THIS PLUGIN IS BROKEN

Sue Monk Kidd is a writer, novelist and memoirist. She was born in Albany, Georgia and raised in the tiny town of Sylvester, Georgia, a place that deeply influenced the writing of her first novel The Secret Life of Bees. The Secret Life of Bees has sold more than 6 million copies, spent over 2 ½ years on the New York Times bestseller list and been published in 35 countries. It was awarded the 2004 Book Sense Paperback book of the Year, nominated for the Orange Prize in England, and chosen as Good Morning America's Read This! Book Club pick. It was produced on stage in New York by The American Place Theater and adapted into a movie by Fox Searchlight in 2008, which won the People’s Choice and the NAACP Image awards for Best Picture. Sue's second novel, The Mermaid Chair, reached the #1 spot on the New York Times bestseller list and remained on the hardcover and paperback lists for nine months. Winner of the 2005 Quill Award for General Fiction, the novel has been translated into 24 languages and was produced as a television movie by Lifetime. Sue's newest book, Traveling with Pomegranates: A Mother-Daughter Story, co-authored with her daughter Ann Kidd Taylor debuted in 2009, appearing on numerous bestseller lists, including the New York Times Bestseller List. It will be out in paperback in September.

RESEARCHER, SCHOLAR, JUNGIAN ANALYST, COSMIC POET

Anne Baring traveled widely in India and the Far East during the 1950’s before training and practicing as a Jungian analyst. She served  a member of the Scientific and Medical Network and, until her retirement from private practice in 2000.  She was a member of the Association of Jungian Analysts, London and the International Association for Analytical Psychology. She has lectured for several years in both the United Kingdom and the United States. In her recent online seminars course, she draws together her interest in psychology, mythology, ecology, fairy tales and alchemy. In 2013 She published her latest book, The Dream of the Cosmos: a Quest for the Soul, that is a summary of her  life work.

• BA Oxon 1953,  MA Oxon 1981, PhD (hons) in Wisdom Studies, Ubiquity University 2018
• 60 years of research in: psychology, history, politics, mythology, ecology, fairy tales, alchemy
• 15 years Jungian Analyst (member of the Association of Jungian Analysts)
• 30 years Member of The Scientific and Medical Network and has frequently lectured for them
• 10 years Research and Write: The Myth of the Goddess
• 25 Seminars taught, 45 Publications, 8 Books

Sally Kempton is a widely respected teacher of meditation and spiritual wisdom, known for her capacity to kindle meditative states in others, and to help students work with meditative experience as a framework for practical life-change. A former journalist who wrote for Esquire, New York, and the Village Voice, she has spent over four decades practicing, teaching, and writing on meditation and spiritual philosophy.  Sally spent 20 years as a swami in a traditional Vedic order of monks. She was deeply trained in the teachings of Kashmir Shaivism and Vedanta under the guidance of her enlightened teacher, Swami Muktananda.

Sally is the author of the best-selling book, Awakening Shakti: The Transformative Power of the Goddesses of Yoga, and of Meditation for the Love of It,” which Spirituality and Health magazine called “the meditation book your heart wants you to read”. Her audio program, Doorways to the Infinite: The Art and Practice of Tantric Meditation, was released by Sounds True in 2014.  She is on the faculty at Esalen and Kripalu, teaches meditation on the websites Glo.com, Gaia.com, and Yogajournal.com, and is a contributing editor at Yoga Journal. Sally teaches online courses and seminars on meditation and spiritual philosophy, and leads retreats and workshops in the U.S., Canada and Europe. Her website is www.sallykempton.com.

Anneloes Smitsman, Ph.D., LLM, is a visionary scientist, futurist, system architect, and leadership catalyst for the transition to a Thrivable Civilization. She is the Founder and CEO of EARTHwise Centre.  She is the co-author of the #1 Amazon Bestseller “The Quest of Rose,” the first book of the “Future Humans Trilogy” with Dr. Jean Houston, and is the author of the Amazon Bestseller “Love Letters from Mother Earth – The Promise of a New Beginning”, as well as many scientific articles and chapters in international peer-reviewed journals and books. She is the lead author of the r3.0 Educational Transformation Blueprint, as well as the lead architect of the SEEDS Constitution, and an architect and researcher of Hypha for co-developing the Regenerative Renaissance tools, currencies, systems, and cultures. Her unique transformation programs and practices have empowered thousands of people and organizations from around the world.

Dr. Jude Currivan is a cosmologist, planetary healer, futurist, author, previously one of the most senior business women in the UK and co-founder of WholeWorld-View. Having grown up as the daughter of a coal miner in the north of England, she has since journeyed to more than eighty countries around the world and for the last twenty -five years has lived in the sacred landscape of Avebury. She has experienced multidimensional realities since early childhood and worked with the wisdom keepers both incarnate and discarnate of many traditions.

Jude integrates leading edge science, research into consciousness and universal wisdom teachings into a wholistic world-view. This underpins her work aimed at enabling transformational and emergent resolutions to our collective planetary issues, raising awareness and empowering fundamental change and sustainable solutions to global problems.

She holds a PhD in Archaeology from the University of Reading in the UK researching ancient cosmologies and a Masters Degree in Physics from Oxford University specializing in cosmology and quantum physics.

She is the author of seven non-fiction books currently available in 16 languages and 26 countries including CosMos – a co-creator’s guide to the whole-world co-authored with Dr Ervin Laszlo. Her first fictionalized e-book Legacy is available at amazon.

Her latest books are The Cosmic Hologram- In-formation at the Center of Creation, the first book of the Transformation trilogy and which won a silver Nautilus Book Award for 2017. Book two of the trilogy The Story of GAIA: The Big Breath and the Evolutionary Journey of our Conscious Planet is now available

Her international corporate career culminated in her being the Group Finance Director of two major international businesses. She has extensive experience and knowledge of world events, international politics and global economic and financial systems and has spoken on transformational reforms in the UK, US, Europe, Japan and South Korea.

Jean Houston, Ph.D.,is a world renowned scholar, futurist, and researcher in human capacities, social change, and systemic transformation, and is one of the principal founders of the Human Potential Movement. She is also a founder of the field of Social Artistry, “Human development in the light of social change,” and worked intensively in over 40 cultures, lectured in over 100 countries, and worked with major organizations such as UNICEF, UNDP, and NASA, as well as helping global state leaders, leading educational institutions, business organizations, and millions of people to enhance and deepen their capacities. She is the co-author of the #1 Amazon Bestseller “The Quest of Rose,” the first book of the “Future Humans Trilogy” with Dr. Anneloes Smitsman, and has authored over 35 published books and a great many unpublished books, plays, and manuscripts. She is presently Chancellor of Meridian University and Chair of the United Palace of Spiritual Arts in New York City.

