There is beauty and mystery in the earth, an inner contentment combined with excitement for life and strength. In nature there is symbolic as well as actual beauty; there is healing in the natural cycles. If we can regain, or find out in new ways, how its possible to think as a child – with senses fresh and curious – we are in a position to relate with enthusiasm and passion to the world around us. Much is written on the power of ritual:  the right way of doing things, the right ‘tradition’. How much of this really matters beyond the bounds of our own quest for identity, security and power? Perhaps we lose the simplicity of magic.It was Jung who wrote in a letter to a colleague who was in psychological crisis, and who had been studying Sanskrit and Indian philosophy. ‘You must go in quest of yourself, and you will find yourself again only in the simple and forgotten things.’ Perhaps we as Pagans have lost the simple and forgotten things, the simplicity and joy of nature.

–Dr. Susan Greenwood, “Of Worms, Snakes, and Dragons“. Pagan Visions For a Sustainable Future, Ly de Angles, Emma Restall Orr & Thom van Dooren, editors.