Artwork by Anne Guest
Remembering Earth: A Spiritual Ecology Retreat
Sharpham Trust, Devon, UK
Artwork by Anne Guest
“Spiritual ecology is, at its core, achingly simple. It is the recognition of the universal spirit that imbues all living things—a recognition that must be embodied through conscious spiritual engagement with the Earth. It is not about learning something new but remembering something very, very old. Spiritual ecology is as old as humanity itself. Like our common ancestry with all living beings, stemming from the single-cell organisms we evolved from, spiritual ecology was there from the beginning of our human story. It is our beginning.”
—Emmanuel Vaughan-Lee
For millennia our mystical and cultural traditions understood that the Earth is animate, alive, and sacred. Everyday life was imbued with a conscious recognition of this divine presence, and the values of interconnectedness, kinship, reciprocity, compassion and reverence that were rooted in this awareness. But we have forgotten how to live this way. Modern life and its numerous destructive and oppressive systems have separated us from the Earth and led us on a path of causing irreparable harm to our own nature and that of the world around us. Yet within each of us a memory of that primordial way of being in relationship with the living world remains. What will it take to renew our reverence for this ancient bond and learn to live again in communion with Earth?
In June 2026, at the cusp of deep summer, step into a remembrance of the living Earth with Sufi teacher and Emergence founder and executive editor Emmanuel Vaughan–Lee at the Sharpham Trust in Devon, England. Drawing from the main themes in his forthcoming book Remembering Earth: A Spiritual Ecology (Shambhala Publications, June 2026), this retreat will offer a guided framework for awakening the memory of our sacred kinship with Earth, and turning towards an embodied spiritual ecology.
Immersed within Sharpham’s lush meadows, blooming wildflowers, and rhythm of the tidal River Dart, participants will explore how a practice of spiritual ecology can be integrated into all aspects of their lives through simple and transformative ways of finding intimacy with the Earth. Practices will engage the breath, heart, walking, listening, time, and prayer to draw participants into tending the threads of grief and love that connect us with the Earth. Each practice is a doorway, inviting you from concept to communion, from observer to participant in the sacred web of life, offering an embodied spiritual ecology that moves beyond ideas into lived experience.
This four-day retreat will contemplate the role of engaged spirituality in responding to the challenges of our time, offer practical and metaphysical spaces to remember our place in the more-than-human world, and include lectures, silent and walking meditation practices, and storytelling.
ABOUT SPIRITUAL ECOLOGY
Spiritual ecology is an ontology and modern term for an ancient knowing present in traditional and place-based cultures, and spiritual and mystical traditions for millennia. It recognizes that everything within the living Earth—human and more-than-human—is animate, alive, and sacred. The recognition of this sacredness is based in an awareness of the universal spirit that is present in all things, and the bond of kinship and love we share with the living world. Spiritual ecology understands that this awareness must be embodied through a conscious spiritual engagement with the Earth. This engagement has been expressed by different cultures since time immemorial through prayer, ceremony, spiritual practice, art, music, myth, poetry, and dance (to name but a few), providing a basis for an ethical and moral framework rooted in the values of interconnectedness, kinship, reciprocity, compassion, and reverence for all beings. While spiritual ecology is no longer present in modern Western cultures (barring some notable exceptions), it is an ancestral memory we all carry within us, regardless of our cultural backgrounds. It is not something we need to learn, rather it is something we need to remember that is part of our epigenetic imprint and shared inheritance as human beings. Surfacing this memory and embodying this ancient connection is an essential part of the spiritual engagement needed with the Earth at this time.
ABOUT EMMANUEL VAUGHAN-LEE
Emmanuel Vaughan-Lee is an author, Emmy- and Peabody Award–nominated filmmaker, and a Sufi teacher. He has directed more than twenty documentary films, including Taste of the Land, The Last Ice Age, Aloha Āina, The Nightingale’s Song, Earthrise, Sanctuaries of Silence, and Elemental, among others. His films have been screened at New York Film Festival, Tribeca Film Festival, SXSW, and Hot Docs, exhibited at the Smithsonian Museum and London’s Barbican, and featured on PBS POV, National Geographic, The New Yorker, and The New York Times Op-Docs. His first book, Remembering Earth: A Spiritual Ecology, is forthcoming from Shambhala in summer 2026. He is the founder, podcast host, and executive editor of Emergence Magazine.
DETAILS
Dates: Thursday, June 25 (check-in 2-5pm) – Sunday, June 28, 2026 (departure at 12pm)
Location: Sharpham Trust, Devon, United Kingdom
Fee: £500–£650, depending on accommodation choice (camping, shared room, or single room). Fees include everything but travel. Needs-based financial assistance is available for some (see additional details in the expression of interest form).
Learn more about the other locations where this retreat is taking place: Whidbey, US (September 10–13, 2026) and Australia (October 1–4, 2026).
Please contact events@emergencemagazine.org if you have any questions.