The Fifth Sacred Thing

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In The Fifth Sacred Thing by Starhawk, the world of 2048 has suffered a series of environmental, military and political disasters leaving much of the population dead and the planet destroyed. In San Francisco (Ecotopia) eco-feminists have created an egalitarian, environmental utopia based on a kind of ‘Pagan’ or Native American spirituality. There are five elements of air, fire, earth, water and spirit representing the true wealth of society “that no one can profit from individually” (274). There are shrines to the first four of these on a hill outside the city, where they are tended by the priestesses. One of their most important rituals is to leave offerings at these, such as feathers, rainwater, seeds and herbs, to emphasize the community’s link with the environment. There are no more airplanes or automobiles in Ecotopia, and all the city streets have become gardens and canals, with the energy coming from wind power and the economy based on local agriculture. They have more than enough to eat, unlike people in much of the rest of the world, and there is no oppression or inequality based on gender, color, religion or sexual orientation. At one time, they also exported high tech devices like audio-discs, widescreens and video players, but since their enemies, the Stewards “’cleaned up’ the industry, there’s nothing much anyone would want to watch” (104).
On the other side, the Southland around Los Angeles (Angel City) is run by a group of wealthy white men and large corporations called the Stewards. They practice a fundamentalist Christian religion, repression of women, and racial segregation and apartheid. It is basically a militaristic and fascist state with a huge underclass controlled by drugs and genetics that t...

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...eally got underway in his administration. Along with Richard Nixon, he deserves the credit for creating this New Right version of Southland Republicanism that has continued up to the present. If anything, the country is even more divided along these lines today than it was in the 1970s and 1980s. Ecoptopia, on the other hand, was a feminist, green society based on multiculturalism, alternative energy, belief in the Earth Goddess, psychic healing and pacifism, all of which really were prime targets of the New Right. In this novel, they were the good side while the forces of the Stewards had already led the world to destruction, so their main problem was how to combat the fascists and militarists without becoming like them.
WORKS CITED
Starhawk. The Fifth Sacred Thing. Bantam Books, 1983/1994.

WORKS CITED
Starhawk. The Fifth Sacred Thing. Bantam Books, 1983/1994.

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