Discovering the Spiritual Wisdom of Trees
EndorsementsThis book speaks the language of trees. The deep wisdom of the Standing Ones is that everything belongs; nothing stands alone. Beth Norcross and Leah Rampy powerfully convey this truth as they draw on the fascinating details of forestry science, the insights of spiritual masters from various traditions, and their own intimate, lifelong experience with trees. This isn’t just another ‘how-to’ book on spirituality. It’s a passionate call to listen to the magnificent teachers that surround us.
--Belden C. Lane, PhD, author of The Solace of Fierce Landscapes, Backpacking with the Saints, and other books |
Interviews
Networking with Plants in the Anthropocene, Nov 2025
Episode 48: Kate Brelje interviews Beth Norcross and Leah Rampy about their new book, Discovering the Spiritual Wisdom of Trees. Listen 
Earthkeepers, April 2025
In this conversation, Leah Rampy and Beth Norcross discuss their book Discovering the Spiritual Wisdom of Trees, exploring themes of earth care, spirituality, and the deep connections humans have with nature. Listen 
Making Meaning, April 2025
The authors sat down with host Reese Brown of the Making Meaning podcast to talk about the new book and the deep spiritual wisdom it invites us to uncover in the world around us. View Environmental Social Justice, February 2025
Tune in for a thoughtful conversation on discovering both scientific and spiritual awe in nature, the importance of being deeply present, and their hope that this new work will offer guidance and hope in challenging times. -Host Wendy Nystrom Lloyd View |
Earth & Soul: Reconnecting Amid Climate Chaos
Endorsements"Drawing on the great wisdom traditions and her own deep experience at the intersection of nature and spirit, Leah Rampy invites readers onto a pilgrimage to help heal this world and ourselves. Her book is a much-needed balm for our troubled souls in this time of climate crisis."
-Mary Anne Hitt, climate leader and strategist, former director Beyond Coal Campaign "Leah Rampy's Earth and Soul is a teaching sung lovingly to each reader by a wise grandmother, blessing us with ancestors' stories and lessons from our kin in the natural world. If we listen, she is passing down a sacred gift to us for meeting the climate crisis and for weaving a better world."
-Joelle Novey, Director, Interfaith Power & Light (DC.MD.NoVA) "Earth and Soul calls us to develop our capacity for listening and seeing the natural world around us and to rediscover our deep interconnection with it. Through story, science, and experience, Leah Rampy lovingly yet bracingly invites us to envision the climate crisis as an opportunity to weave a new world out of the fragments of the old. Earth and Soul is a beautiful and timely invitation!"
-Rev. Bryan Berghoef, Pastor, Contemplative, and author of Pub Theology: Beer, Conversation and God |
Interviews
The Holy Wild
Released December 20, 2025 In this conversation, Leah Rampy joins host Victoria Loorz to explore spirituality as a lived relationship to the natural world—where trees are kin, not symbols, and reciprocity replaces extraction. Listen Here 
The Climate Buzz,
Released November 4, 2024 Join host Bob Hanna and author Leah Rampy as they discuss the nature of our uncertain times and Earth & Soul. Listen Here 
Accidental Gods, Released July 24, 2024
Leah joined host Manda Scott to discuss Earth and Soul, Reconnecting Amid Climate Chaos, which Scott describes as "a beautiful, many-layered weaving that is a memorial to the world that is dying around us, a paean to the world that is possible and a deeply imagined, deeply practical guide to how we can actually engage with the living web so that we can bring ourselves into a place of understanding, connection and service." Listen Here 
Carbon Sessions, Released June 7, 2024
Leah joins the hosts of the Carbon Sessions to discuss how Earth & Soul came to be, the concept of kin-centric ecology, and the practice of reweaving our relationships with the natural world. Listen Here |
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"Leah Rampy has made a great and lyrical contribution toward “the metaphorical work of reweaving soul and Earth.” By turns storyteller and naturalist, spiritual guide and leadership coach, the author invites our inmost selves into true communion with the world -- for its benefit, and for our own. Rampy's eminently readable narrative is the warp, through which she deftly weaves wise insights from a wide range of disciplines, traditions, and thinkers. This worthy volume will soften hearts, open minds, lift spirits, and inspire action; it is a gift to soul, and to Earth, both."
-Rabbi Fred Scherlinder Dobb, Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life, and Interfaith Power and Light “When the news lands with us, the news of the deepening trouble around and ahead, there can be a rush to action and to answers. The urgency of the climate crisis is hard to deny. Yet if we move straight into action, then we will act from where we were before we heard the news, as if unchanged by what we have learned, and our actions will reproduce the patterns that brought us here. Action is needed, yes – but first we must allow ourselves to be changed: humbled, called into question, opened up. Earth and Soul is a book that is brimming with stories of what this looks like, and exercises that you can put into practice. There’s beauty here among the darkness, and wisdom for hard times.”
-Dougald Hine, Co-founder of the Dark Mountain Project and author of At Work in the Ruins "Achingly beautiful, Earth and Soul presents a clear-eyed look at our current climate chaos and invites us to go deeply into our souls to find the courage and hope to love and to act. A must-read for anyone who feels despair about the climate crisis. This book will energize and transform you."
-Margaret Benefiel, Executive Director of Shalem Institute, author of Crisis Leadership and The Soul of a Leader |
Sense-Making in a Changing World, Released 2/14/2024
"If you're looking for insight into what it means to live in a changing world, the importance of remembering your kinship with the Earth and how to apply this to your daily practices, listen in to this episode." -Morag Gamble, Permaculture Education Institute See it on YouTube or Apple Podcasts Earthkeepers, Released May 6, 2024
Leah joined host Forrest Inslee to discuss Earth & Soul, exploring what lies beneath our unwillingness to change how we interact with the natural world as well as what we can do to nurture deeper connections to our places. Listen here |
