Chapter 9 NEM
God has cared for these trees, saved them from drought, disease, avalanches, and a thousand tempests and floods. But he cannot save them from fools. - John Muir
Many events in Nature happen over and over again. Some cycles are longer, some are shorter, but usually their period is related to a 28-day cycle. A life form lives as part of these cycles. The Moon circles the Zodiac in about 28 days. The cycles of the Moon bring out certain feelings. The Moon is telling us that we should stay in our natural cycles and that certain things should stay untouched.
Every species has a niche, which is its place in its environment. You cannot leave it and still be you, it is what makes you what you are. Species do evolve, but only when a change in the environment allows them to change. Progressive people try to change their world, but all they accomplish is the creation of a world that they are not made to live in. Progressive people try to change themselves, thus destroying themselves, as they make themselves unfit for Nature. If you try to touch what you shouldn't, you will get hurt or hurt someone else. If you really step out of line, Nature will kill you.
"Nem" is that which cannot be touched. Imagine a. bridge. Aphrodite is where you can step. Nem is over the side, where you cannot step because there is nothing to step on. Nem is nothing, but it does exist and is part of Nature. Trying to touch the untouchable can kill. Understanding this can give a lot of wisdom. The human is a predator by nature. Our place in Nature is to kill. Kill or be killed is divine wisdom. We must know our place and live as part of our environment, rather than trying to control it. The only way to have a balance with Nature is to be part of Nature's balance. If you try to leave your place, you will die. Natural selection keeps us human. The untouchable keeps the touchable what it is.
The Temple represents the real world, and the world is surrounded by nothing, because the real world is all that there is. Anyone believing in anything other than reality is insane. A progressive belief might include great expectations, but sometimes people do not understand their limits. The guy who discovered that DDT could be used as a pesticide probably thought he was creating a better world, but his belief of a better world with DDT was not there in his future. Instead, DDT poisoned the world. If the guy had just stayed in his place in Nature and never tried to progress, the world would not be as poisoned as it is today.
You will feel pain when you begin to step over the limit. This warning tells you that something is wrong and you should do something else. When civilized people break out of the limits of Nature, they commit a sin. They feel some pain when things go wrong, but they do not realize that it means to stop civilization. Instead, they add more civilization, to fight the pain and end up breaking farther and farther out of the limits. Civilized people follow an imaginary butterfly outside of the limits and insanely keep following it, trying to touch that which should not be touched. When civilized people destroy the Sacred Grove, they commit the ultimate sin. The pain that civilization creates should be a warning. Just look around you and see all the horrible things civilization does.
The Sacred Grove is most important. Temples can be replaced, but the Sacred Grove must always be left untouched, it represents the untouchable. You may ask, why have one? The only way to know is to let one grow and find out for yourself. The Grove should be located on land you can use. Leaving it on land you do not really want is not good enough. Let Nature do what nature wants on the land. Some Groves are completely untouchable; some may allow people to walk or play in it. The Grove should be as large as possible and you should have as many as possible. Perhaps we should turn the entire state of California into a Sacred Grove.
A long time ago I thought about the Sacred Grove. All those life-haters in civilization want to make everything dead. The insane disease of civilization has spread too far, and one of the reasons why it has spread so far is because it cannot leave anything alone. I will tell people to leave a part of Nature alone, to at least prove they are sane. Nature is complex, and we are interconnected with it. By saving part of Nature, you will be saving a piece of yourself. People can worship their imaginary Gods if they want, but they should also worship something real, like a Sacred Grove.
You must never cut the Grove; if you do, you will be killing your Goddess. Each tree is a nymph, and she can be a virgin. If she wants to be untouchable, she should be left that way. We must keep the balance and remain part of Nature's balance. The Grove is proof that we have kept the balance. The Grove should last thousands of years. Some forests occasionally burn down as part of their natural ecology. If your Grove is one of these, you must let it burn the way it has to, but do not start the fire yourself. Usually the Grove should be left, so that any tree that naturally grows on it can. Sometimes, however it is permissible to have a Grove where you plant trees or where you take care of the trees, but you should leave something completely natural, something you don't touch.
