Start With the Animals and the World Will Appear

Last weekend I presented my Nature Spirituality From the Ground Up workshop at FaerieWorlds. It’s one of my favorite topics, because I’m helping workshop participants connect with their bioregion through the animal, plant, fungus and other totems there. It’s also frustrating as there’s so… Continue Reading

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The Birth of Human-Pig Hybrids

Now, the reason they’ve chosen pigs is due to the similar size and appearance of organs we share, even though there’s a bit of a gap between our evolutionary history. But there’s more we share with pigs than just anatomical organs. Throughout world mythology, we have deities that either depicts pigs, are associated with them, ride them, or are partially pig themselves like Varahi from Nepal. In Greek mythology, Hercules captured the Erymanthian Boar for Eurystheus, as his Fourth Labour. Pigs were also a favorite sacrificial animal of various cultures and are used as a main festive dish for several religious holidays.

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Naturalistic Animism: Seeing the Trees for the Ents

It takes an artist’s eyes—or a lover’s—to really see. It takes a willingness to get our hands dirty, to get up close and personal with messy nature, and to use all of our senses. But most of all, it requires a willingness to be open to receiving, as well as perceiving—an openness to being “touched back” when we touch nature.

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