Sarah Bowen

Sarah Bowen is an animal chaplain, multifaith educator, and award-winning author of Sacred Sendoffs: An Animal Chaplain’s Advice for Surviving Animal Loss, Making Life Meaningful, & Trying to Heal the Planet and other books. She teaches interspecies mindfulness practices, helps humans survive the pain of animal loss, and advocates for exploited and endangered species. You can often find her huddled over wildlife struck by cars, giving them a sacred sendoff.

Bowen is co-founder of Compassion Consortium, the first interfaith, interspiritual, and interspecies spiritual community, where she directs the Animal Chaplaincy Training Program. Also a member of One Spirit Interfaith Seminary’s faculty, the International Society for Anthrozoology, and the Association for Pet Loss and Bereavement, she strives to support all beings regardless of their species or belief system. Follow her on Instagram @modernreverend.

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Good News for Animals

How Humans Are Waking Up to Creaturely Needs

5 Spiritual Books About Animals

If you consider yourself a spiritual animal lover, dive into these five book tit…

A Guide to Overcoming Guilt About Animal Loss

Feeling the loss of a beloved animal companion and conflicted about their passin…

Dragon-Inspired Practices for Embracing Power and Generosity

Animal chaplain Sarah Bowen offers practices inspired by the Year of the Dragon …

Spiritual Wisdom from Cats

Our animal chaplain shares some potent spiritual lessons from a little black cat…

Helping Street Dogs

Our animal chaplain shares inspiration for sustaining canine advocacy from a mot…

Oh, Rats: An Animal Chaplain's Suggestions for Unwanted Houseguests

What is one to do with rats in the house? Explore our animal chaplain’s ideas on…

An Animal Blessing for All Creatures

In honor of the Feast of St. Francis, our animal chaplain offers an alternative …

4 Affirmations for Surviving Pet Loss

Prayerful Words to Help You Weather the Emotional Storm

Good Night, Moon

6 Habitat-Inspired Self-Care Tips to Help You Sleep

What Do I Do With Mom’s Old Furs?

Wrestling With the Conundrums of Downsizing a Parent’s Home

What Is Speciesism (and Why Does It Matter)?

Speciesism is a complex issue. Explore why understanding this paradigm matters, …

What to Do About Bears

How to Handle Wildlife Conflicts Compassionately

How to Mindfully Photograph Animal Roommates

Our animal chaplain gives the scoop on the most ethical, mindful ways to snap pi…

An Animal-Friendly Summer Reading List for Kids

Our Animal Chaplain’s Favorite Books for Humane Education

Asking AI About Animals and Emerging Forms of Intelligence

Our Animal Chaplain Interviews ChatGPT

Radical Relationality

How Science and Spiritual Practices Can Improve Life for Our Animal Neighbors

Visionary Virgins & Miraculous Mothers

It's time to look to the natural world for guidance on the conversation around m…

A Rabbit for Easter?

Consider Fostering Before Hopping “All In"

Nature Poetry as Spiritual Practice

My Top 4 Book Recommendations

Attending to Your Pet’s Body After Death

Exploring Cremation and Aquamation

A Pre-Spring Sun Meditation

Combat winter malaise with celestial contemplation—practice this meditation to h…

Ode to a Hollywood Mountain Lion

Our animal chaplain mourns the death of a famous mountain lion, and shares lesso…

Trauma Stewardship Tips for Animal Lovers

How to Maintain Balance in a Heartbreaking World

Sacred Space Crashing

A Reading List for Respectfully Visiting Spiritual Places

Helping At-Risk Cats—and Incarcerated People

Time with our feline friends can be deeply nourishing. Explore how one program i…

Aging With Cats and Dogs

Our resident animal chaplain explores the complexities of mortality as it regard…

Funeral for a Mouse

Our animal chaplain share what it's like to choose compassion for the smallest o…

A Centering Prayer for Cephalopods and Marine Mammals

Bringing Water Creatures Into Our Awareness

Ultra Gratitude: A Thanksgiving Practice for Animal Lovers

Explore more compassionate ways to eat and be this Thanksgiving—starting with wh…

Practicing Mauna

A Silent Yoga for Personal and Planetary Wellness

About That Walrus in My Creche Set …

Our resident animal chaplain offers her musings on an eclectic nativity scene. …

Animal Blessings

How to Extend Grace to All Creatures

Can Trees Help Us Face Mortality?

Barbara Becker Shares on Living Mindfully With the End in Mind

An Easy Meditation Practice for You and Your Dog

Practicing interspecies mindfulness can help us increase the ability to live in …

A Day in the Life of an Animal Chaplain

A glimpse at what it's like spiritually supporting animals (and the humans who l…

Bee-ing Here Now: Lessons From Honey Bees

What spiritual lessons can we glean from pollinators? Our resident animal chapla…

Holy Habitats

Instead of traveling to distant spiritual sites, what we if we found such sanctu…

An Ethical Obligation to Ticks?

