Waymarkers

The name Waymarkers comes from the themes of the exilic journey in the Old Testament book of Jeremiah, a journey that guides Israel back to her city, to her homeland. In Jeremiah 31:21 there is a command to set up way marks, collected items from the natural world believed to likely be heaps of stones, or pole-like trees, put upon the path to guide the traveler through wild and spacious landscapes. Here there is a sense that the natural world is coming alongside the traveller to provide guidance, wisdom and a sense of direction towards a place of belonging.

The Western culture has, to a large degree, become lost. The myth of separation from the natural world has resulted in an exile-state; in many ways we don't know who we are because we don't know where we are. This amnesia impacts all aspects of our lives, especially our soul-life!

Waymarkers comes along side your journey as a guide, incorporating spiritual traditions that weave the numinous natural world back into our lives. The vision for Waymarkers is that by restoring an inter-communal relationship between humanity, the earth, and the cosmos, our individual and collective journeys will become more illuminated, meaningful, and participatory in the flourishing of all life. Through nature-based presence-ing practices and interconnecting soulful conversations, Waymarkers aims to hold space and cultivate deep ecological connection through developing a sacred bioregional lens, which includes addressing climate grief and ecological loss, confronting Western White entitled worldviews, and reclaiming one's own indigineity. Together we look for way-markers within the wild and wonder-filled world, guiding us towards a profound sense of interrelated belonging.

Waymarkers offers quarterly Rewilding Retreats in the Pacific Northwest; pilgrimage journeys to Iona, Scotland; one-on-one sacred eco-therapy sessions; and numinous-nature work-shops. Through Waymarkers, Mary DeJong also speaks, guest-lectures, and writes within the intersectional field of spiritual ecology.

As a long-time urban naturalist, and practitioner and guide of place-based pilgrimage, DeJong received her Masters in Theology & Culture from The Seattle School of Theology & Psychology with a focus in EcoTheology; earned her Religion and Ecology certification from Yale’s Divinity School and School of Forestry, overseen by Mary Evelyn Tucker, John Grim, and Brian Swimme; and received her post-graduate certificate in EcoPsychology through Pacifica Graduate Institute. She is currently a Second Year student with John Philip Newell’s School of Celtic Consciousness.

Her theoretical and praxis focus within deep ecology, ecotheology, ecopsychology and specialization in Thomas Berry's Universe Story delves into why place matters, the sacramentality of creation, and how together this informs the development of our ecological self. Mary terms this work “sacred eco-awakening” and sees this as a critical and holy endeavor as it allows us to come to grievous terms of our human history and to posture ourselves once again side-by-side with the whole of creation.

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lindsey@kairosearth.org

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ABOUT

CONTACT

lindsey@kairosearth.org

SOCIAL