Pantheism is above all the religion of affirmation. Christianity regards this earth as merely a waystation on our weary trek towards an imaginary heaven, a winnowing ground where human chaff will be blown away on the wind. Buddhism sees physical reality as an illusory or repugnant distraction from the task of self-annihilation.
Like no other religion, pantheism accepts and embraces the body and the earth, life and death, self and other, unity and diversity, in all their dynamic physical reality.
Pantheism nurtures the most profound sensuality - an unrepressed sexuality - the deepest aesthetic appreciation of nature and energy/matter.
It harbors no delusions that could detract from or distract us from the spectacular charisma of earth and universe.
We adore the scent and shape and colour and touch of roses,
and do not fear the scratch of thorns.
We cultivate awareness, fully awake
to the flame of forest leaves in autumn,
the transfixing energy of jagged lightning,
the dust of galaxies scattered across the night sky, the geometry of amethysts, seashells, snowflakes, the rhythm of birdsong, rain on leaves, waves on rocky shores, the annihilating power of incandescent rivers of lava,
the intoxicating beauty of a woman's body.
We accept unavoidable pain:
the shiver of fever,
the ache of a wound,
the visceral spasm of grief.
We embrace joy:
the ecstasy of music,
the love of a sleeping child,
the warmth of tenderness,
the explosion of orgasm.
