Compass of the Heart

Loren Cruden (1952–2022), midwife and herbal healer, lived on a mountain in Washington State in a house that she and her son built. Following spiritual studies in Europe, Asia, and Africa, her six years of work with Lewis Sawaquat, a Potawatomie pipe carrier, deepened her engagement with the spirituality that is native to the land. Respectful of the integrity of Native American ways, she drew carefully on those and other Earth-oriented traditions to create an eclectic yet authentic spiritual practice that relied on a direct experience of the interrelatedness of all life. She is the author of Love Is Green: An Herbal for Parents, The Living Earth Tarot Deck, The Spirit of Place, Compass of the Heart, and Medicine Grove.