Description
“Being fully present to fear, to gratitude, to all that is—this is the practice of mutual belonging.
As living members of the living body of Earth, we are grounded in that kind of belonging.
We will find more ways to remember, celebrate, and affirm this deep knowing:
we belong to each other, we belong to Earth.”
—Joanna Macy
We have been taught to belong to systems that are antogonistic to Life. Yet there are kinds of belonging that cannot be granted by nation, corporate branding, inherited roles, or identities.
It is not something you earn. It is something you re-member and practice.
We are not here to float like debris—
we are here to remember who we are…
Belonging to breath and body. To watershed and weather. To grief and praise. To chosen communities and ancestral lineages. To a purpose and a pace not dictated by systems. To the great unraveling, reweaving world.
At a threshold time when so much is breaking open—ecologically, socially, mythologically—many of us are feeling the call:
to compost inherited scripts, to reroot, to listen differently,
and to participate more fully in the animate web of life.
Deep Belonging in the Great Composting is a circle for those who feel that call. A space to slow down, step out of misbelongings, to re-attune, and to begin (or deepen) the practice of belonging to pace, place, purpose, and the wider web of life.
The question is not only: How do I belong?
but:
What am no longer willing to belong to?
And what deeper belongings are asking to claim me?
ON THIS JOURNEY YOU ARE INVITED TO:
- Deepen your ecospirituality by tending a life rooted in Earth, body, and meaning
- Cultivate belonging to place, pace, purpose, and people
- Begin or deepen your uncolonial pilgrimage—gently interrogating the inherited ir habitual ways you belong
- Re-align with your wild purpose and inhabit your unique gifts as an ecological niche
- Become a conscious composter of the old stories and a participant in emergent ways of being
- Explore your inner wilderness and expand your toybox of exploration.
- Enter (optionally) a solo day on-the-land ceremony as a threshold practice (see below)
Our Journey:
Week 1: Naming the Moment & Ways of Belonging
Theme: Breaking the Spell of Inherited Belonging
Week 2: Belonging to Pace & Place
Theme: Slowing into the Wisdoms of Land and Body
Week 3: Belonging to Our Wholeness: Pleasure & Play
Theme: Re-opening the channels of aliveness
Week 4: Belonging to Our Wholeness: Sacred Grief
Theme: Staying with what is real – and letting it move
Week 5: Belonging to People
Theme: Belonging within the human web
Week 6: Belonging to Wild Purpose & Possibility
Theme: Gathering what is emerging
OPTIONAL – Week 7: Integration and Story Council
Theme: Speaking the Story that Wants to Be Lived
Our journey is guided by 7 Ps of Deep Belonging:
Pace • Place • People • Purpose • Play/Pleasure • Pain • Possibility
Along the way, we’ll move through:
- Living the cycles and honoring the season you are in
- Belonging to place beyond abstraction—watershed, soil, kin
- Cultivating ecosensuality and the body as a portal
- Deepening ecospirituality and sacred listening
- Meeting grief and rage as intelligent responses, not problems to fix
- Meeting pleasure and play as pathways into aliveness
- Listening for and inhabiting wild purpose not as career, but as ecological function
- Working with trickster disruptions of dominant logics in the Great Composting
My body is in an open relationship
with sun and grass,
the wind, the mud…
EACH SESSION IS A WEAVE OF:
- grounding into body and senses
- opening “all our ears” to inner and outer worlds
- shared reflection in circle
- poetic and ecological inquiry
- creative integration
- simple, embodied practices to carry into daily life
Between gatherings, you’ll receive invitations to continue attunement—with your body, your neighborhood, your watershed, your intuition, your relationships.
The old way of holding things
sank into the sea…
WHAT’S INCLUDED:
- Six 2-hour live Zoom gatherings (small group, max 10)
- Sense-based, soul-expanding practices that reawaken your connection to inner and outer wild nature—inviting you to drop into the body, deepen your sensory intelligence, build embodied capacity, and reclaim the fuller contours of your wholeness and wild purpose..
- 1:1 consultation(s) to support integration and (optional) ceremony
- A private Signal group space for connection between sessions
- Practices and prompts for deepening your uncolonial and ecological journey
- Paperback earth poetry book (one of the collections – your choice)
- Additional resources in ecopsychology, decolonial thought, and earth-based practice
- A discount on future Wild Nature Heart offerings
A NOTE ON THE CEREMONY:
A powerful optional element of this experience is having the opportunity to do a supported solo overnight or extended day on-the-land Renewal Ceremony through the framework of wilderness rite-of-passage. Not as performance or achievement, but as a quiet threshold: a space to listen without distraction, to mark a transition, claim a power, or to deepen your relationship with the living world. Guidance and preparation, support with refining intention and self-generated ritual, and story catching/mirroring, will be offered through additional consultations. Those who participate in this will meet for an additional Story Council and Integration Gathering on August 7 (or a time that works best for all).
