Letters to the River places the struggles and crises we currently face — personal, ecological, and spiritual — within the context of a mythic and heroic journey. In doing so, it forms a bridge between the left side and the right — the practical, daily life we can neither ignore or avoid, and the enchanted, shimmering world reported by sages and shamans throughout the millennia.
Letters to the River points the way to a path that’s deep and soulful. It speaks eloquently to our reason (the right side) about the issues we must explore and face to find that “dream worth living.” But it does not stop there. In the “Letters” themselves we hear the beckoning of the left side, the call of the soul within a more magical, alluring dream. And in so doing, we sense who we might become if this soul not only found its voice, but began to sing — loudly — its authentic, breath-taking song.
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Letters to the River: A Guide to a Dream Worth Living is also available as an audiobook both on iTunes and Audible via Amazon.com. For information and to order, click Here.
This audiobook has two distinct voices. One – the rational or left side — provides a unique perspective on the foundations and assumptions underlying our current view of the world … a new view of the physical and psychic landscape we inhabit, and a map for charting a path towards a more-fulfilling and soulful reality.
Meanwhile, the “letters” from the right side – passionate, poetic, and dreamlike – induce a journey-like state. Many have used them as prayers – ritual openings for connecting to the sources – while others employ them as guided meditations to evoke a more creative, fluid, and shape-shifting way of being.
This book is a gem!
Sparrow Hart is a gifted storyteller. Dancing between the visible and invisible worlds, this book expands our perceptions, tells the truth of who we are, and shows us the beauty within our inner and outer landscapes.
Inspiring us to live in harmony with nature and all of life, reading Letters to the River is like being on a vision quest. This book is a gem!
Celebrating the “in-between spaces”
In Letters to the River, Sparrow Hart lays out the challenges facing humanity in these perilous times. Through a mix of provocative word-play, poetry, and insights from shamanic wisdom, Jungian psychology, as well as a host of other creative sources, he inspires the reader to begin a heroic journey that includes strategies and transformations to weather whole-system change.
There are many fine books that confront the perils facing humankind in the 21st century, but none are as adroit in celebrating the “in-between spaces” where reason, emotion, and intuition produce a synthesis to help humanity continue its grand adventure.
Uplifting
Letters to the River is an open-minded exploration of the unknown, an inspiring and fascinating meditation upon nature’s mysteries and magic. For a world struggling with overpopulation and ecological destruction, the instructions are practical and timely. They’re especially uplifting for those suffering the maladies of civilization — depression, anxiety, and disconnection. I recommend this book both to fellow seekers and to those who have yet to learn to seek.
A personal and cultural story
In Letters to the River, Sparrow Hart explores how to give birth to a personal and cultural story large enough to lead us into a healthier, more integrated world where humans and nature share one voice. He’s a poet listening to the muse of creation and the thrumming rhythms of the land, dipping into this fertile unified voice and transporting us to places of great beauty.”
A good story-teller
This is a generous book and from the heart. Artfully interfacing science, mythology, spirituality, shamanism, and earth wisdom, Sparrow Hart listens to and reveals the profound guidance from nature that elders have been passing on for generations. In the easy-to-read fashion of a good story-teller, he reminds us that life is holy, and we all have purpose and work to do. And the good news is we can do it, successfully, if we respond to the wisdom — the summons and the invitation — this book places before us.
Poetic and exquisite
From the wild terrains of Mother Nature to the realms of sacred transformation, Sparrow Hart guides us on the quest for a new story… a new dream where the timeless voice of the sacred Earth whispers, “You belong.” The language is poetic and exquisite. Like the sunrise that illuminates the dark and blesses us with a new day, this book’s shadow and light reveals a landscape in which we recognize our own wholeness and intimate partnerships with life.
Letters to the River is a fountain of wisdom, a gossamer thread of mystical content… a wellspring of natural beauty you can hold in your hands.
Start dreaming again
… an exceptional and important book for anyone interested in a better world and a more fulfilling life. Sparrow is a sage, brilliant thinker and teacher, and a beautiful writer. There is so much to say about this book, but I’ll leave you with the brief thought … “This book is a real wake up call to start dreaming again.”
Buy the book… Read it slowly… And pass it on.
A true shaman
Sparrow Hart loves what is most wild in the natural world and in the deeper landscape of the human heart. He is a keeper of myth, dream, and story, and in this collection of essays he shares observations and reflections that open us to the interconnected mysteries and miracles of the wilderness.
Gary Snyder writes that a shaman ‘speaks for wild animals, the spirits of plants, mountains, and watersheds… They sing through him.’ If a shaman is the healer who sings, then Sparrow Hart is a true shaman. Through these heart-opening essays we discover a profound listener to unspoken stories, a man of immense spirit, a singer with a wild and perceptive heart.
Definitely on my reading list
I bought this book on the recommendation of Amazon and it is one of the most beautifully written books I have ever read. I am a Shamanic practitioner and — for anyone who is interested in being connected with the cosmos and the formless — I strongly recommend this book. Definitely on my reading list for clients.
The Vision Quest: A Guide's Training Manual
The Vision Quest: A Guide’s Training Manual is a rich compilation of teachings and tools for those wanting to become well-versed in the art of leading contemporary vision quests. Providing a sweeping view of the archetypal structure, mythological underpinnings, and historical context of the vision quest process, it contains a storehouse of teachings about medicine wheel traditions, physical plane concerns, and ritual, as well as down-to-earth explanations of multiple rites and how to enact and apply them to life today.
Anyone looking for insights, tools, and processes that can make his/her life more authentic and purposeful will find much that's useful. If you’re curious or already an experienced guide, this manual will provide you with new perspectives and possibilities relevant to traditional vision quests and those designed to meet the rapidly-changing world we live in today.
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Sparrow Hart has apprenticed himself to nature and the wilderness for almost 50 years. Inspired by Thoreau and Carlos Castaneda to search for something authentic and extraordinary, he’s explored the interaction of outer and inner landscapes in ways that challenge the paradigms of separation and disconnection underlying the stories we tell ourselves today. Informed by a wide variety of native and non-native medicine teachers, and one of the country’s most experienced vision quest guides, Sparrow has led programs through Circles of Air and Stone for three decades.
"Sparrow speaks for the wild and is a true shaman... a man of immense spirit, a singer with a wild and perceptive heart."
— Stephan Beyer, author of Singing to the Plants: A Guide to Mestizo Shamanism in the Upper Amazon
“Thanks for keeping the torch blazing...
You are one of the wisest teachers I have ever experienced. Life is more of a mystery since I got back, and the metaphor of staying within the circle of my purpose I find to be strangely haunting, beautiful, and calming. The quest was easily the best experience of my life. It opened my heart to be the person I am today.”
— Rebecca L., Sacramento, CA
