Field Guide to Church of the Wild — Mysticism

Field Guide to Church of the Wild — photo 1

Field Guide to Church of the Wild — photo 2

Field Guide to Church of the Wild — photo 3

📖 Have you read this book?

Your review can inspire others to read it

🌌 Mysticism

Field Guide to Church of the Wild

Name: Field Guide to Church of the Wild
Price: 18.99 USD
Availability: InStock
ISBN: 9781506496351

✍️ Loorz, Victoria

Reader Score

4.6

(1 review)

$18.99

In stock — ready to ship Ships in 1–2 business days

📚 WHAT THE BOOK IS ABOUT

This guide invites seekers to forge a deeper, more profound connection between their inner spiritual life and the vibrant, breathing natural world. Authored by pioneers of the "Wild Church" movement, it offers a rich tapestry of narratives, time-honored practices, and actionable advice to foster a sacred bond with Earth. Whether pursued individually or within a community, the book transcends conventional religious frameworks, encouraging a personal rewilding of one’s spiritual path, regardless of background, through engagement with landscapes and their myriad inhabitants.

🌌

Mysticism

Praise for this book

“This valuable guide offers an abundance of simple but profound practices and experiments for recalling, reconnecting with, and appreciating the sacred dimension of the natural world. These places of reconnection reveal an emerging story of our passage as a species from an artificial state of exile into our birthright of earthly homecoming.”

— Craig Chalquist, PhD, author of Terrapsychological Inquiry and coeditor of Ecotherapy: Healing with Nature in Mind

“I had hoped that this Field Guide to Church of the Wild would give you practical, step-by-step instructions for forming and guiding a church of the wild. The authors actually give you something so much better--living examples of what people are actually doing right now in wild churches around the world. Be careful: as you read this book, you might just feel both an invitation and empowerment to bring some people together in an outdoor spiritual adventure.”

— Brian D. McLaren, author of Do I Stay Christian? and Life After Doom

“The Church of the Wild movement is one of the most exciting advances in spirituality since Franciscan, Sufi, and Kabbalah mystics entertained dialogues with one another in Spain six centuries ago. But like any rewarding trip into the wilderness, you need a good field guide. Not only will this book reenergize your own faith, but it can help you build a stronger local community through creative liturgies and inspiring insights. It is a keeper.”

— Gary Paul Nabhan, author of Jesus for Farmers and Fishers and other books

🏛 Broadleaf Books 📅 2025 📖 162 pages 🌐 en 📐 Paperback ISBN: 9781506496351

Fun Fact

This guide excels in offering tangible, heartfelt practices for deepening one's spiritual bond with Earth. Its inclusive approach skillfully bridges ancient wisdom with modern sensibility. While it won't satisfy those seeking dogmatic certainty or purely academic texts, it's a vital, inspiring contribution to eco-spirituality, empowering readers to forge a profound, personal connection that feels both ancient and new.

📝 Description: Field Guide to Church of the Wild

From Victoria Loorz, author of Church of the Wild, and Valerie Luna Serrels, spiritual guide and wild-church leader, comes a guide for all who long to reconnect their spirituality with the rest of the living world. Field Guide to Church of the Wild serves as a companion to a movement committed to restoring sacred relationship with Earth. With a wide-ranging collection of stories, rituals, and practical resources, its pages lead us toward prayer and mountain, ritual and wren, gatherings and forests. Practiced as a personal spirituality or in communion with others, Church of the Wild is more than a novel way to do church outside or declare nature your church. Expanding beyond religious and institutional boundaries, this book offers ways to rewild your spirituality no matter your spiritual heritage. Field Guide to Church of the Wild invites us into landscapes and wild church communities to meet the movement's leaders and participants, both human and more-than-human. Join Loorz, founder of the Center for Wild Spirituality, and Serrels, director of the Wild Church Network, as they present wisdom collected from among the hundreds of wild churches blooming throughout the world. Gather inspiration and courage to invite a group of friends to practice wild spirituality. Create eco-spiritual practices that honor the sacred presence you already experience in nature. Each chapter includes stories and practices common to many wild churches, including grounding practices, land acknowledgments, liturgies, prayers, solo sauntering prompts, and ways to listen reverently to the land and one another. Take this field guide with you into the fields and wildish edge lands of your home place. Join an emerging yet ancient spiritual practice: remembering our place in an alive and holy web of interconnection.