If you choose this as part of the class, click “Renewal Ceremony” at checkout and choose the last pricing option.
We are always being born.
PRACTICAL DETAILS:
Dates: 6 Fridays, August 7 – September 11
(with optional Renewal Ceremony Story & Integration Council – September 18)
Time: 9:00am-11:00am Pacific Time | 12:00pm-2:00pm EST | 5:00pm-7:00pm GMT
Where: Online (Zoom) + your local landscapes
*Maximum 10 participants to ensure an intimate experience.
EXCHANGE:
Recommended: $229
Sliding scale: $199–$269
Register here on this page
Or you can also send payment via:
PayPal.me/WildNatureHeart
VENMO: RyanVanLenning
(note: “DeepBelonging” + your email)
Compost in Company
If you feel the call, come with a compost-mate (or small pod).
Register together and you’ll each receive $25 off.
Because the future grows in shared soil.
(enter “buddies” in coupon field at checkout)
CLOSING INVITATION:
This is for those who feel the friction
between how we are told to live (or how we’ve settled to live) and what Life itself is asking.
If something in you is already responding in recognition—
a quiet yes, a curiosity, a tug—that may be the beginning.
Join us.
We are the monarch who finds a way.
About the Facilitator
My name is Ryan Van Lenning, Founder of Wild Nature Heart, and I am an earth-lover with a deep desire to be of service in the work of re-connection, re-membering, and re-inhabiting the animate web of life.
My life changed when I really started listening and apprenticing to Water and the seasons. I started Wild Nature Heart to support people at a crossroads to re-connect with the wisdom of both inner and outer wild nature, to live their soul callings into the world, and to assist in the work of repairing broken belonging. If I had to summarize our work for this time: Compost Empire and re-surface all it has paved over. I believe each of us has unique gifts that the world needs as we birth new imaginations and ways of being beyond Empire, and I love hearing and mirroring people’s stories as they deepen into their purpose and next aligned steps.
I am a threshold guide and barbarian poet of the Great Turning (author of several collections of poetry, including Re-Membering, From Inside These Wild Ones, One Bright and Real Caress, An Ambitious Silence, Trust the Ceremony, F*ck the Ceremony, and Trust the Ceremony, Then Yeses Come Bubbling, Within the Cave Something Pulses, Moon Has a Long Memory, Kiss Me A Huckleberry, and High-Cooing Through the Seasons: Haiku From the Forest). Two new collections, Becoming Beautiful Barbarians and We Go to the Sea to Scream, will be out in fall 2026. A compost pile disguised as a book and field guide to outgrowing Empire in our bodies and imaginations, Composting the Spell of Empire: 40 Trickster Invitations for the Great Unraveling, will be released in early 2027.
I am trained as a rite-of-passage/wilderness ceremony guide through the School of Lost Borders, certified as an Ecotherapist through The Earthbody Institute, where I teach the Level 1-3 ecotherapy courses, and am a Certified Wilderness First Responder through Foster Calm. Prior to moving to California 18 years ago, I taught Comparative Religion, Philosophy, and Environmental Ethics at Sinclair College in Ohio.
I live among the forest and rivers in northern California, ancestral Wiyot and Yurok land. My current apprenticeship is to fire, seeds, composting, and emergence and I like cinnamon ice cream, fantastic fungi, and river ottering.
