Here are 100 books that Sacred Nature fans have personally recommended if you like
Sacred Nature.
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As an academic humanist, I spent many years teaching medical students, helping resolve ethical problems in clinical care, and writing about individuals living with mental illness and those growing older. Recently, my own chronic illness, physical pain, and surgeries have somehow opened me to multiple mystical moments of beauty and feelings of oneness with all that exists. I have become a Spiritual Director and am constantly looking for perspectives, practices, and advice about cultivating spiritual growth in myself and others. I am inspired by an ancient Talmudic story: “When each of us is born, an angel swoops down and whispers, ‘Grow.’
I learned much from these essays that helped me understand my own spiritual experiences and helped me counsel others. I particularly like the way that transcendental experiences (e.g. near-death experiences, mystical moments, channeling, UFO encounters) are portrayed not as signs of mental disorder but as potentially disturbing moments along the path of personal growth and development—understood through various religious and spiritual traditions.
I appreciated the essays that offer valuable suggestions for families, support groups, and professional caregivers to assist those in crisis.
Increasing numbers of people involved in personal transformation are experiencing spiritual emergencies — crises when the process of growth and change becomes chaotic and overwhelming. Individuals experiencing such episodes may feel that their sense of identity is breaking down, that their old values no longer hold true, and that the very ground beneath their personal realities is radically shifting. In many cases, new realms of mystical and spiritual experience enter their lives suddenly and dramatically, resulting in fear and confusion. They may feel tremendous anxiety, have difficulty coping with their daily lives, jobs,…
This book follows the journey of a writer in search of wisdom as he narrates encounters with 12 distinguished American men over 80, including Paul Volcker, the former head of the Federal Reserve, and Denton Cooley, the world’s most famous heart surgeon.
In these and other intimate conversations, the book…
As an academic humanist, I spent many years teaching medical students, helping resolve ethical problems in clinical care, and writing about individuals living with mental illness and those growing older. Recently, my own chronic illness, physical pain, and surgeries have somehow opened me to multiple mystical moments of beauty and feelings of oneness with all that exists. I have become a Spiritual Director and am constantly looking for perspectives, practices, and advice about cultivating spiritual growth in myself and others. I am inspired by an ancient Talmudic story: “When each of us is born, an angel swoops down and whispers, ‘Grow.’
I love this book because it helps break down the false dichotomy between science and spirituality. I also love it because Ivy League scientist and professional psychologist Lisa Miller is not afraid to talk about her own spiritual experiences, which many of her colleagues might dismiss as fantasy. I teach humanities in medicine.
I am thrilled to learn from and share her findings that spirituality helps protect against mental suffering and can help bring healing. Miller’s view that our brains are hard-wired for spiritual awareness strengthens my own view that we are fundamentally spiritual beings but live in an era desperately in need of cultural and spiritual renewal.
A groundbreaking exploration of the neuroscience of spirituality and a bold new paradigm for health, healing, and resilience
'Lisa Miller is the leading psychologist of her generation' Martin Seligman
'We can live chasing goals and rewards, lost in worries and regrets. Or we can awaken to the true fabric of the world, an evolving tapestry that we both behold and help to create, in which every thread matters and no strand stands alone'
Whether it's meditation or a walk in nature, reading a sacred text or saying a prayer, there are many ways to tap into a heightened awareness of…
As an academic humanist, I spent many years teaching medical students, helping resolve ethical problems in clinical care, and writing about individuals living with mental illness and those growing older. Recently, my own chronic illness, physical pain, and surgeries have somehow opened me to multiple mystical moments of beauty and feelings of oneness with all that exists. I have become a Spiritual Director and am constantly looking for perspectives, practices, and advice about cultivating spiritual growth in myself and others. I am inspired by an ancient Talmudic story: “When each of us is born, an angel swoops down and whispers, ‘Grow.’
I love John Leland’s book because he shares his own experiences of personal change during the year he spent interviewing 6 Elders in New York City. I also enjoyed learning how people managed to survive and flourish in the midst of hardship, emotional and physical struggle, and external events they could not control.
The book is so well written that I felt as if I were in the room with Leland, listening to hard-won wisdom wrought from the elders’ lifetimes of experience. And I appreciated how Leland learned by comparing his own mid-life perspective with the late-life perspective of the New Yorkers he interviewed.
I came away feeling chastened by how hard life can be, but also feeling uplifted by these exemplars of human resilience and the power of love.
An extraordinary look at what it means to grow old and a heartening guide to well-being, Happiness Is a Choice You Make weaves together the stories and wisdom of six New Yorkers who number among the “oldest old”―those eighty-five and up.
In 2015, when the award-winning journalist John Leland set out on behalf of The New York Times to meet members of America’s fastest-growing age group, he anticipated learning of challenges, of loneliness, and of the deterioration of body, mind, and quality of life. But the elders he met took him in an entirely different…
This book follows the journey of a writer in search of wisdom as he narrates encounters with 12 distinguished American men over 80, including Paul Volcker, the former head of the Federal Reserve, and Denton Cooley, the world’s most famous heart surgeon.
