Journey to the Sacred Mountains: Awakening Your Soul in Nature
By Flynn Johnson
(Findhorn Press, 2010, 176 pages)
When our beloved coyote mentor, Uncle Mac was alive, I remember sitting in circle hearing him tell the story of Jumping Mouse. A few years later, around the fire at a Ghost Supper given in the Oglala tradition, his dear friend Kathleen told the story in his honor and the tears gathered as we heard it from a very different vantage place. Several days later, Journey to the Sacred Mountains: Awakening Your Soul in Nature arrived for me to review. As I opened the book to peruse the contents, I saw that it was not only a book examining rites of passage and the journey towards our souls fulfillment, but that Flynn Johnson had woven his teachings around the story of Jumping Mouse. Synchronistic occurrences are not unusual for those walking the deep nature connection path, and yet this thread to the past and present served as a particularly sweet place from which to dive into a book filled with heart and mystery.
Johnson has done a masterful job both in the retelling of the tale of Jumping Mouse, our brave hero in search of the sacred mountains, and in explaining its relevance both in our daily lives and in our inner journey. Here is a book clearing a pathway to weave together the two worlds. At once Johnson provides deep insights and wisdom while firmly rooting his sage advice in the natural world with infinite practicality.
Those drawn to this book will find much to agree with and learn from. We are aware that things are amiss both for our planet and with special concern, not only for ourselves, but also for the coming generations. Johnson deftly portrays the crisis, holding out hope for our next steps. We must do our personal journeying and reconnection to this earth to be of greater service to others and ourselves. His stories from years of leading rites of passages provide anecdotal evidence for the changes such threshold experiences engender. Johnson acknowledges the role communities played in indigenous tribes to welcome home the initiates, and once again we see how much we must remember to welcome a health filled future.
In the story of Jumping Mouse, we see what needs to fall away always to be able to step more fully forward to create regenerative communities for our children to grow in and our elders to find their voice. Through the hero’s journey the invitation calls to us all, step further forward, “be the change we wish to see!” For ourselves, for each other, for the earth…
Flynn Johnson is the founding director of the School of Natural Wonder with a background in depth psychology, Native American spiritual traditions, shamanism, and Buddhism. He has led hundreds on Wilderness Vision Quests and other nature-based programs. He lives in Wardsboro, Vermont.
Video book review: http://hopedance.org/community-media/videos/888
Reviewer Marie McRee lives in Los Osos and is a long time avid enthusiast for the homegrown organization Outside Now which offers nature-based educational programs that connect people to the web of life on this planet and supports them as they seek to answer for themselves what it means to be fully human. (http://www.outsidenow.org)
Read an excerpt at: http://www.hopedance.org/home/soul-news/1986
