Christine Valters Paintner is a best selling author, whose 11 books, (including our personal favourites, The Wisdom of the Body, and, The Artist’s Rule),  have journeyed with many seekers on the path of the contemplative life.

Through her website, Abbey of the Arts, Christine offers numerous online and live retreats and pilgrimages. To find out more about what’s happening in 2019, you can visit her website calendar here.

Christine’s latest book is, The Soul’s Slow Ripening, 12 Celtic Practices for Seeking the Sacred. Christine and her husband John are offering a 12-week online companion retreat to the book starting January 7, 2019. What a great way to begin 2019!

In this episode Christine explained why she chose the title, The Soul’s Slow Ripening. It called to her because her approach, “… has always been organic and tied to the seasons. The contemplative approach to life is not a quick fix solution. It allows for the season to have its fullness.”

In divine timing with the opening of the new year, Christine shares that there is great wisdom and inspiration in tending to what each season invites us into—especially—as we make the descent into winter to experience the gifts of darkness and embrace the great mystery. Christine invites us to deepen our dreamtime practice as sacred self care. She explains that dreams are a significant threshold, and their images and messages are an “invitation to the next thing, in non-linear language.” Christine speaks about her move to Ireland, a land rich in sacred history. She shares her stories of mystics and the magic of stones there.