Reading Nature as a Sacred Text at The Abode of the Message, New Lebanon, NY
October 6 @ 9:00 am - 4:30 pm
A talk and workshop with Ryan Shea at The Abode Of The Message, New Lebanon, NY
Lecture October 5th at 7pm, open to all by donation. Workshop October 6th 9-4:30pm, registration required
A long and venerable western tradition speaks about two holy texts:
The Bible, or sacred scriptures and Creation, or the sacred earth. If nature is meaningful, if it is like a text, then how might we learn to read it, to come to terms with oaks, ferns, milkweed, and moss? This workshop focuses on the plant realm, seeking to read it more deeply by combining two analogous and cross-pollinating traditions:
lectio divina and Goethean phenomenology.
Lectio divina, or “sacred reading,” is a four stage practice (reading, meditating, praying, contemplating) developed by medieval monks to help them dwell with and be transformed by sacred scriptures.
Goethean phenomenology also has four stages that correspond to the traditional four elements (earth, water, air, fire) and can be approached as a practice for learning to read nature as a sacred text.