An eternal Nature held forever within our hearts...

Recently on spending some much needed time out in Nature I had dawn upon me a revelation, one which I had thought on from time to time but never really given much time to. And this is the place that Nature holds in the more primeval/primitive and yet constantly changing and evolving Magical Artes, especically those areas known more specifically as Traditional Witchcrafts. It is from this realm that we drawn most of our inspiration and power, it is the home of much of our gnosis and knowledge within the Artes. Many of us have either been guided or chosen to enter into a direct communication or congress with the spirits of the Land and the intelligences that find their homes within the Realms of the Green, both benevolent and sinister, for that is the way of Nature, a blessing and a curse.

I went to a wooded area that, as a youth, I spent much of, it not all of my time running around in and this place held such magic for me, it was a home away from home. A true Eden, a Garden of Paradise, a retreat from the world of man in my childhood. I remember it vividly and all of it is remembered fondly. Yet, having visited this place years and years later, now as an adult. I noticed that the magic was gone, the trees bare, the paths overgrown, trash littered the forest floor and I could tell that this once beautiful place that was often frequented by not just myself but other children also searching for a place where they too could leave behind the cares of a world that has not much time for children.

As I walked down the now hidden paths that were once clearly defined and walked often, it dawned on me that this once marvelous and enchanted place that as I child I set aside, perhaps as the only place wherein I found any true sense of a god, had fallen into ruin and despair, that in so many ways it was now symbolic of the state of the world and the ideals that are now upheld by humanity, that nature, once it all its glory and held in reverence, had now become nothing more than a product,something to be used and abused, to be resourced and sold and bought by the highest bidder, only to be raped and ravaged. Destroyed. The magic was gone.

I was saddened by this, by the blatant, wreckless, and uncaring attitude with which this once truly holy place had come to be treated. Totally devoid of the magic that it once held, all that now stood there was a symbol of the world of man and his irreverence to anything truly holy and divine. I stood amidst the tress, in which I still saw glory trying to shine from out of a darkness, and yet I also stood amongst the trash thrown upon the ground from various generations, the soda cans, the refuse of the people to lazy to dispose of their garbage properly, the now rusted coffee tins that were jagged and bent, just like the people who left them there. But in so many ways I could still see myself as a child running through this one miraculous place, playing games with friends, riding my bike, building forts, and yes, doing magic that issued from my own innocence as a child is wont to do when the world of the adults if no longer impinging upon our minds, when we escape their desires and their needs to experience our own.

I now find myself wondering if it is us who hold the magic, that it is we who see through a veil of enchantment, of illumination, that it is our desire to see the beautiful and truthful aspects of a world that is so often left behind as we grow up that allows us to see what others refuse to even acknowledge? No, it is not simply we who possess this, for Nature, the Wilderness, IS MAGIC! It is a divine realm and one that we must now seek out and respect, for it has withdrawn from the many and is only revered now by the few. I can only hope and pray that one day, that children like myself and others who truly understand what place the natural world has in our lives, stand up and re-erect the Emerald Chapels of the Enchanted Realms of the Green.

In many ways I understand that we live in a dying world, but it is not yet dead and to treat it as such will only bring to you what you have sown and you shall wind up with the gold of the Fae, nothing! I pray that one day the world will be a brighter place, a balanced place, where each woman, man and child, can live in harmony with the world as it was when we were brought forth from its mighty and nurturing bosom, we have outgrown ourselves and forgotten our place.

We might be children of the starry heavens but this place is our home for the time being and as such it should be treated with the love, kindness and respect that it deserves. We are not alone here, this much is obvious to anyone who takes just a small amount of time to enter into this world within our own. Life is everywhere, and it possesses such beauty, such strength, and in it we will find the Truth we all seek if we but open our arms and our eyes to receive it once again and feel within our own beings that rhythm of Natures heart as it beats in pace with our own, for they are one and the same.

~Patrick Larabee