Tag: Mother Earth spirituality

Briefly Noted: Two spiritual books from Mare Cromwell

On By Malcolm R. CampbellIn books, mysticism, spirit3 Comments
  • Messages from Mother…. Earth Mother, by Mare Cromwell, Pamoon Press (December 6, 2012), 112pp.
  • The Great Mother Bible: or, I’d rather be gardening, by Mare Cromwell, Pamoon Press (December 26, 2014), 314pp.

On this, the second day of Christmas, Mother Nature might well have given me two turtle doves but, in fact, she gave me (and you, as well) The Great Mother Bible just released by Pamoon Press.

In her author’s note for Messages from Mother, Mare Cromwell says:

messagesfrommother“Where this information comes from is part of the Great Mystery to me. This book was written in only five weeks. I was focused on a completely different book and Spirit broadsided me in late June, 2012, and told me this was the book that I was meant to write. I was fighting lymphoma and essentially surrendered to Spirit to write this. I healed from cancer during the same time period.

“At times Spirit will just do that.”

I have been stalking spirit–as Annie Dillard has called it–for most of my life, and the fleeting glimpses I catch find their way into my novels as contemporary fantasy. As Jane Yolen has said of truths disguised, I tell it slant.

In Messages from Mother, Cromwell gives us more than a fleeting glimpse. We see spirit standing before us with no need for an oblique lens. Cromwell extends this vision in The Great Mother Bible.

From the Publisher:

greatmotherbibleMare Cromwell was awakened at 5 AM in November of 2013, and given specific instructions from the Great Mother to set aside that winter to listen and write The Great Mother Bible. Out of that spiritual call has come this revolutionary and humorous book of spiritual wisdom that speaks to the wondrous sacred realms in which we live. With teachings ranging from the role of aliens on Earth, the Christ Consciousness, and the need for balance between the Sacred Feminine and Divine Masculine, the Great Mother offers essential guidance to help bring our beleaguered world back into divine harmony.

These are wondrous books for seekers who wish to establish a closer relationship with the natural world. And they come at a time when more and more people are seeing that threats to wild places–in fact to Earth itself–are more dire than they knew.

Psychologist Stanley Krippner writes that the Great Mother Bible will  “inspire some readers but will infuriate others. Mare Cromwell’s profound relationship with the Great Mother offers a dialogue that is witty, wise and comical. Mare writes about ‘unseen forces’ but her luminous accounts bring a lucidity and reality to their insights that are uplifting, intriguing, and wondrous.”

If you discover one book this winter, pick one of these. If, however, you prefer two figurative turtle doves, discover both of these.

–Malcolm

Malcolm R. Campbell is the author of “Emily’s Stories”

New edition of Patricia Damery’s ‘Farming Soul’

On By Malcolm R. CampbellIn books, conservation, writing2 Comments

Leaping Goat Press has issued a new edition of Patricia Damery’s Farming Soul: A Tale of Initiation, a unique look at our relationship with our psyche and the natural world. I enjoyed the first edition of this mythic book when it appeared in 2010. Now, with a foreword by Robert Sardello, co-founder of the School of Spiritual Psychology, Farming Soul will transform the lives of more readers drawn to its wisdom.

From the Publisher

farmingsoul2014In the Foreword to the second edition, Robert Sardello states, “What differentiates this book from being an autobiography is the invitation to enter a unique form of initiation, one that seems so suitable to this age, this time, our given circumstances, now. This story is really a myth, a myth of the future.” A psychological and spiritual reckoning, ‘Farming Soul’ questions theories and assumptions that date back to the early 1900’s and the days of Freud, assumptions which have too often separated spirituality from psychology.

Suffering the trials of her own individuation process, Patricia Damery finds answers through a series of unconventional teachers and her relationship to the psyche and to the land—answers that are surprisingly deeply intertwined. One strand of ‘Farming Soul’ is about redeveloping a relationship to the land—Mother Earth—being rooted in a particular place and being guided by the tenets of Rudolf Steiner’s Biodynamic® Agriculture. Another strand is about Damery’s professional path of becoming a Jungian analyst, a path filled with review committees and unexpected and unorthodox teachers. It offers perspective on the complicated dynamic of therapist/patient bond and individuation, and a personal account of when one must step out on one’s own. Bringing together paths of spiritual, ecological, and psychological exploration, Farming Soul is a courageous offering that will help reconnect us to our deeper selves, the often untouched realities of soul, and at the same time ground us in our physical relationship to self and Mother Earth.

From my Review

Damery’s memories, dreams and reflections are woven from the warp and woof of her experiences arising out of analysis, meditation, shamanism and farming. “I understood,” she writes, “that the ‘garment of brightness’ from the Tewa song was being woven for me, and that, in time, perhaps I could ‘walk fittingly’ on this earth.”

Farmers, psychologists and other seekers on the path will find many correlations between their own journeys and the one that so beautifully unfolds in “Farming Soul.” Damery’s garment of brightness is kind lamp for eager eyes. Read the full review here.

Damery, a Jungian analyst and biodynamic farmer in the Napa Valley, is also the author of Goatsong and Snakes.

You May Also Like: New edition of ‘Snakes’ by Patricia Damery

—Malcolm

Malcolm R. Campbell is the author of heroes’ and heroines’ journey novels and paranormal short stories, including “Moonlight and Ghosts.” “Moonlight and Ghosts” was inspired, in part, by his experiences with meditation techniques and his work as a home manager at a center for individuals with developmental disabilities.