permaculture

["Steve Diver" <steved@ncatark.uark.edu>]

What:   EarthSpirit Rising, A Midwest Conference on Healing
             and Celebrating Planet Earth
When:  May 22-24, 1998
Where: College of Mount St. Joseph

Background:  

The environmental crisis is worsening.  We stand at an environmental 
crossroads.  We are examining how we live so that we may consciously 
participate in the creation of a more humane and sustainable future. 

Until recently, the spiritual dimension of the ecological crisis has 
been largely ignored.  Today, this is changing.  The ecological 
crisis is being seen as a spiritual crisis of the greatest magnitude. 

We must transform the human heart and mind, a spiritual renewal that 
deepens our kinship with 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. 

In the Midwest we are in the industrial center of the country where 
jobs and money have been deified.  Here the task of transforming the 
human heart and mind to a deep kinship with the Earth sometimes looks 
insurmountable. 

Conference:  

We are planning, therefore, a Midwest Conference on Healing and 
Celebrating Planet Earth on May 22-24, 1998 in Cincinnati, Ohio.  At 
the heart of this Midwest Conference is the conviction that the 
spiritual dimension of life offers the greatest untapped reservoir of 
power, imagination and courage for meeting the challenges here in the 
Midwest, of calling people to a new relationship with the Earth.  The 
conference will emphasize an integration of ecology, psychology, 
spirituality, economics, science and the arts.  Spiritual leaders, 
religious thinkers, environmental activists and artists are being 
invited to help us find a fresh way to work for a sustainable future 
for the planet Earth.  It also will give those of us involved in 
developing an Earth/Spirit connection here in the Midwest an 
opportunity to meet, share, and support each other in our efforts.  
We have a vision of a network of ongoing support evolving from this 
event.  

We believe this conference is desparately needed in the Midwest.  
While such weekends have taken place in other parts of the country, 
this is the first time for such an event in the Midwest.  We hope you 
will be part of this exciting conference.  

Conference Presenters: 

*David Abram - deep ecologist, author of "The Spell of Sensous"
*Rosemary Radford Ruether - lecturer, author of "Gaia and God"
*David Orr - professor, lecturer, author of "Earth in Mind" &
    "Ecological Literacy"
*Paula Gonzalez - futurist, lecturer, founder of Earth Connection. 
    Author of audio tapes "Healing the Earth: An Emerging Spirituality"
*Dennis Banks - co-founder of American Indian Movement (AIM) and 
    director of the Sacred Run Foundation
*Al Fritsch - activist, director of Appalachian Science in the Public 
    Interest, author of "Down to Earth Spirituality" & "The Greening 
    of the Earth"
*Fanchon Shur - preeminent movement artist, scientist, therapist. 
    Director of the Growth in Motion Center and Fanchon Shur Ceremonial 
    Dance Theater. 
*Bill Cahalan - ecopsychologist, pastoral counselor, retreat leader. 
    Author of "Ecological Groundedness in Gestalt Therapy" 
*Paul Kittner - theologian, lecturer, peace activist, author of "One 
    Earth Many Religions: Multifaith Dialogue and Global Responsibility" 
*Michael Fogler - activist and author of "Unjobing: the Adult 
    Liberation Handbook"
*Marya Grathwold, OSF - lecturer and poet on the new story of the 
    universe
*Virginia Froehle, RSM - retreat facilitator and author of "Called 
    into Her Presence: Praying with Feminine Images of God"
*Meg Riestenberg - geologist, specializing in hillside slippage, 
    focuses on plants and rock formation in the Ohio River Basin 
    bioregion
*Steve Torma - ritualist, focalizer for Creation Spirituality, and 
    founding member of Earthaven, an ecovillage near Asheville, NC
*Don Boklage - children's program director with earth-centered focus, 
    founder of Common Ground
*Deborah Brock -storyteller, dancer, and musician

Youth Conference with Don Boklage: 

A Youth Conference will run simultaneously with the adult conference. 
 In this program youth will learn about the environment in a 
fun-filled atmosphere.  The cost is $25 per child.

Pre-Conference Workshops:  

Friday, May 22, 1998:  9 am to 4:30 pm

Deep Ecology: Awakening to the Animate Earth with David Abram 
(ecological philosopher) & Bill Cahalan (ecological psychologist)
invite you to enter the natural world as a living presence rather than
merely view it as an environment.  They will lead discussions and
outdoor activities which encourage such a sensuous awakening.  

Shamanic Technniques with Jenny Trier (psychologist, performing 
artist, Shamanic counselor) offers an experiential workshop where
participants will learn a basic Shamanic method for entering other
realities.  The awe inspiring visionary journey is used to explore a
universe otherwise known mainly through myths and dreams.  Its 
purpose is healing self, others, and the planet. 

Post-Conference Workshops: 

Monday, May 25, 1998:  9 am to 5 pm

Council of All Beings with John Seed.  The Council of All Beings is a
series of re-Earthing rituals created by John Seed and Joanna Macy to
help end the sense of alienation from the living Earth that most of us
feel, and to connect us with new sources of joy, committment and
inspiration that follow from union with our planet.  

Conference Fee(s): 

$125 pre-registered
$150 after May 1
Senior and Student discounts - 40%
6 meals, $35
Deep Ecology, $45
Shamanic Techniques, $45
Council of All Beings, $45
Youth Conference, $25

Contact: 

EarthSpirit Rising
53 Enright Avenue
Cincinnati, Ohio  45205
513-921-5124

Conference Dedication: 

This conference is dedicated to the memory of Jim Berry, found of 
"The Center for Reflection on the Second Law", brother of Thomas 
Berry.  Jim had a deep love and concern for the Earth and 
demonstrated it in his life. 

And we dedicate the conference to all those who have gone before us, 
who were models in their lives of this same deep love and concern for 
the Earth:  Teilhard de Chardin, Rachel Carson, Aldo Leopold, 
Hildegard of Bingham, and so many others.  We will invite 
participants at the conference to memorialize people who have been 
ecological models. 
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steved@ncatark.uark.edu