| Pages: | 304 pages |
| Size: | 6 x 9 inch |
| Publisher: | Raven Press |
| Pub. Date: | March 17, 2022 |
| ISBN: | 9780970869678 |
Earth Grief
The Journey Into and Through Ecological Loss
*2023 Nautilus Book Award Gold Medal Winner: Death/Dying Grief & Loss (Small Press)
News reports appear every day now on the ecological state of our planetary home and the news is not good. Ecological systems are in terrible peril, species are dying by the millions, and global warming is getting worse. Increasing numbers of people feel the impact of this, feel some form of what is being called climate grief, ecological loss, or sometimes even solastalgia. Our species is entering a time of difficult and deep mourning. As environmentalist Leslie Head has said, “Grief will be our companion on this journey—it is not something we can deal with and move on.” It will be with us for a long time to come.
Stephen Harrod Buhner takes the reader on a journey into and through that grief to what is waiting on the other side, a place that Viktor Frankl, Jacques Cousteau, Vaclav Havel, Elizabeth Kubler-Ross and so many others have found. It’s where one becomes an engaged witness, alive to the losses that are occurring and the grief that is felt but is not overcome by them. Then he travels into and through the common feelings of guilt and shame (feelings that are put on so many but in actuality belong to very few) that come from ecological devastation. From there Stephen moves deep into what occurs when those we love die, when the planetary landscapes, forests, fields and rivers that are engraved into our deepest selves are lost, when we are forced to travel into the territory of death and loss and deep grief ourselves.
Throughout it, Stephen draws on his studies with Elizabeth Kubler Ross and others who worked with the dying, his years as a psychotherapist, extensive work with the chronically ill, and deep immersion in and relationship with plants, wild ecosystems, and this living planet that is our home. At journey’s end what arises is not the optimism of false hope (as Greta Thunberg calls it) but a deeper and more realistic hope, one that is intimately entangled with gravitas and the journey through loss. It’s born from the heart’s integration of grief and a deep faith in the green world, in this planet from which we have emerged, and in the new life that comes with every spring.
Stephen’s book is written with the exquisite prose style, intimacy, depth of insight, and engaged storytelling for which he is known. No one who reads it will remain unmoved or ever again feel as if they are alone in the grief they feel for what is happening to our home.
Awards
- 2023 Nautilus Book Award Gold Medal Winner: Death/Dying Grief & Loss (Small Press)
Reviews and Praise
"This book is a plainspoken and shambolic masterpiece, moist with tears. It's the honest fruit of a life lived close to the rain, to the whispering of leaves, to the raggedness of the heart. Created by a man who has stopped each day to catch sight of, to chew on, and slowly digest his own shadow, it works a dark and joyous alchemy upon the soul of the reader."—David Abram, author of The Spell of the Sensuous and Becoming Animal
More Reviews and Praise
"I don’t know how Stephen has managed to awaken the feeling-wisdom in me with just ‘mere’ words, but boy, it works—and with such poise, grace, humility and insight. I will revisit this treasure of a book again and again to imbibe its medicine and remember how to feel most inwardly and how to respond most appropriately in my own life to the catastrophic realities of our times."—Stephan Harding PhD, Senior Lecturer and Deep Ecologist, Schumacher College. Author of Animate Earth and Gaia Alchemy
"Earth Grief is a guide for navigating the turbulent and changing climate of mind that we have inherited today. When you are in unfamiliar lands filled with perils, it is helpful to find someone who has a feel for the terrain and has come to call that place home. Stephen Harrod Buhner steps into this elder role by telling stories that call us to struggle with our grief for what has died and is dying not only around us, but within us too. As he writes: ‘while it is true that we need to change human behavior in the outer world it is even more true that we need to change human behavior in the interior world.’ By bringing us face-to-face with such important truths, Earth Grief helps us reconnect our tears and heart-break to the sustenance we need for a different way of living."—Timothy B. Leduc, Assoc Professor of Social Work, Wilfrid Laurier University, author of A Canadian Climate of Mind and Climate, Culture, Change
"This is a book for all those who feel the grief, pain and suffering of the Earth and our fellow-creatures—including many humans—and are tired of denying it, of trying to shut it out, and of all the false promises that there is a solution: a technique, a method, a system that will make it go away or be okay. It is a book about the central truth of our time: the collapse, already well underway, of the ecosystems that comprise life and support all human societies. Yet unlike so much other writing on the subject, it engages that truth with the deep feeling and emotional honesty that it entails and deserves. Buhner even offers hope (not mere optimism) that on the other side of the wrenching work of going down into the darkness of grief, both inner and outer, there might be a way to reinhabit our only home with integrity, humility and compassion. I know of no more important work." —Patrick Curry, author of Ecological Ethics and editor-in-chief of The Ecological Citizen
"Stephen Buhner is one of the plant geniuses of our time."—Rosemary Gladstar, the godmother of American herbalism, founder of the International Herbal Symposium, and author of Herbal Healing for Women.
