Spiritual journeys in tending the living earth, permaculture, and nature-inspired arts
Earlier on the Druid’s Garden blog, I introduced the ideas of biocentrism and ecocentrism as counter-philosophies to anthropocentrism: the dominant philosophy that humanity is more deserving than the rest of the lives on this planet, that their priorities are more …
In early August of 2024, due to some house repairs, I had to take down almost all of my altars and shrines of sacred things due to where they were located and the nature of the repars. These shrines were …
The wheel of the year is a principle that many in the druid traditions think about in terms of seasonal celebrations. The wheel is different for people living in different ecosystems, and one of the things you can do is …
Here on our homestead tucked in the mountains of Western Pennsylvania, we have a wonderful greenhouse made from recycled materials. The base is a carport my friend had her farm and offered the greenhouse to me when she moved. This …
As I’ve shared before, I have personally gotten so much depth and connection from working directly with the earth for healing food, and medicine, and meeting my needs. More than just knowing or being out in nature, using nature to …
My last Druid Garden guide covered physical land healing, tied to regeneration, rewilding, permaculture, wildtending, and refugia gardening. These are the practices that allow us to connect with the land deeply with our hands in the soil and love in …
As a part-time member of the Goose flock, I walk in the back of the line of geese we make our way to swim in the creek. I say hello to the berry bushes and hazelnuts that are ripening, playing …
What can we do to support nature in this age that is meaningful and important? One of the primary ways that I’ve been thinking about this is in terms of creating refuges for life, or “refugia.” I’ve shared some of …
As we have been exploring on this blog, living in the Age of the Anthropocene means living in a time when human activity is radically reshaping the world. Exponentially increasing human demands for resources are leaving many other lives on …
It is not easy to live in the Age of the Anthropocene–the increasingly difficult challenges of everyday life, the unweaving social fabric and community bonds, and of course, the 6th mass extinction and ongoing climate change. Despite the media parading …
Land healing encompasses a wide range of activities: from physical replanting, rewilding, and regenerative approaches directly on the land to metaphysical blessings, healings, and palliative care. As I’ve just launched the Land Healer’s Network and am releasing the Land Healing …
I see you, beautiful, layered ridges of the Appalachian mountains: your peaks against the blue winter sky, the mist arises from the snow while the Imbolc sun comes out to warm you just enough. Below that, your frozen bones await …
Plants and mushrooms have been healing humans since long before recorded human history. Evidence of this abounds from healing plants and mushrooms found on preserved corpses and pre-historical burial grounds (such evidence of herbal use in Shanidar cave from 60,000 …
Today I’m very excited to announce the upcoming release of my new book: Land Healing: Physical, Metaphysical, and Ritual Approaches for Healing the Earth. The book is now available for preorder and will be released on March 28, 2024 from …
As we’ve been exploring in my post last week–a new paradigm is rising, a paradigm being enacted in backyards, home kitchens, community gardens, clubs, mushroom clubs, herbalism schools, ecovillages, pigment foragers, and thousands of other places. This is a new …
A paradigm is a set of patterns: of thoughts, actions, beliefs, and practices, under which people operate. We all were born into the paradigms of our current age: where money, colonization, domination, and the myth of progress are embedded into …
As I write this, we have our last day before a freeze–the day before death comes to our landscape. On my landscape, in temperate Western Pennsylvania (USDA Zone 6), we’ve had almost no frosts to speak of–the summer has seemed …
There is something magical about putting your hands in the soil. The cool, damp feeling, the smell of earthy loam, the crumbling of the loam between your fingers. Touching soil, the building block of life, grounds you in a way …
Recently I had some local homesteaders visit who wanted to see our homestead and the various systems we’ve been building. At one point, I uprooted a dandelion that was growing in a bed and the whole root just came right …
My post from last week generated an incredible amount of discussion from people from all walks of life. So rather than continue to talk about soil (which is now scheduled for next week), I wanted to take another week to …
The Fall equinox is traditionally regarded as a time of reaping the harvest and also a time of balance between the dark half and the light half of the year. As is customary this time of year, I’ve been reflecting …