EarthSpirit

EarthSpirit’s Statement in support of Standing Rock

by
Andras Corban Arthen at ECER 2014 for EarthSpirit
Andras Corban Arthen at ECER 2014

The EarthSpirit Community expresses its solidarity with the Standing Rock Sioux Nation as its people who defend and protect their sacred lands and water. The current desecration and violence taking place in North Dakota is one more episode in a long and ongoing history of abuses by both commercial entities and by the United States government toward the original inhabitants of this land, all for the sake of power and monetary gain. It is abhorrent and it needs to end.

We know that all of our Earth is sacred. We know that the stones and the trees, the rivers and the oceans, the thunder and the mountains are filled with spirit along with all living species who share this planet. We honor the ancestors and know that their burial places deserve honor and respect. We share this understanding with the Water Protectors and we defend their right to preserve what is sacred.

The Dakota Access Pipeline has no right to encroach on the land of the Sioux Nation without invitation. Nor should the water or important cultural sites on that land be endangered by a fossil fuel pipeline that does not serve them in any way. We ask for a halt to construction, for the demilitarization of the police force in the area and for a peaceful solution that respects both the Sioux Nation and our mother the Earth.

To support Director, Andras Corban Arthen’s travel to Standing Rock and any further EarthSpirit participation in the efforts there, you may contribute through paypal at: donations@earthspirit.com

For more information:

http://www.hcn.org/articles/Reckoning-at-Standing-Rock
http://www.prayerandpolitiks.org/…/confrontation-at-the-can…

To take peaceful action:

Visit: http://www.nodaplarchive.com
Sign: the ACLUs petition to demilitarize police at Standing Rock: https://action.aclu.org/secure/Standing-Rock…
Contact: North Dakota Governor Jack Dalrymple at 701-328-2200 and leave a message stating your opposition to the Dakota Access Pipeline.
Call the White House: at 202-456-1111 or 202-456-1414 to ask President Obama to rescind the Army Corps of Engineers permit for the Dakota Access Pipeline.
Call the Army Corps of Engineers: at (202) 761-0011 and demand that they rescind the permit for the pipeline and reject the current permit request from DAPL to bore under the river.
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Headquarters
441 G St NW
Washington, DC 20314
http://www.usace.army.mil/
Public comment line for those interested in voicing their thoughts and concerns on the Dakota Access Pipeline project: (202) 761-8700.

Donovan Arthen at Standing Rock
Donovan Arthen sharing Holy Water chant at Standing Rock

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End of Year Letter 2016

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Remembering the Earth as Sacred
by Deirdre Pulgram Arthen

December 2016

WickerMan at EarthSpirit Rites of Spring 2016
WickerMan Rites of Spring 2016

Dear friends,
As we move into the winter and toward the end of the tax year, we again invite all of our members to contribute to EarthSpirit’s annual fund to support the work it does all year.

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Pagan Clergy Panel

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Pagan Clergy Panel

FireHeart 7 Cover for EarthSpirit

FireHeart 6 Cover for EarthSpirit [The following is a panel discussion in four rounds on the topic of “Pagan Clergy,” which was published in our magazine, FireHeart, between 1988 and 1993. More than twenty years later, many people throughout the U.S. pagan movement continue to refer to it as a source of stimulating, provocative, and even prescient ideas which remain relevant for our community today. Since we still get requests asking for reprints of the panel, we are making it available here; please keep in mind that this piece — as is true of all the reprints from our publications — remains under copyright protection, and that all pertinent limitations still apply. The panelists’ bios have not been updated, and as a result some of them may no longer be accurate; we chose to retain their original texts because they are germane to the contents of the discussions.]

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An Historical Overview of the Whereabounts

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FireHeart 6 Cover for EarthSpiritAn Historical Overview of the Whereabounts of Gnomes and Elves, Fauns and Faeries, Goblins, Ogres, Trolls and Bogies, Nymphs, Sprites and Dryads, Past and Present
by Buck Young ©1991

A long, long time ago, the Earth belonged to the creatures of the wood. By creatures of the wood I mean gnomes, elves, faeries, etc. They tended it and took care of it, played in it, danced and sang in it, cared for wounded animals, worked out disputes between species, sat on mushrooms discussing matters of importance and drinking Labrador tea, rode down streams on leaves and bark, parachuted from trees on dandelion seeds. This was the world into which mankind was born. These early days, when man was but a newly arrived dinner guest who hadn’t yet taken over the house, are fairly well documented in the literature and folklore of the world, so there’s no need to go into it here. What I am interested in, and what I am asking you to be interested in, is the question, “Where did all the gnomes, elves, faeries, etc. go?”

