Introduction to Permaculture Weekend Workshop at IONS

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2008, Living Mandala
creative services by: 360 Degrees

Including

PERMACULTURE OVERVIEW

PERMACULTURE ETHICS

PERMACULTURE DESIGN PRINCIPLES

OBSERVATION & NATURE AWARENESS

PATTERNS

CORE ROUTINES

BIRD LANGUAGE

SITE ANALYSIS

AND MORE

In Association With

Institute of Noetic Sciences

Facilitators, Instructors & Consultants

John Valenzuela

Jay Ma

Sage Mata

Max Meyers

& Special Guests

Course Inspiration

In response to many inquiries from individuals interested in taking a Permaculture Design Certification Course, but who are not able to take over two-weeks off from their lives, jobs, and family responsibilities to attend a residential course, we are excited to offer this Introduction to Permaculture Weekend workshop at the beautiful 220 acre campus of the Institute of Noetic Sciences. IONS is located conveniently right off Hwy 101 between Petaluma & Novato, just between Marin county and Sonoma county.

Course Description

Permaculture is a holistic design philosophy described as the art and science of creating community ecosystems in which plants, animals, human beings, and all forms of ecological diversity interact to produce a prolific, ecologically-sound, and regenerative system that can support itself and life indefinitely. Join us for this weekend workshop intensive as we dive into the art and science of permaculture for two long days at the beautiful 220 acre campus of the Institute of Noetic Sciences. Topics & Activities include a general overview of permaculture; ethics, design principles & applications, nature awareness, observation, patterns in nature, biomimicry & pattern design, core Routines, bird language, site analysis, & more. This workshop will include and engage a variety of learning styles including lecture, small group discussion, experiential activities, slideshows, & video. Participants will gain a solid understanding of the history, philosophy and foundations of permaculture; experience a deeper and renewed connection to Nature, and learn practical skills, principles, and practices to take home & apply in their lives.

Course Details

The weekend workshop will occur over the weekend of May 8 & 9, 2010 at the Institute of Noetic Sciences, located at 101 San Antonio Rd, Petaluma, CA.

Workshop Times:

The workshop will begin at 9:00 am and end at 8:30 pm on both Saturday and Sunday. Lunch will be served at 12:30 pm, and dinner at 6:00 pm. Evening sessions are from 7:00 - 8:30 pm. To register click here.

Weekend Permaculture Design

Certification Course

Participants of the weekend workshop will have the option to continue with the full Permaculture Design Certification, which will continue over a period of 10 weekends on Sundays from May 8 & 9 - July 25. Additional topics include, water, rain water catchment, grey water, bioremediation, mushrooms, mycoremediation, aquaculture, keyline, design process, carbon farming, social permaculture, ecovillages, food forest gardening, sustainable forestry, and much more. In addition to the standard permaculture design course curriculum, we recognize permaculture as an expanding, holistic design philosophy being applied to an ever-growing landscape of diverse fields and skill sets including business, government, economics, group process, social systems, and inner work. Accordingly, this permaculture design course will include & integrate additional content and activities such as nature awareness, indigenous wisdom, organizational design, financial permaculture, inner ecology, group process, natural building, hands-on activities, and more. For a more detailed description of the entire Weekend Permaculture Design Certification Course click here.

What is Permaculture?

Permaculture is a holistic design philosophy described as the art and science of creating community eco-systems in which plants, animals, human beings, and all forms of ecological diversity interact to produce a prolific, ecologically-sound, and regenerative system that can support itself and life indefinitely. The focus of permaculture is to design and establish societal systems that provide for humanity's material and non-material needs such as food, water, shelter, energy, and health in a way that is symbiotic and synergistic with the Earth's natural ecosystems. More recently permaculture is incorporating an ever-growing landscape of diverse fields and skill sets and is being applied towards areas such as business, government, economics, group process, social systems, and inner work.