Caroline Myss is a five-time New York Times bestselling author and internationally renowned speaker in the fields of human consciousness, spirituality and mysticism, health, energy medicine, and the science of medical intuition. Caroline established her own educational institute in 2003, CMED (Caroline Myss Education), which offers a diverse array of programs devoted to personal development and draws students from all over the world. In addition to hosting a weekly radio show on the Hay House network, Caroline maintains a rigorous international workshop and lecture schedule.

After completing her Master’s degree, Caroline co-founded Stillpoint Publishing and headed the editorial department, producing an average of ten books a year in the field of human consciousness and holistic health. Simultaneously Caroline refined her skills as a medical intuitive, with the assistance of C. Norman Shealy, M.D., Ph.D., a Harvard-trained neurosurgeon.

Caroline developed the field of Energy Anatomy, a science that correlates specific emotional/psychological/physical/spiritual stress patterns with diseases. Her research proved so accurate that it became the subject matter of a book co-written by Caroline and Norm: THE CREATION OF HEALTH.

In 1996, Caroline released ANATOMY OF THE SPIRIT, a New York Times bestseller that has been published in 28 languages and has sold over 1.5 million copies. Through the investigation of the underlying reasons why people sabotage their healing processes, Caroline identified a syndrome she calls “woundology,” characterized by a person’s reliance on the power of illness for manipulation of his or her world, as opposed to attaining an independent, empowered state of health. As with her other seminal research, this syndrome is now a recognized psychological condition. Her third book, WHY PEOPLE DON’T HEAL AND HOW THEY CAN, became another New York Times bestseller.

Caroline then pursued her interest in the language of symbols, myths, and archetypes, conducting research that enabled her to profile an individual’s “Sacred Contract,” a complex of 12 archetypal patterns that reflect in mythic language the agreements the soul made prior to birth. Based on this work, Caroline released SACRED CONTRACTS, which became her third New York Times bestseller. It is published in 18 languages and posts sales of well over 1.6 million copies. In 2003, Oprah Winfrey gave Caroline her own television program with the OXYGEN network in New York City, which ran successfully for one year.

Caroline followed with two more New York Times bestsellers, INVISIBLE ACTS OF POWER in 2004 and ENTERING THE CASTLE in 2007. Caroline’s latest book, DEFY GRAVITY, was released in October 2009, a book exploring the mystical phenomenon of healing that transcends reason.

In addition to her written work, Caroline has produced more than eighty audio/visual products on subjects that include healing, spirituality, personal development, and the study of archetypes.

For a complete listing of our teaching faculty, click here.

Joan Borysenko, Ph.D. is known for her gracious presence, world-class sense of humor and brilliance as a speaker and workshop facilitator. Trained as both a cell biologist and clinical psychologist, Joan is a pioneer in psychoneuroimmunology, stress management, and women’s health. She is the author of 15 books, including the New York Times bestseller Minding the Body, Mending the Mind and her most recent book Fried: Why You Burn Out and How to Revive. A radio and television personality, wife, mother, and grandmother, Joan lives in the front range of Colorado’s Rocky Mountains. You can find out more about her at www.joanborysenko.com.

Mark Nepo is a poet and philosopher who has taught in the fields of poetry and spirituality for forty years. A New York Times #1 bestselling author, he has published fourteen books and recorded eight audio projects. Recent work includes: Reduced to Joy (2013), Seven Thousand Ways to Listen which won the 2012 Books for a Better Life Award, Staying Awake (2012), Holding Nothing Back (2012), As Far As the Heart Can See (2011), Finding Inner Courage (2011),and Surviving Has Made Me Crazy (2007), as well as audio books of The Book of Awakening, Finding Inner Courage, and As Far As the Heart Can See (2011). As a cancer survivor, Mark devotes his writing and teaching to the journey of inner transformation and the life of relationship.

Mark has appeared with Oprah Winfrey on her Super Soul Sunday program on OWN TV, and has been interviewed twice by Oprah as part of her SIRIUS XM Radio show, Soul Series. He has also been interviewed by Robin Roberts on Good Morning America about his New York Times bestseller The Book of Awakening. As well, The Exquisite Risk (Harmony Books) was cited by Spirituality & Health Magazine as one of the Best Spiritual Books of 2005, calling it “one of the best books we’ve ever read on what it takes to live an authentic life.” Mark’s collected essays appear in Unlearning Back to God: Essays on Inwardness (Khaniqahi Nimatullahi Publications, 2006). He is also the editor of Deepening the American Dream: Reflections on the Inner Life and Spirit of Democracy (Jossey-Bass, 2005). Other books of poetry include Suite for the Living (2004), Inhabiting Wonder (2004), Acre of Light (1994, also available as an audiotape from Parabola under the title Inside the Miracle, 1996), Fire Without Witness (1988), and God, the Maker of the Bed, and the Painter (1988).

Mark Nepo's work has been translated into twenty languages including French, Portuguese, Japanese, and Danish. In leading spiritual retreats, in working with healing and medical communities, and in his teaching as a poet, Mark Nepo’s work is widely accessible and used by many. He continues to offer readings, lectures, and retreats.

For a complete listing of our teaching faculty, click here.

Poet David Whyte grew up with a strong, imaginative influence from his Irish mother among the hills and valleys of his father’s Yorkshire. He now makes his home, with his family, in the Pacific Northwest of the United States.

The author of eight books of poetry and four books of prose, David Whyte holds a degree in Marine Zoology and has traveled extensively, including living and working as a naturalist guide in the Galapagos Islands and leading anthropological and natural history expeditions in the Andes the Amazon and the Himalaya. He brings this wealth of experience to his poetry, lectures and workshops.

His life as a poet has created a readership and listenership in three normally mutually exclusive areas: the literate world of readings that most poets inhabit, the psychological and theological worlds of philosophical inquiry and the world of vocation, work and organizational leadership.

An Associate Fellow at Templeton College and Said Business School at the University of Oxford, he is one of the few poets to take his perspectives on creativity into the field of organizational development, where he works with many European, American and international companies. In spring of 2008 he was awarded an honorary doctorate from Neumann College, Pennsylvania.

In organizational settings, using poetry and thoughtful commentary, he illustrates how we can foster qualities of courage and engagement; qualities needed if we are to respond to today’s call for increased creativity and adaptability in the workplace. He brings a unique and important contribution to our understanding of the nature of individual and organizational change particularly through his unique perspectives on Conversational Leadership.

Marianne Williamson is an internationally acclaimed spiritual author and lecturer. Marianne has been a popular guest on television programs such as Oprah, Larry King Live, Good Morning America, Charlie Rose & Bill Maher. Seven of her twelve published books have been New York Times Best Sellers. Four of these have been #1. The mega best seller A Return to Love is considered a must-read of The New Spirituality. A paragraph from that book, beginning “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure…” is considered an anthem for a contemporary generation of seekers.

