Category: Ecospirituality

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NOW AVAILABLE! Sandtray Eco-Art Therapy in Clinical Practice

Sandtray Eco-Art Therapy in Clinical Practice

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ABOUT Sandtray Eco-Art Therapy in Clinical Practice

Sandtray Eco-Art Therapy in Clinical Practice offers an innovative approach to mental health treatment by blending the tactile engagement of sandtray therapy with the expressive potential of eco-art therapy. This comprehensive guide shows clinicians how to integrate these two powerful modalities into a cohesive therapeutic framework, promoting healing and transformation in clients of all ages.

Designed for therapists who wish to incorporate mindfulness, creativity, and nature-based practices into their work, this book provides step-by-step guidance on how to create meaningful therapeutic experiences. It covers a wide range of topics, including clinical case studies, session outlines, and practical tools for addressing common mental health issues such as trauma, anxiety, and low self-esteem.

Whether you are a seasoned practitioner or new to sandtray and eco-art therapy, Sandtray Eco-Art Therapy in Clinical Practice provides the foundational knowledge and practical skills necessary to create a safe, nurturing space for clients to explore and heal through creative expression. This text is essential reading for mental health professionals seeking to deepen their practice by tapping into the healing power of nature and creativity, as it offers a way to introduce the healing power of nature through ecotherapy for therapists who may not have ready access to an outdoor therapy space.

Sandtray Eco-Art Therapy in Clinical Practice offers a nature-based approach to therapy by combining the rich symbolism of sandtray therapy with the expressive, healing power of eco-art. This textbook introduces readers to a pioneering model that bridges two therapeutic methods, creating an innovative framework for clinicians working with individuals and groups facing various emotional, psychological, and behavioral challenges.

Rooted in mindfulness-based ecotherapy, this text emphasizes the role of nature in the healing process, helping clients reconnect with the environment and, in turn, with themselves. Sandtray Eco-Art Therapy (SEAT) blends the tactile, reflective process of sandtray therapy—where clients use miniatures to build symbolic worlds within a sandbox—with eco-art therapy, which invites clients to work with natural elements like leaves, stones, and wood in their artistic creations. This combination enhances therapeutic outcomes by fostering emotional expression, self-awareness, and grounding in the present moment.

The book offers clear, step-by-step instructions for integrating SEAT into your clinical practice, covering practical considerations for setting up a sandtray eco-art space, selecting materials, and structuring sessions to facilitate healing conversations. Through case studies, clinicians will gain insight into how SEAT can be applied to a variety of populations, including children, adolescents, and adults, helping clients navigate issues such as trauma, anxiety, grief, and relationship challenges.

Sandtray Eco-Art Therapy in Clinical Practice provides theoretical underpinnings that link SEAT to current trends in ecotherapy, expressive arts therapies, and mindfulness-based interventions. Readers will also find practical tips for tailoring SEAT to specific therapeutic goals, as well as methods for evaluating and documenting client progress.

Whether you are new to sandtray or eco-art therapy or are seeking to expand your existing toolkit with nature-based interventions, this textbook serves as a valuable resource. With a focus on creativity, environmental connection, and client-centered care, Sandtray Eco-Art Therapy in Clinical Practice offers a holistic path toward healing that integrates mind, body, and spirit. Perfect for therapists, counselors, social workers, and students, this text equips you with the knowledge and confidence to bring the benefits of nature and creativity into the clinical setting.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR OF Sandtray Eco-Art Therapy in Clinical Practice

Charlton Hall, MMFT, PhD is the author of multiple books on using mindfulness and ecospirituality to facilitate change within families and individuals, and he has presented research worldwide at conferences and seminars on this and other topics. In 2020 Dr. Hall retired from his position as a Marriage and Family Therapy Supervisor and Registered Play Therapy Supervisor to serve full-time as the Executive Director of the Mindful Ecotherapy Center, LLC. Learn more at www.mindfulecotherapy.org.

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Spiritual Power

spiritual power

Ultimately, spiritual power means connection. The way of the ecospiritual shaman is the way of spiritual power. This could be a connection to nature, others, self, or your sense of a higher power. We have been tracking the seeker’s journey over the last few months with these blogs, and we are now at the beginning of the true seeker’s quest for spiritual power.

At this point in the seeker’s journey, reluctance has been overcome, the decision has been made, and the purpose and intention have been set. Supernatural Aid has been found, and the quest for true spiritual power can begin.

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, and the Crossing of the First Threshold is the first step on the journey to spiritual power. Although there is still a long way to go, at least the quest has begun. At times when you feel overwhelmed at how much still remains, just remember to focus on one step at a time. If you are walking a thousand miles, and you focus on the fact that you have a thousand miles to go, you’ll get so discouraged that you’ll never take the first step. But if you just focus on the first step, and nothing but the first step, then focus on the next step, and only on the next step, and so on, the thousand miles will be over before you know it. It may help to remember that life is a journey and not a destination.

The key to walking in the Way of the Coyote is to enjoy the trip, in the present moment.

The whole purpose of setting out to answer the Call of the Coyote is to partake in a process of self-discovery that leads to the ability to live fully according to your own true nature. To answer the Call and to follow the Way means learning who you are, and what your place in the world might be. It is a quest to seek power of a spiritual nature.
The Way of the Coyote is the way of personal spiritual power. Such power is not power in the way the world conceives of power. It is not power that is involved in the accumulation of material possessions, or power that seeks to dominate and destroy other people. It is a spiritual power that operates in the spiritual realm. Such energy is the power to master the self, to heal, to nurture, and to gain wisdom.

Spiritual Power in the Way of the Coyote

You are leaving your old life behind as you set out on the Way of the Coyote in search of spiritual power. This means that you have already learned everything your old way of being in the world could teach you. Sometimes the baggage we carry from this older life as we cross the threshold can hinder us. Sometimes it can help us. In either case, the old way of being is part of your own personal mythology. At some point, this personal mythology has either failed you, or no longer satisfies you. If it did, there would be no reason to answer the Call of the Coyote, and you would have never begun this journey.

As you look back on the story of your life up until this point, consider why you find yourself now on a new path. What did your personal mythology teach you about the path you now seek to walk? If you are like many others, you may have been told that the Way of the Coyote is a dark and dangerous path. You may have been warned against following such a path. The spiritual power of this nature may go against your religious upbringing, or it may seem too “weird” to some people in your life. People in your life may have actively discouraged you from answering the Call of the Coyote.

