embodied deep ecology

Alastair is a Scottish writer, scholar and activist best known for his influential book Soil and Soul: People versus Corporate Power. His work weaves together ecology, spirituality, community empowerment and nonviolence, exploring how we might root social and environmental justice in deeper cultural and spiritual traditions. He has been a founding trustee of the GalGael Trust in Glasgow, helped secure the community land buyout of the Isle of Eigg, and has written widely on land, identity, belonging and the sacred in our times. Listen to Alastair on our podcast.

Mutima is a reverend, social justice visionary and global diversity specialist devoted to healing the heart of humanity. A longtime teacher of The Work That Reconnects, she facilitates transformative processes that help communities resolve conflict, restore trust and remember their interdependence. Her work bridges spiritual practice, restorative justice and deep ecology, cultivating spaces where grief and gratitude, story and song, can return us to right relationship with one another and the living Earth.

Satish is a lifelong peace activist, former Jain monk and ecological visionary. Known for his epic 8,000-mile peace walk to the world’s nuclear capitals in the 1960s, he has since inspired countless people through his teachings on simplicity, reverence for nature and nonviolence. Satish was the long-time editor of Resurgence magazine and co-founded Schumacher College in Devon, a centre for ecological learning.

Helene is a Sámi elder, therapist and cultural keeper devoted to the renewal of ancestral wisdom in our times. With roots in the Sámi reindeer herding tradition of northern Scandinavia, she works with individuals and communities to transform collective and intergenerational trauma into resilience, creativity and belonging. Through ceremony, story and embodied practice, she helps people reconnect with the living land and the deeper threads of identity that sustain us.

Helena is a linguist, author, filmmaker and pioneer of the new economy movement. She founded Local Futures and convenes World Localisation Day and the Planet Local Summit. Author of Ancient Futures and Local is Our Future, and producer of The Economics of Happiness, Planet Local and Closer to Home, her work champions cultural and biological diversity and the renewal of local economies. A recipient of the Alternative Nobel, Arthur Morgan and Goi Peace Prizes, Helena continues to inspire global movements for localisation and community resilience. Listen to Helena on our podcast.

Tahirah is a spiritual elder, healer, teacher and storyteller rooted in ancestral traditions and community service. She has devoted her life to guiding rites of passage and tending the soul of community through ritual, story and counsel. A practitioner of African and Native American shamanism, and an initiate in training within the cosmology of the Daga people of West Africa, she brings together earth-honouring lineages of healing and remembrance. Tahirah serves as a Council Elder with the Vermont Wilderness Community, where she continues to share her wisdom in service of collective renewal and reconnection with the sacred.

John is an Australian deep ecologist, rainforest activist, writer and teacher who has worked since 1979 to protect rainforests and restore our relationship with the natural world. As founder and director of the Rainforest Information Centre he has led actions, campaigns and workshops across Australia, South America, Asia and the Pacific, including co-authoring Thinking Like a Mountain: Towards a Council of All Beings with Arne Næss, Joanna Macy and Pat Fleming. He is an experienced facilitator of re-earthing processes and has received the Order of Australia Medal for his contributions to conservation and environmental consciousness. Listen to John on our podcast.

Louise is from the Ngai Tuhoe Maori tribe in Aotearoa New Zealand and also from several Celtic ancestral rivers - Scottish, Irish, English.  She describes herself as a braided river. She is an author, movement maker and systems healer.  Her leadership experience has spanned all sectors having held senior leadership and governance roles within Government, private sector, philanthropy and NGO sector. She has studied for many years individual, transpersonal, somatic and collective and intergenerational trauma and how these might be applied to healing systems.   She is the author and founder of the social enterprise ReRoot,  founder of Unity House , co-founder of the Pakeha Project and an associate of the Centre for Social Impact.

Andy is a Senior Lecturer at Exeter University and previously Schumacher College, UK, where he was the Programme Lead for the MA Engaged Ecology. He is the author of Shroom: A Cultural History of the Magic Mushroom, and numerous papers on psychedelics, ecology, animism and paganism. Andy has doctorates in Ecology (from the University of Oxford) and the Study of Religion (King Alfred’s College, Winchester). He is currently researching ritual and animistic usage of psychedelics by British Druids, and the contemporary use of the Fly Agaric mushroom. He is a renowned speaker and also a folk musician (with love for English bagpipes, low whistle, and Dark Age lyre). Listen to our podcast with Andy.

Angharad is a Welsh storyteller, place-maker, heritage specialist and speaker who draws deeply from myth, landscape and ancient wisdom. With over 25 years’ experience in Wales, the UK, Ireland and the US, she leads creative pilgrimages, retreats, mythic walking-expeditions, and programmes such as Dreaming the Land and DADENI. She weaves together folklore, poetry, archaeology and native spiritual tradition to help people reconnect with land, story and the soulful human wild. A published author and poet, she is also about to release Wise Woman: A New Mythology of Older Women (with Sharon Blackie) which celebrates the power, insight and mythic force of mid-life and beyond.

Jon is a renowned tracker, nature-connection mentor and author whose work spans over four decades. Raised in the natural world and mentored by trackers like Tom Brown Jr. and elders from Indigenous cultures, Jon has shaped a path integrating tracking, bird-language and ancestral ways of knowing. He founded the Wilderness Awareness School in 1983 and helped develop what is now the 8 Shields mentoring model - used globally in communities, programmes and schools to restore people’s connection with the land. His books include What the Robin Knows: How Birds Reveal the Secrets of the Natural World and Coyote’s Guide to Connecting with Nature.