Marianne’s other books include The Law of Divine Compensation, The Age of Miracles, Everyday Grace, A Woman’s Worth, Illuminata, Enchanted Love, Healing the Soul of America, A Course in Weight Loss, The Gift of Change, A Year of Miracles, and her newest book, Tears to Triumph: The Spiritual Journey from Suffering to Enlightenment, available now.

Marianne is a native of Houston, Texas. In 1989, she founded Project Angel Food, a meals-on-wheels program that serves homebound people with AIDS in the Los Angeles area. To date, Project Angel Food has served over 10 million meals. Marianne also co-founded the Peace Alliance. And she serves on the Board of Directors of the RESULTS organization, working to end the worst ravages of hunger and poverty throughout the world.

According to Time magazine, “Yoga, the Cabala and Marianne Williamson have been taken up by those seeking a relationship with God that is not strictly tethered to Christianity.”

Lynne Twist, global activist, fundraiser, speaker, consultant and author, has devoted her life to eradicating hunger and poverty, and supporting global sustainability and security, human rights, economic integrity and spiritual authenticity. She has raised hundreds of millions of dollars and trained thousands of fundraisers to be more effective in their work for organizations that serve the best instincts of all of us - ending hunger, empowering women, nurturing children and youth and contributing to the creation of a world view of equity and sustainability for all life.

Mirabai Starr is an award-winning author of creative non-fiction and contemporary translations of sacred literature. She taught Philosophy and World Religions at the University of New Mexico-Taos for 20 years and now teaches and speaks internationally on contemplative practice and inter-spiritual dialog. A certified bereavement counselor, Mirabai helps mourners harness the transformational power of loss. Her latest book, WILD MERCY: Living the Fierce & Tender Wisdom of the Women Mystics, was named one of the “Best Books of 2019” by Spirituality & Practice. Mirabai is on the 2020 Watkins List of the “100 Most Spiritually Influential Living People of the World.” She lives with her extended family in the mountains of northern New Mexico.

Daughter of the counter-culture, Mirabai was born in New York in 1961 to secular Jewish parents who rejected the patriarchy of institutionalized religion. Intellectual artists and advocates of social justice and environmental responsibility, Mirabai’s family was active in the anti-war protest movement of the Vietnam era.

In 1972, Mirabai’s mother, father, and her younger brother and sister uprooted from their suburban life and embarked on an extended road trip that led them through the jungles of Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, where they lived for many months on an isolated Caribbean beach, and ended in the mountains of Taos, New Mexico.  There, the family embraced an alternative, “back-to-the-land” lifestyle, in a communal effort to live simply and sustainably, values that remain important to Mirabai to this day.

As a teenager, Mirabai lived at the Lama Foundation, an intentional spiritual community that has honored all the world’s faith traditions since its inception in 1967.  This ecumenical experience became formative in the universal quality that has infused Mirabai’s work ever since. Mirabai was an adjunct professor of Philosophy and World Religions at the University of New Mexico-Taos for 20 years.  Her emphasis has always been on making connections between the perennial teachings found at the heart of all the world’s spiritual paths, in an effort to promote peace and justice.

Mirabai speaks and teaches nationally and internationally on the teachings of the mystics and contemplative practice, and the transformational power of grief and loss. She is available for interviews, speaking engagements, workshops and contemplative retreats. She lives in the mountains of Northern New Mexico with her husband, Jeff Little (Ganga Das). Between them, Mirabai and Jeff have four grown daughters and six grandchildren. Mirabai’s youngest daughter, Jenny, was killed in a car accident in 2001 at the age of fourteen. On that same day, Mirabai’s first book, a translation of Dark Night of the Soul, was released. She considers this experience, and the connection between profound loss and longing for God, the ground of her own spiritual life.

Jean Shinoda Bolen, M. D. is a psychiatrist, Jungian analyst, clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of California San Francisco, a Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association and recipient of the Institute for Health and Healing’s "Pioneers in Art, Science, and the Soul of Healing Award". She is a former board member of the Ms. Foundation for Women, and the author of The Tao of Psychology, Goddesses in Everywoman, Gods in Everyman, Ring of Power, Crossing to Avalon, Close to the Bone, The Millionth Circle, Goddesses in Older Women, Crones Don't Whine, and Urgent Message From Mother. Visit jeanshinodabolen.com.

“The Sophia Center has drawn a line-up of notable authors and workshop leaders second to none to speak about the sacred feminine. Names that draw large audiences to Omega and Esalen come to Charleston to give size-limited workshops that stimulate thought and can touch heart and soul."
- Jean Shinoda Bolen, M.D. Jungian analyst and author.

Andrew Harvey is an internationally renowned religious scholar, writer, and teacher, and the author of over 30 books, including the critically acclaimed Way of Passion: A Celebration of Rumi, as well as Journey to Ladakh, The Return of the Mother, Son of Man, and The Direct Path: Creating a Journey to the Divine Using the World’s Mystical Traditions. He is also coauthor of the best-selling The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying. His work has been honored with the Benjamin Franklin Award and the Mind Body Spirit Award (both for Mary’s Vineyard: Daily Readings, Meditations, and Revelations, with photographs by Eryk Hanut), and the Christmas Humphries Award for A Journey in Ladakh. Born in south India in 1952, Harvey studied at Oxford University and became a Fellow of All Soul’s College in 1973. He is Founding Director of the Institute for Sacred Activism. His work can be seen at www.andrewharvey.net

Miranda Macpherson is a contemporary spiritual teacher, counselor, and author of The Way of Grace: The Transforming Power of Ego Relaxation. Miranda, who also authored the spiritual guidebook, Boundless Love, has been teaching internationally since 1995. She is known for her depth of presence, clarity, and refined capacity to guide people into direct experience of the sacred.

Miranda’s work is a synthesis of self-inquiry, spiritual psychology, devotion, and meditation practice offered with feminine grace that embraces our everyday human experience as a gateway into the depths of our true nature. Through a blend of silent transmission and articulate teaching, she leads ongoing programs oriented to guiding people into direct spiritual experience while providing a practical map for actualizing our realization into daily life.

Drawing from the ancient lineages of Advaita and mystical Christianity, as well as from more recent wisdom teachings such as A Course In Miracles, Miranda leads from the ground of unconditional love and compassion for our humanity, emphasizing receptivity, discrimination, and surrender.

She is founder of One Spirit Interfaith Foundation in London, where she trained and ordained over 600 ministers. Today, Miranda leads the “Living Grace” sangha in northern California and holds retreats in the United States and internationally. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband, Bob Duchmann, a teacher of the Diamond Approach (A.H. Almaas’ Ridhwan School).

