Wild Earth, Wild Soul: A Manual for an Ecstatic Culture

Wild Earth, Wild Soul: A Manual for an Ecstatic Culture

by Bill Pfeiffer
Wild Earth, Wild Soul: A Manual for an Ecstatic Culture

Wild Earth, Wild Soul: A Manual for an Ecstatic Culture

by Bill Pfeiffer

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Overview

Humankind has the capacity and know-how to create Earth-honoring cultures in a new way for new times. Through tapping into ancestral memories, taking what's best from the human potential movement, and collaborating with present day indigenous peoples we can find our way home. Practicing the key ingredients of a lasting culture is an ecstatic way to live. This book shows you how.
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Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781780991870
Publisher: Collective Ink
Publication date: 06/16/2013
Edition description: Reprint
Pages: 338
Product dimensions: 5.40(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.40(d)

About the Author

Bill Pfeiffer is a maverick deep ecologist, spiritual coach, and shamanic guide. He has dedicated his life to building an Earth-honoring culture. He lives in the US.

Read an Excerpt

Wild Earth, Wild Soul

A Manual for an Ecstatic Culture


By Bill Pfeiffer

John Hunt Publishing Ltd.

Copyright © 2012 Bill Pfeiffer
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-78099-187-0



CHAPTER 1

Why a Wild Earth Intensive?


This was quite possibly the most profound ten days I have ever experienced. If this is what a small group of people can create in ten days, I know that we can transform this world. We were doing it every second of every day—we were living it.

—Wild Earth Intensive participant


What if a culture embedded in nature was not a relic of the past but a living reality? What if you did not have to travel thousands of miles to experience indigenous wisdom but felt it in your heart? What if you knew in your bones the "rightness" of learning sustainability from the inside out? This is the promise of a Wild Earth Intensive (WEI), "a time out of time" where a small group of people can create the kind of world they want to live in. Although that world is temporary, the participants come away with a much "higher bar" for what is possible in the wider world.

A WEI is the culmination of twenty-plus years of experimenting with a variety of "deep ecology" workshops, blended with what I have learned during numerous trips to visit the aboriginal peoples of America and Siberia. Those workshops and journeys were created under the umbrella of Sacred Earth Network (SEN), a small not-for-profit environmental organization that I founded in 1988.

The workshops were a response to the unanimous sentiment of SEN board and staff members that the environmental movement was, unfortunately, solely focused on what Joanna Macy, the remarkable Buddhist scholar and systems theorist, termed "holding actions." When Julia Butterfly lived atop a huge, threatened redwood tree for two years and when Greenpeace helped stop nuclear testing, they galvanized tremendous sympathy for their causes, but, by themselves, those actions and the thousands of lesser-known ones were insufficient to reverse the tremendous momentum of worldwide environmental degradation underway. Hopefully, these actions bought time for a wiser understanding to kick in.

To achieve that, Macy and others began to recognize something longer term and more effective was called for; something that rocked people to their core and made them look at the world differently. These innovators wanted to help create a living culture where ecosystems would be honored and kept intact. Then, as now, we needed a shift in consciousness to spur a different way of living—and, simultaneously, a different way of living to spur a shift in consciousness!

The growing desire to create a new, living culture—one that is (dare we say) ecstatic—is a response to the tremendous environmental and social pressure we are all experiencing. That pressure makes the vision of a life lived in balance with the rest of nature ever more compelling. Anyone who has really investigated the monumental trends that are shaping our world knows that changing how we live is imperative. But the re-creation of a living culture is considered by many to be the thorniest of problems. The critics balk: "It's impossible, idealistic, and utopian. Don't waste your time." They are voicing a pervasive sense of hopelessness that can paralyze one's best intentions to work to change things for the better. However, the brilliant work of Joanna Macy, John Seed, John Perkins, and other Western eco-spiritual activists showed me that the feeling of hopelessness was just that—a feeling—and not an immutable truth. Furthermore, the track record of thousands of indigenous tribes who have lived lightly all over the planet is evidence that a dynamic balance between humans and nature is not some weird anomaly, but a living reality.

