Her Hidden Children

I just recently finished the book, Her Hidden Children, by Chas Clifton. While it was an excellent book, one particular chapter (chapter two) really intrigued me with it's mention of the three different categories of "nature religion" - cosmic, gaian, and embodied nature.

From my notes about the three categories:

The comic nature category includes heavenly bodies, astrology, ritual magic, tarot, and other forms of divination. From my understanding, this category is taken to be more about Witchcraft than being a religious movement.

The gaian nature category includes anything to do with the planet earth (i.e. - trees, bodies of water, etc). This aspect of "nature religion" grew out of environmental consciousness, personal relationship with nature, nature as having a life of its own, the earth as deity, and natural cycles.

The embodied nature category includes the person in both the body and the mind, sex as a sacrament, and the invocation of and possession by the Gods.

I found this chapter interesting due to how it was able to answer some of my questions that I had written about in September regarding Paganism as nature religion. Clifton points out that there are three different categories that can be used to define the term "nature religion" and it helped to clarify some of my questions. I had thought of "nature religion" in the sense of the second category, gaian, but not the other two.

I also liked the chapter (Chapter 4) about Wicca and popular culture. It was interesting to find out how different media such as books, magazines, and TV shows have influenced the way the people have written about Wicca and Witchcraft and how it came into the cultural radar.

Overall, the book was well-written, easy to get into (I should have been studying for my finals, but couldn't put the book down!), and very informative. I would really recommend picking up this book.