The Sacred Principle Project

We climb up the gravel mountain road. I had always thought of caves as low and deep in the earth, but this one sticks out on the side of the mountain, and we have to walk up a good piece to reach it. From a vantage point, we can see clear to the Mediterranean Sea. Our guide reminds us that 20,000 years ago, when the first humans found and made use of this cave, the shoreline was some 20 kilometers further back, and that there was only low shrubbery, not tall trees. So there was a clear view of the valley -- and the traveling herds of animals they ate.  Photo credit: Carol Buck. 17 December 2022 In this cave, Cova Parpalló, over 5,000 painted and etched rocks have been found. Animals were drawn on flat rock pieces separated from the cave walls, like tiles, and found in different parts of the cave. Carvings directly in the cave walls remain to this day. Our guide tells us that inside the cave, they also found animal bones: rabbit bones were the most common, but also boars, deer and a...

   So now we know about the split. We see the impact of the death of the goddess in our relationships - to each other, to money, to land, to god, to work, to life. (See previous post, Split from the sacred ) Now we need to figure out, how do we fix this? What is the solution, to get out of these patterns of violence and patriarchy? According to Baring and Cashford in The Myth of the Goddess (1991), this current Judeo-Christian myth of a single male god is a tribal myth -- meaning it was meant to apply to a certain group of people at a time of threat to strengthen their own identity and self-interest through a negative opposite (the feminine). This myth has endured and gained power over the past 2,000 years, however, and what these authors see is that this myth got stuck, in a collective arrested development with an unresolved conflict not allowing the tribe to move into the next stage.  ** So how do we get past this conflict? How do we move from the duality, the oppositio...

Imagine a field.  You are standing in the middle of a field.  All around you are stalks of corn. Deep green, eye-high plants in every direction. Soft tassles hang from ears of corn on each plant, swishing gently in the wind. The ground beneath you is hard, brown-grey. The rise and fall of the rows are like waves, up and down, up and down.  Notable is what you do not see: no bugs, no birds, no weeds. Just stalk after stalk of corn, so dense you can hardly walk through.  A tractor planted this corn. Each seed placed in the dirt was identical, property of a multinational corporation and modified genetically. Herbicide and fertilizer is sprayed routinely along the rows.  This corn will be harvested by machines. It will be processed and packed by machines. It will be turned into feed for factory-farmed animals or high-fructose corn syrup for junk food. It will not nourish. It will not be stored for seed for future plantings, because each seed includes a "terminator ...

 A few weeks ago, I participated in the Sacred People, Sacred Earth Global Multi-Faith Day for Climate Action. Hosted by GreenFaith International Network, I felt deeply aligned with the call to action , which begins:  We are united by a fundamental belief that all people, all living things, and the Earth are sacred. It goes on to say that we envision shared reverence, connectedness, flourishing life, just distribution, and healing for people and the planet. The set of demands are for political leaders and government, corporations and financial actors, religious institutions and individuals. From a place of faith and principles and universal values. I signed on and I signed up, aligned in this call.  My "action" was simple: an offering to Mother Earth. Based in the Andean tradition of ofrendas , this act of gratitude and reverence is a ceremony of relationship and interaction with the earth. Taking my Quechua manta to a pine-needle strewn spot in our favorite local park,...