Perhaps you were told that life is about the accumulation of material possessions, and not about answering a spiritual calling. Maybe you learned this from people whose idea of success is the accumulation of property rather than the accumulation of personal power. Maybe it’s just frightening to contemplate going off on a path you know little or nothing about. If these or any other reasons are conspiring to keep you from crossing the first threshold, don’t despair. With much risk comes much reward. As Mark Twain said, “Why not go out on a limb? That’s where the fruit is.”

By the time you finish reading this sentence, the experience of reading it will lie in the past. At which point does the present become the past? Now? How about now?

How about never?

Where exactly does the past lie, anyway? Once you have finished reading this sentence, the only place it will exist is in your memory. This means that all of your past experiences, all of those journeys you have already taken, only exist in what you remember about them. The past is a product of the mind.

Let’s turn to the future now.

Can you tell me exactly what will happen to you tomorrow? How about the next day? Or the next after that? Of course not, because you haven’t experienced it yet.

The problem with catastrophizing about what we think may come is that such thinking tries to predict the future. We are quite good at negative thinking. This is because negative thinking helps us to plan for the future. We look towards what might go wrong as a means of being prepared for any contingency. Without a little planning and prediction, we would never make any progress. If I don’t plan to make the house payment, I may not have a house in the future. If I don’t plan to eat today, and the next day, and the next, I might eventually starve to death.

But there is a difference between planning and catastrophizing. Catastrophizing involves focusing our attention only on the bad things that might happen in the future. I sometimes refer to it as musturbating, because it often takes the form of phrases like, “I must do this,” or “I must not do this.”

The difference between planning and catastrophizing is that planning involves setting concrete, measurable goals for the future while catastrophizing often ends in a storm of musterbation. Planning is a way of relieving anxiety, not of causing it. So if you’re feeling anxious while planning, you’re probably musturbating.

When you find yourself anxious while planning for the future, check to see if you are indeed catastrophizing or musterbating. Planning for the future is a way of anticipating negative outcomes and preparing for them so they don’t catch you unprepared further down the river. It is a way of relieving anxiety by minimizing future catastrophes. When planning for the future, watch out for statements that focus on negative outcomes rather than positive ones. This doesn’t mean that you cannot anticipate and plan for negative outcomes. If it did, nobody would ever buy health insurance! What it means is that you’re planning for negative outcomes in order to prevent or guard against them. When discussing possible negative outcomes during planning, it is as a means of having positive outcomes at a later time.

Spiritual Power and Catastrophizing

What if we do find ourselves catastrophizing? How do we escape it?

It’s called “catastrophizing” for a reason. It focuses only on potential future catastrophes. But unless you have a crystal ball, you cannot know the future with any certainty. This can be a scary proposition for people who have experienced catastrophes in the past, but if I find myself anticipating further disasters in the future, that possible future only exists in my mind. It is just as likely that something good might happen in the future. But if I’ve set my perception filter to only anticipate and look for bad outcomes, will I see a positive opportunity even if it presents itself?

Our perception filters only exist in our minds. The good news is that we are in charge of how those filters are set. We can choose which events in our lives to pay attention to.

The past only exists in memory, and the future is just an educated guess about what may or may not happen further downstream. Both past and future are nothing but products of the mind. We can consciously choose in the now which thoughts and feelings about past or future to give our energy to. When we do so, we are living in the now.

When we have anxiety, stress or depression, it is almost inevitably because we are dwelling on the past or on the future. As you read this sentence, are you having any stressful thoughts or feelings? If so, how many of those stressful thoughts or feelings are about what is going on right now, as you read this? How many of them are the result of things that happened in the past, or how many may or may not happen in the future?

To dwell on memories of the past, or projections of memory onto the future, is to be trapped by the mind. In the now, we can escape the mind trap and make conscious decisions on how much attention to give to those thoughts and memories. When we escape the mind trap, we step outside of time to the now. Here in the now, the past and the future cannot touch us unless we choose to let them.

In the now, we recognize that time is just the mind’s way of keeping everything from happening at once. Once we grasp the concept that time is just an illusion, we are free to connect with our True Self, in nature, and in the present moment. When we learn this lesson, we are on the road to true spiritual power.

Share Your Thoughts!

What does spiritual power mean to you? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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Thought Streams

thought streams

Thought streams can impact one’s ability to cross the First Threshold. Setting out on the path by Crossing the First Threshold means being open to new ways of thinking and new ways of being. One way to do this is to change your thoughts by learning to live in the present moment, with intention.

Imagine that your thought streams and feelings are like a river. The river is always flowing, ever changing. In this river of the mind, sometimes positive thoughts float to the top, and sometimes negative thoughts float to the top. If we find ourselves in a spot on the river where those negative thoughts are floating to the top, our goal isn’t to stop the river by trying to dam it up. If we try to dam up the river, the water will only continue to back up behind the dam until either the dam bursts or the water overflows.

This is what happens when people have panic attacks or “nervous breakdowns.” The water behind the dam has no place to go, and it eventually builds up until a catastrophe happens.

Trying to stop negative thought streams and feelings by damming up the river isn’t the answer, since it could lead to catastrophe. So how do we deal with such thoughts?

What if there was an alternative to trying to stop the river by building a dam across it?

Thought Streams and the River

If we find ourselves at a place on the river where those negative thought streams are flowing to the top, we can consciously decide not to drown in the river by choosing instead to get out of the river, sit on the riverbank, and watch those thoughts and feelings flow by.

When we make this choice, the river is still flowing. We haven’t tried to dam it up. We’re just not swimming in it. From our viewpoint on the banks of the river, we can watch those thoughts and feelings flow by without being carried downstream. Using our intentional powers of observing and describing our own internal states, we can acknowledge the river’s presence without being at the river’s mercy.

In our analogy of the river, the thing that makes it flow from Point A to Point B is the presence of time. The sage has said, “You can’t step twice on the same piece of water.” This is because the water is always changing from moment to moment.

If you have the opportunity, find a gently flowing river near you. This should be a river where the water isn’t flowing too rapidly, and where the water isn’t too deep. Remember, safety first! This should be a river you know well, and it’s best not to do this activity alone.

Once you have found your river, go out into it. Don’t go any deeper than your waist. It’s preferable to find a spot on the river where nature surrounds you. If in doubt, find a footbridge you can walk across instead of going into the river.

Now stand in the river and do a little deep breathing. Inhale and exhale deeply for at least three breaths. Ground and center yourself. You may wish to do a brief meditation before continuing.

Now call upon your own Supernatural Aid. You may call upon the archetypal energy of your spirit animal, or it may help to hold a talisman in your hands. When you are ready, contemplate the river.

