Our Religion
Earth Worship
creating a sacred relationship with nature
Nature is effortlessly adored and admired. The Earth and its non-human inhabitants are in many ways easier to understand than people.
For many of us, we have been upset with humans for trashing the planet for as long as we can remember. Maybe we have also spent a lot of time considering what actions we can take to be reciprocal and symbiotic in our relationship within the natural environment. Still—accessibility, economic disparity, consumerism, politics, privilege, and other realities leave the great majority of us dependent on living out a life of extraction that depletes the earth’s resources and centers humans instead of our environment as a synergistic, integrated, living Being.
Observing and understanding the dynamics of colonialism, capitalism, and extraction throughout my lifetime has instilled in me a fierce love and deep calling to protect nature and promote other forms of social justice. Coming from a large, weird, & unconventional family meant getting creative with our resources. I lamented being poor in my youth, but as an adult have a deep respect for the unique ways that my family has survived and passed down their wisdom across generations. My grandmother taught me how to be resourceful, compassionate, and how to live in generous reciprocity with community. Our family vacations were budgeted and usually based in nature, so my love affair with the earth began when I was very young (my dad loves to tell the story of when I got lost in the woods at a family reunion at age 3). I have fond memories in the mountains exploring and living outdoors, learning how to respectfully interact with the natural environment. My grandmother’s home in North Las Vegas was where I learned the creative and practical skills that guide my earth stewardship today: how to care for waste, plants, trees, & animals; how to read, weave, embroider, and play music. I now know that much of this wisdom is ancestral, and that it comes not only from my ancient Euro-Pagan roots but also from the families that we displaced here on Turtle Island. As a fourth generation Las Vegas native, I recognize the role that my maternal and paternal ancestors have played in this valley. This information plays a large role in the ways I ritualize earth worship and how I contextualize community.
My paternal ancestors were some of the first people to move into indigenous Nuwuvi/Nuwuvu/Shoshone territory and begin colonizing the areas surrounding Las Vegas and the Moapa Valley, (my paternal side is very LDS-saturated). My maternal ancestors were also there at that time and participated in many entrepreneurial endeavors, as brief owners of a gypsum mine and small farm, a saloon and gambling hall, and the first agriculture delivery service in the valley—delivering fruits and vegetables from the Stewart Ranch and orchard. My 2nd great grandmother also washed clothes for the miners and opened our first laundromat on 1st street. As a result of my ancestral research, the concept of land ownership plays an important role in my value system. It is the primary reason (along with having an able body, access to healthcare, financial security, and other privileges) that I am adopting a more nomadic life instead of “settling” down and “purchasing” land. For some of us, land is animate and there is ethical tension if “ownership” gets involved.
So I choose to live a small, semi-nomadic life in service to communities that need what resources I can offer, and that are collaborating on tasks that holistically serve the earth. I currently live in my childhood home that was built (but never finished) by my father, and I work part-time on restoring it. My father and I are simultaneously building my future mobile dwelling together as he enters retirement, and the ancestral collaborative work between us has been deep. We have different values and have to work hard to get along, but it has been an enriching learning chapter for us both. Because I have been fortunate to access my family’s past, I get a shot at shifting its future. I continually choose not to work within systems that perpetuate colonial harm and desecrate the earth, while coming to know and love my ancestors and their stories deeply. We are doing this work together because I am them and they are me, and together we are stewards of the earth, its people, and its resources.
Some of the most beautiful places on the planet that have inspired my love for the earth are right in our backyard: the Great Basin, Colorado River, Pacific coast, the Sequoias and Cascades. I also have been lucky enough to travel abroad as an adult and have a fondness for the mountains of northern India (the Himalayas).
There is endless inspiration from the organic sciences, geography, and biology, and I will forever be a devotee of the forests, rivers, mountains, deserts and all divine lands of the world. Much of Full Desert Weirdo’s designs and content are inspired by this sacred relationship with the earth and its elements. I try to thoughtfully source metals and gems (the desert is abundant in this respect, yet not infinite). Each silver (or gold) specimen is formed, soldered, tempered, polished, and finished by hand imitating the many transformational processes that mother earth and her universe utilize.
I will always treasure my relationship with nature as the most holy, sacred, and important personal influence.
It is very much my religion.