Some artists make gardens that follow patterns they say are natural. The patterns are pretty, but are not natural. In civilization too many people strain their environment. They need to make everything functional to support their system. They make gardens as a place to to get psychological relief from the stress of civilization. They use Nature, rather than letting Nature act freely. They destroy real Nature and replace it with artificial life. The gardens are as artificial as DDT. The gardens bend trees into unnatural twisted forms, much in the same way civilization twists men into unnatural shapes. The people who go to artificial gardens do not feel real Nature. Real Nature is loaded with danger. The dangers make life; without them, life would not be life. The garden removes these dangers. All the normal, natural events such as disease, fires and floods should be left to happen in the Sacred Grove. We need real Nature.
An example of the kind of artist that I am talking about would be the English man Tolkien. In his writing he emphasizes the goodness of domesticated nature and the dangers of wild nature. He wants artificial nature. Similar ideas appear in other cultures. Japanese Zen gardens are made using the same perverted way of thinking. People who desire these gardens do not know that know that they are planting the seeds of corruption. Corruption that will one day twist and pervert people the same what it twist and perverts a bonsai tree.
Some people might not like every aspect of civilization but they accept a little bit of civilization. These people invent reasons and compromises that they think will be acceptable. Civilization grows when people compromise. You cannot keep a little bit of civilization and assume that you will be able to control it. Even a small piece will grow to control you. Civilization must be completely eliminated.
In my religion we leave the Grove to Nature and protect it from anyone who might harm it. You do not have to like it, but if you harm the Sacred Grove, one of its guardians has the right to kill you; this is my religion.
Civilization sets limits, but these limits are not the same as the ones we naturally should have. We must find our natural limits. Civilization has broken out of natural limits and now destroys the natural world. The Sacred Grove can represent natural limits. If ever we get the urge to cut it down, we know that we are breaking these limits and should search for a way to again find those limits.
We must leave the Grove alone, even if a time may come where a society thinks it needs to touch the Grove. Any tribe that cannot leave a piece of land alone is doing something wrong and should die. Another tribe that can better live as part of Nature will take its place. There should be many tribes rather than this one huge, over-powerful civilization we have today. Society should be free to be what it is, rather than forced by a system to be what it is not. Different societies will have different paths. What works in one society might not work in another. A lot of unhappiness is caused by one society imposing its ways on another. Nature will decide who survives and who does not. Societies will die when they no longer fit Nature. In the long run a society would be better able to survive if it had a Sacred Grove and made itself part of Nature. How they treat their Sacred Grove would be how they treat themselves. Self-respect will free them to live the way of their natural instincts. This is the kind of world I would like. Nature is both inside and outside you. The Sacred Grove is also inside you. You must protect the nature inside of you.
A leader of an environmental organization once criticized me. He felt that talk about the nature inside was distracting people from protecting the real nature outside. I tried to explain to him that everything that he protected would eventually be wiped out unless the a chnage happens inside human culture people. You might wonder why it is necessary to use religion to fight civilization. The answer is because civilization is also a religion, caused by people believing in it. To stop it, we need another belief. There are probably several ways we could stop civilization. I have chosen to preserve the Sacred Grove because it is a good thing to do. Even if civilization never existed, the Sacred Grove would still be a good thing to do.
Other religions think they are doing good. Some want to join some God, so they go through great torture to join him; it would be funny if God never wanted them to do that. Some want to find some higher state, which probably does not exist. Some religions believe in peace and harmony. These religions usually end up killing many people and causing many wars to attain this peace and harmony, perhaps because peace and harmony are not really in harmony with anything. Some religions want to save your soul-as if your soul needed saving-because it was born to be damned unless it gets saved. Some religions wait for the day when something will happen. It has never happened yet. It is fascinating to study all the different kinds of insanity called religion. I guess I will add another one to the list with this Sacred Grove religion.
The 28-day lunar cycle should also be part of the Temple. Usually, a circle of 28 pillars surrounding the Temple represents the cycle. Each pillar represents a night. The space between the pillars represents a door to nowhere, because there is nothing outside the 28-day cycles. Each pillar should be connected to its neighbor by a beam. This connection is called an Eko. Each Eko represents a virgin wood nymph, who should be left a virgin. The Ekos should form an unbroken circle of repeating cycles. The pillars can be made of stone for a permanent Temple or logs for a temporary Temple. The symbol for Eko P is also the symbol for circumference. The Ekos should be the same size and wide enough for a person to walk through. A circle of 28 Ekos is about nine Ekos wide. Traditionally, going back to ancient times, the magic circle for one person is nine feet wide. A circle for a coven could be nine yards wide. A bigger circle can be any size, as long as it follows some kind of regular pattern that imitates a pattern in Nature. It should be big enough to fit all the people attending a ritual. The 28 pillars represent a month, and they are divided into four seven-day weeks by the four quarters of the Temple. Seven is life.