This is a river of the mind. Upstream, your thought streams about the past spread out behind you. Downstream, the river flows into the future. To return to the past would involve wading upstream against the current. To visit the future would require swimming downstream with the tide.

Suppose you tried to wade upstream or swim downstream. Once you got to your new location, the past would still lie behind you upstream relative to where you are now. Likewise, the future would still lie downstream ahead of you.
No matter which direction you move, you will always find yourself right here, right now, in the river.

Imagine yourself turning now to face upstream, towards the past. You already know what lies behind you. There may be rocky shoals and rapids behind you. There may even be high waterfalls and boulders. But the fact that you are standing right now at this place and this time in the river means that you survived the journey. Regardless of what lies behind you on the river, you have made it this far. This means that you are a survivor! You have met the challenges on the river and have gotten to where you are today.

Now turn to face downstream. The thought streams in this part of the river are unknown to you. You haven’t ventured there yet. There is no way of knowing whether more rapids lie ahead, or whether there is smooth sailing for the rest of the journey. You might try to make educated guesses as to what the downstream journey might be, based on the parts of the river you have already traveled, but there is no way to know with any certainty whether or not those guesses are correct. Rivers can suddenly change, and if you spend all your time worrying about what lies downstream, you miss the moment in which you find yourself. Worrying too much about what might lie downstream takes energy away from enjoying the pleasant experience of the river here and now.

Even if the worst happens, and we encounter catastrophes downstream, the choice to remain in the river is still ours. We can, at any time, make the conscious choice to step outside of the river for a while to watch it flow by.
We can’t know what lies downstream, but we can prepare ourselves for it. We can’t change the river, but we can change ourselves in order to increase the likelihood of a safe journey.

Life is like a river. When we learn to go with the flow, we decrease our chances of running aground.
Now cultivate an open and accepting attitude towards everything you are experiencing. What do you see? What do you hear? Can you feel the river’s currents with your body? Are there pleasant aromas on the breeze? Enjoy the experience of being in the river right here, and right now.

When you feel at peace with your surroundings, take a mental snapshot of all you have experienced here in the river. Mentally record the river in as much detail as possible. When you have done so, you may recall and retrieve this experience the next time you are feeling stressed out.

When you are ready, leave the river and sit on the riverbank while thinking over these questions:

  1. Once you were grounded and centered, did you find yourself thinking about what lies upstream or what lies downstream, or neither?
  2. Once you were grounded and centered, did you find your mind wandering to your mental “to do” list of daily activities, or did your thought streams subside?
  3. What was it about the river that made this experience different than your day-to-day life?
  4. Is there a way to carry this experience with you into your day-to-day life?
  5. How might this experience help you to see things in new ways that will lead you to your True Self?
  6. How might this teaching metaphor help you to cross the first threshold on your own Call to Adventure?

Though Streams and the First Threshold

thought streams

So, here we are, in the middle of the river. On one riverbank is the life we are leaving behind. On that other, unknown shore is the new life we’re moving towards. Crossing this river of the mind is consciously making the spiritual quest that is the Way of the Coyote the first and foremost quest in our lives. Rather than making pleasures of the flesh and accumulating material goods our goal and ambition in life is seeking a higher calling.

Seeking True Self doesn’t mean that we’re leaving our loved ones behind. It’s just the opposite. The more we are able to live according to our own true nature, the more we are able to help others. This is because when we are able to be the person we were born to be, we set aside the obligations that others have placed on us against our will. When we learn to do this, we learn to act for others because it is what we have chosen to do for ourselves, and not out of a sense of guilt, or shame, or self-blaming. This frees us to fully act for others of our own free will and to set aside resentments.

As we cross the river into the realm of the shaman, it’s not that we are leaving the material world behind either. We are instead learning a new way of seeing and being in the world. That way of seeing shows us that there is more to life than the trinkets and baubles of material possessions and status symbols. It is the path of true wealth that leads to love, connection, and ecospirituality.

This phase of the quest that is the Way of the Coyote involves emptying your cup. In order to be reborn as a seer, one must leave behind the former life. This means setting aside a life of pursuing material wealth just for the sake of owning things and instead seeking a life that makes room for nature and the spirit.

It’s very easy to get caught up in the idea that material things are the key to happiness, and a certain amount of material goods are necessary to survive. But if that is the sole motivation for life, our lives become meaningless and empty. The vision seeker instead searches for, and finds, things of spiritual significance. These spiritual things guide and enhance the quest. It is the path of true success and personal power.

Crossing the First Threshold, or crossing the river, involves announcing to the world and to yourself that the old ways have passed away. From this moment on, now and forever, a new journey begins. By announcing your intent to yourself and to others, you hold yourself accountable to staying on the path until the journey’s end. It is an acknowledgement that things will never again be as they were before.

Are you ready?

Share Your Thoughts!

What do you think? Let us know in the comments below!

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The First Threshold

the first threshold Coyote call of the coyote

The time had come for Coyote to cross the First Threshold. Since the fire had gone out sometime before dawn, Coyote had begun to get cold again, so he leaped up and set out on his journey. Following the directions White Buffalo Woman had given him, he ran north towards the mountains.

Coyote ran all day and most of the night, stopping to rest only when he was too exhausted to go on. After three days he had journeyed further than he had ever been before. He came to the river that marked the boundary of the tribal lands of his people. The snow was thick on the ground here in the north, but the river had not yet frozen, and he could not cross. So Coyote ran up and down the river bank looking for a way to get to the other side. The more he ran the more frantic he became. He could not find a shallow spot or a place with rocks that he could cross.

As he ran up and down the riverbank, Sister Beaver sat on a log by the river watching him. Amused at his antics, she called out, “Are you trying to cross the river?”

“Yes! I must get to the other side!” shouted Coyote, “Do you know of a way?”

Sister Beaver was wary of Coyote. He had played pranks on many members of her family, and in the spirit of vengeance, she was eager to do the same to him. So she said to him, “Continue on downstream and you will eventually come to a huge beaver dam. It’s old, and a bit rickety, but I’m sure one as agile as you could cross it with no problem!”

“Thank you very much!” shouted Coyote as he ran down the river bank searching for the dam.

Sister Beaver knew that the dam was too old and rotten to support Coyote’s weight for his river crossing, but she was out for revenge for his many tricks at the expense of her and her family. Anxious to see what happened next, Sister Beaver swam downstream silently, out of sight. When she arrived at the rickety old dam ahead of Coyote, she climbed out of the river and hid behind a tree to watch.

