The spirit of a place can help us heal ourselves and the earth.
There is a beautiful step in the healing process that is unfamiliar to most Westerners. It has to do with listening to the spirit of a place in order to cultivate a path toward wholeness, recovery and balance. This healing method often involves a communion with nature in the form of sacred ceremony. It can also help us feel more grounded.
Several years ago I had the opportunity to create such a ceremony. My client, Pat, moved from the city and bought land in Wisconsin. This area was filled with the trees she imagined in our healing sessions, as well as water in the form of wetlands.
Shortly after finding the place, Pat built an ecologically sensitive home on the land and asked me to create a ceremony that would help her establish a nature sanctuary where she was now living.
I traveled there and we walked the property lines and the animal trails together. After looking at the way the animals moved through the area, and listening to the trees, plants, and nature, we found a place that was perfect for doing the healing ceremony. This was a ceremony we co-created with the intention of bringing the uniqueness of the place and all of its history into alignment with the new sanctuary.
After the work was completed, Pat felt the transition. She became clear about her role and felt a partnership with the land that would allow her to create the sanctuary. She also knew how and where to work with ceremony on the land in the future. She felt satisfied and more at peace.
Earth Healing Work
My approach to Earth healing has developed from a love of nature, wild creatures, intuitive art making, environmental art, teaching, and spiritual guidance. My awareness of this work began in 1994 when a series of spontaneous spiritual initiations brought me into relationship with sources of energy for healing and blessing places, land, and the Earth.
Specific ceremonies I have created/co-created include:
- bringing spiritual healing to land that holds emotional trauma construction scars, or weather damage
- aligning undeveloped land with the intention to be used as a sanctuary
- supporting sacred places
