Though I work in Essex and am writing this column for a paper in Gloucester, I actually live with my wife in Salem.

October in Salem is a unique experience. Over the years, a number of friends have reminded me it's an experience they can do without! As we prepare for the deluge of visitors and their ever creative, sometimes bizarre, costumes, I try to stay focused on the bigger picture that transcends the narrow focus Halloween seems to have taken on.

For some of us in the religious community, of course, Halloween represents the eve leading up to the celebrations of All Saints Day (Nov. 1), and All Souls Day (Nov. 2).

When I was growing up, these were very important holy times in the church calendar; times to remember the ancestors. As Alice Walker has written: "To acknowledge our ancestors means we are aware that we did not make ourselves, that the line stretches all the way back, (perhaps) to God; or to Gods. We remember them because it is an easy thing to forget: that we are not the first to suffer, rebel, fight, love and die. The grace with which we embrace life, in spite of the pain, sorrows, is always a measure of what has gone before."

Such a profound insight reminds me why I love celebrating these holy days of the fall.

But, back to the celebration of Oct. 31, Halloween and the witches. Though I'm told all the good witches leave Salem for Halloween, and only return when the commercial aspects of the festivities have died down, I am still reminded that serious witches have much to teach us about the spiritual journey.

In fact, witches and the Wiccan religious perspective that many witches practice is part of a much wider spiritual perspective which I would refer to as Earth-based spirituality, which I understand to encompass many religious viewpoints such as paganism, Native American and goddess spiritualities.

These are, if you will, nature spiritualities, or nature religions. And despite the negative connotations so many associate with witches and pagans, etc., these traditions help remind us that the Sacred, the Holy, the Divine is in us all and all of creation. There is, according to these traditions, what Unitarian Universalists call an "interdependent web of existence of which we are all a part," a great web of life that connects all of nature, animals and humans as part of this wonderful creation initiated by a loving and benevolent God.

An important Christian theologian of our day, Matthew Fox, calls this perspective based on the goodness of nature, "Creation-centered spirituality," with its focus on "Original Blessing," rather than Original Sin.

In Earth-based spiritual perspectives such as Creation-centered spirituality, human beings are a part of creation, not necessarily its high point. That is, we humans are de-centered — not diminished, just de-centered. We are partners in a creative process with the Creator and the rest of creation. And we have a special responsibility to care for all of creation and nature. We are called to more than just good stewardship, but to mutual respect with a deep understanding as to how dependent we humans are on nature.

The great religious thinkers of the 19th century known as Transcendentalists understood this deep connection we humans have to nature and that nature itself is yet another source of revelation of the Sacred. According to a contemporary scholar of this movement, Emerson believed nature was "ecstatic," and "bursting with creative (and divine) energy." He "looked to nature for spiritual insight and moral instruction ... nature is an Eternal Now," he concludes.

Such a perspective is a great antidote to an overly human-centered spiritual perspective, too often leading to the view that nature is for our taking and use (or abuse). Rather, this deep and profound spiritual understanding speaks of partnership and mutuality. We are truly called to care for the Earth that nurtures and helps sustain us.

I was saddened to read in the Boston Globe that recent surveys suggest that fewer people than just a few years back believe what most scientists have concluded: "the Earth is warming" and humans have a key responsibility in this process. Despite these reports, I am so glad for those among us who have forged ahead and continue to remind us of our human calling to work in partnership with nature and to care for the planet.

I am grateful that, on Climate Action Day (Oct. 24), so many of us held public actions to raise awareness of this impending crisis — on the North Shore I was aware of major events in Salem and at Crane's Beach in Ipswich — but even more especially, I am grateful that such public actions are a reminder of our human responsibility as cocreators to view nature as a partner and to understand our earth as infused with the Holy as we humans have always understood ourselves to be.

In the Hebrew Bible, the Genesis text speaks of humans being created in God's image; many of us also believe this is equally true of the universe. The divine spark is infused in all of creation.

As the seasons turn once again, and this weekend we have the opportunity to view nature here in New England in all its beauty, may we all be reminded of the gift of creation, the gift of our lives together with the earth that supports our every breath.

The Earth is our home and many of our spiritual traditions remind us of the profound way in which nature reveals the sacred to us in all of its splendor. I am so grateful for these Earth-based spiritual traditions that, unfortunately, have often been misunderstood and mischaracterized.

It is time, as one Native American teacher has suggested, to begin to restore the "sacred hoop" that is our Mother Earth.

The Rev. Art McDonald is minister of the First Universalist Church of Essex. Midweek Musings is a column rotated among Cape Ann clergy.