Coyote eventually arrived at the dam and began to make his way across, stepping gingerly on the rotting twigs that made up the dam. Things were going well, but about halfway across he stepped on a twig that gave way, plunging him into the icy water. The water was so cold that it took his breath away when he fell in. Gasping, he grabbed for a twig to keep from being swept downstream by the swift current. He managed to fight his way back to the shore. Shivering, he climbed onto the river bank, shook the icy water off his coat, and began again. Meanwhile, Sister Beaver stood behind her tree laughing at him.

Once again Coyote made his way about halfway across the dam, and once again he stepped on a twig that snapped beneath his paws. Once again he plunged into the icy river, and once again he barely managed to rescue himself before he drowned. All the while Sister Beaver gleefully watched his predicament, trying hard not to laugh out loud. She tried to giggle quietly while hiding and watching, but Coyote’s keen ears heard her snickering. Quick-witted Coyote soon deduced what must be going on here. Needing to cross the river, but not wanting to spend the day plunging again and again into its freezing depths, Coyote quickly formulated a plan.

As he stepped onto the dam for his third attempt, he said aloud, “I just can’t seem to find the right path across the river! If I do not succeed this time, I’m surely doomed, for Sister Cougar is hot on my heels, and she appears to be so hungry that even my scrawny carcass might look like a meal to her!”

Just as he expected, he heard a rustling from behind the tree where Sister Beaver was hiding. He knew what she was thinking; that if scrawny Brother Coyote would make a good meal for Sister Cougar, how much finer a meal would Sister Beaver’s plump, well-fed body make!

Sister Beaver hesitated for only a moment before bounding out from behind her tree and onto the dam. Leaping from twig to branch, she made it all the way to the other side of the river. Coyote watched where she stepped, and careful to place his paws only where Sister Beaver had stepped, he followed her path across, making it safely to the other side without falling in again.

Crossing the First Threshold

“In the universe, there is an immeasurable, indescribable force which shamans call intent, and absolutely everything that exists in the entire cosmos is attached to intent by a connecting link.”

-Carlos Castaneda

For every journey, there is a first step. For those of us who seek the path of the Vision Seeker on the Way of the Coyote, the Crossing of the First Threshold is that first step to a wider world. The significance of that first step is that it indicates a commitment to the journey. The reluctance and refusal are over, and the intention of the seeker has been set. Once your intention has been determined, and you announce your intention to the Universe, there is no turning back. Crossing the First Threshold means that we can never return to the way things were before, because our world has changed.

In our story of the Way of the Coyote, Coyote has learned that if he sits still long enough, the fire goes out. This coldness before dawn is a reminder that spiritual practice is a daily practice. If we don’t tend the fire daily the fire grows cold. So Crossing the First Threshold is an acknowledgement that we are accepting a new way of seeing and being in the world. With that new way of being comes a new responsibility of living intentionally.

As we talked about in an earlier session, the Hua Hu Ching, by Lao Tzu, says this about living intentionally,
“Those who want to know the truth of the universe should practice the four cardinal virtues. The first is reverence for all of life. This manifests as unconditional love and respect for oneself and all other beings. The second is natural sincerity. This manifests as honesty, simplicity, and faithfulness. The third is gentleness, which manifests as kindness, consideration for others, and sensitivity to spiritual truth. The fourth is supportiveness. This manifests as service to others without expectation of reward.”

As you set forth on the Way of the Coyote, make it a daily habit to intentionally practice these four virtues. Do so and see how your interactions with others, self, and nature improve. When you commit to living a life of intention, you will have crossed the first threshold.

Share Your Thoughts on the First Threshold!

What do you think? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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Spirit Animals

spirit animals

Spirit animals have been used as teaching tools for countless ages. Animal wisdom is about using nature as a metaphor and teacher through animals’ archetypal energy. At the start of Coyote’s journey, he has answered the Call to Adventure and has overcome the Refusal of the Call. Like Coyote, if you are following the path of the ecospiritual shaman, you are on a trip to find your ecological self. At this point in the journey, you are about to undertake a new, sometimes dangerous, quest through unfamiliar territory. It’s as if you are about to go into an uncharted, deep, dark forest without a map. It is dangerous because it is leaving the familiar behind and venturing off into unknown territory. Such a challenge can be quite daunting. This is why, in most legends and on most spiritual quests, some sort of Supernatural Aid is required to begin.

If you have a belief in any supernatural entity, then by all means feel free to call upon your own higher power for assistance. But such a belief is unnecessary to tap into nature’s supernatural powers for guidance. There are several ways to do this, and all of these ways involve using nature as a teaching metaphor. Any metaphor will work, but for our purposes, my favorite type of supernatural assistance is Animal Wisdom.

If you’re a sports fan, you’re no stranger to the fact that many professional sports teams are named after animals. There’s the Chicago Bears, the Seattle Seahawks, the Atlanta Falcons, the Philadelphia Eagles, etc. We also use animal names as terms of endearment (for example, “Teddy Bear”) or as nicknames (Richard the Lionhearted, or King Arthur, whose name means “The Bear”). This tendency is a vestige of a time when we lived closer to nature. We chose these nicknames because certain animals have specific characteristics. In using these names for ourselves, our loved ones, and our sports teams, we are either consciously or unconsciously invoking the characteristics of those animals. We are using the archetypal energy of animals to make changes in ourselves.

Animal wisdom is the wisdom our spirit animals give to us. A spirit animal is an animal soul that functions as a teacher, companion, and helper. Some consider the practice of taking a spirit animal as the practice of drawing the archetypal energy of that animal into yourself, while others believe that animal spirits are real and assist us in our endeavors.

Regardless of what you may personally believe about the actual existence of animal totems or spirit animals, you may call upon the archetypal energy of your animal totems to help you begin your journey. You may also call upon them at any time during the quest, should the going become difficult.

Do you have an affinity for a certain animal? My wife and I both love cats, and she collects cat figurines and pictures. Other friends I know collect cows, pigs, bears, etc. When I ask people about their reasons for collecting a particular animal, the usual response is, “I don’t know, I just like cats (or dogs, or whatever).”

Finding Your Spirit Animal

If you have a favorite animal, have you ever stopped to think about why? What is it about that particular animal that attracts you? There is an almost universal tradition in indigenous spiritual paths of taking a totem animal. Sometimes even whole tribes took on the name of a particular animal (The Wolf Clan of the Cherokee people would be an example). Such connections with the animal world are important. But why are they important? Think about your favorite animal for a moment. You may have more than one favorite animal. If that is the case, pick the one that first comes to mind. Picture that animal clearly in your mind. It may help to do a mindful meditation while focusing only on your chosen animal. When you feel that you have established a connection in your mind with your animal, we will be talking about your spirit animal further in future posts.

