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Visionary Permaculture : CoSM Full Moon Workshop

Visionary Permaculture : CoSM Full Moon Workshop 

After a circle of intentions we pilgrimaged, like so many  before us, to the upper field where the old church bell was wrung three times and a talk on the ethics and ethos of permaculture was given from the pulpit. We discussed how to live in closer alignment to our values, become more conscious consumers and help make the Great Transition into the harmonic future civilization our hearts know is possible.

 

Contemplating the nature field at CoSM, our group observed some the brilliant design principles from nature that have allowed our Gaian Operating System to evolve so successfully over 3.9 billion years. We mused on how to use natural principle in our lives, feeding what we want to grow.

Our journey included a holistic look at the current civilization based on degenerative resources that are causing great harm to us and our world. We discussed the transition towards more sustainable, and ultimately regenerative, resources as individuals, communities and cultures.

Applying permaculture principles to urban and suburban design, inspired by the Placemaking movement in Portland, we did four design charettes imagining the transformation of the broken social ecologies in our cities back the relocalized and resilient thriving villages of our future-past.

The class climaxed with a rant exploring the four fold path of permaculture, learning, doing, sharing and teaching including a tour through core teachings of many elder Pioneers of the Permaculture Movement.

Closing with a circle of intentions, our visionary permaculture learning guild shared an interest in the conscious evolution of many aspects of life including health and diet, gardening and farming, consumption patterns, educational pathways and spiritual practices.

The workshop concluded with a delicious, healthy dinner, followed by an amazing Full Moon Ceremony and Community Gathering under the full moon deep into the night.

The third visionary permaculture design certification course will be offered at CoSM in the spring of 2016. Visit : https://www.z2systems.com/np/clients/cosm/event.jsp?event=1559

Or contact delvin@cosm.org for more details.

Thanks to John Harris for the visionary photography.

Visionary Permaculture with Delvin Solkinson

Visionary Permaculture Design Certificate Class of 2014/2015

The second Visionary Permaculture Design Certificate Course at CoSM was just completed. A Learning Guild was assembled at CoSM for a few days in each of the four seasons to learn about how nature designs itself and how to become a regenerative designers themselves.

Permaculture studies how traditional and modern peoples design home, gardens, farms, communities and landscapes using Ecological Design principles which care for the Earth, it’s People and it’s Future.

This Visionary Permaculture Cartography Wing has worked together to become conscious of the CoSM land. They continue exploring and documenting the plants and animals as well as the energies and influences that pass through it, including sun, wind, water, sound, views and smells. There were workshops on beekeeping, mushroom cultivation, medicine making as well as the ethnobotany and land use practices of the First Peoples.

The year long course exploring the permaculture post-paradigm generated many ideas for possible future designs at CoSM, both of the visible structures including land and buildings, as well as the invisible organizational structures.

The visionary permaculture learning ring set up a learning installation in the Parlour Library of the CoSM Grey House. This includes two custom tomes which serve as ecological guidebooks to CoSM through the permaculture philter. These work with a permaculture wing of the CoSM library containing books on four season organic gardening and id books for the plants, insects, animals and mushrooms of the land. Together they form a Visionary Permaculture Grimoire, a multidimensional toolkit for learning permaculture and contributing to this consciousness at CoSM.

Anyone can participate in the permaculture mapping and design of CoSM by observing the land, making art or taking photos of the plants, animals and landscapes or writing down their perspectives on permaculture at CoSM and emailing delvin@cosm.org

There is an introduction to visionary permaculture full moon workshop in May 2015. A third visionary permaculture design certificate course will be offered at CoSM in the new year.

Delvin Solkinson designs

Japanese Maple leafs

Medicine making

Class studying pattern language

Statuary at CoSM

Workshop on Beekeeping with Matt Dudin

Visionary Permaculture Design Game

photos : Gene Stull

Cosmic Philosophy

The Perennial Philosophy or “eternal religion” that runs through all religions, is the ground of CoSM’s integrative spirituality. The mystics of each faith affirm that the journey of our Soul, is a shifting from our fear-based defensive body/ego identity through disciplined practice of the mind evolving toward psychic awakening, and toward expansive spiritual liberation. Mystics testify to the Ultimate Reality and priority of the transcendent Voidness of the Ground of Being, yet affirm it's unity with all dimensions, emphasized as the Oneness of monotheism and the non-duality and Sunyata of Eastern Dharma traditions. As the creative director of each moment of our identity, we can choose to identify with the contractedness of the ego, or with the eternal self. The Ancient Egyptian Emerald Tablets tell us, “As Above, So Below.” Heaven is brought to earth through the imagination.

Genesis tells us that humans were “made in the image of God.” The likeness of humanity to it’s Cosmic Creator, a microcosm related to the multidimensional macrocosm, is mystical insight revealing our true identity as a sacred mirror. When we are creative, we align our being with the Cosmic Creative Force, the Source our being. In the flow of creativity, we become a node, a shining outpost of the One Being that unites all beings. "The Divine Imagination" was how Blake referred to his inner world. He made a bookplate stating “All Religions Are One,” a statement that echoes the voice of Mohammed in the Koran, “To know oneself is to know Allah.” From the perspective of oneness, planet earth is a sacred place where beings with the possibility of recognizing their Cosmic origins, can experience the miracle of life's consciousness evolution. Preserving the diversity of life on planet earth then becomes an obvious priority to ensure the continuity of gifts offered by Creator to bless the world. All mystically informed Visionary Art embody visually these essential teachings. The goal of CoSM is to build a Sanctuary of Visionary Art to support and renew the sacred creative lives of a global community.

