Backpacking Pagans

Neopaganism and Wilderness Hiking Overlap in the Gaiaped Tradition

May 25, 2007 Terence P Ward

The earth-centered spirituality of Neopaganism and the wilderness lifestyle of backpacking come together in the Gaiaped spiritual path of earth spirituality.

Backpackers and Neopagans share enough values that it was inevitable that there would be some crossover. Pagans are usually nature oriented, and backpackers are environmentally conscious. Backpacking, the action of taking a trip (in the United States generally in wilderness), carrying everything you’re going to need in a framed sack called a backpack, is a logical recreation for Pagans, people that have any number of polytheistic religious beliefs, including nature and Earth worship. Since at least 1990s spiritually focused hikers have been worshiping in the wilderness, rather than finding or creating temples and churches.

Pagans who backpack do not usually consciously see a relationship between their Paganism and their hobby of backpacking. The interests in backpacking and being Pagan generally develop at the same time, so it’s easy to overlook the connections. A term coined to describe backpacking Pagans is “Gaiaped.”

A Hiking Religious Tradition

Members of the Gaiaped tradition worship as they backpack: moving in small groups or alone, and practicing in the minimalist manner that fits the backpacking lifestyle. However Pagans, particularly Wiccans, have certain generally accepted standards that must be altered for a backpacking environment. Such traditions may be written down in a wilderness book of shadows or, for the ultralight backpacker, simply memorized.

Ritual Tools of the Trail

Backpacking Pagans may be found carrying ritual tools that are light, strong, and serve some other purpose (such as a chalice being an all-purpose titanium cup). No distinction is made between salt that flavors backpacking food and salt used for consecrating Pagan tools; everything of the Earth is already sacred. No tool that serves only one purpose, such as a large and heavy sword for scribing a circle, is ever included.

The trail itself replaces the ritual circle, as the backpackers hike into a ritual space that is “outside of time and space.” The trail itself is a metaphor for life’s journey, making trail blazes marks of ritual significance.

Community of Backpackers

The individuality and mobility of backpackers amplifies the tendency of Pagans to move frequently among different ritual groups. One way that Gaiapeds ritually grow closer is through the Ashes of Community, an unbroken line of ashes from successive ritual fires. Gaiapeds keep lists of what fires their own ashes came from, trading lists when they share ashes together in a ritual fire. For minimalist backpackers, this list may be the only Book of Shadows they possess.

Backcountry Ethics

Backpacking Pagans often participate in trail maintenance and other ecological endeavors, as this is a value shared by backpackers and Pagans alike. Gaiapeds will sometimes take formal vows of stewardship of some specific area of land which last a set period of time, much like a handfasting. The stewardship requirements are dependant on the Gaiaped’s understanding of what is needed by that specific tract of land, so hiking the land extensively is the norm.

The Leave No Trace code of outdoor ethics is adopted by Gaiapeds as a broader code to live life by, much like how Wiccans follow the Threefold Law and many Christians believe in the Golden Rule. Leave No Trace asks that its adherents consider the consequences of their actions, and try to find the course that causes the least harm. In that, it is not dissimilar from the Iroquois Confederation’s admonition to consider the consequences of all actions to the seventh generation.

The tradition of backpacking Paganism is dissolute enough that few have studied it closely. Research such as Helen Berger's work A Community of Witches: Contemporary Neo-Paganism and Witchcraft in the United States (University of South Carolina Press, 1999) will help shape the types of research that is needed in this area. In the meantime, the similarities and overlaps are easily seen by reviewing major web pages, such as Backpacker.com and the Covenant of the Goddess page.

The copyright of the article Backpacking Pagans in Backpacking, Hiking & Camping is owned by Terence P Ward. Permission to republish Backpacking Pagans in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

Gaiaped in Yellowstone National Park