Welcome to Earth Sanctuaries. This site is dedicated to honoring the sacredness of Earth and fostering an intimate relationship between people, land, and the spirit that infuses all. I believe that the ecological crisis we are experiencing has been engendered by western culture’s pervasive separation of nature and spirit. Hope arises when we heal our sense of separateness.
Some ways I have found to do so are by: getting to know the native plants and animals where I live; honoring the ancestors of place; celebrating the seasons; creating garden sanctuaries in which to heal; pilgrimaging to sacred and re-sacralized landscapes at home and abroad; creating rituals that foster awareness of our connection; and participating in ceremonies that express gratitude to the endlessly beautiful and generous spirit of life that surrounds us. I have gathered words and images that I hope will inspire re-connection into four sections:
Pilgrimage Stories includes tales of journeying to sacred landscapes both at home and abroad. These stories contain such archetypal themes as liminality, healing, synchronicity, and transformation. They are about honoring the divine feminine, ancestors, and our plant-animal allies. These are stories about being in relationship to the wildness within us and in communication with both the wild of spirit and the wild of nature around us.
Garden Sanctuaries is dedicated to making creative spaces for communing with nature. There is a story about creating a Pollinator Garden and a photo gallery of the many butterflies and skippers who have come to visit. There is a Moss Garden article and a gallery of images of our Moss Garden Sanctuary. Here you will also find an Inventory of the native flora and fauna of our Forest Garden, a certified conservation garden.
Natural Communities honors our native plants and animals and the diverse and beautiful habitats in which they live. Native habitats are earth sanctuaries for the unique communities of plants and animals that live together in them. Here you will find illustrations of natural habitats in our mountain, piedmont, and coastal plain regions of North Carolina, my home. I hope these drawings of the sacred natural communities where I live will inspire you to savor and protect the wild lands around you.
Seasonal Celebrations includes reflections on both small seasonal rituals and large community multi-media Earth-based ceremonies, which honor our relationship to nature and spirit throughout the wheel of the year. Perhaps you will gain ideas for creating or participating in seasonal-awareness celebrations of your own, large or small.
EarthSanctuaries was launched on January 1, 2018. It includes both current or recent stories and events as well as some past stories and ceremonies postdated to approximately when they occurred. I want to thank David, my partner in all these adventures, and our son Tristan for designing this beautiful website.
I hope you find something in these words and images to empower you on your own EarthSpirit honoring journey.
Warmly,
Betty Lou Chaika
Latest Articles & Stories
A Magical Stone, A Healing Chant
Everyone seems to keep a special stone in some honored spot on a small table or sunlit sill, perhaps hoping you’ll ask to hear the story of what it means to them. We... READ MORE
Sacred Landscape: Native American Effigy Mounds and Earthworks
Our souls, to truly thrive, need whole, intact landscapes, even sacredscapes, lands that are revered and ceremonially marked as sacred. On this Indigenous People’s Day I want to honor an aspect of our... READ MORE
Turtle Teachings
Shhh, no, I can’t stay quiet: Meaning is getting made in the moss garden. When animals come to us from the wild it is often a very intimate experience and hard to talk... READ MORE
Sacred Trees: Rag Tree, Rock Tree, Witch Tree
When people are asked about memorable childhood experiences in nature, time spent with or in a special tree is often mentioned. In my beloved grandmother’s backyard there was a wide-spreading sugar maple that... READ MORE
Summer Solstice: Co-Creating Ritual and Ceremony
Summer Solstice this year was especially full of rich and diverse observances. Each celebration sprang up and flowered exuberantly, just as our gardens are emerging into the height of their flowering. And each... READ MORE
Thomas Berry: Celebrating a Wise Earth Elder
Thomas Berry was a Passionist monk and a passionate lover of the Earth. He called himself a “geologian,” and he tirelessly shared a vision of the sacredness of the universe, the Earth, and... READ MORE
Earth Day: Temenos Garden Sanctuary
This Earth Day, to honor the Earth, I’m making a small ceremony in the garden. I am taking this opportunity to go out to the green and growing Spring and speak a promise... READ MORE
Earth-Dreaming: Liminal Waters
Earth-Dreaming is the process by which the Earth dreams through us. Earth-Dreaming takes us beyond using dreams to track our individual psychological growth. Earth Dreams come not from the personal unconscious but from... READ MORE