I retired as a parish priest and left the church six years ago. I'm now into my fifth season producing my podcast, The Mystic Cave, where I've been exploring "the soulful terrain on the far side of conventional religion." I was curious to know how the Divine was showing up outside the church and what new spirituality might be emerging as the old ones die.
Already, one thing has become clear. The new spirituality is more about earth than about heaven. Not only is it less concerned with salvation and the afterlife, it is finding its inspiration from this life, from the 'Lower World' rather than the 'Upper World.' The Upper World, the realm associated with 'Spirit,' is about transcendence, about lightening our load to be free of the body, and of this world, one day; the Lower World, the realm associated with 'Soul,' is about what Thomas Berry calls 'incendence,' being present here and now, where we are invested deeply in the beauty, the complexity, and the mystery of this world--in a word, being 'rooted'.
Inevitably, this downward turn means reconnecting with the Earth. It means rediscovering our place within the created order among the other-than-human (some would say, 'greater-than-human') beings who populate the planet, including the other animals of course, but no less the trees and the vegetation, the rocks and the soil. It means encountering the natural world as alive and even, in its own way, sentient. It is reverencing the Earth (hence, the reason for capitalizing the word) and seeking a relationship with it as an extravagant manifestation of the Divine.
The problem is that, with more of the world's human population now living in cities than in countrysides, we've separated ourselves from the rhythms of the natural world, we've neglected our relationship with the Earth, and we've forgotten our way back to the Garden. We know how to cut down a tree to build a house; but we don't know how to honour a tree with respect and with care. We know how to hunt wild game for food or for sport; but not how to live alongside it within its own world. We have so much to re-learn.
Through six books, a Ted Talk, and countless lectures and workshops, naturalist and eco-philosopher Lyanda Haupt has been drawing our attention to the wonders of the natural world. For five of those books she reintroduced us to starlings and crows and the animals resident in our urban neighbourhoods. But in her sixth and most recent book, Rooted, Lyanda addresses the animal on our side of the relationship--humans--in an effort to lead us back to the Earth.
Knowing that sometimes the simplest steps are the most profound, Lyanda invites us to take our shoes off and allow our feet to feel again the wisdom of the earth. She considers the courage to take ourselves, alone, off into the woods. She explores the power of the darkness we try so hard to avoid. She also reminds us that the daily practices of our home economics have their own way of connecting us to the Earth. If we need a guide to take us home to our place in the natural world, to rediscover our soulful connection to the Earth, Lyanda helps lead our way.
To listen to my conversation with Lyanda Haupt, just click the Play button below. For a list of her books and a link to her other work, follow the More Info button to the show notes.
Comments