Remembering Earth

“Remembering Earth is an exceptional book born of a remarkable life and mind. Reading it, I felt a sense of calm lucidity move over me: a clarity at what has happened to disconnect spirit from matter, and what might—must—be done to connect it again. At its heart is the recognition that, as Vaughan-Lee puts it, the work of reconnection with this memorious, wondrous Earth of ours is ‘not about learning something new but remembering something very, very old.’” —Robert Macfarlane, author of Underland and Is a River Alive? “A cyclic meditation, always swerving back around, renewing and replenishing itself—a song for the breathing Earth. An incantation fed by both anguish and astonishment, by the author’s steady wonder at the unaccountable beauty of the many-voiced biosphere, and his bottomless grief at what’s so needlessly being lost. Vaughan-Lee is a Sufi mystic whose heart pulses with ardor for the divine Beloved, and in the final third of this book he offers a clutch of deceptively simple practices for falling head over heels back in love with the wild, spherical immensity that ceaselessly sustains us.” —David Abram, author of The Spell of the Sensuous and Becoming Animal “An exigent cry for remembrance and affirmation of the sacred nature of Earth and our raveled relationship with Her. Wary of the dark, extractive side of New Age culture, Vaughan-Lee offers ‘a different way,’ an adaptable vision ‘grounded in the real’ that calls for individual commitment and draws on both existing and fresh ways for embodying a spiritual ecology and for reigniting our ancient relationship with the place that is our home. When you are ready, open your eyes. Turn the page.” —Forrest Gander, Pulitzer Prize–winning poet “In our time of deep divisions, Emmanuel Vaughan-Lee reminds us that we are all weavers, and love is the thread. In this time of loneliness, he offers the embrace of a bountiful and beautiful world—flowing rivers and maple trees in autumn. In a time of unspeakable cruelty, he offers healing. In a time of deep disappointment in humanity, he offers an urgent vision of our better selves. In this time of endings, he tells a sweeping new story about a future that is both necessary and possible. These are great gifts. I am filled with gratitude.” —Kathleen Dean Moore, PhD, author of Great Tide Rising and Wild Comfort “In a prose style that spirals heavenward like a red-tailed hawk riding a thermal, Emmanuel Vaughn-Lee pours forth perceptions that remind us all to renew our bond at a heart-deep level with the guardian holiness that is our glorious living Earth.” —David James Duncan, author of Sun House, The Brothers K, and The River Why “Weaving together Sufi mysticism and Earth wisdom, Remembering Earth tells a story vital to the present time: how to listen and bear witness to this unraveling and be open to grief and love for the living Earth and her more-than-human inhabitants. Here are also practices to help us reconnect to this deeper story, form a foundation for an embodied spiritual ecology, and return to an awareness of the Divine present in all forms. This book is a prayer to attune us to what is sacred, a kinship with a world waiting to be reborn. Treasure it.” —Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee, PhD, Sufi teacher and editor of Spiritual Ecology: The Cry of the Earth “In the face of a planetary crisis so vast and sweeping it dwarfs the biblical, Vaughan-Lee skillfully seeks to transform a potent grief for the Earth into the attentive Sufi practice of awakened love called ‘Remembrance.’ There’s nothing passive here in this urgent call to begin to actively walk and breathe this love—love that looks not for a ‘solution’ but for agency energized by the fundamental truth that the Earth is no ‘other’!” —Susan Murphy Roshi, author of A Fire Runs Through All Things “This remarkable book on spiritual ecology opens fresh angles of vision and new paths to follow. Emmanuel Vaughan-Lee calls us to return to Earth’s embrace by awakening to a persistent and enduring love. Who would have thought this invitation could sing through the noise of our moment, leaving us entranced with the possibilities of healing at hand? This is a book of profound resonance with the spirit of the Earth. An immense gift for our shared planetary future.” —Mary Evelyn Tucker, codirector of Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology and coauthor of Journey of the Universe “Emmanuel Vaughan-Lee reminds us with both tenderness and urgency that the foundational ideas of the dominant technological civilization are equally illusory: the belief that nature is a soulless thing and the belief that love is a private feeling. Drawing on his Sufi heritage, Vaughan-Lee shows that nature, and the experience of love, are both faces of Divine self-expression. They are, indeed, the same face.” —Andreas Weber, PhD, biologist, philosopher, and author of The Biology of Wonder and Matter and Desire “A love song to the Beloved who shimmers and dances in every raindrop. A hymn to the joy of breathing. A luminous and companionable guide through the dark forests of the present. A strenuously practical manual for being properly alive. Essential if you’re human, and even more essential if you’re not.” —Charles Foster, PhD, author of The Edges of the World and Being a Human “We desperately need new ways of relating to the Earth that go beyond exploitation—this book has some remarkable insights to help in that crucial task.” —Bill McKibben, author of Here Comes the Sun