We are so very grateful for each of you in the worldwide community of Earth & Soul. Thank you for connecting through retreats, pilgrimages, online events, house gatherings, and all the beautiful ways you have been in relationship with us and one another. Together we continue to deepen and develop our threefold vision of study, spiritual practice, and compassionate action as we help enable the urgent work of healing and new beginnings in our lives and world.

In the wake of Hurricane Helene, and now Hurricane Milton, we hold in our hearts all who have lost loved ones, livelihoods, and a place to call home. We give thanks for those who are helping, caring, working to help heal and loving their neighbors. The stories of communities coming together to care for one another is truly a gift of compassionate action. With every cancelation notice we have posted on our website and social media, we have paused to whisper a prayer for you and all affected. On one of the announcements canceling a talk named “Celtic Spirituality: Why It Matters Now,” a dear person commented, “And this is why it matters now.” She is, of course, right. Turning to Earth & Soul in the quest for healing and home is not only in the title of John Philip’s new book, it is what we all are doing in this moment.

Dear Friends of Earth & Soul, 

As we move into a month of seasons changing may we bring our awareness to the ever-unfolding beauty of Earth and the ever-unfolding of our inner landscape of soul. 

In his new book, The Great Search: Turning to Earth & Soul in the Quest for Healing & Home, John Philip writes, “‘We are most ourselves,’ said Berry, ‘when we are most intimate with the rivers and mountains and woodlands, with the sun and the stars in the heavens.’ We are most ourselves when we are close to the ground that sustains us and the soil that grows our food. We have experienced the deep truth of this when we are closest to nature.” 

Dear Friends of Earth & Soul,

John Philip Newell’s new book The Great Search: Turning to Earth and Soul in the Quest for Healing and Home will be available on August 20 in the US and mid-August in the UK! This is truly a book for this moment in time. You can pre-order your copy here. We hope you will celebrate with us on October 24 at the book launch either in person or via livestream. The celebration will include wine, music, and song as well as readings from the book by John Philip and the opportunity to have your own copy signed. Please join us for this exciting moment of celebrating a profound vision for the way forward today in our relationship with Earth, with one another and our own true depths.

July news from Earth & Soul, including the launch of John Philip Newell’s forthcoming book, The Great Search, Book Launch Celebration, and July and October events.

Dear Friends of Earth & Soul, I’m excited to share with you news of my forthcoming publication, The Great Search: Turning to Earth and Soul in the Quest for Healing and Home (HarperOne, August 2024 in the US and Wild Goose, mid-August 2024 in the UK). The context of this new work is the widespread collapse of religion as we have known it. There is a vast diaspora of people living in religious exile from our inherited traditions of faith. What are the yearnings that are stirring in us at this moment in time, especially in relation to Earth and the human soul?

Greetings to each of you as we enter into the season of summer in the northern hemisphere and winter in the southern hemisphere. In these distinct seasons of much light and less light may we be reminded to look for the light in everyone and in all things and to know the light we carry within. We are grateful for each of you in the Earth & Soul community as we share together in teaching and spiritual practice and listen both as individuals and collectively to how we are being called to compassionate action. 

We are grateful to be in the midst of our May retreats and events with many of you at the moment. What a gift to be together in community sharing in teaching and spiritual practice as we listen within to how we are being called to compassionate action.

Peace and love to you in this new season of the year. As we transition into spring or autumn depending on which hemisphere we are in, may we take time to pay attention to what we are being invited into in this season. Earth holds infinite wisdom for us if we take time to listen.

Dear Friends of Earth & Soul,

Greetings to you as we near the Spring Equinox for those in the northern hemisphere and the Autumnal Equinox for those in the southern hemisphere. These moments invite us to pause as we move into a new season and all it brings.

In January of this year the United Nations ordered the government of Myanmar to take measures to protect members of its Rohingya community from genocide. Thus far nothing has changed.