
COSMOS GAIA SPIRIT
An Inner-Leadership Symposium for the Rise of a New Earth Community
The Cosmos, Gaia and Spirit Symposium uses an integrative view, providing an opportunity for individuals to identify and actualize their Great Work or Cosmic Calling. Attending this three-day retreat is a meta-preparation for people wanting to explore:
- In what ways might heart-wisdom unify your sense of being and belonging?
- What context might lead to a deeper understanding of “all is one?”
- What wisdom do you acquire through awareness that the Earth is alive and that you are an integral part of its process?
- What core content and process allows one to be inspired for self-learning, self-discovery and personal transformation?
- What methods help you to center yourself in order to sustain your vision?
- In what ways does your relationship to Gaia, Cosmos and Eros evolve? How does it benefit the whole?
- What is the source of your wisdom-knowledge for right-living?
- In what ways might deeper meaning and expanded consciousness emerge?
The Symposium Experience
The very principles in Cosmos, Gaia and Spirit are leading the way in exploring the new routings of brain/mind that has the ability to bridge old world thinking with new order thinking, awakening one to the great forces of nature and spirit that unites the wisdom of the whole in a contextual offering that leaves one not just standing in the wake of such an event, but being a co-creative partner in a sharing that is life changing. – Pauline
The Cosmos, Gaia and Spirit retreat-symposium focuses on the spiritual, intellectual and self-development principles espoused by Maria Montessori and Thomas Berry.
Presented by Philip Snow Gang, PhD, Dean of the TIES Graduate Studies Programs for Integrative Learning, the CGS symposium uses an integrated view, providing an opportunity for individuals to explore eight principles and processes that have resulted in well-documented and paradigm-changing personal transformation.
The program usually begins on a Friday evening and completes Sunday by 4:00PM. Short presentations are followed by opportunities for collaboration and dialogue as well as individual and group creativity and reflection.
A thread throughout the experience is an immersion in your own evolving story, the core of which is your personal Lavoro Grande (Great Work).
Some of the exercises felt like I had dropped an anchor, but by the time the exercise needed to draw to a close, my anchor was still just hurtling it’s way to the depths…and I wanted it to keep dropping – such a wonderful sensation. It was a fearlessness to explore potential. – Jacinda
We invite you to be both participant and co-learner:
Many of us have an inner wisdom that motivates us to contribute our knowledge and experience to the rising generation. Have you realized your passionate interest or professional aspiration?
Both Maria Montessori and Thomas Berry address the notion of an individual’s cosmic task or Great Work. This symposium will help you explore and align yourself with your inner vision. That is why we identify it as Inner-Leadership.
The symposium experience provides processes to:
…align your vision with right action for a planet in crisis
…explore how to work collaboratively with others in an organization for the benefit of the whole
…achieve clarity in sharing your personal and professional life with a significant other – especially if you are working together
…discover what you need in order to break through restraints or limitations that might be preventing you from achieving your personal vision.
The symposium was a dance of connection and communication, which encompassed the mental, intellectual, emotional, physical, and spiritual heart space. For me, it was a coming together of information and reflection – with pockets of activities that allowed for the hands to be busy while the heart and mind continued to question and look at everything. – Shubha
Awakening the Legacies
Inspired by his 40 years as a Montessori educator and his understanding of the deeper implications for her contributions, as well as the wisdom-teachings of Thomas Berry for the birth of a new Earth community, Philip Snow Gang has created these symposia to help individuals align their higher aspirations for a sustainable future.
Maria Montessori
“As servants of the child, teachers can only help the great work that is being done. Doing so, they will be witness to the unfolding of the human soul and to the rising of a New Human who will not be the victim of events, but will have the clarity of vision to direct and shape the future of human society.”
(Education for a New World, 1946)
Thomas Berry
“Our educational institutions need to see their purpose not as training personnel for exploiting the Earth but as guiding students toward an intimate relationship with the Earth. For it is the planet itself that brings us into being, sustains us in life and delights us with its wonders. In this context we might consider the intellectual, political, and economic orientations that will enable us… to establish a more viable way into the future.”
(The Great Work, 1999)
Awakening the Legacies
Inspired by his 40 years as a Montessori educator and his understanding of the deeper implications for her contributions, as well as the wisdom-teachings of Thomas Berry for the birth of a new Earth community, Philip Snow Gang has created these symposia to help individuals align their higher aspirations for a sustainable future.
Maria Montessori
“As servants of the child, teachers can only help the great work that is being done. Doing so, they will be witness to the unfolding of the human soul and to the rising of a New Human who will not be the victim of events, but will have the clarity of vision to direct and shape the future of human society.”
(Education for a New World, 1946)
Thomas Berry
“Our educational institutions need to see their purpose not as training personnel for exploiting the Earth but as guiding students toward an intimate relationship with the Earth. For it is the planet itself that brings us into being, sustains us in life and delights us with its wonders. In this context we might consider the intellectual, political, and economic orientations that will enable us… to establish a more viable way into the future.”
