Feeding Green Fire

Authors

  • Jane Caputi Florida Atlantic University,

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1558/jsrnc.v5i4.410

Keywords:

Aldo Leopold, green fire, ecofeminism, viriditas, Mary Daly, Mother Earth, integrity

Abstract

Aldo Leopold’s experience with a dying wolf and vision of ‘green ?re’ has led to green ?re becoming a ubiquitous signi?er of environmental concerns, while also understood as carrying a spiritual signi?cance. To explore this conjunction, I put Leopold in dialogue with aspects of Native American philosophy and science, and ecologically minded theologians and philosophers Mary Daly and Val Plumwood, ?nding a common theme of integrity. To understand the symbolic signi?cance of green ?re, I employ a method drawn from Jungian studies, ampli?cation, ?nding parallel refer¬ences to green ?re in the theology of Hildegard of Bingen, alchemical symbolism, contemporary art, poetry, and popular culture, the nature writing of Robin Wall Kimmerer, and discourses and practices around biotechnology. These parallels similarly reveal green ?re to be a symbol of that integral life/death force, linked in turn to ‘Mother Earth’ or ‘Mother Nature’.

Author Biography

  • Jane Caputi, Florida Atlantic University,
    Jane Caputi is a Professor of Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies and Communication & Multimedia at Florida Atlantic University. Her most recent book is Goddesses and Monsters: Women, Myth, Power and Popular Culture. She also has made a short documentary film, The Pornography of Everyday Life and is now working on a new film, Green Consciousness: Re-Attachment to the Mother/Earth as well as a book on green fire.

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Published

2011-12-28

How to Cite

Caputi, J. (2011). Feeding Green Fire. Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture, 5(4), 410-436. https://doi.org/10.1558/jsrnc.v5i4.410