Lama Palden has been a student and practitioner of Buddhism for over 35 years, and of Comparative Mysticism for over 40 years. She is the founding teacher of Sukhasiddhi Foundation www.sukhasiddhi.org in Marin County, California, a Tibetan Buddhist center in the Shangpa Kagyu lineage and co-founder of Zen Heart Vajra Heart, a Zen teacher and personal disciple of Suzuki Roshi’s. She also co-founded the Feminine Wisdom School, dedicated to helping actualize the deep feminine wisdom for individuals and for humanity as a whole. The school just completed a year-long pilot program entitled “Unfolding the Sacred Feminine.” Also a licensed therapist, Lama Palden is engaged in facilitating psycho-spiritual integration and development.

Sera Beak is a Harvard-trained scholar of mysticism and comparative religion and an intrepid spiritual cowgirl who’s spent the last dozen years traveling the world exploring spirituality. She’s the author of The Red Book: A Deliciously Unorthodox Approach to Igniting Your Divine Spark. Check out: http://www.serabeak.com. Sera was featured on the cover of The New York Times Sunday Style Section in the article “Seeing Yourself in Their Light” as one of the new “Carrie Bradshaws of self-help spirituality”. Her work has been published in magazines ranging from People Magazine to Skirt! to Washington Woman. She has been interviewed in Publishers Weekly and on numerous radio shows ranging from the Dr. Oz show on Oprah and Friends, Martha Stewart’s “Living A Charmed Life,” NPR’s New Dimensions with Justine Toms, Father Paul Keenan’s Catholic radio show, “As You Think,” Kristin and David Morelli’s show, “Everything is Energy”, and Stuart Davis’s HBO T.V. show: Sex, God, Rock and Roll. She has facilitated Red workshops and presented Red talks at retreat centers such as Omega Center, Kripalu, The Open Center, Mount Madonna, and The Sophia Institute, as well as bookstores, yoga studios, churches, and universities. She’s also a member of the blog posse on Crazy Sexy Life and a proud board member of REVEAL Conference: Young Women Defining the Divine

Pat Mitchell is known for her leadership in the media industry as a CEO, producer and activist. Her career has focused on using media as a force for social change, with a special emphasis on the representation of women’s voices and stories.

The first woman President and CEO of PBS, she most recently served as president and CEO of the Paley Center for Media; she is now a Senior Advisor to the organization. Mitchell is also the former President of CNN Productions, where she executive produced hundreds of hours of documentaries and specials, which received 35 Emmy Awards and 5 Peabody Awards.

She was inducted into the Broadcasting and Cable Hall of Fame in 2009, named one of the Most Powerful Women in Hollywood by Hollywood Reporter and featured in Fast Company’s special report, The League of Extraordinary Women: 60 Influencers Who Are Changing the World.

Mitchell currently advises foundations and corporations on issues of women’s empowerment and leadership development as well as media and governance. She is the Chair of the Women’s Media Center and Sundance Institute boards, a founding board member of V-Day, a member of the board of the Acumen Fund, and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Mitchell partners with the TED organization to co-curate and host a global TEDWomen conference.

A magna cum laude graduate of the University of Georgia, with a master's degree in English literature, Mitchell has taught at her alma mater, Virginia Commonwealth University, as well as Harvard University’s Institute of Politics.

Mitchell and her husband, Scott Seydel, have six children and twelve grandchildren and reside in New York City and Atlanta, Georgia.

J. Goosby Smith serves as the University’s inaugural vice president for community belonging and chief diversity officer. Guided by God's call to unite God's people, Smith approaches her specialty areas of human diversity, inclusion, and belonging with intellectual rigor, methodological soundness, patience, a healing spirit, a love for humanity, and a good-natured sense of humor.

Before rejoining Pepperdine, where she had previously served as a faculty member in Seaver College’s Business Administration Division, as a member of the Seaver College Diversity Council, and as inaugural faculty co-chair of the university diversity council with Edna Powel,  and as an adjunct member of the Graziadio faculty, Smith served as a faculty member, assistant provost for diversity, equity, and inclusion, and director of the Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation Center at The Citadel, The Military College of South Carolina. She also taught at California State University, Channel Islands and Butler University.

A nationally sought-after public speaker, educator, and consultant, Smith has worked with a wide range of organizations, such as the Cleveland Clinic, KeyBank, the United States Navy ROTC, and the US Department of Agriculture. She is an active member of Greater St. Luke African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, where she formerly served as a steward, Young People's Division director, and as a virtual education teacher. She is a member of Mensa America, Jack and Jill of America, and Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority, having previously served as inaugural faculty advisor and later graduate advisor for Pepperdine’s Tau Lambda chapter.

Smith earned a BS in computer science from Spelman College and an MBA and PhD in organizational behavior from Case Western Reserve University. In spring of 2022, she expects to complete her MDiv from the Interdenominational Theological Center.

Connie Numbers, PsyD, is an author, inspirational speaker, spiritual teacher and a psychotherapist who believes that the inner journey is by far, the most exciting and rewarding quest we can take in our lives. It is an adventure like no other, filled with mystery, intrigue, and suspense, along with a myriad of opportunities to discover love, happiness, and the richness of life. Dr. Numbers has devoted her life to this ‘diving to the depths’ adventure and believes that anyone can grow as a human and evolve as a soul through the practice of Self Love. Believing in one’s self-worth is the first step to accepting our Divine magnificence as a soul who is here to learn, grow, and become the next outstanding version of ourselves.

Dr. Numbers has a passion for helping others remember this version of who they are by discovering that they can lead a deeply fulfilling spiritual life while still experiencing and loving themselves as an imperfect human being. She brings a wealth of wisdom, experience, and humor into her retreats and workshop settings, illustrating the concept that inner work does not have to be a burden. Instead, it is a joy and a privilege that brings healing, love, and light to the adventure of being human and divine at the same time.

Connie has a Bachelor and Masters in Music, as well as a Masters in Social Work and a Doctoral degree in Psychology. She has been in private practice as a psychotherapist for 30 years helping others to find their way and lead a more fulfilling life. She is the author of The Dear One Letters: A Path to Growing as a Human and Evolving as a Soul, and is currently working on Volume II of the same title. She continues to offer workshops, retreats, spiritual guidance and psychotherapy and more information is available on her website: www.connienumbers.com.

Dr. Paula Reeves is a well-known workshop leader in the fields of psychology and women's spirituality. A therapist in private practice in Atlanta, GA, she has led retreats in Spain, Switzerland, Ireland, England, Canada and the US. She has taught at the CG Jung Institute in Zurich. A colleague of Marion Woodman’s for over fifteen years, she leads women’s retreats with her as a member of the BodySoul Rhythms team. Author of two books, Women's Intuition: Unlocking the Wisdom of the Body and Heart Sense: Unlocking Your Highest Purpose and Deepest Desires, she has a deep interest in the relationship between spirit and matter, leading her to work with the metaphors of both the body and the psyche. The founder of Spontaneous Contemplative Movement, she teaches participants in her retreats how to listen to the wisdom of the body and follow the directions of the embodied feminine.

