About

And without this bonding, what is life?  What is life without this exchange of soul essence between human and the wildness of the world?
 — Stephen Harrod Buhner

SoulCraft Wisdom is informed by the ecopsychological perspective and is dedicated to promoting the priceless wisdom of this perspective.  This view understands that all life is sacred and that health of body and mind is interwoven with the health of the environment and the greater community of life.  Here you will find essays about ecopsychology and environmental justice, as well as other pertinent matters that bear upon the care of one’s soul and the soul of the world, such as discovering and honoring your life purpose, soulful relationship skills, as well as shamanic practices that heal, empower and instruct.

At Soulcraft Wisdom every soul is viewed as a nexus of the material, emotional, sexual, mental, spiritual, relational, political, economic, cultural, and environmental streams of one’s existence.  How we care for each of these streams — in thought, word and deed — is how we care for our souls. Consequentially, our life stories have meaningful sustenance only as far as they are vitally and consciously participating in the care of the greater community of life.

Mission Statement:

The following abridged and paraphrased excerpt from Theodore Roszak’s book, The Voice of the Earth (1992), gives some expression to SoulCraft Wisdom’s mission statement:

Psychology needs ecology; ecology needs psychology. From this partnership a new profession is born: an ecopsychology that combines the sensitivity of the therapist with the expertise of the ecologist. The value of such a new body of professionals reaches well beyond individual healing. Ecopsychology has a greater cultural project: to redefine the relationship of the natural environment to sanity in our time. Ecotherapists wish to heal the soul while engaging the whole. We wish to speak for the planet and its imperiled species. We wish to recall the long forgotten Anima Mundi and honor it in our relations and work. We wish to converse with primary people to foster healing and build common cause. The planetary environment is the context for healing the soul because the two are inextricably bound by bonds that are sacred: life and consciousness. Implicit in this project is the need for a scientific paradigm that gives life and consciousness a new central status in the universe. Based upon such a paradigm, ecopsychology is more than a mere academic exercise; it is part of an ongoing and practical healing mission that recognizes and honors that the health of the individual human psyche depends upon the collective health of all the kingdoms of life on Earth.

Recommended Reading

Plotkin, Bill. Nature and the Human Soul: Cultivating Wholeness and Community in a Fragmented World. Novato, California: New World Library. 2008.

Sheldrake, Rupert. Morphic Resonance: The Nature of Formative Causation. Rochester, Vermont: Park Street Press. 1981.

Buhner, Stephen Harrod. The Secret Teachings of Plants: The Intelligence of the Heart in the Direct Perception of Nature. Rochester, Vermont: Bear & Company. 2004.

Hillman, James. The Soul’s Code: In Search of Character and Calling. New York: Warner Books. 1996.

Abbey, Edward. Desert Solitaire. Tucson: University of Arizona Press. 1988.

Abram, David. Spell of the Sensuous: Perception and Language in a More-Than-Human World. New York: Pantheon. 1996.

Barnhill, David and Roger Gottlieb. Deep Ecology and World Religions. Albany: SUNY Press. 2001

Bookchin, Murray. Social Ecology versus ‘Deep Ecology.’ Green Perspectives (4 & 5, Summer 1987).

Bookchin, Murray and Dave Foreman. Defending the Earth. Boston: South End Press. 1991.

Callicott, J. Baird. Holistic Environmental Ethics and the Problem of Ecofascism. Beyond the Land Ethic: More Essays in Environmental Philosophy. Albany, NY: SUNY Press. 1999.

Cheney, Jim. “Eco-Feminism and Deep Ecology.” Environmental Ethics 9 (Summer 1987), 115-145.

Devall, Bill. Simple in Means, Rich in Ends: Practicing Deep Ecology. Salt Lake City, UT: Peregrine Smith. 1988.

Devall, Bill and George Sessions. Deep Ecology: Living As If Nature Mattered. Salt Lake City, UT: Peregrine Smith. 1985.

Drengson, Alan, and Yuichi Inoue, eds. The Deep Ecology Movement: An Introductory Anthology. Berkeley, California: North Atlantic. 1995.

Ferry, Luc. The New Ecological Order. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 1995.

Fox, Matthew. The Coming of the Cosmic Christ: The Healing of Mother Earth and the Birth of a Global Renaissance. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1988.

Fox, Warwick. “The Deep Ecology—Ecofeminism Debate and Its Parallels.” Environmental Ethics. 11 (Spring 1989), 5-25.

Fox, Warwick. Toward a Transpersonal Ecology. Boston: Shambhala. 1990.

Katz, Eric, Andrew Light, and David Rothenberg. Beneath the Surface: Critical Essays on Deep Ecology. Cambridge: The MIT Press. 2000.

LaChapelle, Dolores. Earth Wisdom. Silverton, Colorado: Finn Hill Arts. 1978.

LaChapelle, Dolores. Sacred Land, Sacred Sex: Rapture of the Deep. Silverton, Colorado: Finn Hill Arts. 1988.

Macy, Joanna. World As Lover, World As Self. Berkeley, CA: Parallax Press. 1991.

Manes, Christopher. Green Rage: Radical Environmentalism and the Unmaking of Civilization. Boston: Little, Brown, 1990.

Naess, Arne. “The Shallow and the Deep, Long-Range Ecology Movement: A Summary.” Inquiry 16 (1973), 95-100.

Naess, Arne. Ecology, Community and Lifestyle, ed. D. Rothenberg, trans. D. Rothenberg. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1989.

Plumwood, Val. “Nature, Self, and Gender: Feminism, Environmental Philosophy, and the Critique of Rationalism.” Hypatia. 6 (Spring 1991), 3-27.

Salleh, Ariel. “The Ecofeminism/Deep Ecology Debate: A Reply to Patriarchal Reason.” Environmental Ethics 3 (Fall 1992), 195-216.

Seed, John, Joanna Macy, Pat Fleming, and Arne Naess. Thinking Like a Mountain: Towards a Council of All Beings. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: New Society. 1988.

Sessions, George, ed. Deep Ecology for the 21st Century. Boston: Shambhala Publications. 1995.

Shepard, Paul. Coming Home to the Pleistocene. San Francisco: Island Press. 1998.

Snyder, Gary. Turtle Island. New York: New Directions. 1969.

Snyder, Gary. The Practice of the Wild. San Francisco: North Point Press. 1990.

Taylor, Bron, ed. Ecological Resistance Movements: The Global Emergence of Radical and Popular Environmentalism. Albany, New York: State University of New York Press. 1995.

Taylor, Bron, “Deep Ecology As Social Philosophy: A Critique.” In Eric Katz, Andrew Light and David Rothenberg, eds. Beneath the Surface: Critical Essays on Deep Ecology. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press, 2000, 269-99.

Tobias, Michael, ed. Deep Ecology. San Diego: Avant Books. 1985.

Zimmerman, Michael E. “Toward a Heideggerean Ethos for Radical Environmentalism.” Environmental Ethics 5 (Summer 1983): 99-132.

Zimmerman, Michael E. “Rethinking the Heidegger—Deep Ecology Relationship.” Environmental Ethics 15 (Fall 1993), 195-224.

Zimmerman, Michael E. Contesting Earth’s Future: Radical Ecology and Postmodernity. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1994.

Carl Golden

Ecopsychotherapist | Teacher | Life Coach

Carl is a student and practioner of wise and vital soul crafts from around the world.  His own heritage is Celtic.  He has studied with Native American, Tibetan, Sri Lankan and other traditions of soul-wise living.