In this episode of The Holy Wild, Victoria Loorz and Dr. Sheri Kling explore how personal trauma, dreamwork, and encounters with the natural world can become gateways into deeper wholeness and divine relationship. Sheri weaves process theology and Jungian psychology into lived stories of synchronicity, butterflies, and sacred encounters that remind us we are co-creators in an unfolding cosmos of meaning. What emerges is an invitation to trust the flow of becoming, where even separation is part of the holy dance that leads us back into connection with Earth, Spirit, and one another.

Dr. Sheri D. Kling, Ph.D., serves as the Director of Process & Faith (a multifaith network for relational spirituality under the Center for Process Studies) and is also the interim minister of Redeemer Lutheran Church in Bradenton, Florida. She earned her doctorate in Religion: Process Studies from Claremont School of Theology and brings together theology, depth psychology, mystical wisdom traditions, relational worldviews, and the intersections of spirituality and science to help individuals find meaning, belonging, and transformation. A theologian, teacher, songwriter, and spiritual mentor, Kling is a faculty member at the Haden Institute and Claremont School of Theology (adjunct), and authored A Process Spirituality: Christian and Transreligious Resources for Transformation; she also offers courses, concerts, retreats, and dynamic “Music & Message” presentations.

Connect with Sheri:

• Organization Website: Process and Faith
• Book: A Process Spirituality: A Christian and Transreligious Resources for Transformation
• Book: Finding Home: Rural Reflections on the Journey to Wholeness
• Process Pop-Up Video with Victoria Loorz

Mentioned in the episode:

• Wiki: Alfred North Whitehead
• Book: Black Beauty by Anna Sewell
• Book: Women Who Run With The Wolves: Myths and Stories of the Wild Woman Archetype by Clarissa Pinkola Estés
• Book: Natural Spirituality: A Handbook for Jungian Inner Work in Spiritual Community by Joyce Rockwood Hudson
• Book: Radical Nature: The Soul of Matter by Christian de Quincey
• Book: The Archetypal Process: Self and Divine and Whitehead, Jung, and Hillman
  David Griffin
• Book: Memories, Dreams, Reflections by Carl Jung
• Book: Possessing The Secret Of Joy by Alice Walker

Connect with the Center:

• Website: wildspirituality.earth
• Victoria's Website: victorialoorz.com
• Email: [email protected]
• Linktree: linktr.ee/ctrforwildspirituality
• Instagram: @center_for_wild_spirituality

Timestamps:

• 00:00 Introduction
• 07:04 Sheri's Background, Looking For Belonging
• 09:11 A Love Of Horses
• 09:53 Suburban Nature And The Golf Course
• 11:41 The North Georgia Mountains
• 12:55 Finding Comfort In Nature From Trauma
• 13:55 Finding The Divine Feminine
• 14:31 Finding Home
• 15:46 Emerging From Emotional Numbness
• 17:46 Connecting With Jungian Work
• 18:53 Deep Relationship With Place
• 21:27 Introduction To Process Theology
• 28:13 Connecting Inner Wholeness With Universal Wholeness
• 31:44 Whitehead + Jung
• 33:55 Dream Work And Syncronicity
• 42:12 Transformational Practices Of Wholeness
• 47:00 Sin And Separation As Necessary
• 51:49 The Butterfly Pushing Out
• 55:47 Invitation And A Story With A Chimpanzee

In this episode of The Holy Wild, Victoria Loorz speaks with Dr. Craig Chalquist as they explore how to live through collapse with open hearts, grounding in love and relationship with Earth. They speak of healing false separations between spirit and matter, human and nature, psyche and place, and how imagination, story, and synchronicity can guide us into deeper belonging. Craig shares how dreams, fiction, and encounters with the more-than-human world invite us into sacred conversation rather than despair. Together they remind us that even in times of unraveling, new stories are already emerging and calling us to co-create them.

