John Philip Newell - Sacred Earth, Sacred Soul: A Celtic Guide to Listening to Our Souls and Saving the World

John Philip Newell is an internationally acclaimed spiritual teacher, speaker, and author of several books, including Listening for the Heartbeat of God, and A New Harmony. The former Warden of Iona Abbey in the Western Isles of Scotland, he is the founder of Earth and Soul (a Celtic Initiative of Study, Spiritual Practice, and Compassionate Action) and teaches regularly in California, New England, Virginia, Colorado, New Mexico, and Canada and leads international pilgrimages to Iona. He lives with his wife in Edinburgh, Scotland.

A leading spiritual teacher reveals how Celtic spirituality listening to the sacred around us and inside us can help us heal the earth, overcome our conflicts, and reconnect with ourselves.

John Philip Newell shares the long hidden tradition of Celtic Christianity, explaining how this earth based spirituality can help us rediscover the natural rhythms of life and deepen our spiritual connection with God, with each other, and with the earth. Newell introduces some of Celtic Christianitys leading practitioners, both saints and pioneers of faith, whose timeless wisdom is more necessary than ever, including:

Pelagius, who shows us how to look beyond sin to affirm our sacredness as part of all Gods creation, and courageously stands up for our principles in the face of oppression.

Brigid of Kildare, who illuminates the interrelationship of all things and reminds us of the power of the sacred feminine to overcome those seeking to control us.

John Muir, who encourages us to see the holiness and beauty of wilderness and what we must do to protect these gifts.

Teilhard de Chardin, who inspires us to see how science, faith, and our future tell one universal story that beings with sacredness.

By embracing the wisdom of Celtic Christianity, we can learn how to listen to the sacred in nature and within one another, but our culture at the times even our faiths have made us forget what each of us already know deep in our souls but have learned to surpress. Sacred Earth, Sacred Soul offers a new spiritual foundation for our lives, once centered on encouragement, guidance, and hope for creating a better world.

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You have been graced with the dignity of divine birth, says Pelagius. Live this dignity in your life, safeguard it in one another, and protect it in every human being.

(Reflect for a brief time on the ways this wisdom applies to your life.)

Awake, O my soul,

And know the sacred dignity of your being.

Awake to it in every living soul this day.

Honor it, defend it,

In heart and mind, in word and deed.

Awake, O my soul,

And know the sacred dignity of your being.

(Listen silently for a few minutes within the sacredness of your being.)

Awake, O my soul. Awake.

St. Brigid embodies the beauty and strength of the sacred feminine, which is deep within us all. Stories of her life call forth this dimension of the divine in us, that we may be strong again to serve the interrelationship of all things, within us, between us, and among us in the world.

(Reflect for a brief time on the ways this wisdom applies to your life.)

Awake, O my soul,

To the beauty of the divine deep within you

And awake to its fragrance in the body of the earth.

Know its strength of attraction

And its grace to heal what has been torn apart.

Awake, O my soul,

To the beauty of the divine deep within you.

(Listen silently for a few minutes within the sacredness of your being.)

Awake, O my soul. Awake.

John Scotus Eriugena sees the divine as a subterranean river flowing through the body of the earth and through everything that has being. This sacred river runs also through you and through me. We can open to it now to be more fully alive.

(Reflect for a brief time on the ways this wisdom applies to your life.)

Awake, O my soul,

To the flow of the divine deep within you.

Awake to it in every creature, in every woman, in every man.

It is our river of resurrection, the promise of new beginnings.

Awake, O my soul,

To the flow of the divine deep within you.

(Listen silently for a few minutes within the sacredness of your being.)

Awake, O my soul. Awake.

The people of the Carmina Gadelica carried within themselves a song of the earth and the human soul. It is a song of strength and vision that we can choose to sing in new ways today.

(Reflect for a brief time on the ways this wisdom applies to your life.)

Awake, O my soul,

To the ever new song of the earth that is within you.

Awake to its rhythms and seasons,

Its memories of joy and lament

And its eternal hopes of fresh buddings and births.

Awake, O my soul,

To the ever new song of the earth that is within you.

(Listen silently for a few minutes within the sacredness of your being.)

Awake, O my soul. Awake.

Alexander John Scott taught that in every moment and encounter of life we can imagine the intermingling of heaven and earth, time and eternity, spirit and matter. Together we can dream our way forward into what has never been before.

(Reflect for a brief time on the ways this wisdom applies to your life.)

Awake, O my soul,

To the sacred dreams that are stirring within you.

Awake to the imaginations of the heart