Dana O'Driscoll I’m really excited to announce the release of my new book: The Sacred Actions Journal: A Wheel of the Year Journal for Sustainable and Spiritual Practices. The Sacred Actions Journal is a follow-up to my 2021 book Sacred Actions: Living the Wheel and includes additional information on sacred actions, new insights on spiritual journaling, new activities, meditation and journaling prompts, and plenty of blank pages for you to write your thoughts. This post offers an overview of the book and also a sneak peek of my earth-centered spiritual journaling course. I also include several key aspects of Spiritual Journaling as well!
The Sacred Actions Journal
The Sacred Actions Journal: A Wheel of the Year Journal is being released on January 24th, 2023. The Sacred Actions Journal serves as a companion journal to Sacred Actions: Living the Wheel of the Year through Earth-Centered Sustainable Practices and offers neopagans and earth-based spiritual practitioners opportunities for reflecting on sustainable and sacred practices in the eight-fold wheel of the year. It was both written and illustrated by me, Dana O’Driscoll.
The Sacred Actions Journal offers additional prompts, activities, and illustrations to support your journey into earth-centered spirituality and sustainable living. Each of the sections includes information on the theme, a new method of journaling (such as perspective journaling, flow writing, and art journaling), meditation and journaling prompts, new activities and ideas for deepening your practice, and finally, beautiful illustrations to help inspire you.
The Sacred Actions Journal is available globally from major booksellers. You can purchase the Sacred Actions Journal at the following links:
Directly from the Publisher (USA/International)
The Sacred Actions Journal was a very special book to write because it allowed me to combine three of my loves–earth-based spirituality, regenerative and sustainable living, and writing. I don’t talk about my day job a lot on this blog, but I’m a writing professor. So I research writing, teach writing, and think about writing a lot. It was really fun to work on a project that focused on writing to deepen earth-centered spiritual practices.
Why engage in Sacred Journaling?
Journaling the Wheel of the Year
Humanity has lost its way as a collective force of good, nurturing, and caretaking nature. The more that we are able to step back from the current insanity of present-day culture, the more we are able to attune ourselves to our own inner knowing and to the seasons of the year and rhythms of the earth, the more prepared we can be to address. This is one reason that sacred journaling practices are so helpful–they allow us to slow down, to connect, and to engage in ways that modern screens and interactions simply do not allow. How do we become the best ancestors of the future? How do we learn to live with nature and create actions that are healing and supportive rather than destructive? One of the ways we do that is by deep thought, reflection, and exploring our own identities and feelings in relation to the broader world.
Journaling as a Sacred Practice
Journaling is a form of focused thought, a form of meditation, where you are able to retell the experiences you’ve had so that you can record or document them. The act of focused meditation in and of itself has health benefits–relaxation, slower heart rate, feeling more emotional well-being and balance, and so on. Beyond the physical, you are mentally more agile and
When you get lost or think about giving up on your journey, your journals are there to help you find your way back–to remember what is important, why it’s important, and what you have already accomplished. Further, Journaling allows you to work through challenging situations, emotions, or other things that may serve to stifle you. Not everything can be shared, but your journal and your future self are also there to guide you.
Journaling as Storytelling
An important part of creating a sacred journal is realizing that you are the only audience member for the journal–but in the future you is the most important reader. And while you know yourself in the present, you don’t know who the future you may be, or in what circumstances reading. For example, I did a major re-reading of my journals spanning back to 2006 during the Pandemic. Could me of 2006, still in graduate school in my 20’s, ever imagine the me now going into a 3rd year of a global pandemic? What that person had experienced? The answer is–no. So as much as you understand the future you, the future you is also someone you don’t yet know, someone you haven’t yet become. Thus, it’s interesting to take the approach of writing to the future you, perhaps far in the future you, to know what you were thinking at the time. To see where you’ve been and where you are going.
These insights are very helpful. You can think of this almost like a mirror–the current you who is writing is reflecting who you are, where you are, your experiences, and the things that are supporting you or harming you. The future you is the person not-yet-come-into-being, a future imaginary self that will one day read. So tell yourself a story. Remind yourself of the details and why you write, what you write, and what matters.
Learning and Reflecting
One of the big themes throughout this post is how journaling about your experiences allows you to learn, reflect, and grow. This has both immediate impact (as you are learning and growing literally as you write) but also in the long term. As you become more experienced in your path, the journal also serves as an important record of your path. What you did, what challenges you faced, who were your supports (human or spirit), and so on, these serve to help you understand and comprehend where you were at the time of writing. And while that may not make a lot of difference if you are only 2 months into your path, it makes a ton of difference as a year, two, 10 or more years pass–it allows you to see your own trajectory and how far you’ve come.
Photos and Information from the Sacred Actions Journal
The above is a little taste of what you can find in the Sacred Actions Journal!Here are a few sneak peeks from the book.
Sneak Peek: Earth-Centered Spiritual Journaling Course
I’m also super excited to announce that I will be offering a virtual course called “Earth Centered Spiritual Journaling” tied to the release of the journal. The course will be available in early March before the Spring Equinox and I’ll be releasing new content for the full year. The course will be able to be done on your own time and will include rituals, creative activities, and a host of ways to support and deepen your sacred journaling practice. I’ll be sharing more about it as we get closer to the course launching at the Spring Equinox.
Closing Thoughts
I just want to thank everyone for reading this blog. All of my ideas for books and other projects start here on the blog, which I’ve been writing for thirteen years now (since 2010). This marks the 550th post on The Druid’s Garden. I never would have made it this far without all of the dedicated readers and supporters here and my friends in the druid community. I’m so grateful for all of your long-term support.
If you know anyone who would like The Sacred Actions Journal or the upcoming Earth-Centered Spiritual Journaling course, please share!
I’m very interested in participating in this course!
I plan to purchase both books once the second one comes out, and I look forward to your virtual journaling course!
Becky, thank you! :). I so appreciate your support :).
Congrats of you 550th post, I have been reading your blog for quite sometime and I am never disappointed in the content. I have the Sacred Actions book so I will get the journal as well. The course sounds like an interesting idea.