EarthLight Spiritual Wisdom for an Ecological Age

Synopsis

EarthLight, a magazine launched 15 years ago by West Coast Friends, explores the spiritual roots of the environmental challenges facing our planet. This anthology collects articles published in the magazine by writers from many paths, including such influential Buddhists as Thich Nhat Hahn, Joanna Macy, and Gary Snyder. The collection's magazine story-length chapters provide a highly accessible introduction to the important topic of spiritual environmentalism. –Turning Wheel; The Journal of Socially Engaged Buddhism, Summer 07, pg 51

Gaian Voices readers may remember the magazine EarthLight which ceased publication a couple of years ago. This new book is an anthology of the best of Earthlight. The book's essays, interviews, poems, photos, graphics, and quotes are organized into seven main sections, which are also EarthLight Principles: Conscious Evolution, Sacred Relationships, Collective Wisdom, Mutual Learning, Conscious Choice, Inclusivity, and Celebration. Included among the more than 50 contributors are: K. Lauren de Boer (editor of Earthlight), Joanna Macy, Thomas Berry, Pattiann Rogers, John Seed, Brenda Peterson, J Ruth Gendler, Terry Tempest Williams, Brian Swimme, Gary Snyder, Freeman House, and Jesse Wolf Hardin (graphics), among others. Another inspirational and highly recommended book. –Gaian Voices Earth Spirit, Earth Action, Earth Stories, Volume 5, Number 1 2

Reviewed by Marilyn Sewell "How shall the heart be reconciled to its feast of losses?" K. Lauren DeBoer invokes this question by Stanley Kunitz to introduce this beautiful collection of essays, interviews, and poems about spiritual ecology, all originally published in the Quaker magazine, Earthlight. How shall the heart be reconciled to the loss of the giant sequoias? DeBoer asks. The buffalo? Our 20,000 fellow species that are gone for good? How, indeed. The authors featured here have all plumbed the deep sorrow of our "ecological age," as well as the joyful abundance and mystery of our world. Each guides readers down a different path to a tender, if bittersweet, spiritual relationship with the Earth. Susan Tweit writes of "Picking Up Roadkill" as a spiritual practice. Joanna Macy describes the process she calls "The Great Turning," through which "we begin to see the world as our body, and (whether we say the word or not) as sacred." In discussing the Great Work that humans must undertake to live in harmony with the earth, Thomas Berry writes, "Humans, more than any other living form, invent themselves." The unspoken question of this anthology is this: can we reinvent ourselves in time? –Yes Magazine Spring 2007 Issue 41