📑 What's inside

1 Wild Church: An Emergence
2 Getting Started: The Ways of Wild Leadership
3 Arriving: Grounding in Sacred Presence
4 Ancestral Reverence: Acknowledging the Land's Story
5 Wild Ritual: Re-Placing Liturgy, Stories, and Prayers
6 Earth Cycles: Reorienting to the Rhythm of the Wild
7 Conversation with the Holy Wild: Solo Sauntering as Sermon
8 Re-Storying Our Place: Sharing in Circle
9 Offerings and Benediction: Returning the Wisdom of the Wild
Field Notes for Creating a Wild Church
Gratitudes and Connections
Contributors
Notes

💎 Expert review

“

💎

Esoterica Books editorial team

Occult literature desk

Loorz presents a compelling tapestry of practices that effectively blend narrative depth with tangible spiritual advice. The book succeeds in making 'Wild Church' accessible, inviting readers to view nature not just as scenery but as a sacred participant in their inner life. However, it may not suit those seeking rigid doctrinal structures or traditional liturgical formats. Readers expecting established theological frameworks might find the fluid, individualistic approach lacking in formal anchor. It is best appreciated by those open to non-traditional spirituality and ready to actively engage with their local environment rather than passively consume text.

✓ EDITOR'S REVIEW

📖 Why choose it

📖

Why this book is worth reading

This book is an essential companion for seekers feeling disconnected from the vibrant, breathing natural world around them. It offers a profound invitation to forge a deeper spiritual bond with the Earth, transcending conventional religious frameworks to encourage a personal rewilding of one’s path. Whether you seek solitude or community connection, Victoria Loorz provides actionable advice and rich narratives to help you engage with landscapes and their myriad inhabitants. It is ideal for those wishing to reclaim their spirit amidst the wild embrace of the living world, offering a sacred space to heal and reconnect regardless of your background.

⭐ Reader reviews

The starting rating comes from the team Esoterica Books —

⭐ Esoterica editorial review Editorial rating 4.6/5

★★★★★

If you yearn to reconnect your spiritual life with the vibrant pulse of the natural world, or seek alternatives to traditional religious frameworks, this book is for you. It's an invitation to cultivate an Earth-centered path, whether individually or within a kindred community.

Reader rating

4.6

Based on 1 reviews

Esoterica Books editorial team

Loorz presents a compelling tapestry of practices that effectively blend narrative depth with tangible spiritual advice. The book succeeds in making 'Wild Church' accessible, inviting readers to view nature not just as scenery but as a sacred participant in their inner life. However, it may not suit those seeking rigid doctrinal structures or traditional liturgical formats. Readers expecting established theological frameworks might find the fluid, individualistic approach lacking in formal anchor. It is best appreciated by those open to non-traditional spirituality and ready to actively engage with their local environment rather than passively consume text.

❓ Frequently asked questions

No, it deliberately transcends conventional religious and institutional boundaries. Its aim is to help you "rewild" your own spirituality, integrating nature into your personal path regardless of your background.

Not at all. While it supports communal gatherings, the book also provides ample guidance for cultivating a deeply personal, nature-centered spirituality on your own.

📖 Who should read this

🎯 Key themes and symbolism

Rewilding Your Spirit

This theme explores how to move beyond conventional spiritual practices, inviting readers to rediscover a primal, untamed connection with the divine found within nature. It advocates for an experiential spirituality that thrives outside institutional confines, emphasizing direct engagement with ecological systems as a path to profound inner renewal.

Earth as Divine Partner

The book champions a radical shift in perspective, viewing Earth not merely as a resource but as an active, sacred participant in spiritual life. It guides individuals in cultivating a reciprocal, reverent relationship with the planet, recognizing the inherent divinity in all natural phenomena and ecosystems.

Community Beyond Human

This section delves into the formation of spiritual communities that extend beyond human-centric gatherings. It highlights the importance of shared experiences in natural settings, fostering kinship not only among people but also with the "more-than-human" elements of mountains, rivers, and wildlife, creating an inclusive spiritual fellowship.

📜 Historical context

This book resonates with ancient animistic traditions and modern eco-spiritual movements, sitting within a long lineage of nature-based spirituality. It addresses a contemporary yearning for depth beyond institutional walls, advocating for direct, embodied connection to Earth's inherent sacredness and wisdom.

📚 Glossary

Church of the Wild
Rewild Your Spirituality
More-Than-Human

📔 Questions to reflect on

How can you begin to perceive and interact with your immediate natural surroundings—a backyard tree, a local park, a patch of sky—as a source of profound spiritual sustenance and revelation?
Reflect on any inherited spiritual or religious frameworks. What boundaries or definitions might you need to gently question or release to allow for a more expansive, Earth-centered connection?
Consider the "more-than-human" inhabitants of your world. How might you acknowledge, honor, or even communicate with them in your daily spiritual practice, fostering a sense of kinship?