About Sagebrush and Silence

An Ancient Marriage for Modern Humans

Contemplative practices such as meditation and mindfulness are roots of ancient, sacred ecologies. In each sacred ecology, garbed in its own place-based specificity, lived the wild animals, plants, spirits, elements and mysterious forces of that particular place. Modern western contemplative practice often cuts our umbilicus to these primal place-based wombs–the dark soil that birthed the vast silence we seek when we sit. For many of us, these ancient ways are forgotten, or we do our best with the diluted descendants of their thicker blood.

In the shadows of our feral hearts, a nearly lost and hungry landscape await us. This wild forest, desert, sea, mountain, jungle and grassland give shelter to animate forces that seek the sustenance of our sacred attention. In the rekindling of a reverential and reciprocal relationship with them, gifts will be given and received; gifts that are essential to our sacred survival.

Sagebrush and Silence is a collective of animistic and contemplative practitioners that offer experiential guidance in cultivating the practices that can re-root us to the lands we live on, as best we can in these modern times.

Earth-Mind vs. Ego-Mind

There is Earth-Mind. Our personalities and ego-structures are unique manifestations of Earth’s intelligence, emerging from the wider Earth-Mind experience into this human expression. We don’t have to fully understand that journey to know it is happening.

One of the “misses” or “misinterpretations” of Eastern spiritual modalities is to apply ego-dissolution practices to the Earth-Mind and the greater-than-human world. An example would be the debasement of animal and plant life as “lower lifeforms” that is prevalent in many non-nature-based religious philosophical structures, both East and West. Where instead the true purpose of these practices is to apply them to the human ego and human community for greater opening to the Earth-Mind and the Mysterious beyond.

Inversely, one of the “misses” of modern Western spiritual modalities that acknowledge the “bigness” of the greater-than-human world, is that they make that bigness a reflection of their own greatness, further entrenching life-oppressing personality and egoic structures.

Our Values and Scope of Practice

We are setting a boundary that our scope of practice.

Does not:

  • Violate the gift of life born of the feminine and the Earth.

  • Appropriate the divinity of Earth and Her manifestations as reification and deification of our own human egos.

Who We Are and Our Individual Offerings

Some Testimonials

  • "The Walking in Wild Prayer Pilgrimage with Deer Ryder, Boundless (Joe), the pilgrims who were called to join, and all the seen and unseen beings who call the Wild Mesa home completely transformed my life, and that is not an exaggeration. . . "

    -Briana Halliwell

  • "...Deer and Joe role-model this presence that they're teaching so well. It's clear they practice what they preach.."

    -Abigail Coughlin

  • "Thank you for reminding me to ask, out loud, nature for permission, support, guidance... Once I remembered this, I began to get responses. Shooting stars at just the right moment, surprise discoveries during wanderings..."

    -Chris Cottrell

  • "So wonderful! I am extremely grateful for you! I was reflecting on how safe I feel in this space - and I often don't feel that around men so thank you for the beautiful energy you put out into the world."

    -Cassidy Powell

  • "...at first I was really doubtful about two gringos giving a retreat on spiritual matters, but this was one of the first opportunities I've had to explore inside myself. I love the kindness, love and sensibility of Deer and Joe as instructors... it opened my heart to explore and dig more into my questions... Their guidance helped me to find the connection that I lost with a realm that has been my companion for many years. Thanks for making me realize how much I need this spark to light my path."

    -Memo Santos

  • "The time in silence and meditation... was delicious and life changing. I feel completely rejuvenated, refreshed, rested and clear minded. I feel more in touch with my true self than I have in a long time. So many worries and fears simply faded away as I connected to the wild..."

    -Rachel Wallace

  • "Thank you for creating such a beautiful offering to the community... The heart that each of you put into the retreat was obvious, and the space was poignant as a result. My experience was quite profound, and much of that is due to the container that you both created."

    -Stephanos Calligas

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