Craig Chalquist, Ph.D., Ph.D. is program director of Consciousness, Psychology, and Transformation at National University and a former associate provost and several other administrative and leadership roles. His background includes public presentations, group counseling, depth psychology, mythology, ecopsychology, terrapsychology, and philosophy and wisdom studies. He presents, publishes, and teaches at the intersection of psyche, story, nature, reenchantment, and imagination. He has published more than twenty books, including the hopeful Lamplighter Trilogy. His motto is: “Converse with everything!”

Connect with Craig:

• Website: Chalquist.com
• Books: The Lamplighter Trilogy
  • Soulmapper
  • Heartlander
  • Lamplighter
• Book: Storied Lives

Mentioned in the episode:

• Article: Tolkien on the Secondary World
• Video: Jungian Synchronicity: Meaningful Patterns In Life
• Romans 8
• Albert Camus Quote: “It happens that the stage sets collapse. Rising, streetcar, four hours in the office or the factory, meal, streetcar, four hours of work, meal, sleep, and Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday and Saturday according to the same rhythm – this path is easily followed most of the time. But one day the “why” arises and everything begins in that weariness tinged with amazement.” 
• Book: The Myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus
• Craig's Mentors:
  • Joanna Macy: joannamacy.net
  • Lionel Corbett: psycheandthesacred.org
  • James Stark: regenerativedesign.org/instructors/james-stark
• Book: The Fourth Turning Is Here by Neil Howe
• Book: Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari
• Book: Belonging Without Othering by John A Powell
• Film: The Wild Robot
• Film: Flow
• Film: The Truman Show
• Article: Val Plumwood Prey to a Crocodile
• Book: The Cloud of Unknowing by Anonymous
• Nadia Bolz Weber nadiabolzweber.com

Connect with the Center:

• Website: wildspirituality.earth
• Victoria's Website: victorialoorz.com
• Email: [email protected]
• Linktree: linktr.ee/ctrforwildspirituality
• Instagram: @center_for_wild_spirituality

Timestamps:

• 00:31 Intro
• 05:31 Doing Spiritual Work In This Time
• 09:07 Fiction's Place In The Wisdom Path
• 12:11 A Sign Of Real Interconnection From A Teardrop Shaped Leaf
• 14:50 Healing The False Separations
• 18:10 Stage Settings Collapse
• 20:53 The Place Of Resistance
• 23:37 The Cycle Of The Human Story
• 27:13 Relationshiping Is Aliveness
• 29:37 Mythic Hero vs Savior
• 31:18 The Storied Life Needs Hope
• 34:56 New Stories Can't Be Stopped
• 36:56 The Wild Balance Of Nature Goes Beyond Good And Evil
• 43:02 Sacrifice Runs Deep
• 45:10 Drawn Toward Reality Laboratories
• 49:15 The Search For Certainty
• 51:59 Religion As Reconnection Is Necessary

In memory of Joanna Macy, we offer this recording from a Seminary of the Wild gathering where she spoke with radiant clarity about living through collapse with courage and love. She outlines four ancient ways of seeing the world—battlefield, trap, lover, and self—and invites us into the radical intimacy of belonging to a living Earth as lover and self. With humor and grace, she tells a story from Cosmicomics by Italian author Italo Calvino, in which the universe begins not with a bang, but with a generous offer to make pasta.

Discover Joanna's work at:

• joannamacy.net
• Work That Reconnects Network: workthatreconnects.org
• Cosmicomics by Italo Calvino 

Considering and discerning a call to be part of this new movement of ecospiritual direction? Apply today for the next cohort of the Seminary of the Wild Earth. The application deadline is August 15, 2025.

