July 16-Aug 5 Permaculture Certification Course
July 18 Open House
August 1 Open House
August 5-13 Anthroposophy Event (closed retreat)
August 18 Kirtan
Aug 22-28 Transformational Breathwork L-IVa
Sept 3-5 Community Experience Weekend
Sept 5 Open House
Sept 11-12 Stone Circle Workshop
Sept 19 Open House
Sept 20-25 Transformational Breathwork L-IVb
Oct 1-3 Community Experience Weekend
Oct 3 Open House
Oct 1-2 Practical Visionary Workshop
This update of our old Apprentice Program features one or two month learning modules 
throughout the year. Participants engage fully in the life of the community, developing skills necessary for
The program features classes and teach-ins, along with hands-on application of introduced principles and techniques. Participants work side by side with members in organic gardening, permaculture design, green building construction, sustainable energy production, and retreat center facilities operation. They also join in community meetings, learning meditation as a tool in consensus decision making and conflict resolution.
Program cost is $600 for the first month (room and board included) and $450 for the optional second month. Partial scholarships may be applied for based on income level and are subject to availability.
Contact the office at 413 259-1251 for more information.
This 7-day program gives special emphasis to the spiritual foundation of community living as practiced at Sirius. We begin with this premise: what we truly are isn’t really born and never really dies. Our common heritage is spiritual – undying, universal, loving – and also largely forgotten in the midst of our mate
rial dreams of scarcity, competition and mortality.
This premise cannot be rationally accepted until its reality is directly experienced, and for this to occur, one usually must learn how to concentrate and focus awareness beyond normal confines. A primary tool we use to achieve this is meditation, which reduces distractibility and improves concentration. Other tools include our conflict resolution and consensus decision making models, which both include a meditative component to deepen perspective and reveal our interconnected nature.
Our inner work is ‘grounded’ through work in the outside world, and thus reflected in our chosen methods of sustainable living – ecovillage design, permaculture, and holistic education – service to 
ourselves through service to others. A typical day during Essence Week thereby comprises morning classes, some form of afternoon work in the material world, and then quite often evening check-ins and meetings afterward. It is a full week.
An Essence Week always begins our Community Immersion Program sessions, but is also available as a stand-alone module that may be attended by people exploring community membership or new participants in our non-member Resident Program. The Essence program (stand-alone) cost is $500 and includes all expenses for room and board.
Contact the office at 413 259-1251 for more information.
Return to Wholeness
Return to natural states of health, creativity, prosperity and joy!
Come and spend time surrounded by nature, beauty and simple rustic accommodations at Sirius Community, the perfect setting for your journey into wholeness. Open to Spirit, restore the body, balance the mind and emotions, and change your life!
Wholeness retreats are
2-14 day respites allowing people to spend time alone, engaged with community, or in workshops and private sessions with health practitioners, spiritual counselors, and other support staff. Enjoy our 90 acres of forest trails, beautiful gardens, orchards, labyrinth, meditation sanctuary, sacred stone circle, retreat house, sauna, pond and more.
We offer daily group meditation, organic vegetarian or vegan community meals, sweat lodges, therapeutic form (yoga or qi gong) and massage, plus facilitation for a variety of alternative healing modalities including Transformational Kinesiology (TK).
We tailor programs to specific needs, welcoming and hosting both individuals and groups. Contact the office at 413 259-1251 for bookings or more information.
Guests are welcomed sometime Friday afternoon or evening (some don't arrive until Saturday morning). After dinner with the community, and maybe a sauna or hike through our gardens and grounds, some time is spent 
visiting with members and other guests. This times ususally includes a period of orientation, along with Q & A.
Breakfast in the Community Center is self-serve, and followed at 9:00 by an attunement circle. Members and guests spend the rest of the morning working together on various community projects and chores. It's what we call our Saturday of Joyful Productivity.
A Planetary Healing Group Meditation is held at 12:30, and is immediately followed at 1:00 by a hearty organic vegetarian lunch. After cleanup (everyone pitches in), work resumes until 5:00, after which people have until the 6:30 dinner bell to relax and play. The evening is free time. Some spend it exploring local valley locales, and others stay on-site, reading, visiting, or attending one of our own nighttime events - a coffee house, talent show, movie viewing or discussion group.
Sunday consists of more free time, during which most folks participate in our Open House, a regular event ending in the mid afternoon.
Cost for the whole weekend is only $50, which covers both overnights and six meals. Contact the office at 413 259-1251 to register in advance.
We host Open House on the 1st and 3rd Sunday of each month. A member is on hand to greet guests at the Community Center starting at 11:00. From 11:30 to 12:30 we have a group sharing that may at times (depending on that week's host) model a non-denominational devotional Sunday service, and at other times be something more akin to a discussion circle in which people share what brought them to visit Sirius and what they specifically might like to know about it.