Introduction to Permaculture Weekend Workshop

May 8 & 9, 2010

Institute of Noetic Sciences

Petaluma, Califronia

Tuition & Registration

Course Tuition is $275 U.S. dollars, which includes instruction, as well as delicious meals for lunch and dinner on SatuRday & Sunday catered by the Institute of Noetic Sciences Retreat Center. Fees can be applied towards tuition for the entire design course, should you choose to continue.

Delicious Meals Included!

Delicious catered meals for lunch and dinner on Saturday & Sunday will be provided by the Institute of Noetic Sciences retreat center kitchen are included in the course tuition for 10 out of the 12 weekends that we are on-site.

Lodging Options at IONS

Rooms are available for an additional cost from Ma rch 8 - 10 for those interested in enjoying a relaxing stay at the beautiful IONS Retreat Center. Rooms are $70 for a shared room and $95 for a single. To book a room, please do so when you register for the course.

Site Details - IONS Retreat Center

The IONS Retreat Center is a beautiful collection of indoor and outdoor meeting spaces located on the IONS 200 acre campus in Petaluma, California. Located just 30 minutes north of the Golden Gate Bridge and right off Hwy 101. The campus consists of several quaint buildings, a beautiful gardens, ponds, pristine live oak woodlands, meandering hiking trails, and endless panoramic vistas of the California landscape and rolling hillsides. IONS hosts educational activities and workshops that focus on health, personal growth, and transformation. This beautiful campus can accommodate day-use groups of up to 120 people, and the overnight facilities sleep 120 people.

About the Institute of Noetic Sciences

The Institute of Noetic Sciences, commonly known as ��IONS��, is a nonprofit membership organization located in Northern California that conducts and sponsors leading-edge research into the potentials and powers of consciousness��including perceptions, beliefs, attention, intention, and intuition. IONS was founded in 1973 by Apollo 14 astronaut Edgar Mitchell with the mission to bring scientific understanding to mystical experience. The Institute maintains a commitment to scientific rigor while exploring phenomena that have been largely overlooked by mainstream science. IONS is not a spiritual association, political-action group, or a single-cause institute. Rather, IONS honors open-minded approaches and multiple ways of knowing, brings discernment to their work, and supports diversity of perspectives on social and scientific matters. Through their publications, events, and educational media, they inform members and the public at lArge about the findings of their frontier research on consciousness and its relationship to the physical world. IONS has a beautiful 200-acre Retreat Center which hosts workshops, retreats, and educational activities with diverse and well-known spiritual teachers and groups from all over the world. IONS supports community-building through local community groups, online discussions, and other networking opportunities. For more information visit www.ions.org

What are 'Noetic Sciences'?

The word "noetic" comes from the ancient Greek "nous", for which there is no exact equivalent in English. It refers to "inner knowing," a kind of intuitive consciousness'direct and immediate access to knowledge beyond what is available to our normal senses and the power of reason. Noetic sciences are explorations into the nature and potentials of consciousness using multiple ways of knowing��including intuition, feeling, reason, and the senses. Noetic sciences explore the "inner cosmos" of the mind (consciousness, soul, spirit) and how it relates to the "outer cosmos" of the physical world.

Contact

For questions and more information regarding the course

e-mail: education@livingmandala.com or

phone: (707) 634-1461

For questions and more information about the Institute of Noetic Sciences visit www.ions.org

phone: (707) 779-8224

Instructors, Facilitators & Guests

John Valenzuela

John Valenzuela is a horticulturist, consultant, and veteran permaculture educator with experience teaching and consulting a wide range of people including children, students, professionals, owners, renters, institutions, businesses, displaced sugar workers, and more. John has been a lead permaculture design course instructor at the Bullock Family Homestead in Orcas Island Washington for 11 years, and also has experience teaching in Costa Rica and throughout urban and rural California. Living in Hawai'i for 15 years, John has studied and practiced tropical permaculture and taught extensively in the Islands. His special interests are home gardens, plant propagation, rare fruit, food forests, agroforestry, ethnobotany, and native ecosystems. John is now based in his home state of California, where he maintains a small nursery and shares his passion for plants.

