All Posts By

Debbie Philp

Jul 20
Love0

Tending a Blue Jay with Ecological Reiki

By Blog, Ecological Reiki
Today’s wildlife rehabilitation loss is among my worst. Earlier, I brought a young blue jay, recently fledged, to the veterinary clinic to be humanely euthanized. He had been grabbed by a dog after he landed in the dog’s pen and wasn’t yet flying well enough to quickly escape. The tiny bones at the end of his wing, like your fingers,…
Read More
Jul 13
Love0

Sri Aurobindo’s Ecological Wisdom: Including Integral Yoga in Interdisciplinary Scholarship on the Biodiversity Crisis

By Papers
It is of upmost importance for academia to promote interdisciplinary approaches to understand and support biodiversity, the variety of life on Earth as a whole and within smaller ecosystems. As we are now in or entering a crisis of mass extinction, discovering means to communicate what biodiversity is and why preservation is needed, especially when a means included spiritual justification…
Read More
Jul 13
Love0

An Interdisciplinary Path toward Expertise in the Biodiversity Crisis

By Papers
There have always been extinctions of species occurring at a background rate of approximately one species disappearing every seven hundred years. A mass extinction event occurs when many species disappear within a short period of time, causing a considerable loss of global biodiversity, well above the background extinction rate. Today, Earth is experiencing, or is close to experiencing, a mass…
Read More
Jul 11
Love0

Biodiversity is Magic

By Blog, Real Wilding, Spiritual Ecology
Growing up, I was blessed to have many encounters with other forms of life. My parents, and their parents, were water people. I knew the ocean and I knew lakes. I also knew the marshes, beaches, and woods along their shores, and the beings who live in and around the water, from jellyfish and horseshoe crabs, to gulls and minnows,…
Read More
Jun 28
Love0

Guiding Principles of Ecological Reiki

By Blog, Shamanism and Reiki
Are you ready to take your energy practice of the table and onto the Earth? Consider these principles for practicing Reiki with your ecosystem (and just living an interconnected life). Question your worldview. Most of us, especially descendants of white Europeans, were taught that humans are separate from the rest of nature and nature is a resource to be extracted…
Read More
Apr 13
Love0

From Encounter to Commitment — A Spiritual Ecology

By Blog, Spiritual Ecology
The idea of a spiritual ecology—a sense of sacred relationship with the natural world—has roots in philosophy as well as lived experience. Ernst Haeckel, a German biologist and philosopher who coined the term “ecology,” believed that one set of natural laws shapes everything—matter, energy, and life itself. Influenced by Baruch Spinoza, a 17th-century Dutch philosopher who argued that God and…
Read More
Apr 11
Love0

How Caring for Wild Animals Changes Us

By Blog, Spiritual Ecology
There’s a story that floats around online about a trapper who became a wildlife defender because of two baby beavers. Curious whether it was true, I went looking and found an old essay about Grey Owl (whose real name was Archibald Belaney), a conservation writer and naturalist from the early 1900s who became well known for pushing people to protect…
Read More
Apr 07
Love0

Planning a Backyard with Rewilding in Mind

By Blog, Real Wilding
Creating wildlife habitat in your backyard requires balancing the needs of both humans and more-than-human species. Thoughtful design can make rewilded spaces inviting, functional, and beautiful while still supporting biodiversity. There are definitely challenges to rewilding, but let’s look at a few big-picture design considerations to give you a place to start thinking about your own rewilding project. Think balance.…
Read More