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Agnostic on Proof

Agnostic on Proof

Last updated on: December 7, 2023 at 1:37 pm by Rev. Jean (Drum) Pagano

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Agnostic on Proof 2023-12-07T13:37:34-04:00 Rev. Jean (Drum) Pagano

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Agnostic on Proof

I step into Nature every day.

Let me say that a different way: I step from Nature, more deeply into Nature every day. I do not see this event as a movement from outside of the realm of Nature into it. This is not an outsider move. I do not see myself as outside of the realm of Nature Spirits, but right there, with them.

Am I different than the trees in the forest? Yes, while I wish I were more tree-like, I must admit, with all available proof, that I am different. Is my reliance on the natural world different than that tree? Yes, and no. while we may require different things from the natural world, we are both reliant on it.

Awaiting a return

Of what do I await a return? For me, it is the seasons. While I await, with great anticipation, the arrival of Imbolc and the first movements towards Spring, I look forward to the demarcation of the seasons. I always have; I believe that I always will.

We experience many returns in our lives: the return of the seasons, the return of our loved ones and friends, the return of the heavens to their seasonal portrait, painted on the canopy of stars and the vastness of night.

We have Saturn returns and the ever-present lunar cycles and we are constantly reminded of the Cyclical Nature of Reality. It returns. It returns.

Cycles and patterns

I have been watching the skies for many years. I have always been fascinated by the cycles of the Moon. To begin with, they are beautiful to behold. This beautiful orb, hanging in the sky, like an eye, opening slowly over the course of 14 days, only to open widely, and then close again.

Over time, one begins to recognise patterns in the arrival in time, and the placement of the Moon, in the sky, in the time of day, in its very shape. I have come to acknowledge and admire the beauty in the rhythm of the Moon. Its monthly cadence is a heartbeat of the sky.

There are those that would ask, or perhaps need to know, where did this all come from? Is there a Prime Mover behind all these things? What were the first causes of things?

I can understand the desire to know. While it is not always evident, for some it is important to know where we come from, and conversely, where we are going. To some, there is a definitive beginning, and to others, there is a definitive end, a goal towards which we are striving or a destiny towards which we are racing.

Agnostic on proof

For me, I am agnostic on proof. While I feel that there probably some beginning at some point in the past, what matters to me is that we are here. Today. Now. I have no end game in mind. I see no Apocalypse or Ragnarök at the end of the road. While others may, I do not. I am content with the here and now.

Seeing that the forest and my home are part of the same landscape, both geographically and spiritually, gives me a sense of responsibility in the here and now. I am not separate from the trees in the forest and the animals that live there. We are kindred residents and kindred spirits.

What was or what will be is an occurrence in the past and an eventuality that is unfathomable to me in this moment. The trees are alive. The animals in the forest are alive, and so am I.

The Earth Mother, our Mother

Do we all honor the same Earth Mother? Perhaps, although I am agnostic on that as well. I am certain that the Earth Mother of the trees and of the individual animals appear to them in the same wrapper as I envision my own. We may see it in different ways, but we know it is there.

I am also fortunate that I do not have to wait for some eventuality that may or may not come to pass. The events to which I look forward happen four times a month, or so, by the Moon, and every six weeks or so, by the Sun.

For all I know, the Earth was always here, and the earth will always be here. I wrote the following piece in 1997, as part of my “Another Green World” Trilogy. I’d like to share it with you now.

Who knows what is out there?

It never really crossed my mind

All that matters is

Here and now

Swept up in time.

And standing side by side

Drinking in the fading Sun

Like a fine, red wine

Blending into the waves

Wind coursing through our souls

Gliding on through to an uncertain future

Yet standing arm in arm

At the edge of the Universe

Standing on the shore

Our lives to share

At least for this moment

Beneath the endless heavens:

Stars come rushing in

Streaking light

And life

And meaning

With the promise of tomorrow

And another magic day

Here,

In another green world.

From “Arise from Vapours”, 2005, Author House Publishing.

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