Religion, Spirituality, The Earth
and The Churches
Thérèse's Essays from her journey to Europe,
March 2003
My French ancestors, like many French families, were Catholic -- very Catholic. From reading another family’s story from that era, it appears likely that my great grandfather and great grandmother chose to leave France because the political climate was oppressive for Catholics around the turn of the century. The Free Masons and the Anticlericals were in power in the French government where they had a tremendous majority. They began to suppress all convents, seminaries, all Catholic hospitals and schools, and expelled all the religious priests, brothers and sisters. Though this was not a bloody persecution, it was the greatest persecution in the history of the Church in France. All religious orders and communities were expelled; they had to leave France or be disbanded. Some went to Belgium, others to England and many of them to America. Worried that their children wouldn’t be able to get a good Catholic education, many French Catholics likewise left France.
I found this little piece of history ironic as I toured Notre Dame in Paris and the Cathedral of St. Jean in Besancon. These churches were clear evidence that Catholicism had had its heyday in France. The scale of these churches is grandiose, to say the least! The architecture includes huge spacious curved ceilings (nobody was thinking about energy conservation I guess. How DID they heat those churches anyway?), so many stained glass windows its impossible to count them, incredible, larger-than-life sculptures and huge wall paintings. Clearly the churches were depositories of great art and great space. Many churches took many decades to build; Notre Dame took 2-3 centuries I do believe. I kept wondering if the people built the churches because they were so devoted to this religion, or whether the Catholic Church financed these impressive structures to try to lure all the people into church, away from their earth-based religions. They certainly ARE impressive! And I’m sure I read in one of my books that over the many hundreds of years the Catholic church was the dominant political power in France, there was much persecution of Protestants, sometimes violently. It seems the old pendulum theory played out at the end of the 19th century when the tables turned and the Catholics lost political power and were themselves the victims of persecution.
Nowadays the Catholics and the Protestants seem to live side by side with no animosity. The only thing I heard about the matter was when the young woman I stayed with in southern France, who was raised Protestant, spoke with disdain about the “over the top” style of Catholicism which she proclaimed had nothing to do with God!
I long ago abandoned Catholicism as MY spiritual path, though I acknowledge its potency for many others and enjoy the ritual of attending mass and taking communion once every few years. As someone who feels Spirit most strongly in the natural world, I feel more connected to the pre-Christian, earth-based religions of Europe and have mused about and studied these a bit. I heard that many Catholic Churches were actually built on pre-Christian holy sites so I looked for evidence of such in France.
In the vineyards where I stayed in southern France (Tour du Bon) near the Mediterranean east of Marseilles, there was an ancient stone monument on the hillside. Every morning I was staying there, I took my cup of tea out to the old stone to do my morning prayers there. The sun shown on the place early on, there was a lovely grove of big pine trees surrounding it; it felt magical and welcoming. Nearby was a knoll, a high point in the rolling agricultural valleys where I could see for miles around. I found old stone steps that led to the top of the knoll. Currently there is a round, concrete watch-tower there (the “Tour du Bon”) built by the Germans when they invaded this area during the 2nd World War. The old steps clearly pre-date this by many centuries. Although I felt some negative energy left over from the WW2 era on the hilltop, mostly I felt a sweet, deep bond between the land, the people that lived there, and the earth-based spirituality that was celebrated in that place.
When I asked my hosts about the old stone monument, they said it was an old catholic shrine honoring three different saints (there were 3 alcoves carved into the stone). Inwardly I wondered: “but what was it before the Christians?” I had a strong feeling that the area had been a site for community rituals for pre-Christian peoples for many generations. I could feel the good energy there, could visualize the people gathering to honor the changing seasons and the cycles of planting, growth and harvest. Of course nobody could tell me the truth of the matter; nobody seems to know. The young man who worked in the vineyard told me that some archeologists came there once hoping to find evidence of some kind of prehistoric activity there, but couldn’t. The young couple who live there have no understanding of old pagan religions; they weren’t even aware of Stonehenge in Britain. When I showed them the French word “Pagan” in the dictionary, they said the word was used as an insult to describe somebody who doesn’t believe in God. This led to some interesting discussions; they even looked up “pagan” on the internet to see what they could learn.
It was clear that the Catholics near completely wiped out any evidence or even understanding of the old religions during the Middle Ages. The Inquisition with its thousands of witch burnings, stonings and drownings took care of that! But some of us want to remember, to reach back to the spirituality of those old world peoples that lived in an interconnected way with Mother Earth and the natural world, to heal the break that happened when people moved into towns and started worshipping in huge churches rather than out under the open sky. In the old days people honored the simple things like spring awakening the land and the abundance of the harvest. In contrast, the Church seems to have been riddled with the corruption and machinations of political power plays, greed for wealth, and attempts to manipulate the common people. That’s what seems to happen when our relationship with Mother Earth is broken.
It is ironic that myself as an American would be more interested in Europe’s pre-Christian spirituality than most Europeans seem to be. Then again, it is also ironic that many Europeans are fascinated with Native Americans. As I walked through Besancon, in a store window I saw a manikin fully decked in Native American garb and decoration! Go figure! It seems that many of us of the modern electronic age hunger for something that was lost when towns and churches were built. Although there isn’t much wilderness left in Europe, I met many beings from the natural world that welcomed my prayers and awareness and love. I felt like I was “re-enchanting the land,” letting it know that some of us 2-leggeds are waking up to the language of the birds and the forests and the waters. I was rewarded with rich and wonderful bird sounds that thrilled me. I sent my prayers of thanksgiving across the vineyards.and they sang back to me too. I was blessed and in turn, I blessed the land,and in turn I was blessed again. Blessed Be!