Home / Archives

Archives

EarthSpirit Rising: Return to Earth Wisdom

June 8-10, 2007
Bellarmine University, Louisville, KY

We live in a time of great change. We are just beginning to move from competition to partnership, from greed to caring, from a place of wanting to a sense of sufficiency, from seeing the world from a mechanistic view to seeing the world as a living system, and very importantly, from perceiving life as based in separateness to seeing life as based in wholeness and interconnectedness.

This shift is a change toward Earth Wisdom. It represents a movement towards recognizing that nature provides the ultimate answers to the questions of our times.

Plenary Speakers

Michael Dowd on Evolution’s Arrow and the Future of Humanity. He is a charismatic preacher, teacher and evolutionary theologian. He is author of EarthSpirit: A Handbook for Nurturing an Ecological Christianity and Thank God For Evolution

Paul Rogat Loeb on Soul of a Citizen: Hope in a Time of Fear. He is the author of The Impossible Will Take a Little While: A Citizen’s Guide to Hope in a Time of Fear and Soul of a Citizen: Living With Conviction in a Cynical Time. He has written about social involvement for the New York Times and many other magazines as well as lecturing at 300 colleges and numerouns national conferences.

Kirkpatrick Sale on Erectus Consicousness. He is the author of a dozen books, including Human Scale and Dwellers in the Land: The Bioregional Vision. He is contributing editor to The Nation and is the Director of the Middlebury Institute “for the study of separatism, secession, and self-determination.”

Jim Schenk on Earth Spirituality and Action. He organized the first EarthSpirit Rising Conference in 1998 and has continued as a chairperson for the five subsequent conferences. He co-founded Imago, Inc., an ecological education organization in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1978. He is coordinator of the Enright Ridge Urban Eco-village in Cincinnati. His new book, What Does God Look Like in an Expanding Universe?, an anthology, comes out of his Earth/Spirit interest and connection.

Jane Siberry on Harmony. Now known as Issa, is a pure, prolific, Canadian vocalist and composer. Her catalogue of work includes eleven recordings that range from ethereal pop to spiritual. Her recordings include Map of the World and Calling All Angels, which is featured in several film and television programs including Pay it Forward.

Starhawk on Holding the Vision: Keeping Our Spirit and Courage Alive. She is one of the most respected voices in modern earth-based spirituality. She is also well-known as a global justice activist and organizer, wholse work and writings have inspired many to actionl. She is the author or coauthor of ten books, including The Spiral Dance: A Rebirth of the Ancient Religion of the Great Goddess, long considered the essential text for the Neo-Pagan movement. Her newest book is The Earth Path: Grounding your Spirit in the Rhythms of Nature.

Margaret Wheatley on Earth’s True Wisdom: Relationships Are All There Is. She is a writer, teacher and speaks about new practices and ideas for organizing in chaotic times. She has been an organizational consultant for many years, a professor of management and an author. Her books include Finding Our Way: Leadership for an Uncertain Time; and the award-winning Leadership and the New Science.

Pre-Conference Presentations

Margaret Wheatley – From Hero to Host; Leadership that Fosters Capacity for Postive Change

Michael Dowd and Connie Barlow – The Great Story: Gleanings from 5 Years on the Road

Starhawk – Earth as Teacher, Earth as Healer

EarthSpirit Rising: A Conference on Ecology, Spirituality, and Community

June 8-10, 2005
Xavier University, Cincinnati, OH

We live in a time of crisis – crisis of Earth, crisis of Spirit and crisis of Community. Many of us have come to recognize dimensions that must be addressed as a whole. It is only through understand the deep interconnections between Earth, Spirit and Community that we will be able to transform this time of crisis into a time of Hope. EarthSpirit Rising 2005 explores the connections between ecology and spirituality through the lens of community.

Plenary Speakers

Matthew Fox on From Tribalism to Interfaith and Interbeing: The Basis for Sustainable Community - An Episcopal priest is founder and president of the University of Creation Spirituality in Oakland, CA. He is author of 23 books including the best-selling Original Blessings, The Coming of the Cosmic Christ and Reinvention of Work.

