I was reading over this topic and it brought up some issues I have been working through. Even though this relates to the topic I thought it would be better as a separate thread. Gwynyvyr asked if one's path influenced one's environment. I am wondering about the opposite: how does one's environment affect his/her path?
For instance, I recently moved from the mid-Atlantic region to Miami Beach. My personal practice is heavily nature-based with the honoring of local land-spirits and attunement to the climate and environment making up the bulk of it. Naturally, this has caused me to have to overhaul most of my daily practices. I grew up with four well-defined seasons and a major difference between winter and summer. The spirits I worked with seemed to follow the turn of the seasons and the death and rebirth that occurred between fall and spring was a major influence on how I worshiped.
Everything is so different down here! Instead of four seasons there are really only three: high summer and low summer, both overlaid at opposite ends by hurricane season. Crops are grown and harvested year-round. Everything is green and lush even when my body is telling me it should be the dead of winter. I am extremely close to the ocean and get the chance to interact with it daily, something I've never done before. And the local land spirits, the few I have encountered so far, are wild and unfamiliar.
I still honor my Gods and ancestors the same way I did before, as they are not in any way limited by location, but my internal sense of place and connection with the land around me is all out of whack and I have had to rethink how I do things.
I know that this does not apply to everyone, since many of you do not follow a nature or earth-based path/religion, but for those who do: have you ever experienced this? How have changes in your environment affected your practices and/or beliefs?
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