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Exploring the Sacred Animals of the Quarters in the Druid Tradition

In the druid tradition, in multiple modern druid orders, we associate animals or fish with the four directions.  The classic ones are: The Great Bear in the North The Hawk in the East The Stag in the South The Salmon …

Mushrooms as Nature’s Alchemists: Cycles, Connections, Healing, and Vision

When I feel lost and feel like the hope is gone in the world, I go spend time with some mushrooms.  Mushrooms, more than any other organism on this planet, give me hope.  So much so, I’ve been doing an …

Putting in your Dirt Time and Connecting Deeply with Nature

As the head of a druid order, people often ask me, “What’s the best way to learn to be a druid?” or “What books should I pick up?” or “How do I get started in nature spirituality?” and my answer …

Diary of a Land Healer: A Vision of a Healed Landscape and the Power of Hope

In my ongoing work as a land healer, I find that I regularly need a retreat from my battered bruised landscape. Why?  Because this work is really difficult. Lately, it seems more so–we have large swaths of forests where I …

Multiflora Rose

Artificial Intelligence, Chat GPT, & Midjourney: The Problems of Using AI Image and Text Generators to Create Rituals, Magical Tools, and Tarot Decks

A lot has happened since my initial post on the topic of AI and the bardic arts in mid-October.  At this point, AI is being discussed in many different places by many different communities and groups. AI is all the …

Spirit Journeying Part 3: Deeper Work

In the last three posts in  this series, we explored spirit journeying: preliminary and preparatory work, connecting with a spirit journey guide, and establishing your inner grove. All of these things were meant to set you up for the journeys …

Introduction to Spirit Journeying: Your Inner Sacred Grove

In the last two posts, we explored the preliminaries for spirit journeying: the preliminaries such as addressing issues like safety, believability, focus, and visualization and also doing an initial journey to find a guide that can assist you as part …

Introduction to Spirit Journeying: Meeting, Honoring and Working with Your Spirit Guide

Walking in the world with spirits, journeying with them, and experiencing their teachings is a tremendous way to deepen your own spirituality and connection to nature.  In the druid tradition, we primarily focus on relationships to nature, so spirit journeying …

updated on November 13, 2022November 13, 2022

Mapping Your Spiritual Journey

One’s spiritual journey is full of so many twists and turns, particularly if you are taking up the druid path. Druidry is a path that really focuses on individual relationships with the living earth, and thus, you will find a …

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updated on October 29, 2022November 6, 2022

Gardening and Animism: Garden Rituals and Ceremonies to bring Abundance and Honor the Soil

A person walks into a garden at as the sun rises.  As it is the spring equinox, the soil is still mostly bare, although the stinging nettles are peeking through the earth to enjoy the first of the morning rays.  …

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Chestnuts roasting on the open fire at Yule
updated on October 16, 2022October 30, 2022

A Druid’s Silent Supper: A Samhain Ritual of Ancestor Connection

Friends and grove members are welcomed into a candlelit home, and with the fire in the hearth blazing.  Each person brings a dish to share–steaming piles of local foods in season: a beautiful roast beef, pumpkin soup, sourdough bread, baked …

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updated on October 22, 2022October 23, 2022

An Animistic Garden, Part II: Gardening Strategies

A garden full of life, joy, wildness, and spirit–where the vegetables, herbs, fruits, and nuts grow fat with the joy of being nurtured, where the spirits are working with the gardener for the good of all, and where all is …

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Exploring dream symbolism!
updated on January 19, 2023October 16, 2022

Artificial Intelligence AI Image Generation and Human Creative Expression

A few weeks ago, I received a text message from one of my most tech-savvy friends.  The message described how he was exploring Stable Diffusion, an AI art generator and found my work in the database as well as the …

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Shanti garden at Sirius Ecovillage
updated on October 2, 2022October 9, 2022

An Animistic Garden, Part I: Garden Philosophy and Bridging between Domestication and Wildness

“That’s a pretty wild and unkempt garden you have there.  Did you lose control?” a visitor to my land once said. “Yes, I responded, it is wonderful.”  When you look at pictures of gardens online, in gardening magazines, etc. things …

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updated on September 28, 2022October 2, 2022

Review: Natural Building Workshop at Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage

Where we live–the spaces we inhabit, and how they are designed, make an enormous difference in how we are able to address climate change and sustainability. Modern houses are commonly disconnected both from the land where they are placed but …

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Hemlock
updated on September 26, 2022September 25, 2022

