Heart Consciousness
Church, Inc.
Heart Consciousness Church owns and operates Harbin Hot Springs.
It is not a church in the traditional sense of buildings, structure
and congregation. It is an embodiment and a manifestation of the
New Age: that common thread uniting the Human Potential Movement,
the Holistic, Natural Movement, and Universal Spirituality.
We identify
so completely with this point of view, we call it Heart Consciousness,
which we resonate with most deeply, and try to manifest consciously.
“Heart” is the inner place where Oneness and Love are
experienced. Love of ourselves, of each other, and of the natural
environment, is the everyday experience closest to complete identity
with Oneness.
The purpose
of the Church is to teach spiritual life and how it can be realized
by individuals; and to spread wide the practice of Heart Consciousness.
Further, our purpose is to provide opportunities for the practice
of work and organizational skills, including the discipline and
character development necessary not only for effective work, but
also for spiritual practice.
The Church
honors the spiritual dimension in everyone and each human being’s
unique expression thereof. It accepts individual differences in
interpreting the essential unity of the Human Potential Movement,
The Holistic Natural Movement, and Universal Spirituality. We
believe the New Age already exists in these three movements, and
our work is to combine them, giving strength to the whole that
they form, and then to reach out and to teach.
New Age Church of
Being
One of the
exciting aspects of New Age Religion is that it draws on the Human
Potential Movement, Wholism, and Universal Spirituality, thus
allowing its adherents to find inspiration in many different practices,
traditions, symbols and metaphors. The bottom line is the miracle
of existence itself and the magic that comes from cultivating
a grateful awareness. All world views can find a home and an expression
in it, including science and atheism. You need not give up your
own religious traditions - it is inclusive.
Bodywork,
Yoga, Trance Dance, Holistic Foods, Meditation, prayer circles,
and quiet places are some of the expressions of New Age Religion
to be found at Harbin. The New Age Church of Being, or NACOB,
oversees those aspects more traditionally thought of as religion:
Rituals, ceremonies, and rites of passage including New Moon and
Full Moon ceremonies in the Warm Pool, weekly Kirtan (Hindu devotional
chanting), Full Moon Pipe Ceremonies, Pagan rituals marking the
Seasonal Cycles (especially May Day and Halloween), and monthly
men’s and women’s traditional Sweats during the rainy
season.
NACOB Ministers
are trained through a six-month program open to residents. The
meetings are generally once-a-week, with formal classes in philosophy,
history, comparative religions, and traditions alternating with
more informal classes for sharing, hands-on practice, and rituals.
Many of these classes are taught by the students themselves (and
indeed, each student is required to teach a class as well as conduct
a ritual). For some, we invite experts.
What do students
have when they graduate? Well, hopefully they find that the classes
are interesting enough to be their own reward. Beyond that, graduates
begin to be somewhat comfortable offering ceremonies, including
weddings and other rites of passage. They understand symbolism
and metaphor and are able to recognize and take responsibility
for trance states induced by rituals. They are able to recognize
and avoid dogma. And they have an increased understanding of the
personal power and effectiveness to be gained by practicing integrity
and presence.
The Minister
Training Course is not absolutely necessary for ordination as
a NACOB Minister and not a guarantee of acceptance. Nor is it
necessary to be a NACOB Minister in order to do rituals and ceremonies
at Harbin – that is open to everyone including guests, and
is usually arranged through the Events person in the Workshops
Department.
For other
questions concerning NACOB, contact Ann at
NACOB Ceremonies
& Events
Some events are announced in advance on our Events Calendar page. For exact times and locations, check posted schedules upon your
arrival.
Chanting
-- (Every Sunday in the Temple)
Peter and the "Harbin Kirtan Band" offer chanting at Harbin not as religious "worship" but as an invocation of the energies represented in simple inspirational chants and by the various traditional Hindu deities. Chanting can induce a transcendent meditative state and achieve a state of pure yoga (union). The art of chanting was passed on to Peter by Kirtan master and former Harbin resident Bhagavan Das, who began chanting on Sundays at Harbin in the early '90's. Various Harbin residents and guests make up the band each week with instruments such as ektar, guitar, cello, bass, dilruba, sarod, harmonium, tabla and kartals. Attendees can make a joyful noise as "The Heart Consciousness Church Choir" singing simple English and Sanskrit call and response chants and are also welcome to dance, meditate, practice asana or just enjoy the vibration.
