I found myself saying, “Nice. Really nice.” After reviewing a copy of Clea Danaan’s Voices of the Earth.

Green spirituality is on the minds of lots of pagans these days. It’s a central theme running through out our spirituality, no matter the tradition. Clea Danaan embraces this idea and vets it in practical application.

I love gardening and having my hands in the earth’s rich soil, so I have a deep appreciation for this book. But you don’t have to be a gardener to appreciate and apply the life’s lessons Danaan has for you on this path. Anyone can pick up this book and start practicing it’s common sense approach to spirituality.

One of best lessons by Danaan came early on in Voices of the Earth. In fact, I actually bookmarked it because I wanted to share it with you. It’s that important. Danaan says…

Our bodies and souls love the natural world, and only very recently have our minds disconnected fromt he natural currents of life on our planet. In our highly technological, capitalistic culture, we have largely lost touch withchanging season, the sources of our food, and the living land. This disconnect is an illness. While there is nothing inherently wrong with money and technology, when we divorce our conscious awareness from our roots, we become zombies. Instead of being controlled by an evil sorcerer, we are driven by our demons of greed, fear and narcissism. (page xiv)

When you sit back and take in what she just said, you realize the depth of the impact this statement has on our lives. Here we are as magical people who believe we can influence the outcome of events favorably, and yet most of us are totally disconnected from the very thing we hold most sacred … the land. And ultimately, that means we are disconnected from ourselves.

I liked Voices of the Earth because it was a gentle blending of herbal arts, pagan beliefs and Faery faith all rolled into one book. It’s an easy read and kind of reminded me of Scott Cunningham’s books with it’s easy to follow and easy to do exercises, practices and journaling. It’s not a hard core witchcraft book. In fact, it’s something that you could gift a friend with quite easily because the book simply preaches the common sense rituals of “being Green.” And let’s face it, all of us could use a little greening up. Get your own copy of Clea Danaan’s Voices of the Earth: The Path of Green Spirituality.

Related posts:

1. Voices of the Earth: The Path of Green Spirituality by Clea Danaan

Reviewed by Rebecca Laughlin, Moose Hill Farm

This book spoke deeply to me, a longtime follower of the green way. It’s uncommon to read gardening work that addresses the spiritual aspect of gardening so sweepingly; from communing with the cosmos, plant devas and power animals, to creating natural cleaning agents, Danaan covers the many ways to live in harmony with Nature from the mundane to the sublime. She teaches how to become a nature intuitive and to talk to plants, rocks, trees, rivers and wind. Each chapter begins with a personal vignette that helps to illuminate the steps on Danaan’s journey. The end of each chapter offers exercises such as mediation, journaling and art work to finely attune the seeker to a root connection with Nature. To those who find the talking to plants thing wacky, I offer the following.

I first heard plants talk to me while working in my first serious garden, in 1995. It was a memorial garden for my son Jesse who passed at 19. My mother stayed on after his service and we created his garden together. It was a place to grieve, heal and find comfort in the seasonal rhythms of Nature. It was there I heard the words in my head, “follow the plants.” Then I had a vision of myself walking down a grassy hillside to a shed, trailed by ducks. At the time I was a sales rep in New York City, living on a flat, urban tenth of an acre. Today I live on a remote country hilltop in Connecticut, trailed not by ducks but by chickens, the result of following the plants.

Susan Weed tells a similar story; the first time she heard the plants they were laughing at her for thinking they were in the right spot. She quickly moved them.

It was exciting to read a book devoted to people like me. Even though I’m living my dream, I sometimes get tired and a little lonely. Some people think I’m crazy. My husband is pushing for a hot dog cart and we miss the good money. That’s why it was so invigorating to read Voices of the Earth and get support for the path I’ve chosen and new ways to explore it. But you need not be a country dweller to appreciate this book. A vignette near the beginning describes a moment when the author is feeling slightly anxious while driving to a book signing. As she notes the trees lining the boulevard, at a stop light she takes the time to connect with those stalwarts and finds calm in their message. Nature is present in the heart of the city!

I especially enjoyed the ideas about sense of place, how one imprints on a certain geographical area, and even when uprooted from it, feels longing for that particular spot with all its flora and fauna. For Danaan, it was the evolution from her Pacific Northwest natal grounds to wife and mother of the Coloradian Rockies. For me it was traveling from my Midwestern birthplace to live my adult life in New England on Long Island Sound. After all these years, the ocean is still too vast for me and I ache for a Midwestern lake. Yet now I realize that this shift in landscape has important meaning and I’ll listen carefully to sense what it is.

The book drills down place even further; encourages you to discover where exactly you are in the vast world. For example beyond Long Island Sound, I live on a hilltop, on a ridge of a river valley, near the confluence of two rivers. I was instantly drawn to this property, three and a half secluded acres, from the moment I set foot on it. I parked, I saw, said this is it, all before I saw the house. We’re only the second owners of this house, built in 1962 to compound the very rightness of it all. Surely, this place of my vision as a grieving mother, has great significance to me now… well, because, here I am now. I’ll continue to investigate.

Finally, the last point I’d like to make is about the beauty of passing love of Nature along to future generations. The introduction of the book is all about immersing the author’s newborn daughter into the mysteries of the earth. Danaan goes on to talk about being a teacher of Nature to eager young students. I wish that I had such a simpatico childhood. Still, I’m inspired that I can continue to grow and learn in my cronehood. The education is never really over, just to let you know.

Related posts:

1. Voices of the Earth