“We live in a time between worlds; a time of almost unbearable intensity, potential, and change.”
– Zak Stein

What if we could engage this intensity as a strong motivation to access our capacity to change our perspective and way-of-being-together … in service of cultivating clarity, courage, compassion, and connection?

What if we could access the potential of sensing beyond the limitations of paralyzing fear and heedless rage into action sourced in the strength of radical care and profound wisdom?

What if we could change the field of engagement from destructive reactivity to life-affirming responsibility?  

“The future will not be shared by code or policy, but by the quality of our imagination and the values it serves.”
– Steffi Bednarek

While there is no map for meeting what is emerging in today’s world, there is, however, guidance from wisdom traditions and previous cultures for navigating challenges, grief, and feeling alone. 

• From quantum physics, there is new, paradigm-shifting information that points to a different perspective of how-things-work. 

• From the natural world, there are teachings from thousands of years of adaptation to change by living systemically, in co-collaboration, to produce healthy eco-systems that affirm Life, creativity, diversity, and adaptation. 

• From the uncertainty of collapse, there is an arc of possibility –  increasing complexity and connectivity in which the Universe continues to evolve in a field of infinite potential.

We stand in the crossroads. Every living being is feeling and being affected by it. In one way or another, aloud or silently, we are experiencing the tension and discomfort of being pulled between former habits, assumptions, and perspectives, along with the possibility of stepping into the unknown territory of a different way-of-being with ourselves, each other, and the world in which we live.

Naturally, questions arise:
Who am I now? Who am I becoming?
What do I say to my children and grandchildren?
When will the chaos and destruction end?
Where do I go when I am lost in where I am?
How do I be in-relationship with these all these circumstances?

“Let us learn how to migrate in the dark and return home to where we belong for nourishment. And let us move as one organism when we are called into a moment of flock consciousness.”
– Terry Tempest Williams

Throughout this course of shared navigation, images from the Hubble Telescope offer us a map of transformation, as we engage through the lens of Deep Time and Deep Adaptation perspectives through:

• Contemplative exploration of the natural process of evolution;

• Guided meditations to access inner resources;

• Somatic and energetic practices that cultivate a steady mind and open heart;

• Reflective writing to process and integrate internal and external changing;

• Relational perspectives that support a larger, Deep Time perspective;

• Creative expression of what is emerging from the emergency;

• Engagements with the more-than-human world that deepen our sense of belonging and open us to receiving teachings from forms of Life that have survived and evolved through multiple planetary collapses ... long before we homo sapiens even arrived ...

       … We learn and practice together stabilizing our inner worlds as we move through major outer transitions.

Join us as we find our seats in the Inflection Point of Liminality ...

… As we source our choices and actions from a foundational and inspired place… 

… In service of shifting into cultivating a new paradigm, a new story of relationality, and

a new vision of what’s possible in the middle of the storm. 

This shift is the orientation that we practice in this course.

Again and again
some people wake up.
They have no ground in the crowd
and they emerge according to broader laws
They carry strange customs with them,
And demand room for bold gestures.

The future speaks ruthlessly through them.
– Rainer Maria Rilke

In order to have agency, one must first have awareness.

Join us as we explore where we are, how we want to be, and what is possible, as we are in the hurricane … navigating, experimenting, learning, unlearning, and catching our breath … together.

Teacher: Marianne Rowe with guests Stephan Martin & Cliff Berrien
Every other Tuesday, Feb. 3 - Apr. 14
5:30-7:00 pm (Pacific)

Cost:
$250 – Supporter (I want to offer more support to this important work.)
$200 – Regular (I can pay at the regular level.)
$125 – Partial Scholarship (Money is tight. I can pay at this level.)

This course meets online via Zoom, with additional components on our online community platform. When you register, we’ll send you the details to access the session on Zoom.

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Marianne Rowe

As a humane being, co-founding teacher of Monterey Bay Meditation Studio, and licensed marriage and family therapist, Marianne is dedicated to cultivating eco-systemic consciousness and living in-cahoots with Earth, Cosmos, and Life in all forms. Marianne’s insatiable love of learning has led her into certifications as a nature & forest therapy guide, eco-therapist, California naturalist, and Authentic Relating facilitator, along with certifications in eco-psychology, climate stewardship and climate psychology. She has been practicing meditation since the last century and teaching mindfulness meditation to children and adults since 2006.
Her sense of belonging and aliveness is sourced and deepened through walks, sits, and gazing with the Pacific Ocean, forest, night skies, along with evolutionary, envisioning conversations with beloved friends and colleagues. Read more

Cliff Berrien

Cliff is a lifelong learner dedicated to learning about drumming, creativity and contemplation, and how to honor life and the Council of All Beings in a good way. He’s had the honor to work with Dr. Barbara A. Holmes, focusing on the liberatory and powerful somatic contributions of music, movement and art emerging from the African Diaspora. He’s here to joyfully share wondrous things that he’s learned and experienced.

Stephan Martin

Stephan is an astronomer, educator, and author who has taught astronomy, physics and consciousness studies at colleges, universities, and learning centers across the US for over 25 years. He is currently adjunct faculty in the Consciousness and Transformative Studies program at John F. Kennedy University and also co-director of the continuing care program at the Center for Spiritual Emergence in Asheville, NC where he assists clients in living more conscious lives from an expansive perspective. Steve frequently offers experiential workshops on stargazing, astronomy and personal transformation at observatories, learning centers, and other popular veneers around the world. He is the author of Cosmic Conversations: Dialogues on the Nature of the Universe and the Search for Reality.

This offering is part of the Evolution of Consciousness/Spirituality, Mindfulness/Meditation, Outdoor Engagement, Relationship with Earth and All Beings, and Healing and Liberation MBMS Currents.