I live in the mountains and deserts of the American Southwest. Many years ago (1945) I began doing yearly solo vision quests as a spiritual path. Later, (1950’s) I began to study and practice in various spiritual traditions connected to Nature and that lead to Liberation.
I have also been deeply involved with helping the birth and growth of contemporary environmental awareness and action since the late 1950’s. Currently, I teach in The Way of Nature, an interfaith community I founded some years ago. In these times of great environmental abuse, we feel a path based on experiencing communion with all of Life is a vital foundation for healing our relationship with Mother Earth. Therefore, we are focused on Nature as Great Spirit’s Original Place of Opening the Sacred View.
We provide a powerful basic retreat of 12 days in natural, wild places that hold the Sacredness of all life. I named this program Sacred Passage to convey the profound spiritual opening that people experience who go through this program. Half of Sacred Passage consists of a deep “Awareness Training;” the other half is a contemporary vision quest, a wilderness solo, held in safe, secure locations that are homes to me. The Passage opens a Sacred View that helps you recognize your free and open essence, Pure Awareness. It also opens a natural communion with all of life, as well as with Mother Earth, Gaia, herself.
The Way of Nature community also utilizes 12 Principles of Natural Liberation as the focal point of cultivating our Path, and as a vehicle for seeing what most of the Earth’s enlightening lineages have in common. We feel this is a vital foundation for developing peace, understanding, respect and mutual learning between spiritual traditions.
Hi John, How lovely that you are doing this. Your work is powerful beyond words…My experience in deep connection to nature has put me completely in connection with MY nature…my authentic self, where the power to make a diifference in the world resides. I wonder how many people you have given the opportunity to receive this gift… to learn that nature is not a scary place but a sacred place; that there is no separation between me and the earth…that all things are possible, if we just let them be…Namaste dear Teacher…