Spiritual journeys in tending the living earth, permaculture, and nature-inspired arts
In paths untrodden In the growth by margins of pond-waters Escaped from the life that exhibits itself From all the standards hitherto publish’d—from the pleasures, profits, eruditions, conformities Which too long I was offering to feed my soul –Walt …
Well, dear readers and friends, the collapse is well underway. It is hard to even recognize this world we live in from before the pandemic. I look at the headlines today, and many of them sound like the science fiction …
One of the common questions that comes up about druidry is whether or not you can call yourself a “druid” and when. I get this question quite frequently, especially from folks who are new and are finding their way into …
Last weekend I had an opportunity to offer the Keynote at the Plant Cunning Conference in Central New York. This post is an adaptation from my keynote. The Plant Cunning Gathering was an amazing experience, and I highly recommend this …
One of my favorite times of the year is spring–when the land is awakening, and the green is returning! Beltane is here! Here in the Allegheny mountains, one of our folk herbal traditions is to “thicken” the blood in the …
When I first started writing about the idea of refugia over a decade ago, the idea where we would intentionally create nature sanctuaries, pockets of life where the land could flourish, grow, and be protected from everything that is going …
When I stand on the edge of our own land here that we have tended and regenerated for almost a decade and look out beyond our property line, I see so many things. We have conventional farmed fields nearby that …
In today’s post, I want to return once again to the tsunami that is breaking against humanity–the rise and frenzy of Generative AI. It has been an intense few years–to say the least–and GenAI has continued to dominate our local, …
In my last post, I shared my magical bardic process for recreating the four elemental symbols that I photographed from the Museum of Alchemy, Speculum Alchemiae. This week, I wanted to step back to explore how we understand and symbolize …
There are so many ways to honor the Awen as a druid–the spark of inspiration, the flow of ideas, and continuing to pursue a project that must make its way into the world. We all experience it at some point: …
At the beginning of January, I always do a 10-day spiritual retreat. It is rarely hard to go into retreat, but it is always difficult to come out. Coming out of any retreat can be challenging to re-align with the …
A group of women sit in a circle by a crackling fire, meditating to the beat of a drum. We have done a range of ceremonies this day, including protecting the delicate ecosystems of our mountains that are threatened by …
Here on Turtle Island, from the dawn of time until about a hundred years ago, Chestnuts were a staple food crop for all life, including human life. A nutritious and carbohydrate-rich nut, Chestnut trees produce a bumper crop of nuts …
If we look across nature, the species that are resilient, cunning, and adaptable are often the most successful. Cockroaches, rats, pigeons, and raccoons may top the list of extremely adaptable species–they have adapted even to urban environments and have found …
We are now three years into the age of ubiquitous generative artificial intelligence (GenAI), and well, things are not going well. The world is not a better place for it; most people’s lives are not a better place for it, …
This week, my new book EcoSpirituality for the 21st Century is hitting shelves in North America on October 28th (and it will be available internationally on January 28th, 2026!) I shared about the book, frameworks, and overview on the Eco-Spirituality for the …
One of the most powerful lessons we have from nature is nature’s ability to heal, bounce back, and thrive despite adversity. You see evidence of it every day–a forest is logged, and immediately the fungus begins to take root and …
Throughout the year, including on warmer days in the deepest winter months, you will find me out on the land: scattering seeds; planting and harvesting; communing with the plants, trees, and mushrooms; and working nature magic. With baskets overflowing with …
A growing number of people are taking an interest in herbal medicine. Why learn herbalism now? For many, it is a way to deeply learn and lean into the nature right outside their door. Further, learning how to identify, prepare, …
One of the resounding things I’m hearing from those on any spiritual path right now is how everything is just falling off for them in terms of their spiritual practices. Its hard to keep up, and hard to motivate yourself …
Nature is a perfect system. A tree falls during a thunderstorm. Within several weeks, the wood is colonized by fungi, bugs, and others who begin the years-long process of breaking down the wood and returning all of the nutrients into …