This was the main reason SEN sponsored Sacred Travel journeys over the course of ten years (1999–2009), taking small groups of North Americans and Europeans to meet indigenous people in Siberia and the Four Corners area of the United States. The dominant intention of these journeys was to listen to and learn from these indigenous groups, especially with regard to their relationships with the land and one another. We came to them to learn what aspects of their cultures allow them to remain connected to the land in a way that honors future generations, both human and nonhuman. We were able to visit sacred sites (with the blessing and guidance of local indigenous leaders) and witness how the people draw spiritual nourishment from Earth and Sky. We found in them an eagerness to share with us not just their information and wisdom but their hearts.

A different but complementary kind of journey was also birthed by SEN; we facilitated cultural exchanges between some of the indigenous peoples we had met, in which Native Siberians traveled here to meet Native Americans, and vice versa. These two majestic peoples, separated by half a planet, have much in common. Their wisdom, rituals, and enduring celebration of all life are woven into many of the WEI activities described in this book.


Rekindling Wildness

While organizing and co-facilitating these journeys and cultural exchanges, I was able to observe cultural survival skills that had stood the test of time against seemingly impossible odds. Whether in the steppes of Siberia's Altai Mountains or in the deserts of New Mexico and Arizona, I noticed that the wildness of the land penetrates the core of its Native people who, despite centuries of outside rule, exhibit a stubborn refusal to be domesticated.

Leon Secatero, a well-respected Navajo elder who participated in these programs and became a SEN advisor, spent the last twenty years of his life gently yet powerfully encouraging non-Natives "to make a culture based on Indian ways that work." He did this by immersing sincere non-Natives in the Navajos' and Pueblos' land, their ceremonies, and the indigenous rock art of their ancestors. He would say, "You non-Natives outnumber us ten to one, and you are not going anywhere, so you better figure this out."

A WEI—and a growing number of other alternative educational models—invites wildness back into our souls by helping us remove the imagined separation between "out there" and "in here." This is what Secatero kept pointing toward. And contrary to the modern notion that to be wild is to be dumb and brutish, it is, in fact, extremely intelligent. To re-experience the wild does not imply a return to our Paleolithic past but a return to our inherent spontaneity and natural strength, a freeing up of the playful wonder we each had as children and that still lives inside us. Simply put, it is an unselfconscious, passionate love of life!

Anthropologist Bradford Keeney, Ph.D., who has written one of the most comprehensive field studies of healing and shamanism, the Profiles of Healing series, describes what drew modern cultures away from this wildness: "The problem began when someone said that words and meanings must explain, domesticate, and cover up wild experience. Within this hegemony of words, we demystified whatever was mysterious and walked away from the wild in order to become semantically tamed. We sacrificed our link-to-the-universe-heart for a delusional body-less-head-trip that has imprisoned us far too long. Consider a re-entry into the wild."

Furthermore, Keeney writes: "The greater mind of nature that holds our psyche is a small part of a more encompassing interdependent though always-changing network of relations."

Re-entering the wild and embracing the greater mind of nature is at odds with the dominant culture's obsession with control. Most of us born in this culture have been conditioned to believe in its core tenets unquestioningly. For example, we have been taught that we can think our way out of any problem. Therefore, the prevailing educational assumptions are that a "left-brained" academic approach is the primary mode of understanding and that knowledge is bestowed upon the student by the teacher. A culture made up of wild souls certainly encourages the intellectual abilities of each individual and provides mentoring by the more experienced to the less. But, more importantly, it relies on the larger intelligence that is already within each of us—that includes but is deeper than thought—to guide the way.

