Ecofeminism, Neopaganism, and theGaia Movement in the Postmodern Age

Michael Werner

THE DEVELOPMENTof new religious practices out of the liberalreligious movement can be seen as part of a larger philosophi-cal and historical paradigm. The last twenty years have beencharacterized by the domination of the postmodem world viewthat offers both new challenges and opportunities forhumanism. Our voice may be uniquely suited to curb theexcesses while integrating the worthy attrubutes.

Modernism

The Enlightenment brought about the empowerment ofindividuals through the powers of the mind. The modemistworld view started seeing the world as knowable, universal,objective, and in many cases having absolute truths. Positivistphilosophy saw knowledge as a rational and scientific enter-prise. The question of how to live one's life was answered withthe same rational and scientific methodology.

In the modemist view, progress was no longer left to fateor "God's will," but became a historical human project. A bettersocial order could be developed as we uncovered our commonhuman nature and applied science to human problems. Atechnocratic kind of utopian underlies this secular modemistvision.

Michael Wemer scientist and marketer interested in Post Modem philosophy;serves on the Board of Directors and Executive Council ofthe American HumanistAssociation and Board of Governors of the Humanist Institute.

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Postmodernism

Postmodemism is a philosophical and cultural paradigmthat is characterized by neoromantic, relativist and antifoun-dational beliefs, and is generally contrasted to modemistviews. Originally these were academic views, but they nowpermeate general culture. They comprise a complex set of dis-coveries, attitudes, perspectives, and awarenesses. Let's lookat some of these.

Protest Movements

Rousseau challenged the Enlightenment rationalist viewwith the romantic perspective that appreciated the prescien-tific culture. The romantic view was carried into this centuryprimarily by writers. D.H. Lawrence, for example, called thequintessential Enlightenment progressive, and BenjaminFranklin, a monster because of his overly ordered, rationalistlife. In philosophy, Nietzsche denounced the use of reason andargued that it was mainly a "will to power." Our emotions aremore to be trusted than reason. Language, as reason's secretconspirator, creates false abstractions and distinctionsthereby distorting reality.

The Dionysian/Appolonian split was reinforced by in-tuitionists like Bergson, the Eastem philosophers, and even-tually the existentialists, who argued that our subjective ex-perience is all we really know before any "essence" is known(if there is any). Overall reality is best experienced outsidelanguage in experiential ways.

Marxists have argued that reason has historically beenused to rationalize the use of power and domination. The "ironcage" of rational thinking leads to utopian thinking, bureauc-racy, oppression, exploitation, a consumption-mad society,and a nonpersonal abstract outlook justified by rationaliza-tions. They argue that the promise of the Enlightenment hasnot been fulfilled.

The linguistic tum in philosophy states that there is noneutral reality - no one reality - it all depends on the personthe culture and the language, Feminists have been effectivein showing how language is used as a source of domination.

Ultimately, Postmodemists propose that there are notranscultural, transhistorical, universal truths. Reality, theyargue, is amorphous and only based on interpretation and the

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stories we tell ourselves. Even science is presented as only mobpsychology with no objective truth or commitment to progress.

The Table at the end is a list modeled after one by Hassanthat contrasts some of the paradigmal differences of moder-nism and postmodemism. Note the postmodemist mind startswith the particular while the modemist looks for universals.We can also look at how the intuitive is contrasted with thecognitive. Community and supportive behavior can be con-trasted with individualist, confrontational methods. Inner di-rected human potential programs take precedence over outerdirected social action programs.

Religious Directions

The past twenty years has seen the dominance of the post-modemist viewpoint as people have become disaffected withthe alienated modemist society. The human potential move-ment has shown millions how experiential approaches canilluminate their lives when they drop all rational pretenses.Religiously, many have found that a cold secular rationalitywas not fulfilling in their lives. Listen to what Margot Adlerauthor of the popular neopagan book, Drawing down the Moonhas to say.

Religion had no place in my childhood world. I wasbrought up in a family of agnostics and atheists. Still,feeling that there was some dimension lacking in theirlives, I embarked on a quasi-religious search as a teenager.

She eventually found more meaning in an experiential reli-gion while still holding a naturalist world view. Her case is notunique, but actually, from what I have seen it is the moretypical path to the postmodemist forms of religion.

Ecofeminism

Ecofeminism is an outgrowth of the feminist and environ-mental movement, but at heart is only one variant of post-mode mist world view. The following are some of the mainpremises:

1. It rejects traditional religion's "God the father" aspromoting and sustaining woman's domination andexploitation.

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2. It seeks a metaphorical model with which woman canidentify.

3. It rejects technocratic, rational, powerladen, modemistmethods.

4. It seeks approaches that are intuitive, holistic, nurtur-ing, and nondogmatic.

5. It seeks to raise individual's conciousness by tellingstories that are explicitly metaphoric in nature.

6. It uses ritual, spirituality, symbolism, and an overallexperiential approach rather than an intellectual one.

7. Its focus is on immanence rather than transcendence.

The Goddess image is a powerful one "summing up" all ofthese aspirations. The movement does not have a hierarchicalstructure. In many cases the individuals are atheists in thatthey reject a belief in the supematural, but do not reject a useof ritual, language, and a metaphorical use of the Goddessimage.

