A Gardener's Alphabet

What a gorgeous, simple, and life-affirming book! Highly recommended.

A Gardener's Alphabet by Mary Azarian (Houghton Mifflin, 2000)

Author Events in September for Living Earth Devotional by Clea Danaan

I hope you can join me for one of these events! I'll also be in Colorado Springs in October, details TBA.

Thursday, September 5, at 7:30 pm
Boulder Book Store
1107 Pearl Street
Boulder, Colorado 80302
Email: info@boulderbookstore.com
Phone: 303-447-2074

Clea Danaan will speak about and sign her new book, Living Earth Devotional, on Thursday, September 5th at 7:30pm.
About the book:Tune in to nature, care for the sacred earth, and grow spiritually. Living Earth Devotional offers 365 earth-friendly activities for deepening your connection to nature. These practical, soul-centered tasks are organized by the Wheel of the Year. Bridging green spirituality with ecological action, this guide will help you tune in to the energies of the seasons and build a deep appreciation for the earth's beauty, power, and wisdom. Reduce your carbon footprint, recharge your creativity, and cultivate a connection with the Earth that inspires spiritual growth and transformation.
Vouchers to attend this event are $5 and are good for $5 off the author's featured book or on a purchase on the day of the event. Vouchers may be purchased in advance, over the phone, or at the door. Readers Guild Members can reserve seats at any in-store event.

Wednesday, September 18 at East West Seattle

Living Earth Devotional

7-8:30pm Free!

No pre-registration for free events - we'll just see you there!

CLEA DANAAN invites you to share and discuss several activities from her book, Living Earth Devotional, which presents 365 activities designed to deepen your relationship with earth and spirit.
Activities, organized by season and Sabbat, include creative expression, meditation, prayers, activism, and personal discovery. They draw from a wide range of spiritual paths, each geared towards connecting with soil, soul, and society.
Originally from the Pacific NW, Clea lives in Colorado with her husband and two children. She is a devoted gardener, a Reiki Master, and the author of Sacred Land, Voices of the Earth, and The Way of the Hen.

The talk will be followed by a book signing.

East West Bookshop of Seattle
6500 Roosevelt Way NE
Seattle, WA 98115
206-523-3726 or 800-587-6002

Giveaway for my forthcoming book, Living Earth Devotional

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Living Earth Devotional

by Clea Danaan

Giveaway ends September 15, 2013.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

Nature Mysticism in Children's Books

I'll update this blog post as I come across more books that express nature mysticism or a sacred connection with nature in children's books. Bonus points for beautiful illustrations!

If you have any suggestions, please let me know in the comments!




Singing Down the Rain by Joy Coley


Step into a small town where all the children are friends, but a brought has made the adults so grumpy they can't stop arguing! Only a miracle can heal this divided town. People are so hopeless, they almost don't recognise that that miracle when it appears as a women who specialises in rainsongs, Yet slowly the townspeople realise that with this faith they can sustain each other during the dry times, and then sing down the rain together.



Under the Lemon Moon by Edith Hope Fine

One night Rosalinda is awakened by a noise in the family’s garden. She is astonished to see a man creeping away with a sack of fruit from her beloved lemon tree. Rosalinda seeks out La Anciana for advice. The wise old woman offers an inventive way to help the tree and the man driven to steal her lemons. Set in the Mexican countryside, this charming story explores how it feels to get gifts — and to give them. 

 The Secret Place  by Eve Bunting

A small boy finds a secret place in the city that he shares with a white egret, mallards, and even ducklings. A book about finding nature in the heart of the grunginess of the city, and a child's connection with that sacred discovery.

What Does the Sky Say?  by Nancy White Calstrom

"What does the sky say?" a child asks. What does it say on a winter day, or on a Saturday night, or when the rain beats on its chest, or its mouth is full of moon? A child watches the sky in changing seasons and in all kinds of weather and learns to listen to its voice. In "What Does the Sky Say?", author Nancy White Carlstrom's imaginative and poetic text encourages all readers, both very young and older, to wake up to and participate in the opportunities for joy and learning each day offers. And Tim Ladwig's extraordinary illustrations perfectly capture the moods of weather and season, the magic of childhood, and our deep connection to all creation and its Creator.

