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 try to stay connected to the healing … Continued
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 First People’s heritage — the earth-based spirituality … Continued
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 was also, somehow, my grandmother. This was … Continued
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 the collective unconscious, the level of the … Continued
Divine Feminine/Sacred Landscape: St.Gobnait, Lady of the Bees
We are just past Imbolc, Brigid’s feast day, traditionally the beginning of Spring in Ireland. Signs of Spring are emerging here at home. On these intermittent warm days the spring peepers and chorus frogs are starting to call for mates. … Continued
Hazelnut Wisdom – Practical, Mythical, Mystical
I went out to the hazelwood, Because a fire was in my head -Yeats. I said to myself: Who would want to read a story about hazelnuts? People are what folks want to read about. People are the clear winners … Continued
Pilgrimage: Ireland on One Foot
This was to be our ninth pilgrimage to Ireland. But, I was bitten on the foot by a poisonous snake, a copperhead, so we chose to cancel. If we had left sooner we would have been in the land where … Continued
Visiting Ojibwe Family, 2018 : Gakina Awiiya – “We Are All Related”
When my husband and I set out on a pilgrimage, I write my hopes and intentions for the trip, but the actual theme of the pilgrimage often emerges during the journey. My hopes for this second visit [see first visit … Continued
Community, Art, and Landscape: Ireland Reflections
Our first morning home from Ireland I awoke with this dream: A rural community has an intimate walking or horse-cart riding trail with wonderful creative images at each stop along the way. Each location contains some combination of nature and … Continued
Visiting Ojibwe Family and Ancestors
My husband and I have known for some time, ever since we received notice from the BIA and a genealogy chart, that he is descended from Ojibwe people on his father’s side, but we didn’t realize he had any close … Continued