In these and other intimate conversations, the book…
As an academic humanist, I spent many years teaching medical students, helping resolve ethical problems in clinical care, and writing about individuals living with mental illness and those growing older. Recently, my own chronic illness, physical pain, and surgeries have somehow opened me to multiple mystical moments of beauty and feelings of oneness with all that exists. I have become a Spiritual Director and am constantly looking for perspectives, practices, and advice about cultivating spiritual growth in myself and others. I am inspired by an ancient Talmudic story: “When each of us is born, an angel swoops down and whispers, ‘Grow.’
I like this book because it articulates the importance of spiritual growth in our era and because it helps me do my work as a Spiritual Director or companion. Starr provides interfaith access to ideas and practices that can help us understand that we are all standing on holy ground.
I appreciate her appeal to the growing number of people (as much as 30% of Americans) who consider themselves “spiritual but not religious.” And I love the direct, unvarnished way she calls on us to give up the perpetual “self-improvement project” and commit to a life of connecting with others and tending to “beloved community.”
“This gorgeous, transformative, welcoming book is for anyone who longs to feel more present, more alive, more joyful and aware of the holiness of daily life.”—Anne Lamott, author of Dusk, Night, Dawn and Help, Thanks, Wow
Welcome to the temple of your regular life.
So begins beloved spiritual guide Mirabai Starr’s stunning exploration of finding the extraordinary in the everyday. In Ordinary Mysticism, she helps readers discover their own inner mystic and let go of the limiting belief that spiritual life exists only in traditional places of worship. Mysticism, she explains, is a direct experience of the sacred—no church or…
I’m an environmental journalist (BBC, The Guardian, The Sunday Times) and book author, based in the UK. My interest lies in the intersection between human health, the environment, and climate crisis: the actions we can take that not only reduce climate change for future generations but also improve biodiversity, health, and wellbeing right now. That led to me write my first book, Clearing The Air, about air pollution. And I’m now writing my second book, The Last Drop, looking at how climate change is affecting the world’s water cycle and our access to freshwater. My best books list below maybe misses out on some obvious choices (Naomi Klein, Rachel Carson, etc) in favour of more recent books and authors deserving of a wider audience.
Gaia’s book came out at a time when climate change wasn’t a hot literary topic and Greta Thunberg hadn’t yet painted “Skolstrejk för Klimatet” on a sign. The Anthropocene marks a new Geological age, the Age of Humans, and Gaia, an editor at Nature, set out to discover what that means for the planet, her, and us. In her words: "I set out to discover whether our species will survive, and how". In so doing she became the first female winner of the Royal Society science book prize.
** Winner of Royal Society Winton Prize for Science Books 2015 **
We live in epoch-making times. The changes we humans have made in recent decades have altered our world beyond anything it has experienced in its 4.6 billion-year history. As a result, our planet is said to be crossing into the Anthropocene - the Age of Humans.
Gaia Vince decided to travel the world at the start of this new age to see what life is really like for the people on the frontline of the planet we've made. From artificial glaciers in the Himalayas to painted mountains in…
Following a herbal and homeopathic pathway for 20 years has taken me on many insightful and inspiring tangents. One of those being the passion to commune with nature spirits and learn directly from herbs. This practice has led me on many a fine adventure (one of which Wild Flower Walker contains) and continues to be a rich source of teachings and growth. I have been teaching these practices for the last 11 years and offer courses in Shamanic Herbalism; Herbal Alchemy; & Plant Spirit Communication. These books have been treasures and catalysts for me and I hope they will open your heart further to the rich world of nature spirits.
A fascinating series with many insights and inspirations for how to live more deeply aligned and in co-creation with nature. While the writing doesn't flow particularly well, the content and magic that is carried within have a palpable effect. It is worth the journey and will leave you inspired to connect in broader and deeper ways.
"Anastasia", the first book of the Ringing Cedars Series, tells the story of entrepreneur Vladimir Megre's trade trip to the Siberian taiga in 1995, where he witnessed incredible spiritual phenomena connected with sacred 'ringing cedar' trees. He spent three days with a woman named Anastasia who shared with him her unique outlook on subjects as diverse as gardening, child-rearing, healing, Nature, sexuality, religion and more. This wilderness experience transformed Vladimir so deeply that he abandoned his commercial plans and, penniless, went to Moscow to fulfil Anastasia's request and write a book about the spiritual insights she so generously shared with…
I started off studying tropical rainforest creatures and saw the catastrophic impacts of modern humanity on nature and indigenous peoples. My work then focused on how to resolve conflicts between people and nature, at first in and around national parks and then more widely. I became quite good at dissecting environmental aid portfolios, and writing up what I had found in a series of books. I was also drawn into the great climate protests of 2019 and 2020, and now I'm working on pulling it all together into a book on Restoring Peace with Nature.
