2009 - Courses, Workshops & Events

Following is a listing of our 2009 previous and featured courses, workshops, and events both produced by Living Mandala and by our affiliated partners and friends. If you are interested in working with Living Mandala to produce or promote a course, workshop, or event contact us.

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

For 2014 Courses, Workshops, & Events Click Here.

For 2013 Courses, Workshops, & Events Click Here.

For 2012 Courses, Workshops, & Events Click Here.

For 2011 Courses, Workshops, & Events Click Here.

For 2010 Courses, Workshops, & Events Click Here.

For 2008 Courses, Workshops, & Events Click Here.

Conference & Community Forum, Salt Lake City, Utah   

December 11-12, 2009

Living in the Fire fo Change is an ongoing multi-city conference and forum launching with a conference in Salt Lake City, Utah, December 11-12, at the Salt Palace. The Mission of this Conference is to laterally engage, empower and inspire individuals and communities in a comprehensive, real-time evolutionary event that instantaneously seeds a shift in paradigm and implements a tangible forum plan for ongoing local synergy and lasting change. LET YOUR VOICE BE HEARD--LEARN WAYS TO THRIVE DURING TIMES OF GREAT CHANGE--ASK QUESTIONS, MAKE STATEMENTS, TAKE ACTIONS  Held In esteem and blessed by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, this conference will help reconnect individuals and communties with great purpose to their inner calling and collective action. Learn more.

Sustainable Farm Institute

Virgin Islands, USA

Dec 1 - 13 , 2009

Gaia University is a growing international institution for higher learning offering accredited degree programs for real-world action in self and planetary transformation. These programs cultivate world changers working for local and global sustainability, justice, and peace. Associates have access to a powerful global network of leaders, advisors and peers offering support and guidance in the development, implementation and documentation of their self-directed project work. Read More.

in Sustainable Living Design and Permaculture

November 22 - December 7, 2009

The First International Certification of the Caribbean, in Sustainable Living Design and Permaculture is about to arrive! We are very excited of you taking part in this extraordinary experience, happening from November 22 to December 07, 2009. Live in community with your fellow students in the U Najil Ek Balam Cabins at Yucatán Peninsula, México (20°53’34”N,  88°08’31”O) for two weeks.  Develop a self sustainable project, enjoy a delicious veggie menu and restoring “Temascales”. And the cherry on the cake, Earn your International Certification in Self sustainable Design and Permaculture upon attending all sessions of this class and completing the final design project.  Start your Designer Practice in Sustainability! Our Certification consists of a 100 Class hours, between Theory and Practices, and is based in the original 72 hours certification course developed by Bill Mollison and David Holmgren.  Our program includes 28 extra hours with material that in our experience is essential to make the transition into Permacultural living.  As well as visits to the Ek Balam archeological site and Xcanché cenote (underground pond).

Virgin Islands  Sustainable Farm Institute

November 9 - 22, 2009
Learn how to create sustainable, productive, and beautiful human environments using natural ecosystems as models. Permaculture is an evolving and expanding design system for ecological living, integrating plants, animals, buildings, people, and communities. Through experiential, participatory, field-based, and classroom learning, participants will explore the relationships between personal, social, and ecological sustainability in the rich context of life at the Creque Dam Farm, home of the Virgin Islands Sustainable Farm Institute in St. Croix, USVI. This two week program focuses on design as an ecological process, assessing natural systems, and weaving integrated solutions to local and global problems. Faculty guide students through the design of projects beginning with interviews of clients, needs assessment, development of real solutions, and culminate in a formal permaculture design and presentation.. The design course culminates with presentation of design work to the class, community, and clients. Read More.