Connect with the Center:

• Website: wildspirituality.earth
• Victoria's Website: victorialoorz.com
• Email: [email protected]
• Linktree: linktr.ee/ctrforwildspirituality
• Instagram: @center_for_wild_spirituality

Timestamps:

• 00:00 Introduction
• 04:53 Joanna Macy begins—gratitude, interdependence, and uncertainty
• 11:31 Choosing how to rebuild: worldview as a tool
• 12:42 World as battlefield
• 16:38 World as trap
• 20:33 World as lover and world as self—belonging to a living world
• 24:17 The Cosmicomics story: love, pasta, and the birth of the universe
• 31:30 Transition from lover to self—nonduality and the ecological self
• 33:00 Thich Nhat Hanh on evolutionary belonging
• 35:00 Letting the Earth act through us—John Seed’s rainforest story
• 38:30 Question session on deepening into intimacy
• 45:41 Weekly wandering invitation: “What can I do for you?”
• 47:38 Closing invitation and credits

What does it mean to listen with the Holy Wild? In this episode, Victoria Loorz is joined by Elizabeth Rechter and Deb Metzger—two seasoned spiritual companions and guides in the Eco-Spiritual Direction program from Seminary of the Wild Earth. Together they reflect on the sacred practice of holy listening in partnership with the more-than-human world, sharing stories of reciprocity, grief, and transformation that emerge from deep relationship with Earth. The conversation is both an invitation and a reminder: the wild trusts us, and in return, we are called to trust the holy within and all around us.

Considering and discerning a call to be part of this new movement of ecospiritual direction? Apply today for the next cohort of the Seminary of the Wild Earth. The application deadline is August 15, 2025.

Connect with the Center:

• Website: wildspirituality.earth
• Victoria's Website: victorialoorz.com
• Email: [email protected]
• Linktree: linktr.ee/ctrforwildspirituality
• Instagram: @center_for_wild_spirituality

Timestamps:

• 08:58 What Is Spiritual Direction, Elizabeth?
• 12:40 What Is Spiritual Direction, Deb?
• 13:55 Including the rest of the alive world
• 18:23 The Wild Approach
• 20:05 Holding Space
• 21:58 Reciprocity
• 23:48 Stories of the Spirit Directed Wild
• 27:03 Memory meeting us in the Wild
• 31:30 The Wild Share Her Pain Too
• 34:36 A Deconstruction The Culture That Has Incarcerated Us
• 37:30 The Non-Judging Wild
• 40:56 The Wild Trusts You
• 41:43 You May Feed The Birds By Hand
• 43:13 The Wind Speaks Of Suffering
• 47:03 Meaning In and From Relationship
• 49:18 The Playful Wild
• 51:59 Invitation
• 53:23 Valarie and a circle of Blue Violets
• 55:59 Outro

In this episode of The Holy Wild, Victoria Loorz speaks with Sean Ó Gaoithín, the lead gardener at Glenveagh National Park, Irish forest-tender and a third-level Hedge Druid, about his journey of ecological restoration, ancestral reconnection, and spiritual practice. They share how sacred relationship with land is remembered through language, biodiversity, and embodied gestures like Gaia Touch. Together, they explore insights on rewilding efforts in Donegal, the ancient Celtic festivals, declaring peace with nature through prayerful movement, and how despair and hope can both be holy as we return to sacred kinship with Earth.

Connect with Sean:

• Article: Native Woodlands of County Donegal Book Launch
• Instagram: @ogaoithin

Mentioned in the episode:

• Book: Gathering Moss by Robin Wall Kimmerer
• Organization: Botanic Garden Conservation International
• Video: What is GAIA TOUCH? Interview with Marko Pogacnik
• Video: Gaia Touch 1: Body Exercises by Marko Pogacnik
• Organization: Order of Bards, Ovates, and Druids
• Article: Rudolph Steiner's anthroposophy

Connect with the Center:

• Website: wildspirituality.earth
• Victoria's Website: victorialoorz.com
• Email: [email protected]
• Linktree: linktr.ee/ctrforwildspirituality
• Instagram: @center_for_wild_spirituality

Timestamps:

