The world is not our home. The green eco-spirituality movements, however, would have us believe we are residents of "Mother Earth", known in ancient days as "Gaia". According to these neo-pagan philosophies and spiritualities, we have to appease, protect, honour, and in some cases, worship this ancient goddess.

As we move from the Gaia goddess to Scripture it is revealed to us that the earth is not our final destiny; the world is not our home, "For here we have no lasting city, but we are looking for the city that is to come" (Heb. 13:14). Rather than being an end in itself, the earth is a temporary dwelling place for us as pilgrims on the journey to our true home. In Genesis 1: 26-31, it is revealed by God that creation is given to us and entrusted to us. But the earth is God’s creation—a place to take care of as stewards, not as tenants of goddess Gaia who can shake us off at any moment.

Some people think that human beings were the only ones that fell from grace when Adam and Eve were banished from paradise. They forget nature fell from grace at the same time (Genesis 3:14-19). Young people are fascinated with Wicca and Witchcraft. They are drawn to things like Harry Potter because of a mistaken notion that power from nature is okay since God made nature. But nature fell from grace, so who’s hanging out with nature? Nature can be used by the demonic. We have seen the resurgence of a fascination with nature spirits through practices and beliefs such as fairies, witches, warlocks, pagan rituals, Druid revival, Stonehenge rituals, and all types of nature idolatry. Some treat nature as though it were divine.

Since nature is also fallen, it can be an open door to evil influences. We ask St. Michael to defend us in battle and, by the power of God, to "cast into hell satan and all the evil spirits who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls." Demons can use nature too. In Ephesians 6:12 we read "we are not dealing with flesh and blood, but with principalities". As Catholics we recognize the ability of evil spirits to inhabit nature, which is why we have patron saints against storms such as St. Christopher, St. Barbara and St. Thomas Aquinas. We have our houses blessed and our land blessed for good crops, not the other way around as in the case of water-witching or divining rods. We must never ask the land itself to bless us, nor worship land, places or spaces in themselves. We must never ascribe power to the elements—to do any of this would be worshipping creation rather than the Creator (Rom 1:25), a grave form of idolatry, and an open invitation for the demonic to enter in.

The First Commandment (Ex. 20: 4-6), and in fact all of Scripture, is consistent about the seriousness of superstition, idolatry, divination and magic. This is expounded in the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC #2110-2117). For example, in an attempt to show cultural sensitivity, Disneyland Corporation hired a Feng Shui master to consult on their design for the new Hong Kong Disneyland. They were advised to shift the angle of the front gate by 12 degrees and to " put a bend in the walkway from the train station to the gate, to make sure the flow of positive energy, or chi, does not slip past the entrance and out to the China Sea...Disney is including a ritual incense burning as each building is finished, and it has picked what it was told is a lucky day, Sept. 12 [2005], for the opening" (Laura M. Holson, "Disney Bows to Feng Shui", New York Times, April 25, 2005). The Feng Shui master ensured maximum prosperity if the changes were implemented.

Likewise, we need to guard against the rising influence of superstition and New Age practices which tend towards divination and magic such as "conjuring up the dead or other practices falsely supposed to ‘unveil’ the future. Consulting horoscopes, astrology, palm reading, interpretation of omens and lots, the phenomena of clairvoyance, and recourse to mediums" since they "all conceal a desire for power over time, history, and, in the last analysis, other human beings, as well as a wish to conciliate hidden powers. They contradict the honor, respect, and loving fear that we owe to God alone" (CCC # 2116).

For example, many well-meaning people have taken recourse to practices such as "astro-cartography (locational astrology)", the positioning of a location according to the positioning of planets. A similar attraction is "geomancy", a method of divination that interprets markings or lines on the ground. One such example is the Geomancy Group in the U.K., whose home page clearly states, "It is vitally important for a human-made structure to honour and make connections with the physical environment. This creates stability, acceptance by the spirit of the land, and very real anchor lines which allow energy flow between the structure and surrounding landscape" (Ivan McBeth, http://www.geomancygroup.org/index.html). Like Feng-Shui, geomancers promise to help balance the energies in your land or space, but they also claim to be "like a gatekeeper who can create portals 'between the worlds'. If you want to connect with the sacred, a geomancer can help you build that gate...Whether your sacred space is a single crystal, a personal altar, a standing stone, medicine wheel, labyrinth, stone circle or something larger; geomancy can help you design, locate, align and activate the space so that it connects with and enhances the natural energies of the earth" (http://www.geomancygroup.org/index.html).