You may have more than one animal helper, but most of us have a primary power animal who serves as a helper. To call upon your own supernatural aid to begin the quest, you must first find your own spirit animal. You may already have at least one. If so, that’s okay. But if not, here are some ways of finding out what your spirit animal is. Begin by asking yourself the following questions:

  • If you’ve ever gone hiking, were you followed by a particular animal? If this happens to you, pay particular attention if the animal seems to be trying to tell you something.
  • Is there a particular animal that you find yourself drawn to? Is there something about the energy of this animal that you could use in your own life?
  • When alone in the woods, is there a certain animal you find yourself looking for?
  • When you find this particular animal, do you study its behaviors to see what it might be telling you?
  • What animal do you enjoy learning about? Have you studied a certain animal enough to be an expert on it? This animal could be a cherished pet or a wild animal that calls to you.
  • Does a particular animal keep showing up in your dreams? If so, what is this animal doing? Pay particular attention to animals that might attack or devour you in dreams. When this happens, the animal is symbolically killing the old you so that you may be reborn to partake in your spiritual journey.
  • Have you ever been bitten, chased, or attacked by a particular animal? Again, this doesn’t necessarily mean that this animal is your enemy. It could mean that this is the only way your totem animal can get your attention.
  • Do you collect paintings, statues, stuffed animals, or trinkets of a particular animal? Have you thought about why you do this? What does this animal mean to you?

If you’re still uncertain about your spirit animal after reading this list, then do a brief meditation before bedtime, and ask your power animal to reveal itself to you. Make a note of your dreams that night. Did any animal show up? If not, keep doing a meditation and recording your dreams until your spirit animal reveals itself to you.

Spend some time contemplating your own spirit animal. We’ll be talking more about how to connect with the archetypal energy of your spirit animal in future posts, but for now, just get comfortable with the idea of finding yours and meditating on its energy.

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Nature as Supernatural Aid

nature as supernatural aid

Last week we discussed Supernatural Aid. This week we’ll talk about Nature as Supernatural Aid. While there are many forms of Supernatural Aid an ecospiritual seeker could rely on, nature is one of the more convenient ones, since most of us have the opportunity to experience nature in some form.

I grew up on a 400-acre farm in the 1960s and 1970s. Back then there were no video games, and the television only had three channels, and that was if the wind was blowing in the right direction. My best friend lived five miles away, and if we wanted to visit each other we had to ride our bikes or walk. Our afterschool entertainment consisted of building forts in the woods, taking hikes, fishing, or collecting plants and animals. Growing up this way not only allowed me an opportunity for fresh air, it also stimulated my imagination and curiosity. The mythology of my time consisted of stories from my Scots-Irish great-grandmother about Native Americans, faeries, and Celtic lore, and Christian tales from my Scottish grandmother about the biblical patriarchs.

I was never much interested in Christian mythology, as it mostly seemed to consist of people getting zapped by God for doing things in a way that displeased him. And he seemed to be displeased quite a bit. The Native American and Celtic lore were much more alive to me. Those stories were not black-and-white moral tales, but puzzlers where the right answer was often difficult to find. The more I studied these stories, the more I gained insight into myself and the world around me.

As I became much more acquainted with mythology and learned to interpret it not as literal stories, but as teaching metaphors, fables, and parables, I returned to some of those Bible stories and got a lot more out of them the second time around. If you look at those stories as teaching tools and not as literal textbook descriptions of actual places and people, they become useful again. They come alive again. The secret is to focus on the message and not on the messenger.

Nature as Supernatural Aid: The Power of Myth

This poetical use of story and myth can also extend to nature. It is possible to use the wilderness as a metaphor for spiritual growth. In fact, many religious mythologies do just that. When Jesus asks us to, “Consider the lilies of the field’ which don’t toil or spin, yet they’re complete,” or when Buddha tells us that, “The Way lies in the nature that surrounds us,” these spiritual teachers are using nature as a training manual.

A lot of the great enlightened teachers began their spiritual journeys by going off into the woods. Buddha did it, Jesus did it, Mohammed did it, Moses did it, the Native Americans did it, and so did most of the great spiritual masters throughout history. There is something about seeing the wild places firsthand that awakens our deeper, more intimate, and more personal levels of awareness. It is a rite of passage that uses nature to give meaning to our lives while returning to our most primal instincts.

Science in recent years has begun studying the psychological aspects of wilderness experiences. In a 2005 study, van den Berg & Heijne researched some of these characteristics. The study, Fear versus Fascination: An Exploration of Emotional Responses to Natural Threats, explains that there are two basic types of attention: focus and fascination.
Focus is the type of attention we experience most often in artificial environments. Human hands make most, if not all, of the things we see indoors. Since we evolved in the wilderness, but have only been living in increasingly artificial environments for a few thousand years, our brains are wired to be on guard in unfamiliar surroundings. The more primitive parts of our brains recognize artificial places as somehow alien. Because of this, we tend to use more energy to focus our attention while indoors to avoid these man-made distractions.

Fascination is the type of attention we experience more outdoors. The deeper, older parts of our brains recognize natural environments as something familiar, so we tend to use fewer mental resources for focusing attention. This means that more mental energy is available to generate more meditative states. So unless a bear is chasing you, you’re calmer and more relaxed in the woods or on a beach than in an office or classroom. Such serenity is a prerequisite to spiritual events, so experiences in nature are highly conducive to developing more spiritual awareness.

Such ecospiritual awareness, enhanced and induced by nature, is not about a particular religion. All religions contain aspects of nature, and all religions, when understood properly, hold a deep reverence for the natural environment. Ecospirituality is about fostering a spiritual connection by using nature as a tool to experience those awe-inspiring moments that make life worthwhile. When nature is experienced in this way, it is Nature as Supernatural Aid to the seeker. Sitting or hiking quietly in the woods or in another natural environment will allow your own inner wisdom to come forth. This Supernatural Aid will help you to find your own fires of inspiration when you walk the ecospiritual path.