Berkeley, California

November 6-8, 2009

In an uncertain economy and changing world, local food security is an essential element to becoming sustainable in this emerging Green Economy. This course is a community offering by the Food Forests Food Forests Across America campaign. Food Forests Across America is a loosely affiliated group of permaculture designers organizing around the initiative to transform lawns, parks, gardens, and empty spaces into thriving edible landscapes that are beautiful, regenerative, and produce an abundance of delicious, locally grown food! This weekend course immerses participants in the hands-on reality of designing & co-creating a food forest on a typical small urban landscape. Imagine a forest where every single tree is dripping with fresh fruits and ripening nuts, every shrub is packed with delicious berries, and every other plant is a medicinal herb, culinary spice, or beautiful edible flower. Tubers and root crops are abundant underfoot, gourmet mushrooms sprout in the shade, and hardy kiwi vines climb back up through the layers of this multi-functional forest of food. During this weekend course, participants will learn through hands-on experience how to transform their yard into a thriving edible landscape. Our intention with this course is to inspire a Food Forest revolution in Berkeley and the surrounding Bay area cities. Read More.

Aromas, California, in the Salinas Valley

November 1-3, 2009

Integrated farm management, building topsoil, and developing water management systems can all help to increase yields and profitability. In times of drought, these systems can prove to be extremely important in the survival of the farm as well as the eco-system within which it is based. For more than two decades, Australian agricultural producers have been faced with serious threats of drought and salinity increases in their soil. This intensive three-day course will provide agricultural producers with a solid introduction to a series of innovative soil building and water management techniques originally developed in Australia. Instruction includes an overview of the principles as well as hands-on opportunities in the field to use survey and design tools, test plowing techniques and design individualized systems for one’s own farm or ranch. This is a breakthrough event where permaculture, mainstream agriculture and support agencies are working together to support truly sustainable agriculture strategies for larger-scale agricultural operations. The course is accredited through the Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board. Since these permacultural approaches support estuaries, fisheries and overall ecosystem health, we have received funding from NOAA to present the course to growers in the Salinas Valley and other interested participants for a minimal fee - $35 for the first day and $100 for all three days. The fees include lunch and dinner, and there will be Spanish translation for the course. Read More.

Commonweal Garden, Bolinas, CA

October 2009 - Feb 21, 2010

Many of us are searching for ways to make a difference, to transform our families, communities and the world we live in. And each of us can make a difference – we all have the seeds of leadership and service within us. We can nurture these seeds, learning the skills and tools we need to transform ourselves and embody our highest potential. Whether you have prior experience and training, or you have recently felt called to step onto a path of leadership for the first time, this program is a unique opportunity to deeply explore who you are, who you wish to be, and what your specific offering is to others. Through the Ecology of Leadership courses, you can learn to articulate your vision, get in deeper touch with your gifts, and develop new tools, routines, mindsets and skills to be more effective in manifesting what you see for yourself and the world. Read More.

Continental Bioregional Congress

The Farm, Summertown, Tennessee

October 3-11,2009

Bioregionalism embodies the effort to preserve, restore and enhance life. Since the first Continental Bioregional Congress in 1984, people have come to the Congress to envision, exchange and develop realistic, restorative ways of living in the bioregions of the Americas.

With the recent escalation of ecological devastation in the U.S. and around the world, along with the current global economic and political crises, the answers bioregionalism offers – based on ecological principles, and local economic and community development – are more important than ever! 

The congress will spark and strengthen ecological and social networks to exchange information, strategies, and approaches about how to forge meaningful lives in balance with our local ecosystems and communities.  The congress will be packed with informative speakers covering diverse topics related to earth care, community development and economic resiliency.  We’ll also share and celebrate stories of place, model the communities we wish to support and create, and replenish ourselves, so that we leave CBCX empowered with new tools, strategies, support and inspiration to further manifest our social change efforts.  Together, we’ll find transformations that ripple out from our lives into our home communities and bioregions. Read More.

