The Holy Wild with Victoria Loorz

Victoria Loorz
  • 5.0 (2)
  • SPIRITUALITY

Join author and founder of the Center for Wild Spirituality, Victoria Loorz, as she explores the possibilities of restoring beloved community and sacred conversation with All That Is: human and more-than-human.

  1. JAN 31

    Art & Technology As A Portal Into Kinship with Barnaby Steel

    In this conversation, Victoria Loorz is joined by Barnaby Steel, artist and co-founder of Marshmallow Laser Feast, an experiential art collective devoted to awakening the senses and expanding perception through multisensory exhibits. Together, they explore how art, science, and imagination engage the illusion of separation, and how even controversial technologies like AI might be held in ways that deepen relationship rather than fragment it. In a time when technology often distracts and numbs, the conversation asks a different question: what if our tools could help us remember how to sense, feel, and belong in relationship? Barnaby reflects on the roots of his creative life, shaped by deep observation, risk, and a willingness to let go. He shares stories about the collaborative experiences created when artists work with advanced technologies to translate scientific insight into lived experiences that extend our senses beyond their usual limits and inviting a felt experience of interconnection with breath, trees, sound, and the human body. Weaving themes of perception, ritual, grief, and awe, the episode considers immersive art as a modern rite of passage, not as an escape from the world, but as a return to it with softened defenses and renewed devotion to relationship. Connect with Barnaby: Website: marshmallowlaserfeast.comInstagram: @marshmallowlaserfeastLinkedIn: @marshmallowlaserfeastNewsletter Signup: mailchi.mp/marshmallowlaserfeast/newsletter-signupMentioned in the episode: Book: Existence, A Story by David HintonVideo: Richard Feynman's story of "What's the name of a bird?"White Mirror - The Sensory Wellness Agency Website: whitemirror.studioVideo: Samuel Barber - Adagio for StringsConnect with the Center: Website: wildspirituality.earthVictoria's Website: victorialoorz.comEmail: hello@wildspirituality.earthLinktree: linktr.ee/ctrforwildspiritualityInstagram: @center_for_wild_spiritualityTimestamps: 00:00 — Introduction06:57 — Interview Begins08:24 — The Land That Raised Barnaby11:17 — Existence Tissue15:19 — Marshmallow Laser Feast23:01 — Physical Reality Is Spiritual Reality32:51 — How Experience Shifts Us37:34 — Caring for Self Is Caring for All41:40 — Virtual Reality & Expanding Empathy45:56 — Changing Perception49:26 — Patterns of Consciousness53:19 — Falling in Love57:11 — A Wild Invitation58:58 — Credits

    1 hr

  2. JAN 17

    Animism, the Common Wild Tongue & Remembering Relationship with Rachel Fleming

    In this conversation, Victoria Loorz is joined by Rachel Fleming, climate scientist, former Environment Agency policy advisor, writer, educator, and part of the Animate Earth founding circle. Together they explore modern animism, the remembering of the “common wild tongue,” and what it means to rebuild intimacy with a living, intelligent world. Rachel shares her journey bridging climate science, holistic ecology, and spiritual practice, reflecting on the limits of purely technical or policy-based responses to ecological collapse. Through stories of place, trees, and faithful return, the conversation traces the long human exile from belonging and the quiet emergence of a different way of being human rooted in listening, love, and relationship. Weaving themes of grief, beauty, ancestral memory, and hope, this episode invites listeners to remember that transformation rarely begins with grand solutions, but with simple, devoted acts of attention that restore our capacity to speak with and listen to the living world. Connect with Rachel: Website: animate-earth.orgSubstack: The Common Wild TongueMentioned in the episode: Stephan Harding pioneering Holistic ScienceColin Campbell: colincampbell.co.zaMonica Gagliano: monicagagliano.comAnna Breytenbach: animalspirit.orgOxford Real Farming Conference: orfc.org.ukNathanial Hughs & The School of Intuitive Herbalism: schoolofintuitiveherbalism.weedsintheheart.org.ukPatrick MacManaway-The Land Whisperer: patrickmacmanaway.comDr. Lyla June Johnson: lylajune.comConnect with the Center: Website: wildspirituality.earthVictoria's Website: victorialoorz.comEmail: hello@wildspirituality.earthLinktree: linktr.ee/ctrforwildspiritualityInstagram: @center_for_wild_spiritualityTimestamps: 07:26 – Interview begins with invocation10:18 – The mountain that raised Rachel14:37 – How Rachel comes to this work through science19:57 – Holistic science21:33 – Animate Earth25:59 – The common wild tongue31:10 – Bridging “woo”35:09 – It is actually simple38:20 – Evolution is a spiral42:49 – The importance of subtle work44:48 – Needed medicine47:19 – Interconnection goes so deep48:42 – The heart field51:55 – Neighbor ash tree55:38 – Rachel’s work57:54 – Invitation to advocacy59:53 – Credits