Group meditation goes from 12:30 to lunchtime at 1:00. The meal is potluck, but we have a cook on hand who insures that enough hearty organic vegetarian food is available
and freshly made to satisfy everyone, including those who aren't able to bring a dish (an $8 donation to the cook for the meal in those cases is suggested, but not required).
The finale is a tour of the community beginning immediately after lunch cleanup (around 2:15). This may last up to two hours, but people are free to split off at any point to leave if they wish, or explore on their own using maps we provide.
Contact the office at 413 259-1251 to register in advance, if you like (it helps to have some idea how many are coming), or just arrive on a whim. We are looking forward to seeing you!
The Sirius Resident Program offers opportunity to live at the community and participate in its life without necessarily having to take on the full responsibility of membership. Residents live in staff housing (subject to availability), and may participate in our community meal plan, our bulk foods buying coop, and the full range of our recreational events - movie nights, dances, talent shows, coffee houses, and more. They also have full access to our various facilities - the wood fired sauna, our hiking trails, sweat lodge, labyrinth and dipping pond.
The program includes instructional modules designed to orient
residents to our protocols and philosophy. This instruction may come from participation in one of our Essence Week segments, or from a short series of evening classes. Residents thereby become familiar with our essential practice of meditation and its application to consensus and conflict resolution.
Participants also pitch in for four hours a week, usually on Saturdays, helping out with various community chores or perhaps working in the gardens or on one of our building projects.
The program fee varies to some extent in accordance with which staff housing units are utilized. In general, however, the cost is more or less equivalent to what one would ordinarily pay to rent comparable housing elsewhere in the region.
Contact the office at 413 259-1251 for more information or application.
A monthly drum and dance gathering open to everyone. Come and play, come and dance, come and watch. Join us as we tune into the universal heart beat.
Devotional call and response singing with Durga and live music accompaniment from various musicians. An ancient, sacred sharing.
With Gene Podhurst
In the Sirius Octagon Hall
Requested Donation: $10
Call 413 259-1808 for more info
Gene Podhurst has been facilitating Sacred Circle Dance for over ten years, integrating traditional choreographies with original choreographies, and dancing to older musical selections as well as more familiar, popular music of the 60's, 70's, and 80's.
Monthly Sacred Circle Dances at Sirius planned throughout 2010!
The work of Dr. Judith Kravitz
and The Transformational Breath Foundation
"Transformational Breathing (TB) is a complete self-healing system using conscious breathing to facilitate improved well-being, inner peace and greater joy in life. It is unique from other forms of Breathwork. It works by facilitating the natural healing process for all types of trauma, is beneficial in gaining greater physical, mental and spiritual health, and in maintenance of optimal health." - TB website
Experience the benefits and application of a full, deep, connected Breath.
Relieve Stress ... Heal relationships.
Heal yourself – Physically, Mentally, Emotionally.
Live fully. Be Joyful. Make your own personal connection with Spirit.
This Seminar can be experienced as an unforgettable adventure for personal transformation or as the first step toward becoming a certified facilitator. The Seminar equals Parts I, II & III of the TBF Personal and Professional Certification Program.
For more information or to Register, contact Rox Lindbert at 603.286.8333
Read more about Judith's story
With ALisa Starkweather
| What is a Belly and Womb Conference? |
Do any of these things apply to you? If you are a woman, than you have a belly and womb story. It is a radical idea to pay tribute to our journey concerning our lives. There is not another Belly and Womb Day on the entire planet like this one! Let's stay healthy and honor ourselves.Note: Women without wombs are so welcome here. Your story is important. more Registration Open |
Founded in 1968, Havurat Shalom is an egalitarian Jewish community in Somerville, Massachusetts where wo
men and men come to pray and learn; explore, celebrate and grapple with Jewish tradition; work for social justice; and discuss a variety of Jewish concerns.
The community arrives at Sirius for its annual retreat on Friday evening and spends Shabat in prayer and meditation. The community's children attend the weekend retreat as well, and are given special classes and attention during this wonderful event drawing the hav community more closely together.
Corinne and Gordon will present research from their latest book, The Practical Visionary, on the New World growing within us and all around us, providing hope for our future. You'll learn techniques for invoking the magic of your soul and finding your part in the New World, balancing vision with practicality. Corinne and Gordon were the original co-founders of Sirius and co-authors of Spiritual Politics and Builders of the Dawn.
Program Fee is $85. Luches and overnight accommodations are available and may be arranged separately through the Sirius office.
See a printable color flier for the seminar here. Or visit the Practical Visionary website for more information.