Winona LaDuke on Redefining Relationships: Indigenous Thinking and Work for the New Millennium, is an Ojibwe enrolled member of the Mississippi Band Anishinaabeg who lives and works on the White Earth Reservation. As Program Director of the Honor the Earth Fund, she works on national level to advocate and raise public support for frontline native environmental groups. She has written extensively on Native American and environmental issues including All Our Relations. In 2000 she was the United States vice-presidential candidate for the Green Party.

Frances Moore Lappe on Using our Power to Create Healthy Communities. She is the author and coauthor of 14 books, including the 3 million copy bestseller Diet for a Small Planet. Her most recent book is You Have the Power: Choosing Courage in a Culture of Fear. She is co-founder of two national organizations, Food First and the Small Planet Institute.

Miriam Therese MacGillis on Gathering the Community in Deep Time, is a member of the Dominican Sisters of Caldwell, NJ, and lives and works at Genesis Farm which she co-founded in 1980. The farm practices biodynamic methods of agriculture and a CSA. She was program coordinator and art editor of the Whole Earth Papers. She currently coordinates programs exploring the work of Thomas Berry, including a new graduate and undergraduate accredited Earth Literacy program at Genesis Farm.

John Seed on Our Larger Community: All Species of the Cenozoic Era, is founder and director of the Rainforest Information Center in Australia and has been involved in the protection of the Australian rainforests since 1979. He is a writes, lectures on deep ecology. Seed’s Councils of All Beings and other re-Earthing rituals help end people‘s sense of alienation from the living Earth. With others, he wrote Thinking Like a Mountain.

Malidoma Some on Reflections on the Global Community. His name means “being friends with the stranger/enemy”. He was born in Burkina Faso, West Africa. At age four, he was taken by a Jesuit priest and raised in a remote seminary. Fifteen years later he fled the seminary and walked 125 miles back to his home. Once there he was looked on with suspicion. He was a man of two worlds and home in neither. At peril to his life Malidoma underwent the challenge of Dagara tribal initiation. It was this intense ritual experience that allowed him to integrate his ancestral past and cultural present. Today he is regarded as a diviner, medicine man, and initiated elder in his country and around the world. He is author of several books including: Ritual; Power, Healing and Community of Water and the Spirit.

Featured Presenters

Diana Leafe Christian - Author of Creating a Life Together: Practical Tools to Grow an Eco-village or Intentional Community. Editor of Communities Magazine since 1993. She is a member of Earthhaven eco-village in North Carolina.

Pre-Conference Presentations

Diana Leafe Christian – Ecovillages: How to Visit, Evaluate, Join or Start your Own.

John Seed – Council of All Beings.

Winona LaDuke – Front Line Native Struggles for Religious and Cultural Freedom.

EarthSpirit Rising: A Conference Celebrating Earth as Teacher

June 25-27, 2004
Midway College, Lexington, KY

Earth is constantly speaking. Just as we are capable of listening to each other, we can also listen to the stories, sounds, moods, and wisdom of the natural world. In every way, whether we are conscious of it or not, Earth is constantly communicating. Earth is teaching us about our 4 billion year heritage as a planet in the solar system. Earth is teaching us about our place in the Milky Way galaxy. Earth is teaching us about our individual and collective roles as humans in an interdependent universe. Earth has shaped our bodies and minds through billion of years of emergent, evolutionary creativity. Earth enables our being The vastness, complexity, and diversity of our living planet has ignited within us emotion and imagination. It is through Earth we learn to live and grow. It is through Earth we discover what inspires, feeds and sustains us.

This conference, will celebrate Earth as teacher. We will explore modalities for listening to Earth and encourage ways to live more aligned with Earth’s teaching.

Plenary Speakers

Diarmuid O’Murchu – A priest and social psychologist with a special interest in paradigm shifts in the fields of theology and spirituality. He divides his time between working with the homeless in London’s East End, facilitating workshops and writing very provocative books from a multi-disciplinary point of view. His works include: Quantum Theology, Our World in Transition, Making Sense of a Changing World, Evolutionary Faith, and Rediscovering God in Our Great Story.

