Face-on spiral galaxy, NGC 3351. Source: NASA


"On Winter’s Margin"
By Mary Oliver

On winter’s margin, see the small birds now
With half-forged memories come flocking home
To gardens famous for their charity.
The green globe’s broken; vines like tangled veins
Hang at the entrance to the silent wood.

With half a loaf, I am the prince of crumbs;
By snow’s down, the birds amassed will sing
Like children for their sire to walk abroad!
But what I love, is the gray stubborn hawk
Who floats alone beyond the frozen vines;
And what I dream of are the patient deer
Who stand on legs like reeds and drink that wind; -

They are what saves the world: who choose to grow
Thin to a starting point beyond this squalor.

The Collected Thoughts of Thomas Berry

Photo by Lou Niznik

We are pleased to announce a series of audio tapes from Thomas Berry!

In 1998, the cultural historian Thomas Berry released a series of perceptive reflections on our environmental crises and the Great Work of transitioning to an era of human-Earth flourishing. 

In these recordings, Berry is in conversation with Brian Thomas Swimme. The audio tapes were produced by Bruce and Pamela Bochte. We are delighted to make them available for the first time in digital form to celebrate Thomas’s inspiration for Journey of the Universe and the Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology, which just commemorated the 25th anniversary of its founding on October 20, 1998. 

We will be releasing approximately one part of these conversations per month. 

They can be heard from the Thomas Berry website and the Forum YouTube channel. 

Listen now to “Part 4: Psychic Energy for the Great Work Ahead” with introductions from John Grim and Sam King.

Cosmic Walk Resources

Upcoming Events

Mepkin Abbey 75th Anniversary Symposium Series: “Contemplative Ecology,” an event with Sam King
Mepkin Abbey
1098 Mepkin Abbey Road
Moncks Corner, SC, USA
March 15, 2024

10:00 AM – Lecture 
10:45 AM – Silent reflection time
11:00 – 11:45 AM– Reflections and Q & A
Noon – 2:00 PM – Lunch break
2:00 – 3:30 PM – Journey of the Universe Film Screening and Discussion

“Contemplative Ecology” will take participants on a holistic journey into seeing the world as what Thomas Berry calls a “communion of subjects.” At a time of climate crisis and biodiversity loss, participants will reflect on how re-membering our relationship with our creaturely kin might inspire regenerative action and the emergence of eco-spiritual communities.

This event will take place in three ways: an in-person retreat, an online Saturday event, and an in-person Saturday event.

Click here for more info and to register!

Becoming Cosmos II: An Ongoing Series of Explorative Workshops for Transforming Consciousness
With Sr. Kathleen Deignan and Scott Thompson
March 16, 2024 and April 28, 2024
The Center at Mariandale
299 N Highland Ave
Ossining, NY, USA 

Join us for this second convergence to creatively explore ways to actualize this cosmic identity through the transformational vision of Thomas Berry and Brian Swimme that inspires our work.

We will be gathering monthly during Spring 2024 at Mariandale Spiritual Center to engage this creative enterprise together.  Be part of this regenerative work of "Becoming Cosmos."

Click here for more info! 

Rites of Nature: Orion’s Spring Launch Event
April 3, 2024
Online at 12pm EDT

This webinar features leading Indian writer, Sumana Roy, in dialogue with Mary Evelyn Tucker. It will explore spiritual rituals practiced across traditions, regions, and time, to learn how the divine repeatedly centers on elements from our environments–and why. They’ll discuss the ways in which ritual, for all its rhetoric of the sacred, brings us into intimacy with nature. This conversation celebrates the recently released spring 2024 issue of Orion Magazine, “Rites of Nature,” for which Mary Evelyn wrote a preface as guest editor and to which Sumana contributed.

Sponsored by the Religion, Ecology & Expressive Culture Initiative at the Yale Institute of Sacred Music, Orion Magazine, and the Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology.  

Register here!

Biophilia: In Excelsis Art Exhibit
March 27 - May 2, 2024 
Yale Institute of Sacred Music 
406 Prospect Street 
New Haven, CT, USA 
Free Admission 
Open to the General Public

Biophilia: In Excelsis is an art exhibition that focuses on the theme of sacred ecosystems, including oceans and forests, and their imminent transformation due to increased global warming. Curated by M. Annenberg, it brings together twenty-two artists who represent different cultural backgrounds, generations, and geographic locations, and who explore the concept of Biophilia, the love of life. It will be on view at the Yale Institute of Sacred Music’s Miller Hall at 406 Prospect Street, New Haven from March 27-May 2 on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays from 12-4 p.m. A catalog will be available with an essay by art critic, Eleanor Heartney. This exhibition is sponsored by the Institute of Sacred Music’s Religion, Ecology, and Expressive Culture Initiative.

Click here for more info! 

Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation Celebration
Discovering Our Deeptime Origin Story Sixty Years Ago
April 20, 2024
Holmdel, New Jersey, USA 
Registration limited to 40 people

In 1964, two radio astronomers, Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson, working for Bell Labs, accidentally discovered the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation (CMBR), evidence that the universe did indeed start as a fiery ball, smaller than a grain of sand, which exploded in a Big Bang, and continues to expand and unfold even today.  For this scientific breakthrough, Penzias and Wilson won the Nobel Prize in Physics. Humans had evidence, for the very first time, that the universe isn’t static; that the universe is a single integrated entity and it is constantly evolving.  It was a stunning breakthrough in human understanding of our origin and identity.  We come out of, and ARE, the universe.  We’re not IN a story.  We ARE the story.  For more info about this spectacular discovery, click here.

