Vital narratives - Narrative Intelligence - page 98

As with religion, for the practitioner of pagan spirituality personal rele-
vance pervades everyday life. Non-fundamentalist believers and non-religious
people tend to be more tolerant, capable of gleaning wisdom from pagan sto-
ries and folklore (as well as from religious texts) through narrative intelligence.
For the practitioners, pagan narratives and their implicit ethics inform ac-
tion in the world and contemplation of one's relationship to nature. Some non-
pagans may view strategy and outcomes as relatively more positive because
the spiritual narratives and folklore often come to conclusions that are coher-
ent with non-believers' political and ethical stances. For most, the strategy and
outcomes of pagan practice are not well understood and, as such, the response
tends to be negative.
In regards to truth value, it should be remembered that some native people
and pagans treat their narratives as religion while others see them as guidelines
for spiritual practice. Religious pagans may privilege their narratives in the
same way that other religious fundamentalists do. By contrast, spiritual prac-
titioners can typically also accept scientific and historical narratives as having
equal truth value. For believers in other religions, pagan narratives are often
seen as negative or even dangerous. Even so, the pagan revival or neo-pagan
movement in the United States is strengthened by its relationship with nature.
Many contemporary environmentalists and “folk” sense a measure of truth in
the pagan attitude toward the natural world.
Spiritual, folk, and pagan stories are some of the vital narratives that we
are in danger of losing. The trend toward globalization, the disappearance of
diverse cultures and their stories, and the overriding narratives of religion,
defense, development and economic “growth” put these forms at risk.
Scientific narratives
Like many spiritual narratives and pagan stories, scientific narratives can be
characterized as dialogues with nature. The tools of science are based on ra-
tionality rather than story and ritual. Both scientists and pagans honor the
natural world, and both understand the existence of Great Mysteries. The
writings of such scientists as Newton, Einstein, and Feynman are aglow with
wonder and joy.
In 1972, Joseph Campbell described the change in consciousness that re-
sulted from our first view of the earth from space (Campbell 1986). Seeing our
blue planet alone in the starry blackness, Campbell says, we suddenly under-
stood that rather than coming into this world, we come out of it, or as Alan