Napa County: “Another Beautiful Violence?”

Last week I returned from a rafting trip on the San Juan River in the Four Corners area of Utah. We floated through steep canyons on thick brown water for seven days, immersed in beauty. From the sunrise to sunset, the kaleidoscope of golden to deep pink-red cliffs guided us, their petroglyphs and pictograms offering… Read more »

The Overstory: Trees of Life

Never read The Overstory, a beautifully written, transformative novel by Richard Powers, about trees and people and the earth, before going to bed. After reading another section last night, usually a great prelude to sleep, I couldn’t fall into that blessed state. When I must have accomplished some version of that, I slept fitfully, waking at… Read more »

Lilith–Serpent Dragon Wakes

When a serpent dragon wakes, beware! In the early hours of August 24, I woke to the slam of an earthquake which rocked the house and then kept going, increasing in intensity, for a full 45 seconds. Outside the sky lit up, confusing my sleep-drugged mind. Was this a thunderstorm—or had a bomb just dropped?… Read more »

Interview with Jungian Analyst Carol McRae: Drumming and Ally Work

Interview with Jungian Analyst Carol McRae: Drumming and Ally Work On February 22, 2014, the C. G. Jung Institute of San Francisco will offer the first of a series of eco-psychology seminars and workshops on the environment crisis. These workshops will be from differing perspectives but of one piece: the necessary crisis of consciousness in… Read more »

Demeter’s Grief: Reflections on Our Evolution

No wonder she was tempted! Demeter’s Grief: Reflections on Our Evolution Yes, she was a great Goddess, that Medium of a tone of consciousness, and boy, was she pissed! Her daughter Persephone had been abducted by Pluto into Hades and the Underworld. In her fury, Demeter stopped everything from growing until she got Persephone back…. Read more »

Gratitude and Our Relationship to the Earth

Wesley on a “field trip” last spring. Gratitude and Our Relationship to the Earth   Watching our grandson Wesley discover our natural world is at once a delight and a horror. The delight comes from witnessing his awe: a honey bee visiting a flowering rosemary bush, an ant column crossing a path, a buckeye seed,… Read more »