Interplanetary Pagans

So here's one from way back in my days as a baby pagan in the 90's. I've asked this one before, and eventually I arrived upon the fact that I was over thinking a bit and just slow down. But the question is still unanswered, and perhaps is one of those questions that has more than one answer.

Much of the pagan world focuses on cycles of nature and peculiarities of the local environment. When I lived near the ocean, my practice keyed into that. In a few short years my family had developed a handful of traditions and rituals that would make no sense without the ocean and tides.

But what about space? My one case of personal celebrity mania is on Elon Musk, a man who speaks with certainty about travelling to Mars and starting a colony there. But what would paganism be there? There are seasons. There is weather. Some of it would be hard to work with, but it's there. But what of the four elements? Fire is pretty hard to come by on Mars. Water as well. Wind and earth are no problem at all. Can the four element model adapt to that reality? I suspect so, but what would it look like?

And how about the Moon? This was my original hangup. There's a little bit of water there. And an inch or two of atmosphere that is so completely unlike our own, even scientists hesitate to call it an atmosphere. And that's not even dealing with the fact that the lunar cycle is effectively meaningless on the face of the Moon. On the other hand, you are standing on the very face of the Lady. How's that for a personal connection with deity?

And there are complications with even wider patterns in space flight. For those who follow astrology, the rising and setting of the Sun in the houses are tricky. The planets have a whole new characteristic of motion that basically throws the whole chart out the window. I'm not an astrologer. Perhaps that issue is more solvable than I imagine, but it takes a little thought to work it out.

And how about casting runes or using a pendulum from orbit? Or pouring libations when the libation in question neither falls nor has any desire to stay in the libation dish, to say nothing of the irritation of one's fellow space fliers by the crumbs and stain-inducing liquid from cakes and wine.

Perhaps I am over thinking this. I know I am. But it's not without precedent. A few years ago some devout Muslims flew in space. They had to get official word from an imam as to when they needed to pray and how they work out where Mecca is from orbit. Paganism will adapt to space just as it adapts to areas with a rainy and dry season versus the temperate four. But what will Martian paganism look like?