Earth-Based Practices
Earth-Based Practices
We are born as natural beings, but many of us gradually learn that we are somehow separate from the natural world. In reality, our bodies and psyches move through the same cycles as the Earth — shifting, flowing, eroding, and renewing over time. Even our dreams often speak in the language of landscape and weather.
Earth-based practices are more than simply “feeling good in nature.” They invite a lived sense of interconnectedness and belonging — a remembrance that we are woven into a larger web of life. These experiences can be deeply healing. The ego becomes less isolated as we open to others, to the world, and to the wider mystery of existence.
What is a rite of passage?
"A ritual, event, or experience that marks or constitutes a major milestone or change in a person's life."
- Merriam Webster
A rite of passage is a ritual, event, or experience that marks a significant change in a person’s life. Across cultures, initiatory rites have helped people move from one stage of life to another — from youth to adulthood, from one life role to another, from an old story to a new one.
Many of these communal practices have been forgotten in contemporary culture, leaving us without guidance as we pass through major transitions. On a larger scale, this contributes to a society caught in perpetual adolescence, lacking elders and clear purpose.
How I work with Earth-based practices
Deepening our relationship with the more-than-human world asks us to re-imagine ourselves as intricately interwoven with everything beyond our skin. In my work, Earth-based practice often includes:
- guided solo time on the land
- storytelling and mirroring
- deep listening and council practice
- tending dreams and active imagination
- creating personal and collective ritual
- a radical slowing down to remember the wisdom of Self as Nature
"When we love the Earth, we are able to love ourselves more fully."
— bell hooks
A significant aspect of my work involves wilderness rites of passage with the School of Lost Borders
In small groups we facilitate community-supported solo time on the land, usually in desert backcountry. Going out alone, held by nearby community, is an ancient pattern that lives deep within the human psyche.