Connie Barlow – A correspondent for Wild Earth magazine, and founding organizer of the Epic of Evolution Society. She is a science writer, naturalist and author of four books exploring how scientific understanding draw from evolutionary biology and ecology backgrounds can foster eco-spiritual worldviews. Her most recent books are: Green Space, Green Time: The Way of Science and the Ghosts of Evolution.

EarthSpirit Rising: Earth Wisdom, Elder Wisdom: A Council of Earth Elders

September 22-25, 2002
YMCA Blue Ridge Assembly, Black Mountain, NC

The Earth is calling for a new human presence within the Earth Community; one that will spark a transformation of our hearts and minds, and kindle a spirit renewal that will deepen our kinship with all life.

Listening to the Earth’s Wisdom, we invite you to bring your passion, fascinations, dreamings, wisdom and questions. Join us as we come together to share, inspire and learn from each other, and ask how we as Earth Elders can help this culture reconnect with the Earth.

Plenary Speakers

Thomas Berry– Thomas was born in the North Carolina hill country at the beginning of the First World War and educated as a Catholic priest. He is an historian of cultures, a highly respected author and public speaker, an environmental activist and poet. Berry was among the first to recognize the Earth crisis is fundamentally a spiritual crisis. He believes fulfillment of the role Earth Elder bestows upon elders a sense of profound personal significance, a sense of fulfilling an historical role; ultimately of being a participant in the larger dynamics of he planet Earth and of the Universes itself. He is author of The Dream of the Earth and The Great Work. He co-authored The Universe Story with Brian Swimme.

Brooke Medicine Eagle – A Native American Earth Wisdom teacher, Brook is a ceremonial leader, sacred ecologist, Feng Shui practitioner, and sustainable buffalo rancher. Her beauty way awakens physical and spiritual health, offers Native American music and chants, promotes ritual honoring of Earth cycles, provides women’s mystery teachings, and creates a sustainable, holy path for two-leggeds to walk. She is the founder of the FlowerSong Project. She authored several books; among them are Buffalo Woman Comes Singing and her most recent book The Last Ghost Dance.

Miriam Therese MacGillis – is a member of the Dominical Sisters of Caldwell, NJ, and lives and works at Genesis Farm which she co-founded in 1980. The farm practices biodynamic methods of agriculture and a CSA. She was program coordinator and art editor of the Whole Earth Papers. She currently coordinates programs exploring the work of Thomas Berry, including a new graduate and undergraduate accredited Earth Literacy program at Genesis Farm.

Howard Hanger – As weaver of rituals Howard facilitated the gathering’s opening, closing and Open Space Rituals. He is the founder and minister of Ritual of the JUBILEE community in Asheville, NC. Howard is a jazz musician and tours extensively, playing about 55 elementary schools and community concerts each year. He has written hundreds of musical pieces ranging from children’s songs to full symphony. His newest albums are “Dog Breath and Other Mind-Boggling Hits for Kids” and “Be Still My Soul.” Howard is a widely sought-after speaker and worship leader.

EarthSpirit Rising: A Conference on Ecology, Spirituality, and the Great Work

June, 2001
Bellarmine University, Louisville, KY

EarthSpirit Rising is both a conference and a great historic moment. It signifies a time when kindred spirits from all over join together in celebration of the Universe Story. It also affirms the Great Work we have before us.

We each have our own individual Great Work of caring for our families, friends, and communities. Equally important, we now have our collective Great Work of bringing dominant human power into balance with the rest of creation. This is our challenge and destiny. The conference gathers scientists, spiritual leaders, artists, and environmental activists to courageously provide inspiration and practicalities for journey ahead.

Plenary Speakers

Brian Swimme – A mathematical cosmologist on the graduate faculty of the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco. He published works including The Universe Story written with Thomas Berry, The Universe is a Green Dragon, and Hidden Heart of the Cosmos.

