Restoring Spirit To The Body & The Earth

In this illuminating conversation, eco-fiction author Monica McDowell subverts archaic notions of the profound and the profane. Her award-winning novel, Girl With a Gift, is a riveting ecofeminist saga that weaves connections between women and spirituality in a moment of cultural and climate crisis. Whereas traditional patriarchal theology tends to honor the spirit and debase the body as “dirty,” Monica’s work restores the sacred, divine feminine power to the corporeal and the earth in a modern way.

Gain insight into the ecological drive behind her liberation theology: how the honoring of women is the honoring of the earth. Learn about a curious creative process that involves lucid dreaming, meditation, breathwork, and “turtle steps.”

Transcript

Hello everyone,

Today's guest is eco-fiction author Monica McDowell.

She subverts archaic notions of the profound and the profane.

Her award-winning novel,

A Girl with a Gift,

Is a riveting eco-feminist saga that weaves connections between women and spirituality in a moment of cultural and climate crisis.

Whereas traditional patriarchal theology tends to honor the spirit and debase the body as dirty,

Monica's work restores this sacred divine feminine power to the corporeal and the earth.

In this episode,

Gain insight into the ecological drive behind her liberation theology,

Which is all about how the honoring of women is the honoring of the earth.

Dive into Monica's role as a whistleblower on sexual misconduct in her own church and how that fueled her commitment to truth-telling as forms of dignity,

Healing,

And courage.

She shares her curious creative process that involves lucid dreaming,

Meditation,

Breathwork,

And turtle steps.

See how a timely coming-of-age story can help us realize the everyday magic within ourselves to help heal the planet.

Hello,

Monica.

Sister,

Thank you so much for joining me today.

I went ahead and ordered your book and I've started reading it.

And so,

So no spoilers,

But your novel,

A Girl with a Gift,

A novel,

Is capturing my attention because I love your point of view.

This point of view that the protagonist is the observer,

Because I find myself so many times needing to be an observer of my own life.

And not that that is what the main character is doing in this book,

But I just love the perspective.

So tell us a little bit more about your book and what was your intention as you were writing this eco-fiction novel?

My intention was to honor eco-fiction,

But to honor eco-feminism more than that,

And to have female characters,

Almost exclusively female characters,

And to honor the sacred feminine and honor the earth and write a book that I would want to read,

That I hadn't read.

I hadn't something unique that I have never,

Never experienced in reading.

So I wrote the book that I wanted to read that I hadn't read.

And I wanted something that,

Yeah,

Honored the theology that I learned in seminary,

Which was very feminist based,

Very liberation theology.

So something that really honored the connection of women,

The connection with the earth,

Connection with just spirituality in a way that was also modern with issues of the earth and alternative types of worldviews,

Paradigms.

Yes,

Because in so much theology,

From what I understand and what I've studied,

Women were just written out,

Just completely erased and or they were written into the context of being evil.

Yes,

Yes.

And the women who are like in traditional scriptures in the West are often nameless.

And some of the,

Like one of the passages,

There's translation bias too.

So some of the translation that's happening is biased against women or against feminine language.

One translation I did of the Genesis story of creation,

The verb is the spirit,

The traditional translation is the spirit hovered over the waters,

Right in this.

But when I went and looked at it myself in general Hebrew that I could have access to,

The word was brooded.

It was a feminine,

Like a hen brooding over her nest,

A feminine noun or feminine verb and always used that way,

But it got translated as a much more neutral hovered rather than brooded that very feminine hen mother image.

So you know,

You see it even as you're doing your own translation,

It's like,

Oh,

You know,

I wouldn't have translated it that way.

Right.

Because it was that patriarchal viewpoint that they were using in that cultural time.

I'd imagine.

Wow.

Yeah.

Your book,

You're tackling some big issues in your book.

You know,

You're right away.

I don't think it's a spoiler alert to say that the girl with the gift is hearing clairaudiently from mother Mary.

And I want to talk about that theology versus ecology a little bit later.

But like right off the bat,

You were talking about your theology background and you bring up right away that some of the characters are hurt because of the abuse that was happening in the church,

Particularly with priests molesting boys.

Yes.

Yes.

Well,

I have my own interaction with the church that is a patriarchal abuse.

Yeah.

So I wanted to honor that.

And actually in my own what I call my saga,

Where I was a whistleblower for,

Well,

There was sexual abuse happening,

Sexual misconduct by minister in a church where I was working.

When my case,

It went to civil court,

It went out and it was national,

It was in the news over three years.

And those were the years that the Catholic church abuse cases came out into the national attention,

The same exact time period.

So for me,

It's a little bit linked to this feminism and this,

You know,

Telling the truth about what really has been happening for centuries,

If not millennia.

Telling the truth.

Can we get a hallelujah?