Broadacre Permaculture & Holistic Management for Carbon Negative Agriculture

Exploring Soil, Water, Carbon, Energy & the Economy through a 6-part Holistic Curriculum

August 25th- September 16th, 2009

Ecovillage Training Center at the Farm, Summertown, TN

The Tennessee Carbon Farming Course will be the first in a national campaign to spread this cutting edge curriculum throughout the United States. The Ecovillage Training Center at the Farm offers an amazing opportunity to experience permaculture in action; the Farm's 1,700 acres will undergo a massive keyline design and implementation during and after the course to help drought proof the community and prepare for future growing. Taught by the leading experts in sustainable agriculture and carbon sequestration, this course will encompass all of the design elements needed to create a carbon sequestering agricultural system—returning carbon to the soil while increasing food production. This course will cover holistic landscape systems design, project management, and implementation. This course will be offered through six interrelated modules constituting the nation’s first holistic curriculum for carbon negative agriculture.  Participants can choose to attend the entire course or individual modules and/or combined selections based on their specific interests.  Read More.

Broadacre Permaculture & Holistic Management for Carbon Negative Agriculture

- with Kirk Gadzia

Exploring Soil, Water, Carbon, Energy & the Economy through a 6-part holistic curriculum

August 25th- 30th

Ecovillage Training Center at the Farm, Summertown, TN

Holisitic Management first defines a "whole" to be managed (people, resources and money), and creates what is known as an holistic goal that mirrors these three aspect of the whole. Before implementing projects, any effects on these three aspects must be considered, and the project must simultaneously meet economic standards concerning the viability of the operations.

At present, agriculture and many other businesses are struggling to maintain viabilty. Decreased income often leads to a focus on increased production and harder work. But, if the fundamental decision making process that led to the present situation is not changed, no real progress is likely to be made. Presently, many people involved in agriculture do not realize they are working against "nature's rules" and that their efforts are likely to be unsuccessful until they learn to work with this process. In the end, nature always wins and our production systems must change to be sustainable. Read More.

Broadacre Permaculture & Holistic Management for Carbon Negative Agriculture

- with Darren Doherty

Exploring Soil, Water, Carbon, Energy & the Economy through a 6-part holistic curriculum

September 1 - 6, 2009

Ecovillage Training Center at the Farm in Summertown, TN

Taught by renowned Australian permaculture farmer and designer Darren Doherty, this course will prepare you for changing the way we all look at agricultural production and ranching. Darren Doherty is one of the world's most experienced permaculture design professionals, having designed and developed more than 1,100 properties across four continents. He has taught many permaculture design courses and co-teaches with both Bill Mollison and David Holmgren (the co-originators of permaculture). Darren specializes in broadacre permaculture on ranch and agricultural lands. In this course Darren presents an overview of the design considerations and implements of his Broadacre Permaculture practice. He explains how the intelligent design and management of agricultural landscape, through its ability to rapidly regenerate the topsoil that most effectively sequesters atmospheric carbon, is a prime strategy in repairing humanity's relation to the biosphere. Read More.

Food Forestry

Broadacre Permaculture & Holistic Management for Carbon Negative Agriculture

- Brad Lancaster & Eric Toensmeier

September 8 - 11, 2009

Exploring Soil, Water, Carbon, Energy & the Economy

through a 6-part holistic curriculum

Ecovillage Training Center at the Farm in Summertown, TN

Turn water scarcity into water abundance, and transform high maintenance, ornamental lawns into productive, regenerative food systems! This course will show you how to conceptualize, design, and implement sustainable water-harvesting and food forest systems for your home, landscape, and community. It enable you to access your on-site resources (rainwater, greywater, topsoil, sun, plants, and more), give you a diverse array of strategies to maximize their potential, and empower you with guiding principles to create an integrated, multi-functional, and water-sustainable, water-harvesting, food producing landscape plan specific to your site and needs. This course will help bring your site to life, reduce your cost of living, endow yourself and your community with skills of self-reliance and cooperation, and create living air conditioners of vegetation growing beauty, food, and wildlife habitat. Read More.

