Dear Reader,

It is with great joy and love that I ask you to join me in wishing Kosmos Founder and Editor Emeritus, Nancy Roof a very happy 94th birthday!

As many of you know, Nancy entered hospice nearly two years ago and began to prepare for the profound transformational journey each of us must one day face. With stage-four kidney disease, her doctor’s prognosis was grim. Nancy decided she would not receive dialysis once her kidneys failed. She faced this eventual decline with extraordinary calm and grace. I spent as many days as I could with my beloved mentor and friend, as did her devoted family.

Nancy not only ‘outlived’ hospice, her later kidney tests revealed marked improvement – an extraordinary outcome even her doctors could not explain. And here we are, nearly two years later, celebrating another birthday with a truly ageless spirit, wise elder, and mother to our earth community. Nancy’s mobility is limited, but her mind is strong and active – her spiritual energy, vast. Her sweet Havanese pups, Willy and Sophia are her constant companions, spending quiet days together in their Lenox, Massachusetts home, surrounded by the grandeur of the Berkshires. And while it is not possible for Nancy to answer all the many well-wishes she receives, or to speak at length by phone, she wants you to know that your loving care means the world to her. If you would like to make a small donation to Kosmos in her honor, you can do so here.

A Message from Nancy

Beloved Kosmos Community,

I am forever grateful that I found the courage to found Kosmos Journal, despite trepidation about my ability to honor such an important mission. It brought many beautiful souls and especially my precious Rhonda, and all of you, the Kosmos Community, to carry on and develop our mission further.

You came to my side to comfort me when I faced my final days. Many of you sent me messages that deeply touched my heart. I am certain they were responsible for my amazing healing. I treasure all the messages you sent to me and still keep them alive in my heart.

The world needs you now more than ever to BE the service of transformation with all Life to create the world we long for. Know that I bless each and every one of you.

In gratitude and love,
Nancy

As I do each year, I have been re-reading some of Nancy’s essays, and thought to share one with you from ten years ago. It seems especially prescient now and it renews our resolve to continue Kosmos, despite some of the difficulties we have been facing – including malicious attacks that have caused us to quarantine a large portion of our archive. Be assured, we are working diligently to restore all content soon.

Receiving stewardship of Kosmos from Nancy nearly six years ago has been a great honor and a joy. Nancy’s vision will endure – that each of us, our communities, our institutions and our societies realize the capacities and opportunities we now have – to transform in harmony with all Life.

Thank you for your devoted life of service and love, dearest Nancy!

Kosmos is for those who want to participate in the global transformation from industrial society to the new civilization. It is for all of us who have been disillusioned with the greed, materialism, disrespect and deep suffering caused by inequities in harnessing the world’s resources and wealth. It is for those who want to hear the finest, most noble voices of the future. It is for those for whom heart is as central as mind. It is for those burning with passion to make a difference.

The Emerging New Paradigm
Kosmos was first published in 2001. We were beginning to see signs of worldwide breakdowns and breakthroughs of consciousness, cultures and institutions. Science was finally supporting what contemplatives have known for centuries; we live in an interdependent world. Thus, this Great Transformation will be global and will include all living beings as well as body, feelings, mind, and spirit. It will bring forth our collective interdependence as new collaborative efforts and global networks arise to manage the complexity of today’s challenges.

The modern rational, analytic perspective honors the ego as a separate entity rather than understanding that the essence of life is in our relationships. Modern science rejects subjective experience and diverse ways of knowing, eliminating what is most human about us and fragmenting knowledge rather than synthesizing into wholeness. People from all countries in the world are shifting paradigms as the Internet connects humanity for the first time in history. We now have the extraordinary opportunity to heal societal wounds and to create a new civilization that works for the common good.

READ THE FULL ESSAY

An Excerpt | Thomas Berry on Intuition

By this time, Thomas was standing up and fully into his subject. To my great chagrin, I had run out of paper in my small notebook. Thomas noticed, walked over to his dining table, picked up a notepad and handed it to me while continuing to speak.

“Now, as we said before, the universe has soul in all its living dimensions; every creature has a deep psychic life, an intuitive connection to the Divine that was lost when our perception of the Divine became historical rather than immediate.

“Through the new story of the universe that we now acknowledge to be both physical and spiritual, we are beginning to see through new eyes, through a new, yet very old intuitive awareness that has been lost and is now being recovered. We are recovering an inner way of knowing which is a way of being that is desperately needed at this time when we can no longer bear the loss of the sacred within ourselves and within the earth. It is a distinctive way of knowing, separate from science; the two do not negate each other but they are not the same.

“In science, thought is organized around separateness and differences, parts are dissected, analysis and judgment prevail; with intuition, thought leads to synthesis and vision. We need both kinds of awareness, the inspiration of the intuitive and the critical faculty of the scientific intelligence, but science has been overdone in reference to the intuitive consciousness. Only through intuition can we experience a sense of the sacred.

“You can’t understand the universe simply through science—it is one way of knowing directed toward analysis and use. The intuition is another way of knowing through the heart—the song of the birds, the sky at night, the magnificence of mountains and seas.

“You can see a forest at twilight with its changing light forms and appreciate it without knowing its science; you are experiencing ‘another way of knowing’ as you do. Our gesture toward the universe should be toward one of supplication for greater understanding through this other way of knowing that is really beyond words. In these present moments we actually discover our transformative nature.”

I remembered reading an interview that Thomas had with poet Thomas Rain Crowe in 1990 in which Thomas had said: “I am constantly in an aware, analytical frame of mind, but also simultaneously, in a dream state of mind. We need both kinds of awareness. But the more we can function out of the immediacy of our arational responses, the better off we will be.”

When I quoted this to Thomas, he nodded and replied,“With rationality we are never completely satisfied. Expansion of rationality is different from the expansion of intuition, which can bring a depth of understanding and a sense of the sacred.”

READ THE FULL ESSAY