Circling San Francisco Bay: A Pilgrimage to Wild and Sacred Places

by Ginny Anderson

Book Overview

"Ginny Anderson is a sure-footed guide, not only to natural treasures in the Bay Area, but to the richness of our inner experience. Circling San Francisco Bay brings the outer and inner worlds together. It is a gift to the community of life and a valuable tool for deeper connection-a book that not only informs but also enchants."
-Lauren deBoer, executive editor, EarthLight magazine

"Shamanic naturalist Ginny Anderson takes...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0595391915
• ISBN13: 9780595391912
• Release Date: July 2006
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 1.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Beauty and the Cultivation of Devotion -- a Blueprint for our World

In this inspiring book, Ginny Anderson has created a blueprint for creating a program to appreciate the sacred and ecological dimensions of the wild and magical places in your region. The form of her devotion comes entirely from her deep and enduring love of the beauty of seven extraordinary sites in the San Francisco area. However, readers from any ecosystem on the planet will find inspiration and deeply wise guidance for the in-depth exploration of the wonder of their own area. Among other techniques, Anderson provides this stunning model by 1. delving into the flora and fauna of each region through sensory and kinesthetic exercises designed to awaken understanding of your interior experience of a place as well as its exterior landscape 2. using the geological aspects of place as support and springboard for creative expression 3. connecting with others who journey to form a community of place 4. engaging in reciprocity with the unique energy of a site 5. finding powerful ways to honor the elements of fire, water, air, and earth 6. praising the essence of a place by making offerings Upon reading this book, I dare you not to apply these practices to the places you love in your geographical area. Anderson's devotion is utterly contagious, intensely relevant, and immensely important in these times. Only by being grounded in our wild and sacred places can we obtain the grounding to stand up and be counted in the struggles to come in saving them for our descendents and the offspring of all sentient beings. I say "Bravo!"

An Overflowing Picnic Basket!

Circling San Francisco Bay: A Pilgrimage to Wild and Sacred Places is a wonderful book, full of love and appreciation for this planet that we share. Author Ginny Anderson has filled this book like a picnic basket, full to overflowing with all sorts of invitations to readers to join her in forging a closer and truly reciprocal relationship with the natural world. The invitations come in the form of suggested exercises and meditations, journal-entry style reflections from those who have journeyed with the author into the wild and sacred places mentioned in the book title, and evocative descriptions of exploratory adventures in these special spots around the Bay Area. The result is that the book offers a very accessible bridge for those of a more pragmatic mindset who may be interested in exploring the spiritual side of life, but aren't quite sure how to do it. Because the path Ms. Anderson illuminates is one that focuses on being fully present in the community in which we each live, it is a path that by definition each of us can follow. This is a very readable book, and one from which I know I will continue to extract precious insights during many repeat reads in the future.

Choosing Connection

Ginny Anderson's Circling San Francisco Bay gives a whole new meaning to the concept of "guidebook." Though the author acts as practical and capable guide through every chapter, she is wise enough to let Nature do the guiding on her own terms. Anderson demonstrates through prototypical journeys and destinations how Nature is in turn wise enough to let the reader guide herself through any territory being explored. Readers may ask, "If Nature will guide us, why do we need this book?" Without arguing the question of need, Circling San Francisco Bay offers itself as a resource embodying two of the essential skills and qualities of a guide: experience and connection. The author draws on a lifetime of experience ministering to both individuals and communities, as well as extensive experience interacting with the "personalities" of the Bay Area sites she includes as examples. She draws on this experience to establish sure and nourishing connections with the reader and to motivate and deepen the reader's ability to connect with Nature. What makes this book work is its easy mobility among the realms of the psyche or soul, the immediate natural environment, and the world at large. The book discusses important stops along the way in each of these territories and identifies interconnections among them, as well as bringing the focus "full circle" through meditations and exercises so that the reader is continually empowered at the most basic level: individual action. While Circling San Francisco Bay teaches us to guide ourselves, it promotes and preserves a sense of interdependence. Without arguing the question of need, it makes a compelling case for choosing connection, with ourselves, with each other, and with our surroundings.

A Guide to Deepening Our Relationship to This Earth, Our Home

What I like best about this book are the many suggestions for meditations, ideas for connecting, and ways of shifting attention and energy as we walk and explore the nature surrounding us. The writing is vivid (letting us see a particular place from the comfort of home), and the ideas and practices are very accessible. While the focus of the book is the mountains surrounding San Francisco Bay, the author's suggestions could be applied anywhere and everywhere. In this time of increasing disconnection from the natural world, this book offers inspired pathways for connecting and deepening our relationship to place. These pathways integrate experiences, stories, myths, natural history, and experiments we can try alone or in groups. Circling San Francisco Bay is far richer than hiking trail guides, more spiritual and inspirational than most travel guides, and broader in scope than almost any book offering practices to try out. Inspired by vision and honed with the experiences and feedback of many groups exploring the mountains with Ms. Anderson, it's a book you can enjoy and work with for many years.

We Live in Paradise

We Live in Paradise: A Review of Circling San Francisco Bay: A Pilgrimage to Wild and Sacred Places, Ginny Anderson, iUniverse, New York, 2006 by David B. Sutton The message of this wonderfully written book is "We live in paradise." Nature's gifts are all around us for our infinite pleasure and to teach us -- to remind us of our place in the miraculous unfolding of the universe. It is in the wild and sacred places surrounding us that we can learn the most according to this gifted teacher of many earth traditions. The focus of the book is the San Francisco Bay Area where the author currently lives, but these insights apply to where ever one might live. Our own paradise only awaits our recognition which can be given to us by learning from the Nature around us. We only need to listen -- listen to our inner stirrings as they respond to a myriad of Nature's voices. While this book is a celebration of a particular piece of planet called, San Francisco Bay (a magnificent piece at that), the exercises provided would open the doors of communication anywhere. Indeed, to me, this is a major value of the book. It is a virtual goldmine of consciousness elevating, "enlightenment" exercises, practices, ritual and ceremony. You are asked to identify your breath with the rhythmic pulse of the Earth, to invite the fragrance of wide coastal sage to clear your mind of thoughts and to become fully present in the moment, to communicate with the ancient cypress trees, to learn to shed what you have outgrown and want to let go from the eucalyptus, to seek peace (personal and planetary) in the stars. You are taught to recognize many of Nature's portals and given the means to learn from, honor and celebrate the web of life that sustains us. Anderson weaves a wonderfully rich tapestry of transformation and regeneration through the loom of a number of earth traditions (i.e. Andean Shamanism, Geomancy, Celtic Druid, Native American, Norse, and Indian Traditions) exposing connections between the elements of nature and the pilgrim's own consciousness. This book speaks, in more ways than I can list here, to the value of ritual in our everyday lives. It is a delightful excursion into the bigger meaning of small things, the illuminating insights of dark times and the utter joy of fully experiencing the moment. I was profoundly reminded of the importance of ritual to a meaningful life in the high Andes of Peru. I was with my brothers, the Q'ero who, through daily ritual, honor their connections to nature with daily greetings to the sun, offerings to Mother Earth, the mountains, sky and stars. As Pachamama's children, they playfully and lovingly acknowledge their intimate connection with the natural world. All of my book learning was mere verification of what these very wise 'illiterate" brothers and sisters already knew. It was then that I realized that I needed to re-enchant my life with the meaning that this mystical child-like playfulness brings. This pre