Spiritual Wanderlust

Celtic Spirituality & Sacred Skinny Dipping - with Nick Mayhew Smith

Spiritual Wanderlust

Show Notes

You might describe Nick Mayhew Smith’s spirituality first and foremost as immersive.

Driven by a desire to touch, see, and experience, Nick has travelled the length and breadth of the UK, seeking out Britain’s holiest places. In each place, he did as the monks and hermits did – whether that’s sleeping in a remote cave, feeding the animals, wading naked into an icy sea to pray, or rowing out to isolated islands.

What is it about nature based practices that draws us? Why were they so central to the Celts?

And why has mainstream Christianity conveniently forgotten about them today?

Join us for a rich/fascinating conversation where you’ll discover:

🔹 The spiritual significance of skinny dipping 🔸 The Celtic ritual for putting right your relationship with creation 🔹 How the landscape influenced Celtic culture and practice 🔸 What drove the Celt Christians to embrace sacred trees instead of cut them down (like they did in continental Europe) 🔹 The saint who influenced (and instructed) early monks to pray in the nude–and why 🔸 How to recover a sense of the numinous in your own life

Nick Mayhew-Smith is a theologian and travel writer whose work is dedicated to recovering ancient Celtic wisdom. His books include The Naked Hermit, a book on Celtic spirituality, Landscape Liturgies, Britain’s Pilgrim Places (a walking pilgrimage guide published by the British Pilgrimage Trust), and Britain’s Holiest Places, which has been turned into a BBC series.

He is an honorary research fellow at Roehampton University, where he works with the Susanna Wesley Foundation on a range of environment and theology projects, and lives in London with his wife Anna. _______________________ ✨ WELCOME TO SPIRITUAL WANDERLUST ✨ Contemplation. Embodiment. Mysticism. Mischief. Join former nun and neuroscience aficionado Kelly Deutsch as she interviews contemplative teachers, embodiment experts, psychologists, and mystics about the untamed frontiers of interior life. Each episode is jam packed with life-changing stories, spiritual practices, and powerful insight to support your journey toward wholeness and divine intimacy. ✨ For FREE resources for your own spiritual journey (like the Psycho-Spiritual Maturity Assessment!) - check out spiritualwanderlust.org. 🌱 HAVE SPIRITUAL QUESTIONS? 🍃 Leave us a voicemail at spiritualwanderlust.org/ask for the chance to have your spiritual question answered live!

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