Owl Moon by Jane Yolen

"As expansive as the broad sweep of the great owl's wings and as close and comforting as a small hand held on a wintry night . . . The visual images have a sense of depth and seem to invite readers into this special nighttime world."--School Library Journal, starred review. Full color. 1988 Caldecott Medal Book.

Discussion Questions for Clea Danaan's Voices of the Earth

To study Clea Danaan's Voices of the Earth: The Path of Green Spirituality with a group, or to explore further journaling and personal growth ideas, here are some discussion questions to get you started. Each chapter also ends with project ideas and journal questions.

• What I call a "nature intuitive" just means someone who listens to the land and gains connection and wisdom there. In what ways have you heard trees, stones, rivers, and animals? In what ways do you doubt this channel? What helps you trust it?
• Opening to the rhythms of you body and the land can open the door to a lot of pain and discomfort. Sometimes you can ameliorate this discomfort: drink a glass of water, do yoga, water a tree, even organize an effort to clean up a polluted river. Sometimes the pain is overwhelming. How can you draw on community to seek healing for yourself and the land?
• Walking the path of an awakening human requires compassion and non-judgmental vision. In what ways can you be more compassionate towards yourself? Towards others? In what ways do you find yourself being judgmental towards others - me (the author), New Agers, Pagans, Republicans, big oil executives? Meditate on your judgment to see what lessons it offers you.
• Pages 51-52 list questions about Home. These would be an interesting discussion for a group. "What does it mean that you are in this spot on the global web?" (p 56)
• What gets in the way of your clearing clutter? What does this tell you about yourself?
• What plants are you drawn to? Herbs? Entheogens?
• How about animals?
• What is your quest as an earth ally? This can mean many things - we don't all have to go sit in a redwood tree for two years or start an organic farm. For more on your quest, see Bill Plotkin's Nature and the Human Soul.

Discussion Questions for Clea Danaan's Sacred Land

"In this positive and practical handbook, Danaan shows how organic gardening can germinate environmental awareness and political change while feeding your spirit. You'll learn how to plan and plant your garden, create compost, save seeds, conserve and transmute water, connect with garden goddesses, and incorporate planetary energy in your garden." - From Llewellyn.com

Thinking of studying Sacred Land in a group? Or delving more deeply into your own intuitive organic gardening practices? Here are a few study and discussion questions to help you get started.

Discussion Questions for Sacred Land

Earth

1. What messages, sensations, and images do you receive when you "tune in" to the soil? Is doing a practice like this strange to you? What fears or concerns do you have about "talking" to dirt? 
2. What shifts for you when you consider a garden a co-creation with nature? What ideas germinate when you enter into such a relationship with the land?
3. Many people first notice nature spirits or the energy of the land through trees. What sacred experiences with trees have you had?
4. What can you do to increase the local and organic food you eat? As a group or a family, take it on as a project. If you already eat mostly organic and local, how can you help others do the same?

Air

1. Discuss your intentions for your home, garden, and community. How can you call on the power of air to bring these ideas into the world?
2. Do you fear insects? Why? Take some time to get to know them better. What teachings have bees, dragonflies, and even mosquitoes taught you?
3. What birds show up in your life regularly? Have they a message?

Fire

1. Everything we see, eat, touch, and hear exists because of the sun. What happens when you meditate on this idea for a few moments?
2. The fire goddess Chantico teaches us about pleasure and pain. When have you felt this keen edge? What has it taught you about life?
3. What does it mean to you to reclaim your passion? How can you begin to do this?

 

Water

1. We are emotional beings of water. As you read this chapter, what do you notice about your awareness of and relationship with water in your daily life?
2. If you are working with a group, practice transmutation (p 208).
3. What is your work as a sacred sister?

You will find more discussion questions at the end of Sacred Land, on page 229. 

