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The Spirit of Place: A Workbook for Sacred Alignment
All of Earth’s life is interconnected and sacred. An awareness of that sacred relationship opens a direct path to spiritual understanding. These powerful techniques join mind, will, spirit, and intuition to the plants, animals, and minerals sharing our world, aligning the practitioner in a deeper relationship with life’s sacred matrix.
- GenresNonfictionSpirituality
232 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 1995
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
July 15, 2013
This book is filled with both profound insights as well as great humor. One of the most hilarious humorous touches simply must be quoted. “Consider a relationship that you have regrets about in terms of your conduct toward another person. (If you can't think of one, I salute either your obliviousness or your impeccability.)” Parentheses are in the original.
It is truly a workbook. It's laid out as a series of weekly exercises meant to be done in the full round of a year. I read through it in a much shorter time but the exercises are very nicely arranged to capture the spirit of the cycle of the year and the medicine wheel. Other editions may be different but the one I have is printed with wide margins like a textbook. These have proven very useful for making marginal notes. There is so much great content that I found myself filling its pages with highlights as well as notes on nearly all topics touched on.
The approach is experiential and always with great reverence for nature and for traditions. It isn't bound by any particular cultural tradition but isn't some generic shamanistic blather either. Far from it. It's filled with wisdom on every page. It's simple wisdom that's obviously gained through long experience. The book isn't padded out with platitudes and other crap. It's a simple guidebook and a launching point for honest exploration. The author doesn't pretend to know everything and says so. That's a very good thing in a book of this sort.
I haven't followed it's outline of year-round week-by-week meditations and simple practices as yet but will put much of this into practice. I read straight through but made many, many notes and certainly will include much of it in the round of the year as well as returning to it. I've already returned to already read sections many times.
The techniques can easily be adapted to any sort of nature-centered practice such as Wicca as well as Native American inspired practices that are central to it. I wouldn't advise jumping into a lone vision quest into the wild unprepared or a sweat lodge without experienced guides but this can be a great guidebook for connecting to the cycles of the living universe.
It is truly a workbook. It's laid out as a series of weekly exercises meant to be done in the full round of a year. I read through it in a much shorter time but the exercises are very nicely arranged to capture the spirit of the cycle of the year and the medicine wheel. Other editions may be different but the one I have is printed with wide margins like a textbook. These have proven very useful for making marginal notes. There is so much great content that I found myself filling its pages with highlights as well as notes on nearly all topics touched on.
The approach is experiential and always with great reverence for nature and for traditions. It isn't bound by any particular cultural tradition but isn't some generic shamanistic blather either. Far from it. It's filled with wisdom on every page. It's simple wisdom that's obviously gained through long experience. The book isn't padded out with platitudes and other crap. It's a simple guidebook and a launching point for honest exploration. The author doesn't pretend to know everything and says so. That's a very good thing in a book of this sort.
I haven't followed it's outline of year-round week-by-week meditations and simple practices as yet but will put much of this into practice. I read straight through but made many, many notes and certainly will include much of it in the round of the year as well as returning to it. I've already returned to already read sections many times.
The techniques can easily be adapted to any sort of nature-centered practice such as Wicca as well as Native American inspired practices that are central to it. I wouldn't advise jumping into a lone vision quest into the wild unprepared or a sweat lodge without experienced guides but this can be a great guidebook for connecting to the cycles of the living universe.
February 4, 2014
An exploration of our sacred relationship with Earth, with the web of life. Arranged according to the Four Directions, this book moves through a complete cycle of the year. There are skills and knowledge associated with each direction, each season. Loren Cruden provides meditations, reflections, rituals and ceremonies, information about plant and animal allies, and other tools and approaches for awakening or strengthening our bonds with the natural and spirit worlds. All of this is especially important as context for this time of Dire Beauty that we live in.
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September 7, 2016i'm so grateful for this manual of place and spirit
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews