Prayer: A Remembering Earth Practice

Resonating with our new Seeds and Structures theme, our interview with Zoë Schlanger on her book The Light Eaters questions what it might mean to embrace plant intelligence within the framework of Western science. From roots that can sense the sound of running water to flowers that memorize the timing of pollinators’ visits, she explores how these discoveries challenge our hierarchies of intelligence across species, and asks whether we are ready to step into a slightly more enchanted world where we humans are perhaps not the best and brightest beings on Earth.Read the transcript. Photo by Yael Malka

Writer Josh Jackson follows Newe elders Delaine and Rick Spilsbury through the histories and possible futures of Bashahwahbee—a sacred grove of Rocky Mountain junipers in far eastern Nevada. Fed by rare springs in an otherwise arid high desert landscape, these trees carry both memories of Newe harvest ceremonies and the spirits of ancestors massacred there during colonial expansion. With its waters increasingly targeted for use in large farms and cities, Josh explores what could be lost if the springs that sustain this place run dry. Read the essay. Photo by Josh Jackson

For seven decades, David James Duncan has immersed himself in the rivers of the Pacific Northwest and Northern Rockies, coming to know them as places of earthly holiness. Spawning salmon, chittering otters, water ouzels, and humans mucking about in streams have revealed themselves to be not only permutations of wild, intricate beauty, but participants in an endless unfolding of the Mystery. In the tug at the end of a fishing rod, the roar of the spring torrent, David contemplates the very nature of water, the soul, and the universe, and how a cosmology might be improvised in response to a deep experience of place. Read the essay. Discover our sixth print edition, Seasons.Photo by Ron Jude

This week is the beginning of a new biweekly rhythm to our podcast, which we’re marking with a story all about fermentation: a practice that invites us to participate in the slow, and enjoy what can emerge from it. Fermentation revivalist Sandor Ellix Katz invites us to bring ancient traditions of pickling, aging, and brewing back into our kitchens as a way to tune in to what's growing near us throughout the seasons. After listening, check out the online version of this story, which features recipes to get you started. Read the essay. Discover our sixth print edition, Seasons.

This conversation brings together four practitioners from Sufi, Christian, and Buddhist traditions to examine how the values of spiritual ecology are embedded within their different faiths. Drawing upon the themes within Remembering Earth, the new book by Emergence founding editor Emmanuel Vaughan-Lee, they explore how restoring embodied practices of ecological reverence can help us cultivate a space where divinity becomes expansive.Read the transcriptDiscover Remembering Earth: A Spiritual EcologyImage Credit: Amy Woodward / Connected Archives

We conclude our Remembering Earth summer practice series with this episode on prayer. No matter what form it takes, prayer is our own way of speaking with the divine. It reveals the unique note of offering we each hold in our hearts, and is ultimately a space where we can be in communion. Working with words, silence, and the love within our hearts, these practices can be easily integrated into everyday life, bringing praise for the Earth into our most basic actions.Discover Remembering Earth: A Spiritual Ecology

When we recognize each form of creation as its own cycle of time, the illusion of linearity is laid bare and we can again begin to see how the Earth and everything in it is made of countless interlocking relationships. This episode of our Remembering Earth series invites you to walk with the awareness of cycles rooted in place, tread the same path over a full cycle of seasons, and regularly offer your company to a tree, deepening into time as a form of kinship. Discover Remembering Earth: A Spiritual Ecology

As much as we have engulfed the Earth in the noise of modern life, She is always singing beneath the din of our human world. If we place our attention there, we can begin to uncover the ancient ties of kinship that were woven into us through song and sound over millennia. Building on the breath and heart practices from the last two weeks, this episode from our Remembering Earth summer practice series invites you to open your ears to the sound of water, wind, and the dawn chorus of birds. Discover Remembering Earth: A Spiritual Ecology

Throughout the ages, many cultures have understood the importance of walking as a vehicle of transformation. Pilgrims journey in a state of reflection and prayer, often experiencing a profound sense of embodied devotion. This episode of our Remembering Earth practice series engages you in the awareness of breath and love as you walk. One doesn’t need to travel across vast lands to tune in to the ancient rhythm of the Earth. All that is needed is an intentionality as we place one foot in front of the other, conscious of what we step upon. Discover Remembering Earth: A Spiritual Ecology

The mystics say we have a physical heart and a spiritual heart, the latter being a center of energy that can be accessed in many ways. While mysterious, the love that flows through the spiritual heart can be felt in our physical hearts, for both are spaces where inner meets outer. Part of our Remembering Earth practice series, this episode offers three practices that immerse you in the presence of love within your own heart, awakening you to a deeper love for the Earth. Discover Remembering Earth: A Spiritual Ecology