I just want to just take space for that and just say,

Thank you for talking about that because it's really hard issues.

And we have seen throughout scientific data that when survivors of sexual abuse,

They just shut down.

Their body goes numb and they can't talk about it.

They can't even express what's happening.

They can't obviously fight back because they're numb.

So just thank you.

Thank you.

And thank you for bringing it up in the book too.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It's important.

I think truth is healing.

And so the more that we can speak about it gives courage,

Gives the openings and gives the spirit of courage for others to speak their truth when it's the right time.

Absolutely.

Absolutely.

And particularly,

Yeah,

When both men and women and young children are reading your book.

That's what I found so great that you were giving such a huge safe space for adolescents to know that this,

This,

You can talk about things and things are going to be okay.

And things are going to be a little,

A little uncomfortable for a minute,

But just keep going at it.

And particularly with things that are being seen as gifts as we go back to the book and she's hearing clairaudiently from mother Mary.

So let's talk about that theology versus ecology,

Like,

Because the beginning of your chapters,

You have opening lines for data on climate change.

So where,

How do you talk about the ecology versus theology?

I have a theology that is very ecologically focused and that is that the sacred,

Divine,

Whatever word uses infused in all of us and in the earth,

There's one in the same.

So I think it transcends,

But it's also imminent.

It's also present,

Always present,

Always within bodies.

And that's the patriarch,

Patriarchal theology tends to take,

Separate,

Only spirit is sacred bodies,

Bodies are dirty,

Bodies are bad.

You know,

Earth is dirt,

You know,

It's,

It's what is,

What is profane.

And so by making it sacred,

By re-infusing it again,

With everything is full of divinity,

Everything is full of the sacred.

We bring it back into balance and bring it back into oneness.

So for me,

The honoring of women is the honoring of the earth,

Is the honoring of this sacred feminine,

Bring,

Trying to bring that back into balance by emphasizing that crucial relationship we all have with mother earth.

So we,

We depend on mother earth for everything.

We just are a little detached from that reality in our Western society where we have all these,

All this technology that we think that's what we're relying on,

But it all comes from mother earth.

It all comes from mother earth.

Yes.

And our connection with it.

So how do you,

How do you blend that with the characters with your book?

So I,

Because of the story where mother Mary is the focus of their religion because of the mother's own journey away from traditional religion,

Mother Mary and the earth are really almost synonymous.

I just got a message from somebody,

Another minister actually,

Who read my book,

Just finished it and said,

You know,

I could,

You could,

You could switch the two mother Mary and earth.

And he said either worked.

And that was really my intent was the earth as the body of the mother of his mother,

Mary and,

And honoring the body,

Honoring our own bodies,

Honoring the earth is,

Is honoring the sacred feminine.

It's all one.

Cause I,

I,

It's not even the physical body,

Right?

It's this,

It's all of the bodies coming in.

Yes.

Yes.

We have all of it.

Emotional body,

The mental body soul.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

That sometimes the English language doesn't really allow to talk about all of that in a clear way.

Sometimes it's like,

Yeah,

We don't have,

And we don't have in our society,

We don't have the mechanisms to take somebody from a materialistic only worldview,

Which is another part of patriarchy is that only either the,

Only the sacred is sake,

Only the soul is sacred or you've got only the material matters and you,

So you've got this divorce between the soul and matter and,

Um,

Um,

It's both,

It's both end.

And so I,

Um,

Were there some surprises that you,

Were there some surprises in the book that even surprised you?

Yeah.

I,

When I'm writing a book,

I,

You know,

I've been given,

Um,

My,

My plots in dreams.

They just come,

They're downloaded.

They it's the arc of the story.

It's the characters and their names,

Not a lot of the details,

But enough that I got,

I can get the whole story,

You know,

In a dream and I get up and I write down all the main details and then I have a lot of creative license,

Right?

Then I can fill in all of the details,

But I don't always know what's going to happen in the story.

So I don't always know where the plot is going to go.

I,

I use creative license,

But I also sometimes have to go into deep meditation and the characters do kind of come to life and they kind of tell you where,

What,

What's going to happen next.

They tell,

They,

They,

They have their own mind and they want to go in this direction differently than maybe I had planned.

So in the ending was a little surprising to me.

So yeah,

There were some surprises.

I anticipated it being a more global story and it would vary a much more just centered around that family,

Uh,

Which I actually liked.

It made it much more personal and much more,

Uh,

Heart centered.

Oh,

Cool.

I love the names that you gave each of the characters.

It was so pretty.

It was so pretty,

But,

Um,

That creative license is what I am all about.

It is creativity to me as just a solution to everything that we need here for us humans to interact better with one another,

To help save the planet,

To help,

Uh,

Get to know oneself.

So that creative license is totally the creative spirit.

And I'm stoked that you're listening to that.

Yeah.

And I mainly do it in meditation with visual visuals.

