professional witch has made me a lot of money!" "

This really isn't anywhere in the book.
However, there's a similar quote from an Inside Bay Area article, in October 2004, 'Living life as a witch isn't everything you might think it is', with the following quote:
""What surprises me about myself is that I have friends who have gone more traditional routes - working nine to five, salaried, worried about tenure," says Starhawk. "I've had a more secure career as a professional witch.""
Or, if you're quoting from something else yet again, could you please cite it?

Rating:
Summary: Misleading
Review: I found this book misleading. I was expecting a book on spirituality, but that isn't the case. I'm giving it two stars because of the bits and works that she does include.

However, the rest of this book is her own eco-rant. She writes in the front of the book that you don't have to have a house or live the country to impliment things things, but from her position, she really doesn't give any other opinions.

She managed to make me feel guilty page after page, as she went on and on about her enviro friendly house and land. (I'm sorry I don't make enough to live in the mountains and install sun batteries in my roof. Nor do I have the land to plant or the money to buy at organic markets.)

The few bits she puts in about the elements (and such working) were good, but it didn't justify the price of the book to me. The few points were interesting and fresh and I wanted to see them explored more then her use of fertalizers and worms and how she has to use back-up batteries in the winter because her sun batteries don't get enough sunlight.

Maybe I was just expecting a book on spirituality and maybe this is why I was disappointed. Anyhow, I'd check this out from the library to see if it's your flavor before buying it.

Rating:
Summary: Witchcraft reaches a new level of maturity
Review: Starhawk has been a great favorite of mine ever since reading her book "Dreaming the Dark" for the first time many years ago. And she continues to impress and inspire me with each new book she brings out. "The Earth Path" is a definite step forward into a very mature view of the practice of witchcraft. It stands out from all others I have read -and I read a lot. In "The Earth Path", Starhawk moves away from the usual focus on rituals and meditation, and instead grounds the book in practical ideas of observation and creation, and her writing is as always witty, intelligent and politically informed. Her wiccan spirituality here focuses on learning to see the beauty and magic in the natural world. Rather than filtering nature through a goddess mythology to gain some esoteric appreciation, she shows how by taking the time to observe and reflect on the patterns and structures around us with open eyes, we cannot help but to be awed by the magic that moves grows dies and is reborn again everywhere we look. Once again Starhawk, I thank you for sharing your vision with us.

Rating:
Summary: A Gaianist Philosphical Paradigm?
Review: Starhawk's, The Earth Path: Grounding Your Spirit In The Rhythms of Nature, may just provide an antidote to the poisonous, narcissistic, corporate nationalism and dominionist, fundamentalistic, theocrats who are bent on tearing the world apart in order to impliment a pre-established agenda - one where retention of power and control take precedence over anything even vaguely resembling ethical, secular, humanism.

With a myriad of sacred suggestions, this author supplies ample exercises, examples and inclusion of the four traditional elements (air, fire, water, earth) - grounded within the circle - in order to guide readers through reinforcing accounts of ways to not only reclaim personal power, but also enliven a process for transferring and sharing the magical quintessence of empowering others.

Throughout the text, Starhawk intigrates many themes, such as: the vital importance of attunement, attentiveness, and reconnection. Likewise, sustainability, respect and reverence resonate and validate the philosophy of Gaiaism. The need to restore balance is preemminent.

Reconceptualizing the craft and magic might be necessary for anyone who has not transcended the conventional, stereotypified preconceptions associated with negativity from threatened belief systems that act as rivals to the ancient practices that predate written languages.

The people who most need to read this book will likely shy away from it, primarily due to the fear engendered in challenging their own antiquated myths of monotheism.

Still, I highly recommend this text for opening minds too long closed. An awakening is occurring, and those who wish to be prepared for a great leap in cosmic consciousness would do well to garner both insight and enlightenment from the words of a wiccan/pagan dreamweaver.

*The Perilous Pen*