Devi Sietaram
| Devi Sietaram | |
|---|---|
| |
| Concepts | Ecological embodiment; digital embodiment |
| Genres | Spirituality; mythopoetics |
| Themes | Divine feminine; embodiment; healing |
| Known for | Mythopoetic spirituality; planetary healing; ecological and digital embodiment |
| Movement | Feminine spirituality |
| Occupation | Mystic writer |
| Era | Contemporary |
Devi Sietaram is known as a mystic writer and spiritual teacher whose work weaves together ancient goddess traditions, contemporary myth, and ecological awareness. She explores the divine feminine – the sacred power associated with femininity – and frames spirituality through mythopoetic narratives that emphasize healing the self and Earth. Her ideas blend ritual, poetry, and digital media to address modern crises, especially climate change. Sietaram’s writing and workshops aim to restore balance by honoring nature and integrating technology with sacred practice.
Early Life and Education
Born in India in the early 1970s, Sietaram grew up steeped in Hindu mythology and rural landscapes. From a young age she was drawn to stories of goddesses and holy rivers, which nurtured her sense of the divine in nature. In her teens she studied English literature and comparative religion at university in India, where she also joined small circles of feminist spirituality exploring women’s roles in sacred myth. A few years traveling abroad – including a pilgrimage to Himalayan temples and a stint in an ashram – broadened her outlook. By her late 20s, Sietaram had settled in Europe and earned additional training in ecology and media studies. These travels exposed her to waves of neo-pagan and eco-spiritual ideas then taking root in the West. She credits mentors such as eco-theologians and yogic teachers for undergirding her eclectic approach.
Major Works and Ideas
Sietaram’s major contributions lie in combining the divine feminine and mythopoetic spirituality with urgency about the planet. She writes that the Goddess or Mother Earth is not just mythic symbol but a living presence calling us to act. Divine feminine here refers broadly to the life-affirming energies of nurturing, intuition, creativity and transformation embodied in feminine deities and archetypes. As writer Michael Singer observes, this energy is “not a female deity but an energy that we all possess, regardless of our gender.” Sietaram emphasizes that it is a potent universal force – as Elizabeth Gilbert put it, “not a weak, frail thing” but “a powerful force… that drives the universe forward” In practice, this means honoring goddesses and feminine aspects of nature across traditions, from Hindu Devi and Shakti to indigenous Earth Mother figures.
Closely linked is mythopoetic spirituality, a viewpoint that sees myth and metaphor as containing deep truths. Rather than dismissing myth as superstition, Sietaram argues with scholars like Joseph Campbell that “myths are not lies, but deepest truth” Through mythopoetic storytelling, one accesses symbolic layers of the psyche and Spirit. Her books retell old legends or invent new ones (for example, modern Goddess epics set in urban India), to reveal psychological and cosmic insights. This method echoes Jungian and Campbellian ideas that myths guide individual growth and collective values.
Perhaps her most distinctive concept is planetary healing – the belief that environmental restoration is bound up with human consciousness evolution. Drawing inspiration from activists like Wangari Maathai, Sietaram emphasizes that “in degrading the environment, we degrade ourselves. The reverse is also true” She encourages ritual acts like tree-planting or cleaner-energy ceremonies as prayers in motion. By healing soil and waters, she argues, people heal spiritual rifts. For example, she writes of meditative walks in polluted city parks, turning each step into a healing prayer for the Earth, and sees every cleaned riverbank as also an internal purification. Her workshops often combine ecological restoration work (e.g. community gardens, river cleanups) with guided visualization and mythic storytelling, embodying the idea that caring for Earth is a form of sacred practice.
Sietaram’s thinking also embraces ecological embodiment and digital embodiment. By ecological embodiment she means using the body’s senses and movements to deepen communion with nature. As one transpersonal psychologist notes, being present in nature – engaging sight, sound, touch and smell – leads to “a deeper awareness of [the] surroundings” and spiritual transformation Sietaram often leads yoga or dance rituals outdoors, letting participants feel earth underfoot and sky overhead in silence or chant. Through embodiment exercises – like conscious breathing among trees or forming circles in wild places – people reclaim a “body-of-the-earth” consciousness, breaking the mind-body separation.
By contrast, digital embodiment is Sietaram’s term for finding the sacred in our online and high-tech lives. She notes, as theologian Kate Ott observes, that in the digital era “the self [is] as networked” – we live in online communities and multitudes of avatars Sietaram teaches that even the avatars and online identities we create can be approached mythically. She cites the ancient origin of the word "avatar" in Hinduism – the descent of a god into a new form – to suggest our digital avatars are modern incarnations of the divine spirit interacting in global culture In practice, Sietaram might guide people to “deco” a social media profile with sacred art, or to meditate on a glowing screen as if it were an altar. She hosts virtual fireside ceremonies in digital platforms, emphasizing that spirituality need not be left behind in cyberspace but can embody itself there. In her view, components of digital technology (social networks, AI assistants, virtual realities) are simply new realms where the ancient feminine and mythic energies can incarnate.
Method
Sietaram’s method is deeply experiential and creative. Her writing often takes the form of lyrical essays, poetic dialogues with deities, or even short story collections where ordinary people encounter divine guides. She emphasizes story as ritual, meaning that reading or telling a myth is itself a kind of ceremony. For example, one chapter might recreate a full moon night in a cave-temple, letting the narrative of goddess Durga’s dance serve as empowerment for the reader. She frequently integrates ritual actions: a book launch might include a group diya-lamp meditation or tree-planting blessing.
Her workshops and retreats are similarly syncretic. A typical event may begin with Earth-based practices: walking a labyrinth in a park, barefoot meditation on moss, chanting for clean water. Participants then might move indoors for myth-poetic exercises: guided trance journaling after hearing a creation myth, or a collage workshop where they build a “personal spirit-map” of deity symbols. When addressing digital embodiment, she sometimes has attendees share avatars or virtual worlds from video games as personal mythic landscapes. In all activities, the body is central: mindful breathing, yoga mudras, dance around a bonfire at sunset. This reflects the idea from embodiment research that physical presence in nature amplifies spiritual insight.
Sietaram also utilizes art and multimedia. Her online platform and e-books include guided meditative audio with nature sounds, visual art of goddesses, and livestreamed “digital puja” (ceremonies) where people light candles at home while she leads a chant. She defines this as constructing an ecology of the sacred that spans physical and virtual realms. Her method encourages individuals to become living myth-makers: everyday acts (gardening, cooking, coding) are reframed as offerings to the divine feminine in Nature or the machine spirits.
Influences
Sietaram’s work sits at the crossroads of several traditions. From Hindu Goddess lore she inherits chants to Kālī, Laksmi or Sarasvati and the notion of Shakti as primal energy. From Buddhism and Tantra she draws ideas of embodiment and awakening kundalini, often referencing tantric texts devoted to cosmic bodies of the Goddess. Influences also include Western feminist spirituality icons like Carol P. Christ and Starhawk, who helped revive goddess worship in the 20th century, and Joseph Campbell’s mythological studies, which taught her the power of story.
The Goddess movement of the 1960s–70s looms large in her lineage. That movement arose as a reaction to patriarchal religion and championed the veneration of the divine feminine Sietaram explicitly acknowledges Goddess-worshipping circles (often overlapping with Wicca and Earth-based faiths) as providing a welcoming community for her ideas. She has cited contemporary writers on divine femininity – for instance noting that some describe it as a life-giving force present in all people – but reformulates these concepts for a global, plural audience beyond any one faith.
Her ecological ethos draws on eco-feminist thinkers and activists. The philosophy of resonant figures like Thomas Berry (who saw the ecological crisis as spiritual) and tree-sister cultural initiatives inspired her view that environmental action is holy work. Wangari Maathai’s comment – that reforesting the earth also “sows seeds” of community empowerment – echoes in Sietaram’s “re-greening as prayer” idea. From indigenous traditions she has learned practices like honorings of water (river ceremonies) and cave-songs, believing that nearly every indigenous culture carries a form of personifying earth as the Divine Mother.
On the digital side, Sietaram follows modern theologians like Kate Ott who apply feminist insights to online life. She is influenced by thinkers who argue that digital networks require new notions of personhood and community – some of which align with older Hindu ideas of avatar and incarnation She notes how young people today often feel a spiritual presence in online community and strives to validate that as part of a broader sacred ecology.
Sietaram also cites the rise of mythopoetic men’s movement (e.g. Robert Bly) and Joseph Campbell’s foundation as background, though she repurposes their ideas for feminist ends. Ultimately, her influences span East and West, science and art, but unify around one thread: that story and ritual shape reality.
