Spiritual journeys in tending the living earth, permaculture, and nature-inspired arts
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 …
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 …
Another mountain is being lost near my home–a mountain that has lost already 50 feet or more of elevation and is being just eaten by machines and humans behind those machines. It’s really hard to frame this any other way–I’m …
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 …
Ever since I was little, I have always felt connected with the earthworms in the rainstorms. They come out to bask and enjoy the rain, slithering through puddles, and turning their faces into the warm rain. But modern life is …
One of the things that I’ve realized in doing the work of a land healer is how little support and information is available. When I wrote Land Healing, I decided to create a supportive community in addition to the book …
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 …
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 …
I’ve been homesteading for about 12 years now, first in Michigan at a 3-acre homestead, and now with my partner here in Western Pennsylvania on five beautiful acres where we practice land healing, forest regeneration, permaculture, bioregional animsim, tend our …
It has been a hard week for many in North America, and around the globe. About half of the United States is having record-breaking heat, up to 120 degrees Fahrenheit (48.8 Celsius) in a heat dome that shows and is …
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 …
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 …
There is a growing movement of people reconnecting to nature through the foraging and creation of wild pigments–pigments from the earth allow us to connect, grow and heal. This is so much more than foraging for colors from nature to …
A druid walks upon a landscape, barren, cold, with trees cut and plants uprooted. Tears in her eyes, she surveys the damage that others have caused: the homes of so many animals disrupted after logging, the wild ramps and ginseng …
Today I wanted to take some time to share some of the updates on the land healing and permaculture practices we are enacting at the Druid’s Garden Homestead. As I’ve shared in earlier posts, when we purchased this land four …
A woman comes to a clearing in the recently burned forest with a basket of stones, sticks, nuts, and flowers. She begins to sing, laugh, and dance as she creates a beautiful circle with the materials. As she weaves her …
2020 is certainly a year to remember for many of us in the human realm. Here in Western Pennsylvania and up along many parts of New England, we’ve had an additional serious problem affecting the natural world—an extreme drought. This …
Often, working as a land healer is very local work: you work with the plants, animals, bodies of water, insect life, and many other aspects of life that are nearby to you. Depending on where you live, this is often …
The property was almost perfect: in the right location, a natural spring as a water source, a small and nice house with a huge hearth, areas for chickens and gardens, a small pond, and a stream bordering the edge of …
Some years ago, I remember one influential druid speaking at a major event and saying, “The best thing you can do in nature is pick up the garbage and get out.” From a certain standpoint, this perspective makes a lot …