Ticks are animals, just like us. Is it possible to stay safe while keeping ticks…

The Future of Dogs

Dig deep into “dogness” by asking what would happen to dogs if humans were no lo…

Just Say No Mow

Ten 10 Reasons to Slack on Mowing Your Lawn

Missing Fido or Fluffy? Tips for Helping Kids Survive Pet Loss

Kids can experience psychological distress for up to three years after losing a …

Book Review: Judaism Without Tribalism

With precision derived from decades of immersive experience and devoted thought,…

Self-Care Tips from Slow Animals and Helpful Droids

While animals are good inspiration for self-care ideas, droids are excellent for…

Animal Movement Practices

Movement practices like animal flow, primal play, and yoga asanas teach us to be…

How to Give a Furry Wake

Honoring your pet with friends helps healing begin.

Book Review: Sacred Sendoffs

SARAH BOWEN CREDITS her first pet, a cat named Him, with putting her on the path…

Lessons From an Underwater Monastery

“Each morning I threw on a wetsuit and plunged into a life-filled, underwater mo…

Can Watching Bear Cams Improve Wellbeing?

People expressed improved relaxation & stress reduction after watching bears…

Spiritual Fire: A Candle-Burning Ritual for Happiness

Ignite spiritual fire and attract joy with this revamped spin on an age-old prac…

Groundhog Wisdom for Sleep

Groundhog behavior offers insight on restorative Z’s for busy humans.

I Ching Divination for Tackling Overwhelm

Focus on a dilemma or stressor, then use the ancient text to interpret coin toss…

Enlightened Dog Training Tips

Enlightened dog training offers a peaceful approach to communicating with canine…

It’s Time for Shedding

Sarah Bowen provides some creaturely resolutions and insights for the New Year. …

Last-Minute Gifts for Animal Lovers

Avoid holiday faux paws with earth- and animal-friendly presents.

How Macaques, Birds, and Cats Can Improve Your Meditation

Acknowledging other animals’ capacity for still minds might be a helpful tool fo…

A Spiritual Approach to Pest Management

Practice interspecies ethics with humane bug catchers and mousetraps, underhood …

Contemplating the Festively Feathered

This holiday season is for the birds.

Mindful Lessons From Hummingbirds

For one, it’s possible to be slow and fast at the same time.…

Mindful Decisions for Critically Ill Pets

How do we choose on behalf of another being and make sound decisions when we’re …

How Do You Mother Your Mother?

How the divine feminine, car washes, snarky t-shirts, and senior care advisers c…

Sustainable Activism for Animal Lovers

Self-care tools for people who advocate for the more-than-human world.

Becoming Moon-imals

What might we gain from considering ourselves in the same way, affected by both …

Benefits of Catnip … For Humans Too!

Repel mosquitos, chill out, and get a good night’s sleep with catnip.

How Do We Pray for Animals?

Interspecies healing practices include prayer circles and shawls.

Queer Spirituality

Tips From LGBT+ Reverends for Living Out Loud and Proud All Year Long

The Spiritual Meaning of Slow Travel

Is the Universe Telling You to Brake for a Break?

Noah Time Like Today

Sometimes you just need an Egyptian vulture named Bob to lead you in the right d…

Surviving the Pain of Pet Loss

Tips for Tackling Grief From an Animal Chaplain

Iwígara: Embracing the Spirituality of Plants

Thinking of botanical entities as relatives, what might we learn from connecting…

Superpowering Mental Wellness

Wisdom from Sharon Blady, a Proud Geek Grrrl and the Former Health Minister of Manitoba

May the Force Be With You!

Blessing Practices for Aspiring Jedis and Other Spiritual Seekers

What the Cicadas Can Teach Us About Sex & Sacredness

We experience the cicadas’ life cycle as sound, sex, then silence. The coming br…

An Animal Rosary

A new way to pray that combines an ancient tool and a modern perspective.

Delightful and Bear-able Sabbath Practices

Tap into the Sabbath practices of a hibernating bear. Unplug, rest ... and just …

3 Compelling Reasons to Rethink How You Use Eggs

Springtime practices for decreasing health risks and increasing spiritual connec…

Easter for Earth Lovers

Practices for Resurrecting Plant Life and Wild Beings

For the Love of Guinea Pigs

How to Celebrate the First-Ever Guinea Pig Awareness Week

Is Godzilla Your Power Animal?

Reclaiming the Strength of Your So-Called Monsters

Walking the Divine Fido

How Dogs Can Help Us Heal and Inspire Prayerful Practices

Journaling Animalia

A Sacred Writing Practice

Be Squirrely

Giant squirrels, giant lessons? Animal chaplain Sarah Bowen explores what squirr…

Seeking Unity

Three Books to Inspire “Justice for All”

4 Practices to Embrace Blue Spirituality

Water is more than a resource. Water is a life-bringing entity, via aqua. Embrac…

What’s Your Animal Sign?

