REDONDOWRITER'S SACRED ORDINARY

Colombiere Center is Calling To Me

This is Lake Fulmore, about 10 miles east of Idyllwild--a favorite spot of mine. My family often camped in Idyllwild and when my grandkids were toddlers, I took them fishing at Lake Fulmore. Photo courtesy of Gina Campground.

There is a place calling to me in Idyllwild, CA, nestled in the San Jacinto Mountains, called Colombiere Center, a retreat for transforming consciousness. (Since this original post, Colombiere Center has become Spirit Mountain Retreat. Francis Rothluebber still lives in Idyllwild, by the way, but you can find her through Spirit Mountain Retreat.) I have not yet visited there, but hopefully soon will. I was deeply influenced by Lee Coit’s profound little book “Listening” in the early 1990s, but I admit that I often resist “listening,” and Colombiere Center is no longer whispering to me--it's gently shouting at me.

The center was founded in the 1970s in Wisconsin the website says, but in 1985, Francis Rothluebber, MA moved it to Idyllwild and is its current co-director. A former educator/administrator, Francis has written extensively and has just published a new book “The “Upstart Spring: An Experience in Evolutionary Spirituality,” which I will order today. A student of Carl Rogers and Carl Jung, as well as Sri Auribindo, Francis equates spirituality with many of the thoughts and writings of people who have influenced me. Esther Kennedy, MA, LCSW, joined as co-director of Colombiere in 2002. She is an Adrian Dominican sister and recently served as associate director at Weber Retreat Center in Adrian, Michigan. She has a gift of blending the beliefs of Christianity with the teachings of the East and traveled extensively in the East in the 1990s.

Colombiere’s vision on their website states that it embraces a new paradigm in spirituality occurring today across the world, shifts the emphasis on alienation from God, from each other, from ourselves, from the earth toward a conscious return to original unity. It offers a new vision of the human family entering the next phase of evolution, a movement from separation to unity and harmony. Participation in the movement touches the ache in many to live more aware, more in genuine freedom and peace within. Finding the way from living as a separated ego to emerging into a presence of Divine Consciousness is the evolutionary call of our time.

I truly ache to find out more about Colombiere, Francis and Esther and the workshops and space they make available for retreatants. My art heroine Seena Frost taught Soul Collage there in the spring, which I missed, but it was Seena who first mentioned Colombiere Center to me. I just love the synchronicities in our lives—we just have to listen. I have visited many large and small retreat centers across the country, but I’m always looking for new ones. Which are your favorites or ones you have heard about but haven’t gone to yet?

When I Think of Depth Psychology, I Think of Pacifica Graduate Institute

In Carpinteria, CA, just south of Santa Barbara, lies the absolutely wonderful myth and depth psychology think tank and graduate school--Pacifica Graduate Institute. For a long time, Pacifica rented space at one of my favorite retreat centers, La Casa de Maria in Montecito, and it was there I first heard about their programs. For the past several years they have had their own set of Spanish style buildings nestled in the hillside above the ocean. Pacifica currently offers an M.A./Ph.D. in Depth Psychology and in Mythological Studies, a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology, and an M.A. in Counseling Psychology. A favorite psychotherapist friend of mine, who is also a wonderful poet who wrote monthly in one of my groups for years, got her M.A. in Counseling Psych there and was able to use her poetry as a springboard for her thesis. In addition to regular classes, Pacifica has a low residency program for those who aren’t nearby to attend regular classes.

It is also home of the Joseph Campbell and Marija Gimbutas Library, a non-profit educational organization dedicated to the preservation of a unique collection of books, manuscripts, and memorabilia from esteemed cultural scholars of this century: mythologist Joseph Campbell, archaeologist and archaeomythologist Marija Gimbutas, psychologist James Hillman, and others.

The public programs at Pacifica are second-to-none and if you live in California, I highly recommend them. In fact, I hope to attend a conference celebrating Joseph Campbell's centennial birthday on April 16-18, 2004 in Santa Barbara, CA. Several years ago I had the privilege of attending a writer’s conference in Los Angeles hosted by Pacifica and it was then I realized the quality of its programs and offerings. Next time you are on the 101 Freeway in the Santa Barbara area, take a half hour break from the road and visit this magical place.