Broadacre Permaculture & Holistic Management for Carbon Negative Agriculture

- Dr. Elaine Ingham & Joel Salatin

September 13 - 16, 2009

Exploring Soil, Water, Carbon, Energy & the Economy through a 6-part holistic curriculum

Ecovillage Training Center at the Farm in Summertown, TN

There is a whole world under the soil – and no one knows this cast of characters better than Elaine Ingham! Elaine is one of the world’s leading soil microbiologists, with 30 years of experience researching and teaching and an easy and enthusiastic style that brings the soil food web to life. Elaine literally wrote the book on compost teas: The Compost Tea Brewing Manual. Healthy soil has all the interconnected elements of a “web” – which can retain nutrients, cycle nutrients into the right forms at the right rates for the plant desired, build soil structure, suppress disease-causing organisms, protect plant surfaces, produce plant-growth-promoting hormones and chemicals, and decompose toxic compounds. In this course, you’ll look at the elements of a healthy soil food web, learn how to analyze and improve your own soil, and learn how to make composts and extracts to strengthen the soil food web. The course will cover the soil food web, soil food web analysis, composts and compost extracts, and the use of microscopes. You’ll also meet Joel Salatin, one of the world's leading experts and advocates of agrarian relocalization – and a featured farmer in Michael Pollan’s Omnivore’s Dilemma. Joel is known as a passionate and outspoken voice supporting farmers and sustainable agriculture. Joel’s “grass farming” techniques are the foundation for his successful Polyface farm — one of the most productive and influential alternative farms in America. His latest book is called Everything I Ever Wanted to Do is Illegal. Joel’s speaking and writing reflect dirt-under-the-fingernails experience punctuated with mischievous humor. He will challenge you to design the pathways to relocalization based on his own very successful model at Polyface Farm in Swoope, Virginia. You will also learn techniques and directions from the emerging “Transition Towns” movement. Read More.

Holistic Permaculture Design Course - 2nd Annual

August 17-31, 2009

La A’kea, Puna, Big Island, Hawaii

“Aloha ‘Aina” is Hawaiian for “love of the land”, or “to love, respect, and nurture the land.” As human beings now facing a time of great environmental and social transformation, we believe that it is through this spirit of reconnecting to ourselves, to our communities, and to the Earth with a spirit of love and care that we will renew and restore a healthy balance of human beings living in harmony with each other and their natural environment.

Join us for the second annual holistic permaculture design course happening this summer at La A’kea Community on the Big Island of Hawaii. In addition to the standard permaculture design course curriculum,  this course will include and integrate additional content, activities, and hands-on experience such as nature awareness, indigenous wisdom, holistic nutrition, embodiment practices, inner work, group process, rites of passage, and much more. With a focus on tending the inner as well as the outer landscapes, course participants will work with each other and local community residents on tangible design project scenarios to implement positive transformation within themselves and in the local community. Read More.

A New Earth

Vision Quest

July 25 - Aug 1, 2009

Mt. Shasta, California

The Quest is a universal expression of the human longing to come face to face with the Self, and to align with the true potential of the soul.  Expressed in ancient wisdom traditions around the globe, people have been returning, alone, to the land for eons to received soul reflection, clarity, direction and vision. 

The universe is an animate intelligence, a dance of soul and spirit.  Every aspect of Nature is soul, has soul, is an expression and a reflection of soul.  When we journey alone into a space of communion with nature and open to the total interconnectivity and intersubjectivity of the universe, we receive true reflections of our own highest gifts and knowing.  In receiving such Vision, we are empowered to return to the world to give the one gift only we can give.

Read More.

