Courses, Workshops & Events

Following is a listing of our featured, upcoming, and previous 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.

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.

June 12-14, 2009

Eco-Village 2009

A Village of Voices, Workshops, & Technologies for s 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!

Creating an Eco-Village From the Earth Up

June 15-29, 2009

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

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.

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 in 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.

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 in1984, 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.

Previous Courses, Workshops & Events

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. For more information and to register for the course visit the Earth Activist Training home page.

Nov 1-2, 10 am - 5 pm

San Francisco, CA

Haight & Ashbury Area
Learn how to build an earthen dwelling using the natural building technique of Cob. Cob is an age-old natural building technique created from a mixture of sand, straw, and clay. Participants will get hands-on experience making and working with cob from raw materials to application on an earthen dwelling under construction in the Haight and Ashbury area of San Francisco. Hands-on experience will include advanced cob application including integration with windows, doors, cordwood, construction of ledges, corbels, foundations, shelves, artistic expression, and more. Workshop fee is $35 for one day, $50 for the entire weekend. The workshop is facilitated by Natural Building instructors Jay Ma, Emily Wacker, and friends. Lunch and refreshments will be provided.

October 24th -28th

Hohenwald,  Tennessee

Join community investment experts, permaculture designers and sustainability entrepreneurs for this dynamic gathering and integrative educational experience of greening an American community. Learn tools and skills to address the economic and environmental challenges of 21st century America as we explore creating forward looking sustainable businesses, money cycling, local investments, and optimizing the local natural and human resources to implement models of regenerative business and local sustainability. Read More.

Thriveability Institute
August 31 - Sept 11, Ashland OR

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

Strength is in the Net Work

July 26th -27th

Green Valley Village

West Sonoma County, CA

Come gather with past and present, green and veteran permaculture students, teachers, and designers for this epic convergence that brings together “permies” from Northern California, the west coast, and beyond. This gathering is designed specifically for Permaculture Designers and Professionals in the Northern California bioregions and the greater Pacific Northwest to come together to network share, strategize, and synergize about our various projects and initiatives within the greater permaculture movement. Read More

June 6th-8th, 2008

Harmony Festival
Sonoma County Fairgrounds
Santa Rosa,California

Living Mandala will be taking part in this year's 30th Harmony Festival held at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds in Santa Rosa from June 6-8 in Santa Rosa assisting  with the production and facilitation of the Eco-Village stage area with stage manager  and MC Laura Fox. We will have a booth as well as be offering workshops. Read More

Regenerative Design Institute

June 20 - July 2, 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

Holistic Permaculture Design Intensive

Occurred on February 3rd-19th, 2008

At The Resonance Project Community
Big Island, Hawaii

The Aloha ‘Aina Holistic Permaculture Design Course will included the standard 72-hour permaculture design curriculum based upon the original Mollison and Holmgren ideas and design philosophies published in The Permaculture Designer’s Manual, as well as be a nourishing retreat for the participants, the land, and the greater Island... Read More

Sustainable Living at Its Juiciest

Occurred on February 24th-29th, 2008

Pahoa, Big Island. Hawaii

Closely following the Aloha ‘Aina Holistic Permaculture Design Course will be a special week-long, hands-on practicum. The Hands-On Practicum will be focused on taking the skills we develop during the Holistic Permaculture Design Course and applying them into the design and installation of a tropical food forest garden near Pahoa on the BIg Island. This course will also be focused on tending to the inner landscape, and we will be nourishing... Read More