Peggy Rubin is Founding Director of the Center for Sacred Theatre in Ashland, Oregon. She is also the principal teaching associate of Jean Houston, Ph.D., in Dr. Houston’s worldwide multicultural transformational work and in her schools of spiritual studies, as well as a member of the core faculty of the School for Social Artistry, an intensive leadership, training program. Working with Jean Houston, Peggy Rubin has presented classes, workshops and trainings throughout the United States, and in Australia, New Zealand, England, Ireland, Sweden, Greece, Egypt, The Netherlands, India, West Africa, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Jamaica, and on behalf of the United Nations Development Programme, in Albania, St. Lucia, Barbados and Kenya.

Before joining Dr. Houston’s staff in 1987, Peggy was for 14 years the Public Information and Education Director for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, one of the largest classical repertory companies in the United States. She has also been a teacher of English, a freelance writer and editor, and an actor. She has studied extensively with Elaine De Beauport, Ph.D., founder of the Mead Institute, leading teacher of humanistic and behavioral applications of current brain/mind research; and with William Emerson, Ph.D., pioneer in the field of pre and peri-natal psychology, and its importance in understanding human development.

"Carolyn Rivers has created a dream world in The Sophia Institute, a world of wisdom, goodness, beauty, clarity, intentions, intuition, and power. The work presented here inspires the mind and touches the heart."
- Peggy Rubin

Ellen Burstyn’s illustrious acting career encompasses film, stage and television. She became a “triple crown winner” when she won an Emmy for her guest appearance in “Law & Order: SVU” (2009) to add to her Oscar win for “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore” (1974) and her Tony Award for “Same Time, Next Year” (1974) on Broadway. Ellen has been nominated for an Academy Award five other times for “The Last Picture Show” (1972), “The Exorcist” (1973), “Same Time, Next Year,” (1979), “Resurrection” (1981), and “Requiem for a Dream” (2000).

Her many theater credits include the Broadway production of “84 Charing Cross Road” (1982), the acclaimed one-woman play “Shirley Valentine” (1989) and “Sacrilege” (1995). She received glowing reviews in Stephen Adley Guirgis’ play “The Little Flower of East Orange” (2008), directed by Philip Seymour Hoffman at The Public Theater in New York. Earlier this year, Ellen appeared in London’s West End in Lillian Hellman’s “The Children’s Hour” to rave reviews. She
just finished shooting a TV miniseries, “Coma,” and is teaching a Master Class in acting in Australia.

Ellen was the first woman elected president of Actors Equity Association (1982-85), and served as the Artistic Director of the famed Actors Studio where she studied with the late Lee Strasberg. She continues to be active there as co-president with Al Pacino and Harvey Keitel.

Academically, Ellen holds four honorary doctorates, one in Fine Arts from the School of Visual Arts, a Doctor of Humane Letters from Dowling College, a doctorate from the New School for Social Research, and a doctorate from Pace University where she teaches in The Actors Studio M.F.A. program. Ellen lectures throughout the country on a wide range of topics, and became a national best-selling author with the publication in 2006 of her memoir, Lessons in Becoming Myself, published by Riverhead Press.

In addition to a continuing and thriving acting career, Ellen is writing a screenplay, as well as planning a book of her photography accompanied by her favorite poetry.

A pioneer in the field of empowerment, Gail Straub co-directs the Empowerment Institute, a school for transformative social change where her primary focus is women’s empowerment. For the last three decades she has offered her work to tens of thousands of people worldwide. She co-founded IMAGINE: A Global Initiative for the Empowerment of Women to help women heal from violence, build strong lives, and contribute to their community. This initiative applies the Institute’s empowerment methodology to the United Nation’s Millennium Development Goal “to promote gender equality and empower women.” IMAGINE initiatives are under way in Afghanistan, Kenya, Nigeria, Sudan, South Africa, India, Brazil and Jordan. Gail has consulted to many organizations furthering women’s empowerment including the Chinese Women’s Federation, Women for Women International, the Omega Women’s Leadership Center, and World Pulse.

Gail is the author of four books including, with her husband David Gershon, the best selling Empowerment: The Art of Creating Your Life As You Want It, the critically acclaimed, The Rhythm of Compassion: Caring for Self, Connecting with Society, and the awarding-winning feminist memoir Returning to My Mother’s House: Taking Back the Wisdom of the Feminine. She is also a contributor to the anthology Enlightened Power: How Women Are Transforming the Practice of Leadership.

China Galland, M.A., is the author of The Bond Between Women, A Journey to Fierce Compassion, one of five national finalists for the annual “Best Spiritual Book” award, as well as the critically acclaimed non-fiction, Longing for Darkness, Tara and the Black Madonna, a pilgrim’s tale of travel and transformation. She is also the author of Women in the Wilderness, A Woman Like You. and Family Secrets. Her newest non-fiction work is The Keepers of Love brings us into the heart of America’s most searing dilemma: how to choose love when there’s reason to hate, forgiveness, reconciliation and race, the story of Love Cemetery in East Texas.

She is featured in a documentary on the Black Madonna by BBC/Opus Arte in the DVD, Stabat Mater, in an hour-long PBS documentary with Gloria Steinem, Jane Goodall, Alanis Morisette and others in the 2003 special, “Women of Wisdom and Power” and in the prize-winning documentary, On the Road Home, A Spiritual Journey Guided by Remarkable Women by Christina Lundberg.

Founder and Director of the non-profit, Images of Divinity (IOD), Galland is also a Professor in Residence at the Center for Arts, Religion and Education (CARE) at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley where she teaches periodically. She has lectured at universities all over the country from Harvard, Columbia, and Cornell, to Prescott College in Arizona, as well as local colleges and universities in the Bay Area, and taught at Chartres Cathedral outside of Paris for Lauren Artress’s World-Wide Labyrinth Project.

