In the Voices of Earth, Air, Fire, Water, and Spirit,
the Planet Cries Out for Defenders…

In the midst of global fire, earthquake and flood – as species are going extinct every day and the shadow of nuclear war looms – the planet doesn’t need another church or religion.

What it needs is a new Order:…a sacred community and movement:

…A movement of communities welcoming all the peoples of Earth: our varied belief systems (or non-belief systems), genders, races, classes, abilities, and nations.

…A deeply spiritual movement, free of religious institutions and grounded in the Wisdom traditions of both East and West, in leading-edge science and indigenous tradition.

…A radically inclusive Order of mystic activists, uniting our energy and intention in one sacred vow:

“I promise to be the best lover and defender of the Earth that I can be.”

About the Authors
Matthew Fox, a 76-year-old elder, activist and spiritual theologian, along with Skylar Wilson, a 33-year-old wilderness guide, leader of inter-cultural ceremonies, and an event producer, and Jennifer Berit Listug, a 28-year-old writer, spiritual leader, and publicist, are presenting a challenge and an opportunity in the vision launched in this modest book. That vision is about creating an Order of the Sacred Earth. Essay contributors to the book and its vision include Mirabai Starr, Brian Thomas Swimme, Adam Bucko, and David Korten.

Praise for Order of the Sacred Earth

 
“The Order of the Sacred Earth is a vision as vital and inspired as any on our planet in this time of cultural collapse and regeneration — a gathering together of mystic warriors and visionary artisans of cultural evolution. There are now millions of us — imaginal cells of emerging ecocentric cultures — but what is needed is a consciously convened community that brings us together to synergistically deepen and amplify our artistry and to train and initiate others. Fox and Wilson’s co-dreamed vision draws from the very heart of the dream of the Earth.” ~Bill Plotkin, author of Soulcraft and Wild Mind: A Field Guide to the Human Psyche

“The Order of the Sacred Earth not only calls us home to our true nature as Earth, but also offers us invaluable guidance and company on the way.” ~Joanna Macy, environmental activist and author of eight books, including Active Hope

“The Order of the Sacred Earth has the potential to be a shapeshifter of our culture, transforming humankind on the individual and community levels to nurture our relationships with all of life. This powerful vision will touch the hearts of sacred activists while helping to heal our Earth.” ~Michael Murphy, cofounder of the Esalen Institute and author of The Future of the Body and Golf in the Kingdom

“Creative and sensitive humans alive today yearn to make a difference in the world. They can feel the creativity that surges within them… What they need is a way of activating these creative powers. That is what the Order of the Sacred Earth is.” ~Brian Thomas Swimme, cosmologist and author of The Universe Story and Journey of the Universe

“What we are facing demands a strategy and commitment of this magnitude and this courage! We cannot stand isolated and expect to make any real difference. I thank Matthew Fox, Skylar Wilson, and Jennifer Listug for gathering us together.” ~Fr. Richard Rohr, Center for Action and Contemplation, Albuquerque, New Mexico

“It is with great joy that I discover this vision of an Order of the Sacred Earth… Everywhere I go now, as I travel and teach, I am seeing these seeds bursting through the ravaged landscape. The youth I meet are hungry for meaningful spiritual practice and are wary of organized religion…. I want to be part of this revolutionary effort to build a holy container in which to access and express the deepest truths of love echoing from the heart of the world’s wisdom communities in honor of “Our sister, Mother earth,” who sustains us.” ~Mirabai Star, spiritual teacher and author of God of Love: A Guide to the Heart of Judaism, Christianity & Islam; Caravan of No Despair: A Memoir of Loss and Transformation

“The creation of the Order of the Sacred Earth is a magnificent step forward for humanity. What we need now are sacred activists willing to come together and live conscious and sacred lives while pooling their resources and passions to preserve the earth and humanity. I am honored to celebrate and join this great adventure!” ~Andrew Harvey, author of over thirty books, including Way of Passion and The Hope

“Every human being benefits from intimacy with a place where the original wild temple is still present as a felt-sense, not just a gorgeous view. We have psycho-spiritual receptors for an experiential, embodied, mystical sense of the sacred Earth… Yet we are a long way from such a world. But now, with the emerging Order of the Sacred Earth… we are closer to an articulated vision of what such a world might be. We are generating new communities who react and participate in a profoundly meaningful, mystical relationship with our shared larger body, Earth.” ~Geneen Marie Haugen, loves to intertwine mysteries of nature and psyche and has contributed to many spirituality journals

“I promise to be the best lover and defender of Mother Earth that I can be.” Might this sacred pledge required of those who join the Order of the Sacred earth save humanity and our Earth Mother? It is surely worth a try… I welcome the opportunity to find a spiritual home and intellectual identity in an Order of the Sacred Earth in fellowship with other spiritual-intellectual—activist seekers/doers seeking a deeper truth beyond the partial and outdated cosmologies of established religious dogma and political ideology.” ~David Korten, author of Change the Story, Change the Future: A Living Economy for a Living Earth; When Corporations Rule the World; The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community

