The Green Soul: Returning to Our Sacred Belonging in Nature

Summary

This capstone work of New York Times bestselling spiritual writer Lucinda M. Vardey reveals itself as an unforgettable field guide to the wisdom of the wild, and our place in its superabundance.

Nature invites all to receive the grand inheritance of the great outdoors, yet modern life estranges us from many of its greatest gifts: sanctuary, superabundance, peace, and belonging. It’s time to end our exile from true flourishing, and take our place in the wisdom of the wild.

Modern mystic and pilgrimage guide Lucinda M. Vardey calls what we hunger for the Green Soul—the active participation of one’s being with the larger, living being of all creation. The greening of the soul promises:

• the joys of enchantment
• purpose and participation in the world’s deepest aliveness
• authentic embodiment
• and a collective consciousness upon which the healing of our world depends.

Lucinda’s field notes emerge from her own environment: a 500-year-old farmhouse in an ancient valley in Tuscany, neighboring fields of wildflowers, a mountain stream, and an ancient stone barn now dedicated as a chapel for climate care. Saint Francis of Assisi once walked in this very place, calling the earth Mother and praising all its creation.

But you don’t have to live on sacred lands to experience the full gifts of the Green Soul. Drawing upon ecological research, awe-evoking narratives of sacred encounter in nature, and spiritual teachers of the ages, Lucinda reveals the modern problem of our exile from spiritual belonging with the earth, as well as a field map for renewing this sacred contact.

Consider this your invitation to walk among the wildflowers, rewilding your spirituality and renewing your life.