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The Boy Who Longed to Fly

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FireHeart 6 Cover for EarthSpiritThe Boy Who Longed to Fly
For Jody, who flies between the worlds.
by Andras Corban Arthen ©1991

THIS TALE CAME TO ME one night as I sat in a rocking chair cradling my son in my arms, vainly trying to help him fall asleep. I thought to tell him a story, but could think of none that might be interesting to one so very young. A sudden gust of wind intruded itself upon my musings. The wind had a voice, and the voice said, “Listen … I shall tell you the story of the Boy Who Longed to Fly.”

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THE EIGHTFOLD PATH Part Five: ISOLATION

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FireHeart 6 Cover for EarthSpiritTHE EIGHTFOLD PATH
Part Five: ISOLATION
by Inanna Arthen ©1991

A shaman walks for days through the forest, emerging at last to greet the sunrise from a craggy mountainside. A ceremonial magician works by candlelight in his library, spending day after day without speaking to another being. A priestess secludes herself in silence during the dark of the moon to await a vision from the Goddess. A Witch lives, in a smile hut on the edge of the woods, tending her garden and weaving her Earth magick in the sole company of her animals.

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Paganism and Myths of Creation

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FireHeart 6 Cover for EarthSpiritPaganism and Myths of Creation
A Ritual of Transformation
by Walter Wright Arthen ©1991

“In the beginning……”

These words open the book of Genesis, but they also find their echo in every great system of myth. Traditionally, myth has told us about origins, about how things began, and in doing so, it orients us. It tells us where we are from, and, therefore, who and what we are and how we should live. What happens in principio is creation: of the world itself, its physical features, and the realms of beings within it. For the traditional myth teller, to know how a thing came to be is to know something of what it is, and not to know the origin of a thing is not to understand it truly.1 So, in the first place, creation myths have always been myths of origin.

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FireHeart Interviews Doreen Valiente Part Two

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FireHeart 6 Cover for EarthSpiritDoreen Valiente Jan. 4, 1922 – Sept. 1, 1999

Doreen Valiente is considered by many to be the “mother” of the contemporary pagan movement. She was an early initiate of Gerald Gardner’s in the 1950’s, and made many significant contributions as a writer and ritualist. Her books include “Natural Magic”, “An ABC of Witchcraft Past and Present”, “Witchcraft for Tomorrow”, and “The Rebirth of Witchcraft”. This Fireheart interview was conducted by Michael Thorn in 1991.

FireHeart Interviews Doreen Valiente Part Two ©1991

FH: Some people say that the New Age is the old stuff repackaged.

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FireHeart Interviews Doreen Valiente Part One

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FireHeart 6 Cover for EarthSpiritDoreen Valiente Jan. 4, 1922 – Sept. 1, 1999

Doreen Valiente is considered by many to be the “mother” of the contemporary pagan movement. She was an early initiate of Gerald Gardner’s in the 1950’s, and made many significant contributions as a writer and ritualist. Her books include “Natural Magic”, “An ABC of Witchcraft Past and Present”, “Witchcraft for Tomorrow”, and “The Rebirth of Witchcraft”. This Fireheart interview was conducted by Michael Thorn in 1991.

FireHeart Interviews Doreen Valiente Part One ©1991

Elegy for a Dead Witch
by Doreen Valiente

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THE EIGHTFOLD PATH Part Four: BREATH

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FireHeart 5 Cover for EarthSpiritTHE EIGHTFOLD PATH
Part Four: BREATH
by Walter Wright Arthen ©1990

Breath is everywhere a synonym for “self,” a vehicle for the elan vital. T. H. Gaster

We live at the bottom of an ocean of air. Children’s Song

Breath … so natural, so easy. Yet breath is the most frequently over-looked of the steps on the Eightfold Path. Perhaps it is because breath is included in chanting and in many forms of meditation, or perhaps it is because breath is so ubiquitous. But while whole chapters in the major books about the Craft are devoted to each of the seven other steps on the path, breath rarely even gets mentioned, except as part of something else. Why is this? What, after all, is breath?

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