I was in Parliament Square at Samhain, 31 Oct 2018, when the Extinction Rebellion began. Greta Thunberg spoke there, but the mic broke so she paused at every sentence for the front rank to call out her words to those behind. The potent archetype of a virgin girl-child speaking truth to power worked its traditional magic, by exalting a thousand people, including me. Fast-forward a few years, and millions on the streets, and this little book condenses the motivation and message of climate activism: “Everyone and everything needs to change. Make the best available science the heart of politics and democracy. We must start today. We have no more excuses.” Greta offers everything important that we have been trying to say for decades. She encourages us to unify our divided minds and purposes. To me this is worthy of the most passionate engagement.
The #1 New York Times bestseller by Time's 2019 Person of the Year
"Greta Thunberg is already one of our planet's greatest advocates." -Barack Obama
The groundbreaking speeches of Greta Thunberg, the young climate activist who has become the voice of a generation, including her historic address to the United Nations
In August 2018 a fifteen-year-old Swedish girl, Greta Thunberg, decided not to go to school one day in order to protest the climate crisis. Her actions sparked a global movement, inspiring millions of students to go on strike for our planet, forcing governments to listen, and earning her a…
I research, write and speak about the global environmental emergency and the policies and politics we need to adequately respond. Drawing on a decade of experience in academia, activism, and policymaking, my work explores the leadership needed to transition to more sustainable and equitable societies while contending with the growing destabilisation resulting from the worsening environmental crisis. I’ve worked at a range of leading policy research organisations and universities and have won awards for my work. I’ve got a BSc in physics and an MPhil in economies from the University of Oxford.
I can find it overwhelming to think how large and bad the environmental crisis really is. Record temperatures, species extinction, fires and storms. In many ways, this book hammers home the scale – but it does so productively. It’s been an excellent companion for me in learning more about the problem. It’s written by two of the world’s top scientists who have led the way in helping us see this as an environmental crisis, not just a problem of climate change or species loss, but an overall destabilization of the natural world. This is often missed from the mainstream discussion and Lewis and Maslin offer a whole range of approaches that can help you make sense of what we can do in response.
'Brilliantly written and genuinely one of the most important books I have ever read' - Ellie Mae O'Hagan
An engrossing exploration of the science, history and politics of the Anthropocene, one of the most important scientific ideas of our time, from two world-renowned experts
Meteorites, methane, mega-volcanoes and now human beings; the old forces of nature that transformed Earth many millions of years ago are joined by another: us. Our actions have driven Earth into a new geological epoch, the Anthropocene. For the first time in our home planet's 4.5-billion year history a single species is dictating Earth's future.
Holly Worton is an author, podcaster, and speaker. She writes nonfiction books about her adventures to inspire people to get outdoors and reconnect with nature so they can reconnect with themselves. Holly enjoys spending time outdoors, walking and running long-distance trails, and exploring Britain's sacred sites. Travel is important to her: she's originally from California and now lives in England, but has also lived in Spain, Costa Rica, Mexico, Chile, and Argentina. Holly is a member of the Druid order OBOD, and nature connection is an important part of her spirituality.
Many people feel a spiritual connection with nature and plants, but they don’t have a framework for understanding it. This book will help readers connect with plants on a spiritual level by following the author through her own nature-based practices. It may or may not be for you, but it will certainly give you a new perspective on nature and the outdoors.
Grounded in everyday life and experience this book guides the reader to find their own vision, and their own deep, personal, ecstatic relationship with nature. You will learn about: The fundamental principles underlying Druidry; The relevance of Druidry and nature spirituality today; The powers of nature that resonate within the individual; Understanding and accepting yourself; How to bring a profound spiritual experience into your everyday life; Simple ways to acknowledge and embrace the wild side of your nature
I’m deeply concerned about the health of the planet and am puzzled by our failure to act. As someone who thinks a lot about museums and heritage (aka the stories we tell about ourselves), I’m intrigued by how we think about places of environmental harm as heritage and how we pay attention to the environmental impact of heritage sites like WWI battlefields, English ironworks, and Appalachian coal mines. Interrogating what we remember and what we forget illuminates the systems of power that benefit from ignoring environmental and social costs. My hope is that understanding the history of toxic harm points us to a more sustainable, just future.
A clear, detailed account of human’s relationship to the biosphere since WWII tracing the accelerating use of coal and oil. If carbon dioxide is one of the most significant pollutants affecting the planet, this book documents how we pumped it into the atmosphere and the resulting ecological disruption.
The Earth has entered a new age-the Anthropocene-in which humans are the most powerful influence on global ecology. Since the mid-twentieth century, the accelerating pace of energy use, greenhouse gas emissions, and population growth has thrust the planet into a massive uncontrolled experiment. The Great Acceleration explains its causes and consequences, highlighting the role of energy systems, as well as trends in climate change, urbanization, and environmentalism.
More than any other factor, human dependence on fossil fuels inaugurated the Anthropocene. Before 1700, people used little in the way of fossil fuels, but over the next two hundred years coal became…