(The Great Work, 1999)
Cosmos, Gaia and Spirit Symposium Presenter
Philip Snow Gang
Philip Snow Gang, Ph.D., Academic Dean of The Institute for Educational Studies (TIES) M. Ed. Programs at Endicott College in Integrative Learning and Montessori Integrative Learning, is a pioneer in the field of integrative, systemic and transformative approaches to education.
He is the author of Rethinking Education, co-author of Conscious Education: The Bridge to Freedom, appears in DeCarlo’s anthology, Towards a New World View: Conversations at the Leading Edge and is creator of the ecological mobile map material, Our Planet, Our Home. His recent article, Cosmos, Gaia and Eros: Integrative Learning, Creativity and the Primal Paradox, has been accepted for publication in the May 2015 issue of About Place Journal.
In 1990 he helped organize the Global Alliance for Transforming Education (GATE) – an alliance of educational leaders from around the world. In response to what he learned as its Executive Director, Gang developed the TIES’ graduate education programs, now serving students in more than 30 countries. During this time he collaborated with Robert Muller, Assistant secretary General of the United Nations and conversed with Thomas Berry in Costa Rica as well at his New York home.
Marsha Snow Morgan and Philip Snow Gang, well-known Montessorians since the early 70s, collaborated from 1990-2012 to develop adult learning programs that are congruent with the core philosophy of Montessori education. Gang had a personal relationship with Dr. Maria Montessori’s son, Mario Montessori. Mario Montessori, Jr., Montessori’s grandson, served on his doctoral committee.
The Cosmos, Gaia and Spirit symposium uses an integrated view, providing an opportunity for individuals to explore eight principles and processes that have resulted in well-documented personal transformation. It is Gang’s intention to make explicit what is implicit in his and Morgan’s work with adult learners. He asserts that these principles are the very foundation of transformational change in conscious education.
During 2015-2016, to mark TIES 20th year, Gang is engaged in a legacy tour revealing his life work through these symposia. This retreat-symposium focuses on the spiritual, intellectual and self-development principles espoused by Montessori and implemented by Gang and Morgan.
One of Gang’s driving questions is:
What form of education might liberate children and adults from age-old prejudices and assumptions so that they will embrace the qualities of the ‘new human’ — one whose relationship with the human and non-human world is bound in an integrated web of relationship?
Reflections from participants of the Portland, Toronto and Christchurch Events
It has been a few months since I attended the Cosmos, Gaia, Eros Symposium held by Dr. Philip Snow Gang in Buckhorn, Ontario. I registered without expectations knowing that because the retreat involved Maria Montessori, Thomas Berry and Cosmic Education it had to be amazing. It was beyond amazing. It has been a journey and Dr. Gang’s weekend continues to process within. The symposium brought an understanding of our role in the universe; past, present and future. Cosmic Education was shared through his experiences and stories and validated with scientific proof as to how we are one with the universe. He did not lecture. Dr. Gang educated and guided the attendees through questions, discussions, reflections, openness, and revelation. Discovery and awareness was prominent as the awakening of our interconnectedness with the universe prevailed.
This is a gift. Some of us may know this, however, Dr. Gang’s work enhances the power of the cosmos. Life has become richer, there is not a boring moment and the beauty is that I can share this with my students beyond what I have in the past. It is a process that lasts a lifetime. There is a sense of peace, determination and intent within me. It is not searching. It is discovery based upon awe. Knowing what I know, yet knowing there is so much more. It becomes revealed when the time is right. I trust the universe will provide as I reciprocate with respect, care and love. The energy vibrations within oscillate and fantastic things happen as I attract with like-minded thoughts and desires. A greater awareness, understanding and inspiration has taken hold. I continue to look around me with wonder and awe.
Claudia Langlois, Northumberland Montessori School
The Symposium was a profound weekend in the way it grounded us in the heart, and nurtured an experience of the cosmos within and without . . . in a dance of intimate participation with the whole. Indeed, inside each of us, the universe embraces itself, and Phil is a master guide for entering more deeply into the intimate and vast intelligence of the heart. While most education centers in the head, the Cosmos, Gaia and Eros Symposium embraces intelligence in ALL its forms.
Jennifer Morgan, Deep Time Journey Network
An introduction to Cosmos, Gaia, and Eros challenged me to look outside myself, to the earth, the universe, and into my heart. It questioned who I thought I was, my given perspective, and culture, pointed to a larger, often unnoticed beauty, and invited the possibility of moving through life in a more light and graceful way.
This was not shared in a teacher-student relationship. Phil was a fellow explorer sharing a profound wisdom, placing more importance on questions, rather than answers. Out of the cosmic elegance, and unanswered questions came a humility, and an exquisite quality permeated the room. I wish I had words to describe that background quality suffice to say it slowed thinking and expanded the space of heart. And that is my challenge, to live from that place, maybe not so clever, but connected.
Mark Matsis