After experiencing the life-changing qualities 
of TB many feel called to study and share this work with others. Level IV is a fifteen-day course, divided into two parts, with a specialized focus on Facilitator skills and experience in becoming a professional in TB, and leading eventually to certification.
This 1st part of the two-part series develops understanding of the technique, consciousness, and tools used in TB, such as Breathing Analysis, Miracle Consciousness, using "The Work", Psycho-Spiritual body mapping and other hands-on applications, session content, toning, invocations, major areas of integration, introduction to working with clients, unique aspects of TB, and TB mentoring.
For more information or to Register, contact Rox Lindbert at 603.286.8333
Read more about Judith's story and Transformational Breathwork.
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 and classroom learning, participants will explore the relationships between personal, social, and ecological sustainability in the rich context of life at Sirius Community - an educational and spiritual ecovillage in scenic western Massachusetts. More
Learn how to build a mushroom growing medium for shitakes and other varieties using specially prepared
logs arranged for optimal exposure and developement. The basics of tending and harvesting are also covered.
Contact the office at 413 259-1251 or Linda at 413 259-1230 for more information or to register. Program Fee is $25.
An organic vegetarian lunch with the community is available for $8 at 1:00 with 24 hour notice. Many ingredients come directly from our gardens.
Learn the basics of using soy to make tempeh. This intensive covers everything from bean preparation to proper storage methods of the finished product.
Contact the office at 413 259-1251 or Linda at 413 259-1230 for more information or to register. Program Fee is $25.
An organic vegetarian lunch with the community is available for $8 at 1:00 with 24 hour notice. Many ingredients come directly from our gardens.
This second part of Level IV training introduces coaching concepts and applications to work more consciously with client's behaviors and beliefs to achieve their goals. Students practice and develop skills in Transformational Coaching, working with multiple clients, Breath molding, Anatomy, and developing "Miracle Consciousness".
This module also focuses on working with specialty groups, such as sessions with children, seniors, pregnant women, childbirth, asthmatics, and heart conditions, using advanced Breathing Analysis. Students learn techniques for building a practice, working with feedback / intake forms, Children's Programs, community workshops and more. Upon finishing this module, Facilitator graduates begin their apprenticing as staff in TB programs, and other certification requirements.
For more information or to Register, contact Rox Lindbert at 603.286.8333
Read more about Judith's story and Transformational Breathwork.
We cover the various steps of preserving garden produce using fermentation, canning, freezing, drying, and using salt brine. An introduction to all these methods is provided so that you can learn how to keep your fresh garden produce from turning into premature compost.
Contact the office at 413 259-1251 or Linda at 413 259-1230 for more information or to register. Program Fee is $25.
An organic vegetarian lunch with the community is available for $8 at 1:00 with 24 hour notice. Many ingredients come directly from our gardens.
Have you ever been struck by the majesty and beauty of the ancient standing stones? Are you interested in ancient Celtic wisdom?
Join us in welcoming druid Ivan McBeth and help erect, by hand, a sacred stone circle. Learn about the mystery of the ancient tradition, and participate in hands-on, meditative, and sprititual ritual in this transformative, 
once in a lifetime opportunity.
4-day workshop cost is $125 with lunches included. Overnight accommodations and additional meals may be arranged through the Sirius office. Contact the office at 413 259-1251.
Your root is your connection to all of Creation. Through strong roots, we thrive in our incarnations, experiencing vitality, purposeful success, and utmost happiness (joy). 
Through weak roots, we experience defeated lives, listlessness, and despair. What does this imply concerning the Intelligence presiding over Creation and Its deepest desire concerning you? When cultivating strong roots, we discover for ourselves the answer to this question.
Out of the many exercises used to cultivate strong roots, this introductory weekend’s available scheduled events include:
This learning is given by the teachers Creation has provided each of us, our personal emissaries from the Light, the ones always at our elbow, just out of sight, whispering advice seldom heard or understood.
The course is facilitated by Members of Sirius Community sharing decades of experience consciously learning to hear the whispers: Bruce Davidson, Linda Reimer, Deborah Wilson, Brice Wilson, among others.
Weekend costs are $300/person, $500/couple, including six organic vegetarian meals and overnight accommodations. Contact the office at 413 259-1251 for commuter rates or other additional information.
6pm: Hearthstone Kitchen Community Dinner* ($8 in advance, $10 at the door) by local organic gourmet Leslie Cerier (menu TBA) Reservations strongly recommended: email Daniel: daniel-at-ic.org
7:30pm: Presentation by DeAnna Putnam**(Free) - Experiences with women and dance in Afghanistan. More info about DeAnna, here.
We gather during mid-afternoon, and celebrate the year's harvest and company with a feast of many treats, entres, drinks and desserts. Cleanup is followed with sharing of song, games, and coversation. Open to all. Please contact the office for sign-up.