A Fun Interspecies Approach to Astrology

Is It Time for a Robopet?

How Animatronic Animals are Helping Cure Loneliness

A Playlist For Nervous Cats

Can Music Help Your Pet’s Body/Mind/Spirit Connection?

This New Year’s Eve, Try Årsgång: A Year Walk

A Swedish Ritual for Divining Your Future

3 Must-Try Practices for Book Lovers

Tsundoku, Jólabókaflóð, and Quaestio Divina

Visioning a Re-NEW-able Year

This year, turn to the first known resolution makers—the ancient Babylonians—for…

Embracing Enchantment

Look beyond Santa and enjoy inspiration from elves, the fae, and other not-so-hi…

Reinventing the Season of Advent

A sacred practice for stay-at-home holidays

Planning a Heart-Centered Thanksgiving

Three Ideas for Heart-Centered Gatherings and a Compassionate Thanksgiving

Winter Is Coming: Prepare Your Pandemic Pup

A puppyhood coach and pack therapist explains how to ease the transition from fa…

Praying the Animal Rosary

Find solace in an animal rosary practice that invokes blessings on our furry, fi…

Black Cats: Reclaiming the Sacred Feline

Halloween and the season of black cats is a good time to examine our misplaced b…

Cultivate Your Spiritual Sweet Tooth

Munching through the Halloween and Christmas holidays alone, Americans consume o…

Animal Mystics

How can we live in sacred relationship with the more-than-human world?

A Halloween-Time Practice for Finding Balance

Feeling off-kilter? This simple and powerful practice can bring you out of your …

Dos and Don'ts of Holistic Digestion for Your Animal Companion

Keep your four-legged family members from developing digestive issues by followi…

12 Reasons to Yawn Every Day

Is a yawn simply a silent scream for coffee or is it something more? Understand …

The WTF Prayer

A creative ritual for tackling anger

Roosters Rule: Finding Purpose Through Animal Rescue

Read how a rescued rooster is tackling climate change and spreading kindness, pl…

4 Lessons on Forgiveness From a Rescue Dog

Maggie the Wunderdog was shot, attacked, and left for dead, but, thanks to a res…

Faux Paws: Common Sayings Animal Lovers Should Avoid

Thingifying animals is a thing (Sure! I'll be your guinea pig!)—and words matter…

4 Animal-Inspired Tips for Better Sleep

If you're looking for ways to naturally sleep better at night, where better to l…

Animal Divina

Books We Love: Sarah Bowen

3 Nature-Based Practices for Battling Zoom Fatigue

How greening your space, petting your animal bestie, and taking a break to walk …

Reiki for Stressed-Out Cats

Got a stressed-out cat? Here is everything you need to know about reiki for cats…

What’s Your Doggie’s Dosha?

Ayurvedic Wisdom and Wellness Tips for Dogs (and Their Humans)

The Spiritual Side of S’mores

The S’more You Know

A Norse-Inspired Sleep Hack

A Sacred Norse Practice

LGBTQ+ Animal Pride

"Let’s bring to light the stunning diversity of life on Earth. Welcome to Animal…

Wizard of Paws’ Derrick Campana on Saving Our Pets

Wizard of Paws' Derrick Campana “is proving a healthy and happy life is possible…

Is Your Feline Sending Divine Signs?

“Are cats on their own spiritual paths to enlightenment?” Here are four divine s…

Wild Lovingkindness: Creating Mettā Connections

“That's so meta.” ... From self-reflective to the Buddhist mettā (cultivating be…

The Power of Fierce Singing

“Whether we are singing alone as an outlet for our personal anger or raising our…

Got Gökotta?

This Swedish practice will start your morning on the right note.

5 Spiritual Lessons We Learn From Cats

Cats are spiritual—or at least they can help us be spiritual. Here are five less…

Pets and Coronavirus: What We Need to Know

The news that a tiger in the Bronx Zoo tested positive for COVID-19 is raising q…

6 Sustainable Gardening Tips for Animal Lovers

In creating cultivated backyards, we are removing habitats for wild animals. Her…

#MooToo: Why We Should Rethink Drinking Cow’s Milk

Joaquin Phoenix very publicly pointed the spotlight on inter-species entitlement…

How I Became an Animal Chaplain

(And Why It Matters)

Roadside Blessings: Conscious Driving Practices for Animal Lovers

When it comes to roadkill it can be easy to act as if you have no responsibility…

May the Fork Be With You

My four-legged roommates Buba-ji and Deacon are not happy with me today. They we…

Book Review: Spiritual Rebel

"Bowen is adept at taking complex ideas from a variety of ancient and modern sou…