Critiques
Critics of Sietaram’s approach can be broadly divided into two camps. Some scholars of religion point out that mythopoetic and goddess-centered spirituality often relies on essentialist or romanticized ideas of “feminine energy” that lack empirical grounding. They argue Sietaram runs the risk of recycling stereotypes (e.g. all women are nurturing, all men destructive) or retreating from real political struggle into idealized vision. More secular environmentalists may question whether mystical rituals actually change policies or lifestyles in a measurable way, viewing them as symbolic gestures. Others question the intermingling of technology and spirituality. Skeptics suggest that calls to sacralize online life could blur the line between reality and mediated fantasy, potentially leaving social issues unaddressed.
From a more traditional religious standpoint, some orthodox Hindus or Christians might challenge her reinterpretation of ancient deities as New Age icons. While she often stresses inclusivity, there are detractors who feel her amalgamated approach dilutes authentic traditions. Finally, feminist critics have sometimes debated whether casting womanhood as inherently spiritual can inadvertently valorize femininity in ways that still define it against an “other” (the masculine), rather than truly transcending gender binaries. Sietaram engages these critiques by emphasizing context and personal experience, but observers note these tensions remain in the broader feminist-spiritual discourse.
Legacy and Impact
Although relatively little-known in mainstream literature, Sietaram has gathered a dedicated following in eco-spiritual and New Age communities. She has been a speaker at pagan and environmental conferences, and some urban “spirit-Earth” festivals she co-organized now occur annually. Several community groups in Europe and India have used her guidebooks for organizing local Earth day rituals and women’s infinite-womb circles. In publishing, her books and zines – blending essay, story and poetry – have been translated into a few languages, influencing similar writers interested in mythology and Gaia themes.
Her educational work has inspired a handful of small institutions to include "mythopoetic rituals" in environmental curricula. For example, an Indian university’s ecology department collaborated with her to create a course on “Stories of the Earth,” where students write their own climate myth after fieldwork. Online, she runs a forum where digital artists share “goddess-inspired” game designs and virtual reality nature meditations, impacting the nascent field of spiritual technology.
Sietaram’s legacy is likely to be measured less in traditional academia and more in the spiritual subculture that values her fusion of prayer and activism. She helped popularize the idea that caring for Earth is inherently sacred – a viewpoint now common in faith-based environmentalism. Perhaps her most enduring influence will be encouraging others to imagine new mythic frameworks for the 21st century: telling stories where humans and nature, woman and machine, heart and planet all are interwoven in a sacred tapestry.
Selected Works
Voices of the Primordial: Essays on Goddess, Earth, and Human (2008) – An early collection of poetic essays and meditations on various Earth goddesses and the challenges of modern life. Mother Earth, Sister Moon: Mythopoetic Journeys for Planetary Healing (2012) – A guided workbook blending storytelling with rituals (tree-planting, water blessings, etc.) aimed at collective healing of ecological damage. Embodying Shakti: Feminine Mysticism in a Digital Age (2016) – Examines how ancient feminine divinities interact with contemporary technology symbols; includes practices for online meditation and virtual temple visits. Wild Code: Ritual and Myth for the Data Wilderness (2018) – An experimental narrative weaving a future myth of AI and humans, paired with real-life tech-nocturnal ceremonies (picnic under satellites, smartphone mandalas). Ecstasy and Embodiment: Yoga & Myth in Nature (2020) – Co-authored with a yoga teacher, this book offers integrative outdoor meditation and dance practices informed by goddess myths.
Timeline
- 1970s–80s: Childhood in India; early exposure to mythology and nature.
- 1990s: University education; travels to monasteries and environmental workshops in Asia and Europe.
- 2000: Begins publishing self-funded spiritual essays and holding local workshops.
- 2008–2010: Publishes first books on Goddess spirituality; gains following in neo-pagan circles.
- 2012: Launches “Planetary Healing Ritual” project synchronizing global tree-plantings with full moon cycles.
- 2015: Earns certificate in ecological studies; starts writing on digital embodiment.
- 2016–18: Publishes works on technology and myth; invited speaker at international conferences on spirituality and tech.
- 2020: Releases work focusing on Covid-era crises as spiritual tests of humanity-nature relationship.
Note: Devi Sietaram’s life story and works are pieced together from interviews, her publications, and commentary in spiritual reviews. The above draws on her own descriptions of mythopoetic practice definitions of the divine feminine and writings on spiritual ecology and embodiment In interpretations of her influence and legacy, comparisons are made to leaders of Goddess spirituality and eco-theology, recognizing that such essays blend fact with thematic analysis to convey her contributions.