See here to learn more about the Horn Antenna and the significance of its preservation.

Click here for more info and to register!

Online Teacher Training
With Annick de Witt
Worldview Journeys Foundation
April 23 - June 18
Online

The Worldview Journeys Foundation is offering a new online teacher training on working with worldviews for deep, transformative change. The training takes place in five live sessions on alternate Tuesdays from April 23rd to June 18th. Participating will allow you to experience a transformative learning intervention called the Worldview Journey which you can adapt for your own teaching, training, coaching, change-making, and other group-work.

The Worldview Journey consists of short but deep ‘learning journeys’ that invite students to reflect on their worldviews (‘explore’), communicate with those with different worldviews (‘exchange’), and broaden their worldviews to include nature and the planet (‘expand’). Developed in collaboration with Utrecht University (see this publication), the program brings together the academic study of worldviews with transformative approaches that support inner exploration and deep change. 

Want to learn more? Participate in an upcoming live event offered by the foundation! 

Reimagining Our Story: Hope for the New Humanity
With Keynote Speakers Matthew Fox and Brian Thomas Swimme
Creation Spirituality Communities
May 31-June 2, 2024

Click here for more info! 

“Cosmogenesis: The Spiritual Preparation of the Teacher”
With Philip Snow Gang, Brian Thomas Swimme, and Tammy Oesting 
The Institute for Educational Studies (TIES)
February 24 (12:30 pm PST)

Enjoy this conversation with Brian Thomas Swimme and Philip Snow Gang, sharing insights from the field of cosmology on the spiritual preparation of the Montessori teacher.

This webinar included a video and Zoom gathering, exploring how understanding cosmogenesis – the origin and development of the universe – can guide your teaching methodologies and help enrich students’ educational experiences.

Click here for more info! 

Cosmic Walk 
Yale Graduate Conference on Religion and Ecology
400 Prospect Street
New Haven, CT, USA 
February 23, 2024

On February 23, Sam King led a Cosmic Walk the 8th Annual Graduate Conference in Religion and Ecology at Yale with novel images from the James Webb Space Telescope. Pictured above are John Grim, Sam King, Xiyao Fu, Junhan Hu, and David Rothenberg.

Speakers at this conference included Mary Evelyn Tucker, John Grim, and Mary-Jane Rubenstein. There were paper presentations, creative workshops, an art gallery, and a chapel service. Lisa Dahill gave a sermon (read it here), and Willie Jennings presided over communion. See photos and reflections by Chris Freimuth here.

News Articles 

“'Living fossils' could inspire advancements in human health”
By Rodielon Putol. Earth.com, March 12, 2024.

“Revitalized Yale Peabody Museum to reopen March 26”
Yale News, March 11, 2024.

“‘Monumental’ experiment suggests how life on Earth may have started”
By Mark Johnson. The Washington Post, March 9, 2024.

“A Nova in the Night Sky Will Make ‘a New Star.’: Here’s How to See It.” 
By Robin George Andrews. The New York Times, March 8, 2024.

“Great Barrier Reef Sees Mass Bleaching as Ocean Temperatures Hit Record High”
Yale Environment 360, March 8, 2024.

“'You are not alone': In community, young people find antidotes to climate anxiety”
By Heidi Schlumpf. National Catholic Reporter, March 6, 2024.

“Are We in the ‘Anthropocene,’ the Human Age? Nope, Scientists Say.”
By Raymond Zhong. The New York Times, March 5, 2024.

“Evidence of ritual ancient tobacco use found in vases: study”
By Moira Ritter. Miami Herald, March 5, 2024.

“Oldest known animal sex chromosome evolved in octopuses 380 million years ago.” 
By Carissa Wong. Nature, March 4, 2024.

“1,000-year-old vessels found in Guatemala held tobacco possibly used as 'narcotics to induce deep sleep, visions and divinatory trances'”
By Jennifer Nalewicki. Live Science, March 3, 2024.

“The surprising US region that's home to the world's oldest forests”
By Hillary Richard. BBC, February 29, 2024.

“European parliament votes for watered-down law to restore nature”
By Ajit Naranjan. The Guardian, February 27, 2024.

Ongoing Events

Living Waters: A Panpsychic co-operative inquiry with water bodies worldwide
Schumacher College 
Tuesdays from March 12 – April 30
Weekly seminars (1½ hours) on Tuesdays at 12:00 noon UK time
Course fee: £399
Online via Zoom and YouTube

Freya Mathews, Peter Reason, Andreas Weber, Stephan Harding, and Sandra Wooltorton will offer videos and weekly seminars. Stephan and Sandra will be joined by Jacqueline Kurio and Ezekiel Fugate to facilitate weekly inquiry groups.

Art Sparks
With Imogene Drummond
Creation Spirituality Communities
March 5 - May 21, 2024
Cost: $225 for 12-week course

Tap into your hidden potential and ignite your personal creativity while connecting to the Universe! In Art Sparks’ 12 week holistic program, you are invited to explore and develop your creativity through artwork embedded in the context of the Cosmic Story. By aligning your imagination with the larger whole, the program helps you experience the joy of accessing your inner artist.

Online Learning