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Adventures in Eco-Mythology

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Pagan
History and Religion

2023-02-16T10:52:17-05:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Birds & bipedalism: New theory addresses greatest human mystery

Last updated on: February 16, 2023 at 10:52 am By Ben H. Gagnon

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Exploring why our most distant ancestors stood up on two feet is the human creation story. It’s among the greatest mysteries left to solve. New evidence suggests birds may have played a role. For decades scholars believed what lit the fuse on human development was bigger brains, but the current consensus is that walking upright was the crucial turning point. Recent studies found several primate species stood up on two feet more than two million years before the brain started... Read more

Education and Religion

Australopithecus prometheus

Sahelanthropus tchadensis

2023-02-11T20:47:16-05:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Genetic study IDs volcano in Turkey as Sumerian Garden of Eden

Last updated on: February 11, 2023 at 8:47 pm By Ben H. Gagnon

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The Sumerians engraved the myth of the Garden of Eden on clay tablets about 5,000 years ago to establish their cultural identity as the first farming civilization in the world. A genetic study from the Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research suggests the myth is an accurate rendering of history. The Sumerian myth begins when the vegetative gardens of the world were maintained by lesser gods under the authority of the supreme executive twin brothers Enlil and Enki, sometimes... Read more

New Visions

2023-02-07T19:54:26-05:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Early eco-farmers relied on sacred, seed-bearing migratory birds

Last updated on: February 7, 2023 at 7:54 pm By Ben H. Gagnon

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Hunter-gatherers lived in extremely busy bird migration corridors in Panama 13,000 years ago and in Israel 23,000 years ago because they understood something that science only recently found to be true. Migratory birds substantially increase floral diversity on their seasonal grounds by carrying exotic seeds over hundreds of miles. By introducing new vegetation over hundreds of thousands of years, birds gradually redefined the landscape of their seasonal homes while feeding the soil with droppings. A diversity of vegetation ultimately leads... Read more

Education and Religion

Demeter and Persephone

2023-02-07T19:33:01-05:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Sacred birds may have guided ancient mariners across the Pacific

Last updated on: February 7, 2023 at 7:33 pm By Ben H. Gagnon

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The ancient and cross-cultural belief that birds contained the souls of ancestors may have played a key role in one of the greatest adventures in human history – crossing the Pacific Ocean and populating the Americas. At least 14,000 years ago the closest known genetic relatives of Native Americans were living in Ust-Kyakhta, on the Russian side of the border with Mongolia, according to a 2020 genetic study by the Max Planck Institute. Ust-Kyakhta is located where three global bird... Read more

New Visions

2023-01-28T17:39:39-05:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Evidence suggests mysterious Denisovans followed birds around Asia

Last updated on: January 28, 2023 at 5:39 pm By Ben H. Gagnon

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The fossil record and genetic evidence paints a clear picture of where our mysterious road-tripping cousins the Denisovans traveled, from Africa to Central Asia, the Tibetan Plateau and possibly Australia. Overlaying modern bird migration maps on the fossil record suggests the Denisovans followed avian migration routes around the world. Since 2010, when fossil evidence was first discovered in Denisova Cave in the Altai Mountains of Central Asia, Denisovans have emerged as a fascinating and very accomplished human-like species that may... Read more

Education and Religion

2023-01-25T04:55:58-05:00

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A sweat lodge in Snowmass with Wallace Black Elk

Last updated on: January 25, 2023 at 4:55 am By Ben H. Gagnon

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It was the day before Thanksgiving 27 years ago and I was the only reporter at The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel without family in western Colorado, so I got the airport assignment. “Go to Walker Field and find a coming-home story, people hugging at the airport,” the city editor told me. “Bring Brad (the photographer), he’ll know what to do.” “Right,” I said. “The spirit of Thanksgiving.” Twenty minutes later Brad and I were sitting in the terminal at Walker... Read more

New Visions

Education and Religion

2023-01-24T15:47:24-05:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

The digital age re-branded the cloud. Are the storm gods angry?

Last updated on: January 24, 2023 at 3:47 pm By Ben H. Gagnon

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It was a Tuesday morning in October 2012 when the IT guy said my e-mail was no longer on the server in the basement but was now “in the cloud.” I was a bit confused and sort of uneasy. “This cloud,” I asked. “Where is it exactly?” “You need a new password to get in.” In May 1997, a company called NetCentric applied for a trademark on “cloud computing” to describe Internet subscription services for data and software applications. The... Read more

New Visions

Technology and Religion

contemplative Christian

The Cloud of Unknowing

von Goethe

2023-01-21T09:38:04-05:00

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The blossoming of the silver flower: shamanic rituals of creation

Last updated on: January 21, 2023 at 9:38 am By Ben H. Gagnon

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Reenacting the moment of creation inside the body and mind has long been a cross-cultural shamanic practice. The majority of creation myths begin with a source of heat evaporating dormant waters into the first clouds and storms – the birth of weather and the perpetual water cycle (see previous column for more on this). Across numerous cultures, shamanic figures have recreated the moment of creation internally by generating a spiritual heat that produces a divine vapor, empowering the shaman to... Read more

Contemplative

Education and Religion

Rosarium Philosophorum

San tribe

sauna

sweat lodge

2023-01-25T02:28:05-05:00

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The science of creation myths and how the oceans were filled

Last updated on: January 25, 2023 at 2:28 am By Ben H. Gagnon

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It’s hard to find a more important moment in Earth’s history than the very first thunderstorm. For 700 million years after the planet formed, the volcanic landscape was too hot for water to exist in any form until finally the crust began to cool and high in the atmosphere the temperature dropped below 100 degrees Celsius for the first time. At that moment – about 3.8 billion years ago – water vapor condensed into clouds for the first time and... Read more

Education and Religion

planetary water cycle

2023-01-16T19:32:05-05:00

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Introducing the mythical whooper swan, Virgin Queen of birds

Last updated on: January 16, 2023 at 7:32 pm By Ben H. Gagnon

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Naturalists of the ancient world once believed the whooper swan was the original ancestor of all birds. It was the first avian species to receive a Latin name, Cygnus. In Siberia and northern Japan, shamanic cultures identified the whooper as their ancestral mother. Whoopers were also believed to be an all-female species that propagated by immaculate conception. In parts of northern Russia the birth of the Virgin Mary is celebrated on September 21 by releasing two swans. The bright white... Read more

New Visions

Education and Religion

iummaculate conception

Kalevela

virgin mary

whooper swan