A New Cosmic Story
With Brian Thomas Swimme, Geneen Marie Haugen, Bill Plotkin, Marilyn Strong, Monica DeRaspe-Bolles and Clara Lindstrom
Open Dates
Program is fully booked
Saturday, July 6, 2024
“If humanity is to escape the stranglehold of the lonely
king-of-the-mountain materialism that licenses planetary destruction,
it will be when we all tell a new story about who we are and how we come
to be in the universe expanding around and within us.”
-Kathleen Dean Moore
Join us for this inaugural, annual celebration of the New Cosmic Story with evolutionary cosmologists, Earth mystics, and soulcraft guides to the mysteries of nature and psyche. We’ll share insights, conversation, and experiential offerings that have roots in the wisdom of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Thomas Berry, and Carl Jung. Weaving together mythopoetics, science, spirituality, and embodied practices, this event will further animate the creativity we all need to “reinvent the human at the species level,” as Thomas Berry advocated. Our time together will include presentation, discussion, solo wanderings on the land, cosmological rituals, song, group rhythm and dance.
Sponsored by the Center for Knowing Home at the Whidbey Institute
The featured artwork at the event is by Whidbey Island artist, Jerry Wennstrom. Defining the four directions in the evening’s ritual event are life size figurative sculptures entitled, “Earth, Air Fire and Water” as well as other works. For more information about Jerry Wennstrom’s art see:
Faculty
Brian Thomas Swimme
My long life has been a search for an understanding of the universe rooted in both mathematical science and spiritual wisdom. Cosmogenesis: An Unveiling of the Expanding Universe is my latest update. Learn more at my website: https://storyoftheuniverse.org
Learn more about Brian Thomas Swimme
My long life has been a search for an understanding of the universe rooted in both mathematical science and spiritual wisdom. Cosmogenesis: An Unveiling of the Expanding Universe is my latest update. Learn more at my website: https://storyoftheuniverse.org
Learn more about Brian Thomas Swimme
Geneen Marie Haugen
Geneen grew up a little wild, with a run amok imagination. Her matrilineal ancestors are the indigenous Sami of the European Arctic. A content creator and guide to the intertwined mysteries of nature and psyche with the Animas Valley Institute (www.animas.org), she has been on the faculty of the Esalen Institute and Schumacher College. Her writing has appeared in Spiritual Ecology: The Cry of the Earth; Thomas Berry: Dreamer of the Earth; Parabola; Kosmos Journal; Ecopsychology; and many others. She believes in the world-shifting potential of the human imagination allied with the planetary psyche.
Learn more about Geneen Marie Haugen
Geneen grew up a little wild, with a run amok imagination. Her matrilineal ancestors are the indigenous Sami of the European Arctic. A content creator and guide to the intertwined mysteries of nature and psyche with the Animas Valley Institute (www.animas.org), she has been on the faculty of the Esalen Institute and Schumacher College. Her writing has appeared in Spiritual Ecology: The Cry of the Earth; Thomas Berry: Dreamer of the Earth; Parabola; Kosmos Journal; Ecopsychology; and many others. She believes in the world-shifting potential of the human imagination allied with the planetary psyche.