I go in and I just kind of create landscapes and I,

Like,

I'll visualize the scenes,

Like I'm watching a movie in my head and then I'll just kind of let it go and just see what happens and just let it,

Let the story play itself out in my head without me controlling it.

Oh my God.

It's like you're the observer again.

Exactly.

And I'm like,

Oh,

That's what happens.

And then I'll go and write it.

So.

Good for you for not getting in your way.

Did you have,

Did you have like some blocks before this,

Because I mean,

You have written many books.

I think you've written five.

Is that right?

Yes.

And so did you have like writer's block or what were some of those challenges that got to,

To just letting it go and be the observer here?

I mean,

Were you always that way perhaps?

Oh my God.

Maybe you were.

I,

I've always been able to just write,

But if I do get writer's block,

If I do get stuck,

I will either go on a walk,

Which gets my juices going,

Creative juices going.

And you know,

Even if I'm not thinking about what,

What I'm trying to work out by the time I get home from the walk,

It's like,

Oh,

Okay,

I can do,

You know,

I can go in this direction.

At least I can at least get going on,

On something.

Right.

Something came up.

Yes.

Yes.

Something that I can write.

And then the meditation,

These visual meditations is how I generally will work through a block.

So usually it'll just come to me what needs to be written.

So the only other.

Oh,

So it's like slowing down enough to feel your breath.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And really being open to the honesty of the characters,

The honesty of the plot that has its own authentic truth to it and wants to be told.

So since it's given,

I feel like,

You know,

It wants to express itself.

It's like a muse that,

You know,

This is the way the story is going to go.

And so I,

I have to just kind of bend my creative will to,

To what wants to be written.

Yeah.

Wow.

That's so neat.

I could relate to like needing to go for a walk and just let it go and soften up a little bit.

Cause sometimes,

I mean,

I'll just say,

Okay,

I got to go for a walk and I'm bent over and I'm tying my shoes and I'm like,

Oh,

There it is.

Okay.

All right.

There's what I need,

Right?

There's the idea or there's the solution again,

Or yeah.

Something clear oddly came in and I'm like,

Okay,

I got it.

I'll just get that body kinetically moving again and things happen.

Yeah.

And even with the breath work.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Even the breath work is like,

Can be exhausting and meditation sometimes,

You know,

Everybody thinks you're just sitting so still,

Or there's a big hunk of the population that is like being so still you're not doing anything,

But I mean,

You could get a workout in.

Yes.

When you're meditating.

Yeah.

I do a breath work.

That's very,

Very active,

Very,

Can be very intense,

But it's,

It's transformative.

So that's,

That's another thing I'll do too,

Is there's an actual block,

Like an energy block in me.

You know,

Sometimes there's that,

Right.

I just can't get into the writing because something's energetically just not working.

Yeah.

So breath work is a great tool for,

For really shifting the energies and,

And releasing whatever is ready to be released.

So the new can come in.

Yeah.

Yeah.

You know,

I feel like is,

Is eco fiction new or has it been around forever in your mind?

Uh,

It's a,

Yeah,

It's a new genre in terms of,

Um,

You know,

That they're actually giving it a name.

Yeah.

A lot of sci-fi is,

Is climate.

I mean,

You know,

It's sci-fi has dealt with all sorts of social issues,

Including climate issues.

You know,

Star Trek,

You know,

Terraforming a planet because they've destroyed the planet,

You know what I mean?

Yes.

All of those kinds of things are,

Are addressed in different kinds of sci-fi that have been around for a lot of,

A lot of years.

So I don't think it's new.

It's just that because of the climate crisis,

It's now its own genre.

So,

So your creative process,

Yes,

Your,

Your,

It comes to you and,

And dreams and you like physically waking up and then in the moment,

Three o'clock in the morning,

Getting up to writing,

Writing everything down,

Or do you do voice or what do you do?

So I,

Uh,

Yes,

Uh,

If the,

When the dreams come that have a fiction plot that's thorough,

Um,

I'm,

I'm a,

It's like a lucid dream and I'm seeing it like a movie,

Like a movie,

Like I'm super fast,

Just like,

You know,

Like you're just watching a movie on super fast.

Yeah.

I'm seeing it all and witnessing it all.

And um,

And then I have to,

And then usually by the end I've woken up,

I'm fully alert by that time.

And so then I have to go and I will find paper,

Find something,

And I will just scratch out as much as I can remember all the details or type it into my computer,

If that's what's I've gone to and just,

You know,

Get as much down as I can while it's still fresh.

Sometimes it's been,

You know,

In the morning I wake,

If I don't wake up,

You know,

I still try to scratch it down as soon as I do wake up fully,

But in the morning,

But that's,

That's it.

And then I just,

I keep it,

I've got several plots like that.