A WEI is designed so that this intelligence can blossom and flourish. It honors the many equally important forms of this intelligence: feelings; intuition; awareness; body sensations; impressions gleaned from nature; wisdom perceived from our ancestors (both human and nonhuman); information gained from visioning and inner journeys; and cognitive insight. Each participant is encouraged to trust this intelligence—his or her deepest knowing—rather than simply conforming to the ideas and perspectives of the facilitators. In this way, a WEI models what our culture badly needs, direct experience with nature (in its broadest sense) as a foundation for learning.

The WEI is not a place to simply "go wild" and "hang out," although there is plenty of time for spontaneous interaction or being alone. It is a spiritual training ground for joyous, creative self-expression and community building. Logic, reasoning, science, and abstract thought have their places, both in the world and at a WEI; but, ideally, they are in the service of a wild heart.


Elements of a New Culture

We long for the expansiveness of knowing and feeling that we are one with all that is. But in some ways we are also frightened by it—and for good reason. To discover the reality of oneness threatens our narrow sense of self. It is a wonderful paradox that a WEI, while providing a nurturing container where we don't lose our individual uniqueness and emotional stability, strengthens our sense of interconnection with each other and the universe. Participants come to recognize or develop their particular gifts and see how they enrich the group and, eventually, the larger community. We experience personal empowerment through activities that make us feel safe enough to be authentic: to be ourselves and to think for ourselves.

The premise is that this place of wholeness, connectedness, and gratitude is where wise actions, healthy lifeways, and sustainable cultures grow. It is the wisdom of the Earth herself, flowing through each of us, that can provide the clearest direction for the way ahead. It is about each of us trusting our deepest experience by being open and receptive to that flow.

There is immense power in the gathering of a community of people holding this intention. What is prescribed in this book is done in community, with all of us working together for our individual and collective freedom. And this community is larger than just the human realm. Each of us is held in multiple relationships that nurture us: relationships with the elements of earth, air, water, and fire, as well as with the plants and animals. A WEI is a space in which to really experience this.

The many people I've come to know during WEIs do not need to be taught anything during the workshop—not in any conventional sense. They don't need another dogma or formula for living. They don't need another tight schedule where they are expected to rush to the next activity, where time is experienced more like a noose than a pillow. What they need most, I believe, is simply an environment in which to love and be loved—to be cherished, accepted, and celebrated for who they truly are.

And I cannot underscore enough that the natural world is the ideal setting for this to take place. Nature is a profoundly important companion, mentor, and advisor, because it is our Ground of Being. If you sit under a tree and observe its textures, listen to its surroundings, rub the fallen leaves on your palms, and be still, you will gain a sense of connection, gratitude, and awe. I can't explain how it works, but it does—and not just with trees, but almost anywhere "out there" when we make the intention to connect.


Spiritual Yet Practical

Most of the experiential activities in a WEI correspond to indigenous practices I have witnessed, techniques I have learned from other workshop facilitators and "dharma" teachers, or ones I have created spontaneously as a response to the needs of the moment. The ones I have learned from others are never exact duplicates. The idea here—and this is extremely important—is that the essence of the activity, not its precise form, has universal value and a regenerative function.

This book describes a practical methodology based on the experiences of many people who have participated in a WEI, including those who have been guest mentors and facilitators. It is a "how-to" manual of ecologically based spirituality, both ancient and modern, that expands our sense of self to include all life.

I emphasize the term practical because many people who are working toward environmental and social change are ambivalent about the term spiritual. Their bias is that spirituality—a vital part of the human experience—is not really effective for making positive change, or that it is something apart from daily life. Martin Prechtel, prolific author, artist, educator, and adoptee of the Tzutujil Maya, speaks about this well:

Spirituality is an extremely practical thing. It's not a thing that you choose to do on the weekends. Spirituality ... has to have some degree of social accountability, no matter what layer of life you're stuck in or aiming at. It's only in everyday life that spirituality makes a difference. Otherwise, if spirituality is an entertainment or something that is removed from life itself, then it ceases to become spiritual.... I think spirituality is as essential as eating or holding hands or being warm in the winter or being together as a village. It's all in there.


