The Disobedience Of The Daughter Of The Sun

Author and illustrator Martín Prechtel is internationally known for his explorations of ancient folklore and uncovering the lessons therein for modern readers. In The Disobedience of the Daughter of the Sun, he revives a hitherto unknown Guatemalan Tzutujil Mayan tale of the beginnings of the world with a poetic retelling of the story, 28 evocative drawings, and a critical analysis that both enlightens and entertains. Having lived with the Mayans and learned their language, Prechtel authoritatively retells the powerful tale of the Tall Girl who weaves the world in a loom, her parents the Sun and the Moon who repudiate her suitors, and the mysterious man who disguises himself as a hummingbird to lure her away. Prechtel expands this archetypal story with five layers of commentary, each teasing out a different wisdom and revealing its relevance to the world today.

Cultural Writing. Native American Studies. In a luminescent testimony to the ancient teaching ability of story, internationally acclaimed lecturer, artist and author of Secrets of the Talking Jaguar, and Long Life, Honey in the Heart, Martin Prechtel brings alive the powerful Tzutujil Mayan tale of THE DISOBEDIENCE OF THE DAUGHTER OF THE SUN. Prechtel's gripping and inimitable style gives the reader a beautifully told and illustrated tale followed by five "layers" of commentary that present the deeper Indigenous understandings buried in the story, as well as Prechtel's own thoughts for modern people, on global warming, ecstasy and time.

It's time to rewild ourselves and our dominant worldviews to build earth-centered communities for all. The dominant cultural worldview is based upon extraction and exploitation practices that have brought us to the precipice of social, environmental, and climate collapse. Braiding poetic storytelling, climate justice and deep cultural analyses, and the collective knowledge of Earth-centered cultures, The Story is in Our Bones opens a portal to restoration and justice beyond the end of a world in crisis. Author, activist, and changemaker Osprey Orielle Lake weaves together ecological, mythical, political, and cultural understandings and shares her experiences working with global leaders, systems-thinkers, climate justice activists, and Indigenous Peoples. She seeks to summon a new way of being and thinking in the Anthropocene, which includes transforming the interlocking crises of colonialism, racism, patriarchy, capitalism, and ecocide, to build thriving Earth communities for all. Lake calls forth historical memory of who we are in the Earth's lineage to bring into being the world we keenly long for, at the delicate threshold of great peril or great promise. For anyone grieving our collective loss and wanting to take action, The Story is in Our Bones is a vital guide to remaking our world. This hopeful, engaging, and creatively lyrical work reminds readers that another world is possible, and provides a desperately needed antidote to the pervasive despair of our time.

This book lays out the principles and practices of transformative sustainability education using a relational way of thinking and being. Elizabeth A. Lange advocates for a new approach to environmental and sustainability education, that of rethinking the Western way of knowing and being and engendering a frank discussion about the societal elements that are generating climate, environmental, economic, and social issues. Highlighting the importance of Indigenous and life-giving cultures, the book covers educational theory, transformation stories of adult learners, social and economic critique, and visions of changemakers. Each chapter also has a strong pedagogical element, with entry points for learners and embodied practices and examples of taking action at micro/meso/macro levels woven throughout. Overall, this book enacts a relational approach to transformative sustainability education that draws from post humanist theory, process thought, relational ontology, decolonization theory, Indigenous philosophy, and a spirituality that builds a sense of sacred towards the living world. Written in an imaginative, storytelling manner, this book will be a great resource for formal and nonformal environmental and sustainability educators.

In contemporary America, we lack ceremony and initiation rites to pass from one part of life to the next.

A hands-on approach to working with the healing powers of plant spirits • Explores the scientific basis underlying the practices of indigenous healers and shamans • Illuminates the matrix where plant intelligence and human intelligence join • Reveals that partnering with plants is an evolutionary imperative Indigenous healers and shamans have known since antiquity that plants possess a spirit essence that can communicate through light, sound, and vibration. Now scientific studies are verifying this understanding. Plant Spirit Healing reveals the power of plant spirits to join with human intelligence to bring about profound healing. These spirits take us beyond mere symptomatic treatment to aligning us with the vast web of nature. Plants are more than their chemical constituents. They are intelligent beings that have the capacity to raise consciousness to a level where true healing can take place. In this book, herbalist Pam Montgomery offers an understanding of the origins of disease and the therapeutic use of plant spirits to bring balance and healing. She offers a process engaging heart, soul, and spirit that she calls the triple spiral path. In our modern existence, we are increasingly challenged with broken hearts, souls in exile, and malnourished spirits. By working through the heart, we connect with the soul and gain access to spirit. She explains that the evolution of plants has always preceded their animal counterparts and that plant spirits offer a guide to our spiritual evolution--a stage of growth imperative not only for the healing of humans but also the healing of the earth.

Life without myth, the vital force of archetypal experiences, is life filled with maladies, neuroses, addictions, and disease. Alchemy of the Soul retells the myth of Eros and Psyche to help readers reconnect mind and relatedness to find wholeness and deep meaning. Author Martin Lowenthal describes how the story of Eros and Psyche illustrates the alchemical process of marrying soul and matter so that life can be lived with more joy, meaning, and a tangible sense of divine love. The book is divided into three parts: • Part 1 is a beautiful retelling of the myth of Eros and Psyche. • Part 2 examines the power of myth and alchemy and shows how spiritual alchemy can restore and transform the soul. • Part 3 is an initiation into the alchemical mysteries using myth as mentor. Lowenthal writes, "The story assails the defenses of our mind and our reactive habits and seeks to wrest a victory for life and growth from the inertia of daily habits and confusion. It initiates us into a world far more vibrant, rich, and nourishing than the one we knew in childhood and naively, yet regressively, settle for. In this sense, story reveals what happens as we attempt to spread our emotional wings in the developmentally confining domain of our childhood home and community and what it takes to make something significant of ourselves in ways that feed the future. As guests of the story, we discover the larger sacred garden in which we emerge as a unique and beautiful flower in a bed of exquisite blossoms, each one unique and essential." Alchemy of the Soul takes alchemy from the realm of the esoteric and places it in practical terms of story—terms that anyone can understand, value, and use as a guide to life.