Feeding Green Fire

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’.