    1h 1m

  3. JAN 3

    Refugia Faith, Creating Sanctuary & Finding Home with Debra Rienstra

    In this conversation, Debra Rienstra, PhD, author of Refugia Faith and professor of English at Calvin University, joins Victoria Loorz to explore refugia, a biological term for small pockets of life that survive widespread environmental stress and become sources of regeneration after collapse. Debra invites us to imagine these protected pockets are also in our communities as forms of sanctuary amid increasingly uninhabitable social, spiritual, and ecological conditions. Together, they reflect on how small gatherings rooted in love for the land can counter paralysis in the face of global crisis and rewild our sense of vocation and voice. They explore the spiritual risk of loving places we may not own or keep, while naming how restoration begins through intimate, connected acts of care that allow life to persist and return. Connect with Debra: Website: debrarienstra.comBook: Refugia Faith: Seeking Hidden Shelters, Ordinary Wonders, and the Healing of the EarthNewsletter: refugianewsletter.substack.comUpcoming Book: Refugia Church (January 2027)Mentioned in the episode: Book: Great Tide Rising: Towards Clarity and Moral Courage in a time of Planetary Change by Kathleen Dean MooreOrganization: blackchurchfoodsecurity.netBook: Here Comes the Sun: A Last Chance for the Climate and a Fresh Chance for Civilization by Bill McKibbenEncyclical Letter Laudato Si' of the Holy Father Francis on Care For Our Common HomeEncyclical Letter Fratelli Tutti of the Holy Father Francis on Fraternity and Social FriendshipConnect with the Center: Website: wildspirituality.earthVictoria's Website: victorialoorz.comEmail: hello@wildspirituality.earthLinktree: linktr.ee/ctrforwildspiritualityInstagram: @center_for_wild_spiritualityTimestamps: 00:00 — Introduction03:48 — Refugia08:58 — Finding My Small Work11:44 — Deciding the Work Based on Context14:33 — Examples of Human Refugia20:21 — From Passivity to Citizenship24:21 — Loving Places That Are Only Yours for a Time29:36 — Choosing to Belong31:59 — Grieving Reality Together34:18 — Mitigation and Adaptation40:02 — A Kalo Farmer in Relationship With the Land43:04 — The Book of Nature & Pantheism Paranoia46:30 — The Wild Edge50:03 — Wild Invitation53:24 — Credits

    54 min

  4. 2025-12-20

    Earth, Soul & Learning Reciprocity from Trees with Leah Rampy

    In this conversation, author of Earth and Soul: Reconnecting Amid Climate Chaos, speaker, retreat leader and longtime spiritual formation guide Leah Rampy joins Victoria Loorz to explore spirituality as a lived relationship to the natural world—where trees are kin, not symbols, and reciprocity replaces extraction. Leah reflects on her journey from corporate life into a decolonizing spirituality & leadership rooted in ecological belonging, sharing stories of black walnut trees, Wild Church as a practice of community and communion, and the slow unlayering of protective armor. Together, they reflect on how awe and grief must be held together, how the deepest forms of communion exceed language, and how remembering ourselves as part of a living, interwoven world can restore wholeness in a time of collective unraveling. Connect with Leah: Website: leahmoranrampy.comBook: Earth and SoulBook: Discovering the Spiritual Wisdom of TreesMentioned in the episode: Shalem InstituteConnect with the Center: Website: wildspirituality.earthVictoria's Website: victorialoorz.comEmail: hello@wildspirituality.earthLinktree: linktr.ee/ctrforwildspiritualityInstagram: @center_for_wild_spiritualityTimestamps: 00:00 — Introduction02:57 — Interview begins04:36 — Leah’s background07:30 — A calling to educate11:38 — The power of storytelling13:20 — The black walnut tree17:05 — Decolonizing the soul20:33 — Communication in community23:26 — Seeking to know how we cause harm27:05 — Bearing witness28:39 — Church of the Wild: Two Rivers33:59 — Love beyond words35:08 — Communion37:26 — Trees as ancient teachers of life41:34 — Giving and receiving46:33 — A wandering invitation48:38 — Credits

    50 min

  5. 2025-12-06

    Grief, Kinship, and the Animals Who Guide Us with Professional Animal Communicators

