As the seasons shift, nature calls us into a deeper awareness of its sacred rhythms—holy hours that invite us to witness the Divine in the world around us. These changes are not mere cycles, but Earth’s own ceremonial practices, expressions of the Sacred Wild. By tuning into these shifts, we engage in sacred phenology—attending to the wild beings around us as manifestations of Divine Mystery. Discover how these practices can deepen your spiritual connection to the natural world in the full article.

Experience a refined eco-spiritual practice that blends mindful walking—what I call a Wild Wander—with the ritual of a pine-needle tea ceremony. This simple yet profound practice invites you to step into a deeper, sacramental connection with the forest, where each step and sip is an offering to the Sacred Wild.

Creating a Forest Tea Ceremony is a simple yet meaningful way to honor your time in the wild. With a warm thermos and mug in hand, gather small amounts of plants (with the knowledge of what’s safe to forage), and let them steep as you move gratefully through the landscape. Find a quiet place to sit, sip in thanksgiving, and let yourself sink into the Sacred Wild. As a final gesture, pour the last bit back to the earth in gratitude. Read the full post for more on this beautiful, grounding practice.

Go to your Sacred Sit Spot and pay special attention to weather: breezes, clouds, etc. Feel them as external parts of passing moods or internal feelings: the introversion of fog, the clarity of bright sunlight, the settling down at twilight, the sense of awakening at dawn.

As we carry a lot of anxiety and a variety of different stresses these days due to Covid-19, this spiritual practice in nature may be therapeutic. Do it whenever works in your routine. Consider doing it before Easter, perhaps on Good Friday, a day of grief and lament. However, grief lives throughout our days, so this is a good practice for whenever grief feels especially heavy and poignant.

You are beginning the practice of seeing the land and wild ones as what Thomas Berry would call, “a community of subjects, not a collection of objects.” The simple act of deeper noticing and self-introduction begins the critical shift needed to see creation as a community with whom we can be in communion. This is essential for creating your wild sanctuary.

This is a practice of forming what theologian Steven Bouma-Prediger calls an ecological perception of place. That is, a practice to get to know your ecology by becoming familiar over time with as many components of your ecology as you can. In other words, this is a process of learning to listen and attune your self to storied and sacred land.

Nature Hand Looms are beautiful ways to symbolically weave ourselves back into a sacred relationship with the wild world. This practice provides a form through which one begins to attune to the all of the wild life that surrounds them and creates a woven piece that can be placed upon one’s home nature table or altar.

The Story Stick is a way to document your journey, whether through seasons, through terrain, or through meaningful moments in your life. Inspired by the Australian aboriginal practice of conveying their homeland and communicating their collective dream time through message sticks, the Story Stick is a way to witness this time through the natural world.