It is the harvest season, a time of celebration, but a dark harvest is going on in Washington's Gifford Pinchot National Forest. At the Jammin Timber Sale (so named because they jammed it in just before the Timber Salvage Rider expired) virgin old growth forests are being cut for export to Japan and its timber speculators. Having seen that current cutting will soon exhaust the world's virgin forests, they know that the value of the wood from the huge trees will skyrocket. Old growth wood is much more fire and rot resistant than the wood of younger trees. The speculators buy whatever old growth they can get, ship it to Japan, encase it in wax, and let it sit waiting for the prices to climb.
Lammas is the time of the harvest. What was planted in the spring is harvested and eaten. Later, it comes out again and is mostly returned to the earth as fertilizer of various sorts. It nourishes the people who eat and it nourishes the plants that grow in the fertilizer. Each year this cycle of life repeats. At Lammas we celebrate the harvest part of the cycle.
Trees die naturally all the time and they are part of this cycle. When a tree falls it decays and returns its nutrients to the trees and other plants who grow in its place. Animals use the fallen trees for shelter and make their dens in decayed-out boles. Insects and worms eat the tree and birds eat them. Timber speculation breaks this cycle that we are celebrating. A "harvested" tree does not decay. The biomatter that makes up the tree is never returned to the forest. It doesn't even provide shelter for people. It just sits in a warehouse in Japan waiting on the chance that it will be very valuable some day.
As you read this, activists, most of them pagans, are down in the Gifford Pinchot fighting against this dark harvest. A continuing base-camp was established on the summer solstice. It is a place for those who want to stop the harvest, to gather together and plan their strategy. Every day, people from the camp go out and hike in the cutting areas. If they find "tree harvesting" going on that is so bad it violates the already loose laws on logging, then that particular cut can be stopped. If they don't, then the traditional methods of stopping logging (lock-downs, tripods, chaining oneself to a tree, and so on...) are always waiting for those who Gaia calls in that way.
Given this information, the next step is to ask, "What does it mean to be a pagan?" There are at least as many answers to that as there are pagans. If you look for a common factor, however, there is only one: reverence for Nature. It may manifest as honoring the cycles of life or the phases of the moon. From the Wheel of the Year to the Gaia Hypothesis, it is the sacredness of all nature that brings us together. It is how we react to that sacredness, how we incorporate our reverence into our daily lives, that defines us as pagans.
Ask yourself what you have done for the Earth, what you are doing now and what you will do in the future. Everyone does something. If you recycle, eat less meat, ride the bus occasionally, or even just turn out the lights when you leave the room, you are doing something for the Earth. Now ask what the Earth is giving you. Aside from all the obvious things like food, air and physical support, there is the magic. What kind of a pagan would you be without the magic of the Earth? No Wheel of the Year, no phases of the moon, no elements to invoke. There would just be us people. Perhaps we could call one of us a God and worship Him - we know where that path eventually leads. Now ask yourself if you are giving enough back to the Earth for all that She gives you.
Can you give a bit more? Do it. Everyone has busy lives and serving the Earth full time is not particularly easy. Just look at what you can do, given your abilities, tastes and resources and do it. If you can give or are called to give a lot more, Jammin is the place for you. The base-camp is open to all who love the Earth. Bring your own tent, sleeping bag, bowl, spoon, and cup. Communal vegan/vegetarian cooking (made from donated or brought food) is provided.
If you want to come down, call the Seattle Earth First! office at (206) 623-2954 or e-mail sea-ef@novaproj.org. People are frequently coming down and carpools can be arranged. They will also have directions on how to get to base-camp if you want to come in your own group or alone. If you can't come down but want to help, donations of food, camping gear, cash or anything else that you think might be useful can be brought to the Earth First! office on the third floor of the University Baptist Church (don't ask me...they are pretty cool for Baptists) at 4554 12th Ave. NE. Seattle EF! meets every other Thursday (8/14, 8/28, etc.) at 7 p.m. on the second floor of the same building.
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