The Catechism states, "Idolatry not only refers to false pagan worship. It remains a constant temptation to faith. Idolatry consists in divinizing what is not God. Man commits idolatry whenever he honors and reveres a creature in place of God, whether this be gods or demons (for example, satanism), power, pleasure, race, ancestors, the state, money, etc. Jesus says, ‘You cannot serve God and mammon.’ Many martyrs died for not adoring ‘the Beast’ refusing even to simulate such worship. Idolatry rejects the unique Lordship of God; it is therefore incompatible with communion with God" (CCC #2113). Whether it is a statue of Buddha in the garden, a money cat, totem pole, lucky charm, crystal, or Rosary hanging on the rear-view mirror, we risk falling into the sin of idolatry and superstition whenever it replaces worship of the one true God. Since "the environment" is part of the created world, we must guard against the rising tendency to give it undue honour.

We have been warned in Scripture, "For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and produce great signs and omens, to lead astray, if possible, even the elect" (Matthew 24:24). The enemy uses mainstream thought systems to get to the fair-minded. In discussing the incompatibility of the New Age and the Gospel, " (Matthew 24:24). The enemy uses mainstream thought systems to get to the fair-minded. In discussing the incompatibility of the New Age and the Gospel, Archbishop Norberto Rivera Carrera states the following in his Pastoral Instruction on the New Age, "A Call to Vigilance" (Mexico City, Mexico, 1996):

"Notwithstanding the fact that the [New Age] Movement espouses a confused religious syncretism which is not always well-intentioned, some of its ideas have found a warm reception among some people and institutions within the Catholic Church. The so-called ‘global theology’ traces the signs of divine revelation in all known religious expressions, in search of a common denominator that can serve as a meeting point for religions.

"In practice, unfortunately, this theology usually forgets that revelation is God's initiative, not man's invention and that it has its culmination and definitive expression in the Incarnation of the only Son in the historical person of Jesus of Nazareth; in this way, it often empties Christianity of its exceptional content in order to put it on the same level as other beliefs. When this trend appears (openly or veiled) in the teaching of certain seminaries and Catholic educational institutions, it can only cause a deep concern in the hearts of the faithful and their bishops."

After I completed the RCIA program, I was invited to breakfast after morning Mass and the Rosary by some of my neighbours who were also parishioners. These were the kind of people you could ask for prayer, who attended daily mass and Eucharistic Adoration. They wanted me to see their new home because they had recently had it redesigned and landscaped. When I walked in the front door I immediately saw a strange-looking cross. I asked, "Where did you get that?"

One of them answered, "It was given to us by our interior designer."

It was made of Chinese good luck coins and the same red string worn by Buddhists around their wrists or necks. There was another one of these crosses inside their home. There was also a chime hanging from the ceiling above their picture of St. Theresa the Little Flower. My discernment was on high alert before breakfast even started.

I prodded them, "Who is your interior designer? Why are they giving you these charms?"

They responded that their realtor referred her to them and both the realtor and the designer are Catholic.

"It’s Feng Shui," I advised them. "Let me educate you on what it is...divination." I referred them to the Catechism and Deuteronomy 18-19, specifically, "When you come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you, you must not learn to imitate the abhorrent practices of those nations. No one shall be found among you who makes a son or daughter pass through fire, or who practices divination, or is a soothsayer, or an augur, or a sorcerer, or one who casts spells, or who consults ghosts or spirits, or who seeks oracles from the dead. For whoever does these things is abhorrent to the Lord; it is because of such abhorrent practices that the Lord your God is driving them out before you. You must remain completely loyal to the Lord your God. Although these nations that you are about to dispossess do give heed to soothsayers and diviners, as for you, the Lord your God does not permit you to do so" (Deut. 18:9-14)." (Deut. 18:9-14).

They believed immediately and got out a ladder to take them down. I told them they would need to have their houses blessed by a priest, not a diviner.

Eco-spiritualists would have us believe that nature is flawless and it is humans that need to find harmony with Mother Earth. But the environment is far from perfect. Jesus commanded the storm to cease and it did (Mark 4:35-40); he commanded nature and it obeyed him. Praise God that we are subject to a Saviour who commands nature; we are creatures of a Creator who created nature! Nature will only be redeemed when humans are redeemed at the return of Christ.