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Carolyn Toben

Carolyn Toben, M.Ed. is an educator, author and creator of new social forms with a spiritual dimension that foster cultural renewal. Her background includes degrees from the University of North Carolina Greensboro, extensive post-graduate studies in spirituality, world religion, depth psychology, and teaching in both secondary and college settings with an emphasis on interior education. For many years she served as a seminar leader in the field of teacher renewal at the North Carolina Center for the Advancement of Teaching in Cullowhee and for the Advancement of Renewal for Educators in San Francisco. In 2000 she founded Timberlake Earth Sanctuary which offers programs, retreats, and workshops on a new understanding of the human-earth relationship based on the inspiration of Thomas Berry. Carolyn is the author of Recovering a Sense of the Sacred: Conversations with Thomas Berry, and Cultivating a Sense of the Sacred: Practices Inspired by Thomas Berry. In 2014 Carolyn was the recipient ot the Sacred Universe Award from the Wellspring Spiritual Center in La Grange, Illinois.

From her decade- long companionship with renowned author, priest, shaman and cultural historian Thomas Berry, Carolyn Toben offers dimensions of his foundational thinking and inspiration leading to vast transformation for both individuals and the planet in this historic time…Those seed-bearers who are sharing the new sacred story from his vision include his deep understanding of the intuition as another way of knowing, imagination and creativity as gifts of the earth, lessons of relationship to one another and to the whole of creation, the power of healing and growing and learning through the natural world,  remembrance of soul force through the ages, recovery of a sense of the sacred…. all seeds of a new hopeful future in this urgent time of the 21st century through Thomas Berry’s life work.

Carolyn Toben in Kosmos

Thomas Berry on Intuition


“You can’t understand the universe simply through science—it is one way of knowing directed toward analysis and use. The intuition is another way of knowing through the heart—the song of the birds, the sky at night, the magnificence of mountains and seas.' - Thomas Berry


Published in Volume 2023 Issue 3

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The Village Way

Practices for Belonging in a Fragmented World

For thousands of years, we lived according to the principles of village life. Then, around the 14th Century, our lives were reorganized by rulers around growth and accumulation – often at the cost of community, equity, and the living Earth. What would it mean to return to simplicity, and mutual care?

Join us for a 9-month inquiry into this question, exploring how we participate together in a time that calls us back to community, resilience, and shared life,

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