Product Description

From time immemorial, artists and poets, prophets, and shamans have drawn strength and inspiration from walking the earth. In The Earth Path, bestselling author Starhawk takes the reader on a journey into the heart of the natural world, showing how we can have a more intimate connection with the world that surrounds us.

Institutionalized religions have sacred texts -- messages written in holy books that are the inspiration for their beliefs and rituals. But the sacred texts for Wicca, like other ancient native or indigenous traditions, are written in nature -- in the magic circle of the elements: air, fire, water, and earth. With The Earth Path, Starhawk, an activist, ecofeminist, and leader in the women’s spirituality movement, places you in the center of that magical circle. As you become attuned to the rhythms of the earth, your thinking will shift from focusing on isolated objects to marveling at the multitude of interconnecting patterns and relationships in nature. These patterns and connections can hold the key to your own spiritual renewal and restore your sense of responsibility for preserving this world that nurtures and sustains us.

Filled with awareness exercises, inspiring meditations, and magical rituals, The Earth Path not only teaches the reader to respect the ecology of our natural world, but shows how to spiritually connect with and channel the powers inherent in nature.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #208716 in Books
• Published on: 2004-09-16
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 256 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Fans and followers of Starhawk (The Spiral Dance; etc.), a founding member of the Reclaiming Tradition of Witchcraft, will welcome her latest offering. Well organized, each chapter contains reminiscences of personal and group experiences, exercises and suggestions for prayer and ritual. Many of her tenets apply not only to those interested in the practice of Wicca but to readers seeking a better understanding of the world around them: "Once we have learned to hear, then we can begin to understand. And only after we understand do we begin to speak, to intervene." Yet she astutely cautions: "To change a drum rhythm in a group of drummers, you first have to match it and join with it. But when you are within a system, part of the whole, that system is also changing you. It is difficult to maintain your own rhythm and not simply become part of what you are trying to change." Starhawk presents an array of exercises and practices for sharpening observation and listening skills. She engages readers' spirits and minds through her illustrative storytelling, offering ways to communicate more fully with the world and suggesting ways to act. While those unfamiliar with her passion for protest may find themselves distracted by the all-too-frequent appearance of her political soapbox, they will appreciate her tools for connecting with nature.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

About the Author
Starhawk is the author of nine books, including her bestselling The Spiral Dance, The Pagan Book of Living and Dying, and Webs of Power, winner of the 2003 Nautilus Award for social change. She has an international reputation, and her works have been translated into many different languages. Starhawk is also a columnist for beliefnet.com and ZNet. A veteran of progressive movements who is deeply committed to bringing the techniques and creative power of spirituality to political activism, she travels internationally, teaching magic, the tools of ritual, and the skills of activism. Starhawk lives part-time in San Francisco, in a collective house with her partner and friends, and part-time in a little hut in the woods in western Sonoma County, where she practices permaculture in her extensive gardens and writes.

Customer Reviews

Single Best Effort Since The Spiral Dance
The Earth Path is without doubt Starhawk's single best publication since The Spiral Dance. (Not to dismiss Dreaming The Dark or Truth Or Dare by any means - two other great books!) By weaving in a practical, experienced perspective on earth-based spirituality, the reader gains what is a much more mature, pragmatic and solidly 'earthy' approach than I've found anywhere else.
For example, I recently reviewed an ostensibly 'pagan' text about magical gardening that casually talked about MiracleGro for this, and insecticides for that..! (Can you imagine!!) What Starhawk accomplishes here is taking the spiritual aspect almost physically into the earth through practices like permaculture. It's important, as this book very eloquently lays out, not to separate our spiritual practises that are ostensibly nature-based from our day-to-day actions that impact the earth around us. Like avoiding chemical fertilizers and pesticides that undermine soil structure and food sources for beneficial wildlife.

Taking earth-based spirituality back to how we work the earth with our hands, Starhawk has fun even poking a bit of fun at herself - particularly when she talked about planting today vs. years ago when she used to spend all kinds of prayers on every plant she put in.

I recently read a piece by David Suzuki who described a need for embracing protection of the earth into our spirituality, and The Earth Path (for me) seems to describe precisely the path we need to carve and follow to make this happen.

A fun, very enlightening and practical read. Highly recommended new classic.

grateful reader
Though her autobiographical approach put me off at first, by the end of the book I was deeply appreciating Starhawk's openness about how she lives the ecological principles that she believes in on a day-to-day basis. She introduced me to the whole field of permaculture ('permanent + agriculture', about sustainable living on the planet), with an excellent bibliography and resource list at the end. As permaculture is a philosophy and a way of life, as well as a well-researched body of knowledge, Starhawk has inspired me to find my own way to do something practical about the despair I feel about the state of the earth. She also offers exercises, meditations and rituals which are divided into the four elements. (I would recommend that this book also be listed under 'permaculture' because many people will miss it if it is restricted to 'pagan' and 'wicca' booklists.)

A Gaianist Philosphical Paradigm?
Starhawk's, The Earth Path: Grounding Your Spirit In The Rhythms of Nature, may just provide an antidote to the poisonous, narcissistic, corporate nationalism and dominionist, fundamentalistic, theocrats who are bent on tearing the world apart in order to impliment a pre-established agenda - one where retention of power and control take precedence over anything even vaguely resembling ethical, secular, humanism.

With a myriad of sacred suggestions, this author supplies ample exercises, examples and inclusion of the four traditional elements (air, fire, water, earth) - grounded within the circle - in order to guide readers through reinforcing accounts of ways to not only reclaim personal power, but also enliven a process for transferring and sharing the magical quintessence of empowering others.

Throughout the text, Starhawk intigrates many themes, such as: the vital importance of attunement, attentiveness, and reconnection. Likewise, sustainability, respect and reverence resonate and validate the philosophy of Gaiaism. The need to restore balance is preemminent.

Reconceptualizing the craft and magic might be necessary for anyone who has not transcended the conventional, stereotypified preconceptions associated with negativity from threatened belief systems that act as rivals to the ancient practices that predate written languages.

The people who most need to read this book will likely shy away from it, primarily due to the fear engendered in challenging their own antiquated myths of monotheism.

Still, I highly recommend this text for opening minds too long closed. An awakening is occurring, and those who wish to be prepared for a great leap in cosmic consciousness would do well to garner both insight and enlightenment from the words of a wiccan/pagan dreamweaver.

****The Perilous Pen****