“We need a new interspiritual order. One that exists outside of the current (or failing) institutions and that encourage us to, in the words of philosopher Ken Wilber, ‘show up, wake up and grow up.’…It is my hope that this new order serves as a mark of identity—a form of tribal war paint—so that we can see each other more clearly… Only then can we become more human and less alone… Only then can we, as a species, live to tell a new story and find each other inside it.” ~Joran Slane Oppelt, an international speaker, author, interfaith minister and singer/song writer and founder of the Metta Center of St. Petersburg and Integral Church

“The Order of the Sacred Earth can provide not merely new ideas and practices, but also a community in which to grow and to nourish them. Just as plants require soil in which to flourish, ideas and practices require strong communities… Our work succeeds when we can create caring communities in which young people are free and trust one another… So the work of the OSE is deeply revolutionary, for it challenges our most fundamental assumptions in capitalist culture. To re-image a core narrative… can, and will, be done, through the commitment to creating, through the order, a new kind of caring community.” ~Theodore Richards, educator and founder of the Chicago Wisdom Project, author of The Great Re-imagining: Spirituality in an Age of Apocalypse

“As an African American male, witnessing the suffering of poor health quality within my community, I felt I had to do something about it… Over time, I soon came to understand that the well-being in the black community is inseparable from that of everyone else and the planet as a whole. The Order of the Sacred Earth calls on us to take full responsibility for our connection to this Earth. It recognizes that we are the Earth. It understands that care of the Earth is care for ourselves, and that its health reflects that of our own. The OSE offers a great opportunity for us to come together to not only solve the problems that face our existence but to become more fully human… the more fully human we become, the more we’ll embrace a manner of living that is sustainable, communal, affable, loving, kind, and compassionate.” ~Broderick Rodell, PhD, ND, whose passions include capoeira and yoga along with other learning systems to awaken values that support human evolutionary consciousness

“The Order of the Sacred Earth will be like that–full of joy, because it is an invitation to participate in the evolutionary intentions of the Universe. What could be more purposeful and fun than that?! The revolution that Matthew, Skylar and Jennifer are ushering in and leading is perhaps the most important ever, because we really are on the precipice and everything, everything is at stake. So let’s take the vow: I promise to be the best lover and defender of the Earth that I can be; roll up our sleeves and get to it! Don’t forget to bring your banjo and dancing shoes!” ~Kristal Parks, an activist whose special commitment for ten years was to defend elephants in Kenya, author of Re-Enchanting the World: A Call to Mystical Activism

“The idea and vision to have a spiritual order to celebrate, heal, and protect Mother Earth is a gallant one. To dedicate ourselves to this community will require deep prayer and the practice of nonviolence as we witness the destruction of our planet… I hear the earth crying for people to rise up and act as if every decision we make will either destroy or protect the planet…The OSE is asking us to serve, give back, to become part of a spiritual order. They ask us to hope… I commit to defending mother Earth and to being in circle with those who say “yes” to this vision.” ~Deborah Santana, an activist for peace and social justice and documentary film maker

“We can begin to feel our own “impeccable warrior’ rise up to participate in what Joanna Macy has so aptly called ‘The Great Turning.’ For Macy, to participate in the restoration of the earth community’s body and spirit is to find ourselves engaging in any or all of the following dimensions: Holding Actions, propagating Shifts in consciousness, and generating structural Changes. I contend that every individual can participate in this Great Turning, and that one of the great challenges of our time is for each of us to figure out how and where we plug into this psycho-spiritual current. Perhaps the OSE can be a guiding community, helping us put our revolutionary passion into action.” ~Trevien Stanger, a tree planter who has planted 100,000 new trees and who teaches environmental studies at a community college in Vermont

“As I turn the last page of Matthew’s, Skylar’s and Jennifer’s writing, my heart leaps with a sound ‘Yes!’ One year and a half ago, when I started contributing to the Italian Association for creation spirituality, I did so out of a desire to bring the experience of the sacred out of the cage in which it has been convicted by both religious fundamentalism and materialistic atheism, and I intuitively feel that OSE may be just what we need to accomplish this… Many of us have lost a framework where our “experience of the sacred” can get nurtured, cultivated, and hence bear fruit… OSE, as I understand it, is precisely such a framework: its openness to all wisdom traditions, its independence from all dogmas, together with its being deeply rooted in what we all share—a life-on this wondrous planet—can thus be the key to open the cage.” ~Claudia Picardi, a seeker, a scientist and a teacher born and living in Italy who is foremost a person who is constantly striving for creative, spiritual, and intellectual freedom

“It is this broken world that is ‘waiting,’ as Henri Nouwen wrote,”… for new saints, ecstatic men and women who are so deeply rooted in the love of God’ that they are free to imagine a radical new political and social reality that reflects compassion and justice. It is this broken world from which Matthew Fox’s dream of the Order of the Sacred Earth has emerged. And it is this broken world that has called forth the Holy Resistance we witnessed at Standing Rock. ~Adam Bucko and Rev Chelsea Macmillian

Learn more about how you can participate in
and support the Order at Order Of The Sacred Earth.