Creating an Eco-Village From the Earth Up

June 15-29, 2009

Laytonville, N. California

A holistic approach to sustainable development begins with land use and community design. This is a two week intensive Permaculture Design Certification Course that will be hosted on the beautiful site of the newly forming Laytonville Ecovillage in mendocino county of Northern California. This course will immerse participants in the design system of Permaculture to create and maximize the beneficial relationships between our natural resources, our daily needs, and the regeneration the Earth. The course will integrate the theory of sustainable living with social permaculture through hands-on, real experience. Course participants will experience living in community and contributing to the design and development of a real Eco-Village project lead by an amazing cast of teachers and special guests in a fun and supportive community learning environment.  Read More

June 12-14, 2009

A Village of Voices, Workshops, & Technologies for Greener World

Sonoma County Fair Grounds

Living Mandala is excited to announce co-production of the Eco-Village, Earth Temple Dome, & Healing Sanctuary this year at the 31st Annual Harmony Festival - June 12-14 2009 at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds in Santa Rosa, CA. This year the Eco-Village and Healing Sanctuary are joining forces for deeper integration between Ecology and Healing and offering an amazing line-up of speakers, workshops, and ongoing activities.

Keynote Speakers: Joanna Macy, Daniel Pinchbeck, Starhawk, Caroline Casey, Julia Butterfly Hill, Richard Heindburg, Michael Beckwith, George Noory, Spencer Sherman, Lori Grace, Penny Livingston-Stark, David Wolf, Charlie Gay, Andy Langford, Liora Adler, Jamie Janover, Singing Bear, and more!

Workshops: Transition Towns, Jerusalem Peacekeepers, Sacred Commerce, Permaculture Pathways to Relocalization, Living Earth Structures, Mushrooms & Mycoremediation, Regenerative Design & Nature Awareness, Compassionate Communication, Money Metamorphosis, Bioregional Organizing, Food Forests, Reneweable Energy, Dancing Freedom, Yoga, Astrology, Kabbalah & Spiritual Mysticism, Awakening the Dreamer, Eco-Playshops, Ceremonies, Music, and more! Event & Workshop Details to be Announced Soon! We hope to see you there!

Regenerative Design Institute

June 16 - June 23, 2009

Bolinas, CA

Gaia University is a growing international institution for higher learning offering accredited degree programs for real-world action in self and planetary transformation. These programs cultivate world changers working for local and global sustainability, justice, and peace. Associates have access to a powerful global network of leaders, advisors and peers offering support and guidance in the development, implementation and documentation of their self-directed project work. Read More.

Natural Building and Magic Workshop for Women

May 29-31, 2009

Black Mountain Preserve, N California

Get down, get dirty and get covered in mud in the beautiful Cazadero Hills, for a magical weekend learning the ancient building skills of our ancestors.  We’ll work with cob—sculpted clay, sand and straw, as well as light straw clay, waddle and daub, and natural plasters to learn practical skills we can use in building low-cost, low-carbon, beautiful structures from the Earth.   We’ll learn truly down-to-earth skills and share ritual celebration,  empowering ourselves to create shelter and spaces, within and without.  And as a circle of women, we will support one another to be strong, creative, and empowered to manifest our visions and make our dreams real! Read More.

Hale Akua Garden Farm

April 11-12, 2009

Maui, Hawaii

Permaculture (Permanent culture) is a design science, rooted in the observation of nature that focuses on human settlements that have the stability and resiliency of natural eco-systems. You are invited to come stay at a beautiful organic farm with a salt water pool, sweeping ocean views, hot tub, eat delicious food (as local as possible) and learn the fundamentals of permaculture design. There is a growing awareness that we need to come together to envision solutions to the serious impact our industrial practices have had on the planet.  As we face growing fuel shortages, economic downturn, potential ecological collapse, permaculture offers practical strategies, techniques and principals to create restorative human activities addressing  all aspects of what we need to live in healthy and balanced way. Traditional Hawaiian practices as well as other indigenous cultural relationship to land and culture exemplify the best practices that a well designed permaculture system supports. Read More.