"Carolyn Rivers has her hand on the pulse of the emerging sacred feminine. Rightly she sees this emergence not as an end in itself, but one that brings the gifts of the feminine into an eternal movement that includes both male and female. With the Sophia Institute, Carolyn has created a unique and intimate container for creativity, beauty, and intelligence, warmed by southern hospitality, to foster the dance of being fully human. The arts, music, our relationship with a divine center, our natural inclination towards inclusivity, diversity, and social justice, all find a place in Carolyn Rivers' garden. Let yourself blossom in this exquisite container called the Sophia Institute. I loved teaching there."
- China Galland

Please visit www.imagesofdivinity.org

Barbara Marx Hubbard is a visionary, social innovator, author, educator, and leader in the new worldview of conscious evolution which she describes as the awakening of the spiritual, social, and scientific potential of humanity, in harmony with nature, for the highest good of all life. She has worked closely with some of the great innovators of our time such as Dr. Jonas Salk, Abraham Maslow, and the great Buckminster Fuller who said of Barbara, “she is the best-informed human now alive regarding futurism and the foresights it has produced.” She is the producer and narrator of the award-winning documentary series entitled Humanity Ascending: A New Way through Together. She has been instrumental in founding many future-oriented and progressive organizations, including the World Future Society, New Dimensions Radio, Global Family, Women of Vision In Action, The Foundation for the Future, and the Association for Global New Thought. Barbara’s books include: The Hunger of Eve: One Woman’s Odyssey toward the Future; The Evolutionary Journey: Your Guide to a Positive Future; Revelation: Our Crisis is a Birth – An Evolutionary Interpretation of the New Testament; Conscious Evolution: Awakening the Power of our Social Potential and Emergence: The Shift from Ego to Essence.

Helen LaKelly Hunt is one of a small army of women who helped to seed the women’s funding movement. She co-founded the Texas Women’s Foundation, The New York Women’s Foundation, Women’s Funding Network and Women Moving Millions. Helen was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame in 2001. Helen is the author of Faith and Feminism: A Holy Alliance. Her latest book, And the Spirit Moved Them, The Lost Radical History of America’s First Feminists, shares the inspiring story of the abolitionist feminists. In addition, in past decades, she has co-authored several books with her partner, Harville Hendrix, on Imago Therapy, which helps transform relationships. Helen and Harville have helped to co-found Safe Conversations, LLC, a training institute that teaches Safe Conversations. Safe Conversations summarizes the new science of relationships that can help anyone shift from conflict to connection. Their work echoes the vision of Dr. Carol Gilligan and other feminist psychologists who have asserted for decades the importance of a relational culture. Helen believes that the Safe Conversations process can contribute to what the global feminist community has longed for, a more relational world.

Gloria D. Karpinski is a holistic counselor, spiritual director, teacher and author. For twenty-plus years, Gloria has taught all over the world for such diverse groups as psychotherapists, actors, and doctors, in venues ranging from large conferences to colleges, churches, and hospitals. Gloria is the author of Where Two Worlds Touch: Spiritual Rites of Passage (1991) and Barefoot on Holy Ground: Twelve Lessons in Spiritual Craftsmanship (2001). In 1989, Gloria received a grant from the Laurence D. Rockefeller Fund for the Advancement of the Human Spirit.

Dr. Lee Irwin is a scholar of world religions with an emphasis on Native American traditions, Western Esotericism, contemporary spirituality, and transpersonal religious experience — particularly as connected to dreams and visions. He is a Guiding Voice for The Seven Pillars House of Wisdom (Sufi International Order) and the Vice President of the Association for the Study of Esotericism. He has been a workshop leader and group facilitator for over twenty years, particularly in the areas of visionary cosmology and the development of the sacred human.
 His books include: The Dream Seekers; Visionary Worlds; Awakening to Spirit; The Alchemy of Soul; and Coming Down From Above: Prophecy, Resistance, and Renewal in Native American Religions.

Carol Anderson toured a variety of shows nationally including “A Feather on the Breath of God: The Remarkable Life of 12th Century Mystic Hildegarde of Bingen.” which she presents here for us. Her one woman show on eating disorders, “A Size 7 Forever” was aired on PBS in 1991. After performances of the show at Harvard, Ohio Wesleyan and conferences across the country, she and husband Jim Shores formed a company called Acts of Renewal. Carol has a MFA in Acting from UNC Chapel Hill where she also worked in PlayMakers Repertory Co. Both as a solo performer and with her husband Jim, she has written and performed extensively a variety of shows for performances at colleges, universities, conference and arena events addressing issues of recovery, relationships, marriage and personal growth. Carol continues to tour nationally while living in Black Mountain, NC.

Carol offers an extraordinary performance of the life and wisdom of Hildegarde of Bingen, “A Feather on the Breath of God” during the Mosaics of Mary: Sophia’s Mysteries retreat.

Carolyn Baker, Ph.D. is the author of Love In The Age Of Ecological Apocalypse: The Relationships We Need To Thrive (2015) as well as Collapsing Consciously: Transformative Truths For Turbulent Times (2013). Her previous books are and Navigating The Coming Chaos: A Handbook For Inner Transition (2011). With Guy McPherson, Carolyn co-authored and published Dark Gold: The Human Shadow And The Global Crisis (2016). She lives and writes in Boulder, Colorado and manages Carolyn Baker Educational Services, LLC at www.carolynbaker.net. A former psychotherapist and professor of psychology and history, Carolyn is a life coach and spiritual consultant for people who want to live more resiliently in the present as they prepare for the future. Her podcast, the New Lifeboat Hour airs weekly online. Carolyn and Andrew Harvey released their collaborative book, Return To Joy in November, 2016.

For more than 20 years, Nella Barkley has been helping people find their own personal career and life paths. Through strategic planning principles and her own innate drive to enable others, Nella has become a sought-after mentor, public speaker and coach. Her counsel is sought by Fortune 500 corporations, career changers, international media and others.

In her life and practice, Nella has learned an essential truth: “Life goals are complex constructs. They don't arrive full blown but, with coaching, they do arrive and - when they do - they illuminate every step you take in life."

As editor-in-chief of Steiner Books, Christopher Bamford has introduced, edited, and translated many volumes of Rudolf Steiner. He is also a recognized authority on Western esotericism, the author of two books, and a lecturer. Two of his essays have been recognized in Best Spiritual Writing (2000 and 2005).

Tater Beak moved to Charleston with her husband Bill in 2006 from the Chicago area. Prior to the move, Tater was a docent for twenty-three years at The Art Institute of Chicago. She was also a docent at the Terra Museum of American Art in Chicago and at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta Georgia. In addition to a love of art, Tater enjoys Yoga, Nia, Pilates, and reading. While living in Chicago she belonged to a book discussion group that met weekly. In Charleston Tater volunteers at the Halsey Museum of Contemporary Art, the Sophia Institute; she is a member of Grace Episcopal's Journey Group, a monthly book group and a group of women that explores new and interesting events, places and ideas in the Charleston area.

A self-described Mad Woman version of Mad Men, Charlotte Beers is the woman who broke the glass ceiling in advertising when she was named Chairman and CEO of Oglivy advertising and later chairman of J Walter Thompson, both multinational, worldwide advertising agencies. After failing at retirement yet again, Charlotte served as the Undersecretary of Public Diplomacy for the U.S. State Department under Colin Powell, Secretary of State, from 2001 to 2004. Since then, she has been deeply involved in conducting these seminars in New York and throughout Europe for women in every kind of enterprise. This is the first one here in Charleston.

