Читать книгу 366 Celt: A Year and A Day of Celtic Wisdom and Lore - Carl McColman - Страница 30

Why is Celtic nature mysticism so attractive? To begin with, the culture of the West—which traces its roots back to the Roman Empire and its reliance on centralized, urban government—seems to have lost its way regarding nature. The political and business climate throughout Europe, America, and increasingly the rest of the world, regards the environment as a resource, and efforts at conservation or environmental protection are chiefly designed to preserve those resources for long-term usage. Rarely is a sense of nature as divine, as sacred, as valuable in itself, seriously considered. And yet this is the heart of the Celtic understanding of nature. Nowhere is this seen more clearly than in the link between the goddess, the land, and sovereignty. A king does not assume the right to manage the land, or exploit, or utilize its resources. Rather he marries the land, in the persona of the sovereign goddess. Goddess and king are partners—what we know of pre-Roman Celtic law suggests that marriage was often seen as a joining of equals. What would our world look like today, if we could begin to see the environment as our partner, rather than our resource?