Food Forest Agroforestry Workshop

April 14-18, 2009

Maui, Hawaii

This exciting and informative 5-day training, hosted at the beautiful Hale Akua Garden Farm, will include practical information and hands-on training on how to design, plant, maintain and harvest the abundance that a well planned agroforestry system can offer.

Agroforestry is an agricultural system that incorporates planting and encouragement of trees on land where animals are raised or crops grown. Tree planting can aid farmers and lands stewards by mitigating soil erosion, sequestering water and  nutrients, providing wind breaks and microclimates, moderating extreme temperatures, and providing portential crop diversification. Read More.

Camp Epworth Permaculture Demonstration Center

April 23-26, 2009

HIgh Falls, New York

This course immerses participants in the hands-on reality of designing and co-creating edible forest gardens. This course immerses participants in the thriving local forest gardening culture. Imagine a forest where every single tree is dripping with fresh fruits and ripening nuts. Every shrub is packed with delicious berries, and every other plant is a medicinal herb, culinary spice, or beautiful edible flower. Tubers and root crops are abundant underfoot, gourmet mushroom logs sprout in the shade, and hardy kiwi vines climb back up through the layers of this multi-functional forest of food. During the 4-day (Thu-Fri-Sat-Sun) course, participants collaborate to learn how to design, establish, and maintain such gardens of Edible Forest Gardens of Eden. Local food security is essential for resilient local transition. Read More.

Sebastopol, CA

Sunday, March 29 1-5 p.m.

Join us for a hands-on workshop, presentation and dialogue exploring the world of fungi and their powerful role in ecological and cultural regeneration. We will introduce participants to fungal biology, mushroom cultivation, mycelial applications in the garden, with soil building, and myco-restoration. Learn about growing edible and medicinal mushrooms in your backyard!  Also leard how mushrooms can be utilized to restore damaged soil and ecosystems, as well as their relationship to permaculture, soil building, compost teas, and vermiculture. Participants will leave with mushroom kits that will enable them to grow edible mushrooms at home!

$65 tuition - Includes a take home outdoor mushroom kit!

To register and for more information e-mail: info@livingmandala.com

Permaculture Tour
6-week Travel & Work in Karnataka

January 4th – February 19th

Come travel and experience India with purpose and pursuit. This tour is a great way to help spread a more sustainable lifestyle and to learn many traditional methods of how the natives of India live across the world. We will be traveling in the southern state of Karnataka for six weeks, visiting three sites for community consultation and designing. We will also carry on and implement the design systems making this tour into an interactive, hands-on permaculture experience. Apart from getting a great knowledge exchange, we will have many opportunities to engross ourselves in the rich and colorful culture of India. There may be options of fun activities to partake in such as, a wild safari, swimming, climbing, music and dancing under a full moon, and much more. We will be traveling by bus for the most part of our tour. The busses are convenient and economical. Parts of the schedule and experiences are open to change depending on the consensus of the tour participants. Participants must arrive to Bangalore, India by January 2nd as we will be leaving to our first destination on January 3rd. This tour/course is an immersion in the rich Indian culture, while learning and working to heal our home. Read More

Jan 3-17th, 2009, N. California

This unique permaculture design certificate course has an additional focus on earth-based spirituality, organizing, activism, and social permaculture. Learn how to heal soil and cleanse water, how to design human systems that mimic natural systems,  how to use a minimum of energy and resources to create real abundance and social justice.  Explore the strategies and organizing tools we need to make our visions real, and the daily practice, magic and rituals that can sustain our spirits.  This course is participatory, hands-on teaching with lots of ritual, games, projects, songs, and laughs along with an intensive curriculum in ecological design. The course is facilitated by facilitated by Starhawk, Eric Ohlsen, Jay Ma, Emily EWacker, and a host of special guests. Read More.

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

For Previous 2011 Courses, Workshops, & Events Click Here.

For 2010 Courses, Workshops, & Events Click Here.

For 2008 Courses, Workshops, & Events Click Here.