Book plate by William Blake

Touching the Void

 

It is just our good fortune that one of the worlds experts in the subject of the Perennial Philosophy, Dana Sawyer, will be our guest at this weekend's Visionary Salon. A professor of Religion and Philosophy, expert on Asian Religions, Dana is the critically acclaimed biographer of two great luminaries in the world of consciousness investigation and spirituality: Aldous Huxley, author of The Perennial Philosophy (among many) and Huston Smith author of World Religions (among many), A truly experienced and delightful speaker, who is published widely, Dana will offer a visual tour entitled "Touching the Void: the Perennial Philosophy of Aldous Huxley, Huston Smith, Joseph Campbell, and Stanislav Grof." Join us on Saturday evening to learn about the "sanatana dharma," an 'eternal religion' implicit in both the natural world and the human spirit." Huxley called this all encompassing yet essentialized teaching “unitive knowledge," an experience reported by mystics of all traditions. We will paint and draw during the workshop, feel free to do the same. Bring art materials.

 

During the dinner break, we'll socialize around fireplaces in the Parlor and in the Library. The Mushroom Cafe will serve beverages, panninis, wraps, homemade mushroom soup and baked goods. CoSM Shop will be open.

 

Return with us to the Library after the dinner break, when we will interview Dana and address audience questions on the ultimate knowledge of reality, and essentially, who we are. www.dana-sawyer.com

Dennis McKenna at CoSM

 

Join us at CoSM for a Visionary Salon with Dennis McKenna, ethnopharmacologist, research& pharmacognosist, lecturer, author, and Director of Ethnopharmacology at Heffter Research Institute, a non-profit that investigates therapeutic uses of psychedelic medicines. Bringing us the science of cognitive liberty with his humor and grace, Dennis joins his brother, Terence McKenna, in being one of the leaders of the current psychedelic renaissance.

Don't miss this weekend of Psycho-Ethnology with dear friends.

Love,

 

Alex & Allyson

Visionary Permaculture Autumn Report

Under the October new moon, the visionary permaculture learning guild assembled at their sanctum sanctorum, the holy grounds of CoSM. Here is a short collaborative note from students in the program...We are so grateful for the community and sacred space that CoSM gives this world! So much love and happiness radiates from the team here and we are excited to spread light everywhere we go.

Our education is crystallizing more clearly into our own lives as well as our collective vision.The mushroom workshop was fabulous and inspiring to go out and teach others how to grow their own! We learned a lot about the flow of water, air, weather, and love while gaining confidence in our ability direct the flow of our landscapes and lives. We are looking forward to seeing the progress of Entheon and sharing space with you in February!

The group shared past stories and created new ones. Classes took place in the gardens, woods, and artful installations along the Wisdom Trails, and the classroom included thousands of species of plants, animals, insects and all manner of microclimates.


Exploring permaculture foundational concepts, ethics, principles, design methods, patterns, ecological understandings, strategies and techniques, the group shared in a transformative educational adventure that inspired a whole new way of viewing the world.


Learning together around so many visionary art works, class members became more conscious global citizens in a creative and artful way.


Permaculture class Fall session in the Meadow Nest.


Sharing many epic yummy and healthy meals from the incredible Amanda and her CoSM Kitchen team including Ivan, Tony and Oscar was a course highlight for all.


Martin Bridge led a series of dynamic mycology lessons, miraculously matching mushrooms shared holistically in a indoor slideshow with mushrooms found on the ground during a medicine walk on the grounds and culminating in a hands on installation of Oyster mushroom logs and coffee grounds.


Maestra permaculture herbalist Dina Falconi led a medicine walk, sharing an intimate and intentional meeting with some powerful healer plants in the CoSM environment, all of which grow throughout the cool climates as wild plants.


It was a powerful permaculture activation looking at design of homes, gardens, farms, communities and wild spaces for climate, water and the ecological crisis. Exploring permaculture principles and strategies in nature and in the invisible structures of the world, the group imbibed the permaculture post-paradigm in their own creative and visionary way as reflected in this World Tree / Core Model art done by Martin Bridge.

 
This visionary think tank combined forces to explore possible applications of permaculture to CoSM with a dynamic mapping and design charette. Permaculture's Autumn Session was a splendid, touching and emotional circle full of wisdom, gratitude, love, affirmations and conscious creativity.


Thanks to Eli Blank for the photos!

2013 Visionary Permaculture

3/7/2013 - It's the end of the winter. Spring is coming. The land is waking up at CoSM and beautiful things are going on. Check out an extraordinary few minutes on CoSM's first completed four-season Visionary Permaculture Design Course led by master teacher, Delvin Solkinson, a video created with the editing skills of Syd Masgnosis and featuring the exquisite photography of Visionary Permaculture graduate Scott Corman, who shot every photo at CoSM during the course. The first quarter of CoSM's second four-season Visionary Permaculture Design Course will begin on October 21st. Limited space is still available.

 

Join us this Sunday for Art Church. Bring art supplies and meet us in the library at 1pm for an experiential drawing meditation. Then, two creative Wizards of Woodstock, Isaac Abrams and Paul McMahon, will entertain and enlighten us about their art, music and life. Isaac Abrams' art was selected for the cover of the original 1967 book, Psychedelic Art. His work was included in the Whitney Museum exhibition "Summer of Love" and later at the MicroCoSM Gallery in Manhattan. Paul McMahon, musical shaman (a.k.a. The Rock 'N Roll Therapist), founded numerous enlightened alternative community spaces including the a-famed Mothership. As if it's not enough that Paul's paintings were exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, he is a brilliant and illuminated composer, guitarist and bard.

Love,

Alex and Allyson