Each return to the tree at the center becomes a return to the origins of life and thus a renewal of the world.
--Michael Meade
Coming up in 2012
Community Singing for Life Passages May 12
A wonderful opportunity to connect with each other as Earth Community
is coming up in a few weeks. Community Singing For Life Passages,
sponsored by Rite of Passage Journeys and led by Laurence Cole and
Randy Morris, will be Saturday, May 12 from 10 a.m to 4 p.m. at the
George Center for Community in Lake City.
Laurence Cole is a songwriter and song leader whose intention and
greatest joy is to facilitate the group expression of beauty and
meaning through singing together. Randy Morris is a lifelong seeker
of spiritual technologies that can help us weather the storms of the
Great Turning and lead us into sustainable Earth Community. Together
they will lead us through a day of group singing, using only the
equipment we were born with: our breath, our bodies, our voices and
our hearts.
Download the flyer here (pdf).
Adult Wilderness Quest. September 8-16, 2012, in Bothell, Washington.
The Adult Wilderness Quest derives from an ancient ritual ceremony that has been re-imagined as a powerful and dynamic wilderness experience for contemporary men and women who seek to discover the deep wisdom of their souls and bring that wisdom into their lives and into the world. Questers retreat from daily routines, distractions, and responsibilities to travel this inner journey in a beautiful wilderness setting. Download the flyer here (pdf).
Jemilla Jackie Goldstein, Sufi Turner
Photo by Jeffry W. Myers
More photos are posted on the Photos page of this website.
It was a beautiful event! More than 650 people gathered at Saint Mark's on the evening of November 6 to share in this celebration of Earth Community. With ritual art, visual art, music, dance, storytelling and spoken word we created a spiritual container strong enough to hold our sorrows for the suffering of our world and our yearnings for a new way to live in relation to the Tree of Life. We traveled an arc of emotion from gratitude, through grief, and out into joy. Maybe we created something new, a prototype of the kind of ritual that can help with the shift of consciousness, or change of heart, we need to navigate the Great Turning. We heard from Joanna Macy that even though the troubles of our world can be too ugly and frightening to encounter alone, we can face them if we link arms, together we can do it. We heard from Michael Meade that this time of change—of turning—is not something new, that the old stories tell of worlds ending many times in our cultural histories and the wisdom of those stories is still available to us. One thing we can do is gather around the Tree of Life and dance. And that's what we did.
I hope it was the first of many annual events.
Many people came together to create this remarkable event. Click here (pdf) to see the full list of participants. Special thanks to Joanna Macy, Michael Meade, Gina Sala, and Betsey Beckman, Char Sundust, April Sotura and all the other musicians, dancers, visual artists, technical experts, volunteers, supporters, donors and committee members. And many thanks to the staff and congregation of Saint Mark's for hosting this interfaith spiritual event in the sacred space of the cathedral.
For some upcoming Great Turning events, see Next Steps (pdf).
Drawings done during the event by Deborah Koff-Chapin are posted on the Drawings page of this website.
If you want to offer comments or reflections on the event, please email them to me at mollybee@clearwire.net and let me know if we can post them on this website.
Blessings of the Tree of Life to all beings!
--Molly Brown