Linda Bender¹s love of the natural world began in her childhood back yard. From orphaned deer to blue jays prematurely bumped from their nests, animals in distress somehow found their way to her. Her rapport with animals inspired her to earn a doctorate in veterinary medicine.

During the fourteen years she spent living in England, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, Linda'[s veterinary work included the rescue, rehabilitation, and protection of wildlife, often in remote areas. Working with zoos in Southeast Asia, she treated animals rescued from the wildlife trafficking trade and helped reintroduce them back into their natural habitats. Among those given a second chance at life were clouded leopards, tigers, orangutans, and numerous species of rare psittacine and passerine birds.

Working in the field with rarely encountered wildlife, she helped to develop treatment protocols.

In both Asia and Africa she worked with local communities promoting anti-poaching initiatives and education programs. Sharing stories of her deep connection to animals helped school children understand, respect and protect both wildlife and domestic animals.

Linda¹s other enduring interest is spirituality. For over twenty five years, she has practiced meditation and studied many of the world¹s wisdom traditions, including shamanism. Learning the traditions and ancient wisdom of indigenous people enriched her understanding of the sacred connection between humans, animals, and nature. These experiences helped shape her environmental consciousness and deepened her commitment to conservation.

Linda is a certified instructor with The Chopra Center in Carlsbad, California and has lectured on animals and healing at The Chopra Center. In England, she studied energy medicine and is a certified practitioner of "Energy For Life". Her interest in the spiritual aspects of human healing led her to found the Mind the Gap Wellness Center in Cincinnati and a pet therapy program through the Ohio Mental Health Association. She is co-founder of the nonprofit organization, From The Heart. Linda has also produced a meditation CD entitled "Awakening the Heart."

Henk Brandt is the author of Sleeping with Sophia, a collection of poems, and The Heart of a Pilgrim, a spiritual memoir. Henk is part of a new breed of speakers and consultants who are working to bring soul into the workplace and heart into the way we conduct ourselves in the world. Henk’s innovative fusion of Western empiricism and Eastern wisdom offers a new vision for embodying dynamic growth at every level. As a mindfulness-based counselor, Henk has developed a non-pathological system that empowers practitioners to transmute painful experiences into expressions of natural growth. According to Henk, mindfulness provides a proven process for overcoming adversity by moving beyond the victim-perpetrator dyad. In this way, permanent solutions are achieved, instead of temporary ones. He emphasizes that the obstacle is the path: “People need to learn how to minister to themselves by changing how they use their minds so that over time they actually rewire the way their brains function. Mindfulness-Based Counseling enables people to find the light inside the dark, to dwell on the frontier of unknowing and to engage in mature intimate relationships that are consciously committed to mutual growth.”

A Time for Awakening: Mindfulness Training and Heart Callings

Rick Brown is Executive Director of the Institute for Relationship Therapy. He offers national and international workshops and seminars for couples, as well as training for qualified therapists in the theory and practice of relationship therapy. Rick has trained hundreds of psychiatrists, psychologists, marriage and family therapists and other mental health professionals. Rick is a graduate of Florida State University, Princeton and Union Theological Seminary. He is a pastoral psychotherapist and licensed mental health counselor with over twenty-eight years of clinical experience working with individuals, couples, and families. His appearance on the Oprah Winfrey Show for his expertise in creating intimacy in even the most difficult relationships, was named by Oprah as one of her Top 20 episodes.

Mirabai Bush is a Senior Fellow and Founding Director of the Center for Contemplative Mind in Society. Under her direction, The Center introduced contemplative practices into the fields of higher education, law, business, journalism, social justice activism, and the military. A key contributor to Google’s Search Inside Yourself curriculum, she has taught mindfulness in organizations including AMEX, Hearst Publications, Mind and Life Institute, and Fetzer Institute.

She is the co-author of Contemplative Practices in Higher Education: Powerful Methods to Transform Teaching and Learning and author of Working with Mindfulness CD. She is co-author with Ram Dass of Compassion in Action. In 2015, her chapter, “Awakening at Work: Introducing Mindfulness into Organizations” will be published in Mindfulness in Organizations by Cambridge University Press.

Mirabai’s contemplative teachers include Neemkaroli Baba, S. N.Goenka, Kalu Rinpoche, Gelek Rinpoche, Kanai Sensei, and others. Mirabai Bush is the mother of digital artist Owen Bush and grandmother of the divine 5-year-old Dahlia. She lives in western Massachusetts.

For a complete listing of our teaching faculty, click here.

Nicole Campbell boasts a fiercely flourishing career as an entrepreneur, educator, and professional speaker. To this list she has now added ‘author’. Driven by a passion for empowerment, she represented Jamaica at MIT’s Junior Summit and was selected to address then UN Secretary General Kofi Annan at just 13 years old. She was subsequently featured in local and international media, including CNN and Nickelodeon and was chosen as one of “20 Teens Who Will Change the World” by Teen People Magazine.

She is a graduate of the St. Andrew High School for Girls, and completed her high school studies at Phillips Academy ‘Andover’ in Massachusetts, before going on to earn an undergraduate degree in Economics from Princeton University in 2006. Nicole also studied at Stanford University’s Summer Institute and the University of London, where she earned a Master’s Degree in Globalization and Development.

Nicole returned to Jamaica immediately to join the Ministry of Education where she served as Senior Policy Analyst to the then Minister of Education, now Prime Minister, the Most Hon. Andrew Holness. At 25, Nicole resigned from the Ministry to start AIM Educational Services – with just two students. Nicole sites her decision to tap into her passion for human development in education as one of the best she’s made. Today, AIM sees hundreds of students and delivers an average return of over 5000% to parents – results Nicole attributes to a strong, motivated team whose focus remains on possibilities, not problems.

How Do You Streamline Your Goals?
Pursuing too many goals at once will lead to diminishing returns ... so the great ones say! Nicole breaks it down.

Benedictine Sr. Joan Chittister, OSB has been one of America's key visionary spiritual voices for more than 30 years. Sister Joan manifests herself in many forms: social psychologist, communications theorist, best-selling author, columnist, Benedictine nun, but the voice is a constant. It is always clear, true, fierce and loving. Leadership, she believes, is not force but the ability to see the vision beyond the reality and make a road where no road has been. Honorary degrees, awards and countless organizations have recognized her work for justice, peace and equality, especially for women. She is the author of over 50 books – thirteen of which have won Catholic Press Association Awards – the latest: The Way of the Cross (Orbis) in 2014. She is a regular web columnist for the National Catholic Reporter (ncronline.org) and Huffington Post (Huffingtonpost.com). Her PhD is from Penn State University in Speech-Communication Theory, her masters from the University of Notre Dame. She founded and directs Benetvision (joanchittister.org) , a center for contemporary spirituality in Erie, Pennsylvania, was president of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, president of the Conference of American Benedictine Prioresses and was prioress of the Benedictine Sisters of Erie for 12 years. Sister Joan Chittister is Co-Chair of The Global Peace Initiative of Women (www.GPIW.org).

