Sacred Imagination

with John Philip Newell, Ph.D. and Cami Twilling

July 11-13, 2023

Single $750 | Double $650 | Commuter $450
(Overnight accommodations include meals: Tuesday dinner through Thursday breakfast. Commuter rate includes dinners on Tuesday and Wednesday and lunch on Wednesday.)

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About this Offering

In 2016 John Philip Newell began a teaching initiative that is called The School of Earth & Soul. Its purpose is to reawaken awareness of the sacred in all things through the recovery of Celtic wisdom for today and to help translate this awareness into compassionate action. The School follows a three-year cycle of teaching in its annual retreats. 
 
Sacred Imagination is the third teaching of this three-year cycle. The teachings are structured so that participants may join at any stage in the cycle. No past participation is necessary.
 
Each day begins and ends with meditative prayer and chant. John Philip teaches from the wisdom of Celtic prophets over the centuries, applying this ancient wisdom to the most critical challenges of today. Cami Twilling invites us into spiritual practice bringing our inner attention to the presence of the sacred within us and within all things. In the early afternoons there is silence and free time for resting and walking. Our meals are shared in common. The program also includes a social at which John Philip signs books, as well as a closing ritual of Thanksgiving.
 
The essential text for the three-year cycle of offerings is John Philip Newell’s Sacred Earth Sacred Soul. The shared prayer book of the school is Sounds of the Eternal: A Celtic Psalter. Both are available in the Mercy by the Sea Bookstore, but are not required in order to participate. To learn more about the structure of the school, you can visit the website for The School of Earth & Soul.

 

About the Facilitators

John Philip Newell is a Celtic teacher and author of spirituality who calls the modern world to reawaken to the sacredness of Earth and every human being.

Canadian by birth, and a citizen also of Scotland, he resides with his family in Edinburgh and works on both sides of the Atlantic. In 2016 he began the School of Earth and Soul and teaches regularly in the United States and Canada as well as leading international pilgrimage weeks on Iona in the Western Isles of Scotland.

His PhD is from the University of Edinburgh and he has authored over fifteen books. His latest award-winning publication, Sacred Earth Sacred Soul, was the 2022 Gold Winner of the Nautilus Book Award for Spirituality and Religious Thought of the West. In 2022 he received the Sacred Universe Award from the Well Center for Spirituality in Chicago in recognition of his significant work in furthering humanity's relationship with the sacredness of Earth.

Newell speaks of himself as ‘a wandering teacher’ following the ancient path of many lone teachers before him in the Celtic world, seeking the wellbeing of the world. He has been described as having ‘the heart of a Celtic bard and the mind of a Celtic scholar’, combining in his teachings the poetic and the intellectual, the head as well as the heart, and spiritual awareness as well as political and ecological concern.

Cami Twilling, based in Colorado, is the Director of Earth & Soul (a Celtic initiative of study, spiritual practice and compassionate action inspired by the teachings of John Philip Newell). As well as heading up the overall work of Earth & Soul, she facilitates the spiritual practice component of the School of Earth & Soul. In addition to leading mountain and urban retreats, she has led international pilgrimage groups to Iona in the Western Isles of Scotland and work teams to Guatemala to build houses in communities that have suffered from political strife and economic hardship. Cami is passionate about the relationship between spirituality and action and believes that spiritual vision and practice can play a vital role in helping to heal and transform our lives both individually and together.