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
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