There is increasing emphasis on the intellectual justifica-tion by historical analysis of the Aegean cultures of pre-HellanicGreece particularly the Mycenaen civilization of Crete from3000 to 1500 B.C. Rituals are primarily borrowed from NativeAmerican sources. Remember this is primarily for conscious-ness raising purposes. Those who take the stories, languageand metaphors literally are looked on tolerantly, since the end,1.e. a more humane and caring society, is justified. In addition,postmodem epistemological relativism demands it.

Theoretical feminist thinkers have long had a love/haterelationship with postmodernism. The antiintellectual focusin feminism has always used postmodem authors as itssource. Yet, when relativist deconstruction is applied to theirown foundation of beliefs, these same authors argue for univer-sals.

The Gaia Hypothesis

A bold scientific hypothesis was made in 1979 by J.E.Lovelock. The Gaia hypothesis states that the earth's climateand surface environment are controlled by the plants, animals,and microorganisms that inhabit it. This is a serious scientifictheory supported by another eminent scientist, Lynn Margulis.Using a liberal definition of life, one could even say that theearth itself is a living creature.

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Scientifically, the debate centers around the extent thatlife influences the global environment. Does it merely influ-ence, does it modify, or does it actually control the atmosphereand even the earth's crust? This is an ongoing debate.

Where the hypothesis enters the religious realm is whenthese ideas are extended to the following:

1. Is the earth a self sustaining giant symbiotic organism?2. Evolution would work for us all together.3. Gaia, i.e. earth, may have consciousness, will, and

intention.4. Gaia is the actual earth Goddess nurturing alll1fe on

earth. Therefore ecofeminism is intellectually justified.

Even though Lovelock and Margulis disavow themselvesfrom the theological interpretations, a cult of Gaia is emergingand blending with ecofeminism and neopaganism.

Neopaganism

Neopaganism goes by many names such as Wicca,paganism, the Old Religion, Witchcraft, and the Craft. Thefollowing are some of the central neopagan characteristics:

1. A high degree of ritual.2. The goal to eliminate our estrangement to nature.3. The whole world as holy.4. The use of shamanism, and gnostic traditions.5. Polytheism, loosely defined.6. The Enlightenment as negation of our dark, Dionysian

side.7. No absolutes; nothing is evil; reality is multiple and

diverse.8. Magic as mere consciousness raising. Tarot cards,

palmistry, faith healing, and astrology are all acceptedas experiential, therapeutic methods to develop insightsinto our subconscious archetypes.

The focus on postmodemist methodology is obvious. Muchof religion serves as a form of experiential therapy. Starhawksays, "The thought forms of immanence are imbedded in con-text." It is important to point out that there are serious decep-tions concerning how magic is portrayed as consciousness

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raising, and how strongly many ultimately believe in the magicas a paranormal truth.

A Humanist Response

As I earlier proposed, these religious forms are expectedtheological outgrowths of the larger postmodem culture. Wehumanists should analyze our position in this cultural con-text. Firstly, many of the neopagans, and ecofeminists likeMargot Adler who espouse some of our humanist tenets, be-came experientially inclined as a reaction to modemist culturaltendencies of the more rationalistic, scientific positivistsamongst us. Neither the modemist nor the postmodemist"styles" of humanism can be regarded as healthy. They repre-sent reactionary and unbalanced positions.

I don't see the neopagan, Gaia, and ecofeminist movementsas serious longterm threats to humanism. What I do see isvariations on the theme in new cults and in mainstream reli-gion. Humanism, in my view, should study these from thegoal of determining what it is that is touching people andmotivating them with the naturalist ideas they hold.Humanism can be that integrative force that bridges the reac-tionary polarization between modemist and postmodemistviews. In particular the experiential, intuitive components ofhumanism need a closer inspection and development.

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TableComparison of Modernism and Postmodernism

in Liberal Religious Practice

Modernism

UniversalCognitive

IndividualisticProgressive

BecomingElitism

TruthUniformity

Outer DirectedTranscendence

ContentEthics of Words

PrinciplesSkeptical Confrontation

EvidenceHierarchy

CreationUtopian

PhallicEthics

CentralizationDesign

Melting PotSelection

God the father

Postmodernism

ParticuarExperientialCommunitarianNo ProgressBeingEgalitarianismTruths/No truthDiversityInner DirectedImmanenceContextWords as MetaphorsOpennessSuportive BehaviorIntuitionAnarchyDeconstructionHeterotopianAndrogynousAestheticsDecentralizationChanceSalad BowlCombinationGoddess/Holy Ghost

By Michael Wemer; modeled after Hassan (1985, 123-4)

Recommended Reading:

Margot Adler, DrawingDown the Moon, (Beacon Press, 1979)Starhawk, Dreaming the Dark, (Harper, 1979)Lawrence E. Joseph, Gaia, (St. Martins, 1990)Elinor Gadon, The Once and Future Goddess, (Harper & Row,

1989)