EVOLUTIONARY RITUALS
Dancing Through the Darkness to the Ecozoic Era
with Carol Kilby, M.Div., D.Min., Author
5-wk Online Course; Tuesday evenings, 7 – 9 PM ET
Nov. 1, 8, 15, 22, 29 (2022)
Scroll down for pricing, Early Bird Discount, and to register!
Ten PD hours for teachers! AMS approved!
Rituals are powerful. They are at our beginning and our end. Now evolutionary rituals are essential. They teach the stories that shape and preserve cultures. In recent history, both spiritual and national rituals told a hierarchical story of separation from nature. Observances, like Remembrance, Christmas, or New Years days, inadvertently contributed to colonialism, the Anthropocene, and the current climate crisis. Evolutionary rituals are essential in this axial moment.
— Carol Kilby, Evolutionary Dancer: Out, In, and On the Fringe of the Church
We’re in a moment in our understanding of the universe where the human imagination has to plumb its depths to bring forth new images, new poetry and new insights to describe reality.”
— Brian Swimme
Evolutionary Rituals are . . .
. . . a response to our times
This unprecedented planetary crisis is an evolutionary moment. Our holy and holiday practices too often feel detached and irrelevant. Evolutionary rituals connect us to the peril and promise of our cosmic reality.
Image above: Aerial view of ecological disaster of fires in the Amazon, South America.
. . . emergent practices, rites, ceremonies, and rituals
Evolutionary rituals integrate the wisdom of the New Cosmology, ancient Creation Spirituality, and emergent Consciousness!
. . . dances
Evolutionary rituals that honor the vibrational nature of our quantum reality in which everything moves in a pattern of cataclysm and emergence, are better called dances.
. . . new perspectives for transformation
Evolutionary rituals enable the Great Work, what Thomas Berry understood as “ensuring a just, beautiful, healthy, sustainable, life-giving world for future generations of all species.”
. . . vessels to the Ecozoic.
Evolutonary rituals are vessels of a new culture of human-earth mutuality. We must reframe or create never-before personal, family, community, seasonal, national, spiritual, and religious ceremonies!
. . . symbols and language for a new age
“We must ensure that the language we use, the rituals we celebrate and the symbols we employ keep pointing to the great living cathedral of Earth, sea, and sky.”
— John Philip Newel
Madonna, painting by Mary Ann Maruska
“Learning to participate in ritual will awaken people to living more simply in a post-industrial, deeply ecological, and cosmologically aware world. … connect us to the Great work of the Universe…. This is the work of the people. Ritual actually makes a people happen. It is the ultimate folk art, in that it actually fashions a people.”
— Matthew Fox
Videos of Carol Kilby . . .
Evolutionary rituals help us experience four Deeptime Principles
- Context: Evolutionary rituals connect us to a cosmogenetic universe.
- Matrix: Evolutionary rituals give us a direct experience of radical relatedness in a participatory universe.
- Subjectivity (self organization, interiority): Evolutionary rituals deepen our sense of subjectivity and transformation in a creative universe.
- Action: Evolutioinary rituals help us to act whole heartedly within the whole.
“We must ensure that the language we use, the rituals we celebrate and the symbols we employ keep pointing to the great living cathedral of Earth, sea, and sky.”
— John Philip Newell
Session Descriptions
Session 1 (Nov. 1), The Power of Ritual: Rituals are culture’s “cookie-cutters.” Explore the rituals that shaped us! Historically rituals created resonance, cultural and personal identity. Today ritual can aid our retraction from the very stories, values, and norms that have brought us to a planetary crisis and expand the story out of which we live, move, and have being. Experience the r’evolutionary ritual, the Dance of Immensity.
Session 2 (Nov. 8), Strands of Evolutionary Rituals: New rites and practices are gifts of the new story: we live in an emergent Universe. They are a dance of unique wisdom traditions: Science – the new Cosmology and Ecology, Creation Spirituality – inherent in all classical and indigenous religions, and Conscious Evolution – Universe is becoming consciousness of itself through us in these critical times.
Experience the Dance of Identity.
Session 3 (Nov. 15), New Symbols, Language, and Altars: Trapped in the language and imagery of a Newtonian worldview, we lack the words necessary to transition from a worldview of separation to one of interconnection. Bringing new images and vocabulary from cosmology, ecology, and the mystics to create wholistic personal and cultural altars and holidays is a form of environmental activism. Experience the Evolutionary Ritual, the Dance of Radiance.
Session 4 (Nov. 22), Reframing Traditional Rituals: Traditional rituals have unexplored layers of meaning and potency and can be reframed inside a Deeptime Cosmic context to deliver fresh experiences that unleash energy and capacity for facing the crises of our day. Experience a Cosmic Communion and Cosmic Beatitudes.
Session 5 (Nov. 29), Creating Evolutionary Rituals: Never-before times call for never-before rituals. Remembrance Day for Lost Species was such a ritual. Following our allurements, which Brian Swimme believes is how we bind Universe together, we’ll identify where Evolutionary Rituals are called for. Doing so we will participate in the most ancient tradition of ceremony there is: creating rituals the land told us to do. Experience the Dance of Becoming.