Green Spirituality Library

If I were to create a library of books on green spirituality, here is what I would include:

   



(By the way, I don't make any money from the sales of other author's books here, it's just easy to use the link widget from Amazon.)

Also,

The Way of Hen: Zen and the Art of Raising Chickens by Clea Danaan

The companion to Zen and the Art of Raising Chickens,
Meditation and the Art of Beekeeping by Mark Magill,
also available on Amazon.co.uk






Also check out this list, publications from GreenSpirit.

What else would you include? I'll add to this as I think of and discover other books on green spirituality.

Blessed be and Namaste!

Preview Clea Danaan's Zen Chickens Online

My newest book, Zen and the Art of Raising Chickens: The Way of Hen will be out October 31, 2010, in the UK. You can "look inside" on Amazon.com and Amazon UK. You can only order it from the UK at this point, but if I get enough hits on the US site, a US publisher will be more likely to swoop in and bring it here.

This book is a part of a series done by Leaping Hare Press related to spiritual homesteading. I'm not sure which titles are forthcoming, but the companion to Zen Chickens is Meditation and the Art of Beekeeping by Mark Magill. I saw some of this before it came out and it looks equally fabulous. 


Enjoy!

Gender and My Book Sacred Land: The Evolution of a Spiritual Gardening Book.

One review of my gardening book Sacred Land says some lovely things about the book, and then points out:

One flaw is that it is geared solely for women. Men can read it, but the language and imagery used is exclusive to women, no gods of harvest are mentioned, nor sun gods nurturing the land. Even so, men should read it for the tips – even if the meditations won’t always suit.

I wanted to respond to that here, as it is a complaint that comes up every once in a while. I even got an angry email from a reader about the issue! So maybe this blog will help explain.

When I originally wrote the book, it was intended as part of a series of books called the Goddess Guides. The first was called Goddess' Guide for the Magical Bride and became my book Magical Bride. The second was about healing, and I haven't written it yet. The third became Sacred Land. If you have read both Sacred Land and Magical Bride, you will know that I profile goddesses related to pertinent topics in each book. The series was meant to be geared towards women, on normal topics we deal with every day like marriage, gardening, raising children, and health. I wanted to include goddesses and women who inspire me on each given topic.

So at first, Sacred Land was titled Goddess' Guide for the Sacred Garden. Then it changed to Sisterhood of the Sacred Garden. My publisher felt this title was too... sisterhoody. It didn't work for them. So they took the title and subtitle out of the text, and the woman-goddess focus got lost in the new title. At that point I should have edited the heck out of the book to include gods and men, but I didn't. Not because I don't love gardening gods and men, but just because I didn't. First book and all that jazz.

So dear men and others wondering about the gender imbalance in the book, fear not. I mean no disrespect. I mean it as empowering to women - and to gardeners of both genders everywhere. And now you know something about the evolution of a first book!

Gardens Transform the World: Review of The Curious Garden

Tonight we read The Curious Garden by Peter Brown. My daughter and I admired the transformation of a dreary city - brown, smoky and people-less - into a green, bustling, and flower-bedecked world. The agents of change? A small boy and a garden. The new green world was not unlike a vision I had while writing Sacred Land, a world where every rooftop, empty lot, playground, park, and yard grew food, flowers, and herbs.

The painter and architect Hundertwasser had similar visions. From Wikipedia: "For Hundertwasser, human misery was a result of the rational, sterile, monotonous architecture, built following the tradition of the Austrian architect Adolf Loos ("Ornament and Crime"). He called for a boycott of this type of architecture, and demanded instead creative freedom of building, and the right to create individual structures. In 1972 he published the manifesto Your window right — your tree duty. Planting trees in an urban environment was to become obligatory: 'If man walks in nature's midst, then he is nature's guest and must learn to behave as a well-brought-up guest.'"

This is a housing development designed by Hundertwasser. It looks a lot like the city at the end of The Curious Garden!

I highly recomend The Curious Garden to any parent of a 3 to 9 year old. After reading it you could draw pictures of a garden city your child might design, plant flowers in a pot, design a new garden for your yard, research wind energy, or just compare and contrast the first illustration with the last.