New Moon
& Full Moon Ceremonies -- (Monthly in the Warm Pool)
The New Moon represents letting go of the old and bringing in
the new. The Full Moon represents abundance and gratitude. We
center ourselves in the universe by inviting each of the cardinal
directions to join us, thus welcoming All of Life:
- East represents birth, the rising sun, Spring, mental energy,
inspiration, and air.
- South represents earthly life, noon, Summer, spiritual energy,
passion, and fire.
- West represents old age and death, the setting sun, Fall, emotional
energy, compassion, and water.
- North represents the mystery time between death and birth, midnight,
Winter, physical energy, the secret of manifestation, and earth.
- Above is generally considered male energy, Below is female energy.
The details of the ceremony are different each time, inspired
perhaps by an astrological symbol or an urge to focus on a specific
prayer. After our prayers and meditation, we raise a joyful energy,
often howling at the full moon, then settle into a profound peace
which we send out to all the world.
Sacred
Pipe -- (In the garden at the full moon – times vary)
Offered by Harbin’s own pipe-carrying medicine woman, Lorindra
Moonstar, the Sacred Pipe ceremony is based on Lakota, Cherokee,
and other traditions. The cardinal directions are invoked (see
above) and the stem of the pipe inserted into the bowl to represent
male and female. Again, we are now centered in All of Creation.
Prayers are placed into the herb mixture, which represents Earth,
and then placed into the bowl. The element of Fire is used to
light the herbs, the breath and smoke represent Air, and saliva
is Water. The pipe is passed around the circle, each smoker touching
the bowl to Earth and pointing the stem to Heaven as s/he meditates
upon the prayers and blesses all with the smoke. The circle is
opened, and songs are shared.
Sweat Lodge
-- (Upper Meadow, various times during rainy season)
Amidst ritual, fire-tenders heat rocks to red-hot while participants
enter a light-tight lodge made of willows and covered with blankets.
The rocks are brought in and the heat in the lodge rises till
intense sweating is produced. This is repeated for four rounds
(representing the cardinal directions) as prayers, songs, sharing,
silence, drums, and rattles help to transport the spirit in the
searing heat. Visions and emotional releases often take place
and are welcomed as part of the cleansing process.
Beltaine/Maypole
-- (May Day celebrations)
This is the ancient sacred marriage in which the priestess anoints
a king, often crowning him with stag’s antlers, and their
love-making guarantees the fertility of the land. After ritual
invoking the directions and the marriage ceremony, the joyous
couple purifies for the job at hand by leaping over the Beltaine
Fire. Drumming, fire-leaping, feasting and merry-making follow.
As a separate event or incorporated, prayers are woven by dancers
with brightly colored ribbons (representing the cardinal directions
and All of Life) around a male pole inserted into the female ground.
Samhaine
-- (Halloween)
This is the time between the years on the old Celtic calendar
– “time out of time”. The veil between the worlds
is thin and the dead are consulted and honored. There is often
a passion play for the dying god, wearing stag’s antlers,
who represents the stalks of grain which have spilled their seeds
and lie fallow. However, though he dies and will now take a long
journey through the underworld to meet his shadow, he has sown
the seeds of his own magical resurrection in the Spring. Bountiful
harvest, ancestors, the mystery of the shadow world, lamentation
and prayers for successful resurrection are all themes for the
Samhaine ritual (pronounced Sa-ween).
Minister Training and Degree Program
Ann Prehn, founder of the NACOB Minister Training Program, offers an ongoing correspondence course leading to minister ordination and as well as a Bachelor of Spiritual Arts, Master of Ministry, and Doctor of Divinity. This course guides you to develop your own unique ministry, and gives you valuable ministerial tools. Metaphorum Ministries has been a California non-profit since 1996.
Click here to receive a pdf brochure and application, or email Ann at
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