Tamed by a Bear ─ Coming Home to Nature-Spirit-Self

In an age of materialism, language of spirit or spirits seems at best suspect and at worst alien or naïve. When Priscilla Stuckey begins hearing Bear’s voice, she is a writer and religious studies professor in her fifties. Though she enjoys communing with trees and birds and the land, she intellectually knows better than to try talking directly with spirit. Yet searching for the truth of her own identity leads her directly toward what she is most skeptical of. As Priscilla opens to her spirit animal helper and his affectionate, jovial wisdom, she begins to realize the slow dawning of faith. Tamed by a Bear shows one person responding to the call of her heart, which is also the call of Earth to all human beings today: to listen to a more-than-human wisdom so people can address the social and environmental crises facing the world.

At this moment when the future of life on Earth as we know it hangs in the balance?threatened by climate change, species extinctions, and extreme economic inequality?the key to survival is found in answering one question: How can humans live more peaceably and sustainably with the rest of nature? The heart-opening conversations between Bear and Priscilla suggest a reinvigorating of nature-spirituality in everyday life. Their dialogues show an educated, thoughtful person grappling with her skepticism about Earth spirits and gradually saying yes to a call from beyond her intellectual understanding. Over the course of a year, she wrestles with her own resistance, she develops her ability to listen accurately, and she learns to trust her own perception more deeply.

In simple, down-to-earth language that eschews the jargon often permeating?and indeed insulating?New Age writing, Priscilla shows how a spiritual path of relationship with Earth can unfold for those who are willing to listen. Readers who might identify as ?spiritual, not religious,” who wish to connect more deeply with nature, or who may be discontent with the mechanistic view of nature but have not yet found an intellectually trustworthy way to pursue nature spirituality may find a deep resonance within Tamed by a Bear.

Priscilla Stuckey is a writer and spiritual counselor with a passion for reconnecting people with nature, including their own natures. Her first book, Kissed by a Fox: And Other Stories of Friendship in Nature, won the 2013 WILLA Award in Creative Nonfiction. Priscilla received a PhD from the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, CA, in religious studies and feminist theory. She has taught humanities and writing in the graduate programs of Prescott College, and Naropa University. A longtime book editor and writing coach, Stuckey has worked with major publishing houses and writers in North America and abroad. In Oakland she founded an urban creek–based land trust and led creek cleanups and restoration projects. In Boulder she cofounded a local rights-of-nature group. She lives at the base of Sandia Mountain near Albuquerque with her partner, Tim, and their dog, Bodhi.