Great Earth Energy: A new era of nature spirituality is here

One recent Sunday, she lay down on the floor next to a dozen other women in their 20s and 30s in a dark, high-ceilinged studio in Falls Church in northern Virginia. She was lit only by a small corner altar adorned with tiny lights, flowers, tarot cards, dirt, seeds, and images of ancient female spirit figures in honor of Mother’s Day. A seminar leader spoke about the great energy of the Earth.

The workshops and attendees are part of what experts say is a broad wave of nature-centered spirituality and religion that is changing both mainstream religious denominations in the United States and the vast realm of the religiously unaffiliated seeker.

According to polling firm PRRI, nearly 27 percent of Americans say they are not religiously affiliated, up from 16 percent in 2006. They now represent a larger share of the population than any religious group and make up 38 percent of those ages 18 to Age 29, PRRI data show. Some are also, polls show, deeply fed up with the merger of religion and politics. A Pew Research poll last fall found that 73 percent of Americans ages 18 to 29 said places of worship should keep themselves out of politics.

Many are looking for a spirituality that is primarily about affinity, personal growth and healing. And while the climate crisis is fueling some interest in nature-based spirituality, some practitioners say they aren’t necessarily drawn to environmental activism.

Not that there’s anything wrong with social activism, said Renee Shaw, a co-organizer of the Saturday workshop. But we are interested in a healing modality here, and all natural healing processes come from nature and from ancient practices, and they do it in community.

Shaw practices and teaches a Southeast Asian spiritual type of kickboxing that weaves together various mystical ideas about things like tree spirits and the quest for enlightenment through the matrix of all living things.

Rain Manarchuck, 24, another of Shaw’s students, says it a little more bluntly: She’s tired of any religious or spiritual community being exclusive.

This is: being together, connecting with nature. That’s all. People who work in accounting or boxing; there is no political alignment. Everyone sings together, trying to connect, just a culture of acceptance and love, she said of the group. That’s what religion should feel like.

A different era of eco-spirituality

Many of the nature-based practices are now on the rise, including astrology, crystals and shamanism they are thousands of years old. But professionals like those at Skin and Wellness Center Saturday reflect a new era, experts say.

Beginning in 2020, for the first time, a minority of Americans have told Gallup that they belong to a place of worship. And nearly half of Americans who don’t go to services said one of the main reasons is that I prefer to worship alone. Gen Z-ers and Millennials, in particular, don’t see nature-based practices as rebellious or alternative.

As with gender, it’s all so open and fluid for children, Shaw said, speaking of the teenager and the tween growing up with his ex-wife, who is Episcopalian. It’s not a fight for them. It’s not like, how do you incorporate that? It’s more like: obviously we reincarnated. Of course we live many lives. Of course they were Episcopal and can believe in God.

This era is also different due to the intense and climate crisis interest in the environment.

Books offering new research into the intelligences of trees and plants have topped bestseller lists for several consecutive years. These include the 2019 Pulitzer-winning novel The Overstory, a love letter to trees, which in the book they literally and ethically loom over the human characters. There is also Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants, about the mutual relationship between people and nature.

Deep natural spiritualities are spreading with alacrity all over the world, especially since [1970 founding of] Earth Day is gaining momentum, said Bron Taylor, an environmental studies scholar at the University of Florida who is considered a leading expert on religion and nature.

In 2016, Taylor published a lengthy analysis of the impacts of major religions on the environment. (His conclusion: More research is needed.) She cited dozens of studies showing a growing body of evidence that experiences in nature produce their own kind of transcendence and awe. Subjects included environmental activists who hold nature sacred, scientists who see their spirituality as tied to nature, and the high correlation between people who report feeling a sense of wonder at the universe and being an atheist or agnostic. The growth of secularism is also nurturing it, she says, as fertile ground.

Faith and climate activism

The growing interest in nature spirituality is also evident among institutional faith groups. Evangelical organizations are increasingly bringing people into nature and emphasizing human interconnectedness with other living beings rather than dominance over the structure considered standard in American evangelicalism until recently. Or new seminary credentials like the masters in theology and ecology that Princeton University Seminary launched in 2022 or the Care for Creation certificate that Lexington Theological Seminary launched in 2020.

Rabbi Jennie Rosenn, founder of Dayenu, a Jewish climate organization, said the rise of nature-based spiritualities and practices she sees has been unfolding for decades. Only now, she says, has the climate crisis injected a sense of urgency around existential and spiritual issues and challenges. Even some secular environmental groups, she says, have begun doing spiritual trainings meant to create space to deal with anxiety and grief.

Mark Brown leads Lifelines, an outdoor ministry of evangelical group Cru formerly Campus Crusade for Christ. Lifelines has seen attendance on its outdoor trips drop from 750 in 2013 to 1800 in 2017, then decline slightly during the pandemic before rebounding over the past year. Evangelicals, he says, are revamping their theological approach to nature in recent years to include respect for indigenous peoples and a richer care for the Earth itself.

He sees people seeking healing from anxiety, screen addiction, and materialism in nature.

Young people know that they have this desperate need to relate and be connected to the Earth. In an organic way. They’re trying to figure out how to do that, she said.

Dan Misleh is the founder of Catholic Climate Covenant, a group that teaches and advocates the impact of ecology and climate change on the poor from a Catholic perspective. A key tool the group uses is the historic 2015 church document Laudato Si by Pope Francis which calls humans’ abusive relationship with the Earth a break from sin.

Misleh’s goal is to inspire more environmental activism among Catholics, but Laudato Si hasn’t had the impact he’d hoped. He, like Taylor and other faith-based environmental experts and activists, has found that a renewed spiritual interest in nature does not necessarily translate into action in support of specific policies or changed behaviour.

What I see is that there are more and more people concerned about climate change because more and more people are experiencing it. Now more difficult questions are being asked: what does science say? How does my belief inform my understanding of my place in the universe? he said.

When I speak to Catholic audiences about climate change, one thing I tell them is: go outside. There is an incredible amount of diversity on this planet. This to me refers to God. And God has asked us to be co-creators with him, to take care of this jewel.

That language of being co-creators is significant. To complement monotheistic faiths, human beings have a unique and special relationship with God; they are the only living beings made in the image of God. And they in turn only worship the creator, not the creation.

For the people of the Falls Church group, the main goal of their practice together is a sense of deep connection.

Since November, Shaw and her monthly event partners Liz Trabucco, who specializes in a spiritual type of yoga called Kundalini, and Bianca Ardito, who focuses on dance and movement, have hosted free monthly workshops on dates like the winter solstice, a new moon and Earth Day. Thirty or forty people sign up each time, Shaw says, whether to practice in the studio or outside, even in the rain. Some exercises are intensely emotional, with people crying.

Fiona Nordemann, 28, works in development for a non-profit healthcare organization. Grew up in a non-religious home in Switzerland, always her found meaning and affinity in nature and animals, that this is the basis of who we are.

She has been joining the group since November. She appreciates the sense of community with people who are also seeking inner growth, mental health support, and discussion of a shared ethic. Group conversations meandered about dealing with homelessness and working people without healthcare. She alone meditates, practices yoga and reads books on spirituality.

With nature, there is something that comes back to you. These things are alive, and connecting with them can energize you, she said. I don’t know how other religions feel about people, but I feel this spirituality is mutual.