 As the eclipse moved across the great North American skies, the Nura team was meditating on a passage by the great Jesuit theologian and evolutionary mystic, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. “The age of nations has passed,” he wrote, “the task for us now, if we are to survive, is to build the Earth.” Teilhard’s vision was sweeping and prescient. On Monday, the Western Hemisphere seemed to pause from our troubles — if only for a moment — to experience a liminal reality where holistic, cosmic significance rather than fractured politics loomed large over our planetary body. How would Teilhard see the contemporary flight from a more unified world—an attempt to escape the great, planetary evolution he called “planetization"?
When the sun is cast out, and we are neither in the dewdrop-cast night nor blazing summer day, we can, in a true and palpable sense, enter an altered state of consciousness which is more akin to a waking dream. Pulled betwixt and between, the imagination is freed to see new possibilities and previously occluded futures. The old world becomes dreary and overstayed while a new visionary state, if only for a brief moment, appears as utterly and latently possibility in our species. If we take anything from this eclipse, it’s that a better future is possible, and we all need such techniques—of seeing through—in order to really grasp them and bring them into being. From creative potential to actualization. Both personal and planetary. We hope you find some of those techniques here at Nura. JAMES O'DEA We’ve been so grateful for the positive response to James O’Dea’s webinar and the enthusiasm to learn with us. In many ways, James opened the space to prepare us for the eclipse as we thought about what it would truly take to enact an evolutionary spiritual activism. If you missed that, you can watch it again here. Do feel free to share it, or even watch it with friends. MEET THE FACULTY The Nura Team is stirring from an incubation period and working to produce our Fall 2017 lineup. The first faculty members are stepping out of the shadows and onto the platform. You’ve already met James. Jenn Zahrt is a brilliant astrologer, editor, and publisher who will help us open our reality to an archetypal cosmos. Michael Rice is a bioarchitect and sacred geometrist who will teach us how to see ourselves, and our dwelling places, in a spiritual manner. Megwyn White is an embodied technologist offering creative-therapeutic classes to release trauma, heal the body, and express the soul through voice. Richard Doyle is a philosopher, professor, and author from Penn State who will be deep diving with us into literary mysticism, non-dual teachings, and science fiction. David B Metcalfe is a cultural theorist and astute researcher of mysticism. He will show us the fascinating connections between spiritual folklore, pop culture, and leading consciousness studies research. You can read their full bios on the Faculty page. In the coming weeks we’ll be interviewing each of them on their life, their work, and what their classes will be like. And that’s all just the beginning. More faculty members are coming and the first class registrations will be made available in September. Until next time! Warmly, Jeremy & the Nura Team |