The Course
The ReMembering for Life Course
Originating Climate Change into Colonization
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Part I: 1400s-1500s
6 Sessions meeting bi-monthly
From April's waning crescent moon to Summer Solstice
April 13-June 15
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Part II: 1600s-1800s
6 sessions meeting bi-monthly
June 29-August 31
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Exact timing of our zoom calls are based on the schedules of the first 5 people who are accepted.
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The ReMembering Course is ONLY for participants committed to the work of transitioning our culture towards greater equity and regeneration. We make a serious investment in all of our ReMembering students and we preserve a small size for your benefit. Applications required.
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Structure your journey of ReMembering
With a small community of other ReMemberers.
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Ground yourself for the Anthropocene Age through
engaged questioning and deep thinking
in a context of compassionate emotional, intellectual, spiritual support...
and accountability for doing the difficult work.
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With opportunities for creative expression
and multiple forms of integration,
The Course serves your capacity to serve your communities
as we transition into a "New Earth" changed by climate change.
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...climate change - race - wilderness - class - historical trauma - art - grief - islamaphobia - religion - legacies of slavery - intellectual property - corporations - colonization - inheritance - fear - gender - theology - nature - spirituality - witch/hunts- music - drowning islands - healing bodies - storytelling - re/centering - meditation - indigenous knowledge - ritual - violence - somatic beings - despair - doctrine of discovery - raising a family - belonging - hope - past - present - future - space - time - love ...
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Connect the disconnected.
"Having eyes, see ye not? and having ears, hear ye not? and do ye not remember?"
- Jesus, Mark 8:18, King James Version
Outline of ReMembering for Life, Full Course
Part I: Global Disjoining: 1450-1600s
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Session 1: Introducing ReMembering and eco-theology
Session 2: Some early memories of imperialism
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Session 3: Connecting Race and Place; police/military violence and ecology
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Session 4: The Burning Times: the Great European Witch Hunts, Colonization and Climate Change
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Session 5: Destroying Turtle Island: Producing White Sugar, Global Tastes and Modern Economies
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(1-1 Coaching Calls)
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Session 6: Creative Integration Exercises
Part II: Institution Formation 1600-1875ish
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Session 7: Institutions of the Land and Property: Ownership and Belonging
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Session 8: Institutions of the Mind: Governance and Intellectual Property
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Session 9: Institutionalizing the Wild: Parks, Safety, and Spirituality
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Session 10: Institutionalizing Sovereignty: Indian Law, Security, and Storytelling
Session 11: Institutionalizing of (Women's) rights and culture
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(1-1 Coaching Calls)
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Session 12: Final Creative Integration Project: Towards ReEnchanting
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"For me, this class has been a gift of integration and expansion.
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At a stage of life when I am hungry to engage more deeply with many threads of my own identity and place in the world - as a new parent considering both my own and my child’s relationship to past generations; as a someone engaged with political activism who has never felt that I had an effective point of entry to working on climate change; as a white American struggling to confront with integrity my whiteness in relationship to those who have been harmed by the violence of whiteness.
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This course has been a way into understanding a relationship between each of these threads, and to bring my whole self to that process."
- Anna Mudd, Mother of Robin, Educator at Harvard Divinity School
ReMembering for Life is a spiritual development course.
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We not only look at the religious/theological underpinnings of our current moment, but we do so via ReMembering, which we see as a spiritual-somatic process.
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We meet every two weeks on zoom. Each cohort is capped at 8 people. Each student receives a large amount of personal attention. Course material includes lectures, reading, music, music-videos and useful questions to engage with to support your process of re-connecting that which has been disconnected so that you can better serve your communities. Exact time of zoom meetings is based on what works for the participants.
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Book your exploratory phone call to see how this course can change you!
In this course, you will:
Make connections across some of the most important concerns of our times, including: climate change, white supremacy/racism, xenophobia, the separation of people from place, and sexism.
