Seasons of the Sacred weaves together poems, images, and stories of Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter, reconnecting us to our roots in the cycles of nature and our own soul. As our world appears more and more out of balance, our destruction of the natural world increasing, there is a vital need to remember what is essential, simple, and sacred. Likening Spring to falling in love, Summer with abundance and spiritual awakening, and Autumn with fruition and wisdom, this book continuously reflects the profound resonance of humanity within nature. Never more relevant than now, the chapter on Winter helps the reader remember what is most essential, showing how there is meaning and even peace amidst the most devastating losses, and how all life belongs to these deeper patterns of change. The book draws from such a variety of sources, such as Rumi, Hafiz, Lao Tzu, Rabia, Julian of Norwich, T.S. Eliot, and others. Each chapter opens with a unique woodcut or engraving image, further illustrating the beauty of our seasons. Vaughan-Lee adeptly connects the reader to the deepest envisioning of contemporary challenges. Climate catastrophe, refugees, cultural degradation, and political divisiveness are all contextualized within natural cycles of birth, loss, and transition, and the reader is guided to listen through the fear and anxiety of our age to the deeper ground of belonging that calls from even the most destitute inner and outer landscapes. Seasons of the Sacred is Llewellyn Vaughn-Lee’s fifth contribution to his spiritual ecology series, which places the human story within the story of the Earth and compels the examination of attitudes, beliefs, and habits in relation to the ongoing desecration, ecological devastation—and potential restoration—of our common home. “Vaughan-Lee encourages reconnecting with the Earth in this heartfelt compilation of essays, poems, and illustrations…. Suitable for readers of all spiritual persuasions, Vaughan-Lee’s soothing observations will inspire a more mindful contemplation of Earth’s rhythms.” —Publishers Weekly “Seasons of the Sacred is a beckoning down into the simple rhythms of nature. With his guiding eloquence, Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee moves us into conversation with the sacred, calling our awareness to the concealed gifts of each season. Drawing on the ancient poetry of Rumi, Hafiz, Julian of Norwich, Wordsworth, and others, we can’t help but fall into step with the numinous found in ordinary life.” —Toko-pa Turner, author of Belonging: Remembering Ourselves Home

Cliff Seruntine describes his family's adventures living on a secluded homestead in Nova Scotia.

"Kazuko Shiraishi's poems are outcries, meditations, exclamations of fierce energy and playfulness. It is a joy to hear from a Japanese sister of such breadth and bravery." --Anne Waldman

As we approach the hectic holiday season, many mamas find ourselves longing to add more meaning, resonance, and ritual to our family traditions. If you're looking to tone down the conspicuous consumption and turn your winter traditions from frenzy to reflection or from mundane to mystical, this book can be your guide. The Sacred Seasons incorporates activities and rituals from indigenous wisdom traditions and the Earth's holy days, based upon the Celtic wheel of the year. The Sacred Seasons is welcoming and inclusive to readers of all backgrounds, faiths, and beliefs. Parents and children awaken the wonder and magic of living more deeply connected to the natural rhythms of the seasons and co-create meaningful traditions on the holy days of winter solstice (Yule) in December, and the birth of spring (Imbolc) in February. Mamas steep in seasonal self-care, personal reflection and ceremony to attune the psyche to the elements and feminine archetypes of winter. As Mamas honor our bodies and the seasons as sacred, we awaken the true meaning of what is holy at this time of year, creating new family traditions that warm the heart and soul, as well as regenerate the Earth.

"In this timely third book in his Spiritual Ecology series, spiritual teacher Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee continues his exploration of the many facets of interconnection between humanity and the Earth. Deeply spiritual but not religious, "Seasons of the Sacred" offers a collection of narratives, poems, and images from various sources to illuminate the hope, beauty, abundance, and darkness of the Earth's cycles and humanity's place therein. Likening Spring to falling in love, Summer with abundance and spiritual awakening, and Fall with fruition and wisdom, the book continuously reflects the profound resonance of humanity within nature. Never more relevant than now, the chapter on Winter points the reader to what is most essential even as the temporal is stripped away like autumn leaves, providing some assurance that there is meaning and even peace amidst the most devastating losses. As with other books in this series, Vaughan-Lee illustrates the essential interdependence of the human soul with the soul of the Earth and highlights the spiritual roots of contemporary issues such as the climate crisis. "Seasons of the Sacred," places the human story within the story of the Earth, and compels the examination of attitudes, beliefs, and habits in relation to the ongoing desecration-and potential restoration-of our sacred home"--