You can put an Eko circle around the Temple. Usually, the Temple should be outside in the open, but if you need a shelter, you can build the Eko circle as a lodge. You can give the lodge walls if it is very cold, but you should not have them if it is warm. The lodge can have a pillar in the middle, with beams connecting all other pillars to this center pillar. The middle pillar is Man at the center of the Temple and the one God as center of everything, who is connected to each of the 28 days of the life circle. The middle piller is the Tree of Life.
Not all pagan religions worship Nature. While in New York I visited a priestess who believed that each element has a guardian She would give gifts to these guardians and believed that the guardians would let her have power over the elements. As far as I could tell, she had no actual love for the elements; she just wanted the guardians to give her power. A Nature cult could also worship the Guardians, but in order to be a Nature cult, it also should worship the elements. I really do not know if her guardians exist or not. I doubt she has any real power. Her religion was descended from the religion in the Yoruban civilization in Africa. They were a cruel civilization whose religion seemed to emphasize power over things. It seems to me that the Yorubans, like most civilized people, have forgotten how to love Nature and instead worship insane ideas. The Yoruban religions seem to emphasize fear of Nature and its forces; this sounds civilized. A lot of scholars assume the Yoruban religion is typical of primitive religions, but fail to see that it developed in a civilized society.
An example of true Nature worship would be the way some Australian aborigines consider the animals, plants, and rocks to be important parts of a great vision called "The Dream Time." These aborigines might claim to worship one God, but the way they feel about the Earth also seems to be a form of worship. Sometimes they depict how they see the Earth in paintings and dances. The aborigines consider themselves part of the land they live in, as if they, too, are part of the Dream Time, which happened long ago, when the creator formed the Earth and gave them their rituals and laws. Some American natives consider the Earth their mother and one of their closest relatives. They sometimes mention that Europeans have forgotten that the Earth is the mother of all men. Pygmies see themselves as part of the forest and its complex environment, which provides everything they need. Eskimo Shamans see a universe that wants people to feel at home. Hunter-gatherers have a balance with Nature, by being part of Nature's balance. They do not destroy Nature the way civilization does. A primitive persons sacred manner includes things in Nature, which a civilized person might forget.
Popular literature says that Native Americans celebrated a Great Spirit who is everything. They try to be in harmony with the Great Spirit by acting in a sacred manner, where life becomes a form of prayer. Some people might claim to worship only the Great Spirit. They might claim that they do not actually worship the Sun, but they do occasionally pray to the Great Spirit when they see the Sun. It seems like worship to me. Perhaps it is better to call it celebration done in a sacred manner in harmony with the Great Spirit. The whole story about the Great Spirit might be a lie invented by Hollywood. The concept of the Great Spirit even appears in scholarly literature. Funny thing about religion is that even lies can be true. The Great Spirit is actually a great mystery that you should learn as you go through life. In Northern Europe it was called Wyrd. The Sioux call it Wakan, which also means weird. "Shaman" is a Siberian word, which means "He who knows."
Let us say someone says Sun God. He could mean the Sun, or the guardian of the Sun, or a God who reminds him of the Sun. You would have to ask him or carefully study his religion to know what he means. Sometimes, in myth, you might hear a story about a God who wins the Sun and becomes its guardian, this could still mean that he is the Sun. You would have to study all the facts of the story carefully in order to interpret it properly. To understand a God, observe what it means to people and how it affects them. I get really annoyed by Muslins that claim not to worship idols yet bow down to a Black Stone in Mecca several times a day. Whatever. Cut the bullshit and call it worship. Did you know that the Black Stone in Mecca once belonged to an old pagan Goddess? She was the White Goddess.