Learn more about Geneen Marie Haugen
Bill Plotkin
Bill is a depth psychologist, wilderness guide, and agent of cultural evolution. As founder of western Colorado’s Animas Valley Institute (1981), he has guided thousands of people through nature-based initiatory passages and trains soul initiation guides. Previously, he has been a research psychologist (studying non-ordinary states of consciousness), professor of psychology, psychotherapist, rock musician, and whitewater river guide. Bill is the author of Soulcraft, Nature and the Human Soul, Wild Mind, and The Journey of Soul Initiation. His doctorate is in psychology from the University of Colorado at Boulder. Learn more about Bill and his work at http://www.animas.org
Learn more about Bill Plotkin
Bill is a depth psychologist, wilderness guide, and agent of cultural evolution. As founder of western Colorado’s Animas Valley Institute (1981), he has guided thousands of people through nature-based initiatory passages and trains soul initiation guides. Previously, he has been a research psychologist (studying non-ordinary states of consciousness), professor of psychology, psychotherapist, rock musician, and whitewater river guide. Bill is the author of Soulcraft, Nature and the Human Soul, Wild Mind, and The Journey of Soul Initiation. His doctorate is in psychology from the University of Colorado at Boulder. Learn more about Bill and his work at http://www.animas.org
Learn more about Bill Plotkin
Marilyn Strong
Marilyn is a former Director of Education at The Chinook Learning Center, where she studied with Thomas Berry in the early 1980’s, and holds an MA in Spirituality and Culture from Matthew Fox’s Institute in Culture and Creation Spirituality, where she studied with Brian Thomas Swimme in 1986. As a Jungian-oriented spiritual counselor, an ordained minister, a ceremonialist, a singer, and a trained Death Midwife, Marilyn leads workshops, facilitates weddings, memorial services, and home and family funerals. After years of exploration and teaching on the Divine Feminine, she currently offers on-line courses and leads small groups of women on pilgrimage…
Learn more about Marilyn Strong
Marilyn is a former Director of Education at The Chinook Learning Center, where she studied with Thomas Berry in the early 1980’s, and holds an MA in Spirituality and Culture from Matthew Fox’s Institute in Culture and Creation Spirituality, where she studied with Brian Thomas Swimme in 1986. As a Jungian-oriented spiritual counselor, an ordained minister, a ceremonialist, a singer, and a trained Death Midwife, Marilyn leads workshops, facilitates weddings, memorial services, and home and family funerals. After years of exploration and teaching on the Divine Feminine, she currently offers on-line courses and leads small groups of women on pilgrimage…
Learn more about Marilyn Strong
Monica DeRaspe-Bolles
Monica is a doctoral student at CIIS in the Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness program. Her area of research is the “Third Story of the Universe” and the potential emergence of a new structure of experience fostering cosmogenic awakening. She and Brian Thomas Swimme collaborated to write the video series “Story of the Noosphere” and its forthcoming companion book. Monica lives on the Pilchuck River in Snohomish, Washington amidst her children, her grandchildren, and the family she has led in business for decades. “Why is the New Cosmic Story so important from your perspective?” The New Cosmic Story holds immense significance…
Learn more about Monica DeRaspe-Bolles
Monica is a doctoral student at CIIS in the Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness program. Her area of research is the “Third Story of the Universe” and the potential emergence of a new structure of experience fostering cosmogenic awakening. She and Brian Thomas Swimme collaborated to write the video series “Story of the Noosphere” and its forthcoming companion book. Monica lives on the Pilchuck River in Snohomish, Washington amidst her children, her grandchildren, and the family she has led in business for decades. “Why is the New Cosmic Story so important from your perspective?” The New Cosmic Story holds immense significance…
Learn more about Monica DeRaspe-Bolles
Clara Lindstrom
Clara is an archetypal astrologer, community-weaver, and spiritual guide. Her background includes an MA and doctoral work in Transpersonal Psychology from the California Institute of Integral Studies, where she studied with Stan Grof, Rick Tarnas, Joanna Macy, and Brian Swimme, among others. Her twelve years at CIIS were also spent creating and hosting community gatherings and dance events. Drawn to liminal spaces since childhood, Clara’s work with Zen Hospice led to her becoming trained in psychedelic guiding and Hakomi therapy. She feels honored to witness the universe unfold as she helps individuals navigate significant thresholds and expanded states of consciousness.…
Learn more about Clara Lindstrom
Clara is an archetypal astrologer, community-weaver, and spiritual guide. Her background includes an MA and doctoral work in Transpersonal Psychology from the California Institute of Integral Studies, where she studied with Stan Grof, Rick Tarnas, Joanna Macy, and Brian Swimme, among others. Her twelve years at CIIS were also spent creating and hosting community gatherings and dance events. Drawn to liminal spaces since childhood, Clara’s work with Zen Hospice led to her becoming trained in psychedelic guiding and Hakomi therapy. She feels honored to witness the universe unfold as she helps individuals navigate significant thresholds and expanded states of consciousness.…
Learn more about Clara Lindstrom