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Deepen your grounding in and connection with the Spirit/the Divine. YES this is spiritual development course and we engage with the spiritual, theological, religious, and ethical dimensions of our history - and ourselves. NO you do not have to be a religious/lay leader to participate.
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Move from having a "vague" feeling of "everything is connected" to a concrete and visceral understanding of that connection both historically and today.
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Integrate your heart, mind, and spirit as you engage with collective historical trauma to tell more integrated stories
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Increase your ability to understand and enact eco-justice and move further in your process of de-colonization
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Become "more real" and "more grounded" in the midst of the chaos brought about by climate change and political messes
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Increase your felt experience of belonging to our shared time and our place
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Engage in healing of yourself, your family, and our collective pasts in support of the present and future generations
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Increase your sense of hope and excitement about the future
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The ReMembering for Life course can change your life.
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"The ReMembering for Life course has changed my life.
My depth of perception was transformed by the overlapping and devastating histories that we explored, but I see now that this mess we're in came from somewhere--it was not inevitable--and looking into these painful places is integral to the process of change.
It feels revolutionary to experience a "history class" in such a way that deep history matters; I am not merely a curious observer of historical fact but allow myself to become aware--mentally, emotionally, and physically--of the legacy of trauma that is eating our planet alive.
Practically speaking, I appreciated the architecture of the course and especially moving through the material slowly and deliberately, making our emotional response a critical aspect of the process. She was careful to guide us through these experiences, and I felt entirely supported throughout.
Sara does a remarkable job of creating a space where I could show up as myself with all aspects of my identity, which include being a mother, a grassroots midwife working with people to reclaim their power, as someone who has benefited ancestrally from settler colonialism and carries ancestral trauma alike, and Muslim. I felt safe being authentic and exploring the feelings that inevitably arise when confronting the painful histories we explored.
I cannot recommend this course more strongly to anyone who wants to better understand climate change, or works on any social justice issue -- all are connected."
- Krystina F.
Saraswati, Hindu Goddess of Knowledge and Music. Painting by Lauren Goldberg.
This work is for people of all faith traditions and no faith tradition.
These histories are global, impacting all of us, across faith traditions.
Understanding the Christian history is of relevance to Christians and non-Christians alike. Most people know almost none of it.
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One participant who came from an indigenous tradition in Japan said that the course is "relevant for anyone working with the results of the mindsets we associate with the "Western world."
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To learn this history within a spiritual context is another step towards spiritual awakening.
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Sara Jolena herself worked and lived in India for nearly two years. During that time she became a traveling singer throughout India. While living with Bauls and Fakirs (mystical singers mostly located in Bengal), she came to love Saraswathi, the Hindu Goddess of knowledge and music. Saraswathi reminds us not only of the importance of seeking truth, but that learning (and unlearning!) is a life-long process.
"This course profoundly changed not just how I am thinking about my work but my entire spiritual approach to the journey I am on. It was not that I didn't make these connections before-my whole spiritual journey started with an encounter with the real history of Native American genocides in the work of the historian David Stannard .
I was a Hindu monk for five years. I have been studying ecotheology at Union Theological Seminary for nearly seven years, where I am now pursuing my PhD. The reMembering course has brought me back, on my spiritual journey, to these places of fierce historical truth-seeking.
It is so important that we have deep living wisdom within ourselves about our histories. Knowing well, knowing holistically, where we have come from is essential to figure out where we are going. I’m reaching into my own self and where I come from anew.
This course is a courageous and beautiful thing. The practice of ReMembering - being able to remember and understand the history that happened to us as American people – we need this so much. So many of us really need and desire this practice. We can better understand the ways ecology and race entangle with each other. We get rooted where we need to be rooted.
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This is hard work. It's painful work! But if we are going to have any chance of anticipating better ways forward in the Anthropocene this is the work we have to do together
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We have to engage with how it (the past) impacts us on a spiritual level. This course is "spiritual" in the best sense of the word - it is about our real lives..
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This class has given me hope. I know that sounds strange, but it has."