The White Goddess is popular with feminist neopagan writers who claim that she is a nature Goddess. In the myth about the White Goddess and Apollo, the two are supposed to be enemies. The White Goddess-worshipers do not equate their female Goddess with Apollo, because they think Apollo is only male. They believe that all male Gods are connected with patriarchal culture, which causes men to want to dominate. They might say that men feel the need to dominate because they are too immature or too afraid to confront their psychological shadows, so they focus their inadequacies into antisocial behavior. Feminists emphasize change in people and want civilized women working in civilized jobs. Gloria Steinem wants to teach women to find a sense of self-worth; one denied them by patriarchal culture. This ideal sounds good until you notice that many of her stories are about people finding a place as part of progress. Her "self-esteem" is the insane ecstasy of progress. It seems to me that the White Goddess is Apollo in one of his many forms. Many people think their God is one thing, when actually it is a different thing. Their ideal working woman is an Apollonian dream.
Whenever I am with a feminist, I always get a feeling that she wants me to change the way I want to act, same feeling I get with a Catholic nun. They object to something about my attitude, but I am not sure what it is. They think that I would understand, once I change. They think the music I listen to is disgusting. What do they want me to do? Perhaps they want me to lie and say that I do not have this attitude. They want me to pretend to be something that I am not. Maybe they want to change me, until even my attitude would change. Feminists have a tendency to believe that they must reeducate people. They domesticate people, like every other form of civilization. Apollo has many faces.
White Goddess-worshipers might think that men cause all the problems in the world. They might say that long ago, when we were part of Nature, the Goddess ruled with women as the masters of men. They see a great Temple with women priestesses that existed before the Goddess religion was replaced by the patriarchal God religion. They ignore the fact that back in ancient times, most of those priestesses at the Goddess' Temples were actually transgender men. This ancient practice still goes on today at the festivals of the Goddess Yellamma in India.
A myth does not have to be factually true to have some other kind of truth. I think the meaning of the White Goddess story is also untrue, because I have seen women make the same mistakes and adopt the same false beliefs as men. There are Apollonian women. There are Zeus-worshipping women. There are women who hate Aphrodite. Perhaps these women have been influenced by patriarchal society, or perhaps even without male influence, women could create a civilization as evil as anything men have made. It does not matter what sex the Gods are. Zeus can be female with a different name and still be the same old Zeus. By worshipping the White Goddess, they could be ignoring real Nature.
People can feel a need to conform to the ways of others. This need is part of our social instincts. Civilization does not always have to force people to conform; it can seduce people into its trap by making its ways fashionable. All you need is enough propaganda. Some civilizations become experts at manipulating propaganda. They invent any lie they want and can make people accept the lie.
Perhaps many bad points of view are the products of bad culture. Feminists try to change the culture; perhaps some of what they do will have good results. I object when they try to change peoples' feelings. I do not know which feelings are natural or which are created by bad culture. I do know that anyone who devalues someone feelings does not know how to appreciate people for what they are. I write against progressive people, but I do not want to change them. I would rather kill someone than try to change him.To change a person is immoral and violates the Sacred Grove. I say, let progressive people belive what they want. We should recognize them for the fools they are and not allow them to dominate our culture.
I noticed that many neopagan writers write about male Gods as if they were separate personalities, but they tend to lump all Goddesses as nothing more that different forms of the Mother Goddess; perhaps she is in some stories. But many stories depict a Goddess with a distinct personality of her own separate from another Goddess. These neopagan writers might never realize the difference between Aphrodite and Nem. They think that Tiamat, who is filth and corruption, is a degraded form of the Mother Goddess. White Goddess-worshipers might claim that the degraded story is a patriarchal view. They do not understand that it is possible to invent a Goddess of filth and corruption without it being a degradation of the Mother Goddess.
It seems to me that the White Goddess was invented by people who lack the imagination necessary to dream about real forces that surround us. Filth and corruption are two of those forces. Anyone telling a story about filth and corruption can use the name Tiamat. People who adopt the White Goddess mythology want us to lie to ourselves and ignore the real forces. Rather than expecting people to lie, let's instead have an honest religion.
A South American story tells about Jesus going to live with the Jaguars. The Jaguars are the scum of the Earth. The Jaguars treat him well, but the Thunder-Beings do not want him to be there, so they send the cops, who chase him from town to town. He travels as a bum and brings good luck to people who treat him well. Eventually, the cops catch him and crucify him. This story has a kind of snob-versus-slob theme, Thunder-Beings versus Tiamat. This is an example of how there is more to our dreams than White Goddess-worshipers know.