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Supernatural Aid

mindful walking the coyote walk

Supernatural Aid is a necessity when answering the Call to Adventure. Let’s resume our story with Brother Coyote and his Call to Adventure…

As he arrived at his den, Brother Coyote thought about what Brother Eagle and Sister Cougar had said. He thought about how it had been getting colder with each passing day. He remembered their words that the People and Chief Buffalo did not know if the Sun would ever come back. He thought about how disappointed Chief Buffalo had been with him. The more he thought about it, the angrier he became.

“Why should this be my responsibility?” he cried, “I didn’t ask for this burden! I just want to play in the forest! I don’t want to go on any journey!”

As he thought about it, he grew angrier and angrier. He became so mad that he began to chase his tail. He ran around and around in circles on the ground. The faster he chased his tail, the faster it ran away from him, and the more frustrated he became.

Thus preoccupied, he didn’t notice at first that a mysterious white substance had begun falling from the sky. It fell thicker and thicker around him until finally he could not help but notice. Puzzled, he caught a flake of this stuff on his tongue and found that it was cold and tasteless. As he watched, the snow covered the ground, obliterating the dying plants as it fell. The air around him grew colder and colder.

Shivering, Coyote curled himself up into a ball to stay warm as the snow continued to fall.

As lay there on the ground tucked into a ball, watching the snow, Coyote began to think that it would never stop.
“Truly this is the end of all things!” he thought to himself, “I might as well just lie here and freeze to death!”

Soon the strange white stuff completely covered Coyote. Lying there buried in the snow, he had begun to compose his Death Song when he saw a faint light shining in the distance. As he watched, it grew closer and closer. He eventually saw that the light shone from atop a stick being held by a woman dressed in the color of the snow that surrounded her. The light on her stick looked like a miniature sun, and she was bringing it towards him. He was frightened but also cold. If that miniature sun gave off heat as well as light, how he wanted to be near it! So he did not run away but waited patiently as the woman dressed in white approached and sat next to him.

“Greetings, Brother Coyote,” she said, “I am White Buffalo Woman.”

Coyote was usually wary of strangers, but something about White Buffalo Woman put him at ease. She seemed wise and kind, so he greeted her and began to tell her his story. He told her that the People were frightened because of the cold and that they were worried that it might never be warm again. He told her that the People wanted him to go on a quest to find a new place for the Tribe to live, but that he was afraid to go.

“It is wise that you are afraid,” she told him, “Only fools are fearless in the face of the unknown. But that does not mean you shouldn’t go.”

As they talked, White Buffalo Woman gathered sticks and twigs and began arranging them in a pile in front of Coyote. When the pile was big enough, she touched her glowing stick to the pile, and it blossomed into heat and light. Almost instantly, Brother Coyote felt himself begin to thaw. The heat spreading across his body was almost magical.
“What is this strange thing?” he asked.

“It is called ‘fire,’” said White Buffalo Woman, “If you have its secret, your People will not have to move away to a new place. With fire, you may stay warm through the winter until the spring comes again.”

“What is ‘winter’?” asked Coyote, “and ‘spring?’”

“Winter is the reason it is cold now. It is a time known as a ‘season.’ Spring is also a season. Winter is a time of cold, decay, and death, and spring is a time of warmth and rebirth. Seasons come and seasons go, but when the time of winter has passed, the spring will return again. Fire will help you make it through the cold and dark of winter. Until then, you must be vigilant and wait for spring’s return.”

Coyote was amazed at the magical power of the fire. He was also glad to know that spring would come again, but if the People did not have this magical thing to help them through the winter, they may not live to see it.

Coyote and White Buffalo Woman sat warming themselves by the fire and talking. White Buffalo Woman told Coyote that the fire had come from a sacred village in the mountains to the North, where it was guarded by a greedy witch who wanted to keep it for herself. She told Coyote that if he followed the North Star he could find this village, and claim some of the fire to call his own.

“But why can’t I just have some of your fire?” Brother Coyote asked.

“Because each person must find his own fire, and this fire is mine,” replied White Buffalo Woman, smiling enigmatically. “It would not work for you because it is my fire. You could not make it burn.”

They talked for half of the night until White Buffalo Woman lay down in front of the fire to sleep. Coyote tried to sleep himself, but after hearing of the village of the Fire Tribe, the fire, and the witch who guarded it, he was more frightened than ever. Yet he knew that he was the only one who could make this journey. When he had resolved for himself that he must be the one to go, he finally fell asleep just before dawn. When he awoke the next morning, White Buffalo Woman was gone, and the fire had gone out.

Just as Coyote began to grow cold and numb in the snow, when we deny our emotions we open ourselves up to the process of emotional numbing. We kid ourselves into believing that certain emotions are “wrong” or “bad,” and we hide them away. We don’t want to own these parts of ourselves. Sometimes emotional injuries can lead to this state of numbing as well. The feelings are so powerful that they become overwhelming, so we learn to stuff them down and pretend they don’t exist so we don’t have to go through the pain of feeling them. Over time this denial of what we feel can make it difficult, if not impossible, to acknowledge our feelings at all. When this emotional numbing occurs, we have to actively work to “thaw out” our feelings. Sometimes we may do this by relying on our own Supernatural Aid.
To find your own Supernatural Aid, first ask yourself if there are there any fears that might have led to your own emotional numbing in life. Like Coyote, do you need to “thaw out” those feelings? How might the characteristics of a shaman help you to do so?

It can be difficult to answer the Call to Adventure. When our emotions freeze us into inaction out of habit, it sometimes becomes hard to choose a different path. When faced with the opportunity (or challenge) to discover new ways of being, our fight or flight response often takes over, and we remain stuck in the familiar. It can be scary to journey off into unknown territory, simply because it is unknown. But using mindful awareness in the present moment we can become aware that the unknown is just that…unknown. Dangers may lie ahead, but great rewards may lie ahead as well.

We only change when the pain of staying the same becomes greater than the pain of changing. Every action has a consequence, and answering the Call to Adventure is an action with unknown consequences. Answering the call means facing our fears. It means facing our pain. It is an acknowledgment that with great risk comes great reward. It is a willingness to risk it all in order to gain ourselves.

Ultimately, the Call to Adventure is about inspiration. Ecospirituality is all about finding that which is awe-inspiring in our own lives. When we find that source of inspiration, then the “fire” of our own Supernatural Aid comes to warm us. Your own Supernatural Aid will come to assist you when you realize that there are no other options but the path you’re on. All other doors have been closed to you, and from that point on the only choice is to heed the call.

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Doing Mode to Being Mode

from doing mode to being mode

Moving from doing mode to being mode is how mindfulness helps you to deal with stress. When problems arise, they cause stress. When we experience stress the natural tendency is to try to do something about it. The problem with this is that if you could do something about the stress you would have already done so, and you would no longer be stressed.