Veteran Lead Instructor

Saga Mata

Sage is a permaculture designer, earthen builder, gardener, teacher and community organizer passioned by her love of the Earth. With nature and community as her teachers and inspiration, she spreads her laughter and light as she works to reflect the harmonious and regenerative patterns of nature into human design systems. She earned a Bachelor's degree of Ecopsychology at the University of California, Santa Cruz, where she taught a UCSC course of Ecopsychology and Social Change and co-facilitated a UCSC cob bench building workshop in 2004. She received her Permaculture Design Cerificate in 2004 through the Earth Activist Training (www.earthactivisttraining.org) and has then been involved in various permaculture projects from British Colombia to Argentina. She worked as a natural building site leader at O.U.R Ecovillage (www.ourecovillage.org) and co-manager of the bountiful gardens at GingerHill farm/retreat center on the Big Island of Hawai��i (www.gingerhillfarm.com). Sage has worked for several organizations, such as the Homeless Garden Project (www.homelessgardenproject.org) and the Garden Path Project of Berkeley Youth Alternatives (www.byaonline.org/heat). Sage has completed a Permaculture Teacher's Training Course at the Bullock's Homestead, WA. Currently, she is an associate of Gaia University earning her Master's in Integrative EcoSocial Design, where she is studying action-learning as a system to integrate patterns of consciousness and the development of culture.

Instructor

Jay Ma

Jay Ma is a permaculture designer, facilitator, and community organizer committed to cultural healing through Peacemaker Principles. Hereceived his first permaculture designcertification through Naropa University in 2001, a B.A. through New College of California in Culture, Ecology, and Sustainable Community with a concentration in Eco-Dwelling/Natural Building, and is a graduate of the pioneering two-year training intensive in Regenerative Design & Nature Awareness. Jay has developed educational programs, retreats, workshops, and events as well as community land development projects with organizations including the Regenerative Design Institute, the Institute of Noetic Sciences, Earth Circle, Gaia University and others. He is currently an associate with Gaia Universityin Organized Learning for Eco-Social Regeneration, working on organizing educational courses in the Pacific Northwest and beyond. Jay is also a certified Permaculture Teacher, aFire Walk Instructor through Sundoor International,and is passionate about renewing Rites of Passage experiential programs for people of all ages.

Instructor

Max Meyers

Max Meyers is an Ecological Designer, Permaculture Teacher, Farmer and Director of the Mendocino Ecological Learning Center, a nonprofit educational organization and ecological reserve that offers green job training and practices sustainable stewardship of land, plants, animals and energy systems. He has been studying, practicing and teaching Permaculture and Ecological Design for 12 years. In addition to the work at MELC, Max provides Ecological design services to the public, organizations and schools. He is passionate about all things related to a more just and sustainable world. Since graduating from New College of California's Culture, Ecology and Sustainable Communities B.A. program and Santa Rosa Junior College's Sustainable Agriculture Program, Max has become a certified Permaculture designer/teacher, Aquaponics system installer and sustainable water systems specialist. He has been fortunate enough to study with people like Bill Mollison, Geoff Lawton, Sepp Holzer, Tom Ward, Jude Hobbs, Penny Livingston and many others in places like the United States, New Zealand, Australia, Thailand, Mexico, Colombia, Brazil and Hawaii. Some of his fields of study and practice include: Natural Building, Biodynamic Farming, Integrated Rainwater Collection and Storage, Alternative Transportation, Mushroom Cultivation, Sustainable Forestry, Beekeeping, Animal Husbandry, Renewable Energy, Biogas Production and use, Greywater Systems design and installation, Vermiculture, seed saving and many other sustainable technologies, methods and skills. Max has experience teaching Permaculture, Natural Building, Cob Construction, Renewable Energy, Organic farming, Beekeeping and others. Maximillian Meyers lives with his wife and partner Maria Luisa in Willits, California.

Instructor

Bios of Additional Instructors & Special Guests Coming Soon!

Affiliate Organizations & Sponsors

Become a sponsor of this course!

For details email: affiliates@livingmandala.com

For Upcoming Courses, Workshops, & Events Click this Spring & Summer in Permaculture, Ecovillage Design, Sustainable Living Skills, & More Click Here.