The other day I heard a gay activist and a feminist both complain about a picture on a rock album. A girl I know likes this album. The cover shows a woman being absorbed by a male tree Demon. The Demon has many violent predatory characteristics. The woman has the look of sexual ecstasy on her face. This particular singer has girls who worship him like the Devil. The feminist thinks that the album represents a role that endangers women. I guess we do a lot of the sexual things that endanger us, but do not try to stop us. The forces must grow naturally. I admire those girls who enjoy this particular album. The feminist and the gay activist would like to change people by reeducating them. This particular gay activist did not like people to complain about his habits, but he freely criticizes other people's habits. Not all gay people are as hypocritical as he is. People should feel free to let the forces grow in them any way that the forces want.
I know men have inner Animals, since men almost always want freedom to do as they please. I assume women also have inner forces and dreams that make them want to be something in life; if they do, then women should have the same rights and privileges as men. A main idea in my barbarian way of thinking is that each person must be his Animal, without someone else telling them what to do. Feminists don't necessarily want to free the inner Animal; instead, they idolize the White Goddess. Not all women want to be this ideal. I know a few barbarian women who want real freedom.
Women seem easier to domesticate than men. Some people say that women are easy to control because they are conditioned by a male-dominated culture to be submissive. I see no evidence that the feminists are making women any less submissive. A successful businesswoman may act confident, and not want to be dirty like Tiamat, but the businesswoman is just a slave. They free themselves from male domination by giving themselves to a new master called civilization. They are submissive to the rules of progress. Ant colonies are mostly sterile working females. A modern office looks a lot like an anthill, and I hope this is not the future for women.
The women can listen to their own kind of music, but I prefer a meaner kind of music that makes guys mangle each other. This is something I like to do without female interference. A few girls who like violence are allowed into our pits, but they are few and far between. You get to be the guardian of the Sacred Grove by killing the old guardian. The Jaguar is the force in nature that kills. This ideal just came to me one day and I feel very protective of it. Perhaps I am afraid to deal with my psychological shadows, so I invent defense mechanisms, which makes my insane ideas seem reasonable to myself. I pretend that I am brave enough to guard the Sacred Grove, rather than admit my fears. I let out the Beast within, rather than face what is really inside me, which is something other than the Beast. I do not think so; the Beast is the only thing in me.
The Beast within has been locked up too long. Some people keep him out of their circles. I will let him in. I will open the door. I will let myself out. I have rediscovered the Sacred Grove. I will run through the woods, tear wild animals apart, and eat them. If you think you have the courage, join us. We might even tear you apart.
Some people might wonder why I choose Gloria Steinem to represent feminist. She had little relation to the White Goddess religion and some feminists don’t like her. The reason I choose her was because she was a role model for many women. In a way she is the representative of the White Goddess for those women. She is also reputed to be a tool for government agents. The point that I am trying to make is that the White Goddess can be used by civilization as another level of control. In fact all Gods can be used by civilization. You might wonder how this relates to the ninth concept. Let me just say be careful where you walk. Lies might lead you astray.
Stories about radical organization funded by civilized authorities is popular in conspiracy theories. Crazy people think that governments control and manipulate radical groups by placing certain people in key positions. Supposedly people who cooperate will be given privileges and money. Those who do not cooperate will become outcast and their name will be edited out of the official history of the group. Thus the authorities control the activities of the group. They also control what the group publishes. It becomes hard to tell what issues are real and what are fabricated.
I use to be involved in an Earth First! tribe. Some members involved began to suspect that other members were working with law enforcement organizations. They began to suspect that all our activities were staged by unseen G-men, to keep us from accomplishing anything useful. Rumors began spreading throughout the tribe. It is possible that these rumors were completely false. I was never offered any money. I never met any men in black. Paranoia tore the group apart.
I still believe in Earth First!. Our purpose was to protect the wilderness. We should have concentrated on this main purpose. Evil men in black did not cause our failure. We caused it with our paranoia. I hope we can learn from our errors and continue the fight a little wiser.
Sources and related topics
Robert Graves, The White Goddess: A historical grammar of poetic myth. Farrar, Straus, and Cudahy, 1948.
Starhawk, The Spiral Dance. A Rebirth of the Ancient Religion of the Great Goddess. Published by HarperSanFrancisco, 1979. http://www.starhawk.org/
Joseph Campbell, The Masks of God. Published by Viking Press, 1959–1968. http://www.jcf.org/