• 00:00 Introduction
• 08:38 The Seeded Wild Forest
• 11:45 Donegal
• 13:01 Indigenous Language As A Doorway
• 16:12 "Ecology Is My Religion"
• 17:46 Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI)
• 20:09 A Gardener Hopes For Eden
• 25:01 Hope and Despair are both Holy
• 26:06 Invasive Species
• 28:45 Gaia Touch Earth Yoga
• 31:34 Transmitters and Receivers
• 34:43 The Fairies of Particular Places
• 40:48 Declaring Peace
• 43:51 Weeds Are Part of Biodiversity
• 47:44 Generational Shift
• 50:49 Sean's Druid Journey
• 54:41 Order of Bards Ovates and Druids
• 57:36 Celtic Annual Cycle
• 60:54 The 7 Directions
• 66:37 Being Drawn Home
• 71:16 Sacred Invitation
• 73:32 Ethan and Cherry Tree
• 76:43 Outro

In this episode of The Holy Wild, Victoria Loorz speaks with her sister and co-author, Valerie Luna Serrels, about the transformative movement of Wild Church. Together they explore how sacred relationship with Earth is being rekindled through embodied spiritual practice, intentional community, and the reclamation of ancient ways of knowing. They reflect on the Field Guide to Church of the Wild, a book they co-wrote to support this growing network, and share insights into the shift from dominance to kinship as a core spiritual calling.

Mentioned in the episode:

• Writing: USING EMERGENCE TO TAKE SOCIAL INNOVATIONS TO SCALE by Margaret J. Wheatley

Connect with Valerie:

• Book: Field Guide to the Church of the Wild
• Website: wildchurchnetwork.com
• Email: [email protected]
• Online Community: The Ecosystem

Connect with the Center:

• Website: wildspirituality.earth
• Victoria's Website: victorialoorz.com
• Email: [email protected]
• Linktree: linktr.ee/ctrforwildspirituality
• Instagram: @center_for_wild_spirituality

Timestamps:

• 00:33 Introduction  
• 05:00 Field Guide  
• 09:45 Living Paradox  
• 13:15 Wild Church Network  
• 23:10 Feminine Emergence  
• 26:53 Seeing Tree  
• 28:51 WCL Offer *
• 31:02 Grounding  
• 34:15 Redefining Church  
• 36:52 Reclaiming Vocabulary  
• 39:27 Acknowledging Land and Ancestor  
• 43:30 Re-Placing Rituals  
• 47:20 Advocacy Through Relationship  
• 48:06 Wandering Saunter  
• 49:59 Threshold Crossing  
• 51:33 Permission Asking  
• 53:00 Connect with Valerie  
• 54:17 Closing Benediction  
• 57:27 Melissa and Grandmother Oak  
• 58:56 Outro

*When signing up for the Wild Church Leadership Course, mention PODCAST in your submitted form to get $50 off the cost of the course.

In this profound conversation, Victoria Loorz is joined by ethnobotanist, Franciscan brother, and spiritual ecologist Gary Paul Nabhan—also known as Brother Coyote—exploring themes of cultural and spiritual resistance, sacred relationship with the land, and the transformative power of remembering ancient ways. Gary shares stories of his time with Indigenous communities, his recent recovery from a traumatic head injury, and his hope for agrarian sanctuaries in a time of ecological and societal collapse. Inviting us into a re-enchanted worldview grounded in interconnection, reverence, and resilience and concluding with a poetic practice of naming the relationships in the natural world, reorienting us toward wonder and communion.

Mentioned in the episode:

• Book: Against The American Grain: A Borderland's History of Resistance by Gary Paul Nabhan
• Article: On Doors and \cracks\ by Bayo Akomolafe
• Book: Refugia Faith: Seeking Hidden Shelters, Ordinary Wonders, and the Healing of the Earth by Debra Reinstra
• Podcast: Refugia Podcast with Debra Reinstra
• Agrarian Trust: agrariantrust.org

Connect with Gary:

• Website: garynabhan.com

Connect with the Center:

• Website: wildspirituality.earth
• Victoria's Website: victorialoorz.com
• Email: [email protected]
• Linktree: linktr.ee/ctrforwildspirituality
• Instagram: @center_for_wild_spirituality

Timestamps:

• 00:00 Introduction
• 05:53 The Land That Raised Brother Coyote
• 07:22 Engaging All Senses
• 09:52 Old Stories Collapsing
• 11:32 Awkward Teen Phase
• 12:28 Against The American Grain: A Borderland's History of Resistance
• 15:24 Desert Spirituality
• 17:29 Practical Sanctuaries of the Wild
• 22:32 Listening Through Diversity
• 24:29 Cultural Resistance
• 28:13 Retreat to Assisi
• 29:57 Take Little Steps
• 31:34 Coming To Our Senses Through Body
• 34:09 Active Incarnation
• 36:29 Relationship > Thing-ness
• 38:53 Ancient Expressions
• 41:59 The World of Fragrance
• 46:23 Wild Invitation
• 49:26 Alex and the Ocean

In this episode of The Holy Wild, Victoria Loorz speaks with author and public theologian Brian McLaren about how to live with love, courage, and imagination in the midst of ecological and societal collapse. Rooted in McLaren’s latest book, Life After Doom, their conversation invites us into a deeper spirituality that faces reality without losing hope. Together, they explore how grief, beauty, and small communities of care can become seeds of transformation. It’s a moving, grounded dialogue for anyone longing to walk a path of love—no matter what unfolds.

Mentioned in the episode:

• Book: Life After Doom by Brian McLaren
• Ghost Ranch - www.ghostranch.org
• Book: Everything Must Change: Jesus, Global Crises, and a Revolution of Hope by Brian McLaren
• EBook: Authoritarianism: Coming To A Society Near you by Brian McLaren
• Article: On Doors and \cracks\ by Bayo Akomolafe
• Book: Refugia Faith: Seeking Hidden Shelters, Ordinary Wonders, and the Healing of the Earth by Debra Reinstra
• Podcast: Refugia Podcast with Debra Reinstra
• Short Story: The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas (Kindle) by Ursula K. Le Guin Ursela Leguin
• Book: This Life by Martin Hagglund
• Book: An Interrupted Life by Etty Hillesum
• Article: Etty Hillesum from The Jewish Women's Archive
• Song: Imagine by John Lennon
• Book: Marx- Towards The Centre of Possibility by Kojin Karatani
• Text: Revelation 21-22 A vision of Eco-civilization
• Book: Mapping Ideology by Slavoj Zizek
• Quote: "It is easier to imagine the end of the world than it is to imagine the end of capitalism." (attributed to both Frederic Jameson and Slavoj Zizek)
• Book: Anam Cara by John O'Donohue

Connect with Brian:

• Website: brianmclaren.net
• Instagram: @brian_mclaren

Connect with the Center:

• Website: wildspirituality.earth
• Victoria's Website: victorialoorz.com
• Email: [email protected]
• Linktree: linktr.ee/ctrforwildspirituality
• Instagram: @center_for_wild_spirituality

Timestamps:

• 0:00 Intro
• 5:34 Opening Poem
• 7:12 Interview
• 12:13 4 Problems
• 13:12 Collapse and Authoritarianism
• 18:40 Comfort in cycles and grief
• 21:41 Practically being with neighbors
• 27:12 Repentance
• 29:08 The Bible as Indigenous literature
• 30:30 Adam and the dust we return to
• 32:20 This Life vs the afterlife
• 37:00 What is our dream?
• 41:31 Liberation to new thinking     

In this moving conversation, Victoria Loorz and Justine Afra Huxley explore kincentric leadership as both an unlearning and an emergence — a return to sacred relationship with Earth and a new way of living as spiritual leaders. Drawing from Sufi tradition, spiritual ecology, and deep listening to the more-than-human world, Justine invites us into a future shaped by kinship, reverence, and co-creation.

