Harmony with Nature

Don Boudreaux posts his thoughts on how primitive men "lived in harmony with nature" which...

...implies that we moderns don’t live in harmony in nature, and one consequence of our inharmonious existence is the manatees’ near-extinction.

...continued in full post...

Pre-Columbian peoples lived simply, to be sure, but let’s stop mistaking ignorance and poverty with harmony. It’s an utter myth – we might say an urban myth – that primitive peoples lived with nature harmoniously. Nature devastated them. Nature battered them into early graves.

Boudreaux defines "living in harmony with nature" as:

To live harmoniously with nature is to understand and accept natural forces. The greater this understanding and acceptance, the greater the harmony. Because we know so much more today than we did before about physics, chemistry, meteorology, biology, physiology, metallurgy, and on and on with our ologies and urgies, we live so much more harmoniously with nature.

Interestingly enough, this take on "harmony with nature" puts Mr. Boudreaux at odds with a fair chunk of the Neopagan and Wiccan community.

Oh well. I suspect he doesn't care if the community calls him "not a real Pagan". As one who has taken this position in discussions and essays before, I've watched the people who advocate their take on living in harmony with the Earth descend to ad hominem attacks when faced with a contrary view. But that's beside the point.

The point is, Wicca and many forms of Neopaganism are magickal religions. "Magick" is not a typo – it's a spelling coined by Aleister Crowley, to distinguish between what he practiced and what stage illusionists do.

Crowley defined magick as "the art and science of causing change to occur in conformity with the Will". This means that any intentional act – even brushing your teeth in the morning – is a magickal act. We are unique on this planet in our ability to deliberately create change, and to choose which changes we want to create. That is the spark that separates us from the animals.

Having delved into making change take place, we can define two more classes of magickal act: effective and ineffective. (Well, maybe three: effective, ineffective, and dis-effective. "Dis-effective" acts are those which cause changes opposed to what is desired.)

In order to create change in an effective manner, it helps to know as much as you can about the system you want to change.

It is science – rational thought, skepticism, critical inquiry – that furthers greater harmony with nature.

Science tells us how to effect changes we want, and how to avoid changes we don't want. The art lies in using science wisely.