Abstract

Paganism has often looked to forest groves or mountain tops for inspiration and spiritual transformation. Deep Blue plunges deep into sacred waters through thirteen essays by leading writers in the expanding academic field of nature religion. This book will be of interest to nature religion academics, environmental researchers and activists, as well as practitioners and students of paganism and religion, faith and spirituality studies and those involved in the intersection between religion and ecology. From anthropologic and mythological understandings of archetypal mind structure, through to sociological and psychological levels of analysis, academic theory and inquiry are blended with grounded accounts of experience and understanding from writers spiritually connected with water. This book aims to explore dimensions of the human spiritual relationship with river, sea and pool with a view to developing further understandings of the interrelationships between spiritual practice, academic nature religion discourse and environmental concern. Ancestral cultures invest watery places with spiritual power. With this deep connection comes respect, understanding and sustainable relationship. Deep Blue reconnects contemporary Western culture to these roots, exposing the vital significance of salt and fresh waters to humankind and making a call to arms for the development of holistic, sustainable relationships with waterways.