Maria Rodale - Love, Nature, Magic: Shamanic Journeys into the Heart of My Garden

If you have ever wondered whether there is more to this life, this world, this universe than you can imagine, do yourself a favor and read this book. Love, Nature, Magic will blow your mind and open your heart. It just might help you think differently about that pest insect or that weed daring to crash the party of your perfectly manicured lawn. Buckle up for an exhilarating ride toward enlightenment.

JOHN GROGAN, international bestselling author of Marley & Me: Life and Love with the Worlds Worst Dog and former editor, Organic Gardening magazine

Love, Nature, Magic is an invitation to discover a sacred dialogue with the plants and spirits of the land, like humans had long ago before we were kicked out of Paradise. Mother Nature never stopped talking to us, as Maria Rodale discovers in her journey into the world of the shamans. It is we who stopped listening. This rich and timely book will guide you to open your heart and mind to a world infused with magic and beauty. Its all around you, really!

ALBERTO VILLOLDO, PhD, bestselling author of Shaman, Healer, Sage and One Spirit Medicine

Having lived and breathed organic gardening and farming her entire lifeand eons before it was fashionable or coolMaria Rodale is the best guide I can think of to explore new discoveries with. I AM ALL IN with Love, Nature, Magic.

LAURIE DAVID, producer, An Inconvenient Truth and The Social Dilemma; coauthor of Imagine It! A Handbook for a Happier Planet

In Love, Nature, Magic, Maria Rodale took me on a learning journey that I hadnt realized how much I needed to experience. With her witty prose and intimate relationship with gardening and shamanic journeying, Maria extends a loving invitation, wrapped in vivid storytelling, for readers to discover nature and the magic residing within us in beautiful and bold, new-found ways. Her book is a nurturing peace offering from nature, including messages from some of the least likely voicespoison ivy, bats, and vulturesreminding us that when we work in partnership with nature, we all benefit.

SHAWN DOVE, founder, Campaign for Black Male Achievement; managing partner, New Profit

In Love, Nature, Magic, Maria Rodale invites us to reimagine our relationship to nature, to plants, insects, and animals, and to our own souls. She invites us into a world just below the surface of our daily lives and awareness: a world that brings us closer to what is real and eternal, to what heals and what just may be the antidote to our increasing disconnection to ourselves and nature.

MARK HYMAN, MD, senior advisor, Cleveland Clinic Center for Functional Medicine; author of Young Forever

Maria Rodale, in Love, Nature, Magic, encourages us all to reach beyond our full potential by diving into the depths of our existential selves. Then, and only then, will the dream open and the planet speak to you with the wonder and silence of creation.

DIANA BERESFORD-KROEGER, author of To Speak for the Trees

Essential and stirring. Maria Rodale takes us on a journey of love, beauty, magic, and... mugwort! Let us heed her words and learn to live in harmony with planet Earth.

JOSH TICKELL and REBECCA HARRELL TICKELL, producers and directors, Kiss the Ground and On Sacred Ground

When someone as grounded as Maria Rodale shares how the intelligence of plants, insects, and animals surpass what we have come to believe, we should listen. There is a teaching here. Love, Nature, Magic is about sentience, a living world more spectacular and alive than one can imagine, a shared consciousness known to Indigenous people for over ten thousand years. Once this is understood, what else can you do but honor and love all of life.

PAUL HAWKEN, founder, Project Drawdown

Maria Rodale is courageous, and so in sync. She is an instinctive adventurer in the world of natural mysteries that is derided by sensible people, and her timing may be just perfect to start changing such perceptions. Maria writes that things come to us when we need them, and we sure do need love, nature, and magic right now. Or, at least, I do. I am following her on a journey that speaks to the future of interspecies harmony: Humans at peace with naturehealing, not harming. My thanks to Maria for her warmth, perspicacity, and bravery.

EDWINA VON GAL, landscape designer; founder, Perfect Earth Project

Maria Rodales irresistible new book is Eat, Pray, Love meets Dr. Doolittle meets, well... Maria Rodale. Her book wants me to ditch my phone and squish berries, smell leaves, and capture fireflies in my own backyard, not giving a damn what my neighbors think.

DANNY SEO, editor-in-chief, Naturally, Danny Seo

Love, Nature, Magic is a beautiful, heartful look at the interconnectedness of all beings, be they plant, animal, or human. Nobody is better suited to tell this story of what it means to link the sacred and the mundane than Maria Rodale. The result is an absolute must-read, a delightful road map of wisdom about how to live more softly and in sync with the natural world, rather than at battle with it.

ELISSA ALTMAN, author of Poor Mans Feast and Motherland

Our survival depends on our rediscovering that we are nature, not separate from it. Maria Rodales inspiring and provocative shamanic journeys remind us how important it is to see the tapestry of life around us with the eyes of the heart. Once we see our deep connection with all life, we will not only learn how we can save it but how it will save us. You will never see nature the same way again.

DOUGLAS ABRAMS, coauthor of The Book of Hope and The Book of Joy

ALSO BY MARIA RODALE

Scratch:
Home Cooking for Everyone Made Simple, Fun, and Totally Delicious

Organic Manifesto:
How Organic Food Can Heal Our Planet, Feed the World, and Keep Us Safe

Its My Pleasure:
A Revolutionary Plan to Free Yourself from Guilt and Create the Life You Want
(Maya Rodale, coauthor)

Bettys Book of Laundry Secrets
(Betty Faust, coauthor)

Maria Rodales Organic Gardening:
Your Seasonal Companion to Creating a Beautiful and Delicious Garden

Copyright 2023 by Maria Rodale.

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be transmitted or reproduced in any form by any means without permission in writing from the publisher.

Project Manager: Angela Boyle

Editor: Fern Marshall Bradley

Copy Editor: Nancy W. Ringer

Proofreader: Deborah Heimann

Designer: Melissa Jacobson

v1.202301

ISBN 978-1-64502-171-1 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-1-64502-169-8 (ebook)
ISBN 978-1-64502-170-4 (audio book)

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.

Chelsea Green Publishing

85 North Main Street, Suite 120

White River Junction, Vermont USA

Somerset House

London, UK

www.chelseagreen.com

To the shamans who have kept this wisdom alive from the beginning of time.

Thank you.

To all the Indigenous people who have suffered.

I am sorry.

To the shamans who have worked directly with me.

Deep gratitude.

To the magical beings who taught me how to fly on my own.