By moving from doing mode to being mode, we are able to just accept what we feel, without feeling obligated to do anything about it. Stress is a natural feeling and a natural response to problems. To expect not to feel stress from time to time is not a realistic expectation, and telling yourself not to stress out is stressful in itself. Think of it this way: Suppose I expect the weather to be sunny all the time. I complain whenever it rains, and my mood becomes irritable because of the cloudy weather. If I have such an expectation, I’ve set myself up to be disappointed, because rain is a natural part of the weather. So by grumbling every time it rains, I’m complaining about something that’s a perfectly natural part of existence.

Now suppose I complain every time I stress out. Stress is also a perfectly normal part of existence, so expecting never to be stressed out is unrealistic.

The more I tell myself not to stress out, the more stressed out I become. Instead, if I learn to welcome the stress and simply allow myself to be with it until it passes it no longer has a hold on me. Note also that telling myself not to stress out is doing something, and not just being with the stress.

If I notice stressful events with the goal of “trying to relax” or “trying to calm down,” trying is doing, and not being. My goal is to be and not to do.

In being mode, we recognize that when we have strong feelings we don’t have to do anything about them. So if we find ourselves having thoughts of refusing the Call to Adventure, such thoughts are just thoughts. However, if we find ourselves wanting to act on those thoughts by refusing the call, we are engaging in doing mode. One way to escape the Refusal of the Call is to merely shift from doing mode to being mode.

The first step to leaving doing mode is to become aware of the ways in which we engage in it.

Think about how you slip into Doing Mode throughout your day. Doing Mode involves solving problems, figuring things out, and participating in day-to-day activities. Right now, make a mental list of a few of the ways you engage in Doing Mode.

We sometimes create unrealistic expectations for ourselves by assuming that stressful or depressing thoughts and feelings are somehow not “natural.” In fact, just the opposite is true. It is perfectly natural to have stressful or depressing thoughts and feelings from time to time.

Try this sometime: Ask everyone you know if they’ve never in their entire lives had a depressing or stressful thought. I’m willing to bet that you won’t be able to find anyone who would say that they’ve never been depressed or anxious. That’s because, like cloudy days, stressful and depressing feelings are a natural part of being alive.

If we can accept that we don’t have to do anything to fix cloudy days, we can accept that we don’t have to do anything to fix negative thoughts and feelings as well. Sometimes our attempts to fix such thought cycles could be the very thing that makes them worse. Here’s an example of how this process works:

Suppose I am prone to panic attacks. One day I find myself feeling anxious. I can tell by the way my thoughts are racing and by the way my body feels that my anxiety is rising. I know from previous experience that rising anxiety has led to panic attacks in the past. As I realize this, my anxiety increases even more because I’m afraid that I’m about to have yet another panic attack. So I try to do something to stop it by forcing myself to calm down. But “trying to calm down” is doing mode. The harder I try to calm down, the more I stress out about the fact that I can’t calm down. The more I stress out about the fact that I can’t seem to calm down, the more my anxiety rises, because I’m trying to do something to fix it, and what I’m doing isn’t working. The more I fail at fixing it, the more I stress out and try even harder to fix it. This cycle builds and builds until I have another full-blown panic attack.

What if, when I felt my anxiety rising, I was able to say, “Oh, that’s another panic attack that’s about to happen. I’ve had them before. Yes, they’re unpleasant, but I’ve managed to survive them. No need to try to do anything to stop it.”
In this case, I’m not trying to do anything. I’m not trying to stop the attack. I’ve consciously chosen to sit with it and be in the moment with the natural experience, paying attention to and describing the sensations to myself. Because I’m not engaging in doing mode by trying to fix something, I’m not adding to the anxiety. I’m just allowing things to happen in their own time, while I observe with my senses. From this perspective, even if I do have another panic attack, I’m being still with it and observing it rather than interacting with it. I know from previous experience that it won’t kill me, however unpleasant the experience might be. I’m engaging my internal observer to be with the experience without having to do anything about it.

This ability to pay attention to the present moment is the essence of moving from doing mode to being mode.

One of the most basic ways to engage in Being Mode is to simply start paying attention to the sensations you experience in the world around you. One thing you can always focus on is your breath. This is because your breath is always with you. Try this now by going outside and taking a few deep breaths while noticing the sensations you’re experiencing. What did you feel in your body? Did you notice any smells in the air? Were you able to taste anything in the air as you exhaled? What does your breathing sound like? What physical sensations are you experiencing?
Leaving Doing Mode and entering Being Mode can be as simple as paying attention to what your senses are telling you in the present moment. Think about some ways you can engage all of your senses. For example, you might light a scented candle or go outside and smell the flowers.

From Doing Mode to Being Mode

Now that you have a list of activities you can engage in when feeling tempted to engage in doing mode, you can choose to be with these activities instead.

The Refusal of the Call often manifests in a temptation to return to the way things have always been. Change is difficult, and setting out on a path of personal and permanent change for the better can sometimes be the most difficult life-changing experience of all. We feel tempted to tell ourselves, “Change is too hard,” or “I’ve always been this way, why change now?” or “People won’t like me if I change.”

We’re very good at coming up with excuses because if we don’t then we have to take responsibility for our lives. That can be a scary place to be for those of us who have never done it before. When we take responsibility for our own lives we have nobody else to blame if we fail. What we sometimes forget, though, is that if we take responsibility for our own lives, then we are the only ones who can take credit for our successes.

Taking the leap of faith required to trust ourselves is a major step in answering the Call to Adventure. Sometimes it helps to have a little Supernatural Aid. We’ll talk about what this aid might look like in future posts and how it might help you to move from doing mode to being mode.

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Mindfulness and Ecospirituality

Mindfulness and Ecospirituality

Mindfulness and ecospirituality go hand-in-hand. Ecospirituality is the “what” and mindfulness is the “how.” This quote from Black Elk explains one perspective on this relationship:

“You have noticed that everything an Indian does is in a circle, and that is because the Power of the World always works in circles, and everything tries to be round. The sky is round, and I have heard that the earth is round like a ball, and so are all the stars. The wind, in its greatest power, whirls. Birds make their nest in circles, for theirs is the same religion as ours. Even the seasons form a great circle in their changing and always come back again to where they were. The life of a man is a circle from childhood to childhood, and so it is in everything where power moves.”

