Prefaces to Both Editions

Preface to the First Edition

The birth of this anthology occurred on an afternoon in the late fall of 1990, when the leaves were damp on the ground and my soul life was turning inward with the approach of winter. I was sitting on my bach porch reflecting about the impact wilderness had made upon my spiritual unfolding. My values, thinking, hobbies, and ecological approach to living, my interest in simplicity, silence, and openness, had all been shaped by nature.

I could say that I had spent time in wilderness to relax, to slow down, to surround myself in great beauty, and to have fun. But on a deeper level, I was aware that some other, hard-to-name healing process and growth had occurred. Being in nature is ointment for personal wounds. Wilderness asks nothing. It is completely detached from the world of human craziness. The openness of wilderness supports us in dropping our attachment to a limited sense of “I.” In doing so, we effortlessly expand into and see the vastness that is. Within the peaceful cradle of nature, I had repeatedly found my way back to the larger experience of Self, love, and purpose.

On my porch, as I thought about the significance of my time spent outdoors, I began to imagine how powerful it would be to gather an anthology of writings about the spiritually transformative wilderness experiences of other people. The idea of a collection kept returning in the days and weeks that followed. It was an instinctive soul current, a slumbering river, moving slowly but surely beneath the surface ripples of my mind. This deeper current was insistent; years later, the vision of the book has become a reality. This book belongs to that which is alive and thriving. The earth itself sings through the collective voice of the books contributors.

The Soul Unearthed: Celebrating Wildness and Spiritual Renewal through Nature offers a view of people in relationship to nature that is based in humility. The anthropocentric notion of humans as caretakers, stewards of the earth, is expanded to an ecocentric — or deep ecology and ecopsychology — perspective in line with the attitude of Chief Seattle’s 1852 congressional address — "The earth does not belong to man, man belongs to earth.” Humans are viewed within the overall order of nature. We are only one of many beings that have been blessed with life on this planet. And yet, sadly, humans are primarily responsible for the present degradation of the environment. Our arrogance, our failure to see our lives within the larger unfolding of all life, feeds this course of destruction.

In addition to the social, political, and environmental action already occurring on behalf of the earth, a new wilderness aesthetic is emerging to meet the demands of the late twentieth century — a wisdom that embraces the challenges of our current ecological crisis, concurrently, with the age-old reverence that tribal people have held for the earth. A new spirituality of wilderness is necessary, an evolving philosophy and approach to wilderness based in gratitude, humility, respect, and broad vision rooted in real-life experience with real-life connections to nature. The selections in The Soul Unearthed are grounded. Through the act of searching for deeper personal connection with the earth, and thereby to themselves, the authors convey a powerful sense of belonging to the larger web of the natural world.

The spirit of the anthology as a whole is one of reverence and celebration of wildness. Wilderness is approached as a place of worship, not as a vacation playground, or as something to be conquered and overcome to sharpen humankind's grandiose spirit of achievement. People are small and wilderness is large. Through the expanse of wilderness, and through grace, we are given the opportunity to stretch ourselves into the greater wealth and depth of being that is abundantly present.

The poems, stories, essays, and interviews included in the book come from the heart of wilderness and reflect how nature transforms us and how we bring this positive change back into the world. As a way of promoting those people whose lives are serving to renew our collective relationship with the natural world, I have selected the work of people who are currently living. The Soul Unearthed deliberately offers a diverse range of testimony. Outdoor educators, deep ecologists, environmental activists, storytellers, wilderness guides, rites of passage guides, ceremonialists, gender specialists, therapists, poets, and nature writers are all represented. They are among the finest people in their fields, leading the way to a more ecologically based and spiritual view of life and of wilderness.

My life has been enriched through the anthology. 1 hope its contents will inspire you and your lives. May this inspiration serve as a catalyst for a wider renewal of our collective spiritual relationship with the earth and may beauty, respect, and true humility be the path upon which we all learn to walk.

-- Cass Adams

From the Preface to the Second Edition (Excerpt)

In watching the first edition of The Soul Unearthed unfold, and in reflecting on its contents after publication, an unplanned theme began to make itself apparent. In essence, the book is about that place where the individual sense of separation fades into the vast and open-ended invitation of wilderness. Nature is the more significant character in the story, and the individual plays a pale secondary role. Said another way, if one entered wilderness with a big personal agenda—of adventure, of conquering some formidable challenge, of healing, or even of finding oneness — one returned less sure of their original expectations, more empty of agenda, and much more still inside. In some cases the dissolution was so complete that the mistaken belief in separation from the whole of nature could no longer be held as true...Whatever the means, the personal identity is seen within the context of a larger ongoing cosmological birthing and wholeness, such that the recognition of unity becomes abundantly clear. Gratitude and love replace arrogance and self-importance.

In a true meeting with wilderness there is nothing personal to be gained at all. More true to spirit, such deep exposure results in an erasure of the personal, and is an invitation to a deepening marriage to something larger and more fundamental than the personal. Nature is wild, free, and boundless, and so is the spirit that resides within our hearts. It is this unknowable and uncontainable wildness that we celebrate, and that gracefully lifts us beyond our tiny concerns into a humble and spirit-infused life of simplicity. . . .

    -- Cass Adams