Lupa - Nature Spirituality From the Ground Up: Connect with Totems in Your Ecosystem

Llewellyn Publications

Woodbury, Minnesota

Copyright Information

Nature Spirituality From the Ground Up: Connect with Totems in Your Ecosystem 2016 by Lupa.

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First e-book edition 2016

E-book ISBN: 9780738747828

Cover design: Kevin R. Brown

Cover image: iStockphoto.com/11440578/Chris Gramly

Editing: Laura Graves

Llewellyn Publications is a registered trademark of Llewellyn Worldwide Ltd.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Lupa.

Title: Nature spirituality from the ground up : connect with totems in your

ecosystem / Lupa.

Description: First Edition. | Woodbury : Llewellyn Worldwide, Ltd, 2016. |

Includes bibliographical references and index. | Description based on

print version record and CIP data provided by publisher; resource not

viewed.

Identifiers: LCCN 2015038361 (print) | LCCN 2015037458 (ebook) | ISBN

9780738747828 () | ISBN 9780738747828

Subjects: LCSH: Nature--Miscellanea. | Nature--Religious aspects. | Nature

worship. | Totems--Miscellanea. | Spiritual life.

Classification: LCC BF1623.N35 (print) | LCC BF1623.N35 L87 2016 (ebook) |

DDC 299/.94--dc23

LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015038361

Llewellyn Publications is an imprint of Llewellyn Worldwide Ltd.

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Llewellyn Publications

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Manufactured in the United States of America

Disclaimer

Throughout this book I will be recommending exercises that involve the reader going into the Great Outdoors, to include (if youre so inclined) wilderness areas. You are strongly advised to take reasonable precautions when going into such areas. Be aware of hazards such as inclement weather, wild animals, rash-causing plants, falling tree limbs, and the power of gravity combined with cliffs and other vertical drop-offs; while they may be beautiful and amazing parts of nature in and of themselves, under certain circumstances they can cause you illness, injury, or death. By all means, go outside and enjoy the worldjust dont let your spirituality override common sense.

Also, while spiritual work can be incredibly fulfilling, it is not meant as a substitute for professional physical or mental health care, though it can be a good complement in some cases. Please do not stop taking medications or cease other treatment without consulting your health care professional(s).

The author, publisher, and all other related entities are not responsible for any injury, harm, death, property damage, or other adverse occurrences perpetrated by people using material from this book.

Contents

: The Importance of Reconnecting with Nature .

: The Basics of Bioregionalism

: Introducing the Totems Themselves

: The Totemic Ecosystem

: Practices for the Totems and Yourself

: Totemism Every Day

: Wonder and Awe at the World

Appendix A:
Recommended Reading

Appendix B:
Beneficial Nonprofit Organizations

Appendix C:
Helpful Hints for Totemic Research

Appendix D:
A Quick Guide to Guided Meditation

Introduction

Every day, I wake up. I take a deep breath of air and oxygen floods my system, just as it has with every other breath since the moment I entered this world. I stretch, and I listen. Sometimes I hear rain on the window. Sometimes Im greeted by the songs of birds. Or I may wake to the voices of my neighbors in the driveway below. If I look out the window, I get to see the rain and the birds and the humans who share this patch of urban land.

I climb out of bed and seek out something for breakfast. Usually its something simple like a bowl of cereal in milk. Occasionally I splurge and make eggs and bacon. Over the next few hours my body converts what I eat into energy, fueling my day of art or writing or errands or whatever else happens to be on tap.

And every one of these acts, no matter how ordinary, is at the same time sacred. That which is sacred inspires reverence and awe in the beholder; it helps them to feel closer to something greater than themselves. For some, that means a deity of some sort. To others, that something greater is the entirety of humanity.

For me, the sacred is natureall of nature, not just the wildest parts. All of what I engage with in those first moments of my waking day, from the air and rain to the food and art, came in some way from a natural source. I include humans and our creations in nature, too, for reasons Ill discuss later on in more detail. Whats important to know now is that even living in the middle of a city, I spend every moment immersed in nature.

This is a book about nature spirituality. More specifically, its a book on spirituality as a means to reconnect with nature. Those of us who live in more urban, industrialized settings often feel we are separate from nature, that we have changed our environments so much that we no longer deserve to be part of that community. We couldnt be further from the truth. In fact, if we are to reverse the damage we have done as a species, part of our task is to work on rebuilding connections to the rest of the world.

One way to do this is through working with totems, the overarching spiritual representatives of animals, plants, fungi, and other beings of nature who can act as intermediaries between us and the rest of nature. Animal totems are a common topic in spiritual writing, but they are usually presented on their own with little mention of the rest of their plant and fungus counterparts and the rest of what I call the totemic ecosystem, the vast spiritual network that mirrors physical ecosystems on our planet. I sometimes call this animals-only presentation working with disembodied animals floating over our heads. In other words, the animal totems have no context or home; theyre seen simply as beings that existed somewhere out there in the spirit realms. Initially, my own practice was like this. What changed everything for me was moving to a place where the land itself embraced me and invited me to explore it in more detail, from the ground up. I found myself with more meaning and purpose for the spiritual practices Id been working with for years as well as a deeper relationship to the land I lived with, and thus bioregional totemism was born. This type of spiritual practices is of course based on two particular concepts: totems and bioregions.