    In this conversation, Certified Soul Level Animal Communicators and grief-intuitive coaches from The Animal Communication Collective (ACC)—Julie Hirt, Karen Dendy Smith, and Meredith Tollison—offer a vivid picture of animal communication as a soul-to-soul exchange that restores trust, deepens wholeness, and opens doorways to healing and transformation. They demystify why losing an animal often breaks us open more than losing a human, explore how animals help surface grief we have long buried, and share stories from clients who continue receiving guidance through images, humor, sensations, and inner knowing even after their animals have crossed the veil. The trio also reflect on how each of them slowly found their way back to the sacred after religious trauma, supported by magnolia trees, ocean wind, and the quiet companionship of the animals who stayed close to them. You can hear more from Julie, Karen, and Meredith on their own podcast, The Animal Communication podcast.  Connect with The Animal Communicators: Website: animalcommunicationcollective.comPodcast: theanimalcommunicationpodcast.comJulie: juliehirt-intuitive.comKaren: karendendysmith.comMeredith: meredithtollison.comMentioned in the episode: Book: All Creatures Great and Small by James HerriotBook: Opal- The Journal of an Understanding Heart by Opal WhiteleyFigure: Anna Breytenbach @ animalspirit.orgConnect with the Center: Website: wildspirituality.earthVictoria's Website: victorialoorz.comEmail: hello@wildspirituality.earthLinktree: linktr.ee/ctrforwildspiritualityInstagram: @center_for_wild_spiritualityTimestamps: 00:00 — Introduction05:32 — Interview begins06:23 — Introducing Julie06:51 — Introducing Karen07:45 — Introducing Meredith08:28 — Unconditional love & authenticity13:33 — Julie’s grief origins16:02 — Karen’s grief origins17:41 — Meredith’s grief origins19:21 — Grief unlocked by companion animals22:34 — The felt sense of animals in spirit26:27 — The claires / intuitive senses30:48 — Accessing the sacred31:38 — Julie’s spiritual upbringing34:29 — Karen’s spiritual upbringing36:13 — Meredith’s spiritual upbringing38:21 — Reconnecting words41:34 — Why grief feels different with animals43:37 — Loss rituals44:44 — The “placeness” of animals54:38 — The animal communication collective56:43 — Wild invitation58:09 — Credits

    59 min

  6. 2025-11-22

    Indigenous Wisdom For the Edges of Western Spirituality with Randy Woodley

    In this conversation with Victoria Loorz, Randy Woodley shares stories from his Cherokee lineage, his mother’s deep communion with plants and animals, and his decades of land based ministry at Eloheh Farm. Together they explore why many today stand on the "inside and outside edges" of the Christian story, the collapse of institutional religion, and how Creator often works through seasons of chaos. Woodley describes this era as a time of composting, where old systems break down so more relational and grounded ways of being can emerge. He invites listeners to let go of rigid categories and doctrines and return to what he calls our original human vocation: co-sustaining the community of creation through simple acts of love, reciprocity, and right relationship, where meals become communion, tending becomes prayer, and all beings are kin. Rev. Dr. Randy Woodley, Ph.D., is a farmer, activist scholar, speaker, teacher, and Indigenous wisdom keeper whose work spans spirituality, justice, culture, racial diversity, regenerative farming, and our relationship with the Earth.  Connect with Randy:  Book: Becoming Rooted: One Hundred Days of Reconnecting with Sacred EarthBook: How Western Christian Got It Wrong (Forthcoming)Substack: @rwoodley7Personal Website: randywoodley.comEloheh Website: eloheh.orgMentioned in the episode: Documentary: The Year The Earth ChangedConnect with the Center: Website: wildspirituality.earthVictoria's Website: victorialoorz.comEmail: hello@wildspirituality.earthLinktree: linktr.ee/ctrforwildspiritualityInstagram: @center_for_wild_spiritualityTimestamps: 00:00 – Introduction06:35 – Interview Starts08:14 – The Land Who Raised Randy10:08 – Academy Experience11:53 – Eloheh12:50 – Bridging Across the Edges15:09 – Widespread Abandonment of Institutionalized Western Religion19:05 – Replacing the Programs with Relationship23:56 – Co-Sustainers27:06 – Finding New Language31:15 – Becoming Rooted35:33 – Repairing the Separations37:57 – Seeds Are Our Treasure39:29 – The War on Indigenous Lands41:58 – Create Human Rights for the Earth43:40 – Sacred Clowns46:14 – Sacred Invitation