- Dr. Christopher Fici, Eco-theologian, recently graduated from Union Theological Seminary, occasional farmer
Your guide and teacher:
Sara Jolena
Sara Jolena, while teaching The Course on zoom.
"The teacher of the course is at least as important as the material. This is true for any form of education. A good teacher is teaching through themselves.
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I had only met you (Sara Jolena) briefly before taking The Course, but a good deal of the reason I decided to take The Course is you – you are really onto something, and it is something deep within you that is onto it.
You are an awesome person who is on a journey and you are inviting people on the journey with you. That’s great.
That is what I want future students to understand. Learning from you is a great opportunity."
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- Amy Kietzman, leader in her faith community, and the owner of a farm near Philadelphia
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"This work is amongst the most important work we can do. It is so big and requires such courage.
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Sara Jolena is gifted in eliciting that courage in others."
- Course Participant, 2019
Creative Integration is essential to the learning journey.
Participants engage in a "creative integration exercises" after Part I of the course and as their final "integration" project.
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"The range of creative options available are amazing and so helpful."
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"I stretched myself to write poetry in the tradition of my faith - I have never done that before, and it was illuminating. I learned more about myself - and about God."
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"The creative opportunities are so good and so needed."
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"Your support in designing a ritual for my friends and for my community was wonderful.."
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"Thank you, thank you, thank you, for this opportunity."
Apply for the Course
This course is a serious commitment.
We invest in you - and you invest in us.
We only work with people who are
committed, open, service-orientated, and courageous.
To ensure we are a good fit, we interview all applicants.
To set up an interview, simply contact us at: sarajolena@sequoiasamanvaya.com
You and your relationships deserve the best.
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Part I: Global DisJoinings
6 Sessions
Thursday April 13-June 15, 2021
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Part II: Forming of Institutions
6 sessions
June 29- August 31, 2021
Option 1: Part I
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Online Course
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Regular zoom meetings
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Amazing material
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Workbook
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New Perspective
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Powerful community
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Incredible personal and professional growth opportunity
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Integration Exercise
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6 weeks of regular text and email support from Sara Jolena including one coaching call
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Estimated Value: $1,500
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Offering at: $597
Payment plan: $299 for 2 months
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Option 2: Full Course
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Full Online Course
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Regular zoom meetings
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Amazing material
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Workbook
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New Perspective
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Powerful community
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Incredible personal and professional growth opportunity
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Integration Exercises
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PLUS
12 weeks of ongoing support from Sara Jolena including TWO 1-1 coaching calls (value: $400)
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Begin to integrate your family history into the social and ecological story
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Estimated Value: $3,000
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Offering: $1187
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Payment Plan:
$297/month for 4 months
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"Unless we take fundamental action which involves changing our priorities in production and consumption and in our relationships to one another at all levels … to see ourselves first as humans, and not as Americans or whatever, then we are going towards extinction.
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Understanding what has stopped us from seeing ourselves that way is part of how we’ve become aware of how to change our relationship to the whole. This is a global history.
This course helps in that process. This material is foundational."
- Leonard Joy, former UNDP economist, governance consultant, and former course participant
"Connect. Only Connect."
-E.M. Forester
"This course helps us get closer to understand how we have been sundered from our closeness to God.
I keep going, oh! That is how we got here!
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That’s incredibly spiritual, to understand the past-present of what has and is continuing to happen. Its like when you have a disease – to heal from it, you need to know what it is.
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In this course, I have begun to get a better sense, a little sense, of what it might mean to belong to land and to a people. Even though I live on the land.... I am now coming closer to belonging."
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- Amy Kietzman
What if you only barely know where you come from?
How might ReMembering shape whom you are being summoned to be - your vocation, your community, your children?
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Your legacy?
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Whom would you like to time-travel with?
I can't tell you, exactly, what your transformation will look like. But I do know that you will not be alone on the journey.
And that a change will occur, with ripples that could last generations.
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