And then whenever I start on one,

I just start,

Start the process of writing it and doing that creative process.

I have a very limited commitment to writing,

I'm busy,

Uh,

So,

But my commitment,

I use something that I gained from Martha Beck,

Turtle Steps,

Um,

Is that you make the smallest commitment that you can to something with no resistance.

So if you have a big project and you're just like,

You're not,

You know,

You're not starting on it,

You're not starting on it,

You're not starting on it,

Break it down to its smallest step,

The smallest next thing where you have zero resistance.

And that,

That for me was five minutes a day.

I could write for five minutes a day with no resistance.

And so all of my books,

The five books were written on that commitment,

Five minutes a day.

So,

Uh,

But what happens is the resistance is usually just me sitting in the seat and getting going,

Right?

Once the five minutes are going,

A lot of times it's turns into a half an hour and I don't even realize a half an hour has gone by because I've just been,

I'm in the flow and I'm writing and typing.

So,

Um,

But the commitment is just to five minutes that,

So that's how I,

My creative process keeps fuel.

And then by not writing too much any one day,

I usually try to leave with enough of a nugget of the next thing to write so that when I sit down again,

I have a place to start.

So I don't write everything that I is in my mind.

Ooh,

That's talented.

I think not just getting it all out and especially it's kind of like you're leaving yourself a nugget.

You're leaving yourself a little bit of joy to come back to.

Yeah.

For the next thing.

Yeah.

The seed for the next thing.

And then you get to water and it grows.

I love that metaphor.

I love that one.

So yeah,

You're totally busy being an author is not the only thing that you do.

Tell us what else you do.

You're a healer.

I work full time.

I'm,

I work as a kind of a administrator and then I do some minister things as well.

In that role,

I teach workshops on Reiki and other alternatives.

And I see clients,

I have a private practice.

So busy,

Totally busy.

But these are all connected with,

With the earth because Reiki and the energy and coming back and the interfaith,

Your interfaith minister.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I'm traditionally ordained.

But when I had my saga that I talked about,

It was over 20 years ago,

I had a big shift.

So yes,

Inner spirituality,

Interfaith,

That's,

That's where I am.

So I have been for a number of years.

So that's awesome.

That's awesome.

Are you,

So you live and work in the Pacific Northwest,

Is that where you're originally from?

Yes,

I grew up in the very Northwest corner of Northwest Washington.

So up in Whatcom County,

I grew up fifth generation from my,

Through my parents,

My mother's side of the family.

What?

Oh,

Is that right?

Whatcom County?

So like La Conner?

Nope.

That's Skagit.

Bellingham,

North of Bellingham.

Right next to Canada is where I grew up.

Right.

That's beautiful.

You know,

We were talking about feminism and earth.

There's a beautiful sculpture in Bellingham from Nancy Holt.

Have you seen that?

I have not.

I mean,

I grew up there,

But I haven't been up there for,

You know,

I haven't lived there for decades.

So yeah.

After we conclude,

I'll just,

If you have time,

If there's something that you desire to do,

I'll just tell you where it is.

It's so neat.

And I think it's based,

Her intention was basing it off the North Star.

Yeah.

It's this huge sculptural aspect.

That's awesome.

Well,

Do you have any,

Let me share my screen with everybody so we can see your book.

Yes.

And are you in the middle of writing a new one now?

I am.

I'm in writing another eco-fiction right now.

It is based in a girl who has to save her dad,

Who was doing,

Was a scientist who was doing some important work for the earth,

But it is actually harming the earth.

And,

And she has to kind of save the day and save her dad and save the local area from a local apocalypse.

So there's some supernatural elements of half lives that are protecting all of the energies of karma,

Layers of karma in this town and with a lot of history.

So cool.

I speak,

I do speak,

I speak next week and I speak next month and teaching classes the next month after that.

So wait,

What classes are you teaching?

I'm teaching Wacom Community,

Actually,

The county,

The community college,

I teach continuing education classes and community education classes.

I'm teaching a breathwork class.

I'm teaching an energy medicine class.

And then I'll be teaching some Reiki classes coming up,

Unity of Bellevue.

Oh my gosh,

Yeah.

And thank you so very much for sharing more about your creative process and these issues that I think,

As well as you do,

Are so important to keep apprising and not erasing either the femininity throughout the world that we need right now in the creative spirit.

Absolutely.

Thank you.

Yeah.

Thanks for having me.

I'm happy to be here and happy to have this conversation with you.

Absolutely.

Grateful.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you so much for vibing with the female frequency today.

If this episode or any other episode has helped transform or shift your perspective in any way,

Please tell me all about it.

Tell me all about it in a review where you are listening to this podcast.

It will totally help me out and help spread the vibe.

If you're a creative looking woman,

You're going to love this podcast.

This is what I do for a profession.

I often host workshop.

All right,

Y'all until next time.