Reconnecting People with the Planet

 The School for The Great Turning (SGT) was created by Lydia Violet Harutoonian, M.A, community organizer, facilitator, artist, and dedicated student of Joanna Macy’s. While pursuing her Masters in Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness at the California Institute of Integral Studies, Lydia entered an in-depth study in the histories and perspectives that have generated our current planetary crisis. For the past 14 years she has studied closely with deep ecology elder and Buddhist scholar Joanna Macy, learning how we can metabolize our pain and care for the world into profound resilience and energy for action. She created SGT after witnessing repeatedly the power of group learning focused on ecological education, social justice, and spiritual healing. 

School for The Great Turning offers online and in-person education that fosters personal empowerment and planetary care. Our courses encourage personal transformation towards becoming mutually beneficial members of the Earth Community. We support learning at both individual and community levels, committed to soul work, ecological literacy, and social justice. We believe each of us has a role to play in human awakening at this perilous time, urging us to claim our role in The Great Turning. A term coined by revolutionary thinker and resident elder, Joanna Macy, she describes The Great Turning as one name for the essential adventure of our time: the shift from an Industrial Growth Society to a life-sustaining civilization. We honor the gifts of our ancestors, both lessons and blessings, as we collaborate with Gaia to uplift and contribute to a robust community of organizers, healers, artists, and Earthkeepers.

SGT now hosts dozens of workshops, retreats, and online courses per year, with formidable teachers including Joanna Macy, adrienne maree brown, Leah Song of Rising Appalachia, Amikaeyla Gaston, Vahisha Hasan, Penny Livingston, Sarah Nutting and Karisha Longaker of MaMuse, Adrian Villasenor-Galarza, John Seed, Jen Myzel, and Yuka Saito.

You can visit the school at  https://schoolforthegreatturning.com/