"One of America's preeminent herbalists, Stephen Buhner articulates the sacred underpinnings of the herbal world and deep ecology as only a real ‘green man’ can."—David Hoffmann, Fellow of the National Institute of Medical Herbalists and author of The Holistic Herbal
"Stephen Buhner's writings are a powerful call for people of all colors and nations to work together to restore recognition for and experience of the sacredness of Earth."—Brooke Medicine Eagle, Native American teacher and author of Buffalo Woman Comes Singing
"The Earth will love you for reading his work."—William S. Lyon, author of Black Elk: The Sacred Ways of a Lakota
Reviews and Praise
"This book is a plainspoken and shambolic masterpiece, moist with tears. It's the honest fruit of a life lived close to the rain, to the whispering of leaves, to the raggedness of the heart. Created by a man who has stopped each day to catch sight of, to chew on, and slowly digest his own shadow, it works a dark and joyous alchemy upon the soul of the reader."—David Abram, author of The Spell of the Sensuous and Becoming Animal
"I don’t know how Stephen has managed to awaken the feeling-wisdom in me with just ‘mere’ words, but boy, it works—and with such poise, grace, humility and insight. I will revisit this treasure of a book again and again to imbibe its medicine and remember how to feel most inwardly and how to respond most appropriately in my own life to the catastrophic realities of our times."—Stephan Harding PhD, Senior Lecturer and Deep Ecologist, Schumacher College. Author of Animate Earth and Gaia Alchemy
"Earth Grief is a guide for navigating the turbulent and changing climate of mind that we have inherited today. When you are in unfamiliar lands filled with perils, it is helpful to find someone who has a feel for the terrain and has come to call that place home. Stephen Harrod Buhner steps into this elder role by telling stories that call us to struggle with our grief for what has died and is dying not only around us, but within us too. As he writes: ‘while it is true that we need to change human behavior in the outer world it is even more true that we need to change human behavior in the interior world.’ By bringing us face-to-face with such important truths, Earth Grief helps us reconnect our tears and heart-break to the sustenance we need for a different way of living."—Timothy B. Leduc, Assoc Professor of Social Work, Wilfrid Laurier University, author of A Canadian Climate of Mind and Climate, Culture, Change
"This is a book for all those who feel the grief, pain and suffering of the Earth and our fellow-creatures—including many humans—and are tired of denying it, of trying to shut it out, and of all the false promises that there is a solution: a technique, a method, a system that will make it go away or be okay. It is a book about the central truth of our time: the collapse, already well underway, of the ecosystems that comprise life and support all human societies. Yet unlike so much other writing on the subject, it engages that truth with the deep feeling and emotional honesty that it entails and deserves. Buhner even offers hope (not mere optimism) that on the other side of the wrenching work of going down into the darkness of grief, both inner and outer, there might be a way to reinhabit our only home with integrity, humility and compassion. I know of no more important work." —Patrick Curry, author of Ecological Ethics and editor-in-chief of The Ecological Citizen
"Stephen Buhner is one of the plant geniuses of our time."—Rosemary Gladstar, the godmother of American herbalism, founder of the International Herbal Symposium, and author of Herbal Healing for Women.
"One of America's preeminent herbalists, Stephen Buhner articulates the sacred underpinnings of the herbal world and deep ecology as only a real ‘green man’ can."—David Hoffmann, Fellow of the National Institute of Medical Herbalists and author of The Holistic Herbal
"Stephen Buhner's writings are a powerful call for people of all colors and nations to work together to restore recognition for and experience of the sacredness of Earth."—Brooke Medicine Eagle, Native American teacher and author of Buffalo Woman Comes Singing
"The Earth will love you for reading his work."—William S. Lyon, author of Black Elk: The Sacred Ways of a Lakota
About Stephen Harrod Buhner
Stephen Harrod Buhner was the award-winning author of 25 books on plant medicines, Earth ecosystem dynamics, emerging diseases, and the states of mind and being necessary for successful habitation of Earth including numerous articles, memoirs, short stories, and poetry on nature, human-plant, and human-Earth relationships. He taught throughout the US, Canada, and the EU for over 35 years. Stephen was an interdisciplinary, independent scholar, polymath, autodidact, Fellow of Schumacher College UK, and had been head researcher for the Foundation for Gaian Studies for the past thirty years (gaianstudies.org). His book, The Lost Language of Plants, received a Nautilus and BBC Environmental Book of the Year Award. In 2022, he received the first annual McKenna Academy Distinguished Natural Philosopher Award in recognition of his work. His book, Earth Grief: The Journey Into and Through Ecological Loss, also won a Nautilus award.
Books by Stephen Harrod Buhner
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