Prepare to Be Mentored by the Sacred Hags! The yearning to slow down and simplify, return to the earth, and maybe even “rewild” what has been tamed in ourselves persists even though that dream may seem ever more remote in contemporary life. Danielle Dulsky shows that even in our high-tech and high-pressure lives, it is possible to manifest your own “year of the wild” and to tap into often-forgotten holy wisdom. Seasons of Moon and Flame guides you to live cyclically while working with the archetype of the Sacred Hag, or wild grandmother, who appears in various guises. Wonderfully inclusive, with adaptations for families, spiritual groups, and other traditions, this book is a potentially life-changing guide to living mystically, magically, and in empowering harmony with the worlds of spirit and nature.

It would be impossible to have spirituality without prayer, of course, but it is certainly possible to pray without having a spirituality at all. A life of value is not a series of great things well done; it is a series of small things consciously done.

"Abide in me," Jesus tells us, "and you will bear much fruit." Yet too often we forget that fruit needs different seasons in order to grow. We measure our spiritual maturity by how much we do rather than how we are responding to our current spiritual season. In Spiritual Rhythm, Mark Buchanan replaces our spirituality of busyness with a spirituality of abiding. Sometimes we are busy, sometimes still, sometimes pushing with all we've got, sometimes waiting. This model of the spiritual life measures and produces growth by asking: Are we living in rhythm with the season we are in? With the lyrical writing for which he is known, Mark invites us to respond to every season of the heart, whether we are flourishing and fruitful, stark and dismal, or cool and windy. In comparing spiritual rhythms to the seasons of the year, he shows us what to expect from each season and how embracing the seasons causes our spiritual lives to prosper. As he draws on the powerful words of Scripture, Mark explores what activities are suitable or necessary in each season--and what activities are useless or even harmful in that season. Throughout the book, Mark weaves together stories of young and old, men and women, families, couples, and individuals who are in or have been through a particular season of the heart. As Mark writes, "I pray that this book meets you in whatever season you're in, and prepares you for whatever seasons await. I pray that it helps you find your voice, your stride, your rhythm, in season or out. Mostly, I pray that you, with or without my help, find Christ wherever you are. And that, even more, you discover that wherever you are, he's found you."

In this extensively revised and enlarged edition of his best-selling book, David Suzuki reflects on the increasingly radical changes in nature and science — from global warming to the science behind mother/baby interactions — and examines what they mean for humankind’s place in the world. The book begins by presenting the concept of people as creatures of the Earth who depend on its gifts of air, water, soil, and sun energy. The author explains how people are genetically programmed to crave the company of other species, and how people suffer enormously when they fail to live in harmony with them. Suzuki analyzes those deep spiritual needs, rooted in nature, that are a crucial component of a loving world. Drawing on his own experiences and those of others who have put their beliefs into action, The Sacred Balance is a powerful, passionate book with concrete suggestions for creating an ecologically sustainable, satisfying, and fair future by rediscovering and addressing humanity’s basic needs.

In this masterpiece of simplicity, Macrina Wiederkehr offers a series of meditations to bring us closer to a "God for all seasons," revised and expanded into this new edition. Designed for daily use as well as for retreats, Seasons of Your Heart is an eloquent and lyrical invitation to journey through the spiritual seasons of wonder, hope, love, mystery, and faith. Macrina Weiderkehr shares her "seasonal struggle with God" and encourages us to reconize those same peaks and valleys in our own spiritual life. Using biblical passages, poetry, and excerpts from her journal, Wiederkehr provides meditative ideas and prayers as "postures" for realizing and approaching the holy in our daily lives. These reflections and prayers, then, have grown out of a daily listening to God in the changing seasons of my spiritual life, "writes the author. "These reflections have grown out of my conviction that our God is not some Almighty Being beyond us, but a Mystery within."