Attending the Earth

When we consider the sacredness of the Earth, we tend to think of beautiful, awe-inspiring places like old-growth forests and snowy mountains. Yet hurt places like a landfill, a clear-cut forest, and a street corner where an act of violence has occurred are also part of the sacred Earth, and they are often shunned. In this workshop participants open up to the beauty and holiness of wounded places as they develop practices of ceremony, offerings, and meditative listening there. Praising, mourning, and creating sacred beauty for hurt places fosters respect for all parts of Creation, deepens compassion, and unites people of diverse races, religions, and ages around the love of place.

The course is especially designed for and relevant to anyone who is saddened by the many ways in which the Earth is under assault and wishes to develop a more sacred relationship with those and all places. 

Through this practice participants will:

• Visit a place near them between sessions, that they consider hurt, broken, or toxic, and spend time in this place., focusing each week on a different aspect of the practice
• Appreciate that all of nature, splendid and spoiled, is sacred
• Discover that, just as we can’t be whole, healthy individuals until we confront and befriend the shadow places within, so we can’t expect to live with a healthy planet until we confront hurt places
• Explore how “othering” certain places corresponds to othering certain people, and shift old attitudes through compassion, delight, and spiritually-oriented antiracist, anti-colonial practices
• Develop liturgies and ceremonies to help face ecological crises both local and global