Ta-Nehisi Coates is one of the most original and perceptive black voices today—“the single best writer on the subject of race in the United States” (New York Observer). Coates is the author, most recently, of Between the World and Me, the #1 New York Times bestseller that “will be hailed as a classic of our time” (Publishers Weekly) and which Toni Morrison calls “required reading.” Between the World and Me is written by Ta-Nehisi Coates in the form of a letter to his teenage son, Samori. In 160 pages, it moves from Baltimore to Howard University to New York City to Paris, France, addressing what it means to be black in America. Slate calls it, “a book destined to remain on store shelves, bedside tables, and high school and college syllabi long after its author or any of us have left this Earth.” An Atlantic National Correspondent, Coates has written many influential articles, including “The Case for Reparations,” which reignited the long-dormant conversation of how to repay African-Americans for a system of institutional racism that’s robbed them of wealth and success for generations. New York called the George Polk Award-winning cover story “probably the most discussed magazine piece of the Obama era.” More recently, The Atlantic cover story “My President was Black,” Ta-Nehisi’s reflection of President Obama’s time in office, has generated wide acclaim. Coates’s debut book, The Beautiful Struggle, is a tough and touching memoir of growing up in Baltimore during the age of crack. In 2012, Coates was awarded the Hillman Prize for Opinion and Analysis Journalism. Judge Hendrik Hertzberg, of The New Yorker, wrote, “Coates is one of the most elegant and sharp observers of race in America. He is an upholder of universal values, a brave and compassionate writer who challenges his readers to transcend narrow self-definitions and focus on shared humanity.” A former Village Voice writer, Coates has previously served as the Journalist in Residence at the School of Journalism at CUNY and the Martin Luther King Visiting Associate Professor at MIT. He has been awarded the Hillman Prize for Opinion and Analysis Journalism. He is the winner of a 2015 MacArthur Fellowship, and was named one of TIME Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People.

Stephen Cope is the Founding Director of the Kripalu Institute for Extraordinary Living--America's largest yoga research institute. For many years, he has been Senior Scholar in Residence at Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health--where he writes and teaches about the relationship between Western psychological thinking and the Eastern contemplative traditions. His most recent book is The Great Work of Your Life (Bantam, 2012.)

Tradd Cotter founded an 8-acre research farm and tissue culture laboratory near Clemson, SC creating spawn and kits for growers, teachers, and researchers. They maintain over 50 species of edible and medicinal mushrooms and are isolating new strains. Tradd helped guide Mepkin Abbey into a new mushroom farming enterprise serving as their lifelong consultant and fungal spiritual advisor.

Judy Cornwell was born and raised in Pennsylvania, but now, with her husband, the novelist Bernard Cornwell, divides her time between Cape Cod and Charleston. On Cape Cod Judy was a founding board member of WeCan, an organization which helps and mentors women in crisis. She has worked with the suicide prevention charity, The Samaritans, and has been a volunteer with Hospice of Cape Cod for over fifteen years. She has a passion for the theater and was President of the Friends of Monomoy Theatre which offers drama students a chance to perform summer stock on Cape Cod. Judy is a yoga teacher, deeply involved in the search for spirituality, and is mother to three children and grandmother to another three.

Beki Crowell has lived in the US, Canada and the Bahamas and since 1986 has made her home Charleston, SC where she owns and showcases her artwork in Utopia, Boutique and Gallery in the historic downtown district. She has exhibited her artwork internationally and has loved collaborating with other artists to create multi-sensory shows. Her bold, colorful paintings are a reflection of her own spiritual journey as well as the organic connection between nature and the nature of humanity as sensual beings embodying the Divine. She has been divinely guided to paint/channel 'Soul Portraits' along with other forms of Energy Healing, as a way to support others in their own journeys of spiritual expansion and Awakening to their True Divine Self. Her latest masterpiece she has yet to publish but looks forward to sharing her book, a spiritual memoir about her personal journey of Awakening.

Joanna Crowell is the founder of Ascension Theatre and the Women Writing from Experience workshop series, where she facilitated creative writing workshops for women and teens and created a platform for them to perform/share their stories. She was a professional actress for over 20 years, having been the member of numerous theatre companies, including Living the Dream Theatre in Columbus, Ohio, The African American Performance Troupe, The New American Stage Company, and The Actors’ Theatre of South Carolina. She has performed her own poetry across Canada and the US. At age 34, with a 9-month old baby at home, she returned to University and to her native country, Canada, in quest of incorporating more effectively women’s issues and social justice and peace issues into her performance art. She earned a BA in Women’s Studies and Feminist Research, as well as Social Justice and Peace Studies from the University of Western Ontario. She is the author of a book of poems called I Ate a Rainbow for Breakfast and the play AWOL: A Soldier’s Journey produced by PURE Theatre in 2011. Currently, Joanna is a hardcore-single-tennis-mom, and manager of wonderful internal medicine & wellness center in Charleston, called Remedy. Joanna's remedy is the law of attraction and deep connections through art. She is all about affirming well-being in herself and in others. She does this through her art, her food consultations, her poetry, her photography and her performances.

Meghan Don is an initiate of the Sophian Lineage, and Founder and Leading Guide of The Gnostic Grace Circle. An award-winning author, spiritual mentor, and retreat presenter, Meghan’s work helps to raise the feminine consciousness and confidence in our world. She has worked extensively with the Christian mystics, Gnostic and Kabbalistic teachings, and Jungian psychology, and is renowned for her keen insight into the human soul. Coming from Celtic heritage and raised in New Zealand, Meghan’s work is informed by deep connection with the natural world. Her work incorporates mystical prayer and meditation, and sacred dance and chant, bringing ancient wisdom into a contemporary and accessible form.

Meghan has taught at Omega Institute, Esalen Institute, Unity and New Thought Churches, and Episcopal and Methodist Churches. She has led many sacred pilgrimages to Europe, and is the author of Meditations with Teresa of Avila: A Journey into the Sacred, which won the Ashton Wylie/New Zealand Book Council Award for Best Book and Author in 2006. She has also authored Sacred Companions Sacred Community: Reflections with Clare of Assisi. Her upcoming book, The New Divine Feminine: Spiritual Evolution for a Woman’s Soul is to be released in August 2016.

Meghan divides her time between the Carolinas in the United States and Nova Scotia, Canada.

Carolyn Evans, MSW, has worked as a therapist and used to perform regularly as a singer/songwriter with her band. She continues to write songs, but instead of late nights singing in bars, she spends her days meeting with Beaders—online and in person as she supports the growing Forty Beads nation.