Seasons Of The Sacred

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.

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.

"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"--

We live in a world where there never seems to be enough time for all we want and need to do. In Sacred Time: Embracing an Intentional Way of Life, Christine Valters Paintner guides us as we move beyond our own lives and embrace a world that urges us toward rest, reflection, and growth. In Sacred Time, Paintner, abbess of the online Abbey of the Arts, shows us how by becoming in tune with the rhythms of the natural world, we can live more intentionally and experience a conversion toward a more expansive way of being. Paintner introduces us to the eight cycles of sacred time that exist in our everyday lives. These cycles that can ground us through our busy lives are breath, rhythms of the day, weekly rhythms and Sabbath rest, waxing and waning lunar cycles, seasons of the year, seasons of a lifetime, ancestral time, and cosmic time. Each cycle encourages us to mindfully consider the time that passes as quickly as each breath and as slowly as the passing of generations. Within each cycle, we find wisdom from sacred tradition and the saints, including St. Benedict, St. Ignatius of Loyola, and St. Hildegard of Bingen; room for growth; and the presence of the Divine. Along the way, we are also given scriptural guidance, and we are invited to spiritual practices and creative explorations that will help deepen our understanding of each cycle, allow that understanding to take root in our lives, and expand our lives beyond the pressures of each day.

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.