Mahatma Gandhi was probably the most revered luminary who combined spirituality and social change. He writes in his autography: "I should certainly like to narrate my experiments in the spiritual field which are known only to myself and from which I have derived such power as I possess for working in the political field."


Fruits of a Wild Earth Intensive

At the conclusion of a WEI, we often come to realize that we have gathered a lot of low-hanging fruits that were previously hidden by the pace of our busy lives. These fruits are both means and ends of an integrated spiritual practice. They include:

Community: learning together while supporting one another

Safety: living in an atmosphere of emotional and physical safety while exploring our "edges" and taking risks

Connection: breaking through societal and self-imposed isolation to perceive our oneness with Earth, Spirit, and one another

Empowerment: feeling the beauty and power of our true selves

Feeling: allowing all facets of our emotional palette, including grief and pain, to arise and find expression

Fun/play: expressing our innate, limitless ability to rise above the difficulties of life through spontaneous, joyful creativity

Meaning: choosing to experience a universe that is intensely alive and express our unique selves within it


A typical WEI combines indigenous wisdom, Buddhist teachings, eco-psychology, and the central message of most religions: love! However, the philosophical underpinnings of a WEI are far less important than the open-mindedness and open-heartedness that the facilitator and any helpers or guests bring to the experience. A WEI does not impose a belief system but inspires a belief in Life. This goes beyond the intellectual concept that humans cannot be separated from the rest of creation. It engenders a felt knowing that we are the consciousness, or Spirit, that interpenetrates the mountains, the rivers, the stars, and so much more.

CHAPTER 2

How to Use This Book


And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.

—Anaïs Nin


Deep down in the hidden recesses of our psyches are ancestral memories of when we lived in deep relationship with the land and each other. These memories refuse all manner of subjugation. In these pages, I want to impart the hope and enthusiasm I feel for our ability to re-create an Earth-honoring culture for new times.

My approach is twofold:

1. To provide a blueprint for any small group of people to practice and experience—through a workshop† called the Wild Earth Intensive (WEI)—the key components of that culture. These components are based on what has been historically (and prehistorically) successful and, when adapted for the strengths and weaknesses of modern participants, are transformative in the present. Herein you will find a variety of exercises and activities that make these components deliciously real instead of abstract ideas. The exercises and activities have been highly valued by people of all ages but are particularly suitable for young adults who are disillusioned with the dominant culture and are seeking alternatives.

2. To explain the concepts that support the various WEI activities. I hope by doing this to increase your motivation to remember your "original instructions." Throughout this book, you will find quotes from, and references to, a multitude of Native elders, progressive thinkers, frontier scientists, poets, and spiritual luminaries who make the case that a whole new level of consciousness is possible, based on what already lies within us.
(Continues...)


Excerpted from Wild Earth, Wild Soul by Bill Pfeiffer. Copyright © 2012 Bill Pfeiffer. Excerpted by permission of John Hunt Publishing Ltd..
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

Table of Contents

Foreword x

Acknowledgments xii

Introduction 1

Chapter 1 Why a Wild Earth Intensive? 7

Chapter 2 How to Use This Book 16

Chapter 3 A Note to Guides and Facilitators 20

Chapter 4 A Spiritual Permaculture 26

Chapter 5 Getting Started: Guidelines and Overview 51

Chapter 6 Listening 65

Chapter 7 Feeling and Healing 83

Chapter 8 Nature Immersion and Connection 107

Chapter 9 The Power of Story 134

Chapter 10 Ceremony 152

Chapter 11 Altered States of Consciousness 172

Chapter 12 Play 189

Chapter 13 Stillness 204

Chapter 14 Elders and Mentors 213

Chapter 15 The Magic of Mentoring: Including an Interview with Mark Morey 203

Chapter 16 Art and Music 255

Chapter 17 Vision and Manifestation 276

Chapter 18 Final Thoughts 294

Appendix: Wild Earth Intensive Sample Schedule 297

Reference Notes 303

Selected Bibliography 319

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