“Ecology of Awakening is designed to evoke an integral consciousness rooted in the ecological interdependence of humanity with Earth systems. The educational processes EOA utilizes are fully grounded in contemporary science as well as the sensorial, intuitive, mythic, poetic, and nonrational dimensions of human consciousness. Participants in EOA programs speak of being reborn, of entering a new and more vital form of consciousness. It is not too much to assert that they are entering a new era of human history.
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The Underlying Premise
Ecology of Awakening programs begin with the recognition that life is self-organizing and knows what it’s doing. As Cosmologist Brian Thomas Swimme says, “Take hydrogen and leave it alone for 13.7 billion years and it turns into rosebushes, giraffes and humans.” Our approach is to become more adept at listening and responding to this emergent creative force – our own deepest nature – and to directly engage with how Life – God – Spirit (whatever one’s particular name for ‘That’ is) speaks to and through each of us. The program as a whole is deeply inclusive, facilitating transformation for those who hold religious as well as secular views, as the work is about what it is to be fully human, no matter our beliefs or self-definitions. The invitation is towards a new way of listening and responding, in alignment and partnership with nature – the natural world as well as our own deepest nature. In this mysterious and fertile ground where our own creativity and the larger unfolding meet, we unlock our waiting potential and discover the way our unique expression fits into the deep needs of our time.
The Framework
Ecology of Awakening is not a model or prescriptive formula. Rather, it is a framework made up of unfolding elements that create an ecology that supports a new way of being. All of our programs are anchored by a holistic curriculum that integrates ideas and practices from various fields to produce transformative change. By design, our retreats - set within a variety of spectacular California ecosystems - are small to facilitate an optimum environment for engagement between guides and participants to support enduring change. A few of the unique aspects to our programs include:
“How can we be stewards of the Earth if we don’t know how to listen to her? How can we heal the planet if we don’t heal ourselves and our brothers and sisters as a part of that process? This is where the vital work of Ecology of Awakening comes in. ”
Exploration of cross cultural Earth-based wisdom to discover your unique way of being in relationship with the living Earth, ceremony and ritual.
Immersion into deep ecology and living systems in order to support our ability to think and act like an ecosystem: in partnership and alignment with Life
Community time including council practice and dreamwork to support us in actively engaging with what is dreaming and calling to us individually and collectively
Deep listening and attunement, including inner and outer tracking and intentional solo time on the land
Somatic resiliency work to increase our innate vibrancy, strengthen our ability to navigate change and build our capacity to stay present and available, to ourselves and each other.
Deep nourishment with local, seasonal and organic meals offered on site by our fabulous chef Nora with her ever healing, beaming presence
The intimacy of working within a small group of up to 16
Embodied Transformation
While many of us are conscious of the need to move beyond the habits and patterns of our collective trance and sense of separation, it is one thing to know this intellectually and another to realize it in the very fabric of our being. The journey is not always comfortable as we often become disoriented in the ‘space between’ where our old way of being in the world is no longer viable, yet the new way has not yet emerged. The journey is a process, and it takes allies to collectively shed the old and live into our essential nature and inherent place amidst the whole. Connection with the land and active facilitation from the guides and the village community create a vibrant ecology that supports participants in moving beyond an intellectual understanding, to the realization and sustained embodiment of what it is to act in alignment with life, community, and equity for all beings.
In order to honor the unique process that occurs for each person, we have designed our programs to meet participants where they are, allowing for a myriad of responses. Our programs are especially for you if you:
Yearn to align with the cultural and planetary shift of these times and to live in a way that is life enhancing rather than life destroying
Have awakened (or are awakening) beyond the personal and cultural framework that shaped you and are opening to the vast mystery that seeks to unfold, within and without
Find yourself in the “space between stories” and are looking to become more adept in listening and responding to the visible and unseen world
Have awakened or are in the process of awakening to your inherent nature and are learning to live from this place in a more consistent and sustained way
Are ready to shift from trying to move through the world to allowing the world to move through you
Have outgrown other "paths" and peak experiences and seek to discover a more consistent and resilient way of being in their lives and communities
Recognize that the shift we are being asked to make occurs in community and that you are not alone
Sense the possibility of a deeper freedom and long to remember your place amidst the unfolding fabric of life