Absolutely some variety of earth-based (or universe-based) paganism that focuses on the interconnectedness of all things, over time and space.
Greybeard, I would have no trouble worshiping trees as they grew in forests and cities, and no trouble worshiping them after they were transformed into fire or furniture or paper. I would imagine all of the people who the tree shaded over the years, and the animals who harvested its nuts and the insects who feasted on its leaves and bark. I would imagine the craftsmen, who lived nearly a century ago, and who carved the elaborate flor de lis designs on the legs and leafs of my beautiful dining room table. I would think of the factory workers who mass produced my cutting boards and the components of my Ikea bookshelves and the paper mill workers who brought me the pages that inhabit the inside of the books that bring me so much joy.
There would be a lot of reasons to worship a tree.
I wouldn’t worship the junkmail though. I would have difficulty seeing anything sacred in a tree that had been transformed into "buy one hamburger, get a free supersized soda" ads.
And we would gather with the faithful in sacred spaces. Like beaches. And we would gaze at the waves of the ocean, and imagine each water drop that fell from a cloud, and perhaps landed in a completely different body of water, very very far away, to spend days or weeks or months or years as part of the ocean, traveling deep down to the secret world of coral cities and the hidden mountains and canyons of the seas, and through the empty, desolate reaches where lone sharks floated silently, and between the fins of the schools of brightly colored fish, only to find itself part of an amazingly beautiful wave, destined to wash up on a sandy beach evaporate into the air and find its way back to the clouds.
We would look up at the moon at night, and think about how its orbit affects the waves, and about how for billions of years is has been circling the earth as the earth circles the sun, and we would wonder about what our descendents will know about the planets and moons in our solar system and what they will know about our neighboring stars and beyond.
We would give thanks before each meal, and reflect upon the plants and animals that were once living things that inhabited our planet, and are now about to become part of our bodies.
We would take a moment to reflect upon the farm workers who planted and tended and harvested the plants, and those who raised the animals. If the food we were about to consume was packaged, we would be thankful for the miners who risked their lives to bring the metals to us, and the mill workers who processed the paper products, and the factory workers who assembled the packaging and the truck drivers who transported the food from wherever it came from to our local stores. We would reflect upon the fossil fuels that were used to transport the food, and the rig workers and the rich CEO’s and oil barrens, and perhaps upon the fossil fuels themselves, and they originated from the carcasses of living beings that inhabited planet earth so long ago. Before we ate, we would think about the people we knew, and do a little checklist in our heads about anyone who might be hungry. And if there was a friend or family member or neighbor or homeless person who needed food, we would set some aside to share with them.
We would look into the past and contemplate the way everything that has every happened on planet earth has potentially impacted on our lives, from the great inventions and discoveries that bring us the knowledge and technology that others take for granted, to the death of the ancient creatures who formed our fossil fuels, and those who, in death, made our soils rich.
We would look forward into the future, and imagine how everything that we do would impact on those who will come after us.
And we would look in real time, across the planet, and remember that everything we consume, and everything that we use, and everything we touch, comes to us because of the time and labor of others, and/or because of the complex and amazing ways in which the earth’s ecosystems behave.
And we would remember that we are all connected to each other. Across time and space.
Poll