Druidry, Colonialism and the Spirit of the Mountain

A fundamental issue in practicing nature-based spirituality has to do with not only your relationship to the land but the relationship of the land in relation to your blood ancestors.  Many druids, including those of caucasian descent in North America …

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Fall foliage rising above...
updated on September 17, 2022September 18, 2022

Fall Equinox: A Spirit Walk

The Fall Equinox is a time of no time, a time of balance between the night and day, of balance between the physical and metaphysical.  Thus, it is a good time to seek balance and communion with the spirit world, …

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Waste Not (front of Compost Toilet)
updated on August 21, 2022September 11, 2022

Animstic Permaculture: Waste is a Resource and Honoring the Spirit

Last year, we lost a good friend and foundational member of our homestead–an ancient white oak with a giant burl. She overlooked the stream and I used to sit on a rock near her to meditate.  When she fell, she …

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updated on August 14, 2022September 4, 2022

Animistic Permaculture: Observation and Interaction with the Genius Loci (Spirits of Place)

In permauclture design, the “observe and interact” principle is the very first thing we do. This principle asks a practitioner to spend considerable time (up to a year) observing and interacting with a site. This would include regular observations in …

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updated on August 14, 2022August 28, 2022

Animism and Permaculture: Introduction and Ethics

Permaculture design is many things to many people–but ultimately, it is a system of design that works with nature rather than against nature. Permaculture uses principles to allow us to have a clear thinking process for creating resilient ecosystems, fostering …

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updated on July 23, 2022August 21, 2022

Living Low Acre: A 20 Year Urban Permaculture Site in St. Louis

I had the opportunity this summer to visit Claire Schosser and her amazing “Living Low Acre” garden in St. Louis, Missouri. Her home sits on 1 acre in an urban setting and features a fruit-based forest, large vegetable garden, a …

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updated on July 23, 2022July 24, 2022

21st Century Wheel of the Year – Reverence at Lughnasadh

Many of us are now going deeper into the experience of climate extremes. In the summer months here in the US, we are experiencing heat, lack of rain, and drought-like conditions.  It is hotter and drier, and that creates stress …

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Working with Spirit and Matter
updated on July 1, 2022July 14, 2022

Introduction to Animism: Definitions and Core Practices for Nature Spirituality

I am hanging out with a friend’s two daughters by a local lake. The lake is peaceful early in the morning, and we are enjoying watching flock of wild geese playing nearby.  One of the children picks up a beautiful, …

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Regeneration
updated on July 3, 2022July 3, 2022

Visioning the Future: The Web of Relationships

Late-stage capitalism has provided us with a series of visions about the future that are pretty terrifying. The grand narratives of infinite growth and progress at all costs have landed us in a warming age marked by the loss of …

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updated on June 27, 2022June 26, 2022

Ultimate Guide to Hugelkultur Garden Beds: Creating, Maintaining, and Benefits

Hugelkutltur (or Hugel for short) is a garden bed technique that uses wood and layers of plant matter, topped with compost, to build up moisture-holding beds over time. Hugelkultur beds were first described in Sepp Holzer’s Permaculture book and are …

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updated on June 15, 2022June 19, 2022

A 21st Century Wheel of the Year: Re-Visioning at the Summer Solstice

Human cultures throughout the world, modern and ancient, recognize the incredible power, potency, and magic of the sun. This is why so many cultures have sun gods and worshipped the sun, and this is also why so many ancient kings …

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updated on June 10, 2022June 12, 2022

Living for the Future at Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage

As many of us seek to transition from our current destructive culture and create a powerful vision for the future, we need good models of what this kind of transition may look like. As we are moving forward, this often …

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Goldenrod
updated on May 29, 2022June 5, 2022

Biocentrism and Ecocentrism as a Core Part of Nature Spirituality

Once you begin walking the path of nature spirituality, things begin shifting. A tree is not just a tree, an insect is not just an insect–they are beings in their own right, with stories to share, lessons to offer, and …

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updated on May 1, 2022May 29, 2022

My Best Advice for Homesteading: Planning, Flocks, and Gardens

I’ve been homesteading (or what those in the UK would call smallholding) since 2010 at two different homesteads.  Through this, and through being in community groups and having many friends who are also homesteaders, you learn a lot of things …

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Learn more about the Ancient Order of Druids in America!  AODA helps you wildcraft your druidry, connect and reciprocate with the living earth, and develop a personal nature spiritual practice.

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My Books: Sacred Actions

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My Books: Sacred Actions Journal

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