Dirt Church - Charity Muse

“We need authentic stories like Dirt Church that open up space to re-imagine and re-wild the way things are. You’ll be glad you opened this beautiful book.”

Valerie Luna Serrels, Co-founder/Mycelial Weaver, Wild Church Network

In a time when we live, work, and worship in carefully constructed spaces, a call to move outside can be heard—both to the natural world and beyond the walls of our own making. In answering the call to rewild spirit, Charity Muse found a wilder and wider Divine than her experience in Western Christianity allowed. Dirt Church weaves together Muse’s experiences as a queer woman, mystical encounters with the natural world, and reflections on the ways we’ve been tamed and how we can rewild our spirits. With eco-spiritual practices for individuals and communities, this book is also an invitation to embody this work of rewilding.

Whether you have experienced spiritual trauma, have deconstructed, or long for something more, this book offers a path for you to step outside and grow your love for the wild of the world and within.

Get it Here!: https://books2read.com/u/4AZXgq

What people are saying…

Reading Dirt Church is like being in conversation with a close friend who makes you feel both seen and enlivened. Muse sprinkles her experiences and observations with keen insights that make you stop in your tracks. It is hard to tell whether the resulting epiphanies are a deep remembering or answers to unspoken questions. This book is an invitation to find belonging and community in the world around us, and is an antidote to the technology that is vying for our attention. I urge you to go outside and take this book with you!

Beth Remmes, Environmental Activist, Facilitator for the Work That Reconnects

Dirt Church is down to earth and authentic, offering a sense of deeper spirituality and connectedness to creation. The author’s experiences with the wild and the invitations at the end of each chapter allow the reader to engage more fully with nature.
Debra Dickerson, Founder of “Bamboo Encounter”, an outdoor worship experience that is part of the Wild Church Network

Dirt Church Music

Listen below to the songs included in the “Dirt Church Hymns” Section. These recordings are simple and intentionally imperfect for teaching the songs to you and/or your group. Please feel free to use them in outdoor spaces and in small groups and community singing. In the spirit of the gift economy (see The Serviceberry by Robin Wall Kimmerer), I have made these songs available with unlimited streaming for you. Contact me for permission and performance rights (Published through Mother Folky Music, ASCAP). These songs will be included with a fuller album release I am currently planning. Donations through Bandcamp for listening to these songs and paying to download them help me get more music recorded, more songs written, and more singing available. Thank you!

<a href="https://charitymuse.bandcamp.com/album/dirt-church-hymns">Dirt Church Hymns by Charity Muse</a>

Dirt Church Resources

These resources will continue to be updated as I find more and am introduced to more. This is a “living” resource list, and I love recommendations if you have one you love!

Your local library is a fantastic resource for field guides, local history, and local watershed ecology.

Suggested Books:

Sacred Earth, Sacred Soul by John Phillip Newell

Church of the Wild by Victoria Loorz

Field Guide to Church of the Wild by Victoria Loorz and Valeria Luna Serrels

Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer

The Serviceberry by Robin Wall Kimmerer

To Bless the Space Between Us by John O Donahue

New and Selected Poems by Mary Oliver

Sage Warrior by Valarie Kaur

Websites/Advocacy/Community:

Dark Sky International https://darksky.org