Abstract:

Aldo Leopold’s experience with a dying wolf and vision of ‘green fire’ has led to green fire becoming a ubiquitous signifier of environmental concerns, while also understood as carrying a spiritual significance. 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, finding a common theme of integrity. To understand the symbolic significance of green fire, I employ a method drawn from Jungian studies, amplification, finding parallel refer¬ences to green fire 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 fire to be a symbol of that integral life/death force, linked in turn to ‘Mother Earth’ or ‘Mother Nature’.

Author: Jane Caputi