Mentioned in the episode:

• Website: patmccabe.net

Connect with Justine:

• Website: kincentricleadership.org
• Book: Generation Y: Spirituality and Social Change
• Magazine: emergencemagazine.org
• Website: goldensufi.org
• Website: stethelburgas.org

Connect with the Center:

• Website: wildspirituality.earth
• Victoria's Website: victorialoorz.com
• Email: [email protected]
• Linktree: linktr.ee/ctrforwildspirituality
• Instagram: @center_for_wild_spirituality

Timestamps:

• 0:00 Introduction
• 4:48 Justine's Beginnings in the Sufi Tradition
• 7:35 Sacred Earth
• 9:15 An Encounter In Devon
• 10:56 Inner Life Becoming Outer Life
• 12:05 Suffering Earth Severance
• 12:39 The Work Is Spiritual
• 15:29 Integration At Every Level
• 17:29 Unlearning At Every Level
• 22:41 Kincentric Leadership
• 25:03 Many Knowledges Integrating
• 26:34 Readiness For This Wild Shift
• 27:49 The Need For New Words
• 31:35 Avail Yourself
• 33:13 Offerings To Water
• 36:00 A Fire Ceremony Story
• 38:17 The Pace Of Emergence
• 40:02 Adapting Without Appropriating
• 41:01 Inviting Earth In To The Ceremony Markers
• 42:14 Farewells
• 43:58 Wandering Invitation
• 45:34 Corrine and Golden Eagle

Click here to view the episode transcript.

In this moving episode of The Holy Wild, Victoria Loorz is joined by Four Arrows (Don Trent Jacobs)—Cherokee author, scholar, and Lakota pipe carrier—for a profound conversation centered on reclaiming a kinship-based worldview. Drawing from Indigenous wisdom, never-before-told personal vision stories, and decades of advocacy, Four Arrows shares how restoring sacred relationship with the Earth begins with shifting our deepest ways of seeing and being. May this conversation serve as a powerful reminder that Indigenous worldviews hold essential guidance for healing our fractured relationship with the more-than-human world.

Mentioned in the episode:

• Book: Restoring Kinship Worldview by Four Arrows and Darcia Narvaez, PhD
• Video: Indigenous worldview can preserve our existence
• Morobe Development Foundation: mdfpng.com
• Book: The Descent of Man - and Selection in Relation to Sex by Charles Darwin
• Book: Mutual Aid: A Factor In Evolution by Peter Kropotkin
• Article: "False Doctrine" and The Stifling Of Indigenous Political Will by Four Arrows
• Quote: "“We must be compelled to hold this doctrine to be false, and the old and new law called the Old and New Testament, to be impositions, fables and forgeries.” by Thomas Paine in The Age of Reason
• Book: Amerindian Rebirth by Antonia Mills
• Book: The Hidden Life Of Trees by Peter Wohlleben
• Podcast: Radiolab on the secret life of trees

Connect with Four Arrows:

• Website: fourarrowsbooks.com
• Chart Download: worldviewliteracy.org

Connect with the Center:

• Website: wildspirituality.earth
• Victoria's Website: victorialoorz.com
• Email: [email protected]
• Linktree: linktr.ee/ctrforwildspirituality
• Instagram: @center_for_wild_spirituality

Timestamps:

• 0:00 Introduction
• 5:30 Lakota Prayer
• 6:31 Indigenous Worldview Video
• 9:27 Statistics Challenge
• 11:19 Anthropocentrism Harms Relationship
• 11:56 Four Arrows Near Death Experience
• 12:43 There's No Question The Animals Talk With Us
• 13:51 How Do You Know It's The Animal Speaking?
• 18:57 Sharing The Sacred
• 20:05 Binaries
• 23:18 How To De-Other
• 24:30 Human Nature In Our Own Captivity
• 30:00 Noun Verb
• 33:18 Relationship Is Action
• 36:21 Humans Are Not A Cancer
• 37:26 Differing Worldviews
• 40:29 Asking Permission Of Plants
• 41:56 The Science Is Catching Up
• 43:58 Closing Flute Song
• 47:13 Wandering Invitation
• 49:16 Michele with River and Wind
• 51:16 Credits

Click here to view the episode transcript.