    50 min

  7. 2025-11-08

    Love, Truth and the Living World with Andreas Weber

    Biologist, biosemiotician, philosopher, and author of Matter and Desire: An Erotic Ecology, Andreas Weber, PhD, joins Victoria Loorz for a heartfelt conversation about reality as a sacred, living process of relationship - the continual desire to give life and what the heart knows as love. Together they explore how trauma causes us to forget our wholeness and how true healing is an act of remembering. Drawing on Sufi mysticism and the writings of Erich Fromm, Weber describes love as “the interest in the aliveness of the other” and names this time of global unraveling as a painful yet essential gift calling us to live in truth. Through stories of rivers, trees, & animals, he reveals how the more-than-human world restores trust, belonging, and courage. Blending science, mysticism, and deep ecology, you're invited you to sit with the living world, listen with an open heart, and remember that you are love, embodied and alive. Dr Andreas Weber is a biologist, philosopher, and poet and teaches ecophilosophy and ecological aesthetics at the Berlin University of the Arts. He holds degrees in marine biology and cultural studies, earned his PhD in philosophy in with a dissertation titled in English “Nature as Meaning: An Attempt at a Semiotic Theory of the Living” . Connect with Andreas:  Book: Matter and Desire: An Erotic Ecology by Andreas WeberConnect with the Center: Website: wildspirituality.earthVictoria's Website: victorialoorz.comEmail: hello@wildspirituality.earthLinktree: linktr.ee/ctrforwildspiritualityInstagram: @center_for_wild_spiritualityTimestamps: 0:00 — Introduction5:54 — Interview7:03 — Living Through Trauma and Pain10:38 — We Exist Only as Love13:32 — Dissolving at the Shore18:20 — Meeting Victoria’s More-Than-Human Neighbors19:58 — Defining the Sacred22:39 — Love Is the Interest in the Aliveness of the Other24:10 — Two Sides of Gifts27:37 — Our Era of Dying May Be a Gift31:37 — Religios Is Remembering It Has Always Been One35:43 — Resistance as Simply Truth39:27 — Truths About You and Your Heart47:56 — Wandering Invitation

    51 min

  8. 2025-10-27

    Healing Displacement & the Scottish Art of Holding Opposites with Alastair McIntosh

    In this episode of The Holy Wild, Scottish author and activist Alastair McIntosh explores the spiritual, historical, and ecological roots of our collective crisis of belonging. Grounded in the history of the Highland Clearances, he offers this chapter of Scotland’s past as a lens for understanding global patterns of displacement, from the enslavement of African peoples to the colonization of Indigenous lands and the refugees of our own time. He reveals how being unsettled from land fractures psyche and soul. Mcintosh invites a path toward compassion through the Scottish wisdom of Caledonian antisyzygy, the capacity to hold opposites. He weaves insights on complicity in capitalism, the moral paradoxes of renewable energy and wild land, and the call to reconcile inner and outer divisions. McIntosh calls for a re-membering of what has been dismembered- to rekindle community, restore reverence for the Earth, and awaken the soul of belonging in our time. Alastair McIntosh is a Scottish writer, academic, and activist raised on the Isle of Lewis whose work spans spirituality, community, land reform, and ecology. An honorary professor at the University of Glasgow and currently serving as director of the GalGael Trust, he has been instrumental in Scottish campaigns such as the Isle of Eigg community buy-out and the defense of the Isle of Harris against a proposed mega-quarry. His most recognized book, Soil and Soul: People versus Corporate Power, stands alongside his most beautiful work, Poacher’s Pilgrimage, a twelve-day walk through the wilds and villages of his home islands of Lewis and Harris. Connect with Alastair:  Website: alastairmcintosh.comBook: Soil and SoulBook: Riders On The StormBook: Poacher's PilgrimageBook: Rekindling CommunityMentioned in the episode: Book: The Unsettling of America by Wendell BerryScripture: Numbers 21:4-9Academic Journal: Theology In ScotlandConnect with the Center: Website: wildspirituality.earthVictoria's Website: victorialoorz.comEmail: hello@wildspirituality.earthLinktree: linktr.ee/ctrforwildspiritualityInstagram: @center_for_wild_spiritualityTimestamps: 00:00 Introduction07:59 Interview09:47 The Spirituality of Place10:26 The Land Who Raised Alastair12:59 Community Sense for Sharing14:31 Communitarian Identity17:38 The Unsettling22:27 Mary Anne MacLeod24:44 Antisyzygy29:15 Dissecting the Scottish Wind Farm Conversation33:52 Returning to Local Thinking35:20 The Promise of Being Placed37:47 Connection with Soul39:04 Practical Expression42:58 The Darkest Times Is When the Human Spirit Comes Alive44:59 A Privilege to Live in Difficult Times45:52 The Rubric of Regeneration47:25 Alastair’s Current Work50:35 The Bronze Snake53:02 Palestine and Scotland58:31 Wild Invitation60:42 Credits

    1h 2m
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5
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2 Ratings

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Join author and founder of the Center for Wild Spirituality, Victoria Loorz, as she explores the possibilities of restoring beloved community and sacred conversation with All That Is: human and more-than-human.

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