Matthew Fox - An Episcopal priest and founder and president of the University of Creation Spirituality in Oakland, CA. He is author of 23 books including the best-selling Original Blessings, The Coming of the Cosmic Christ and Reinvention of Work.

Connie Barlow – A correspondent for Wild Earth magazine, and founding organizer of the Epic of Evolution Society. She is a science writer, naturalist and author of four books exploring how scientific understanding draw from evolutionary biology and ecology backgrounds can foster eco-spiritual worldviews. Her most recent books are Green Space, Green Time: The Way of Science and Ghosts of Evolution.

Miriam Therese MacGillis – A member of the Dominican Sisters of Caldwell, NJ, and lives and works at Genesis Farm which she co-founded in 1980. The farm practices biodynamic methods of agriculture and a CSA. She was program coordinator and art editor of the Whole Earth Papers. She currently coordinates programs exploring the work of Thomas Berry, including a new graduate and undergraduate accredited Earth Literacy program at Genesis Farm.

John Seed – Founder and director of the Rainforest Information Center in Australia and has been involved in protection of the Australian rainforests since 1979. He is a writer, lecturer on deep ecology and activist. Seed’s Council of All Beings and other re-Earthing rituals help end people‘s sense of alienation from the living Earth. With others, he wrote Thinking Like a Mountain.

Post Conference

Council of Elders, June 18-20, 2001 - A yearning burns in the human spirit to live harmoniously with ourselves, other beings, nature, and our planet. The yearning for these values runs throughout human history. Now, Elders have the right and the responsibility to be elders. It is our collective wisdom that can bring new values to our culture.

With: Connie Mahoney, Miriam Therese MacGillis, Jim Schenk and Dick Haid

Discussions by Open Space Technology and concluded with Commissioning as Earth Elders.

EarthSpirit Rising: A Midwest Conference on Healing and Celebrating Planet Earth

College of Mt. St. Joseph, Cincinnati, OH

Until recently, the spiritual dimension of the ecological crisis has been largely ignored. Today, this is changing. At the heart of EarthSpirit Rising is the conviction that the spiritual dimension of life offers the greatest untapped reservoir of power, imagination and courage for meeting the challenge of calling people to a new relationship with the Earth. We must transform the human heart and mind, a spiritual transformation that deepens our kinship with all life. We must create a new vision of human presence within the Earth community. We must learn to live holding the Earth and its people as sacred.

Plenary Speakers

David Abram on A More Than Human World. Ecologist, anthropologist, philosopher and magician. Abram’s writings have helped catalyze the emerging field of ecopsychology. He authored The Spell of the Sensuous.

John Seed on Transforming the Culture, Reconnecting with the Earth. Writer lecturer on deep ecology and activist. Seed’s Councils of All Beings and other re-Earthing rituals help end peoples’ sense of alienation from the living Earth. With others, he wrote Thinking Like a Mountain.

Rosemary Radford Ruether on Earth Healing, A Feminist Perspective. She is a professor of theology and has written or edited over 32 books including Gaia and God and Women Healing Earth.

Dennis Banks on Celebrating the Earth – Native American leader, member of the Anishinabe Nation, teacher, lecturer and author. He founded the American Indian Movement (AIM) in 1968 and the Sacred Run Foundation in 1978, reviving the tradition of spiritual running.

David Orr on Applied Spirituality and Ecology. Professor and Chair of the Environmental Studies Program at Oberlin College, in Ohio. He authored Earth in Mind and Ecological Literacy.

Paula Gonzalez on Healing and Celebrating the Earth Together. Futurist, educator, environmentalist. Paula has offered over 1200 talks, seminars and retreats on Futuring and Planetary Awareness. She has authored audiocassette mini-courses. She founded the Cincinnati-based EarthConnection, a center for learning and reflection about living lightly on Earth.

Pre/Post Conference

Jenny Trier - Shamanic Techniques

David Abram and Bill Cahalan - Deep Ecology, Awakening to the Animate Earth

John Seed - Council of All Beings