Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Pagan
Rewilding: Privilege and Reality

Rewilding: Privilege and Reality

Last updated on: August 12, 2014 at 5:26 pm by John Beckett

Rewilding: Privilege and Reality 2014-08-12T17:26:07-06:00 John Beckett

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.

As a polytheist I acknowledge all Goddesses and Gods, I honor and work with several, and I am formally dedicated to two. Of all those deities, Cernunnos is first. He has been with me since before I knew who – and what – He is, and I pray to Him every night. His is the first in my evening cycle of prayers.

Like most of the Old Gods, He is not a jealous deity. I’ve spent much of the last three months in service to the Gods of Egypt and the Gods of Greece and I have neither heard nor felt the first complaint, not this year and not in previous years.

But last week I felt Him calling me back to a closer communion. The message was clear: “sit and listen.” And so I did.

The meditations themselves were nothing remarkable. No mystical experiences, no brilliant insights, no pouring out of divine peace or great inspiration. I just said my opening prayers and then sat and listened – one time outside gazing into the hedges, another time inside focusing on His statue.

And then, as so often happens, things started appearing out of nowhere. I found George Monbiot’s talk on rewilding. The kids’ religious education program at Denton UU presented what they learned in their summer course on evolution. Sentences and paragraphs started coming together on my morning walks, and before long Rewilding Our World was written.

That a God of the Wild is behind rewilding should come as no surprise to anyone. But I don’t think we’re quite done with this topic yet.

I tried to make it clear that the wild is beautiful and powerful, but it’s also very dangerous. There is more than a little naiveté in Monbiot’s suggestion that we should all “have a Serengeti on our doorsteps.”

I took the alligator picture I used in the rewilding post at the South Padre Island Birding and Nature Center when Cathy and I were there in 2011. I was no more than 50 feet away from the alligator, maybe less. While alligators are not particularly aggressive towards humans, 50 feet is still awfully close.

Except here’s what you didn’t see. I shot that picture from a boardwalk, safely elevated above the marsh. Unless I was stupid enough to climb over the railing, there was no way the alligator could get to me.

I had the privilege of observing an unconfined wild animal without the danger of a truly wild setting.

While I can’t find a reliable source, numerous sites claim as many as 2500 people are killed each year by crocodiles, alligators’ more aggressive cousins. Some victims are on the north coast of Australia, but most are in poor areas of Africa and Asia where people draw drinking water from the same shallow waters crocodiles prefer as hunting grounds.

This is the reality of the wild. It has a considerably less romantic meaning in such places.

We are the product of 10,000 years of civilization, 10,000 years of keeping the wild at bay. And yet like the dog who hears the howl of the wolf, we hear the Wild Gods call to us. Why?

It’s not to build a boardwalk onto the Serengeti. It’s not to build a cabin in the middle of grizzly bear country. Wild things need wild places and when humans move in those places don’t stay wild for long.

The point – I think, I feel, I believe – is to remember that the wild is always with us. The storm, the flood, the earthquake, the drought, the epidemic – these things happen constantly, and occasionally they happen to us. When they overwhelm our safety measures – when the storm surge overflows the levee, when the hail smashes our roofs, when a plague for which there is no treatment begins to spread – what will we do? What can we do?

The Western impulse is to build bigger better more: higher levees, stronger roofs, more potent vaccines. Do a better job of insulating ourselves from the wild. Do a better job of “risk management.” These can be good things, and if we’re going to continue to live in places like New Orleans, Miami, and most of California, they’re necessary things.

But I don’t hear the Wild Gods telling us to improve our infrastructure. I hear Them laughing at our hubris, at the idea that humans can ever truly control Nature, that we can keep the wild at bay forever.

And then I hear Them whispering the same thing they whisper to the trees and the elk and the crows and every other creature. Grow strong. Grow wise. Grow resilient. Live and love. Take care of yourselves and take care of each other.

The wild isn’t coming, it’s already here. It never left – some of us just had the privilege of not thinking about it for a while. Climate change, peak oil, an economic recovery that isn’t, the general decline of the West… changes that are fast in evolutionary terms but slow enough many of us can’t – or won’t – recognize them.

This is the reality of rewilding.

How will you respond?

Previous Post

August 10, 2014

Rewilding Our World

Next Post

August 14, 2014 Nine Things I Think

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Books Community CUUPS Druidry Foundations and Context Gods and Goddesses Magic Myth Nature Ritual Spiritual Practice Theology Travel Uncategorized Videos

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

I was called three times in the night before I realized it was the Lord speaking to me. Who am I?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Saul David Eli Samuel