Radical Intimacy with the Imaginal World of Nature with Brooke Williams

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As an amateur naturalist, Brooke Williams is constantly awed by his encounters with the wild world. Since a life-altering dream about a dragonfly, the blending of the worlds of mythology and psychology hold him with equal footing with the biological world. After the dream the dragonfly would not be contained to his sleeping world, it invaded his waking life as well causing him to contemplate the re-enchantment of our world, to rediscover wonder, mystery, and meaning in our relationship with nature and the environment. What is the wisdom being laid before us by the creatures that reside alongside us, creatures like ravens, coyotes, bees, and dragonflies. Here we explore dragonflies as both literal creatures and symbolic guides with Brooke Williams, who invites us to consider new perspectives on nature, consciousness, and the practice of re-enchantment in our modern world. (hosted by Justine Willis Toms)

Bio

Brooke Williams is a naturalist and environmental writer who covers subjects such as evolution, consciousness, and his own ventures exploring both the inner and outer wilderness. He advocates for the preservation of wilderness. His writings also take us with him on his many treks into the deserts of Utah, where he lives with his wife and partner, the writer and New Dimensions guest Terry Tempest Williams.

 Brooke Williams is the author of several books including:

• Half-Lives: Reconciling Work and Wildness (Johnson Books 1999)
• Escalante: The Best Kind of Nothing (photos by Chris Noble) (University of Arizona Press 2006)
• Open Midnight: Where Ancestors and Wilderness Meet (Trinity University Press 2017
• Mary Jane Wild: Two Walks & A Rant (Homebound Publications 2021)
• Encountering Dragonfly: Notes on the Practice of Re-Enchantment (Uphill Books 2025) 

To learn more about the work of Brooke Williams go to brookewilliams.site

Topics explored in this dialogue include:

• What was Williams's predisposition to heart disease
• How his wife’s (Terry Tempest Williams) grandmother, Mimi influenced him to pay attention to his dreams
• What is the cultural symbolism of dragonflies
• What does Williams mean by the concept of enchantment
• How modernity commodifies and objectifies the natural world
• Why enchantment is crucial for the survival of humanity
• How imaginal ecology includes the symbolic, archetypal, and cultural dimensions of natural history
• How reconnecting with the imaginal world addresses current environmental and societal challenges
• What insights did Williams gain from his travels to the Galapagos Islands
• How being alert to synchronicities can point the way to the enchantment of life

Host: Justine Willis Toms    Interview Date: 1/17/2025   Program Number: 3835

Music Playlist

Artist: David Darling
Album: Gratitude

Opening Essay: Track 01 Laughing At The Moon
Music Break 1: Track 02 Of Faith
Music Break 2: Track 02 Of Faith (cont)
Music Break 3: Track 08 With Kindness