Reading Materials:
EVOLUTIONARY DANCER:
Out, In, and on the
Fringe of the Church
by Carol Kilby
There will be suggested readings from this book, articles and Youtube videos assigned each week.
Learn and Share:
1) The Power of Ritual in our Lives
2) The Components of Evolutionary Rituals
3) How to Reclaim Traditional Forms
4) How to Create Unique Practices
5) Altars for Eco-activism
6) Rituals as Vessels of Conscious Evolution
You can:
- get your questions answered by Rev. Dr. Kilby and interact with other participants between sessions in an online course discussion, and
- watch recordings of sessions which will be posted in the course space for up to one year.
An Evolutionary Communion is an inspiring practice to help us all align with the greater possibilities of our own emergence by means of surrender to the larger collective imperative of evolution itself.
— Barbara Marx Hubbard
Why is this course important?
This course is a response to the times. In this unprecedented planetary crisis — an evolutionary moment — our holy and holiday practices can feel detached and irrelevant; evolutionary rituals reconnect us to the intimacy, immensity, and generativity of our cosmic reality. This course helps us move beyond the paradigm of our personal, family, cultural, religious and national rituals. Evolutionary rituals ground us in the wisdom of Cosmos and Earth, giving us permission and inspiration to align with the evolution of consciousness, culture, and our species.
Are you . . .
- Lamenting the planetary crisis?
- Longing to be part of the healing?
- Commited to future beyond planetary abuse?
- New or familiar with the deeptime universe story?
- Searching for meaningful holidays?
. . . then this course is for you!
We feel so at home in the Deeptime Network courses. This community is unique.
— Elizabeth Carranza & John Leydon, Philippines
Who is this for?
- Everyone who is moved by the planetary plight and longs to live with integrity as cosmic beings in an Earth-community.
- Teachers who want to honour the fear, inspire the hope, fan the awe, and empower the creativity of the younger generations.
- Spiritual/religious leaders who want to offer relevant gatherings, address the challenges of these times, and ground holy rites, practices, and sacraments in the current cosmic and ecological wisdom, evolving language, and emerging symbols.
- Parents and grandparents who long to deepen the experience of daily, seasonal, and special holidays by reframing them inside the deeper stories, symbols, and teachings of Mother Earth and Grandmother Universe.
- Artists/Poets/Dancers who experience their creativity as ritual and wish to serve as vessels of evolutionary consciousness in these times.
- Eco-justice activists who practice and need ritual to sustain their passions and physical strength.
- Scientists who wish to honour the sacred, spiritual, and scientific are one in a quantum universe and incorporate ritual into life and work.
- Healers and healing practitioners who want to augment healing power that comes from deep understanding.
- Politicians/Activists looking for a larger context and understanding to address the crises of today.
- Mental Health Practioners who understand that our cosmologies and rituals give us meaning and purpose. Dysfunctional cosmologies can be at the root of mental illness and addiction.
- Everyone allured to be the Change, part of the Great Turning, Evolutionaries, and Earth advocates .
About Carol Kilby, M.Div., D.Min., Author:
Carol Kilby is A member and presenter on the Deep Time Network, Kilby is author of Evolutionary Dancer, Out, In and On the Fringe of the Church. An ordained clergy in the United Church of Canada, she stepped out of the pulpit in 2005 to found the Gaia Centre for Eco-Spirituality and Sustainable Work where she hosted teachers of the emerging scientific and spiritual consciousness including Brian Swimme, Miriam MacGillis, Matthew Fox, Jennifer Morgan, Drew Dellinger, Barbara Marx Hubbard and more. A member of the Deeptime family and graduate of the Deep Time Leadership program, she is currently compiling her second book, Evolutionary Rituals – Because We Can’t Get There from Here!
Teaching Model: A personable and visionary zoom-leader, she uses a model of emergent leadership including images, movement, break-through groups, presentations, and MECs – pauses for evolutionary consciousness. Kilby’s aim – the participants’ fullest engagement. Passion for the Earth community, ritual, creativity, humour, and learning – Kilby brings all these to on-line meetings. And awe! [email protected] https://www.carolkilby.com/
Scientific thinking about the universe is not only socially valuable, it’s essential for our culture so we can come together on common ground on the problems we are currently facing as a species.
— Stephan Martin interviewing Joel Primack and Nancy Abrams,
View from the Center of the Universe
What people are saying about DTN programs . . .
Our Learning Management System
We use Sensei integrated with Buddypress so that participants can engage in asynchronous course discussions, and share resources, profiles, and information about their organizations. We’ve had experience using this technology with people of all levels of technical capability. If you have any questions, we’re right there to help you. All meetings are recorded. The course will remain open for one year so you can view recordings, stay in touch and continue to share thoughts and resources with others sharing the journey with you. Our fearless developer, Mohit Sharma, stands at the ready to solve any tech problems that might crop up a long the way.
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* Without PD Hours: $225/$185 Early Bird till Oct. 28th
* With 8 PD Hours for Teachers: $325/$285 till Oct. 28th
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