–Black Elk, Oglala Shaman (1853-1950)

For hundreds of centuries prior to the Industrial Revolution, people lived together in small tribes, whether in nomadic bands or geographically fixed in locations in villages or towns. Evolution wired our brains for nature. But with the advent of agriculture, we settled down more and more, and built cities. With cities came modernization. First, we built machines, then, with the discovery of electricity, we began to build electric machines. Thomas Edison’s invention of electric light forever robbed the night of its power to evoke mystery and terror by creating a perpetual electric twilight in our towns and cities, making more hours available to labor in the factories. The more domesticated we became, the more the wilderness retreated beyond the city limits. We ceased to mark time by the cycles of the seasons and began to keep time by the factory whistle.

Our modern, mechanized lifestyle has brought about many changes for the better. We live longer and more productive lives, but our hearts still long for the cry of nature. Our minds retreated from nature, but our bodies did not. Evolution programmed us to need nature, and our bodies and minds still respond to it.

What is the relationship between mindfulness and ecospirituality? Ecopsychology studies the relationship between mental health and the environment. This field of research views the mental health of humankind as a part of the geo-ecosystem that is the living planet we call Earth. If all life on Earth is interrelated, and human beings certainly are a type of life on Earth, then what happens to the rest of the planet affects us all. Ecopsychology recognizes that not only does the environment impact our physical health, but it also has a direct influence on our mental health. While artificial, stressful, polluted environments have the power to harm, nature has the power to heal, both physically and mentally.

From the perspective of ecopsychology, everything is connected to everything else. According to this paradigm, people don’t exist in a vacuum. They are part of the larger system of their neighborhood, of the even larger system of their particular societies, and ultimately the system of all life on Earth, circles-within-circles. Each of these systems communicates to us in different ways, and we interact with each of these systems. The individual is not only a part of a system of interacting human beings but also a part of an ecosystem. We interact with the environment, and the environment interacts with us. For those who know how to listen, the wind in the trees can sing. The view of a mountain range or a moonlit ocean can tell a story. The smell of the first flowers of spring can speak just as clearly as a loved one’s voice can. The touch of a ray of sun can be as powerful as a lover’s caress.

On the other hand, a crowded, polluted city street can communicate as well. The messages we get from our environment have an impact on us, whether or not we are consciously aware of that impact. This environmental impact changes our sense of self and our sense of well-being. If we could make a paradigm shift to a lifestyle that makes room for nature, what would that do to our sense of well-being?

Mindfulness and Ecospirituality: A Paradigm Shift

Such a change involves seeking inspiration (or spirituality) from the natural world. It is a solution-focused approach. It’s easy to go into panic mode when we realize what we’re doing to the environment, but such stress and anxiety don’t do anything to solve the problem. A solution-focused approach helps us to find positive solutions rather than getting stuck in ruminations about the negative effects we’re having on the environment. It’s easy to get caught up in the doom and gloom, but that doesn’t solve anything. What’s needed is an intentional approach that works.

Such an approach to saving the environment means a grassroots, bottom-up approach. It starts with the individual. The most effective way to change a society or a culture is mindfully, one person at a time, through ecospirituality. Ecospirituality is about spiritual connections to nature, to your own higher power if you have one, to others, and to your own sense of True Self. Nature is the catalyst for such connections, and mindfulness is the pathway.

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Answering the Call

answer the call to adventure

Like Coyote in the story from last week, a person who refuses to answer the Call to Adventure has little or no confidence in themselves. When you have received the call, you stand at a crossroads. You have a choice. You are free to choose to continue to refuse the Call to Adventure. Such a refusal means staying in the familiar, but it also means accepting the status quo. It means surrendering to life as it is without considering the possibilities of future growth.

If you find yourself stuck here but wishing to answer the Call to Adventure, the first step is to ask yourself, “If nothing changed from now on, could I live the rest of my life this way?”

If the answer to that question is, “No,” then obviously something has to change.

To begin making this change is to begin trusting yourself. Out of the billions of people on this planet, the only person who is a true expert on you is you. You already have within you everything you need to know to begin the quest. All you have to do is to learn to trust your inner wisdom.

The path of ecospirituality involves following the Way of the Coyote. It is a spiritual journey…a hero’s journey with many signposts and crossings. Each one of these crossings represents a phase along the way to becoming a seeker and a seer of visions. When you have arrived at the end of this journey you will have discovered a new way of being in the world. The first crossing is to answer the Call to Adventure.

At this first crossing, we have to forge our will to commit to the path. When a vision seeker sets out on the path such a decision requires a firm and resolute will. The life of a shaman is not to be approached with an attitude of “I guess so,” or “I’ll do it when I have the time,” or “this looks like fun if nothing else is going on.” Such a path requires a complete commitment to the quest. Once you cross the threshold there is no turning back.

The journey of the vision seeker is one of lifetime dedication. If you’re saying to yourself, “I don’t have the time or the energy,” what you’re really saying is, “It’s not a priority for me.” If it’s not a priority, then you’re not going to put forth your best efforts, so it’s probably not the right path…or the right choice…for you at this time in your life. If that is the case, it’s better to set aside the path and return to it with a firm resolve when you are ready to commit to doing the work.

In many indigenous traditions throughout the world, the path of the shaman begins with a rebirthing ceremony in which the initiate is given a new spiritual name. This renaming signifies a person’s birth to the spirit world. The naming ceremony is the vision seeker’s announcement to the world that he or she has taken up the quest. Such a commitment is a death to the former way of being, and rebirth as a seer and a seeker of visions.

This rebirth depends upon conquering your own fears. Conquering fear doesn’t mean never being afraid. It means rising to meet the challenges of the Way of the Coyote in spite of the fear. It is the first landmark in the decision to become the person you were meant to be by embracing your True Self.

Answer the Call

As you contemplate answering your Call to Adventure, do any fears rise up in your spirit? If so, what is the nature of these fears? If you feel ready and unafraid to begin the journey, then think about what things might stand in your way in the future and use those things instead to answer the questions that follow.

  • What are your greatest fears?
  • How might you conquer these fears?
  • How might you forge your will so that you may take up the path of the vision seeker with a firm and steadfast commitment?
  • What Supernatural Aid might you require to help you succeed?
  • How might you strengthen your resolve to commit to the journey?
  • Which thoughts, feelings, and habits will you have to sacrifice to be reborn into the life of a seer/shaman?
  • What is your reason for seeking the path that leads to ecospirituality?

Over the coming week, contemplate your answers to these questions to determine if you’re ready to answer the Call of the Coyote.

What do you think? What would help you to answer the call to adventure? Share your thoughts in the comments below!