Recent Appreciations:
“Thank you so much Ryan for a wonderful two months together! Your course provided so much new excitement and inspiration for me. It was really eye opening and truly deepened my sense of ecological connection. Thank you for guiding us through this beautiful course.” —Nicola Gailits, Deep Belonging (Winter 2025)
“I have worked with Ryan in different courses and contexts, both virtually and in person on the land. I find him to be a skilled guide, gentle but powerful, who creates invitations to experiences that provide safety to swim in liminal spaces where deep work blossoms into growth, all in the absence of ego. Not only is Ryan very knowledgeable but he listens deeply and provides mirroring that leaves you feeling seen and honored. The spaces he creates encourage productive struggle and growth with a healthy dose of play.” —Kim Bielmann, Deep Belonging (Winter 2025)
“Ryan’s facilitation was superb. I felt his presence like a steadfast oak, and his ability to hold and meet everything that was brought to class was refreshing. He held the space with a lot of grace and created time for us to meet the grief & pain that lives beneath all that paves over it. It was more than just being given information – he invited us into embodied states of being with the wisdom, and created a structure which offered us to meander like streams through different ideas and concepts together.” —Participant, Level 1 Ecotherapy, Spring 2025
“Thank you for your dedication to this work and for modeling new/old ways of being in leadership and community! I gained a sense of companionship on the journey of exploring some of life and death’s biggest questions. The community formed in the group gave me a glimpse into how we can come together to unlearn, deconstruct, remember, and create more natural and balanced ways of being and relating. One of my biggest take-aways is understanding belonging as something inherent rather than “found” or “earned”. Being witnessed and witnessing others after our solo time on the land was very powerful and deeply meaningful to me on my/our journey.”—Leslie Hammer, Deep Belonging in the Great Turning (Fall 2022)
“This course turned out to be a transformative journey that nurtured intimate bonds with fellow humans while fostering a profound connection to the earth, instilling a deep sense of belonging. Through the exploration of the perils of industrial…it gently re-awakened and inspired me to courageously offer my own unique gifts in resisting systemic oppressions and championing the Great Turning.” – Participant, Level 1 Ecotherapy Course, The Earthbody Institute (Fall 2023)
“Ryan created a welcoming environment that fostered a culture of connection, curiosity, and creativity. I so appreciated the passion that Ryan offered in his facilitation; he models to us the possibility of bravely taking steps to live our callings!” – Gemma A., Participant in Threshold: Earth Intimacies (Spring 2024)
“Ryan is absolutely fabulous! He is engaging and culturally sensitive. Ryan is truly gifted. I am grateful to have had him as an instructor for this course.” — Participant, Level 1 Ecotherapy (Spring 2025)
“Ryan is an amazing human being and teacher. This course will nurture your soul, challenge you, and open up new ways of seeing yourself and our wonderous planet. I will definitely be signing up for another Wild Nature Heart experience!” —Rob Daroff, MD, Deep Belonging in the Great Turning (Fall 2022)
“I loved this course! This is the second course I’ve taken with Ryan and both times I felt affirmed and supported as he led us on a journey delving into themes of belonging, being, grieving, healing, and growing. Ryan encouraged us to engage with the more-than-human-world on an intimate level of discovery and connection thus cultivating a more earth-centered life. I highly recommend this course to anyone seeking a deeper connection with self and with the natural world.” —Cecelia Futch, Deep Belonging in the Great Turning (Fall 2022)
“Ryan was FANTASTIC. He was knowledgeable and most importantly, a great listener and guide. I greatly admired his mirroring skills, which have clearly been learned from Mother Nature herself. I have learned so much from Ryan and look forward to incorporating his techniques into my practice as well.” — Participant in Spring 2021 Earthbody Institute Ecotherapy Certificate Course
“I find myself repeatedly touched by the depth of your caring for Earth and all her beings and by your dedication to practice and evolving new pathways of relationship and culture. I am moved by the presence that you bring to deep listening and your willingness to explore different perspectives. Your ability to express through poetry and action what’s in your heart and your desire for healthy relationship among all beings is a source of inspiration for me.” —Marianne B. Rowe, MS, LMFT, Summer 2022 Level 3 Ecotherapy Training, Earthbody Institute
“Ryan’s well-designed course on Deep Belonging for the Great Turning was just what I needed at a stressful time in life. The facilitation, knowledge and materials shared were generous and truly a gift to enhance my nature connection and learn about myself. This course also provided support for a solo experience which was rich and rewarding. I appreciated being in a group and connecting with other like-minded people.” — Lezlie Scaliatine, Psy.D, California, Deep Belonging for the Great Turning Course Participant
“Ryan is a very thoughtful and sensitive instructor. His background in teaching and poetry, along with his ability to effectively “mirror” our stories about our journeys make him an excellent facilitator. Ryan helped us to organize our thoughts and feelings in this politically and environmentally challenging time, gave us hope, and guided us towards developing a personal plan for coping with the future of our planet.”
— Nan S., California, Deep Belonging for the Great Turning Course Participant
“Thank you again Ryan for your mentorship prior to this quest of mine. You empowered me to trust in myself, in the wild, and in the ceremony and it seemed so fitting to receive these gifts of yours just prior to a decent. I love and am sincerely grateful for your poem. It certainly helped give me courage to unflinchingly make those leaps over trees and off every known cliff and will continue to do so. I feel super motivated to continue on this path of mine and stay open to all the wild mysteries that present themselves within myself and within this more-than human world of ours. And to taking the next steps in unfurling my own gifts and presenting them to the world.”— Brady W., Wisconsin, 1-on-1 Ecotherapy Client and Course Participant
“This course is a deep-dive across 6 weeks. Ryan’s skill and generosity of spirit has guided me through a variety of themes and practices that have been both thought-provoking and empowering. I’ve valued this time immensely, and the abundant materials provided will keep me moving through this journey for a long time to come. I’ve developed a richer relationship with my Urban Wild environment in very unexpected ways, and for that I am so very grateful.” —Claire (United Kingdom)
